Saudi Arabia on Monday lifted a mask mandate for indoor spaces even as COVID-19 infection numbers steadily climb past 1,000 new cases a day after reaching double-digit lows just two months ago.
Masks will still be required at Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, where pilgrims gather for worship, according to the new rules. Organizers of events and festivals can continue to require masks if they wish. The kingdom additionally dropped a rule requiring proof of vaccination on a mobile app that was required before entry to certain places, events and to board planes.
Meanwhile, in neighboring United Arab Emirates, the government is stressing the importance of wearing masks indoors amid a 100% jump in cases in less than a week. The country of 9 million residents has around 1,300 confirmed new cases daily, despite high rates of vaccination.
Anyone found breaching indoor mask rules in the UAE will be fined 3,000 dirhams, or roughly $815.
For its part, the Interior Ministry of Saudi Arabia said the decision to end indoor mask mandates in the kingdom comes after the country of some 30 million people successfully rolled out COVID-19 vaccinations nationwide.
For nearly two years, Saudi Arabia was among the world’s most restrictive in its efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Protocols included banning Saudi nationals from leaving the country, barring travelers from multiple countries from entry into Saudi Arabia, requiring proof of vaccination to enter local malls and other indoor spaces and dramatically curtailing the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country has since relaxed its rules as it hopes to woo tourists under a new scheme to boost the economy.
Federal health officials said Sunday that kid-sized doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines appear to be safe and effective for kids under 5, a key step toward a long-awaited decision to begin vaccinating the youngest American children.
The Food and Drug Administration posted its analysis of the Pfizer shot ahead of a Wednesday meeting where outside experts will vote on whether the shots are ready for the nation’s 18 million babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Kids under 5 are the only group not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S.
Late last week the FDA posted a similar analysis of Moderna’s shots for children under 6.
If regulators clear the shots by one or both companies, vaccinations could begin as soon as next week with the drugmakers ready to rapidly ship doses ordered by the government. Parents have been pressing federal officials for months for the opportunity to protect their smallest children as more adults shed masks and abandon other public health precautions.
While only about 3% of U.S. COVID cases are in the age group 6 months to 4 years, hospitalization and death rates in that group are higher than those for older children, according to the FDA’s analysis — one reason experts have said protecting this group is important.
The FDA said children who received Pfizer’s shots during testing developed high levels of virus-fighting antibodies expected to protect them against coronavirus. That’s the basic threshold needed to win FDA authorization. But additional testing turned up key differences, with stronger results for Pfizer.
Pfizer’s vaccine, given as a three-shot series, appeared 80% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, although that calculation was based on just 10 cases diagnosed among study participants. The figure could change as Pfizer’s study continues.
Moderna’s two-dose series was only about 40% to 50% effective at preventing milder infections, though the two companies’ shots were tested at different times during the pandemic, when different variants were circulating. Moderna has begun testing a booster for tots.
On Wednesday, the FDA will ask an independent panel of vaccine experts to debate both companies’ data before voting. The FDA is not required to follow the group’s recommendations, but the process is seen as a key step in publicly vetting the shots.
The FDA is expected to make its official decision shortly after Wednesday’s all-day meeting. The next step: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends how to use vaccines, will convene its own expert panel to debate which tots need vaccinations.
It’s not clear how much demand there will initially be for the shots. A recent survey suggests only 1 in 5 parents of young children would get their kids vaccinated right away. Vaccines have been available since November for older U.S. schoolchildren, yet less than a third of those ages 5 to 11 have gotten the two recommended doses, according to government figures.
For the youngest children, each company is offering different dose sizes and number of shots, beginning at 6 months through 4 years for Pfizer and through 5 years for Moderna.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech plan to offer two shots three weeks apart followed by a third at least two months later — each one-tenth the dose given to adults. Pfizer is currently the only company with a COVID-19 vaccine for older U.S. children.
Moderna is seeking FDA clearance for two shots, each a quarter of its adult dose, given about four weeks apart.
The FDA currently allows Moderna’s vaccine to be used only in adults. But some countries allow full-size doses for teens and half-size shots for kids ages 6 to 11 — a step the FDA also is considering.
More than 30,000 U.S. children younger than 5 have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and nearly 500 coronavirus deaths have been reported in that age group, according to U.S. health officials.
The government allowed pharmacies and states to start placing orders for tot-sized doses last week, with 5 million initially available — half made by Pfizer and half by Moderna.
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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.
U.S. regulators have historically inspected baby formula plants at least once a year, but they did not inspect any of the three biggest manufacturers in 2020, according to federal records reviewed by The Associated Press.
