A family in Michigan spent their Thanksgiving mourning the death of their parents who died of COVID-19 just moments apart.
"It's beautiful, but it's so tragic. Kind of like Romeo and Juliet," said the couple's daughter Joanna Sisk. "One wouldn't have wanted to be without the other."
Leslie and Patricia McWaters, who were married for more than 47 years, were inseparable, the family told WDIV.
Leslie and Patricia became sick with the virus and died just days before Thanksgiving.
"I can tell you this, when they passed we think Mom -- the boss -- she definitely went to his room and said, 'Come on. Let's go,'" Sisk said.
Sisk told WDIV Patricia was a no-nonsense surgical nurse and Leslie, was a fun-loving truck driver. She added that it was hard enough to lose one parent but, "This was the worst."
Monkeys protected against CCHFV, which infects thousands of people annually.
What
An experimental vaccine developed in Europe to prevent infection by Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) has protected cynomolgus macaques in a new collaborative study from National Institutes of Health scientists. The animals received the DNA-based candidate vaccine through intramuscular injection immediately followed by electroporation — a process in development for human vaccines that helps cells absorb DNA. The study, published in Nature Microbiology, comes about three years after the same research group developed the macaque model for CCHFV. No specific treatments or vaccines for CCHFV exist.
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, first described in 1944, is spread primarily by the bite of Hyalomma ticks found in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and parts of Europe. The virus also can be transmitted to people by direct contact with infected fluids or tissue from people or certain livestock species. CCHFV infects up to 15,000 people annually, according to the World Health Organization. About 1 in 8 of those who are infected develop severe disease, which leads to about 500 deaths each year. CCHFV also is considered a possible agent of bioterrorism.
Scientists from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in Hamilton, Montana, tested the candidate vaccine on six cynomolgus macaques, each of which received three inoculations, followed by electroporation, at three-week intervals. No animals experienced significant adverse reactions upon vaccination. Through regular blood tests, the researchers confirmed that the candidate vaccine generated protective antibodies against the virus. They then infected the vaccinated animals with CCHFV and monitored them for clinical signs for six days, after which they looked for virus in their organs. Six control animals infected with CCHFV but not given the experimental vaccine showed signs of disease throughout the study. The vaccinated animals did not. Their blood tests remained largely unchanged with no indication of progressive virus infection and no virus shedding. Virus was nearly undetectable in their liver, kidneys, lungs and adrenal glands, all targets of CCHFV.
Collaborators at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden developed the candidate vaccine with colleagues from the Public Health Agency of Sweden, the National Veterinary Institute of Sweden, the Justus Liebig University in Germany and NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana. The candidate vaccine uses two proteins from CCHFV to generate protection.
The researchers next plan to study if the vaccine candidate is effective with fewer than three doses and whether it offers long-term protection. They also plan to continue evaluating the use of electroporation to make vaccination more effective.
Articles
D Hawman et al. A DNA-based vaccine confers significant protection from CCHFV infection in Cynomolgus macaques. Nature Microbiology DOI: 10.1038/s41564-020-00815-6 (2020).
E Haddock et al. A cynomolgus macaque model for Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever. Nature Microbiology DOI: 10.1038/s41564-018-0141-7 (2018).
Who
Heinz Feldmann, M.D., Ph.D., chief of NIAID’s Laboratory of Virology, and David Hawman, Ph.D., Laboratory of Virology, are available to comment on these studies.
Contact
To schedule interviews, please contact Ken Pekoc, (301) 402-1663, kpekoc@niaid.nih.gov.
NIAID conducts and supports research — at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide — to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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HOUSTON, Texas -- A photo of a Houston doctor has gone viral after it showed him hugging and comforting a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit on Thanksgiving.
The photo of Dr. Joseph Varon and the patient was taken in the ICU at United Memorial Medical Center.
Health officials and city leaders have repeatedly urged now that we're in the holiday season, people should stay away from crowded spaces, wear masks and wash their hands. They also fear things will get worse.
"I truly believe that the next six to 12 weeks are going to be the darkest weeks in modern American medical history," Varon said.
Texas set a new record high for cases the day before Thanksgiving.
Varon says the holiday was his 252nd workday in a row.
"I have nurses who, in the middle of the day, are crying because, you know, they keep on getting patients, and there are just not enough nurses that can help us," Varon described.
With more than half the United States recording record-high daily hospitalizations this past week, significant restrictions are on the way.
A three week, stay-at-home order starts Monday in Los Angeles. Restaurants there are already limited to takeout and delivery only.
While vaccine breakthroughs are showing hope on the horizon, extensive work is underway to prepare the supply chain.
For example, Pfizer's vaccine needs to be stored at extremely cold temperatures, around 94 degrees below zero. That means niche freezer companies like Stirling Ultracold have to substantially step up their output to match the demand.
"The two-dose scenario, 14 billion vaccines globally, that in itself starts to add up," said Stirling Ultracold CEO Dusty Tenney.
But more big vaccine news could come this week.
A panel of U.S. advisers will meet Tuesday to vote on how initial supplies of a COVID-19 vaccine will be given out once one has been approved.
White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, pictured in September, made numerous political blunders during his brief tenure, including a lengthy interview with Russian state media that ran just days before the U.S. presidential election. Evan Vucci/AP
Evan Vucci/AP
A controversial coronavirus advisor to the president, Dr. Scott Atlas, resigned Monday, a White House official told NPR.
Atlas, who is not an infectious disease expert and whose brief stint was marred by blunders and controversy, was tapped by the Trump administration to serve as Special Advisor to the President of the United States, in August. Since then, "the MRI guy" has repeatedly been at odds with the nation's leading health officials regarding his views on how to combat the spread of the virus, including members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
But throughout his tenure, he has insisted all of the guidance he's offered was based on scientific research.
"I worked hard with a singular focus—to save lives and help Americans through this pandemic," Atlas wrote in a resignation letter posted to Twitter.
He added that he "always relied on the latest science and evidence, without any political consideration or influence."
"As time went on, like all scientists and health policy scholars, I learned new information and synthesized the latest data from around the world, all in an effort to provide you with the best information to serve the greater public good," Atlas wrote.
Fox News reported that Atlas' role was set to expire at the end of the week.
Trump was attracted to Atlas' views, which put the economy first, but public health experts were appalled by his lack of scientific rigor.
Among the theories that most worried experts is Atlas' belief that allowing the coronavirus to spread would eventually result in "herd immunity," describing it as a "basic principle" of biology and immunology.
"In April on the conservative Steve Deace Show, Atlas spoke in favor of allowing the virus to pass through the younger segments of the population, while trying to protect older Americans.
" 'We can allow a lot of people to get infected,' he said. 'Those who are not at risk to die or have a serious hospital-requiring illness, we should be fine with letting them get infected, generating immunity on their own, and the more immunity in the community, the better we can eradicate the threat of the virus.' "
Atlas' field of expertise is in magnetic resonance imaging. He wrote a book on the subject and co-authored numerous scientific studies on the economics of medical imaging technology. He was also a professor and chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center from 1998 to 2012, according to a university biography.
"He's an MRI guy ... He has no expertise in any of this stuff," Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health told NPR, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed nearly 267,000 people in the U.S.
"He's been bringing out arguments that have been refuted week after week, month after month, since the beginning of this outbreak," Jha added.
Atlas also made numerous political blunders during his brief stint, including a lengthy interview with Russian state media that ran just days before the U.S. presidential election.
He later apologized for the misstep saying he "was unaware they are a registered foreign agent."
"I regret doing the interview and apologize for allowing myself to be taken advantage of," Atlas said in a tweet. "I especially apologize to the national security community who is working hard to defend us."
