The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday unveiled a central school reopening plan that includes safety and mitigation practices such as physical distance and masking, as well as the use of new measures such as ‘podding’.
Podding includes keeping the same students together (as in a pod) to reduce students’ possible exposure to the virus. But questions about access to critical resources, such as better ventilation, testing and masks, remain unanswered. At a press conference Friday, CDC officials said the burden rests on Congress to provide funding to achieve such measures.
The Biden administration said they would give priority to education and to get students and teachers back to school safely and fairly.
Other industries are also finding ways to start working at pre-pandemic levels. The airline industry, one of the heaviest among the pandemic, recently saw a test mandate for international flights, although the US government also weighs the test mandates for domestic flights. However, the airline industry is pushing back against the move, saying it is placing the burden on airline providers unfairly and that it will have a negative impact.
In a letter to the White House COVID-19 response team reviewed by Yahoo Finance, Boeing said it was the federal government’s responsibility to fund such tests.
But Michael Mina, a test expert and an assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, said that even the current international test requirements are basically useless.
“The pre-flight test about three to five days before you fly … is not effective,” Mina told Yahoo Finance.
Mina said the results of the tests may not determine your current state of health. Therefore, he continued to strive for cheap, fast antigen tests, rather than doing the more arduous but accurate PCR tests at the gate, just before takeoff.
“The point is that we need the testing. If it’s going to be effective, we have to be very close to the opportunity,” Mina said.
More vaccine doses
The US has agreed to purchase a total of 200 million additional doses, 100 million each from Pfizer (PFE) and (MRNA), which would push the US total to 600 million doses from the only two authorized companies.
Although it helps cover a majority of the U.S. population, it is not sufficient for everyone, as both vaccines require two doses. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is likely to be the next vaccination available to Americans, with an authorization possible by the end of the month.
President Joe Biden announced his intention to purchase additional doses on January 26, and White House officials noted that the current amount of 200 million doses per company is likely to come through by the end of the second quarter.
Pfizer’s vaccine, developed with BioNTech (BNTX), is sold to the US at the same price as previously announced, or about $ 1.95 billion for the doses of 100 million.
Moderna did not disclose its prices, but noted that the company has delivered 41 million doses so far. Its commitment to the US is almost double the commitment to the European Union. To date, the federal government has devoted up to $ 5.75 billion to the development, manufacture and purchase of Moderna’s vaccine.
To date, more than 68 million doses have been dispensed and more than 46 million administered in the first and second doses, according to the CDC.
Meanwhile, top health officials are concerned about the increasing spread of coronavirus variants. The B.1.1.7 variant, from the United Kingdom, becomes the dominant strain in the US, with more than 981 cases reported in 37 states. Fewer cases have been reported from the lake with respect to B.1.351 strain, from South Africa, and P.1 strain, from Brazil, but experts also believe that they are spreading.
In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and colleagues at the National Institute of Health the need to control the pandemic before it gets even stronger. strains appear that can make vaccines ineffective.
“It is unclear whether changes in vaccine composition will be needed to effectively control the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is prudent to be prepared. Some companies have indicated plans to manufacture and test vaccines based on emerging variants,” and such studies will provide important information about the potential to broaden the immune response, ”the authors wrote.
Dr. Paul Offit, a leading vaccine expert and pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP), said Thursday that the group of experts who met to develop a coordinated research strategy for therapy and vaccines had regrouped due to concerns about variant. .
“We actually thought we were done, but with the variants that are emerging now, we are meeting again,” Offit said during an interview with JAMA on Thursday.
While vaccines now appear to be able to withstand serious diseases, Offit is concerned about September this year, where the weather will get colder again and a new variant may appear.
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