The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday unveiled a centralized school reopening plan that includes safety and mitigation practices such as physical spacing and masking, as well as the use of new measures such as “podding.”
Podding involves keeping the same students together (as in a pod) to reduce potential student exposure to the virus. But questions about access to critical resources, such as better ventilation, testing, and masks, remain unanswered. At a press conference on Friday, CDC officials said the burden rests on Congress to pass on funding to implement such measures.
Biden’s administration has said it will prioritize education and get students and teachers back to school safely and fairly.
Other industries are also working on ways to start operating at pre-pandemic levels. The aviation industry, one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, has recently seen a test mandate for international flights, although the US government is also weighing test mandates for domestic flights. However, the aviation industry is pushing back against the movement, saying it is falsely putting the test burden on airlines and will have a negative effect on their bottom line.
In a letter to the White House’s COVID-19 Response Team, reviewed by Yahoo Finance, Boeing said the responsibility should lie with the federal government to fund such tests.
But Michael Mina, a testing expert and assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, said even the current international testing requirements are essentially pointless.
“The test for flights three to five days before you fly … is not effective,” Mina told Yahoo Finance.
In fact, getting results from those tests may not reflect your current health status, Mina said. That’s why he has continued to push for low-cost, fast antigen tests, rather than the more laborious but accurate PCR tests that need to be performed at the gate just before takeoff.
“The thing is, we need the tests, if it is to be effective we have to be very close to the event,” said Mina.
More vaccine doses
The US agreed to purchase a total of 200 million additional doses, 100 million each from Pfizer (PFE) and (MRNA), bringing the US total to 600 million doses from the only two authorized companies.
While that covers a majority of the U.S. population, it’s not enough for everyone as both vaccines require two doses. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is likely the next vaccine available to Americans, with a license that may come by the end of the month.
President Joe Biden announced the intention to purchase additional doses on Jan. 26, and White House officials have noted that the current batch of 200 million doses per company will likely be by the end of the second quarter.
The Pfizer vaccine, developed with BioNTech (BNTX), is sold to the US at the same price as previously announced, or about $ 1.95 billion for the 100 million doses.
Moderna did not disclose its prices, but noted that the company has already delivered 41 million doses to date. His commitment to the US is almost double the commitment to the European Union. The federal government has pledged up to $ 5.75 billion to develop, manufacture, and purchase Moderna’s vaccine to date.
According to the CDC, more than 68 million doses have been sent to date and more than 46 million have been administered in first and second doses.
Meanwhile, top health officials are concerned about the increasing spread of coronavirus variants. The B.1.1.7 variant, from the UK, is becoming the dominant species in the US, with over 981 cases reported in 37 states. Fewer cases have been reported of the more concerning B.1.351 strain, from South Africa, and P.1 strain, from Brazil, but experts believe these too are spreading.
In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and colleagues at the National Institute of Health stressed the need to contain the pandemic before it even stronger. Strains are emerging that can render vaccines ineffective.
“It is unclear whether changes in vaccine composition will be needed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic effectively; however, it is wise to be prepared. Some companies have announced plans to produce and test vaccines based on the drug. emerging variants, and such studies will provide important information about the potential to broaden the immune response, ”the authors wrote.
Dr. Paul Offit, a leading vaccine expert and pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP), said on Thursday that the group of experts gathered to develop a coordinated research strategy for therapies and vaccines has reunited over concerns about variants. .
“We actually thought we were done, but with the variants that are now emerging, we will meet again,” Offit said during an interview with JAMA on Thursday.
While vaccines look like they are now resistant to serious disease, Offit is worried about September this year, where the weather will turn colder and a new variety may emerge.
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