And earlier this month, Stanford University appeared to distance itself from Atlas following his remarks that residents of Michigan should "rise up" against the state's new coronavirus restrictions.
Atlas took a leave of absence from his position as a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative-leaning think tank based at the university, to serve as an advisor to the president.
As recently as late October, Atlas was believed to be among Trump and the Vice President Mike Pence's closest advisors on the pandemic, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told NPR.
Atlas has been highly critical of the lockdowns enforced by various state and municipal leaders — a strategy he continued to oppose in his farewell letter.
Since Atlas began his job in August, nearly one hundred thousand people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S.
Atlas did have encouraging words for the incoming Biden Administration.
"I sincerely wish the new team all the best as they guide the nation through these trying, polarized times," Atlas wrote. "With the emerging treatments and vaccines, I remain highly optimistic that America will thrive once again and overcome the adversity of the pandemic and all that it has entailed."
Hospitals across West Virginia will reduce elective surgeries to ensure there is enough space to accommodate coronavirus patients as the number of cases continues to surge, Gov. Jim Justice said Monday.
Hospitals will be able to maintain their available bed capacities “at this moment,” Justice said at a news conference. “But the worst days are ahead of us.”
Download our free NBC Washington app for iOS or Android to get the latest local news and weather.
The number of people hospitalized with the virus in West Virginia jumped 29% in the past week. There were a record 597 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Sunday, including 162 in intensive care units, according to state health data. That's up from 463 people hospitalized on Nov. 22.
And it's more than doubled since a month ago, when there were 240 virus-related hospitalizations in West Virginia.
Dr. Clay Marsh, the state's coronavirus expert, said each hospital system in the state has been asked to look at delaying non-urgent surgeries over about the next 45 days, particularly those that require an in-patient stay.
“We still have capacity to take care of people with COVID in our state," Marsh said. However, he added, "We don’t have as many immediately available ICU beds as we may normally see after a Thanksgiving holiday."
The governor also temporarily halted elective surgeries last spring.
While the state has focused on mask wearing and increased testing for the virus, Justice said he is mulling over whether to impose additional restrictions in counties with the highest virus infection rates.
The number of active virus cases statewide has jumped 62% in the past two weeks to 16,788. Monday's daily rate of positive cases was 7.07%, the highest since April 18.
The state has reported at least 735 virus-related deaths, including six on Monday.
The virus usually results in only mild to moderate symptoms, but is particularly dangerous for the elderly and people with other health problems.
___
Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://ift.tt/2ueWXx8 and https://ift.tt/2wrCaXK.
It almost sounds as if people will be lining up everywhere before New Year's to get a vaccine.
But while millions of health care workers may be able to get immunized against the virus before the end of the year, the rest of the population is going to have to wait for months.
Healthy adults under the age of 65 and children may well have to wait until late spring or even the summer, depending on how many vaccines get approved, how quickly they can be manufactured and distributed, and how the debate goes over allocation.
Here's a look at what to expect from the coming coronavirus vaccination campaign.
Who can get a vaccine and when?
Who might get vaccinated: Health care workers and nursing home residents
December is a month for some big decisions. On Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices meets to vote on who should be the very first to get vaccinated. That will almost certainly be 21 million frontline health care workers, support staff and 3 million residents of long-term care facilities who have been hardest hit by the pandemic.
It will be easiest to vaccinate these groups -- they're already in institutional settings and the nursing home residents can get vaccinated at the same time their caregivers are being immunized.
This decision is being made even before the US Food and Drug Administration has authorized a vaccine. The FDA has scheduled a meeting of its vaccine advisers -- the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee -- for December 10 to consider emergency use authorization for Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine, and another meeting on December 17 to discuss Moderna's vaccine.
The FDA has promised to consider the committee's advice before deciding on any vaccine. The committee is made up of outside experts who do not have a stake in any of the companies making coronavirus vaccines and who are independent of the federal government.
FDA officials say their decisions on the vaccines could come days to weeks after the meetings -- it depends on what questions come up.
But in the fastest scenario, the FDA could give emergency use authorization (EUA) as soon as next week for Pfizer's vaccine, and the federal government's Operation Warp Speed has promised to start delivering vaccines within 24 hours after that.
Potentially, the same thing could happen the following week with Moderna's vaccine.
Pfizer and Moderna started making vaccine even while they were still testing it and between them plan to have 40 million doses for the US market by the end of December. Each vaccine needs two doses, given three to four weeks apart, so in theory, while 40 million doses could only fully vaccinate 20 million people, it could get 40 million people started.
Who might get vaccinated: More health care workers, other essential workers like emergency medical technicians, firefighters and police
If two or more vaccines get approved by the FDA, January might be when discussion really starts on who can get vaccinated and when.
Dr. Larry Corey of the University of Washington, who is heading up coronavirus vaccine clinical trials in the US, has said if both Pfizer and Modern get vaccines authorized, they could supply 50 million more doses in January and 60 million more in February and March.
That adds up to 150 million doses -- enough to fully vaccinate 75 million people.
But there are way more people than that just in the groups tagged as priority groups in the US. The CDC estimates there are 21 million health care personnel, 3 million long-term care residents, 87 million essential workers, 100 million adults with high risk medical conditions and 53 million others 65 and older. That adds up to 264 million people.
They've all laid out basic principles that include protecting the country's health care system, protecting the most vulnerable people, controlling the spread of the virus and being equitable across society.
ACIP will need to meet to decide on the details off all these phases.
Phase 1b is roughed out to include people of all ages with underlying conditions such as diabetes and kidney disease who are at significantly higher risk of dying or getting severely ill from Covid-19. This phase may also include older adults living in congregate settings or crowded conditions.
Who might get vaccinated: More essential workers and high-risk adults
By February, states may have hit their stride on vaccinating residents. Vaccination campaigns may move beyond hospitals and nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and other such facilities to pharmacies and medical practices.
More vaccines may be authorized or at least ready for authorization by January or February. It's clear that Moderna and Pfizer alone cannot cover the US population. AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax all have vaccines in Phase 3 trials, the last stage before seeking authorization or approval.
AstraZeneca is likely to seek US approval by January. Johnson & Johnson has said it will have efficacy data by January or February. Novavax is a little farther behind, but all of these companies will also be producing vaccines while testing goes on and might be adding to the count.
It's possible that the US will still be in Phase 1 of vaccination in March, simply because of the sheer numbers involved. That would include essential workers and people at high risk because of health conditions, so anyone healthy and under 65 who is not an essential or high-risk worker would not be thinking about vaccination yet.
If more vaccines have been approved and brought online, it's possible Phase 2 of vaccination could begin by now.
This group has not been decided yet, but Phase 2 might include K-12 teachers and staff and other child care workers, as well as other critical workers such as retail workers and transportation workers. This group could also include people in homeless shelters and all people over 65 who were not already included in phase 1.
April is the beginning of the second quarter of the year and CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told the Senate in August he did not think the general public would be able to get vaccinated until the "late second quarter, third quarter 2021."
Young adults and children would have to wait until Phase 3 and that's likely to be May at the soonest -- perhaps June or later, depending on what ACIP decides, what the vaccine supply looks like and how smoothly distribution is going.
How much will it cost me?
The federal government has promised that any coronavirus vaccine will be provided free of charge to the American public. That would be very unlikely to change under a Biden administration. The federal government has paid $7.76 billion upfront to four companies alone for their vaccines; Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Novavax, and tens of millions more upfront or in options to three other companies to guarantee they can develop coronavirus vaccines.
Where will I get it?
Hospital and health care workers will get the vaccine at their workplaces. They're already set up to deliver vaccines. So will nursing home and long-term care facility residents and, when the time comes, residents of other congregate facilities such as assisted living and senior living homes. Pharmacy chains and big-box stores are also gearing up to deliver vaccines -- think any place people normally get flu shots, including grocery store pharmacies and, of course, physician offices. School clinics may also be considered, especially in states where community clinics have been installed in schools.
