Total Doses Distributed = 718,395,045. Total Doses Administered = 570,111,773. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 256,880,347. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 218,996,861.
COVID-19 Vaccination Data Updates
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
President Joe Biden’s administration has been working for months to prepare people to rethink their personal risk calculations as the nation gets used to the idea of living with an endemic COVID-19.
But that measured approach disappeared abruptly when a federal judge on Monday threw out the federal requirement to mask up when using mass transit. The ruling added to the urgency of the messaging challenge as the administration tries to move past the virus in the lead-up to midterm elections.
After the government last month eased indoor mask-wearing guidelines for the vast majority of Americans – even in schools — masking on planes was one of the last redoubts of the national COVID-19 restrictions. Now, as the policy falls, the administration turns to accelerating its efforts to provide the best advice for millions making their own personal safety decisions in the still-dangerous pandemic.
It’s both a public health imperative and an important shift in emphasis for Biden’s political future.
“There is an opportunity now, instead of saying this is a disappointing ruling, they could say this is a good time to have a conversation about how we move forward in this pandemic about risk calculation,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja an infectious disease physician and a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“With COVID-19, I think we’re at a point with immunity from prior infections, vaccines, home tests and treatments that we can start to manage this the way we manage other infectious diseases,” he said.
Biden himself went all-in on flexibility Tuesday when asked if Americans should mask up on planes.
“That’s up to them,” Biden declared during a visit to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. But his own White House nonetheless continues to require face coverings for those traveling with him on Air Force One, citing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The shift toward less formal regulation was actually previewed in a 100-page plan released by the White House coronavirus response team in February. Back then, administration officials had hoped that children under 5 would be eligible for vaccination by now — a move that would have eased the concern of millions of parents and provided the umbrella of protection to nearly everyone in the U.S. who wanted it.
Monday’s court order lifting the mask mandate came at a crossroads in the nation’s pandemic response, just shy of a year to the day from when all American adults were eligible for vaccination against COVID-19. The ruling sent government agencies and the White House scrambling to comply, but that didn’t stop momentary confusion among travelers as airlines and airports dropped their mask requirements — in some cases mid-flight.
The administration stressed that Americans should still comply with CDC recommendations to wear face coverings, even in the absence of the mandate. Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, said as much just an hour before his “up to them” comment.
“The CDC continues to advise and recommend masks on airplanes. We’re abiding by the CDC recommendations, the president is, and we would advise all Americans to do that,” she said.
Psaki on Tuesday indicated that while the administration was disappointed with the ruling, it didn’t rank with Congress’ inability to reach a compromise on additional COVID funding to purchase booster shots and antiviral treatments.
“Those are our biggest concerns,” she said.
Face-covering requirements, which have proven to lower the risks of infection, have grown increasingly political in the U.S. over the last year, particularly as cases and severe outcomes have fallen.
The lingering mandate for public transit and air travel served as a daily reminder for many people that the pandemic they badly wanted to be over was still affecting their lives, even if vaccinations and antiviral treatments had dramatically lowered their risk. For others who are still fearful of the virus, each roll-back of pandemic restrictions has sparked fresh disquiet — and in some cases criticism of the Biden administration.
“There are still a lot of people in this country who still want to have masks in place — either they have immunocompromised relatives, they have kids under 5, whatever it may be,” said Psaki.
Monday’s court ruling hastened an outcome that was likely coming in weeks anyway. Many administration officials believed that last week’s 15-day extension of the mask order to May 3 would be the last. The public health agency had asked for the additional time to monitor whether a recent rise in infections would result in increased hospitalizations or deaths. So far it hasn’t.
The court’s order caught the administration by surprise and left it struggling to grasp its impact — both on the requirement’s end and on CDC’s authorities going forward.
“CDC scientists had asked for 15 days to make a more data-driven durable decision,” Dr. Aashish Jha, the new White House COVID-19 coordinator, tweeted on Tuesday. “We should have given it to them.”
