Moderna vaccine milestones by mid-November
Biotech firm Moderna announced Thursday that it had enrolled all 30,000 participants in its COVID-19 vaccine trial – and that nearly 37% of them were nonwhite. The company had delayed the study for a few weeks in September to ensure adequate minority representation. About 10% of the volunteers are Black, 20% Hispanic and 4% Asian; a quarter were over 65 and 17% were at high risk for a serious case of COVID-19 for other reasons.
Company President Stephen Hoge said he expected the trial would meet two key milestones in midNovember: About half the participants will be two months past their second dose of the vaccine, meaning the company will have enough safety data to present to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; and at least 53 of the participants will have caught COVID-19, so the company will have its first snapshot of effectiveness. Then the company will decide whether to submit an application to the FDA, which could take weeks to months to approve it or issue an emergency use authorization.
– Karen Weintraub
CDC redefines COVID-19 close contact
U.S. health officials Wednesday redefined what counts as close contact with someone with COVID-19 to include briefer but repeated encounters. For months, the CDC had said close contact meant spending a solid 15 minutes within 6 feet of someone who tested positive for coronavirus.
The CDC changed it to a total of 15 minutes or more – so shorter but repeated contacts that add up to 15 minutes over a 24-hour period now count.
The CDC advises anyone who has been in close contact with a COVID-19 patient to quarantine for two weeks. The change may prompt health departments to do contact tracing in cases where an exposure might previously have been considered too brief, said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious diseases expert. It also serves notice that the coronavirus can spread more easily than many people realize, he said.
Obama rails against Trump’s virus response
Former President Barack Obama gave a fiery speech Wednesday in Philadelphia that attacked President Donald Trump as incompetent and surrounded by “hacks,” while promoting his former vice president, Joe Biden, as someone who would better deal with the pandemic and heal the economy.
Obama, in his first in-person campaign event, two weeks before the end of 2020 voting, noted 220,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 and millions of jobs have been lost. He said the country’s reputation is in tatters around the world under Trump.
“He hasn’t shown any interest in doing the work or helping anybody but himself and his friends, or treating the presidency like a reality show that he can use to get attention,” Obama said. “This is not a reality show – this is reality.”
– Bart Jansen
State case records leading to record deaths
A USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data through late Wednesday shows 14 states set records for new cases in a week while six states had a record number of deaths in a week. New case records were set in Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming, and also Guam and Northern Mariana Islands. Record numbers of deaths were reported in Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The United States has reported 8.3 million cases and more than 222,200 deaths. – Mike Stucka
Halloween mecca unveils new restrictions
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll on Wednesday announced stricter coronavirus restrictions for Halloween to prevent gatherings. The new guidelines include early business shutdowns, road closures and travel and parking restrictions in Salem.
“We normally welcome throngs of visitors from around the globe to our community,” Driscoll said at a news conference. “This is just not the year and we want to send the message that, if you want to come to Salem, come in November, come next year.”