February 4 coronavirus news

The biotechnology company Novavax announced on Thursday that the “rolling review” process for authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine is underway in multiple countries. 

The vaccine maker announced that it has started the process with several regulatory agencies, including the US Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and Health Canada. 

Rolling review means that the company will submit some completed sections of its application for authorization instead of waiting until the entire application is finished. According to Novavax, the reviews by regulatory agencies will continue while the company completes Phase 3 trials in the United Kingdom and the United States.

“The rolling review of our submission by regulatory authorities of non-clinical data and early clinical studies will help expedite the review process and bring us that much closer to delivering a safe and effective vaccine worldwide,” Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development at Novavax, said in the announcement. 

“We appreciate the agencies’ confidence in Novavax based on our early data and the collective sense of urgency to ensure speedier access to much-needed COVID-19 vaccination.” 

Novavax announced last week that early results from a Phase 3 trial in the UK show its coronavirus vaccine has an efficacy of 89.3%.

A bipartisan “sweet 16” amendment on tightening the eligibility of who would qualify for the $1,400 Covid relief checks has passed the Senate by a vote of 99 to one. 

This was an amendment that members discussed at their bipartisan meeting last night and it is an example of how while most amendments today during the vote-a-rama will be partisan, others will be used to try and demonstrate there could be broad support for some changes to President Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan.

It’s the first significant vote thus far in the vote-a-rama that started this afternoon and is expected to go until sometime in the middle of the night.

While the amendment got wide support, it is not binding and does not mean that the eligibility requirements will be changed in the final Covid-19 relief bill that comes out a few weeks from now. But it expresses broad consensus to make the changes and may end up in a final bill.

The amendment doesn’t specify who not be eligible for the payments outside of saying “upper income taxpayers are not eligible.”

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the lone vote against the measure.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said people who’ve had Covid-19 should still get the second dose of vaccine and should follow US Food and Drug Administration guidance. 

Some context: A preprint study posted online this week said that after getting just one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine, people who were previously infected with the virus tended to have antibody levels that were at or above those of people who had gotten both doses but never been infected. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Fauci also said on Thursday that everyone who has had Covid-19 should be vaccinated. 

“If you had Covid-19, you should still get vaccinated. Because re-infection is uncommon 90 days after initial infection, you can delay vaccination until the end of that 90-day period, if desired. But vaccination is still safe after you’ve recovered from Covid-19,” he said in a tweet. 

American adults reported more problems with depression, new or increased substance use and suicidal thoughts during the Covid-19 pandemic, but even higher levels of Hispanic people reported these mental health issues, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Reports of certain mental and substance use disorders are not generally higher for one racial or ethnic group or another, according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the CDC Thursday, although racial and ethnic minority groups typically have less access to treatment.  

During this pandemic, a larger number of people have reported feeling depressed. In 2019, the National Health Interview Survey found that about 7% of adults reported feelings of depression; by April-May of 2020, 23.5% of adults reported depression. 

For Hispanic people, the numbers reporting depression were even higher in April-May of last year, nearly 29% of Hispanic people reported feelings of depression during this time period. More than twice as many Hispanic people as White people reported problems with depression.

Hispanic people were also four times as likely to report having problems with suicidal thoughts than people in the Black community. About 40% of Hispanic survey respondents reported an increase in substance use to help cope with the stress of the pandemic, compared to about 15% of all other respondents.

Compared to any other racial or ethnic group, Hispanic adults also reported higher amounts of psychological stress related to not having stable housing and not having enough to eat.

The CDC said more public health measures are needed to address the mental and behavioral health consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the interventions need to be tailored for racial and ethnic minority groups.

“The mental health and psychosocial needs of U.S. adults, including persons in racial and ethnic minority groups, are an important consideration when promoting community resilience and preserving access to and provision of services during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the report said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021, in Washington.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he hopes there will be data to support Covid-19 vaccinations for older children by the late spring or summer. 

When asked if it’s safe for children to go about their lives if all adults are vaccinated but children aren’t, Fauci said that “the situation in your community is a key factor here,” adding that while virus levels are high in the community, everyone needs to take steps such as wearing masks and social distancing.

People who are part of the LGBTQ community may be more vulnerable to getting Covid-19 and may be more susceptible to a severe form of Covid-19, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The LGBTQ community experiences more health disparities compared to their straight counterparts, in part due to sexual stigma and discrimination. These health disparities make them more susceptible, a CDC team said in a study published in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published Thursday.

Data from the 2017 to 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the CDC’s national health-related telephone survey, shows people who are a part of the LGBTQ community, regardless of race or ethnicity, report higher numbers of health conditions that make people vulnerable to more severe forms of Covid-19. These include heart disease, asthma, hypertension, cancer, kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes and smoking. 

