A year of loss and resilience in the face of COVID-19 on Navajo Nation
Jonathan Nez, president of the Navajo Nation, reflects on the victories and losses of a year of fighting COVID-19.
Trevor Hughes and Jasper Colt, USA TODAY
The company gave the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to children under 12 on Tuesday. The Massachusetts biotech company plans to recruit 6,750 healthy children under the age of 12 for the trial.
The trial comes as schools scramble to bring children back to classrooms while keeping 6 feet apart – or sometimes less – to avoid infections in some of the last Americans likely to be vaccinated.
“This pediatric study will help us assess the potential safety and immunogenicity of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate in this important younger age population,” said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel.
The company joins Pfizer and BioNTech to start trials for children 6 months and older, after data showed that the vaccines are effective in older adults.
“If I were part of the FDA, I would definitely want to be very confident about the safety of a vaccine before I approve its use in children,” said Dr. Cody Meissner, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Tufts Children’s Hospital, said in October when Pfizer began pediatric trials. “The pattern of illness is very different in children, and it will make me uncomfortable if I climb it in adults.”
Also in the news:
►Rep. John Katko, RN.Y., calls on President Joe Biden to declare National COVID-19 Vaccination Awareness Day a one-time federal holiday to promote and encourage vaccination efforts nationwide.
►China has approved a fifth vaccine for emergency use, a three-dose vaccine with one month each between shots. China has slowly vaccinated its 1.4 billion people, administering 65 million doses. Most went to health workers, those working at the border or customs, and specific industries.
► A year after Italy became the first country to close nationwide, the country introduced another country on Monday as cases and hospitalizations increased.
► Additional Greek life chapters in DePaul, Illinois have since been identified as a weekend at St Patrick’s Day party that violates the city’s COVID-19 guidelines, school newspaper The DePaulia wrote Monday.
►More states allow all adults to be vaccinated. Mississippi joined Alaska on Tuesday to open the flood gates for vaccination. And Connecticut is preparing to open from April 5 for all ages over 16.
►Support is working on a man from San Antonio whose Noodle Tree restaurant was vandalized with racist graffiti days after he spoke out against the Texas government, Greg Abbott, to revoke a mandate of the entire mask.
📈 Today’s numbers: According to Johns Hopkins University data, the U.S. has more than 29.4 million cases of coronavirus and more than 535,600 deaths. The global total: More than 120 million cases and 2.65 million deaths. According to the CDC, more than 135.8 million doses of vaccine have been distributed and nearly 110 million have been administered.
📘 What we read: The White House said vaccine passports should be free, private and secure. But who is going to issue it?
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The pandemic has taken so much over the past year – more than we can comprehend, let alone the composition. It required work and experiences, weddings and graduations, safety and security. It took the ground under our feet. It has taken many people we love. But the pandemic also gave way. It took time, and many people enjoyed it. People have found new hobbies, new perspectives, new connections. Some people found themselves. USA HAS today heard from more than a dozen people who said that even under the horror and loss they were grateful for the unexpected gifts of the pandemic. The smallest joys, they said, had a big impact. Read more here.
– Alia E. Dastagir
St. Patrick’s Day is the day when the green of the last stimulus payments will flow into many savings and checking accounts. Lately, there has been confusion about when people will have access to their cash via direct deposit after seeing a “pending” action regarding third stimulus payments on their bank accounts this weekend. Social media has been buzzing as some consumers complain about why the money is not readily available.
“Banks that hold stimulus payments so they can collect the overnight interest on the money must be a crime,” @goldietaylor wrote on Twitter, editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast. The tweet had 4,875 retweets. NACHA, which oversees direct deposit activities, says protest.
“There is no mystery where the money is from the time the first payment file was sent on Friday, March 12, until when all recipients will have access to the money on Wednesday – it is still with the government,” Nacha said in a statement.
– Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating whether children should sit 6 meters apart in schools. The guidelines for the distance of 6 feet are ‘some of the biggest challenges’ with which schools return to classrooms, said dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said.
A study published last week in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases suggested that if wearing masks, students can sit as far as 3 feet apart without raising it for them or teachers. Illinois and Massachusetts are among the states that already allow 3 feet distance, and others, including Oregon, are considering it.
Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, a national superintendent group, said he expects more states and schools to move to the 3-foot rule in the coming weeks.
“There are districts that have been doing 3 feet long for some time without there being any more infection,” he said.
Sweden joined a growing number of European countries on Tuesday, suspending the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, citing a blood clot link that the company and other experts say is unlikely to be linked to the vaccine. Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Denmark are among countries that have used the vaccine, a collaboration between the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant and the University of Oxford. The World Health Organization has urged countries to continue using the vaccine, saying there is no evidence of a blood clot. The WHO has scheduled a meeting with its security experts for Tuesday to address the issue.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, told Reuters that vaccine data is being reviewed by independent U.S. monitors to determine if the shot is safe and effective. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration could complete its review next month and issue an emergency use authorization if it goes well, he said.
If you have the choice, which COVID-19 vaccine should you choose? For now, experts are clear – the best vaccine is the one that will go into your arm soon. But as the supply of vaccine expands, it is possible that Americans may eventually find someone who asks, “What vaccine do you want?”
The answer for most people will still be “Whatever is available.” Although there are differences that may play a role, although doctors are unanimous, all three vaccines currently approved work very well to protect against serious illness, hospitalization and death. Read here about the difference.
While the COVID-19 vaccination of vaccines continues, the hesitation among vulnerable communities, including Hispanics, is being provoked – and history is being dug up.
According to researchers, including Alexandra Minna Stern, a professor at the University of Michigan, the 20th century in California alone was sterilized. The policy is aimed at patients from state-run asylum or group homes. A disproportionate number were Spanish.
Angelina Zayas, a pastor at the Grace and Peace Community Church that serves the majority Spanish Belmont Cragin enclave in Chicago, says many Puerto Rican women in her community are afraid to take the COVID-19 vaccine, citing memories of the sterilizations and experiments.
“The biggest one is fear,” said Zayas, who is himself Puerto Rican. “It’s something they remember, that affects their judgment of the vaccine. They’re like, ‘Well, how can I trust?’ Read more here.
– Nada Hassanein
The Federal Government should not be involved in verifying that people have been vaccinated against COVID-19, the White House says, but whatever process is developed should be free, private and secure.
As more people are vaccinated, both here and around the world, it will probably become more important to provide proof of vaccination – getting on a plane or a cruise ship, doing some work or even enjoying an evening . Israel already has a ‘green card’ to prove that people have been vaccinated.
While Americans need a way to reliably show that they have been vaccinated, the government should not be the one issuing such certification, says Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House, for COVID-19 response.
“It’s not the government’s role to preserve that data,” Slavitt said.
– Elizabeth Weise and Karen Weintraub
After a “crippling” winter storm that dumped up to 4 feet of snow in the Rocky Mountains – closed roads and canceled flights – the storm stormed into the Middle East, causing thunderstorms in the South. The result? Interference with COVID-19 vaccines, officials said.
Federal officials stopped transporting vaccines to the region as the storm approached, so the vials packed in dry ice would not spoil during the mail delay, Health Department spokeswoman Kim Deti said. The storm also caused many people not to have to come to vaccination rooms, Deti noted.
“We think they will be at least a few days,” Deti said. “No one is completely sure when things will be cleared and reopened.”
Contributing Contributions: The Associated Press