Democracy Dies in Darkness
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`Fauci predicts vaccine ‘open season’ by April
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`By Erin Cunningham, Paulina Firozi and Meryl Korneld
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`Feb. 11, 2021 at 11:45 p.m. EST
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`PLEASE NOTE
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`Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease expert, struck a hopeful tone about vaccine availability in the coming
`months, predicting Thursday that there could be an “open season” on doses by April.
`
`“By the time we get to April, that will be what I would call, for better wording, ‘open season,’ namely, virtually everybody and
`anybody in any category could start to get vaccinated,” he said on NBC’s “Today” show. The remarks echoed his sentiment
`from days earlier that he expects the pace of vaccinations to improve in the months ahead.
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`Here are some significant developments:
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`The Biden administration purchased another 200 million doses of the two coronavirus vaccines, securing
`sufficient shots by the end of July to cover everyone currently eligible for inoculation.
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`Health officials in D.C., Illinois, and North Carolina announced the areas’ first known cases of the variant
`B.1.351, which was first identified in South Africa. As of this week, more than 30 states have reported
`cases of the B.1.1.7 variant.
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`Federal health officials urged Americans to consider wearing two masks as one of several strategies to
`better protect themselves against the threat of more contagious variants of the coronavirus.
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`The United States has recorded more than 27.3 million coronavirus cases and more than 473,000
`deaths. Nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population, however, has received at least a first dose of the two-part
`vaccines, and rates of deaths and new cases continue to fall.
`
`The World Health Organization has recommended the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, saying that it
`is “highly effective and safe” even as at least one trial showed limited efficacy against the dominant
`variant in South Africa.
`
`Amid heightened fears over the threat from new variants, Germany extended lockdown measures for an additional
`month despite a drop in cases, while the British government plans to introduce mandatory quarantine and
`prison sentences for travelers who lie on their entry forms.
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`11:45 p.m.
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`Ivy League sports shut down quickly and show little sign of
`restarting
`
`By Glynn A. Hill
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`The Ivy League was a bellwether in the coronavirus pandemic, moving before other college conferences and professional
`leagues to shut down sports. Getting restarted has proved a thornier debate. Nearly a year later, the eight-team conference is
`facing a rising tide of frustration as it deliberates whether to hold a spring season.
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`As the basketball season for other Division I colleges staggers toward its conclusion and lower-division schools begin spring
`football campaigns, some college coaches and players fear the Ivy League will skip spring sports entirely.
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`The conference has given no firm deadline on when it will decide to play or not. Meanwhile, athletes are left to wait, unable to
`compete and their ability to hold formal practices or access training facilities varying by school.
`
`Read the full story
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`10:51 p.m.
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`The emotional fallout of the pandemic has been uniquely brutal
`for teenagers
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`By Ellen McCarthy
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`The caller was 17, female and speaking barely above a whisper.
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`“Lately I’ve been mad all day,” she said on a Friday night in late November. “Mad for no reason. Little things make me mad.
`I’m angry for no reason. I don’t know if it’s covid . . .”
`
`In a bedroom on the other side of the country a long-haired 16-year-old volunteer for a teen crisis hotline listened through
`headphones and nodded. “That must be such a strange feeling,” she said.
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`“I cut myself once,” the caller continued. “Four days ago, maybe. Just to feel something different.”
`
`The pandemic has punished people of all ages, overwhelming parents, isolating grandparents, shortchanging kids. But the
`emotional fallout for teenagers has been uniquely brutal. At just the age when they are biologically predisposed to seek
`independence from their families, teens have been trapped at home.
`
`Read the full story
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`10:00 p.m.
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`Los Angeles closes five vaccine sites amid shortage
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`By Meryl Kornfield
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`Los Angeles temporarily closed five of its inoculation sites, including Dodger Stadium, one of the country’s largest sites,
`because of supply shortages.
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`Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) announced Thursday that the locations would close the next day until at least Saturday, but the city
`ran out of doses and shut down early, the Los Angeles Times reported. In a televised briefing, Garcetti called the federal
`vaccine supply uneven, unpredictable and inequitable, and he expressed concern about the recent, reduced shipment that
`officials received in the past week. The federal government delivered about 16,000 doses — what the city typically distributes
`in a day — for the week, which was less than what smaller neighboring cities had received, he said.
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`“This is not where I want to be ” Garcetti said “It’s not what we deserve ”
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`This is not where I want to be, Garcetti said. It s not what we deserve.
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`Garcetti acknowledged reports that the country’s immunization effort has been hampered by “kinks in the supply chain,” as
`the Biden administration inherited a host of logistical challenges and a limited reserve of doses.
