Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is expected to ask US President Joe Biden to share some of the Covid-19 vaccine supply on Monday, according to a Mexican government official briefed on plans for the conversation.
The two leaders are due to hold a virtual bilateral meeting on Monday.
What the collaboration could look like -- a purchase agreement, donation, or loan -- is undefined, the official told CNN.
The first step is to ask whether the United States is willing to cooperate, the source said.
Mexico has purchase agreements in place for hundreds of millions of vaccine doses with different vaccine makers around the world, the large majority of which have yet to be fulfilled.
It has also purchased vaccine supplies from both Russia and China, but it hasn't received any vaccines directly from the US, its most important ally and largest trading partner.
Pfizer, an American company, has shipped Covid-19 vaccines to Mexico -- but they were produced in European laboratories and have arrived in relatively limited supply.
As of Sunday evening, Mexico reported having administered just under 2.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines.
Empty shelves at a Target in Burbank, Calif., on March 14, 2020. Many people across the U.S. are approaching the one-year anniversary of the moment they went into lockdown and realized life as they knew it had changed. Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
It has been nearly a year since much of the U.S. entered coronavirus-related lockdowns. For many people, they're approaching the anniversary of when they realized that life as they knew it was being fundamentally altered from how it had been a month, a week or even a day earlier.
The work-from-home era began. Bare grocery store shelves, empty subway cars, the absence of rush-hour traffic all seemed like post-apocalyptic scenes. Things that people often took for granted — like hugs, seeing friends at birthday parties, dinners out together and midday coffee runs with colleagues — were no longer considered safe and harmless as they had been before.
Professional sports leagues canceled or postponed entire seasons, and celebrities like Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced they had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Around the world, there was still so much unknown about the coronavirus and so much uncertainty about how life would look in two weeks — let alone one year later.
As we approach the anniversary of the World Health Organization officially declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, NPR Weekend Edition host Lulu Garcia-Navarro asked her Twitter followers to use #TheMoment to share when they realized that things were going to be different — where they were and what they were thinking when they realized that a shift was happening.
Thousands of responses poured in. We've collected some of those replies and are sharing them below. To share your memory from a year ago, use the hashtag #TheMoment on Twitter or email us at nprcrowdsource@npr.org with the words "The Moment" in the subject line.
For many people, the moment they realized they were entering pandemic life happened in the aisles of their grocery store as they stocked up on nonperishable food or found complete sections wiped out. Did you cook those dried beans? Try, and fail, to find hand sanitizer and toilet paper?
March 14 going to get groceries & seeing this in the meat case. It was relatively early in the day & I couldn’t believe how bare the shelves were. I remember talking with a young woman at the customer service desk & her saying it was busier than any holiday she had ever worked. pic.twitter.com/2iyhU9u2H5
I went to Target sometime in the first week of March, and every shelf that had held bleach, sanitizing cleaner, and spray was empty. That was the moment I felt my stomach drop and panic start to set in.
March 11 2020 was my last day in the office before remote work began. I was 11 weeks pregnant. We did a huge grocery haul the next day...store was packed. While in the produce section, I took this picture because according to our pregnancy app, our baby was the size of a lime. pic.twitter.com/m50c8O4xf8
Child care and the blur between work and home life represented the moment for countless others. Many people shared stories of their kids coming home from school, day care or college for what was supposed to be two weeks and ended up being many months instead.
#themoment when my son’s daycare announced they were closing indefinitely after spring break 2020. He was 8 months old. I knew then my career as a profesor would never be the same. https://t.co/2z0HetchKc
#TheMoment came when I read my students’ 1st remote assignment and thought, “I might never see their handwriting on paper again.” Returned to classroom 2 mnths later & cried seeing their handwriting on last assignment never returned. @NPR@NPRWeekendhttps://t.co/89BmSU7lii
Live events, including sports and music, were where some people realized that their lives were changing and they wouldn't be able to be back in that setting for a long while.
My wife and I went to a packed college basketball game on March 8th, it felt so eerie to be there with so many people. The next day NCAA cancelled the season and the campus was close pic.twitter.com/Pid3ZxU9Ru
I was on a ski trip at @bigskyresort and saw the news that the NBA season was being suspended. Shortly after, the resort announced it was shutting down at the end of the weekend. #TheMoment occurred on that last beautiful day on the slopes before flying home into the unknown
one year ago today, I went to see @therevivalists at @FoxwoodsCT. Amazing concert and last night out (although I didn't know that at the time). But I do remember thinking my seat was covid friendly, because it was the last row of the section. pic.twitter.com/8BhwxokNQ9
For others, small gatherings with their friends and family were the last "normal" moments they had. Some people didn't go through with their events as planned but instead began what would become a trend: household-only events or socially distanced hangouts.
Pi Day. We always have a pi day party (March 14) and one of the friends we invited suggested that maybe, according to his information, gathering in a group right now was not advisable. I debated a bit but then cancelled the party. (We still ate pie, though.)