Can it make me sick?
People who have tested out the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have reported they can sometimes have a kick -- causing soreness at the injection site and maybe a feeling of general malaise for a day or so. Vaccine experts say that's a sign the vaccine is working, causing the immune system to rev up and generate a response.
There's not much information about the other vaccines but AstraZeneca, after two scares, says it has recorded no serious side-effects among its volunteers. The FDA and companies will have extensive systems for reporting side-effects.
But none of the vaccines being tested for the US market uses even a piece of the real coronavirus, so there is no way they could give you a coronavirus infection.
Which vaccine should I get?
At first there will be little choice -- both Pfizer and Moderna are providing a new type of immunization called an mRNA vaccine. It's considered especially safe because it does not use a whole virus -- just a piece of genetic material -- and both seem especially effective, providing 95% protection against symptomatic disease.
What's not known is how long that protection might last, whether either vaccine protects against asymptomatic disease and whether either stops people from spreading the virus to others.
Vaccines coming later might offer harder choices. AstraZeneca's vaccine uses what's called a replication deficient virus to deliver a piece of genetic material from the coronavirus. So does Johnson & Johnson's vaccine. There's not a lot of safety data about these vaccines yet, but some doctors may be reluctant to offer them to patients with compromised immune systems, including those with rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis who are taking immune-suppressing drugs; pregnant women; people taking certain cancer treatments and others.
What hiccups might get in the way?
All these plans assume the states, which are in charge of distributing vaccines, get some money to do it. So far, Congress has not allocated any money for vaccine distribution. Last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, estimated the states need $30 billion to get vaccine distribution plans into place.
And a US Government Accountability Office report issued earlier this month found bottlenecks in the vaccine manufacturing process -- not necessarily for the vaccines themselves, but for the vials and the other equipment needed to get vaccines into arms. US vaccine manufacturing has languished in recent decades, plus the pandemic itself has hurt the industry, the GAO found.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
Credit...Nathan Howard/Getty Images
1. The holiday shopping season started with a bang. But only online.
Consumers spent $9 billion on the web on Friday, a 21.6 percent increase over Black Friday in 2019. The surge in online sales is expected to be outdone today during Cyber Monday, a promotional event that internet retailers concocted in 2005.
Physical stores, however, appear to have had more of a “bleak Friday.” A large portion of consumer spending had moved online long before the pandemic, but the global health crisis is accelerating that trend.
The holiday shopping season comes at a critical moment for the U.S. economy, which is struggling again as the number of coronavirus cases is soaring amid colder weather.
2. Medical experts say the coming months “are going to be just horrible.”
Some say the coronavirus death toll by March may be close to twice the 250,000 figure that the U.S. surpassed only last week. Our epidemiology reporter, Donald McNeil, warns that even as vaccines advance and the medical response to the virus improves, the politics of public health remain a deeply vexing challenge.
On the bright side, the drugmaker Moderna said today it would apply to the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. The first injections can be given as early as Dec. 21 if the process goes smoothly and approval is granted.
There are also two federal lawsuits pending in Michigan and Georgia courts. And Republicans have at least one path to the nation’s highest court: After the Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected their attempts to stop or reverse the certification of Pennsylvania’s results, President Trump’s lawyers vowed to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider the case.
4. U.S. markets ended November with large gains.
Even with a small decline today, the S&P 500 jumped by 10.8 percent in November, its best monthly showing since April and the fourth-best month for the index in 30 years. The Dow Jones industrial average posted its biggest monthly gain since 1987.
Bitcoin, too, achieved a record. The price of the cryptocurrency hit $19,850.11, nearly three years after its last high. Bitcoin has soared since March, after sinking below $4,000 at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.
But in one of the biggest retail collapses in Britain since the start of the pandemic, Arcadia Group, the company that includes the Topshop clothing chain, has gone into administration, a form of bankruptcy.
Credit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times
5. Who counts when it comes to redrawing congressional districts?
A ruling for the Trump administration would upend the agreement that the Census Bureau must count all residents, whatever their immigration status, which has governed the count for more than two centuries.
The decision could shift political power from Democratic states and districts to areas that are older, whiter and typically more Republican.
6. An army of angry farmers is encircling New Delhi.
The tens of thousands of protesters, many of whom traveled hundreds of miles in tractors and trailers, are upset about recent agricultural policies imposed in India, where more than 60 percent of the population depends on agriculture to make a living.
They are digging in, resupplying themselves with food, fuel, firewood and medical supplies to stay put for weeks. Above, farmers at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border in Ghazipur today.
Many of the farmers say the new rules, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government pushed through Parliament in September, are the beginning of the end of a decades-old system that had guaranteed minimum prices for certain crops.
Credit...Nicole Craine for The New York Times
7. A runoff for a House seat with stakes that could not be much lower.
Kwanza Hall and Robert Franklin, both Democrats, are competing in a vote tomorrow for a House term that ends at noon on Jan. 3. That means the winner will not even spend a full month in Congress, and will have no chance for an extension.
Still, the candidates say their bids are anything but inconsequential. The victor will serve what would have been the final days of John Lewis’s 17th term representing Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District. Mr. Lewis, the pioneering civil rights leader, died in July.
Credit...The Yomiuri Shimbun, via Associated Press
8. The crown prince of Japan just approved his daughter’s marriage to a commoner. But there’s a hitch.
Princess Mako, above right, the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Akishino, and Kei Komuro, above left, an aspiring lawyer, have been engaged since 2017 and had been counting on marrying this year.
But in remarks released today, the crown prince said that while he respected their union, there appeared to be opposition from the Japanese public, making it difficult to proceed with an official ceremony. He suggested that Mr. Komuro had not overcome concerns about his mother’s financial affairs.
The couple have not said when they plan to reschedule the wedding.
Credit...Photograph by Collier Schorr. Styled by Mel Ottenberg
9. Three of America’s most beloved divas. Plus Paul.
Patti LaBelle, Dolly Parton and Barbra Streisand, above, now in their 70s, entered show business in the early 1960s, fighting with men for creative control and respect.
In interviews, T Magazine’s holiday issue celebrates their grit and good grace as well as their musical catalogs. As a bonus, we offer their favorite on-screen performances.
“At no point did I think: I’m making an album. I’d better be serious,” he tells us. “This was more like: You’re locked down. You can do whatever the hell you want.”
Credit...Adam Friedlander for The New York Times
10. And finally, cocktail mixes with taste.
The pandemic, and the make-do-at-home culture it has fostered, is getting thirsty consumers to reconsider mixers, which often evoke industrially manufactured drinks filled with artificial flavors and preservatives.
Now, options using freshly squeezed juice, handmade syrups and other natural ingredients are being offered by several companies.
“We know people want to drink great cocktails,” the founder of one modern mixer company said. “We also know that not a whole lot of people know how to make them well.”
Have a cordial evening.
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.
HOUSTON, Texas -- A photo of a Houston doctor has gone viral after it showed him hugging and comforting a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit on Thanksgiving.
The photo of Dr. Joseph Varon and the patient was taken in the ICU at United Memorial Medical Center.
Health officials and city leaders have repeatedly urged now that we're in the holiday season, people should stay away from crowded spaces, wear masks and wash their hands. They also fear things will get worse.
"I truly believe that the next six to 12 weeks are going to be the darkest weeks in modern American medical history," Varon said.
Texas set a new record high for cases the day before Thanksgiving.
Varon says the holiday was his 252nd workday in a row.
"I have nurses who, in the middle of the day, are crying because, you know, they keep on getting patients, and there are just not enough nurses that can help us," Varon described.
