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John Bacon
| USA TODAY
Northeast is hammered by winter weather
According to AccuWeather, this winter storm could break records for snowfall in New York City.
USA TODAY, Weekly
Vaccine blasts in California, Washington state and elsewhere are raising concerns among health leaders, who warn that doses given unfairly to rich or influential people could lead to critical supplies in the COVID-19 battle.
The Washington Department of Health said in a statement that VIP scheduling, doses for unfair or exclusive access and similar practices are prohibited, prohibited and will not be tolerated. “
The Seattle Times reports that three medical systems in the region have given special vaccines to major donors or founding members. Two of the hospital organizations admitted that they had made a mistake by prioritizing influential people.
The Department of Health’s announcement says that if a vaccine provider is found to be giving shots in an unfair manner, ‘we can reduce or stop the award to the provider.’
In California, it is next in line for some essential workers – teachers, first responders and food and farm workers. But after that, the state will mainly extend the admission to old age, probably people 50 years and older. The goal: to accelerate a chaotic explosion of vaccines, leaving California consistently lagging behind many other states in distribution rates, even though it gave about 3.3 million vaccinations on Monday.
Other states are struggling with the same problems, which come amid a difficult period when vaccines are being shut down in the northeast because a blizzard is hampering the region, causing snowstorms and causing emergencies.
COVID-19 killed more than 443,000 Americans, and infections continued to increase despite the launch of some vaccines late in 2020. USA TODAY is watching the news. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates. Subscribe to our Coronavirus Watch Newsletter for updates to your inbox, join our Facebook group or browse through our in-depth answers to reader questions.
In the headings:
► Tourists will not be running with the bulls at the San Fermín Festival in Pamplona, Spain, for the second year in a row. “An international festival like San Fermín, in which millions of people come to Navarre, will not be possible,” María Chivite, regional president of Navarre, said on Tuesday.
► The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s order that people wear a face mask when traveling on airplanes and other vehicles is in effect Monday night. The order applies to those traveling to, within or outside the US
► The fact that COVID survives only one dose of the vaccine will not negatively affect their antibody safety, but will release much-needed vaccine doses very urgently, a study has suggested.
The US Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday that vaccines will be considered ‘sensitive sites’ and will not be targeted by immigration and customs enforcement agents, except in ‘exceptional circumstances’.
► While residents of nursing homes and their caregivers are a top priority for the vaccination of COVID-19, only 38% of nursing home staff accepted shots when they were offered, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed.
📈 Today’s numbers: According to Johns Hopkins University data, the U.S. has more than 26.3 million cases of coronavirus and more than 443,000 deaths. The world total: more than 103 million cases and 2.24 million deaths. According to the CDC, nearly 50 million doses of vaccines have been distributed and 32.2 million have been administered.
📘 What we read: Studies indicate that up to 80% of people with COVID-19 symptoms experience a reduced or complete loss of smell or taste. Most survivors regain meaning within a few weeks. But some do not, and researchers say they can go without it for the rest of their lives. Read the full story.
District Columbia Public Schools went to court Monday for a temporary restraining order against the Washington Teachers’ Union to prevent a strike that could delay the reopening of some schools for personal learning. Personal learning across the city would begin Monday, but winter weather delayed the opening. Schools opened for personal students two hours late Tuesday. The union has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday morning to discuss its position.
In Chicago, school district officials on Monday extended two more days of distance education and called for a “cooling-off period” in negotiations with the teachers’ union, citing progress but not a full agreement on the COVID-19 safety plans for returning to schools not. More than 60,000 students and about 10,000 teachers and staff in K-8 would start school on Monday for the first time since last March, as part of the district’s gradual reopening plans during the pandemic.
The US government says it will not make arrests at immigration sites during vaccinations in the country, except in ‘extraordinary circumstances’. In a statement Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said vaccines would be considered “sensitive sites” and would not be targeted by immigration and customs enforcement agents. DHS says it encourages everyone “regardless of immigration status” to be vaccinated when eligible according to local rules.
ICE used to include health care facilities as well as churches among the sensitive places where arrests would not normally be made.
Some pregnant women remain unsure about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, as safety data are scarce and health care guidelines are vague and in some cases inconsistent. But dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading expert on infectious diseases, said on Monday that about 10,000 pregnant women had been vaccinated in the US, as the Food and Drug Administration had approved two vaccines and that so far there had been ‘no red flags’.
“We have vaccinated many pregnant women, the FDA has followed them and will continue to follow them,” he told a media news conference during the IAS COVID-19 conference: prevention. “Although we do not have good data on it, the data we have collected so far about it has no red flags.”
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention guidelines state that the mother should make the decision in consultation with her healthcare provider. Fauci said Monday the agency is sticking to the recommendation.
– Adrianna Rodriguez
As people of color have an exorbitant number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, health equity leaders are calling for better detection of health data to shed racial differences. Lack of data obscures the transparency of vaccination, according to researchers in health equity, and the lack of data harms those most vulnerable. So far, only 16 states have announced the vaccinations by race and ethnicity, and the data are incomplete.
In a press release from the White House on Monday, dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, also stressed the need for better racial and ethnicity data on vaccinations. After summing up higher death rates and hospitalization rates among coloreds, such as blacks, Latinos and American Indians, she said she was ‘concerned’ about ‘backwardness’ in the collection of race and ethnicity amid vaccine deployment.
“As of January 30, we are missing 47% of race and ethnicity data on vaccinations,” Nunez-Smith said. “Let me be clear: we cannot ensure a fair vaccination program without data to guide us.”
– Nada Hassanein
Contributing Contributions: Associated Press