The uptick in cases and a recent spate of positive cases in Biden’s orbit — including second gentleman Doug Emhoff and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — was a potent reminder that the virus isn’t going away.
Biden, 79, was never identified as a “close contact” under CDC guidelines, the White House said, and officials emphasized that he is strongly protected against the virus by being vaccinated and twice-boosted.
Controlling the virus that has killed 986,000 Americans has been a priority for Biden since taking office. The U.S. now averages about 35,000 confirmed cases per day, down from a high of more than 806,000 during January’s omicron surge, but up slightly from lows of about 26,000 a month ago. Those figures are surely an undercount since many people don’t report the results of at-home tests to public health authorities.
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AP writer Chris Megerian in Portsmouth, New Hampshire contributed.
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
Moderna hopes to offer updated COVID-19 boosters in the fall that combine its original vaccine with protection against the omicron variant. On Tuesday, it reported a preliminary hint that such an approach might work.
Today’s COVID-19 vaccines all are based on the original version of the coronavirus. But the virus continues to mutate, with the super-contagious omicron variant — and its siblings — the latest threat.
Before omicron came along, Moderna was studying a combination shot that added protection against an earlier variant named beta. Tuesday, the company said people given that beta-original vaccine combination produced more antibodies capable of fighting several variants — including omicron — than today’s regular booster triggers.
While the antibody increase was modest, Moderna’s goal is to produce a combination shot that specifically targets omicron. “These results really give us hope” that next step will work even better, said Dr. Jacqueline Miller, a Moderna vice president.
Tuesday’s data was reported online and hasn’t been vetted by independent experts.
COVID-19 vaccines still are providing strong protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death, even against omicron. That variant is so different from the original coronavirus that it more easily slips past the immune system’s defenses, although studies in the U.S. and elsewhere show an original booster dose strengthens protection. Some countries offer particularly vulnerable people a second booster; in the U.S., that’s anyone 50 or older or those with a severely weakened immune system.
Health officials have made clear that giving boosters every few months isn’t the answer to the mutating virus. They’ve begun deliberating how to decide if and when to change the vaccine recipe.
Just switching to a vaccine that targets the latest variant is risky, because the virus could mutate again. So Moderna and its rival Pfizer both are testing what scientists call “bivalent” shots — a mix of each company’s original vaccine and an omicron-targeted version.
Why would Moderna’s earlier, beta-targeted combo shot have any effect on omicron? It includes four mutations that both the beta variant and the newer omicron have in common, Miller said.
Now Moderna is testing a bivalent shot that better targets omicron — it includes 32 of that variant’s mutations. Studies of two booster doses are underway in the U.S. and Britain; results are expected by late June.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
A federal judge’s decision to strike down a national mask mandate was met with cheers on some airplanes but also concern about whether it’s really time to end one of the most visible vestiges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The major airlines and many of the busiest airports rushed to drop their requirements on Monday after the Transportation Security Administration announced it wouldn’t enforce a January 2021 security directive that applied to airplanes, airports, taxis and other mass transit.
But the ruling still gave those entities the option to keep their mask rules in place, resulting in directives that could vary from city to city.
Passengers on an United Airlines flight from Houston to New York, for instance, could ditch their masks at their departing airport and on the plane, but have to put them back on once they land at Kennedy Airport or take a subway.
In a 59-page lawsuit ruling, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its authority in issuing the original health order on which the TSA directive was based. She also said the order was fatally flawed because the CDC didn’t follow proper rulemaking procedures.
Mizelle, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said the only remedy was to throw out the mandate for the entire country because it would be impossible to end it only for the people who objected in the lawsuit.
The White House said the mask order “is not in effect at this time” and called the court decision disappointing.
The Justice Department declined to comment on whether it would seek an emergency stay to block the judge’s order. The CDC also declined to comment.
United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines all quickly announced they were yanking the mask requirement for domestic and some international flights. So did American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways.
