COVID news: CDC testing guidelines; Alabama cases; Moderna vaccine
Some significant developments:
- Florida's medical examiners – facing a massive statewide backlog – are no longer required to certify COVID-19 deaths. It means that deaths will be more quickly counted but will likely create tracking inconsistencies.
- As Hurricane Laura barrels toward the Gulf Coast, Texas is altering preparation efforts for Hurricane Laura, providing testing at some shelters, hosting evacuees at hotels, and reducing the number of evacuees allowed on state and local buses.
- Oahu, Hawaii's most populous island, is returning to stay-at-home orders in its fight against COVID-19.
- An outbreak in a Maine jail is being directly linked to an indoor wedding reception, which has now led to at least 60 positive cases and one death.
- American Airlines is laying off 17,500 frontline workers due to the coronavirus travel slump.
- Los Angeles County – the county with the highest number of infections in the U.S. – on Tuesday reported fewer than 1,000 cases for the first time since early June.
Today's numbers: The U.S. has more than 5.7 million confirmed infections and 178,000 deaths. Worldwide, there have been more than 820,000 deaths and 23.9 million cases, according to John Hopkins University data.
What we're reading: College administrators nationwide are welcoming students back to campus with strict mask guidelines and plenty of online class offerings. But as schools reckon with the possibility of cancelling in-person fall semesters, students are taking matters into their own hands if their campus is forced to shut down.
This file will be updated throughout the day. For updates in your inbox, subscribe to the Daily Briefing.
Pennsylvania Gov. calls for legalizing weed to repair economy crushed by COVID-19
Gov. Tom Wolf is calling on the Pennsylvania legislature to legalize recreational marijuana and use the tax revenue to help small businesses that have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic has steered Pennsylvania’s economy into a recession. And although programs such as the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and the Paycheck Protection Program have helped some, Wolf said, more needs to be done.
"The legislature can act right now to get us back on track as quickly as we possibly can," Wolf said at a news conference Tuesday.
He wants to see more money provided to front-line workers and working parents, as well as more grants created to support small businesses. These efforts could be funded, he said, with the $1.3 billion it has left from federal coronavirus stimulus relief and from the revenue from legalization of recreational marijuana.
– Sam Ruland, York Daily Record
Small study shows Moderna's potential vaccine triggers immune response in older adults
Biotech company Moderna announced that a small study of its potential vaccine shows it's as safe and apparently effective in older adults as in younger ones.
The company had released data on 15 younger adults, showing a 100-microgram dose appeared safe and triggered an immune response similar to people who had been infected with the coronavirus. The new data, which has not yet been published or scientifically reviewed, shows similar results among 10 adults between the ages of 56 and 70 and another 10 older than 71.
There had been some question about whether Moderna’s vaccine technology, which has never been used for an approved vaccine, would be as effective in older people, who are far more vulnerable to serious cases of COVID-19.
The company is pursuing larger trials to examine safety and effectiveness of its candidate vaccine, now called mRNA-1273. In a Phase 2 trial, the company has tested 300 younger adults and 250 over age 50. It has not released those results. Moderna has also begun a Phase 3 trial, intending to give 15,000 people mRNA-1273 and another 15,000 a placebo.
– Karen Weintraub
‘This change in policy will kill’: Experts troubled by CDC changes to COVID-19 testing guidelines
Infectious disease experts are not only confused, but also troubled, by the recent change in testing guidelines made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which said people without symptoms “do not necessarily need a test” – even if they’ve been exposed to the coronavirus.
“Our work on the ‘silent’ spread underscored the importance of testing people who have been exposed to COVID-19 regardless of symptoms,” tweeted Alison Galvani, director for the Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis at Yale School of Medicine. “This change in policy will kill.”
The CDC estimates in its COVID-19 Pandemic Planning Scenarios that 40% of infections are asymptomatic and 50% of transmission occur before symptoms appear. Experts worry that failing to test asymptomatic carriers could not only result in more infections but also hinder contact tracing efforts.
“If being in close personal contact with an infected person… isn’t sufficiently important enough to get tested, I don’t see that there’s any value in contact tracing,” said Peter Pitts, president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.
Before changes were made Monday, the CDC website previously said that testing was recommended “for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
Much more at link which will update thru the day.
It makes absolutely no sense!
