December 13 coronavirus news

Remarking on images of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine being shipped out, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the coronavirus vaccine is “truly historic.”

The team at NIAID helped develop Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine. Vaccine advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will meet next week to discuss an emergency use authorization for Moderna’s vaccine.  

The science: Both Moderna’s candidate and Pfizer/BioNTech’s recently authorized vaccine have been shown to be about 95% effective in preventing symptomatic infections. Both vaccines rely on the same technology, using a synthetic version of mRNA or Messenger RNA, a strand of genetic code.

The Pfizer vaccine is the first vaccine in the world to be authorized using this technology. It is now authorized for emergency use in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.  

Health care workers hand out Covid-19 tests to motorists on December 9 in Long Beach, California.

California’s Covid-19 surge rolls onward, with Sunday marking the third consecutive day the state has had over 30,000 daily new positive coronavirus cases, according to data released by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on Sunday.

The state reported 30,334 new coronavirus cases on Sunday and 122 new deaths. The rate of positive tests over the last 14-days inched up overnight and now stands at 10.4%

As of Sunday, California has 1,551,766 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic; there have also been 20,969 virus-related deaths statewide.

Medical staff member Gabriel Cervera Rodoriguez stands next to a deceased patient in the Covid-19 Intensive Care Unit of United Memorial Medical Center on December 11 in Houston, Texas.

More than 30,000 people have died in the US from Covid-19 in the first 13 days of December, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

A total of 30,102 have died this month and a total of 298,147 have died since the beginning of the pandemic, the data showed.

The US has previously seen more than 30,000 deaths in the months of November, May and April. 

As of 1 p.m. ET Sunday, there have been a total of 16,105,795 Covid-19 cases in the US, according to the university.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing on November 19 in Washington, DC.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield has accepted the recommendation of the agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine may be given to people ages 16 and older.

This means that shots can now be administered in the United States.

On Saturday: ACIP committee members voted in favor of the recommendation, and to add the vaccine to the CDC’s immunization schedule.

On Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization for Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine.

Pfizer began shipping its vaccine on Sunday, with first shots in arms expected Monday morning.

Vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped at the Pfizer manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan on December 13.

New Jersey will administer its first Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday morning at University Hospital in Newark, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Sunday.

The state’s first 76,000 doses will be for health care workers and long-term care facility residents and staff, Murphy said.

Murphy will visit the hospital on Tuesday with Judith Persichilli, the state’s health commissioner, Shereef Elnahal, University Hospital president, and Dr. Robert Johnson, dean of Rutgers Medical School. Vaccinations will be administered during the governor’s visit, according to a news release from Murphy’s office.

University Hospital in Newark has created a “Covid-19 vaccine clinic” in anticipation of the pending vaccine shipment and has the potential of administering at least 600 vaccines per day, the release stated.

Despite the optimistic talk this morning on the Sunday shows, relief talks are going slow and Hill leaders are still far apart on the stimulus, sources in both parties said this morning.

Democrats have not yet dropped their demands for state and local aid, which Republicans have resisted.

And even though senators in the bipartisan group this morning promised to release bill text tomorrow on their $908 billion proposal, they still do not have a deal — and are still struggling to get a deal on liability protections for businesses and others, sources said.

What happens next: Six senators are having calls this afternoon to try to reach an accord on the liability issue after struggling for weeks.

Ultimately it will be up to congressional leaders to decide which provisions will be included in the $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill to keep the government funded past Friday.

Congressional leaders remain at odds, however, on what provisions should be added.

Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, speaks at the White House on November 13 in Washington, DC.

Moncef Slaoui, the head of the US government’s effort to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, Sunday congratulated Pfizer and BioNTech for delivering a coronavirus vaccine.

Slaoui said he hopes the US will achieve herd immunity against Covid-19 in May or June.

“We need to have immunized about 75 or 80 percent of the US population before herd immunity can be established,” Slaoui said. “We hope to reach that point between the month of May and the month of June.”

He said it is critical that Americans decide to take the vaccine, and said he is very concerned about the level of vaccine hesitancy he is witnessing.

“We hope that now that all the data is out and available to be discussed in detail that people will keep their mind open, to listen to the data, and hopefully agree that this is a very effective and safe vaccine, and therefore take it,” Slaoui said.

Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, said “studies are being planned or in progress now” regarding coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 16.

He declined to give a direct answer when asked when the vaccine might be available for children.

Sen. Bill Cassidy speaks with CNN on Sunday, December 13.

GOP Senator Bill Cassidy told CNN that the bipartisan stimulus bill will be introduced Monday night. 

“We are going to introduce a bill tomorrow night,” Cassidy said, “the leadership can discard it, I can govern that.”

“There will be a deal,” Cassidy told CNN. 