— Beth “Wear A Mask! Save A Life!” Ochsner (@beth_ochsner) February 28, 2021
A year and a day ago I took Lucy to a daddy/daughter dance. It was apparent by then we were in for something different. But when a local doctor told me that that night that it was overblown and we’d be fine in the Midwest? I knew we were in trouble. His denial was #TheMomentpic.twitter.com/83B9TlcFc3
Doctors also shared when they realized that the task before them and the volume of patients they were about to see were dramatically changing.
Saw patient with fever, shortness of breath, cough. Paged infectious disease for permission to test for COVID, at that time limited to those with recent travel from China. “We know it’s in the community now,” I said. Allowed to swab for flu, hold for COVID test if flu (-)
I treated my first COVID patient in early March in New York City then pulled my kids out of school a week BEFORE they closed schools. I never seen patients crash so quickly. They were so sick. I respected the virus when it shutdown Italy the month prior. #TheMoment
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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and urged all Indians eligible for the shot to get inoculated. Elsewhere in Asia, the Philippines, which
has the second-worst outbreak in Southeast Asia, started vaccinations, while New Zealand’s largest city Auckland
entered a seven-day lockdown on Sunday.
Starting Monday in Europe, Italy will tighten curbs in some cities to counter an acceleration of the virus caused by new variants, particularly the strain first found in the U.K. The Norwegian capital Oslo will close restaurants and shops to also curb an acceleration of new cases caused by virus strains.
Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine was cleared for distribution after U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention formally recommended that adults 18 and older should receive it.
Key Developments:
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daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team
here. Click CVID on the terminal for global data on cases and deaths.
Malaysia Expects to Flatten Virus Curve (12:18 p.m. H.K.)
Malaysia
expects to flatten the Covid-19 curve in the coming months through ongoing restrictions on movement, adherence to virus protocols and a national immunization program, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a televised speech Monday.
The government is drafting a strategy to contain the pandemic, that includes a more targeted approach such as strict lockdowns in cluster areas. The economy will continue to reopen, subject to social distancing and strict protocols, he said.
Study on China Virus Deaths (10:01 a.m. H.K.)
A
study published in the British Medical Journal in February showed that deaths in the first three months of 2020 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan was 56% higher than expected, driven mostly by fatalities from pneumonia associated with Covid-19.
A total of 4,573 deaths were caused by pneumonia in this period, researchers from Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Oxford found by combing through the local death registry. The number is largely in line with the 4,636 deaths from Covid-19 that China’s National Health Commission has reported since the beginning of the pandemic, a number that was revised up 40% by officials last April.
A separate study on the real magnitude of coronavirus infections in China, conducted in April shortly after China contained the outbreak in Wuhan, found that people with past signs of infection was ten times more than the official data on cases in the city.
Under-reporting of cases and deaths are common worldwide, given factors like lack of testing and people dying at home. The U.S. among others has alleged that China concealed the extent of its outbreak. Beijing has denied these charges and said that accurate data took time to compile given the chaotic environment when the pandemic first emerged.
India PM Takes First Dose of Vaccine (9:55 a.m. H.K.)
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet Monday that he took his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and urged all Indians eligible for the shot to get inoculated. Modi took Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
Took my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at AIIMS.
Remarkable how our doctors and scientists have worked in quick time to strengthen the global fight against COVID-19.
I appeal to all those who are eligible to take the vaccine. Together, let us make India COVID-19 free! pic.twitter.com/5z5cvAoMrv
The Asian nation, with the world’s second-largest outbreak, has approved one vaccine from Astrazeneca and another from homegrown Bharat Biotech. Hesitation over Bharat Biotech’s shot has been especially strong as the vaccine was approved in January for use before final stage testing was completed, and the company has not disclosed full safety and efficacy data.
Modi is seeking to bolster one of the world’s largest inoculation programs that aims to vaccinate about a quarter of India’s population by August. Only 14.3 million people have been vaccinated so far, according to data from India’s health ministry.
Texas, California Led Decline in Virus Hospitalizations (7:58 a.m. H.K.)
Texas and California led a national decline in Covid-19 hospitalizations, data from the Department of Health and Human Services show. U.S. hospitals were treating 54,808 patients for the coronavirus as of Sunday, down 5.5% from the 58,023 reported on Feb. 25, and 58% from the mid-January peak of 131,637. The number in California dropped 9% to 6,104 and 8.4% to 6,796 in Texas over the past three days.
CDC Head Signs Off on J&J Shot Approval (5:15 p.m. NY)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky formally recommended that adults 18 and older should receive Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, the agency said in a statement Sunday. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices earlier in the day voted unanimously to recommend the one-shot vaccine.
Walensky’s sign-off means that J&J’s vaccine can now be administered. The company said in a statement it planned to ship 100 million doses in the first half of the year, giving the U.S. its third approved Covid-19 vaccine.
Fauci Warns Against Vaccine Shopping (3:43 p.m. NY)
Anthony Fauci pushed back against any tendency to
shop around or wait for a preferred vaccine among the three that are now approved for use in the U.S.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was asked on ABC’s “This Week” about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which got the go-ahead on Saturday from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
A healthcare worker prepares a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the Klerksdorp Hospital in South Africa on Feb. 18.
