Now that the Food and Drug Administration has authorized the Moderna vaccine, now CDC advisors must vote to recommend it and the CDC must accept that recommendation before vaccinations begin. The advisory group is scheduled to meet Saturday morning.
The second green light comes when hundreds of Americans across the country have already received the first dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, which was authorized by the FDA last week.
“This is the beginning of the end,” Adams told CNN Friday night. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to be a couple of tough 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 television because he wanted the American public to “understand that I looked at the data, worked with companies, and felt safe receiving the vaccine.”
“Really, this is a life or death message for black people about the coronavirus,” said Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice.
A furious pandemic that is not over
Despite the promising news, it’s not the end. In many parts of the United States, Covid-19 continues to spread among communities.
- More than 18,000 Americans died from Covid-19 last week. The Institute for Health Metrics and Assessment at the University of Washington projects that more than 237,000 Americans will die from Covid-19 over the next three months.
- For the 13th day in a row, the country broke its own hospitalization record. There are now more than 114,700 patients with Covid-19 across the U.S., according to the COVID monitoring project.
- Over the past week, the U.S. has reported an average of more than 219,000 new Covid-19 infections each day. On Friday, the country broke a record and reported more than 249,700 new infections.
- Three Alaska health workers had allergic reactions after receiving a dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine this week. The FDA has said there is a “remote chance” the vaccine could cause a severe allergic reaction. Because so many people get the vaccine at once, the public may perceive these serious reactions as much more frequent than they really are.
Johns Hopkins launches vaccine locator
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has now launched a new vaccine monitoring tool that offers “daily updates and a nationwide perspective on the progress of COVID-19 vaccine implementation” in the U.S.
The tool currently captures data from ten states that have begun publicly reporting 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 Civic Impact Centers. “The data is coming out faster than we’ve ever seen a government produce data, so we have to give a little bit of grace to the states that make these reports.”
Massachusetts health officials said it was unclear why the dose numbers have changed.
“The Department of Public Health now expects to receive … just over 145,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of December, an amount that has been reduced by 180,000, a 20% drop,” he said. the secretary of Marylou Sudders, of Health and Human Services.
“At this time, it is not clear to us why the shipping amounts have been adjusted,” he said. “We are certainly frustrated that we did not receive the amount we expected in the first wave and we are working to get clarity on what that 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 that capacity has been added to facilities statewide.
“I think hospitals will be able to handle that,” he said. “We learned a lot in the spring.”
“LA County is moving toward becoming the epicenter of the pandemic,” Dr. Brad Spellberg, chief physician at LAC + USC Medical Center, warned Friday.
“We’re being crushed,” Spellberg added about county hospitals. “I’m not going to crush that. We’re crushing ourselves.”
Face-to-face classes can be resumed in high schools and indoor spaces, such as movie theaters, can reopen with capacity limits and other safety precautions, the governor said. Group outdoor fitness activities and contactless 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.