Sleepy passengers on a Delta flight between Atlanta and Barcelona, Spain, cheered, whistled and applauded when a flight attendant announced the news mid-flight over the ocean.
“No one’s any happier than we are,” the attendant says in a video posted by Dillon Thomas, a CBS Denver reporter, who was on the flight. She added that people who wanted to keep on their masks were encouraged to do so.
“But we’re ready to give ém up,” she added. “So thank you and happy unmasking day!”
Major airports dropped their requirements but sided with the CDC in recommending that people be voluntarily masked. They included Los Angeles International Airport, the world’s fifth-busiest by passenger volume, and Salt Lake City International Airport, which announced it would hand out masks to anyone requesting them.
New York City’s public transit system planned to keep its mask requirement in place. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said it would make masks optional for riders on its buses and trains.
The websites of ride sharing companies Lyft and Uber as of Monday evening still said masks were required.
The CDC had recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire Monday, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S. But the court ruling puts that decision on hold.
Since the pandemic began two years ago, many state or local governments had issued various orders requiring masks to be worn inside schools, restaurants, stores or elsewhere. The rules were largely rolled back as the deadliest, most infectious months of the pandemic eased.
But the national rule for travelers remained and was arguably the most widespread, visible and irksome measure of its kind.
The wearing of masks aboard airplanes sparked online flame throwing between those who felt they were crucial to protecting people and those who saw it as an unnecessary inconvenience or even government overkill.
Some flight attendants found themselves cursed and even attacked by passengers who refused to comply.
The lawsuit was filed in July 2021 by two plaintiffs and the Health Freedom Defense Fund, described in the judge’s order as a nonprofit group that “opposes laws and regulations that force individuals to submit to the administration of medical products, procedures and devices against their will.”
Republicans in Congress waged a running battle to kill the mandate.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was not directly involved in the case but has battled against many government coronavirus requirements, praised the ruling.
“Both airline employees and passengers deserve to have this misery end,” DeSantis tweeted.
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Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas, Michael Balsamo and Will Weissert in Washington, and Karen Matthews in New York contributed to this story.
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
Japan’s health ministry on Tuesday formally approved Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, a fourth foreign-developed tool to combat the infections as the country sees signs of a resurgence led by a subvariant of fast-spreading omicron.
The ministry approval comes the day after its experts panel endorsed use of Novavax’s protein vaccine, which is designed with similar technology used to fight diseases such as the flu and hepatitis B, for the first two shots and a booster.
Health Minister Shigeyuki Goto told reporters that Novavax product adds variety to the choices available and could appeal to those who are hesitant to use COVID-19 vaccines such as Pfizer’s and Moderna’s, which are designed with newer technologies.
Jabs using Novavax vaccine are expected to start as early as late May.
Japan reported 24,164 new cases Monday, according to the health ministry. Japan in March lifted all COVID-19 restrictions as the infections slowed significantly, but experts noted signs of a resurgence in a number of prefectures during a season of traveling and parties for people marking graduation and the start of the academic and business year.
The government is trying to expand businesses and get the pandemic-hit economy back on track. Japan is slowly easing the border controls following sharp criticisms for its longtime restrictions on non-resident foreign students, scholars and business people, but Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said Japan is not considering restarting inbound tourism anytime soon.
Booster shots have been slow in Japan and less than 50% of the population had received booster shots of mainly mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. A third vaccine, AstraZeneca, is hardly used due to public concern about reports of rare blood clotting and is largely donated to vaccine-scarce Asian countries bilaterally or through a United Nations-backed program. About 80% of the Japanese elderly population had received three shots.
Goto said Japan has agreed to purchase 150 million doses of the Novavax shots developed by the Maryland company, which will help stabilize vaccine supply in a country that fully relies on foreign imports while development of its own vaccines have fallen behind. Novavax’s distributor in Japan, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., is to locally manufacture 250 million doses annually.
Total Doses Distributed = 718,074,545. Total Doses Administered = 569,642,898. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 256,814,643. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 218,937,361.
COVID-19 Vaccination Data Updates