“We must vote for hope, vote for life, vote for a brighter future for all of our loved ones.” – Ed Markey
Advice from Dr Fauci: Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested Thanksgiving may be the beginning of a dark holiday season as the surge in coronavirus cases is likely to persist, or even get worse, through December, January and February.
“If the surge takes a turn of continuing to go up and you have the sustained greater than 100,000 infections a day and 1,300 deaths per day and the count keeps going up and up ... I don’t see it being any different during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays than during Thanksgiving,” Fauci said.
Dr. Fauci feels the country is in a vulnerable position heading into the holiday season because infections are too high to control surges when they arise because the up coming Holidays are indoor events and people are not following proper mitigating efforts like washing of hands, social distance and wearing masks. Dr. Fauci suggests that we all rethink Christmas and New Years activities “Everything we do has implications four to six weeks out.”
Sobering Facts: There were 181,490 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University data, the 23rd consecutive day of more than 100,000 newly reported cases. But the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluations recently estimated there are about twice as many cases as reported. It projected more than 450,000 daily cases by Dec. 25 if trends continue.
As of Saturday, Nov 28, 13,628,468 million people have been infected by the virus and at least 272,355 people have died.
More than 4 million of the total cases have been reported in the month of November (about 30%), and more than 100,000 cases have been recorded every day for the last 26 consecutive days. With this being said we must all be more vigilant and conscientious in not only protecting ourselves, but our families, friends and community. Combating the COVID-19 virus concerns everyone. We must remember we are all in this together.
We can reduce these numbers if we get 100% compliance in wearing masks and maintaining social distancing. Currently we are about 60-70% and if you watch TV this past weekend we are not maintaining social distancing well.
Symptoms of COVID -19 may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus.
Fever or chills Headaches
Cough New loss of taste or smell
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing Sore Throat
Fatigue Congestion or running nose
Muscle or body aches Nausea or Vomiting
Diarrhea
Look for emergency warning signs for COVID-19. If someone is showing any of these signs, seek emergency medical care immediately:
Trouble breathing
Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
New confusion
Inability to wake or stay awake
Bluish lips or face
Santa and COVID-19: However, there’s one tradition that Fauci says is safe to uphold: Santa. He’s naturally immune to the coronavirus, which means he can safely deliver presents on Christmas Eve.
“Santa is exempt from this because Santa, of all the good qualities, has a lot of good innate immunity,” Fauci said. “So, Santa is not going to be spreading any infections to anybody.”
On the verge of Vaccine distribution: Americans could start receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in mid-December, with an initial distribution of 6.4 million doses and a total of 40 million doses distributed by the end of the year, Trump administration officials said Tuesday.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said during a press briefing with an FDA advisory committee meeting to discuss an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine scheduled for Dec. 10, "if all goes well we could be distributing vaccine soon after Dec. 10" to all 50 states,
Can I Choose My COVID-19 Vaccine? HHS is working now on its recommendations for how to prioritize vaccine distribution, although "governors will determine distribution within their states," Azar said. "We hope our recommendations will carry weight with them." HHS is looking at the prioritization recommendations from both the CDC's NIH chief Francis Collins, MD, PhD, when asked during a press briefing last week whether people will be able to choose their vaccine, said there won't be enough doses in December for the whole country and "people who get offered one should feel quite happy about that."
Pfizer plans to ship 6.4 million doses of its vaccine across the U.S. in mid-December. Health care workers and vulnerable people will receive the first doses.
If healthcare workers will likely receive one of the mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, what about those younger, healthier adults at the bottom of the priority list, and thus ineligible for months? Might they be able to pick and choose among multiple products? The answer: a firm maybe.
The government has contracts for 100 million doses each of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, with the 200 million dose totals expected to be reached by spring of 2021.
That's enough for the highest-risk groups including healthcare personnel, nursing home residents, essential workers, and the medically vulnerable -- the "phase 1a/b/c" laid out by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Moncef Slaoui, MD, head of the federal Operation Warp Speed has said that he expects 70% of the U.S. population will be vaccinated by May 2021.