Photographer: Phill Magakoe/AFP/Getty Images
The one-dose J&J shot was found to be highly effective at preventing severe Covid-19, but has a lower efficacy rate than the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc. vaccines, raising concerns that some people may opt to wait rather than being vaccinated with it. “We’ve got to get away from that chain of thought,” Fauci said on ABC.
California Deaths Fall to 2-Week Low (2:25 p.m. NY)
California reported 158 deaths yesterday, the lowest since Feb. 15 and below the 14-day average of 367, according to the health department’s
website. The state has reported 51,979 fatalities in total. There were 4,685 new cases, below the average of 5,406. California’s 14-day positive test rate dropped to 2.7%, the lowest since Oct. 20. The state has administered almost 48.5 million tests in total.
A member of the California National Guard directs vehicles entering a Covid-19 mass vaccination site in Oakland, California, on Feb. 16.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
France Reports Fewer Cases (2:09 p.m. NY)
France reported on Sunday 19,952 new cases in 24 hours, a low number compared to previous days, though weekend reporting is often incomplete. This comes against a background of tighter restrictions in several parts of the country, such as local lockdowns over the weekends, due to the spread of variants, and as the government is reluctant to impose a third nationwide confinement.
South Africa Eases Curbs (1:49 p.m. NY)
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa eased restrictions as the rate of new infections dropped, scrapping most limits on alcohol sales, shortening a nighttime curfew and permitting larger public gatherings.
Cyril Ramaphosa
Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
The move to virus alert level 1, from level 3, comes a year after the first Covid-19 case was detected in the country, and will remove most remaining shackles on the struggling economy, Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nation on Sunday.
The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in South Africa has dropped to less than 1,500, from a peak of about 22,000 in early January.
U.K. Detects Cases of Brazil Variant (12:34 p.m. NY)
Six cases of a Brazilian coronavirus variant have been
detected in the U.K., Public Health England said, warning the mutation may be more resistant to vaccines.
Two cases in England are from the same household in Gloucestershire with a history of travel to Brazil, while a third is unlinked, PHE said on Sunday in an emailed statement. Another three have been detected in Scotland, it said.
Norway Tightens Curbs on Capital (12:26 a.m. NY)
Norwegian capital Oslo will close restaurants and shops from Monday to curb an acceleration of new cases caused by virus strains, especially the one first found in the U.K. Exceptions will be allowed for pharmacies, groceries and take-away meals.
Norway has fared better during the pandemic than many other countries, including its neighbor Sweden. Still, cases in the capital have increased by about 50% in four days following a recent winter school break. The restrictions will be in place until March 15.
Germany to Revise Astra Guidance for Elderly (12:14 p.m. NY)
Germany’s STIKO health authority will soon reconsider its decision not to recommend the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over 65. “There will be a new updated recommendation very soon,” head of STIKO Thomas Mertens told ZDF television late on Saturday. Last month, Germany decided to keep its recommendation for the vaccine to only be administered to people aged 18-64, saying there was no sufficient data for effectiveness for 65 and above.
Cuomo’s Powers Should Be Curbed, De Blasio Says (11:50 a.m. NY)
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Governor Andrew Cuomo should be stripped of his emergency powers, following accusations of sexual harassment and improper counting of deaths at nursing homes.
Andrew Cuomo
Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg
“Questions of this magnitude cannot hang over the heads of New Yorkers as we fight off a pandemic and economic crisis,” de Blasio said in a statement Sunday. “It’s clear what must now take place.”
The two Democrats have become political adversaries, sparring frequently over decisions during the pandemic. At the start of the outbreak in New York, Cuomo said de Blasio did not have the authority to declare city schools shut for the academic year.
Italy Tightens Restrictions (11:28 a.m. NY)
Italy will tighten curbs in Milan, Turin and other areas starting Monday to counter an acceleration of the virus caused by new variants, particularly the strain first found in the U.K. People in designated medium-risk and high-risk areas, known as orange and red zones, will be barred from leaving their city or town except for work or emergency reasons. Some areas will also close schools.
U.S. Vaccines on Track After Storms (10 a.m. NY)
The U.S. set records over the last two days for vaccinations, the drive now recovered after extreme winter weather paralyzed parts of the nation, according to the
Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. On Saturday, 2.4 million doses were administered, and on Friday, 2.2 million. Before the storms, doses peaked at 2 million a day on Feb. 12 and 13, the tracker shows.
In total, 72.8 million doses have been given in the U.S., with an average over the last week at 1.65 million a day.
Czechs Eager for Russian Shots (9:20 a.m. NY)
The Czech Republic won’t wait for the European Union regulator’s approval to use a Russian coronavirus vaccine, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said.
The country has taken “concrete steps” to purchase the Sputnik V vaccine and will use it if Czech health authorities approve, Babis said on Sunday in a weekly debate show on Prima TV. Local drug authorities’ assessment of the safety of the vaccine “would be sufficient” to use the shots, he said.
