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Grace Hauck
| USA TODAY
President Biden’s plea to take vaccine ‘after visit to Pfizer plant
President Biden has toured a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, as COVID-19 deployments deter vaccines from severe winter weather.
Staff video, TODAY TODAY
President Joe Biden toured a Pfizer factory in Michigan on Friday, emphasizing the safety of vaccines, saying Americans should be vaccinated “if it’s your turn and available.”
He pleaded with Americans to be vaccinated because he wanted to highlight the government’s major undertaking to step up the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
The president’s message comes amid delays in sending vaccines due to winter storms across the country. Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House on COVID-19 response, said federal partners were planning to make deliveries on Saturday and that late doses were expected to be delivered.within the next week. ”
“I can not give you a date when this crisis will end. But I can tell you that we are doing everything possible to make that day come sooner rather than later,” Biden said after traveling in the Pfizer plant.
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In the headings:
► After early confusion, most hospitals, clinics and vaccination centers now have protocols and systems in place to ensure that every last dose of vaccine is used.
► The U.S. plans to open five more community vaccination centers, including one in Philadelphia and four in Florida, Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville and Tampa, Salvitt said Friday.
► The FDA is reviewing the data from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial and plans to consult with the agency’s independent advisory committee on 26 February. “We will hear about it soon,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday.
►Pfizer said on Friday it wants authorization to store the vaccine in normal pharmaceutical freezers, instead of the doses currently needed at the ultra-cold temperature.
►California plans to set aside 10% of the first doses of vaccines for educators, school staff and childminders from March to get children back into the classroom, Gavin Newsom said on Friday.
► Experts believe that the United States can rapidly expand the country’s limited supply and improve speed by authorizing rapid, paper-based antigen testing. The downside: quick tests are less accurate compared to lab tests, which take longer to complete and cost $ 100 or more.
📈 Today’s numbers: According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the US has more than 28.0 million cases of coronavirus and 495,000 deaths. The world total: more than 110.8 million cases and 2.45 million deaths. According to the CDC, more than 78.1 million doses of vaccines have been distributed and approximately 59.5 million have been administered.
📘 What we read: ‘He must not be dead’: A year after the death of their father to COVID-19, the family confronts their loss.
The president and three members of a California school board resigned after mocking their parents in a live meeting over the reopening of the school, which they said was private.
Greg Hetrick, superintendent of the Oakley Union Elementary School District in Costa County, announced that board members submitted their resignations in a letter to the school community Friday, calling it an ‘unfortunate situation’.
The video of the Wednesday night meeting has spread on social media and it appears that board members of parents who wrote letters are catching up to request the board to reopen schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. “They want to choose us because they want their babysitters back,” said council chair Lisa Brizendine.
The board members also use explicit and laugh about parents taking marijuana. At the end of the survey, the board members appear to be shocked to receive a message informing them that the live stream is public. In a statement, councilors expressed their “sincere apology” and said they “regret the comments made in the meeting.”
Increasing evidence suggests that a smartwatch or portable such as a Fitbit can help warn carriers of a potential COVID-19 infection before a positive test result.
Portable items such as the Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy Smart Watch, Fitbit and other devices can collect heart and oxygen data, as well as sleep and activity levels. Researchers are investigating whether a body’s health data could indicate an oncoming COVID-19 infection.
A COVID-19 infection may not be at hand for someone whose heart or activity data may indicate an infection. But the increased likelihood – and the ability to warn the patient to be tested and possibly quarantined – could be an important tool in preventing and detecting the spread of the disease, researchers say.
Such findings, if proven, could lead to remote medical warnings for other possible viruses, flu and inappropriate stress.
– Mike Snider
Argentine health minister resigns amid vaccine scandal
President Alberto Fernández removed Argentina’s health minister on Friday after a well-known local journalist said he had preferably been vaccinated against coronavirus after requesting the minister.
The president “instructed his chief of staff to request the resignation of the Minister of Health”, Ginés González García, who is in charge of the government’s COVID-19 strategy, said a government official, who was not authorized to information and did not speak to The Associated. Press on condition of anonymity.
The shooting has recently come on the heels of reports that mayors, lawmakers, activists and people close to political power have received vaccine shots, even though they were not in the priority group of doctors, health professionals and seniors authorized to receive them.
Two doses of Pfizer vaccine here to stay, despite new study
A new study from Israel revived the public debate on Friday over the space between the two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, but the US government is not working on its commitment to the original schedule.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may be just as effective if the dose gap is greater than the recommended 21 days, according to the new study from Israel. If the doses could be given further apart, more people could be protected faster. The vaccine supply, which is now fairly limited, is expected to increase in late spring.
But government officials want to stick to the dosing schedule that has been scientifically proven to be effective, and warn that changing it could weaken the effectiveness of the vaccine against variants, or even drive the creation of new variants that escape protection.
The current schedule offers “an optimal response if you are dealing with variants”, said dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading doctor on infectious diseases, said at a news conference on Friday.
– Karen Weintraub
Africa reaches 100,000 known COVID-19 deaths
Africa has surpassed 100,000 confirmed deaths due to COVID-19, as the continent is praised for its early response to the pandemic that is now struggling with a dangerous revival and medical oxygen is often falling very short.
The continent of 54 countries, with about 1.3 billion people, has barely seen the yields of COVID-19 vaccines, but a variant of the virus that dominates in South Africa is already a challenge for vaccination efforts. If doses are available, the continent should still be able to vaccinate between 20% and 40% of the population before the end of 2021 and 60% by the end of 2022, says John Nkengasong, director of the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention. .
Health officials who breathed a sigh of relief last year when African countries did not see a large number of COVID-19 deaths are now reporting an increase in deaths. The CDC of Africa said on Friday that the total death toll was 100,294.
– The Associated Press
Contributing Contribution: Courtney Subramanian, USA TODAY; The Associated Press