But there is a data gap and much is unknown, the CDC said. Sexual orientation and gender identity information is not consistently captured by standard Covid-19 data collection system. A handful of states did start collecting this information, although it was several months into the pandemic. 

In July, California announced it would collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity to better understand the impact of the pandemic on these populations. Illinois also started to collect this information. Pennsylvania, Washington, DC, and several other jurisdictions are taking steps to collect this information, the report said, but the data is not yet available. 

The CDC encouraged all jurisdictions to collect information on sexual orientation and gender identity during the pandemic. 

“Attention to potentially larger disparities at the intersec­tions of sexual orientation and race/ethnicity is critical to ensuring health equity for all, including subpopulations whose circumstances often remain uncaptured despite acknowledg­ments of their distinct importance and needs,” the report said.

Healthcare workers arrive to distribute second doses of the Pfizer BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine to residents at a senior living facility in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, U.S., on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. 

More than one million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in Michigan as of Thursday, with 1,076,545 doses administered, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said during a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Every resident living in a nursing facility in Michigan who wants a vaccine has been given the opportunity to receive their first dose, Whitmer said.

The goal is to vaccinate 70% of the population for those 16 and older, the governor said.

A COVID-19 vaccine poster directs motorists to the website: "VaccinateLACounty.com" outside the mass vaccination site at the parking lot of L.A. County Office of Education headquarters in Downey, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. 

California’s infection and hospitalization rates are falling, but the state’s vaccine rollout has hit some snags due to supply struggles as officials try to control the pandemic and reopen schools.

California is opening two mass Covid-19 vaccination sites as part of a federal pilot program to quickly boost the number of available doses. The state is now administering about one million doses of the vaccine each week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said yesterday, a rate two to three times higher than the initial rollout.

The state is trying to speed up inoculations and jump start its economy as it emerges from a regional stay-at-home order that shuttered many nonessential businesses.

CNN’s Stephanie Elam reports from Los Angeles on the situation on the ground and answers your questions about the pandemic.

Watch the report:

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CNN’s Cheri Mossburg contributed reporting to this post.

Reversing an earlier decision to not hold an All-Star game in 2021, the National Basketball Association will host the mid-season showcase in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 7, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the NBA’s previously announced All-Star Game weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana, scheduled for Feb. 12 to 14, 2021, was postponed to 2024.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said at the time, “While we are disappointed that the NBA All-Star Game will not take place in Indianapolis in 2021, we are looking forward to the Pacers and the city hosting the game and surrounding events in 2024.”

The schedule for this year’s NBA 72-game season – 10 games fewer than usual – was released in two segments. Only the first segment, which is currently playing out through March 4, has been released. 

The NBA had originally slated March 5 to 10 as an All-Star break but without a game being played.  

The United States has identified hundreds of cases of a more contagious strain first linked to the UK — but two others, linked to South Africa and Brazil, are much harder to find, according to Dr. James Lu, president of a company called Helix, whose Covid-19 tests have helped identify many of these cases.

It’s the latter two strains that may be more concerning when it comes to vaccine efficacy and reinfection, experts say.

Part of the reason why we’ve found so many cases of B.1.1.7 — the strain first detected in the UK — is because of a testing glitch that picks up one if its mutations. 

Not all samples with this glitch are the B.1.1.7 strain, since this mutation can exist on its own. And not all brands of PCR tests show this glitch, called S gene dropout. But it has been used to screen for potential cases of the variant, which must then be confirmed through genetic sequencing.

The mutation that causes this glitch is not present in the strains first spotted in South Africa and Brazil. 

Beyond appearing more transmissible, these two strains also contain a different mutation that scientists worry could help the virus escape some of the antibody protection from vaccines or previous infection. Even so, experts say they expect vaccines will still work against the variants — especially when it comes to preventing severe disease and death. 

“They’re not detectable with our level of sampling today,” Lu said of variants linked to South Africa and Brazil. “So, most of the time, if we’re finding it, it’s serendipity right now. But that will change if they become more prevalent.”

Last week, the first US cases of the strain linked to South Africa were found in South Carolina. According to a state health official, these two cases were found during routine sequencing, but “the predominant strain that we are still seeing in our surveillance sequencing is the standard, or normal,” version of the virus. Maryland has also reported a handful of cases. 

At least two cases of the P.1 strain linked to Brazil have been found in the US, as well. Both cases live in the same household in Minnesota, and one had recently traveled to Brazil, according to the state’s health department.

In comparison, more than 540 cases of B.1.1.7 have been found in 33 states, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The US has been ramping up efforts to sequence at least 7,000 samples per week, according to the CDC. But experts have said we should be aiming much higher — somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 samples per week, given current case counts.