The Sputnik V vaccine.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
Heathrow Imposes Pandemic Charges (8:43 a.m. NY)
London’s Heathrow airport will charge departing passengers an extra 8.90 pounds ($12.40) in an effort to claw back costs as the coronavirus crisis depresses air travel.
Heathrow has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic since it relies on long-haul markets that have been all-but wiped out. The airport last week posted a 2 billion-pound loss for 2020 after passenger numbers tumbled 73%, a decline it says has left it unable to cover the costs of providing some services.
U.S. Deaths, Cases Decline (8 a.m. NY)
Reported U.S. cases declined on Saturday to 68,049, a daily total that’s little changed from the previous seven-day average, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg.
The U.S. added 1,536 deaths, the fewest since Monday, according to the data.
— With assistance by Ian Fisher
(An earlier version of the Virus Update corrected name of New York Governor)
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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa eased coronavirus restrictions as the rate of new infections dropped, scrapping most limits on alcohol sales, shortening a night-time curfew and permitting larger public gatherings.
The move to virus alert level 1, from level 3, comes a year after the first Covid-19 case was detected in the country, and will remove most remaining shackles on the struggling economy, Ramaphosa
said in a televised address to the nation on Sunday. The night-time curfew will run from midnight to 4 a.m. and alcohol sales will be allowed outside the curfew hours. Gatherings will be limited to 100 people indoors, double the previous number.
“Our approach has aways been that restrictions should not remain in place longer than is absolutely necessary,” Ramaphosa said. “The threat of the third wave is constantly present, as is the threat of new variants.”
The average daily number of new coronavirus cases has dropped to less than 1,500, from a peak of about 22,000 in early January. More than 1.5 million people in South Africa have been diagnosed with the disease, and almost 50,000 of them have died, according to Health Ministry data.
The country began a vaccination program on Feb. 17, inoculating health-care workers with a single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot and more than 67,000 have been inoculated so far. The second phase of the vaccine roll-out is due to begin in April or early May and cover the elderly and other vulnerable groups.
The country has signed a deal to buy 11 million J&J shots, with 2.8 million to be delivered in the second quarter and the rest spread throughout the year, according to Ramaphosa. Pfizer Inc. had agreed to supply South Africa with another 20 million doses while deals had been also been struck with other vaccine suppliers, he said.
“From a vaccine-availability point of view, we will be secured,” he said. “‘The number of sites that will be available for vaccination will be expanded next week from 17 sites to 49.”
Ramaphosa moved the country to virus alert level 3, from level 1, on Dec. 28 after the emergence of a virulent new variant drove a second wave of Covid-19 infections. The restrictions included a ban on alcohol sales, the closing of all land borders and most beaches, and an extended curfew.
The curbs were eased from Feb. 1, allowing liquor sales to resume subject to some limitations, and permitting access to beaches, parks and other public spaces, while some land borders were reopened on Feb. 15.
“The country has now clearly emerged from the second wave,” Ramaphosa said. “Most people adhered to the together restrictions and adhered to the basic health protocols.”
(Updates with details of vaccination program in sixth paragraph)
The Johnson & Johnson campus in Irvine, Calif.Mark Ralston/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
One day after federal regulators authorized Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, senior Biden administration officials warned Sunday that the supply of the new vaccine would be highly uneven for the next month.
In an effort to lower expectations that the authorization of a third Covid vaccine will mean a steady new stream of doses, the officials said that the company will deliver 3.9 million shots this week but none the week after. The officials were speaking in an organized briefing with reporters but refused to be quoted by name.
Johnson & Johnson will deliver another 16 million doses to the federal government by the end of March, but the majority of that will only come toward the end of the month, the officials said.
In a $1 billion contract signed last year, Johnson & Johnson pledged to deliver 37 million doses by the end of March and a total of 100 million by the end of June. But the firm is still trying to scale up its production at its new Baltimore plant.
The initial 3.9 million doses were manufactured at its factory in the Netherlands; officials have said the rest of the doses were expected to come from its Baltimore plant.
Earlier Sunday, a committee of independent advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted as expected to recommend distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to all adults in the United States.
The committee’s approval echoed the Food and Drug Administration’s decision Saturday evening. Johnson & Johnson’s is the third Covid-19 vaccine to be authorized for Americans in less than a year. The first shipments are expected to reach states by Tuesday.
The committee did not weigh in on whether states should prioritize the one-shot vaccine for any particular population groups, or how they should deploy it compared with the other two authorized vaccines.
“That is not a decision that we’re ready to make,” said Dr. José Romero, Arkansas’s top health official and the committee’s chair.
The panel voted 12 in favor of the vaccine and none against, with one recusal.
The committee acted with little debate following presentations showing the vaccine was 85 percent protective against severe Covid-19 disease across all clinical trial sites and provided complete protection against hospitalizations and deaths.
Late Sunday, Rochelle P. Walensky, the C.D.C. director, signed the committee’s recommendation, calling the new vaccine “another milestone toward an end to the pandemic.”