With more than half the United States recording record-high daily hospitalizations this past week, significant restrictions are on the way.
A three week, stay-at-home order starts Monday in Los Angeles. Restaurants there are already limited to takeout and delivery only.
While vaccine breakthroughs are showing hope on the horizon, extensive work is underway to prepare the supply chain.
For example, Pfizer's vaccine needs to be stored at extremely cold temperatures, around 94 degrees below zero. That means niche freezer companies like Stirling Ultracold have to substantially step up their output to match the demand.
"The two-dose scenario, 14 billion vaccines globally, that in itself starts to add up," said Stirling Ultracold CEO Dusty Tenney.
But more big vaccine news could come this week.
A panel of U.S. advisers will meet Tuesday to vote on how initial supplies of a COVID-19 vaccine will be given out once one has been approved.
EXCLUSIVE: Dr. Scott Atlas, President Trump’s special adviser on the coronavirus pandemic, formally resigned from his post on Monday, Fox News has learned.
Atlas, who spoke with the president on Monday, joined the administration in August, and was considered a Special Government Employee (SGE), serving a 130-day detail. Atlas’ role is set to expire this week.
Fox News exclusively obtained Atlas’s resignation letter Monday, which was dated Dec. 1. In it, Atlas touted the Trump administration's work on the coronavirus pandemic, while wishing "all the best" to the incoming Biden administration.
“I am writing to resign from my position as Special Advisor to the President of the United States,” Atlas said, thanking him for “the honor and privilege to serve on behalf of the American people.”
“I worked hard with a singular focus—to save lives and help Americans through this pandemic,” Atlas wrote, adding that he “always relied on the latest science and evidence, without any political consideration or influence.”
“As time went on, like all scientists and health policy scholars, I learned new information and synthesized the latest data from around the world, all in an effort to provide you with the best information to serve the greater public good,” Atlas wrote. “But, perhaps more than anything, my advice was always focused on minimizing all the harms from both the pandemic and the structural policies themselves, especially to the working class and the poor.”
Atlas, who had been criticized throughout his tenure for calling for a reopening, and saying that lockdowns are “extremely harmful” to Americans, said that “although some may disagree with those recommendations, it is the free exchange of ideas that lead to scientific truths, which are the very foundation of a civilized society.”
“Indeed, I cannot think of a time where safeguarding science and the scientific debate is more urgent,” Atlas said.
Atlas went on to tout his work at the White House, and his work with “several selfless colleagues in designing specific policies to heighten protection of the vulnerable while safely reopening schools and society.”
Atlas pointed to their efforts in increasing and prioritizing “extra personal protective equipment and tens of millions of extra tests to nursing and assisted living facilities,” as well as implementing “more frequent monitoring updates using clinical guidelines to intensify testing,” and instituting outreach to independent seniors in communities.
“We also successfully designed rational guidelines for safely opening schools, a strategic use of the newly developed testing program, and a national stockpile of drugs for future crises,” Atlas wrote.
Shifting to lockdowns he has warned against throughout his tenure, Atlas said they “identified and illuminated early on the harms of prolonged lockdowns, including that they create massive physical health losses and psychological distress, destroy families and damage our children.”
“And more and more, the relatively low risk to children of serious harms from the infection, the less frequent spread from children, the presence of immunologic protection beyond that shown by antibody testing, and the severe harms from closing schools and society are all being acknowledged,” Atlas added.
Atlas also touted Operation Warp Speed, and the team that “delivered on our promised timelines for new drugs and vaccines.”
“I congratulate you for your vision, and also congratulate the many who did the exemplory work—we know who they are, even though their names are not those familiar to the public,” Atlas wrote.
Atlas went on to wish the best to the incoming Biden Administration.
“I sincerely wish the new team all the best as they guide the nation through these trying, polarized times,” Atlas wrote. “With the emerging treatments and vaccines, I remain highly optimistic that America will thrive once again and overcome the adversity of the pandemic and all that it has entailed.”
Atlas, during his tenure, sparred with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Over the summer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield reportedly criticized Atlas, claiming that “everything he says is false.”
Atlas defended his record and his expertise, and maintained that all of his advice to the president was based on the “current science.”
“I was asked to be an adviser on the coronavirus pandemic to the president of the United States and I was asked to do that because I have a 25-year career at top, elite medical centers, as a doctor and in patient care,” Atlas told Fox News this summer. “I also have a 15-year career in public policy, working on health care policy and integrating my medical knowledge in policy.”
Atlas added that before his arrival to the White House this summer, “that expertise had not been present.”
“I am here because I understand how to translate complex medical science into plain English for the president of the United States and for everyone else in the White House, and derive appropriate public policy from that information,” Atlas said at the time, adding that there is a “false belief” that one “has to be a public health official to understand the facts about the pandemic.”
“The way I advise the president is perfectly consistent with the most appropriate strategy for dealing with this pandemic,” he said. “One, target diligent protection of the high risk and vulnerable populations, and two, open up schools and society.”
Meanwhile, as for a coronavirus vaccine, the Trump administration said deliveries of the vaccine will begin as early as this week, and would be available first for front-line workers, medical personnel and senior citizens.
The president, on Thanksgiving, argued that his opponent, President-elect Joe Biden, should not be given credit for the vaccines, which he referred to as a "medical miracle" before repeating claims of voting irregularities in the 2020 election.
"Joe Biden failed with the swine flu, H1N1, totally failed with the swine flu," Trump said. "Don't let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me and I pushed people harder than they've ever been pushed before and we got that approved and through and nobody's ever seen anything like it."
According to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the vaccines will be “shipped” within 24 hours of FDA approval and then it would be up to “nursing homes, hospitals, and pharmacies to get that dispensed.”
“It really could be within days of FDA approval we’ll start seeing vaccines in people’s arms which is frankly incredible,” Azar said Monday.
The United States has reported more than 13.5 million cases of COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, and more than 267,000 deaths.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a Monday press conference the state is considering a new stay-at-home order in purple-tier counties if cases continue to surge.
The state is experiencing the highest rate of increase in COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, and in one to two weeks, new cases resulting from Thanksgiving gatherings are expected to pop up and accelerate the surge.
"If these trends continue, we're going to have to take much more dramatic, arguably drastic action," Newsom said.
With 51 of the state's 58 counties in the most restrictive tier, 99% of the population could fall under a lockdown. The governor didn't outline the details of the potential new order, but when the state issued one in March it required people to stay indoors except for essential services and exercise.
In the Bay Area, all counties are in the purple tier except Marin, which is still in the red tier.
In the sobering update, Newsom provided a rundown on the latest metrics used to gauge the severity of the pandemic. The seven-day average in new daily cases was 14,657 on Monday, compared to 9,881 at the height of the July summer surge.
The state is implementing a record number of tests — an average of more than 200,000 a day — and as testing increases, he said the positivity rate (the percentage of people who test positive for the virus of all of individuals who are tested) becomes a key metric and shows the increased cases aren't explained by increased testing.
The state's rate was 6.2% on Monday, and was 4.7% as recently as Nov. 16.
Hospitalizations are of particular concern and have increased 89% across the past 14 days.
"Current projects show hospitalizations could increase two to three times the current amount in one month," said Newsom, referring to the expected uptick after Thanksgiving.
As of Monday, 59% of California health care system beds were occupied, and by Dec. 24, that number is expected to rise to 78%. In the Bay Area, 58% of beds are in use, and by Dec. 24, projects show an increase to 78%.
To prepare for the expected flood of patients, Newsom said the state will begin to make 11 surge facilities throughout the state "fully operational." The facilities can provide an additional 1,862 beds.
