Vaccines and immunisation

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      Kamala Harris promises federal relief for Texas victims of winter storms

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      Kamala Harris has sent a message to residents of Texas and other states hit by power outages and prolonged winter conditions that help is on the way.“I just want to mention all of those folks in Texas and the mid-Atlantic,” the vice-president said in a live interview on Wednesday morning on NBC’s Today show, her first national network interview since taking office.“I know they can’t see us right now, because they’re without electricity, but the president and I are thinking of them, and really hope we can do everything that is possible through the signing of the emergency orders to get federal relief to support them.”Biden signed a declaration of emergency for Texas on Sunday, opening the way for state officials to move more quickly to tap a larger share of federal aid.Harris also echoed a promise made by Joe Biden on Tuesday night that the United States would have enough doses on hand to vaccinate “all Americans” by July. “We have a vaccine now, and that is great, but we need to get it in the arms of all Americans,” Harris told the Today show host Savannah Guthrie.“And as the president said last night, we expect that that will be done in terms of having the available supply by the end of July, and so we are very excited about that.”Harris touted the speed with which the federal government is sending vaccine doses to states, a rate the White House pegs at 13.5m doses a week or a 57% increase since the inauguration.“As quickly as we’re producing it, we’re getting it out,” she said.Challenged on a guideline issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying teachers could return to work without being vaccinated, Harris said the White House felt strongly that teachers should be bumped up in line for vaccine doses.“Teachers should be a priority,” she said. “We think they should be a priority, and the states are making decisions individually.”Teachers’ unions have expressed concern that Biden’s plan to reopen most elementary schools in the next three months could expose teachers to health risks.While the federal government issues recommendations about who should receive vaccine doses in what order, each state maintains its own priority list.Harris said that a $1.9tn Covid relief and economic stimulus package the Biden administration is trying to guide through Congress would help make schools safer by providing funds to improve ventilation, erect social distancing barriers and other measures.“Our goal is that as many K-8 schools as possible will reopen within the first 100 days,” Harris said. “Our goal is that it will be five days a week. And so we have to work to achieve that goal.”To respond to complaints from states that there remained a lack of coordination on federally supplied aid, Harris said the Biden administration had begun to put national protocols in place to support states “that need that kind of coordination and support”.As part of its vaccine initiative, federal agencies have doubled direct shipments of vaccine doses to pharmacies, Harris said, and expanded a program to ship doses to community health centers serving vulnerable populations.“We just want to say to everybody, just please get vaccinated,” Harris said. “And in the interim, wear a mask, social distance and make sure you wash your hands and do that frequently.”Harris deflected a question about whether Donald Trump should face criminal charges after being acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial earlier this month.“You know, right now Savannah I’m focused on what we need to do to get relief to American families,” Harris said. “And that is my highest priority, it is our administration’s highest priority, it’s our job, it’s a job we were elected to do, and that’s our focus.“I haven’t reviewed the case through the lens of being a prosecutor, I’m reviewing the case of Covid in America through the lens of being vice-president of America.” More

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      Biden's pandemic problem: Politics Weekly Extra podcast

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      Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist Laurie Garrett about what Joe Biden needs to do to get a grip on the Covid crisis in the US

      How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

      When Joe Biden entered the Oval Office as president, he got to work trying to figure out how to mitigate the coronavirus situation in the US, and what exactly he was up against. Jonathan speaks to the expert on how governments plan for pandemics, Pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist Laurie Garrett about how she knew a crisis like this was coming but why no one in government chose to act. They also discuss what the Biden administration needs to do next. Send us your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts More

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      The 8 January Guardian Weekly – when will the vaccines make life better?