Democratic senator from West Virginia Joe Manchin also said in an interview on Fox News that the bipartisan group’s bill will be released Monday.

“You will see a complete bill tomorrow before the end of the day,” Manchin said.

Manchin added that negotiations “haven’t fallen apart,” despite concerns on Friday that the group was struggling to finalize a deal. Manchin said the group has been talking over the weekend, and will have another call today. 

However, Manchin also noted that there is “no guarantee” that the bill they present will be passed by Congress. 

“There is no way, no way, that we are going to leave Washington without taking care of the emergency needs of our people,” Manchin said. 

 Watch:

House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer told CNN that he spent the weekend in talks with House and Senate members on an economic rescue package, and signaled he’d accept a deal that doesn’t include state and local aid.

Hoyer acknowledged that the Democrats will not get everything they want, saying there will be “trade-offs and give and takes.”  

“We are not going to get everything we want. We think state and local is important. And if we can get that we want to get it. But we want to get aid out to the people who are really, really struggling and are at grave risk,” he said.

##Stimulus#

US Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn, said he hopes that Covid-19 vaccinations are administered to Americans on Monday.

US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn, speaks with CNN on Sunday, December 13.

US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn, told CNN that he doesn’t know why Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has not yet accepted the recommendation of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which voted Saturday to recommend the CDC approve the vaccine for use in the US. 

“I’m sure we’ll be hearing very soon about this,” Hahn said.

Watch:

Trucks containing the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine leave the Pfizer manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on December 13.

The first freight trucks carrying approximately 184,275 vials of the vaccine have departed Pfizer on Sunday. 

Trucks carrying a combined 189 boxes of vaccine vials are expected to arrive in all 50 states on Monday. 

Another 3,900 vials are expected to ship later today to US territories.

On Monday, another 400 boxes packed with approximately 390-thousand vials will ship for arrival on Tuesday.

Watch as first doses of vaccine ship out from Pfizer facility:

Boxes containing the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped at the Pfizer facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on December 13.

The loading process of the first shipment of Pfizer vaccine has begun at the Kalamazoo facility in Michigan. This first shipment of vaccine will be going to all 50 states.

Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of the federal government’s vaccine initiative Operation Warp Speed previously said he expected 145 sites across all the states to receive the vaccine on Monday, another 425 sites on Tuesday, and the final 66 sites on Wednesday, which will complete the initial delivery of the Pfizer orders for the vaccine.

Watch Pfizer vaccine be prepared for shipment:

People walk through a decorated city center in Celle, Germany, on December 12.

Germany will go into a “hard” national lockdown starting next Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday, after agreeing to stricter measures with state governments to stem a wave of coronavirus cases.

As of next Wednesday, all non-essential shops, services and schools will close until January 10, and Christmas Day gatherings will be reduced from 10 people to only five from two different households.

New measures to curb spread over festive season: Christmas church services will be subject to prior registration with no singing allowed. Alcohol is to be banned from all public spaces and an annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display will be canceled. Some states are also implementing additional measures, such as Bavaria, which will have a 9 p.m. curfew.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has pledged economic help for all businesses affected by the lockdown.

On Sunday, Germany recorded 20,200 new coronavirus infections – 2,000 more than Sunday last week – according to the Robert Koch Institute, the country’s agency for disease control. The overall infection number stands at 1,320,716. The death toll rose by 321 to 21,787, data showed.

Covid-19 vaccines are packaged at the Pfizer facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on December 13.

With the greenlight of the FDA’s emergency use authorization, Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccines will be sent out to hundreds of facilities across the United States this week.

“We expect 145 sites across all the states to receive the vaccine on Monday, another 425 sites on Tuesday, and the final 66 sites on Wednesday, which will complete the initial delivery of the Pfizer orders for the vaccine,” said Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of the federal government’s vaccine initiative Operation Warp Speed.

The vaccine is being shipped from Pfizer’s facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The US Food and Drug Administration granted approval Friday for the drug company’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, a move that director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research said “holds the promise to alter the course of this pandemic.”

A grim death toll and record high hospitalizations: As of early Sunday, more than 16 million people have been infected by the virus in the United States and 297,837 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Hospitalizations hit record highs for the seventh day in a row Saturday, and with the winter holidays still ahead, experts warn that the pandemic could continue to worsen before the larger public receives the vaccination.

Vaccine hesitancy could undermine Covid-19 response: American Medical Association President Dr. Susan Bailey said in a statement Saturday the biggest obstacle to the vaccine is people’s willingness to be vaccinated.

“To be clear, these vaccines will reduce death and severe illness. They have been rigorously evaluated, and if enough of us roll up our sleeves and get vaccinated, we can eventually reclaim normalcy,” she said.

Advisers to the CDC have recommended that health care workers and long-term care facility residents be first in line to get the injection.

Read the full story:

Boxes containing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped at the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo manufacturing plant on December 13, 2020 in Portage, Michigan.