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`Yet the available supply nationally has also increased, Garcetti said. The Biden administration boosted weekly allocations to
`states by nearly 30 percent, The Washington Post reported.
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`California has received more than 7.8 million doses and administered 5.1 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control
`and Prevention.
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`Garcetti said that if given the supply, his city could complete 5 million vaccinations by July. He argued that increasing the
`supply to other jurisdictions so they can open more inoculation sites should not come at the expense of cities like his, which
`have the existing infrastructure to vaccinate their residents.
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`“We’re vaccinating people faster than new vials are arriving here in Los Angeles,” Garcetti said, “and I’m very concerned right
`now.”
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`9:56 p.m.
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`The arduous path for oxygen to reach the sick in one of Brazil’s
`most remote regions
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`By Júlia Ledur
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`The desperate words of Thalita Rocha went viral on Jan. 14. “We are in a deplorable situation,” she said in a video posted to
`Instagram. “Whoever has oxygen availability, bring it here to the polyclinic. Many people are dying.” Rocha’s mother-in-law,
`who had tested positive for the coronavirus, was hospitalized in Manaus, the isolated city in the Brazilian Amazon, when the
`oxygen supplies ran out that day.
`
`When Rocha learned of the shortage, she asked when the hospital would get more oxygen, only to hear that the director didn’t
`know.
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`She watched as some patients were resuscitated in the hallways and others suffocated to death. She saw doctors cry. She
`dropped to her knees and prayed. “It looked like the end of the world.”
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`On Jan. 14 and 15, dozens of Brazilians asphyxiated as authorities scrambled to get more oxygen to Manaus. Rocha’s mother-
`in-law was one of them.
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`Read the full story
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`8:53 p.m.
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`The pandemic is shaking up the $73 billion wedding industry
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`By Abha Bhattarai
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`When the pandemic upended their wedding plans in June, Kristine Vejar and Adrienne Rodriguez moved everything online:
`dress shopping, cake-cutting, even the vows.
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`“We decided, what is there to lose? Let’s get married and we can have a big party next year,” said Vejar, 43, who co-owns a
`yarn shop and natural dye studio in Oakland with Rodriguez. The shift not only allowed them to share their special day with
`150 friends and family, but it also “means we’re not $10,000 in debt right now.”
`
`While the pandemic has led to a flurry of engagements, it also has put in limbo much of the wedding industry — a $73 billion
`market, according to data research firm IBISWorld. Most couples — about 80 percent of them — postponed or canceled their
`ceremonies after the U.S. outbreak began nearly a year ago, said David Wood, president of the Association of Bridal
`Consultants.
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`Read the full story
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`7:43 p.m.
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`Airlines are starting to take flight with fully vaccinated crews
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`By Hannah Sampson
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`Airlines are starting to promote a new perk to bring passengers back nearly a year after the pandemic started: vaccinated pilots
`and flight attendants.
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`On Wednesday, Etihad Airways announced it was “the first airline in the world with 100% vaccinated crew on board.” Not to
`be outdone, Singapore Airlines Group said its three carriers — Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot — on Thursday would be
`among the first airlines in the world to operate flights with all pilots and cabin crew vaccinated.
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`The CEO of United Airlines said last month that he wants to make the vaccine mandatory for employees, which the airline is
`still considering. Airline and aviation workers in the United States have asked to be given priority for vaccinations, according
`to news reports.
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`The moves come as airlines try to recover from the worst year on record for air travel demand. The International Air Transport
`Association said demand fell by nearly 66 percent in 2020 compared with the previous year.
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`Read the full story
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`5:41 p.m.
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`U.S. secures enough vaccine for 300 million people by the end of
`July
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`By Lena H. Sun, Isaac Stanley-Becker and Laurie McGinley
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`The Biden administration on Thursday purchased another 200 million doses of the two coronavirus vaccines authorized for
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`The Biden administration on Thursday purchased another 200 million doses of the two coronavirus vaccines authorized for
`emergency use in the United States, securing sufficient shots by the end of July to cover everyone currently eligible for
`inoculation.
`
`President Biden, in remarks capping an afternoon tour of the National Institute of Health, announced the deals for 100 million
`more doses from Pfizer and German company BioNTech and 100 million more from Moderna. The expectation, Biden said, is
`that the additional doses will be delivered by the end of July.
`
`The purchases increase available supply by 50 percent, bringing the total to 600 million doses. Because both products are two-
`dose regimens, that would be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million people. An estimated 260 million people in the United
`States are currently considered eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine, though trials involving children as young as 12 could
`widen the pool.
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`Read the full story
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`4:57 p.m.