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      Welcome to another edition of the Guardian Weekly. Monday should have been a celebratory day in the United Kingdom as the potentially game-changing Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was administered for the first time since being approved. Alas … it was also the day when it became clear that the country’s Covid crisis had moved drastically out of control.The spread of a new, more transmissible variant of the virus has seen infections in the UK soar and hospitals at breaking point. In a primetime television address, Boris Johnson informed the nation that all schools in England – openings had already been delayed elsewhere in the UK – would be closed until at least mid-February and that already-tight lockdown restrictions would be extended further.Will vaccines offer a way out of this disaster? And when? In this week’s cover story, Observer science editor Robin McKie looks at how we might judge the success of mass inoculation programmes. Then Peter Beaumont considers the global vaccine picture and Oliver Holmes reports from Israel which has stormed ahead, having already given more than 10% of its population the jab.Elsewhere, it’s a vital week in American politics. As the Weekly was being printed, Georgians were voting in a double special Senate election that could tip the balance of the upper house. That vote was preceded by the wild phone call made by Donald Trump to Georgia state election officials demanding that they find him enough votes to reverse the decision of the state to elect Joe Biden in November. There were also extraordinary, dangerous moves by other Republicans to challenge the electoral college results in Congress on Wednesday. David Smith tries to make sense of Trump’s final, desperate attempt to subvert democracy.This week’s edition also features reporting from Sally Williams on how people in Mozambique recovered from Cyclone Idai, which caused havoc in early 2019. Ed Pilkington looks at the case of Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row in the United States. And, in a fascinating report, Laura Spinney looks at the future and history of hospital design in the post-Covid era. If we ever get to it …Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your home More

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      Biden criticises Trump over slow Covid-19 vaccine rollout – video

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      US President-elect Joe Biden has criticised the Trump administration’s promise of a swift coronavirus vaccine rollout, saying it has ‘fallen far behind’ expectations. Biden, speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, said some 2 million people have been vaccinated, well short of the 20 million Trump had promised by the end of the year. Biden said the vaccine rollout is the ‘greatest operational challenges we’ve ever faced as a nation’ and outlined his plan for ramping up vaccinations, including the use of the Defense Production Act More

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      US government agrees to buy 100m extra doses of Pfizer vaccine

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      Pfizer and BioNTech will provide the US with an additional 100m doses of coronavirus vaccine by mid-summer under a new $2bn deal with the American government.This addition means that Pfizer and BioNTech will deliver a total of 200m doses to the US and enable some 100 million people to be inoculated against the deadly virus.The pharmaceutical companies announced their plan on Wednesday morning in a press release. They plan to deliver all these doses by mid-summer, with a minimum of 70m delivered by 30 June and the remainder “no later than” 31 July. Under this agreement, the US will also have the option to obtain another 400m doses.There have been 18,238,233 Covid-19 cases in the US, with 322,849 recorded deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The US will see its deadliest year in history largely due to Covid-19. Experts believe that overall US life expectancy could drop by as much as three years.“Securing more doses from Pfizer and BioNTech for delivery in the second quarter of 2021 further expands our supply of doses across the Operation Warp Speed portfolio,” said Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services. “This new federal purchase can give Americans even more confidence that we will have enough supply to vaccinate every American who wants it by June 2021.”Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine was the first to receive emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. The first shipments were sent to states last week.The FDA has also granted emergency use authorization to Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine. While both vaccines require two doses, Moderna does not have to be stored in ultra-cold freezers.News of these additional doses came several weeks after reports revealed that the Trump Administration had passed on the opportunity to purchase millions of additional doses of Pfizer’s vaccine. The administration’s contract with Pfizer was for 100m doses, and provided an opportunity to buy up to 500m additional doses.Trump’s administration decided not to secure an additional 100m doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for the second quarter of 2021, however.While more vaccines are expected to come on line, US officials are also contending with apparent vaccine hesitancy. New data indicated that approximately 50% of Americans would take the vaccine, but 25%of adults said they weren’t certain and another 25% said they would not.Experts have maintained that “herd immunity” – when the overall population has mostly become immune because a significant proportion is – will be achieved when 60% to 70% acquire some level of immunity.The news comes as the devastating current surge has wreaked havoc across the US and especially in California, where officials are warning that the state’s healthcare system may fracture in weeks if people ignore holiday social distancing.Top executives from the state’s largest hospital systems Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health and Sutter Health, which together cover 15 million Californians, said on Tuesday that increasingly exhausted staff, many pressed into service outside their normal duties, are now attending to Covid-19 patients in hallways and conference rooms.The chief executive of the Martin Luther King community hospital in Los Angeles, Dr Elaine Batchlor, separately said patients there have spilled over into the gift shop and five tents outside the emergency department.“We don’t have space for anybody. We’ve been holding patients for days because we can’t get them transferred, can’t get beds for them,” said Dr Alexis Lenz, an emergency room physician at El Centro regional medical center in Imperial county, in the south-east corner of the state.California is closing in on 2m confirmed cases of Covid-19. The state on Tuesday reported nearly 32,700 newly confirmed cases. Another 653 patients were admitted to hospitals, one of the biggest one-day hospitalization jumps for a total approaching 18,000.State data models have predicted the hospitalizations could top 100,000 in a month if current rates continue.More worrying than lack of beds is a lack of personnel. The pool of available travel nurses is drying up as demand for them jumped 44% over the last month, with California, Texas, Florida, New York and Minnesota requesting the most extra staff, according to San Diego-based health care staffing firm Aya Healthcare.“We’re now in a situation where we have surges all across the country, so nobody has many nurses to spare,” said Dr Janet Coffman, a professor of public policy at the University of California in San Francisco.California is contacting places like Australia and Taiwan to fill the need for 3,000 temporary medical workers, particularly nurses trained in critical care. More