Experts pointed out that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be simpler to distribute than the other two vaccines, which are made by Moderna and Pfizer with its German partner BioNTech. It requires just one shot instead of two and can be stored in standard refrigerators instead of freezers. Health professionals have noted that it could be particularly well suited to remote areas and clinics as well as drive-through mass vaccination sites.
The committee weighed those advantages against the shot’s somewhat lower efficacy rate in clinical trials. Pfizer and Moderna’s shots each were shown to be about 95 percent protective against symptomatic Covid disease, whereas Johnson & Johnson’s was 72 percent efficacious against moderate to severe disease in U.S. trial sites.
Direct comparisons between the vaccines are problematic, however, because the trials were conducted in different locations at different times. For instance, Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines were tested before troubling new variants of the virus emerged in Britain, South Africa and elsewhere.
The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, reviewed one recent survey showing that, given a choice between a two-dose vaccine as effective as Pfizer’s or Moderna’s or a single-dose vaccine as effective as Johnson & Johnson’s, only 7 percent of respondents picked Johnson & Johnson’s. Twenty-one percent said they would take either.
Importantly, though, of the 58 percent of respondents who said they preferred a vaccine like Pfizer’s or Moderna’s, nearly half said they would take a vaccine like Johnson & Johnson’s rather than wait a month for one of the other two.
The committee met almost exactly one year after the first death associated with Covid-19 in the United States. The committee is expected to meet again on Monday and discuss all three vaccines, including how they might be best deployed among different population groups.
Aubrie Cusumano receiving a Covid-19 vaccination at a pharmacy in Schwenksville, Penn., on Feb. 11. So far, there is only limited data on the safety of the vaccines in pregnant women and some other groups. Hannah Beier/Reuters
Johnson & Johnson plans to test its coronavirus vaccine in infants and even in newborns, as well as in pregnant women and in people who have compromised immune systems.
The bold plan for expanded clinical trials met with the approval of Dr. Ofer Levy, director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Harvard’s Boston Children’s Hospital and a member of the Food and Drug Administration advisory committee that reviewed the company’s vaccine data.
When Dr. Levy saw the outlines of the planned trials, “they turned my head,” he said. They were reported as part of the company’s application to the F.D.A. for emergency use approval and discussed at the F.D.A. meeting.
“They did not get into a lot of detail about it but did make it clear they will be pursuing pediatric and maternal coronavirus immunization studies,” Dr. Levy said. They referred committee members to their briefing materials where, on page 34, the company mentioned the planned studies.
A spokesman for Janssen Biotech, the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that is manufacturing the vaccine, confirmed that the company planned to extend clinical trials to children.
PfizerBioNTech and Moderna, whose coronavirus vaccines are now being given to adults, plan to gradually test them in younger and younger age groups. Those vaccines are now being tested in children 12 and older.
Johnson & Johnson will first test its vaccine in children older than 12 and under 18, but plans to immediately after begin a study that includes newborns and adolescents. The company then will test its vaccine in pregnant women, and finally in immunocompromised people. Like the other companies, Johnson & Johnson will analyze safety and immune responses.
Unlike the Covid-19 vaccines currently in use, which use a new technology involving messenger RNA, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine utilizes a method that has been widely tested for years. It relies on a disabled adenovirus, similar to viruses that cause the common cold, to deliver instructions to cells to briefly make copies of the virus’s spike protein. The recipient’s immune system then makes antibodies against the spike protein. The coronavirus needs its spike proteins to infect cells, so the antibodies can block a Covid infection before it starts.
Existing adenovirus vaccines include one for Ebola that has been safely administered to babies as young as 1 year old, and another for respiratory syncytial virus that was safely given to newborns. Nearly 200,000 people have received adenovirus vaccines, with no serious safety issues, Dr. Levy said. He said that Johnson & Johnson mentioned that safety record at the F.D.A. meeting.
Most of the world’s vaccine market is for pediatric vaccines.
Dr. Levy added that in his opinion children need not be immunized in order for schools to open. But many parents are afraid to send their children to school without a vaccine. And, he noted, vaccinating children will help the country reach herd immunity.
The vaccines already in wide use in the United States are given in two doses several weeks apart, while the newly authorized Johnson & Johnson vaccine is given in a single dose.Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen, via Associated Press
A third effective weapon was added to America’s arsenal against the coronavirus on Saturday when the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for a vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson.
The company said it would start shipping millions of doses early this week, and would provide the United States with 100 million doses by the end of June. Together with 600 million doses of the nation’s first two authorized vaccines, made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, that are due to be delivered over the next four months, that ought to be enough to cover every American adult who wants to be vaccinated.
The new vaccine differs markedly from the two already in use in the United States. Here is how they compare.
One shot instead of two
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is administered in a single shot, while the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are given in two shots several weeks apart.
The way it works
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses a different method to prime the body to fight off Covid-19: a viral vector called Ad26. Viral vectors are common viruses that have been genetically altered so that they do not cause illness but can still cause the immune system to build up its defenses. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use messenger RNA to do that.
