What you need to know about coronavirus on Wednesday 27 January

What you need to know about coronavirus on Wednesday 27 January

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Black and Latino Americans receive the Covid-19 vaccine at significantly lower prices than white people – a difference that health advocates blame for the failure of the U.S. federal government and hospitals to prioritize equitable access.

A CNN analysis of data from 14 states found that vaccine coverage is on average twice as high among whites as among blacks and Latinos.

The figures are even more worrying because Black and Latino Americans are already dying from Covid-19 at three times the rate of whites and four times higher hospitalized, according to the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).

To date, nearly 20 million people – about 6% of the U.S. population – have received at least the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to CDC data. Nearly 3.5 million have been fully vaccinated. The numbers are far from where some officials had hoped the United States would be now.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden announced measures aimed at increasing the allocation and distribution of vaccines, including the purchase of 200 million doses and the distribution to millions of shots from next week to states.

With these extra doses, Biden said that 300 million Americans – almost the entire American population – could be vaccinated by the end of summer or early fall. Biden’s plan includes the introduction of federally supported vaccination centers in high – risk neighborhoods, the establishment of mobile vaccination centers in medically underserved areas, the administration of the vaccine at independent pharmacies and collaboration with community health centers. It will also ensure that high-risk facilities such as prisons and homeless shelters have access to the vaccine.

“We are going to make sure that there are vaccination centers in communities that are hardest hit by the pandemic, also in black and Latino communities and rural communities,” Biden said.

YOU ASKED. WE ANSWER.

Q: I now had my vaccine. Can I throw on the face mask?

A: Please do not do this. CNN medical analyst dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor at George Washington University, explains why: “The vaccine will protect you from getting sick and then end up in the hospital, but it is possible that you can still carry the virus and be contagious to others. Those who receive the vaccine must therefore still wear masks and physically distance themselves. “

Wen said that does not mean we will have to wear masks forever. It is estimated that about 70% of the population needs to be vaccinated before we reach herd immunity. This is the point where enough people have immunity that the virus will no longer spread.

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WHAT IS IMPORTANT TODAY

AstraZeneca pushes back amid ugly row over vaccines

AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot has dismissed criticism from top European officials over delays in delivering vaccines to the bloc. Soriot said in the Italian newspaper la Repubblica yesterday that the medicine manufacturer was unable to give the block an iron-clad commitment to its delivery schedule because the European Union’s vaccination orders had come to other countries.

The EU said AstraZeneca surprisingly announced last week that it would deliver fewer doses than expected to the block. EU officials have responded by threatening to restrict vaccine exports. Italy has warned it could take legal action. The ugly battle over vaccine supplies calls into question the EU’s previous and loud statements on solidarity, cooperation and the need to ensure access to vaccines in developing countries.

The world is watching. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa even accused rich countries of vaccinating vaccines, while Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, called the situation “vaccination apartheid”. And in their annual letter issued today, Bill and Melinda Gates warned against ‘immunity inequality’. They wrote: “From the beginning of the pandemic, we have urged affluent countries to remember that Covid – 19 is a threat everywhere. Until everyone who reaches vaccines, new groups of diseases will continue to emerge.”

Covid-19 killed 100,000 people in the UK. The government still commits it wrong

The UK has the highest number of confirmed deaths in Covid-19 in the world, relative to the population. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly pointed to a new and more contagious variant of the virus, now notorious around the world as the ‘British variant’, as one of the reasons.

But it’s not that simple. As in the first wave, the government is responding slowly to increasing numbers of cases and deaths with restrictions. It failed to operate an adequate contact detection and isolation system. And it once again went slowly with border control, and it only closed ‘travel routes’ with more than 60 countries or territories in mid-January amid the daily death toll. Experts believe that the government has not learned from its mistakes in the past and that it still has a coherent strategy, writes Angela Dewan.

Student suicides spurred a school district to accelerate the return to personal learning

As Covid-19 cases climb across the U.S., school districts face an impossible dilemma to protect students’ mental health by returning to the classroom or keeping their physical health at home. The Clark County School District in Nevada, the fifth largest in the U.S., is speeding up its plan to bring students back after an increase in student suicides. Meanwhile, major districts in Chicago and New Jersey have plans to return to the physical classroom at the drop of a hat, despite opposition from teachers.
A new study from the American CDC says that personal learning is possible – but only with the right precautions. The Biden government has said schools want to reopen, but believes Congress needs to make the necessary investments to return safely to personal learning.

ON OUR RADAR

  • The world has now surpassed 100 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
  • A gorilla named Winston at the San Diego Zoo has received monoclonal antibody therapy after being infected with Covid-19.
  • An operations manager and his wife were charged after flying to a remote Canadian city and posing as local workers to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
  • The World Health Organization team in Wuhan will finally begin its lengthy investigation into coronavirus after the quarantine has been cleared.
  • About 31 London metropolitan officials are being fined for having their hair cut at a police station in East London – while violating Covid-19 regulations – while on duty.
  • These high school students turned their difficult experiences during the pandemic into powerful memories.
  • A Taiwanese man has been fined $ 1 million New Taiwan Dollars ($ 35,000) for repeatedly violating his home quarantine.

BO-WENK

As public demand for a limited amount of Covid-19 vaccines grows, questions remain as to whether older adults with different diseases should be vaccinated. Among them are cancer patients who are actively being treated, dementia patients towards the end of their lives and people with autoimmune conditions. Here are some tips on how older adults with chronic diseases can determine if they should take the Covid-19 vaccine.

TODAY’S PODCAST

“The real problem with this system is that there are enough nurses and trained staff on site to administer the vaccines to as many people as possible on any given day.” – Ted Ross, PhD, Director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunology at the University of Georgia

The deployment of vaccines is a logistical challenge, unlike before. CNN’s chief medical correspondent, dr. Sanjay Gupta, looks at the different vaccine distribution strategies in West Virginia and Georgia, and why one state is doing so much better than the other. Listen now.

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