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      Mike Pence receives Covid-19 vaccine on live TV: 'I didn't feel a thing'

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      Mike Pence received the Covid-19 vaccination on live television on Friday morning, saying it was a “medical miracle” and reassuring Americans facing a surging rise of cases around the country “that hope is on the way”.The televised event came amid concerns that the rollout of the vaccine in the US could be hampered by doubts from people over its quick authorization, the anti-vaxxer movement, and skepticism from some in the Black community because of historic distrust of institutions.“Confidence in the vaccine is what brings us here this morning,” the vice-president said. “I didn’t feel a thing. Well done.”His wife, Karen Pence, and the US surgeon general, Jerome Adams, also received shots during the televised White House event. It was also attended by Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Protection, and Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who praised Pence and said it was “now up to all of us to step forward and get vaccinated”.In recent days, Fauci has been advocating that Pence, as well as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, get the vaccination as soon as possible “for security reasons”. Biden officials have said the president-elect will receive the vaccine in public in Delaware on Monday to send a “clear message it is safe”.A few hours after Pence was vaccinated, House speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted photos of her vaccination.Today, with confidence in science & at the direction of the Office of the Attending Physician, I received the COVID-19 vaccine. As the vaccine is being distributed, we must all continue mask wearing, social distancing & other science-based steps to save lives & crush the virus. pic.twitter.com/tijVCSnJd7— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) December 18, 2020
      Pence is the first member of the White House to be publicly vaccinated. Trump was infected with Covid-19 in October and multiple outbreaks of the virus have occurred among staffers.After initial reports that White House officials would be receiving the first doses of the vaccine, Trump tweeted last week that he halted the Oval Office’s rollout. “I am not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time,” he said.On Friday, Pence alluded to the imminent approval of a second vaccine developed by drug company Moderna, saying “we have one and perhaps, within hours, two vaccines.”A panel of outside advisers with the Food and Drug Administration, which is in charge of approving vaccinations, held a meeting yesterday to discuss Moderna’s vaccine. Following the meeting, the FDA could make an approval as early as Friday afternoon that would allow the vaccine’s distribution for emergency use.The US federal government has said it has six million doses of the Moderna vaccine ready for distribution upon its approval. Nearly three million doses of a vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech were distributed throughout the country this week after it was approved late last Friday.While the White House has tried to soften the appearance of the virus’ spread in the country, Pence acknowledged that “with cases rising across the country, hospitalizations rising across the country, we have a ways to go”. On Thursday, the US had 233,271 new cases of the virus and 3,270 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.Nearly 310,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 infection.States around the country have seen increases in infections after the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November. Public health experts have pleaded with American to stay home as Christmas and New Year approaches, and millions of Americans are expected to travel to see family. The American Automobile Association estimates that 85 million people will be traveling, most by car, between 23 December and 3 January.An influential data model from Seattle-based Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) predicted on Friday that the US will see an additional 262,000 deaths by 1 April, reaching a total of 562,000 deaths by that point. IHME had previously predicted a total of 502,000 Americans would have died from Covid-19 by that time. The institute cited rising infection and hospitalizations numbers for the uptick in its prediction. The vaccine’s rollout will save 34,000 lives, according to the institute, though it noted that mandates on masks and indoor gatherings could further curb the spread.“The most important measures to keep the death toll down in the next months will be expanding mask use and re-imposition of some mandates in states with severe stress on hospital systems”, the institute said in a statement. More

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      Biden should get Covid vaccine soon as possible for ‘security reasons’, Fauci says

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      Pfizer-made vaccine being administered while second vaccine, made by Moderna, receives encouraging assessmentUS politics – live coveragePresident-elect Joe Biden should be vaccinated against the coronavirus as soon as possible for “security reasons”, top US public health expert Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday, as a second vaccine candidate, made by Moderna, received an encouraging assessment ahead of likely approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Related: Can US employers order workers to get the coronavirus vaccine? Continue reading… More