How well it works
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is rated as highly effective at preventing serious illness and death, as the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are. It is also very effective at preventing milder illness, though a bit less so than those two. It appears to do well against the highly contagious B.1.351 variant, first identified in South Africa, that has given at least one other vaccine candidate trouble.
Storage and handling
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine does not have to be stored at extremely low temperatures like the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. It can safely be kept in an ordinary refrigerator for three months, much longer than the Moderna vaccine, which spoils after a month if not kept frozen.
Side effects
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine appears to be less prone than the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to trigger the kinds of side effects that require monitoring after the injection, which may make it more suitable for use at drive-through vaccination sites. There have been reports that side effects tend to be felt more strongly after second doses, which the Johnson & Johnson vaccine does not require.
A shirt featuring former President Donald Trump seen at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday.Erin Schaff/The New York Times
ORLANDO, Fla. — “Repeat offenders of the mask policy will be asked to leave the premises.”
So read a sign posted just beyond the entrance of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Orlando, where Republican politicians and activists gathered this weekend for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
One year after the former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney dismissed the novel coronavirus to CPAC attendees as the media’s “attempt to bring down the president,” the warning underscored the degree to which, for many on the right, masks and coronavirus-related restrictions continue to serve as a political lightning rod.
The sign became necessary as early as the first full morning of the conference on Friday, when CPAC officials walked sheepishly on stage between speakers to remind the audience to wear their masks — “I know it’s not the most fun,” one of the officials said — only to be met with loud jeers and cries of “freedom!”
Many attendees continued to defy the policy, with one woman sporting black lace underwear as a face covering.
An attendee at the Conservative Political Action Committee wearing lace underwear as a mask on Sunday.Jonathan Martin/The New York Times
While some speakers cracked jokes throughout the weekend about masking, it wasn’t until an appearance by Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, that the issue became front and center.
Ms. Noem’s approach to the pandemic jolted her to stardom in Republican circles. She refused to issue a lockdown order for South Dakota or enforce a statewide mask mandate.
Instead she advocated “washing your hands and making good decisions,” and last August, despite warnings from infectious disease experts, gave her blessing to the state’s annual Sturgis motorcycle rally. The 10-day event drew nearly half a million people, and some experts believe it caused a nationwide spike in coronavirus cases.
South Dakota has the country’s eighth-highest death rate from Covid-19, but Ms. Noem received a standing ovation at CPAC when she boasted that she had never ordered a “single business or church to close,” and yet another one when she attacked Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.
“I don’t know if you agree with me,” she said, “but Dr. Fauci is wrong a lot,” a line that earned some of the loudest applause of the day.
Joanne Collins Brock teaching second graders remotely last April from her classroom at the St. Francis School in Goshen, Ky.Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Kentucky expects to be the first state in the nation to fully vaccinate every teacher who wants a shot, Gov. Andy Beshear said on the CBS program “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Mr. Beshear said the state had rushed teachers to the front of the line, faster than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance had recommended, in order to get students back in school. Kentucky has pushed to reopen all its schools for in-person learning by Monday.
“For us, this was a work force issue, it was development for our children scholastically, emotionally and socially,” he said, noting that deciding who qualifies as an essential worker and prioritizing some people above others is a contentious process.
“We made this call early on, we stuck to it, and no matter what you decide during Covid, some are going to oppose it,” he said. “But it’s about trying to do the right thing, the best thing for your people, and then to let the consequences be what they’ll be.”
Teachers are now eligible for the vaccine in 32 states, according to a New York Times tracker, and grocery workers and other essential workers have also begun to receive shots in some states.
Governor Beshear said his state has been expanding its capacity to administer doses, and that the newly authorized Johnson & Johnson vaccine would be a “game changer” because of its single-dose protocol.
Dunia Perez and her family huddling inside their apartment in Austin, Texas, on their fourth day with no electricity or running water during the recent winter storm.Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times
More than a week after a powerful winter storm barreled through Texas, some experts say that the conditions — which forced hundreds of people across the state to huddle together in homes, cars and shelters to seek warmth — could lead to an increase in coronavirus cases.
Coronavirus case reporting dropped precipitously for a week in Texas during the storm and has subsequently risen again sharply in the week since, so it is still too early too discern any specific growth or decline in case numbers there. But experts say that the conditions created during the storm raised concerns.
“It is possible to see an uptick from the Texas storm,” said Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist at UTHealth School of Public Health in Dallas. “We had a lot of things going against us,” Dr. Jetelina said, noting that she, like many others, had to go from house to house when she lost power.
People stood in long lines for water and food at grocery stores and food distribution sites, stayed overnight in warming centers, and crashed with friends and family while electricity cut out and pipes burst in their homes.
Although it’s unclear how many people are still displaced because of the storm, reports from various cities suggest that thousands across Texas may have been forced to seek shelter.