When they finally did get inside an Abbott Nutrition formula plant in Michigan after a two-year gap, they found standing water and lax sanitation procedures. But inspectors offered only voluntary suggestions for fixing the problems, and issued no formal warning.
Inspectors would return five months later after four infants who consumed powdered formula from the plant suffered bacterial infections. They found bacterial contamination inside the factory, leading to a four-month shutdown and turning a festering supply shortage into a full-blown crisis that sent parents scrambling to find formula and forced the U.S. to airlift products from overseas.
The gap in baby formula plant inspections, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, is getting new scrutiny from Congress and government watchdogs investigating the series of missteps that led to the crisis. A recent bill would require the Food and Drug Administration to inspect infant formula facilities every six months. And the government’s inspector general for health has launched an inquiry into the FDA’s handling of Abbott’s facility, the largest in the U.S.
Abbott resumed production at the plant early this month under a legally binding agreement with the FDA, but the shutdown and nationwide shortage exposed how concentrated the industry has become in the U.S., with a handful of companies accounting for roughly 90% of the market.
As COVID-19 swept across the U.S. in early 2020, the FDA pulled most of its safety inspectors from the field, skipping thousands of routine plant inspections.
The FDA did conduct more than 800 “mission critical” inspections during the first year of the pandemic, the agency said in a statement. Regulators selected facilities for inspections based on whether they carried a specific safety risk or were needed to produce an important medical therapy.
Only three of the nation’s 23 facilities that make, package or distribute formula made the cut. The FDA resumed routine inspections in July 2021.
The inspection records reviewed by the AP show gaps as large as 2 1/2 years between FDA’s 2019 inspections and when regulators returned to plants owned by the three leading formula manufacturers: Abbott, Reckitt and Gerber.
In fact, the FDA still has yet to return to one key plant owned by Reckitt and two owned by Gerber, according to agency records. All those facilities are operating around the clock to boost U.S. formula production.
“The FDA would have had more chances to catch these issues if they’d been inspecting during the pandemic,” said Sarah Sorscher, a food safety specialist with the Center for Science in the Public Interest. She acknowledged the difficult trade-off the FDA faced in pulling its inspectors to reduce their exposure to COVID-19. “Certainly there was a price to pay for protecting their workers during that time.”
Baby formula manufacturers were “consistently identified as a high priority during the pandemic,” and there is currently no backlog of inspections, the agency told the AP in response to inquiries about the gaps. The agency said it skipped about 15,000 U.S. inspections due to COVID, but it has already made up about 5,000 of those, exceeding its own goals.
Under current law, the FDA is only required to inspect formula facilities every three to five years, but the agency has consistently inspected facilities annually — until the pandemic.
“Our top priority now is addressing the urgent need for infant formula in the U.S. market, and our teams are working night and day to help make that happen,” FDA stated.
But outside experts say the gap in inspections speaks to a blind spot in the government’s response effort, which was successful at preventing shortages of drugs and other medical supplies.
FDA Commissioner Robert Califf says regulators knew shutting down Abbott’s plant would create supply problems, but there was little evidence of urgency between when inspectors shuttered the plant in February and recent emergency measures to allow more imports from abroad.
Longtime food safety specialists see a deeper problem at the highest levels of the FDA, where physicians and medical scientists for decades have prioritized oversight of drugs and medical products over food.
“It’s very challenging for them to get engaged at all in this area because they don’t have the background, the knowledge and the experience in it,” said Steven Mandernach, executive director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials, which represents state-level inspectors.
The FDA shares oversight of food production and safety with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. FDA inspections of food facilities peaked in 2011 and have declined most years since, despite increased funds and powers by Congress. The FDA said that while U.S. inspections have declined, foreign facility inspections have increased.
There’s no certainty that extra inspections during COVID-19 would have prevented the contamination problems at the Sturgis, Michigan, plant that was shut down. And Abbott says that its products have not been directly linked to the infections, two of which were fatal.
But the plant did have earlier problems, including a 2010 formula recall due to possible contamination with insect parts.
“I think facilities that had known problems that could cause a food safety risk should have been part of FDA’s mission critical work,” Mandernach said. “And this facility would have been among those.”
Not having regular inspections — or even the threat of them — can lead to changes in culture at plants like Abbott’s, Mandernach noted.
“If you’re driving down the highway and you know the state troopers have been furloughed, might you go a little faster than if you knew there was a trooper on duty?” Mandernach asked.
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.
Total Doses Distributed = 756,125,655. Total Doses Administered = 590,999,136. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 258,984,883. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 221,714,657.
Total Doses Distributed = 756,104,155. Total Doses Administered = 590,795,244. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 258,953,600. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 221,688,993.
Total Doses Distributed = 755,336,055. Total Doses Administered = 590,441,517. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 258,896,220. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 221,640,799.