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      Donald Trump reverses plan to give White House officials Covid vaccine

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      The US recorded another 1,389 deaths from Covid-19 on Sunday, pushing the toll closer to 300,000 as hospitalisations continued to hit new heights. There was a ray of hope on Monday morning, however, as the first vaccinations were carried out using the Food and Drug Administration-approved Pfizer vaccine.
      “I feel hopeful today. Relieved,” said critical case nurse Sandra Lindsay after getting a shot at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York.
      Watching via video, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said: “This is the light at the end of the tunnel. But it’s a long tunnel.”
      From Washington, Donald Trump tweeted: “First Vaccine Administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!”
      Earlier, responding to a New York Times report that senior administration staffers would be among those vaccinated first, Trump rowed back, tweeting: “People working in the White House should receive the vaccine somewhat later in the programme, unless specifically necessary. I have asked that this adjustment be made.”
      According to Johns Hopkins University, the US death toll stood at 298,949 out of a caseload of 16,242,953, itself up by 190,920 on Sunday. Deaths were down from a daily peak of more than 3,000 last week but according to the Covid Tracking Project 109,331 people were hospitalised, a record. A record 21,231 people were in intensive care.
      States across the US are under increasing strain, healthcare systems creaking and economies, already battered, close to damaging collapse.
      In California, where large parts of the state are under lockdown until after Christmas, Alan Auerbach, director of the Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance at the University of California, Berkeley, told the Guardian an eventual recovery could look more like a “K” than a “V”, as high earners thrive and the most vulnerable plunge.
      “We have lacked a coherent national strategy for dealing with the pandemic and 2021 is probably going to be a pretty tough year for California,” he said.
      In Washington, a bipartisan group of senators was due to unveil a $908bn stimulus package, though it was reported to have little chance of success. Agreement between House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell remains elusive.
      Though the vaccination effort just beginning will be the biggest public health push in US history, it will take some time for the vaccine to reach most of the population. On Monday, health secretary Alex Azar told NBC the vaccine will be available to the broader public “by late February going into March”. By that time, he said, vaccine distribution will be “like a flu vaccination campaign” at local pharmacies.
      That timeline is ambitious, especially in light of news that the administration did not expand its order for the Pfizer vaccination, sparking concerns there will be a shortage after initial doses. Vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, which is expected to be approved by the FDA for emergency use this week, require two doses.
      According to the Times, the Trump administration is “rushing to roll out a $250m public education campaign to encourage Americans to take the coronavirus vaccine”. Former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush are among famous names who have said they are willing to be vaccinated in public and an ABC News poll released on Monday said 80% of respondents said they would take the vaccine.
      Speaking to Fox News Sunday, however, Dr Moncef Slaoui, chief science adviser to the federal effort to speed vaccine development, said he was “very concerned” about skepticism about the vaccine in some circles.
      “Unfortunately … there’s been a confusion between how thorough and scientific and factual the work that has been done is, and the perception that people are thinking that we cut corners,” Slaoui said. “I can guarantee you that no such things have happened, that we follow the science.”
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      Trump, who recovered from Covid-19 in October, said he would not initially be taking the shot and was reversing an administration directive to vaccinate top officials while public distribution is limited to frontline health workers and people in nursing homes and long-term care.
      Trump made the announcement hours after his administration confirmed that senior officials, including some aides who work in close proximity to Trump and Mike Pence, would be offered vaccines as soon as this week.
      “I am not scheduled to take the vaccine,” Trump tweeted, “but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time.”
      It was not immediately clear what effect Trump’s tweet would have on efforts to protect top leadership, two people briefed on the matter told the Associated Press.
      News that White House staff would receive the vaccine early drew criticism on social media. Trump and his aides have flouted Covid-19 guidelines issued by his own administration, including hosting large holiday parties with maskless attendees this month.
      Officials said earlier on Sunday doses of the Pfizer vaccine would be made available to those who work in close quarters with the nation’s leaders, to prevent Covid-19 spreading in the White House and other critical facilities. The move would be consistent with the rollout of rapid testing machines, which were reserved to protect the White House and other facilities.
      According to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is not yet enough information to determine whether those who have had Covid-19 should also get the vaccine.
      Pence has not come down with the virus, and his aides have been discussing when and how he should receive the shot. Aides to the president-elect, Joe Biden, have been discussing how he should receive the vaccine and working to establish plans to boost virus safeguards in the West Wing. More