US TODAY is watching the news surrounding COVID-19 as some vaccines join the U.S. fight against a virus that has killed nearly 385,000 Americans since its first fatal death in February. Keep updating this page for the latest coronavirus updates, including who gets the vaccinations from Pfizer and Moderna, as well as other top news from across the US TODAY Network. Subscribe to our Coronavirus Watch Newsletter for updates directly in your inbox, join our Facebook group or browse through our in-depth answers to reader questions for everything you need to know about the coronavirus.
In the headings:
► The single dose of Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine is safe and generates an immune response, based on early-stage clinical trials, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.
► Ohio State University scientists have discovered a new variant of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The new variant has a mutation that is identical to the strain in the United Kingdom, but it probably originated in a virus strain that already exists in the United States.
► The Vatican has confirmed Pope Francis received the first recording of the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Thursday. The 84-year-old advocated that everyone should get the vaccine, calling it an ‘ethical option’ that is done not only for their own health but also for the ‘lives of others’.
► A global team of researchers arrived in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus was first detected, on Thursday to investigate its origin.
► Pfizer, which in conjunction with BioNTech developed the first COVID-19 approved by the federal government, increased prices on 193 branded medicines this month. While the median increase is a moderate 0.5%, the price increase was about 5% for several of Pfizer’s most popular medicines.
► The Mississippi Department of Health said the state could no longer make appointments for coronavirus vaccines due to a ‘huge increase’ in demand after Gov. Tate Reeves announced more people were eligible for the shots.
► Montana government Greg Gianforte announced on Wednesday that it was removing the pandemic mandates issued by its predecessor. Under the new rules that come into effect on Friday, restaurants, bars, breweries, distilleries and casinos will no longer have to close at 22:00 and will not have to limit capacity to 50%.
► A new Ipsos survey found that residents in several other countries are more reluctant to get the COVID-19 vaccine than Americans. China was highest in accepting vaccine, with 80% of respondents saying they would get it. France was the lowest with only 40%. The US stayed somewhere in the middle with 69%.
► Coronavirus deaths in the US reached another one-day high with more than 4,300. According to Johns Hopkins University, the country’s total death toll from the coronavirus has eclipsed 384,000. This quickly joins the number of Americans killed in World War II, about 405,000. The U.S. recorded 4,327 deaths on Tuesday.
► The Government of California, Gavin Newsom, announced on Wednesday that the state is removing restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines for all residents aged 65 and over. But Los Angeles County, the region hardest hit in the state, has already said it continues to favor health workers. About 1 in 3 people in the country has been infected with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, officials said on Wednesday.
📈 Today’s numbers: According to Johns Hopkins University data, there are more than 23 million cases of coronavirus and more than 384,600 deaths. The global total: More than 92.3 million cases and 1.97 million deaths.
📘 What we read: According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the seasonal flu has almost disappeared. That speaks volumes about the transmissibility of COVID-19, health experts say. Read more here.
More university students get COVID as pre-school and school-going children when they return to class
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study on Wednesday suggesting that the transmission of COVID-19 may be more of concern to university students than younger children going to school.
The study, published in the agency’s weekly report on morbidity and mortality, found that the case of COVID-19 in summer and autumn did not increase among preschool and school-going children from zero to ten years old.
In contrast, cases among young adults between 18 and 24 years old and in early September increased significantly, suggesting that young adults may contribute more to the transmission of the community than younger children, the CDC said.
The agency concedes that COVID-19 cases are likely to be underestimated among children and adolescents, as asymptomatic infection occurs more frequently in these age groups.
Modern needs at least 3K adolescent vaccination volunteers
Not enough adolescents are enrolling for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine trial, a federal official said this week, potentially delaying vaccine authorization for this age group.
Moncef Slaoui, the scientific head of Operation Warp Speed, the government’s vaccination effort, said on Tuesday that although 800 volunteers pick up in adults per day, the teen sample only gets about 800 a month.
The study requires at least 3,000 participants to provide valid safety and efficacy data and obtain FDA approval.
“It’s really very important for all of us, for the entire population of America, to realize that we can not have that indication unless teenagers from 12 to 18 years old decide to participate,” Slaoui said.
– Karen Weintraub
Some Wisconsin hospitals offer vaccine to patients who do not care for patients
Some Wisconsin hospital systems do not offer COVID-19 vaccines to staff who do not work with patients or in medical institutions, under the interpretation of guidelines for prioritizing vaccines that, according to federal advisers, are a stretch.
At least one hospital system – Advocate Aurora – has opened appointments for all vaccine employees. According to social media, employees at other health systems have been vaccinated as administrators or PR specialists.
Wisconsin is still working on the first phase of its vaccine deployment plan, which includes long-term care facilities and healthcare staff, with a focus on hospital staff at the forefront.
The decisions of some hospitals to include employees who work from home and do not communicate with patients have raised eyebrows in Wisconsin and other states.
– Daphne Chen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
What will COVID-19 look like in the future? Maybe another cold, says study
SARS-CoV-2 ‘could, in the long run, join the ranks of mild, cold-causing … human coronaviruses’, according to a model developed by Emory University and Penn State University scientists.
The model, published Tuesday in peer-reviewed journal Science, compares the deadly virus to four common cold coronaviruses plus the SARS and MERS viruses, which emerged in 2003 and 2012, respectively.
Researchers have determined from the model that if the coronavirus continues to circulate in the general population and most people are exposed to it from an early age, it can be added to the list of colds.
Study authors concede that the model makes a number of assumptions about the coronavirus and colds that are not yet known, but a message taken along is ‘the critical need for broad-scale vaccination may decrease in the short term’, said the author, Ottar Bjornstad, said. who teaches entomology and biology at Penn State University.
Contributing Contributions: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID news: WHO researchers in Wuhan; Modern vaccine test; American deaths