3rd major COVID-19 vaccine shown to be effective and cheaper: Drugmaker AstraZeneca said Monday that late-stage trials showed its COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective, suggesting the prospects of a relatively cheap, easy-to-store product that may become the vaccine of choice for the developing world.
The results are based on an interim analysis of trials in the U.K. and Brazil of a vaccine developed by Oxford University and manufactured by AstraZeneca. No hospitalizations or severe cases of COVID-19 were reported in those receiving the vaccine.
AstraZeneca is the third major drug company to report late-stage data for a potential COVID-19 vaccine as the world waits for scientific breakthroughs that will end a pandemic that has pummeled the world economy and led to 1.4 million deaths. But unlike the others, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doesn’t have to be stored at freezer temperatures, making it potentially easier to distribute, especially in developing countries.
“I think these are really exciting results,” Dr. Andrew Pollard, chief investigator for the trial, said at a news conference. “Because the vaccine can be stored at fridge temperatures, it can be distributed around the world using the normal immunization distribution system. And so our goal … to make sure that we have a vaccine that was accessible everywhere, I think we’ve actually managed to do that.”
Therapeutic Developments: Following the FDA's weekend authorization of Regeneron's monoclonal antibody cocktail for mild-moderate COVID-19, the federal government's Operation Warp Speed (OWS) is swinging into action, officials said Monday. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said OWS would ship 30,000 doses on Tuesday -- each eligible COVID-19 patient receives one dose -- with thousands more to go out in the days ahead.
Regeneron's CEO said that the company currently has 80,000 doses on hand and expects to ship 300,000 by early January, with 100,000 additional doses per month to come thereafter. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said OWS would ship 30,000 doses on Tuesday -- each eligible COVID-19 patient receives one dose -- with thousands more to go out in the days ahead.
Immunity once infected with COVID -19: People who've had COVID-19 are highly unlikely to contract it again for at least six months after their first infection, according to a British study of healthcare workers on the frontline of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
The findings should offer some reassurance for the more than 51 million people worldwide who have been infected with the pandemic disease, researchers at the University of Oxford said.
"This is really good news, because we can be confident that, at least in the short term, most people who get COVID-19 won't get it again," said David Eyre, a professor at Oxford's Nuffield Department of Population Health, who co-led the study.
Isolated cases of re-infection with COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, had raised concerns that immunity might be short-lived and that recovered patients may swiftly fall sick again. But the results of this study, carried out in a cohort of UK healthcare workers - who are among those at highest risk of contracting COVID-19 - suggest cases of reinfection are likely to remain extremely rare.
"Being infected with COVID-19 does offer protection against re-infection for most people for at least six months," Eyre said. "We found no new symptomatic infections in any of the participants who had tested positive for antibodies."
New Specific COVID -19 Test: The FDA authorized use of a COVID-19 semi-quantitative antibody testing kit that appears to detect the exact level of IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, test manufacturer Kantaro Biosciences announced on Wednesday.
COVID-SeroKlir received emergency use authorization (EUA) for the assay, which detects SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG antibodies against the full length spike protein and its receptor binding domain with 98.8% sensitivity and 99.6% specificity, Kantaro said. It is described as a two-step enzyme-linked immunoassay that can be used by any CLIA-certified laboratory with no proprietary equipment needed.
Measuring IgG antibody levels is useful not only for informing healthcare decision-making, but public health strategies and assessing vaccine response, the company added.
"Having a numerical understanding of antibody levels can be especially powerful for patients, enabling them to take control of their health and enjoy some peace of mind during these uncertain times," Kantaro's chief commercial officer, Sara Barrington, said in a statement.
Please let’s all be careful and rethink our Holiday plans as it appears the Thanksgiving break can be very deadly. Lets be mindful not only for ourselves, but our families, friends and communitiies.
Until next time, lets all be Safe, Stay Well, Stay Distant, Avoid Crowds, Wash your Hands, and Wear your MASK.
James A Vito, D.M.D.