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`Biden promised to reopen schools in his first 100 days. But the
`politics are complicated.
`
`By Laura Meckler and Annie Linskey
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`One of Joe Biden’s central campaign promises sounded simple: reopen most schools within his first 100 days in office. The
`politics and the logistics have proved far more complicated.
`
`The outcome is significant for Biden, with much of the country eager for schools to reopen. But politically, it’s dicey, as he is
`forced to balance the interests and wishes of many parents and children against the fears of teachers and their unions.
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`Many parents, including those in politically crucial suburbs, crave the normalcy that will come with the reopening of
`classrooms, which have been closed for nearly a year in much of the country. But few groups did more to push Biden’s
`candidacy than teachers unions, which have resisted returning to school buildings in communities across the country.
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`Read the full story
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`3:25 p.m.
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`As Germany extends its lockdown over covid-19 fears, France
`surprises with a more upbeat tone
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`By Rick Noack and Loveday Morris
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`PARIS — When a coronavirus variant forced Britain into lockdown in December, it triggered alarm across Europe. Within
`hours, France, Germany and other countries shut their borders or imposed restrictions, leaving thousands of travelers and
`lorry drivers stranded.
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`But almost two months on, the European Union’s two most populous nations are increasingly divided over how to confront
`more highly transmissible variants, including the ones first discovered in Britain and South Africa, that account for a growing
`number of infections.
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`Despite a drop in total recent coronavirus cases, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and state leaders extended the country’s
`lockdown for an additional month on Wednesday, with Merkel warning that the variants have significantly moved the goal
`posts.
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`But after arguing for weeks that France was likely also headed into another lockdown, French officials abruptly changed
`course this week, offering a far more optimistic assessment.
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`Read the full story
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`2:43 p.m.
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`British Columbia reports record illicit-drug overdose deaths
`during pandemic
`
`By Amanda Coletta
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`TORONTO — British Columbia, long the province at the epicenter of Canada’s deadly drug overdose epidemic, recorded a
`record number of illicit-drug overdose deaths in 2020, a grim milestone in a public health crisis that officials say has been
`exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
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`There were 1,716 overdose deaths in 2020, a 74 percent increase from the previous year, according to figures released by the
`province Thursday. Lisa Lapointe, chief coroner of British Columbia, told reporters that this represents the most deaths ever
`in a single year in the province due to an unnatural cause — more than deaths from car crashes, suicides, prescription drug-
`related deaths and homicides combined.
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`For months, advocates and public health officials, including British Columbia’s health officer, have indicated that the
`pandemic has worsened the crisis and reversed gains made in 2019. Border closures have disrupted drug markets, making the
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`street supply more toxic. Social distancing orders have pushed more people to use drugs alone, without someone nearby to
`help in an emergency, and some supervised consumption sites or treatment programs have rolled back their operations.
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`“With the pandemic, access to harm-reduction measures was reduced,” Lapointe said. “People self-isolated, and the harms
`associated with the illicit drug market returned with a vengeance.”
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`Though other provinces and territories have not yet released their figures for 2020, officials have warned that they’re seeing
`similar patterns. More than 17,600 people have died in Canada from a drug overdose from January 2016 to June 2020,
`according to data from the federal government.
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`The crisis has fueled growing calls for safe supply programs and for the decriminalization of the personal possession of small
`amounts of illicit drugs.
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`Supporters of decriminalization, which include the association representing Canada’s police chiefs, say it would reduce the
`stigma associated with drug use and remove a barrier to seeking treatment. The chiefs said that arresting people for simple
`possession has been “ineffective” and that police should instead direct users to social services and health care, which could
`reduce recidivism and ancillary crimes.
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`2:02 p.m.
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`Battle over top FDA job heats up, as cancer experts endorse acting
`commissioner
`
`By Laurie McGinley
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`The contest over who should be the next Food and Drug Administration commissioner amid the ongoing pandemic intensified
`Thursday when 95 cancer experts — including one of the doctor’s for President Biden’s son Beau — endorsed agency veteran
`Janet Woodcock, just weeks after several anti-opioid advocates said they would oppose her nomination.
`
`In a letter to President Biden, cancer researchers and center directors, many of whom helped guide the “cancer moonshot”
`created by Biden in the last year of the Obama administration, said Woodcock was “uniquely qualified” to head the agency
`during the pandemic and credited her for overseeing the approval of many “groundbreaking” cancer treatments.
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`Woodcock, who has been a senior FDA drug regulator for more than three decades, currently is acting commissioner.