In Fort Worth, almost 200 people took refuge at a convention center. In Dallas, a convention center housed about 650 people, The Texas Tribune reported, and one site in Houston had almost 800 people, while some 500 people were living in emergency shelters in Austin, officials said. Even in Del Rio, a smaller city, officials reported that almost 40 people had to stay at the city’s warming center.
“There are very real possibilities that the coronavirus either had superspreader events or was more easily transmissible because people were congregated indoors for long periods of time,” Dr. Jetelina said. “It is a little bit worrying.”
But cases could also go the other way, she said, because millions of people were forced to stay home while work and school were largely canceled. With the data reporting lags, it is still too early to tell, she noted, so the full impact from the Texas storm on case numbers will not be known for at least another week. Even then, Dr. Jetelina said, it will be hard to tell whether an uptick in cases is related to the storm or to new, more contagious variants — or to a combination of both.
Although the average rate of daily new cases reported in Texas has returned to pre-storm levels, it remains about half of what it was in January.
That broader decline mirrors the fall in cases nationally in recent weeks, as the average daily new cases in the United States hovers around 70,000 — far below its peak of 250,000 last month.
The stories of people gathering together in desperate search of heat and water were ubiquitous across Texas.
In San Antonio, Diana Gaitan had more water and power than her relatives did. So several of them ended up crashing at her home, she said while waiting in a food distribution line at the San Antonio Food Bank last weekend. At one point, there were a dozen people staying overnight in Ms. Gaitan’s home.
“We were all stuck inside the house,” she said.
A Palestinian woman receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday.Mahmoud Illean/Associated Press
JERUSALEM — The Israeli government approved a measure on Sunday to vaccinate tens of thousands of Palestinian laborers, after facing fierce criticism over the small number of inoculations it had provided to Palestinians living under its military occupation.
Israeli medical teams will soon begin vaccinating Palestinians who have permits to work in Israel or in settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to a statement by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Defense Ministry unit that is responsible for liaising with the Palestinians.
There are approximately 80,000 Palestinians who have permits to work in Israel, and about 30,000 who have permits for work in the settlements. Most are construction workers, but some have jobs on farms or in factories, stores, restaurants and other workplaces.
The tens of thousands of Palestinians who work in Israel without official documents would not be eligible for inoculations.
A heated debate has raged for weeks over whether Israel bears responsibility for the health of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip. Human rights groups have argued that international law requires Israel to provide Palestinians with the same access to vaccines as its own citizens receive. But supporters of Israel’s policies have contended that the Palestinians assumed responsibility for health services when they signed the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.
As of Sunday, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has received 2,000 doses from Israel and 10,000 from Russia, according to Palestinian officials. Israel has put the number of doses it sent at 2,200, and promised to hand over another 3,000.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has obtained 20,000 doses from the United Arab Emirates and 2,000 from the Russian shipment to the Palestinian Authority.
Olympic Rings and the Japanese flag outside the Olympic Museum in Tokyo last August.Charly Triballeau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In the final months before this summer’s Tokyo Olympics, organizers and government health officials are grappling with how best to address vaccinations for athletes. How they proceed could determine whether the Olympics unfold as a cathartic mass celebration of international sports, or a monthlong global super-spreader event.
A foremost challenge is one of bioethics. In any other year, the athletes — young, healthy and obviously very fit — would be ushered to the back of the line. But after Japan’s rising case counts forced many of the country’s largest cities into a state of emergency last month, the question has become rather more vexing.
A growing number of countries, a group as diverse as India, Hungary and Israel, have announced that they will push their Olympians to the front of their vaccination lines. Mexico’s president this month placed his country’s athletes in a priority group alongside medical workers and teachers. Lithuania began administering vaccine shots to its Olympians weeks ago.
But in countries including the United States, Britain and Italy, there is opposition to the idea that athletes should be given priority, as counter to their duty to be role models.
“Athletes in the U.S. agree that they should wait their proper place in line,” said Bree Schaaf, a former Olympian who is now the chair of Team USA Athletes’ Advisory Council.
The debate pits those appealing to rigid ideas of bioethical morality against others calling for common-sense exceptions in extraordinary times. The Olympics will, after all, bring together representatives of more than 200 countries for several weeks, and then send them home to every corner of the globe.
“Athletes are essential workers,” said Arthur Caplan, a professor of medical ethics at the New York University School of Medicine, echoing views expressed recently by the governments of Denmark, Serbia and the Philippines, who have all said they will usher prospective Olympians toward the front of the vaccination line.
Caplan said that while the focus of this pandemic had rightly been on the physical consequences of the deadly virus, not enough attention was being paid to the psychosocial side effects of widespread lockdowns. He said sports, in that regard, provided a healthy distraction.
“Maybe we should do what we need to do to make it possible for them to entertain us, to help us bear up under tough isolation circumstances,” he said.
A police van set on fire in Barcelona on Saturday by protesters demonstrating against the arrest of the rapper Pablo Hasél.Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press
For 10 nights, Barcelona’s streets, long quiet from pandemic curfews, have erupted in sometimes violent demonstrations that have spread to Madrid and other Spanish hubs.
