Now that the Food and Drug Administration has authorized the Moderna vaccine, CDC advisers must now vote to recommend it, and the CDC must accept that recommendation before vaccinations can begin. The advisory group is scheduled to meet on Saturday morning.
The second green light comes when hundreds of Americans across the country have already received the first dose of Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, which was approved by the FDA last week.
“This is the beginning of the end,” Adams told CNN on Friday night. “Don’t make any mistakes about it, it will be a few difficult weeks. We still have work to do to overcome this growth, but I want people to be encouraged.”
He said he chose to receive the vaccine on television because he wanted the American public to “understand that I analyzed the data, worked with companies, and felt safe when I received the vaccine.”
“Indeed, this is a message of life and death for blacks about coronavirus,” said Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice.
An angry pandemic that is far from over
Despite the promising news, it’s not really the end. In many parts of the United States, Covid-19 is still raging in communities.
- More than 18,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 in the past week. The Institute for Health Metrics and Assessment at the University of Washington projects another 237,000 Americans to die from Covid-19 in the next three months.
- For the 13th day in a row, the country has surpassed its own hospitalization record. Currently, there are more than 114,700 patients with Covid-19 in the United States COVID follow-up project.
- In the last week, the US has reported an average of over 219,000 new Covid-19 infections each day. On Friday, the country broke a record, reporting over 249,700 new infections.
- Three Alaska workers had allergic reactions after receiving a dose of Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine this week. The FDA said there was a “remote chance” that the vaccine would cause a severe allergic reaction. Because so many people get the vaccine at the same time, the public may perceive these severe reactions as much more common 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 the launch of COVID-19 vaccination” in the United States.
The tool currently captures 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 everything is very new,” said Beth Blauer, executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civic Impact. “The data is coming faster than we’ve ever seen producing data from a government, and so we have to give a little bit of a thank you to those states that make these reports.”
Massachusetts health officials said it was unclear why the dose numbers had changed.
“The Department of Public Health now expects to receive … just over 145,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine by the end of December – a number that has been reduced from 180,000, a decline of about 20%,” he said. Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said.
“At this time, it is not clear to us why the shipping amounts have been adjusted,” he said. “We are certainly frustrated that we will not receive the amount we were expecting in the first wave and that we are working to get clarity on what this means,” the governor added.
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, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said hospitals are in “crisis management” mode, and capacity has been added to statewide facilities.
“I think hospitals will be able to handle this,” he said. “I learned a lot in the spring.”
“LA County is on track to become the epicenter of the pandemic,” Dr. Brad Spellberg, medical director at LAC + USC Medical Center, warned Friday.
“We’re crushing,” Spellberg said of county hospitals. “I’m not going to wear this. We’re crushed.”
In-person classes can be resumed at high schools and indoor spaces, such as cinemas, can be reopened with capacity limits and other safety measures, the governor said. Group outdoor fitness activities and contactless outdoor sports can also be resumed.
Ben Tinker, Amanda Watts, Hollie Silverman, Deidre McPhillips, Jen Christensen and Arman Azad contributed to this report.