Related article More than 600 facilities will receive coronavirus vaccines this week

German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the media on the second day of an EU summit in Brussels on December 11.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is meeting with the leaders of 16 federal state governments Sunday to set out a coordinated plan ahead of Christmas to tighten coronavirus restrictions on a national level.

New potential nationwide curbs include the closure of non-essential retail shops as early as this coming week ahead of the holiday period.

On Sunday, Germany recorded 20,200 new coronavirus infections – 2,000 more than Sunday last week – according to the Robert Koch Institute, the country’s agency for disease control. The overall infection number stands at 1,320,716. The death toll rose by 321 to 21,787, data showed.

Post-Christmas lockdown: Earlier this week, Merkel said she wanted to implement a full lockdown for as long as two weeks after Christmas to bring down infection numbers.

Several German states, including Berlin, Bavaria, Saxony, Thuringia, Baden-Württemberg and Schleswig Holstein announced additional lockdown restrictions in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus after the country reached record highs in daily infection numbers, death rates and ICU occupancies due to coronavirus. 

On Friday, Germany recorded nearly 30,000 new coronavirus infections and nearly 600 deaths within 24 hours.

Merkel is set to reveal the country’s potential new coronavirus curbs at a press conference later Sunday.

Margaret Keenan, 90, becomes the first patient in the U.K. to receive the Covid-19 vaccine at University Hospital in Coventry, United Kingdom, on December 8.

When 90-year-old Margaret Keenan received the world’s first clinically authorized and tested Covid-19 vaccine earlier this week, the end of the Covid-19 pandemic seemed finally in reach.

Tough months lie ahead, but the rollout of the first vaccine in record time and the likely imminent approvals of others, is a turning point for wealthy countries that can afford vaccines.

But for public health officials in the developing world, it is a harsh reminder that the race to end this deadly pandemic will separate the world’s haves and the have-nots.

The alleged Covid-19 vaccine hoarding and bitter experience of past inequalities leave many feeling cynical about global solidarity.

Vaccine shopping spree: Rich countries have been on a vaccine shopping spree for months. A continuously updated database compiled by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center shows bilateral deals worth billions of dollars by a handful of countries for emerging vaccines.

Several countries and regional blocks have preordered vaccines that could cover far more than their entire populations. The People’s Vaccine Alliance, an international vaccine watchdog that includes Amnesty International and Oxfam, said this past week that rich countries have bought enough Covid-19 vaccine doses to immunize their populations three times over.

The Canadian government alone has secured enough inoculations to vaccinate their citizens five or even six times over, though not all the vaccine candidates it preordered may be approved for usage.

The Alliance’s data shows that while the world’s wealthiest nations are snapping up deals, nearly 70 poor countries will only be able to vaccinate one in 10 people at best during 2021.

Read the full story.

It’s one of the biggest logistical challenges in modern history: How will millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses that must be kept at incredibly cold temperatures be quickly shipped across continents and oceans?

One company is using its experience with tuna as a guide.

Thermo King — which revolutionized the transportation of food through advances in temperature-controlled shipping before World War II — is working with pharmaceutical companies, governments and logistics firms to ensure vaccines are preserved as they travel to clinics and hospitals. To make this happen, they’ve reworked containers typically used to transport fresh tuna to Japan, which requires similar frigid conditions.

“We took that product and we amended it,” Francesco Incalza, president Thermo King Europe, Middle East and Africa, told CNN Business.

Tuna must be stored at -60 degrees Celsius, or -76 degrees Fahrenheit, to maintain its quality and deep red hue when it reaches supermarkets and restaurants, Incalza said. The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech has to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius, or -94 degrees Fahrenheit, while in transit.

So Thermo King, which is part of Ireland-based Trane Technologies, made some tweaks, adding additional insulation and adjusting the refrigeration system so it could get even colder. Now, each 20-foot-long container can carry 300,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine — the first to be approved for use by Western countries following rigorous testing — by land or sea. Some have already been sold and are making their way around the globe.

Incalza said this kind of innovation would normally take years to develop.

Read more here.

A medical staff member checks an I.V. pump for a patient in the Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, on December 10.

According to Johns Hopkins University’s tally, the United States has recorded 16,062,299 cases of coronavirus and at least 297,818 people there have died from the virus.

On Saturday, Johns Hopkins University recorded 219,510 new cases and 2,368 new deaths across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.

Saturday was the seventh day in a row that hospitalizations hit a record high, with 108,487 patients in hospitals around the country, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

The US added an additional 1 million cases in the past four days. It took the nation more than eight months to reach 8 million cases but less than two months to double that, as the number of new cases continues to soar.

That dire new toll comes as a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee voted Saturday to recommend the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for patients 16 and older. Doses will begin to be rolled out in the coming days.