What began as a protest over the arrest in mid-February of Pablo Hasél, a Spanish rapper known as a provocateur, has become a collective outcry by a generation that has struggled through years of economic hardship and that faces a lost future even after the pandemic ends.
The frustration is not limited to Spain. Across Europe, university life has been deeply altered by the limitations of virtual classes. Social isolation is endemic. Anxiety and depression have reached alarming rates among young people nearly everywhere, mental health experts and studies have found. The police and mostly young protesters have also clashed in other parts of Europe, including last month in Amsterdam.
“It’s not the same now for a person who is 60 — or a 50-year-old with life experience and everything completely organized — as it is for a person who is 18 now and has the feeling that every hour they lose to this pandemic, it’s like losing their entire life,” said Enric Juliana, an opinion columnist with La Vanguardia, Barcelona’s leading newspaper.
Barcelona was once one of the best places in Europe to be young, with all-night bars and music festivals on the beach. But the crisis, which devastated tourism and shrank the national economy by 11 percent last year, was a catastrophe for Spain’s young adults.
For those who lived through the financial crisis of 2008, which took one of its heaviest tolls in Spain, the pandemic brings a strong sense of déjà vu. Once again, young people have had to move back into the homes of their parents, with entry-level jobs being among the first to vanish.
But the pandemic has cut deeper than past economic downturns. It hit at a time when unemployment in Spain for people under 25 was already high, at 30 percent. Now 40 percent of Spain’s youth are unemployed, the highest rate in Europe, according to statistics by the European Union.
For many young people, the arrest of the rapper Mr. Hasél — and his rage-against-the-machine defiance — has become a symbol of the frustration of Spain’s young people.
A member of the National Guard directing traffic at a mass vaccination site at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., this month.Jim Wilson/The New York Times
With the nation’s coronavirus vaccine supply expected to swell over the next few months, states and cities are rushing to open mass vaccination sites capable of injecting thousands of shots a day into the arms of Americans, an approach the Biden administration says will be crucial for reaching herd immunity in a nation of 330 million.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has joined in, too: It recently helped open seven megasites in California, New York and Texas, relying on active-duty troops to staff them, and it plans to open many more.
Some mass sites, including those at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and State Farm Stadium in suburban Phoenix, aim to inject at least 12,000 people a day once sufficient supplies are in hand; the site in Phoenix already operates around the clock.
On Saturday, the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency authorization to Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, and both Moderna and Pfizer had promised much larger weekly shipments of vaccines by early spring.
In addition to using mass sites, President Biden wants pharmacies, community clinics that serve the poor and mobile vaccination units to play major roles in increasing the vaccination rate.
With only about 9 percent of adults fully vaccinated to date, the kind of scale that mass sites provide may be essential in meeting the huge demand, as more people become eligible for the vaccines and as more infectious variants of the virus proliferate in the United States.
But there are clear signs that they won’t be able to address a different challenge lying ahead: the many Americans who are more difficult to reach and who may be reluctant to get the shots.
Drive-through clinics can be better than indoor sites for infection control, some experts say — people roll down their car windows only for the injection — and are more comfortable for recipients than standing in line would be. But a month after a drive-through mass vaccination site opened in East Hartford, Conn., the approach’s weaknesses are also clear.
Traffic can get snarled on the busy road leading to the site, and bad weather can shut it down, requiring hundreds of appointments to be rescheduled on short notice. Spotty vaccine supply, which forced sites in California to close for a few days recently, can also wreak havoc.
More significantly, you need a car, gas money and, for some people, a driver to get to and from the site.
People like Annette Carlin of Novato, Calif., find it challenging to navigate the web sites and notification systems associated with getting vaccinated. Kenny Hurtado for The New York Times
The sometimes-chaotic vaccine rollout has come with a maze of confusing registration pages and clunky health care websites. And the technological savvy required to navigate the text alerts, push notifications and email reminders that are second nature to the digital generation has put older adults who need the vaccine the most at a disadvantage. As a result, people who lack tech skills are missing out on potentially lifesaving shots.
The digital divide between generations has always been stark, but the pandemic’s abrupt curtailing of in-person interactions has made that division even more apparent.
Advocates for older Americans, 22 million of whom lack wired broadband access at home, say it is ridiculous that a program that has vaccinating vulnerable older people as one of its top priorities would be set up to depend on internet know-how, Twitter announcements and online event pages.
“We’re running into a crisis where connectivity is a life-or-death alternative for people,” said Tom Kamber, the executive director of Older Adults Technology Services, a nonprofit organization that trains older people to use technology. “It couldn’t get much more stark than people being told, ‘If you go outside, you’re likely to be at risk of dying.’”
People in nursing homes, among the first to get vaccines, had staff members to assist them. But when vaccines became available to a wider group of older adults in late December and early January, many who lived alone had to navigate the rollout by themselves.
Federal agencies like the Administration for Community Living, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as nonprofit groups, say they are doing what they can to guide older adults, but they are stretched thin.
As of Thursday, about 24 million Americans ages 65 and older, or about 41 percent, had received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose, according to population and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
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