On a more positive note, the governor said the state is doing "better than the overwhelming majority of other states." He shared a slide showing that the Golden State ranks 39th in seven-day average case rate per 100,000 in the country. California is recording 34.5 new daily cases per 100,000 compared to North Dakota, with the highest rate, with 112.3 cases per 100,000.
A Covid-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles. California is one of several states that had appeared to have gained control of the virus, only to see it spread rapidly throughout the fall.Credit...Jae C. Hong/Associated Press
California’s intensive care units could be overloaded by the middle of December, and its hospitals could be dangerously close to full by Christmas, according to sobering projections that Gov. Gavin Newsom presented on Monday.
And the strain could be even worse in the hardest-hit areas, like the San Joaquin Valley, which was projected to reach 83 percent of its hospital capacity by Dec. 24.
“If these trends continue, California will need to take drastic action,” Mr. Newsom said during a virtual briefing, adding that more severe restrictions, including full stay-at-home orders, could come within the next few days.
California is one of several states that had appeared to have gained control of the virus, only to see it spread rapidly throughout the fall. On Sunday it became the first state to record over 100,000 cases in just a week, according to a New York Times database.
A University of Arizona Covid-19 modeling team recently urged the state of Arizona to take action to stem hospitalizations or else “risk a catastrophe on a scale of the worst natural disaster the state has ever experienced.”
Already, 99 percent of California’s residents are under a curfew that bans them from leaving their homes to gather or to go to nonessential businesses after 10 p.m. Los Angeles County health leaders have gone even further, announcing a ban on all gatherings in public or at private homes that goes into effect on Monday.
Officials had spent the weekend talking with local leaders and health care providers about their concerns, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s secretary of health and human services, who also spoke during the Monday briefing.
“Everything is on the table, in terms of how we guide the state through this,” he said. “And we want to make sure what we do is impactful and as time-limited as possible.”
But unlike early in the pandemic, when just a few coastal states bore the brunt, the governor noted that the tidal wave of cases slamming the entire country has limited the likelihood of aid from the federal government or other states.
The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States for November surpassed four million on Saturday, more than double the record set in October of 1.9 million cases. And the sharp escalation is likely to continue after Americans traveled by the millions for the long Thanksgiving weekend.
By contrast, after three weeks of lockdown in England, the number of new cases has fallen 30 percent, according to new data. And after strict measures throughout Europe, a drop in new cases there helped drive down newly reported cases globally for the first time since September, according to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization.
Mr. Newsom emphasized that California will be able to build on work that the state began earlier this year, including a registry of retired or otherwise nonpracticing health care workers who would be willing to return to work. Eleven surge health care facilities could be prepared quickly to receive patients.
“We don’t anticipate this,” the governor said, referring to the alarming hospitalization figures. “I want folks to know we intend to bend this proverbial curve.”
The Moderna headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.Credit...Cody O'Loughlin for The New York Times
As the drugmaker Moderna said it applied to the Food and Drug Administration on Monday to authorize its coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, the health secretary Alex M. Azar II reiterated that distribution would begin quickly after the expected approvals of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines vaccine.
“We could be seeing both of these vaccines out and getting into people’s arms before Christmas,” he said on “CBS This Morning” on Monday.
If its vaccine is approved, Moderna said that injections for Americans could begin as early as Dec. 21. The company also announced highly encouraging results, saying that complete data from a large study show its coronavirus vaccine to be 94.1 percent effective, a finding that confirms earlier estimates.
Stéphane Bancel, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview that it was “on track” to produce 20 million doses by the end of December, and from 500 million to a billion in 2021. Each person requires two doses, administered a month apart, so 20 million doses will be enough for 10 million people.
Asked about the role of states in the distribution process, Mr. Azar said that doses would be shipped out through normal vaccine distribution systems, and governors would be “like air traffic controllers” determining which hospitals or pharmacies receive shipments. While governors will determine which groups are prioritized, he said he hoped that they would follow the federal recommendations.
The first shots of the two vaccines are likely to go to certain groups, including health care workers; essential workers like police officers; people in other critical industries; and employees and residents in nursing homes. More than 100,000 Covid deaths have occurred in U.S. nursing homes and other long-term care centers.
Mr. Azar said that C.D.C. experts will base their recommendations on the latest data on virus cases around the country.
But generally, “Be thinking people in nursing homes, the most vulnerable, be thinking health care workers who are on the front lines,” he said.
Even though some of the largest outbreaks have occurred in the nation’s prisons, the C.D.C. advisory committee has prioritized correctional officers and others who work in jails and prisons — but not inmates.
Now several groups, including the American Medical Association, are calling for coronavirus vaccines to be given to inmates and employees at prisons, jails and detention centers, citing the unique risks to people in confinement — and the potential for outbreaks to spread from correctional centers, straining community hospitals.
In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday that 26,000 residents and employees of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities would be the first in his state to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, along with 12,000 of the state’s more than 200,000 health care workers.
Moderna is the second vaccine maker to apply for emergency use authorization; Pfizer submitted its application on Nov. 20. Pfizer has said it can produce up to 50 million doses this year, with about half going to the United States. Its vaccine also requires two doses per person.
The hopeful news arrives at a particularly grim moment in the U.S. health crisis. Coronavirus cases have surged and overwhelmed hospitals in some regions, and health officials have warned that the numbers may grow even worse in the coming weeks because of travel and gatherings for Thanksgiving.
The new data from Moderna show that its study of 30,000 people has met the scientific criteria needed to determine whether the vaccine works. The findings from the full set of data match an analysis of interim data released on Nov. 16 that found the vaccine to be 94.5 percent effective. It also showed that the vaccine was 100 percent effective at preventing severe disease from the coronavirus.
More than 70 vaccines are being developed around the world, including 11 that, like Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines, are in large-scale trials to gauge effectiveness.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced on Monday a series of emergency measures to combat rising hospitalizations and coronavirus case numbers.CreditCredit...Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, via Associated Press
As he warned that New York State had entered a new phase in fighting the spread of coronavirus, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Monday a new series of emergency measures to combat rising hospitalizations and case numbers statewide.
Among other steps, Mr. Cuomo urged hospitals to form plans in case of staff shortages, develop emergency field protocols and prepare to add 50 percent of bed capacity. In Erie County in Western New York, all elective surgeries will be stopped on Friday and similar protocols could be enacted in other areas of the state.
“It’s a new phase in the war against Covid,” Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference in Manhattan. “It’s a war in terms of preparation and mobilization.”
Mr. Cuomo said that the strength of the virus’s second wave has forced the state to rely less on test positivity rates as the determinant for restrictions, and focus more on hospital capacity. On Monday, the governor announced that hospitalizations topped 3,500 over the weekend, a level not seen since May. The governor also raised the possibility that a “critical hospitalization situation” could trigger a regional return of the most stringent measures enacted in the spring, which led to the closure of all nonessential businesses statewide.
“We are not going to live through the nightmare of overwhelmed hospitals again,” he said. “If a hospital does get overwhelmed, there will be a state investigation.”
Mr. Cuomo has warned that the holidays and indoor social gatherings during the winter season could trigger a further resurgence of the virus, a concern shared in neighboring New Jersey. Gov. Philip D. Murphy said Monday that the state will limit all outdoor gatherings to 25 people in an attempt to stem an ongoing surge of cases — and an expected spike after the Thanksgiving holiday.
The new limit on outdoor gatherings, which takes effect on Dec. 7, will sharply reduce the permitted number of people from 150. Religious and political gatherings will be exempt, as will funerals, memorial services and wedding ceremonies, Mr. Murphy said at a news conference.
New Jersey will also suspend all indoor youth and adult sports, including practices and competitions, starting Saturday and extending through Jan. 2. College and professional sports will be exempt from the ban, which Mr. Murphy said he hoped would only be temporary.
