Fauci: FDA will back boosters for all

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday defended the Biden administration’s booster rollout plans, downplaying confusion over the initial target date and who should get additional jabs.

“That was a plan that was always contingent, and every one of us said that, contingent upon the FDA’s normal regulatory process,” Fauci said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

President Joe Biden previously said boosters would be available to all this week.

A key federal advisory committee on Friday recommended a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine six months after full vaccination for people 65 and older and those at high risk of severe COVID-19.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, in an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” predicted broader approval for most Americans “in the next few weeks.”

Alabama saw more deaths than births for first time

For the first time in its documented history, Alabama recorded more deaths than births in a year, and state health officials are attributing the 2020 population shrinkage to COVID-19.

The state had 64,714 total deaths and 57,641 total births last year, he said. There were 7,182 deaths from COVID-19 in 2020, according to state health data.

To avoid ‘twindemic,’ experts say now is the time to get flu shot

With flu season around the corner and the danger of a “twindemic” – a deadly combination of COVID-19 and the flu spreading at the same time – experts are recommending Americans get a flu shot.

“In these pandemic times, we want to save health care resources and not burden the health care workers with something that is easily preventable. We want to minimize hospitalization. We want to minimize deaths,” said Linda Molaka, a CVS pharmacy manager based in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

America Samoa sees first case of COVID-19 in resident

American Samoa, a U.S. territory in the Pacific, reported its first case of coronavirus on Friday.

The territory’s acting governor, Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo Ale, and health officials said the islands’ first case of COVID-19 was in a resident who returned to America Samoa from a trip to the U.S. mainland and Hawaii.

The infected traveler flew in Sept. 13, the first day of newly resumed flights from Honolulu to Pago Pago. The route had been suspended since March 2020 because of the pandemic.

There were a few positive coronavirus cases linked to cargo ships that had docked in American Samoa last year. But the crews weren’t allowed to leave the vessels, and officials didn’t include the infections in their count.

Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga also on the flight and is now in quarantine.

Officials said the sick resident was fully vaccinated and had tested negative for COVID-19 before boarding the flight back to American Samoa.