Now that the Food and Drug Administration has approved Moderna’s vaccine, advisers to the CDC must now vote to recommend it, and the CDC must accept that recommendation before vaccinations can begin. The advisory group will meet on Saturday morning.
The second green light comes now that hundreds of Americans across the country have already received their first dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, which was approved by the FDA last week.
“This is the beginning of the end,” Adams told CNN Friday night. ‘Make no mistake, it will be a few difficult weeks. We still have work to do to get over this wave, but I want people to be encouraged. ‘
He said he chose to get the vaccine on TV because he wanted the American public to “understand that I looked at the data, that I worked with the companies, and that I felt safe getting the vaccine.”
“Truly, this is a life-and-death message for black people about the coronavirus,” said Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice.
A raging pandemic that is far from over
Despite the promising news, it is not quite the end. In many parts of the US, Covid-19 is still raging in communities.
- More than 18,000 Americans died from Covid-19 in the past week. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projects more than 237,000 Americans to Covid-19 over the next three months.
- For the 13th day in a row, the country beat its own record in hospital admissions. There are now more than 114,700 Covid-19 patients in the US, according to the COVID tracking project.
- For the past week, the US reported an average of more than 219,000 new Covid-19 infections per day. On Friday, the country broke a record with more than 249,700 new infections.
- Three health workers in Alaska had allergic reactions after receiving a dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines this week. The FDA has said there is a “small chance” that the vaccine could cause a serious allergic reaction. Because so many people are using the vaccine at the same time, the public may experience these serious reactions as much more often than they actually are.
Johns Hopkins launches vaccine tracker
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has now launched a new vaccine tracking tool that provides “daily updates and a nationwide perspective on the progress of COVID-19 vaccine rollout” in the US.
The tool is currently collecting data from 10 states that have begun to publicly report the number of vaccines administered, including Connecticut, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
“I want to warn everyone that there will be some hiccups because this is all very new,” said Beth Blauer, executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Centers for Civic Impact. “The data is coming out faster than we’ve ever seen government data being produced, so we need to give a little favor to the states that do that reporting.”
Massachusetts health officials said it was not clear why the dose numbers have changed.
“The Department of Health now expects to receive just over 145,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of December – a number that’s been cut from 180,000, that’s down about 20%,” Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders said.
“At the moment it is not clear to us why the shipment quantities have been adjusted,” he said. “We are certainly frustrated that we will not receive the amount we expected in the first wave and are working to clarify what this means,” added the governor.
Different states, different measures
As state and federal officials prepare for more vaccine shipments, different parts of the country are reporting different Covid-19 trends.
In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said hospitals are in “crisis management” mode and that capacity has been added to facilities across the state.
“I think hospitals can save this,” he said. “We learned a lot in the spring.”
“LA County is on track to become the epicenter of the pandemic,” warned Dr. Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at LAC + USC Medical Center, Friday.
“We’re being crushed,” Spellberg added of the county hospitals. ‘I’m not going to soften this. We are being crushed. ‘
In-person classes can resume in high schools and indoor venues such as movie theaters can reopen with capacity limits and other security measures, the governor said. Outdoor group fitness activities and non-contact outdoor sports can also be resumed.
CNN’s Ben Tinker, Amanda Watts, Hollie Silverman, Deidre McPhillips, Jen Christensen and Arman Azad contributed to this report.