Despite rising rates of positive test results, Mr. Cuomo has resisted implementing the kind of widespread shutdowns seen in March, when hundreds of New Yorkers began to die every week, and much of New York’s economic activity ground to a complete halt.
Rather, Mr. Cuomo’s strategy has been to utilize targeted restrictions on individual areas — known as his “micro-cluster initiative” — which has now expanded to nearly 30 locations around the state, including in all five boroughs of New York City, its suburban counties, and major upstate population centers.
On Monday, he said new statistics — including hospitalization rates, death rates and available hospital beds — would be used to determine lockdown levels under the state’s color-coded restriction system. The state will evaluate how virus metrics change following Thanksgiving — the effects of which could be delayed because the incubation period for the virus is up to 14 days — before deciding how those restrictions would be determined, he added.
Hospital networks across the state should also better prepare for a surge in patients than they did in the spring, and plan to spread out patients between individual sites, Mr. Cuomo said. The hope is to avoid an overwhelming number of patients at any one site, as happened in the spring at hospitals at the center of the pandemic in New York City. “That has always been my nightmare,” he said, referring to Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, where beds were filled in March and refrigerated trucks sat outside to hold the dead.
As virus cases continue to rise across the county, hospitals have also begun to face crisis-level shortages of staff in addition to beds. Mr. Cuomo said on Monday that he was “very worried” about those potential issues in New York, urging hospitals to identify retired nurses and doctors in case of a need. “We can build beds, we can’t create more staff,” he said.
He added that further increasing and better distributing testing across the state, as well as establishing ongoing testing in schools with a focus on elementary school, middle school and special education students at all levels were also top priorities.
Still, the governor was hopeful that the situation in New York was “manageable” and said the state was better prepared than in the spring to curb the spread of the virus.
“I think we’re going to be fine here on all of this,” Mr. Cuomo said. “But we have our work cut out for us. You can’t just sit by and let this happen.”
The president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Francesco Rocca, high levels of mistrust of health authorities “clearly facilitated transmission of the virus at all levels.”Credit...Giannis Papanikos/Associated Press
The head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Francesco Rocca, warned on Monday that misinformation and mistrust could hinder efforts to distribute a coronavirus vaccine around the world, even as countries scramble to secure doses for their populations.
Speaking at a virtual news conference ahead of a United Nations meeting on the virus this week, Mr. Rocca argued that since the start of the pandemic, high levels of mistrust of health authorities “clearly facilitated transmission of the virus at all levels.”
For example, many people refused to wear face masks or practice social distancing.
The same dynamics could create a disaster if vaccine distribution is not handled properly, he said. The challenge is compounded by growing hesitancy about vaccines in general.
For that reason, Mr. Rocca said, his organization shared the widespread sense of relief and optimism that has come with the progress in vaccine development , but with “a dose of caution.”
“To beat this pandemic, we also have to defeat the parallel pandemic of distrust,” he said.
Mr. Rocca also called for greater efforts to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines around the world — and criticized the “vaccine nationalism” of wealthy countries that bought up massive quantities of vaccines in exclusive deals with pharmaceutical companies. He called on all governments — including the incoming administration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. — to join a global immunization effort known as Covax.
“I would like to repeat here our urgent warning to all governments: None of us are safe until all of us are safe,” he said.
New York City health workers staffed a coronavirus testing station at Penn Station on Monday to screen arriving travelers and inform them about quarantine regulations.Credit...James Estrin/The New York Times
Did Thanksgiving gatherings and travel accelerate the spread of the coronavirus in the United States, as many experts had feared? When will we be able to tell?
Those questions do not yet have clear-cut answers, but one thing is certain: The daily figures over the next few days won’t prove anything. It takes time for infections to take hold, time for tests to detect them, and time for results to be reported.
In interviews, four experts agreed that there probably will be an upward bump in cases linked to the holiday, similar to the rises that were seen after Memorial Day and July 4. But they had different estimates for when it would emerge.
Part of the uncertainty stems from the virus itself. Its incubation period — the time after a person catches it but before symptoms appear — can range from two days to two weeks or longer, though five days seems to be typical.
People who suspect infection may then wait to be tested, and test results may take days to come back from a lab.
Dr. Thomas Russo, a professor of medicine at the University at Buffalo, said that taking those factors into account, he expects a holiday bump to become noticeable at the end of this week, and continue through much or all of next week.
“Most people were being good and had celebrations just within their own households,” he said. “But that significant minority that did not is driving this surge, and will be our undoing.”
Others will feel no symptoms at all, an added complication that has dogged public health officials since the pandemic began. Those people may not quarantine or be tested — but they can infect others, lengthening the chain of transmission.
That’s what happened after July 4, said Megan L. Ranney, an emergency physician and public health researcher at Brown University. She said a jump in positive tests began between two and four weeks after the holiday, suggesting that many were pass-along infections.
The American Automobile Association forecast that about 50 million people would travel for Thanksgiving. Even if only 1 percent caught the virus, Dr. Ranney said, “that’s an extra 500,000 infections in one day,” and they could infect untold thousands more before showing up in the statistics. “We are looking at an exponential effect,” she said, one that would only truly be seen around Christmas and New Year’s Eve. “It will be a double whammy.”
Lewis S. Nelson, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, said he was not certain that Thanksgiving travel and gatherings would create a widespread surge in new cases. The virus has been tricky, he said, and predicting the numbers can be extremely difficult.
“We keep saying we’ll see a bump, but most of these events don’t seem to really materialize into something really concerning,” Dr. Nelson said. “Sometimes what you expect to happen doesn’t happen.”
Even so, he said, “my gut tells me we should remain concerned and attentive.”
Dr. Nelson said his hospital in Newark, N.J., was overwhelmed in April, but is manageable now, even though the state is reporting many more new cases. He said there were currently about 30 coronavirus patients, compared to more than 200 in April, a drop he and his colleagues were still puzzling over.
“Just the whole fact that we are not experiencing April right now is inexplicable at this point,” he said. “People haven’t changed. A lot of us believe maybe the virus has.”
Officials were trying to make sure that any Thanksgiving exposure would be reflected in the data. On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City urged residents who had ignored official guidance and attended Thanksgiving gatherings to get tested.
In anticipation of a renewed demand, the city has opened 25 new testing locations in the last week. It will also now post online the wait times at its testing sites, which had seen growing lines as New Yorkers scrambled to get tested before their holiday plans.
The city’s seven-day average positive test rate was at 4.03 percent, Mr. de Blasio said, but he warned that the data may be skewed because fewer tests were conducted during Thanksgiving weekend.
Similar issues are clouding daily statistics across the country, as some states held off reporting for some or all of the holiday weekend and then caught up with big batches of new reports. Experts warned against drawing too many conclusions from the daily figures until states get back to a normal reporting rhythm.
More than 1,400 inmates and staff at San Quentin State Prison in California were infected with the coronavirus last summer in one of the largest outbreaks in the country.Credit...Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
With coronavirus vaccine distribution expected to start as early as this month, public health officials are scrambling to develop guidelines for the equitable allocation of limited supplies. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet on Tuesday to make initial determinations about who gets the first shots.
There is broad consensus that health care workers who treat Covid-19 patients should be first in line. Other high-priority groups include residents and employees of long-term care facilities, essential workers whose jobs keep people fed and society running, and medically vulnerable and older adults — roughly in that order.
Prison inmates are not ranked in the top tiers, however, even though some of the largest outbreaks have occurred in the nation’s prisons. Instead, the C.D.C. advisory committee has prioritized correctional officers and others who work in jails and prisons for the first phase of immunizations — but not inmates. The federal prison system will set aside its initial allotment for such employees, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Now several groups, including the American Medical Association, are calling for coronavirus vaccines to be given to inmates and employees at prisons, jails and detention centers, citing the unique risks to people in confinement — and the potential for outbreaks to spread from correctional centers, straining community hospitals.