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`The signers include Nobel laureates James Allison of MD Anderson Cancer Center and Phillip Sharp of the Massachusetts
`Institute of Technology; immunotherapy pioneer Carl June of the University of Pennsylvania; and pancreatic cancer specialist
`Elizabeth Jaffee of Johns Hopkins. W.K. Alfred Yung, a neuro-oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center who cared for Beau
`Biden after he was diagnosed with brain cancer, also signed the letter.
`
`Besides Woodcock, the other person frequently mentioned for the FDA job is Josh Sharfstein, a former deputy FDA
`commissioner and public health expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Sharfstein also has been
`endorsed by some well-known health-care mavens, including pharmaceutical policy experts Jerry Avorn and Aaron
`Kesselheim of Harvard Medical School; Donald Berwick, the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
`Services; and Philip Pizzo, a microbiologist at Stanford University.
`
`The opioid activists who oppose Woodcock’s nomination said she and the drug center she ran were too permissive in
`approving painkillers and did not rein in drugmakers making false claims about their products.
`
`Woodcock supporters counter it is unfair to blame her for the opioid epidemic. They say the epidemic has been a broad
`societal failure, with responsibility shared by doctors who overprescribed the pills and drug companies that pushed them.
`They say Woodcock would provide much-needed stability to an agency that was repeatedly bashed by the Trump
`administration.
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`Read the full story
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`1:28 p.m.
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`Analysis: Social factors protect some communities against covid-
`19, researchers find
`
`By Christopher Ingraham
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`Communities with high amounts of interconnectedness and communal trust — what experts call social capital — experienced
`less severe coronavirus outbreaks in 2020, according to research published in the journal PLOS-One.
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`Pandemics are as much a product of human behavior as they are of biology because a virus spreads via social interaction. And
`the coronavirus has been particularly virulent in places where people congregate — churches, nursing homes, prisons, close-
`quarters work environments and the like.
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`Social factors also are at the heart of any pandemic response, particularly before the development of a vaccine. Adhering to
`coronavirus countermeasures — using masks, getting tested and maintaining social distance — are as much a reflection of
`concern for others as they are of self-preservation.
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`It stands to reason, then, that stronger, more connected and more trusting communities would have more success weathering
`the pandemic. This is the idea motivating the recent paper by Christos Makridis of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
`and Cary Wu of York University in Toronto. Their work assesses whether the level of social capital in a community predicts the
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`severity of the pandemic there
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`severity of the pandemic there.
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`Read the full story
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`12:27 p.m.
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`The weird and wacky mascots promoting coronavirus vaccines
`around the world
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`By Miriam Berger
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`Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been a vocal skeptic of measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But that hasn’t
`stopped him from posing for photos with Ze Gotinha, known as Joseph Droplet in English, the country’s smiley, vaccine-
`touting mascot.
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`Brazil’s Ministry of Health first created Ze Gotinha as a friendly (and to some uncanny) face to promote polio vaccine
`programs for children in the 1980s. The character has since been used in a range of inoculation campaigns against measles,
`tuberculosis and whooping cough.
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`These days, Ze Gotinha’s smile is sometimes concealed behind a face mask. But the message persists that vaccines are no
`cause for fear.
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`Mascots have a long history in public health campaigns worldwide, said Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence
`Project at the London School of Hygiene and Topical Medicine. They are “humorous, playful,” said Larson, in contrast to an
`often “didactic government” take on vaccination programs.
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`“It makes it seem less clinical, less government-driven, less ‘you have to take this,’ ” she said. “It can engage all ages.”
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`Read the full story
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`11:28 a.m.
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`Nun who survived flu pandemic and coronavirus celebrates 117th
`birthday with red wine
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`By Jaclyn Peiser and Jennifer Hassan
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`A French nun who survived both world wars, the 1918 flu pandemic and a coronavirus infection is marking her 117th birthday
`with red wine, a Mass in her honor and dinner followed by her favorite dessert: baked Alaska.
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`Sister André, who is believed to be the second-oldest person in the world, is set to spend Thursday celebrating her long life at
`her care home in the French city of Toulon. The facility’s spokesman, David Tavella, told the Associated Press that the nun was
`“in great shape” and “really happy,” ahead of a busy schedule that would feature a video call with her family, a service hosted
`by the bishop of Toulon and a champagne birthday feast.
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`“It’s a big day,” Tavella said, adding that there would be a cake for Sister André — although it wouldn’t be big enough to hold
`117 candles.
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`“Even if we made big cakes, I’m not sure that she would have enough breath to blow them all out,” he said.
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`Read the full story
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`NEXT UP IN NATIONAL
`
`Live updates: Several new vaccine
`developments raise hopes even as
`virus variants proliferate
`
`Read the full story
`
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