“We aren’t saying that prisoners should be treated any better than anybody else, but they shouldn’t be treated any worse than anybody else who is forced to live in a congregate setting,” said Dr. Eric Toner, co-author of a report on vaccine allocation published by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
There is also a powerful public health argument to be made for prison vaccination: Outbreaks that start in prisons and jails may spread to the surrounding community. “Prisons are incubators of infectious disease,” Dr. Toner said.
“It’s a fundamental tenet of public health to try and stop epidemics at their source,” he added.
The San Francisco 49ers celebrated a road win Sunday over the Los Angeles Rams. The 49ers will use the Arizona Cardinals’ stadium for their remaining home games because Santa Clara County has shut down their stadium as a measure against coronavirus spread.Credit...Kyusung Gong/Associated Press
The team will play its games in Week 13 and 14 in State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals, which was able to accommodate the move because the teams’ schedules do not conflict. The 49ers (5-6) will play against the Buffalo Bills (8-3) on Dec. 7 and face the Washington Football Team (4-7) on Dec. 13, but the club still has not determined where they will practice and live during that time.
“Very appreciative of Arizona welcoming us during these unprecedented times,” 49ers team owner Jed York wrote on Twitter, thanking the Cardinals team owner Michael Bidwill.
While local and state guidelines for controlling the spread of the virus have prevented spectators from attending some N.F.L. games in other markets this season, this is the first time local health protocols have prevented a team from playing games or practicing in its home market.
This summer, health officials in Santa Clara were among the first to ban fans at N.F.L. games and passed an ordinance requiring players and coaches to wear masks at all times, months before the league took the same step last week.
On Saturday, Santa Clara County took new measures intended to reduce the rate of infections, including mandatory 14-day quarantining of people who travel there from more than 150 miles away, as cases in the area rose to a new high last week and its positive cases per 100,000 people to climbed to 26.8.
The number of infections per 100,000 residents in Maricopa County, Ariz., site of the Cardinals’ stadium, is 48.6, nearly twice as high as in Santa Clara County.
Andrej Plenkovic, the prime minister of Croatia, center, taking part in a commemoration march in Vukovar, Croatia, this month.Credit...Associated Press
Andrej Plenkovic, the prime minister of Croatia, has tested positive for Covid-19 days after his government abandoned some of the most lax pandemic measures on the continent and introduced strict rules meant to curb the virus’s spread, as patients inundated hospitals.
Croatia has experienced a surge in new infections since late October, with 21,457 active cases and 1,786 deaths in the country of four million. Croatia contained the pandemic this spring by introducing some of the strictest measures in Europe, including a broad lockdown and travel limits. Those same restrictions were abandoned in time for Croatia’s economically vital summer tourism season, and did not return this fall to combat a second wave.
Until last week, Croatia’s measures were some of the most lax on the continent, amounting to limits on gatherings, mask-wearing and social distancing suggestions, as well some curtailed business hours. The prime minister even took part in a memorial walk in Vukovar on Nov. 18 with over 1,000 others. The town is now experiencing a spike in new infections.
The government pushed back against requests that the country adopt tougher measures in the face of an increase in new infections, shying away from the lockdowns and curfews used by other European Union members. Plenkovic frequently said such moves were “not an option.” His ministers repeatedly chastised the public for the increase in new infections, claiming that only responsible behavior could stop the virus’s spread.
Croatia’s government relented last week, after reports from hospitals of dwindling capacity and overworked staffs. On Friday, it introduced greater limits on gatherings and public transport, and shut gyms, bars and restaurants. On Monday, it presented a package of laws that includes fines for anyone violating the new restrictions, and financial aid for struggling businesses.
Five ministers in the Croatian government have contracted Covid since the second wave of the pandemic hit Croatia in late October, including Vili Beros, the health minister.
Michael Reagan, 50, of New York, had a moderate illness from coronavirus, but his neurological symptoms post-recovery are serious and alarming, including seizures, trembling of hands and fingers, loss of sense of direction, and loss of short-term memory.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
One of the coronavirus’s most unexpected tricks is its ability to cause neurological symptoms, including dizziness, headaches and the blunting of taste and smell. Traces of the virus have shown up in brain tissue, examined post-mortem, but scientists don’t know exactly how the virus got there, much less how it might alter neurons’ function.
A new study, based on autopsies of people who died of Covid-19, provides some of the first clues. The virus may spread to the brain through the nose, where it can invade nerve endings deep in the nasal passages. If further tissue analysis is supportive, the findings should help explain how the virus reaches circuits in the brain that support perception, balance and mental acuity.
In the paper, posted Monday by the journal Nature Neuroscience, a research team based in Berlin produced the first images of intact coronaviruses in the so-called nasopharynx, where the throat meets the nasal cavity, and where odor receptors and perceptual cells converge.
The virus can enter the nervous system “by exploiting the close vicinity of olfactory mucosal, endothelial and nervous tissue, including delicate olfactory and sensory nerve endings” in the mucous layer of the nasopharynx, the authors conclude.
Up to a third of people who fall ill from Covid-19 report at least one neurological deficit, whether in taste, smell, balance or alertness. These symptoms are often transitory, but they are common enough to suggest that people with severe forms of the disease should show some evidence of infection in their central nervous systems.
In the new report, a research team led by Dr. Helena Radbruch and Dr. Frank Heppner, neuropathologists at the Charité-Universitätsmedizin, in Berlin, studied tissue samples from 33 people who had died after contracting Covid-19. The samples came from four areas of the brain, and from the olfactory mucosa, the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx.
The analysis found evidence of the virus in various parts of the brain, and in the olfactory mucosa, where its concentration was highest. Deep in this layer, near nerve endings that project to the brain, the researchers found the coronavirus’s signature spike protein, which it uses to attach to and infect cells.
Taken together, the findings suggest that the virus is “able to use the olfactory mucosa as a port of entry into the brain,” said Dr. Heppner, in a prepared statement.
The authors cautioned that their findings apply only to people with severe disease, and not necessarily to the majority of people infected, who experience modest symptoms, if any.
GLOBAL ROUNDUP
A Christmas tree was illuminated as the traditional Christmas market had been cancelled at the Old Town Square in Prague on Saturday.Credit...David W Cerny/Reuters
The traditional Christmas markets that dot European cities, drawing thousands of festive revelers into plazas to enjoy mulled wine, colorful lights and public art, have largely been canceled this year.
But on Advent Sunday, the official start of the holiday season, celebrations continued in different forms. In partially locked-down Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, the mayor, Matus Vallo, led viewers of a Facebook livestream on a walk through the city’s historic center.
Wearing a cheerful Christmas sweater, Mr. Vallo met musicians and artists along the way, received soothing words from a local priest, eyed winter-themed paintings from art galleries and lit up a Christmas tree in the main square.
“We know what the situation is, but we decided that we won’t let Advent be ruined anyway,” he said to the camera.
Locals and visitors in Bratislava will still be able to gawk at the Christmas lights on a stroll, but officials wanted to avoid the large holiday crowds. Moving traditional events online was part of that effort; a series of holiday concerts and events will be streamed throughout December.
It’s just one of several creative solutions as markets were canceled across the continent. In Landshut, Germany, visitors must experience the Christmas markets as a drive-through, according to Agence France-Presse. They can observe the spectacle from inside their cars as mask-wearing employees hand them menus offering typical treats like roasted chestnuts and gingerbread hearts.
And in the United States, New York City will limit visitors to the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, in a bid to fight the holiday crowds that usually pack the surrounding plazas and sidewalks. The city will keep the viewing time to 5 minutes, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Groups will be limited to four people.
The mayor also said that a “reservation system” would be in place. Later, Tishman Speyer, the real estate firm that controls Rockefeller Center, said it would use a “virtual queueing” system to manage long lines, rather than advanced timed ticketing.
Still, the mayor, who has expressed concern that cases of the virus could surge during the holiday, encouraged people to watch the annual tree-lighting ceremony — scheduled for Wednesday — at home instead of flocking to Midtown Manhattan. “Please, if you can make a decision to watch it on TV, that’s so much better,” he said.
Hong Kong will limit gatherings in public to two people, including two per table at restaurants, as it battles a surge in cases. Playgrounds, swimming pools and karaoke rooms will close, while gyms will remain open but be limited to two mask-wearing participants, the city’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, said at a news conference on Monday. Hong Kong has reported an average of 85 new daily cases in the past week, far above the near-zero tallies it had reported after a summer surge.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday about “the need for a strengthened partnership” between the U.S. and the U.N. on global issues, a statement from Mr. Biden’s transition team said, including combating the pandemic and “building resilience to future public health challenges.”
Italy approved a stimulus package worth $9.6 billion, or 8 billion euros, on Sunday to support struggling businesses. The deal will postpone or suspend tax deadlines for some businesses, subsidize amateur sports associations and send checks of 1,000 euros to seasonal workers in the tourism, spa and entertainment industries. Italy is currently under a nationwide 10 p.m. curfew with bars and restaurants closing at 6 p.m., and some regions have further restrictions.
In Russia, a hospital near Moscow reported on Monday that it had administered the first known batch of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine to civilians. The Domodedovo Central City Hospital confirmed in a phone interview that the vaccine had been delivered and that the first shipment available for general use had already run out. Russia’s government backed efforts to develop a vaccine before other countries has been widely criticized for cutting corners. The rush to deliver a vaccine to the general public has also been spurred by the growing number of new cases and deaths in the country, with the total number of cases in Russia nearing 2.3 million.
Serbia will receive 20 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine to begin laboratory testing, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Monday, adding that Serbia would consider joint production of the vaccine. The country is also in talks with Pfizer about purchasing its vaccine.
Vietnam said on Monday it had its first locally transmitted case in 89 days, prompting contact tracing efforts and stricter screening. The 32-year-old man’s infection was linked to a flight attendant who tested positive after returning from Japan, Reuters reported. The country has largely staved off the virus, reporting only 1,346 cases throughout the pandemic.
A full lockdown has been ordered for the weekends only. During the week, a partial lockdown will require people to stay home from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.Credit...Associated Press
Turkey is imposing its strictest lockdown since the outbreak of the pandemic, as the country’s total number of cases surpassed half a million, according to government figures released on Monday.
Starting Tuesday night, everyone will be required to stay home from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays and around the clock on weekends, from Friday evening to Monday morning, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced.
The hybrid approach is intended to keep the labor force working in an already staggering economy while limiting the spread of the virus as much as possible.
People older than 65 or younger than 20 will be barred from using public transportation. They are already under restrictions that allow them out of their homes for just three hours a day.
Mr. Erdogan also asked people not to allow guests in their homes, and banned large gatherings in private residences for New Year’s celebrations, religious ceremonies or condolence calls.
Funerals and wedding ceremonies will be limited to 30 people. Traditional Turkish baths, saunas, massage parlors and swimming pools will be closed.
Turkey, which only recently began reporting complete data on confirmed cases, has been averaging nearly 23,000 new cases a day over the last two weeks, according to a New York Times database.
Kim Jong-un met with government officials on Sunday, seen in this photo provided by the North Korean government.Credit...Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service, via Associated Press
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un “harshly criticized” his government agencies for mishandling the economy, the country’s state media reported on Monday, as new data revealed just how much the pandemic had slashed the country’s already dwindling trade with China.
Signs had already emerged earlier this month that North Korea’s economic trouble was deepening, driven by long-standing international sanctions and the impact of the pandemic. According to customs data released by Beijing last week, North Korea’s imports from China from January to October plummeted by 76 percent to $487 million, while its exports shrank 74 percent to $45 million in the same period.
China is North Korea’s only major trading partner, accounting for more than 90 percent of its external trade. In October, the North’s import from China amounted to a mere $253,000, nearly a 99-percent drop from the previous month. South Korean officials and analysts have warned that a sharp decline in imports from China in recent months could drive up domestic prices in the North.
The Chinese government only records official trade and does not cover smuggling that takes place across the borders between the two neighbors. Still, the figures provided fresh evidence that the coronavirus was squeezing the North Korean economy more effectively than international sanctions ever have.
During a meeting of the Workers’ Party that Mr. Kim presided over on Sunday, the government agencies responsible for the economy were harshly criticized for “failing to provide scientific guidance” and “failing to overcome subjectivism and formalism in their work,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported.
But this was not the first time Mr. Kim has admitted to his country’s deepening economic woes, acknowledging in August that his five-year plan for economic growth had failed. Mr. Kim all but sealed North Korea’s borders with China earlier this year over fears of the potentially catastrophic consequences the pandemic could inflict on the country’s poor health system.
North Korea insists that it has registered no coronavirus cases, but outside experts remain skeptical.
Those We’ve Lost
Iris Meda, 70, a retired nurse, wanted to help in the fight against the coronavirus, so she began teaching nursing skills to high school students. But she came down with Covid-19 and died on Nov. 14.Credit...Selene Meda-Schlamel
Iris Meda, 70, didn’t feel right sitting on the sidelines when the pandemic hit. She’d been retired only a few months, and still had a lifetime of nursing experience in hospitals, prisons, schools and long-term care facilities to share.
So she went back to work in August, teaching nursing skills to high school students through Collin College, north of Dallas. But within weeks, she had come down with Covid-19 herself. After nearly a month in the hospital, most of it on a ventilator, she died on Nov. 14.
Her daughter, Selene Meda-Schlamel, said her mother was exposed to the virus on Oct. 2 while teaching a laboratory class, despite the precautions she was taking.
“I wasn’t worried, because I knew she was wearing an N95, and that she was some distance from the students,” Ms. Meda-Schlamel recalled, in an interview.
“I said to myself, ‘If something happens to her, it happens to her doing something she loves, fulfilling her calling and benefiting the world,’” she said. “But that’s a very different outlook from, ‘My best friend is gone, my kids don’t have a grandmother. Everything that we planned on doing will never occur.’”
Ms. Meda grew up in New York, the oldest of nine siblings, and was a natural caretaker from childhood, her daughter said. She married at 20, expecting to be a stay-at-home mother, but at her husband’s urging, she went back to school and earned a nursing degree from City College.
“She had a very personal touch,” Ms. Meda-Schlamel said. “You never felt like she was rushing you.”
Ms. Meda worked as a nurse at the jail on Rikers Island before moving to Texas in 1993, where she spent the rest of her career before retiring in January. When she took up teaching, she wanted to pass along to her students the kind of encouragement she had gotten to pursue an education. After class, she often returned home “lit up” from the thrill she got from teaching, her daughter said.
When her Covid-19 symptoms worsened in mid-October and she began struggling to breathe, Ms. Meda called her daughter for a ride to the hospital. Ms. Meda-Schlamel recalled that in the car, her mother handed her an envelope containing her medical documents and a handwritten card that she forgot about in the hectic days that followed.
When she finally opened it, she said, she found a note her mother had written after their phone call, telling her how proud she was of her and what a wonderful life she had before her. And two signed checks fell out, meant to help her daughter cover the hospital bills. On one, the amount was left blank.
“That was kind of symbolic of how she was as a person,” Ms. Meda-Schlamel said. “She was always giving people blank checks, blank emotional checks: ‘Whatever you need from me, if I have it, I’ll provide it.’”
