COVID-19 Timeline: December 2020
January 13, 2022
At Bioethics.com we have kept up with the spread of COVID-19 and the related bioethical questions that this pandemic brings. The posts that follow highlights news from December 2020 and were originally posted at Bioethics.com. These posts focus on the bioethical issues that medical professionals, bioethicists, public health officials, and scientists grappled with as SARS-CoV-2 swept the globe.
December 1: “How COVID-19 Highlights the Uncertainty of Medical Testing” by Ishani Ganguli, Kaiser Health News
National COVID test shortages have emphasized testing’s critical role in containing and mitigating the pandemic, but these inconvenient truths remain: A test result is rarely a definitive answer, but instead a single clue at one point in time, to be appraised alongside other clues like symptoms and exposure to those with confirmed cases.
December 1: “Coronavirus Was in U.S. Weeks Earlier Than Previously Known, Study Says” by Jaclyn Diaz, NPR
The coronavirus was present in the U.S. weeks earlier than scientists and public health officials previously thought, and before cases in China were publicly identified, according to a new government study published Monday. The virus and the illness that it causes, COVID-19, were first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, but it wasn’t until about Jan. 20 that the first confirmed COVID-19 case, from a traveler returning from China, was found in the U.S.
December 1: “The Long Haul of Vaccine Results Is Just Beginning” by Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic
The workings of the human immune system are especially un-intuitive, and scientists have offered plausible biological reasons why a half dose might be superior. But given the data available so far, “it’s basically uninterpretable at this point,” Shane Crotty, an immunologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, says. Several scientists said they were glad that these muddled and confusing results from AstraZeneca/Oxford were not the first COVID-19 vaccine data to be released.
December 1: “’We Don’t Even Know Who Is Dead or Alive’: Trapped Inside an Assisted Living Facility During the Pandemic” by Ava Kofman, ProPublica
When someone in the building died, a notice was often taped to a window in the lobby: “WE REGRET TO ANNOUNCE THE PASSING OF OUR FRIEND….” The signs did not say how or where the friend had died, and because they were eventually removed, they could be easy to miss. In March, as these names began to appear more frequently at Bronxwood, an assisted living facility in New York, Varahn Chamblee tried to keep track.
December 1: “How a Bidding War for Covid-19 Nurses Hurts the Pandemic Response” by Markian Hawryluk and Rae Ellen Bichell, Kaiser Health News, republished at Undark
Early in the pandemic, hospitals were competing for ventilators, Covid tests and personal protective equipment. Now, sites across the country are competing for nurses. The fall surge in Covid cases has turned hospital staffing into a sort of national bidding war, with hospitals willing to pay exorbitant wages to secure the nurses they need. That threatens to shift the supply of nurses toward more affluent areas, leaving rural and urban public hospitals short-staffed as the pandemic worsens, and some hospitals unable to care for critically ill patients.
December 2: “Long-Term-Care Residents and Health Workers Should Get Vaccine First, C.D.C. Panel Says” by Abby Goodnough, New York Times
An independent panel advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Tuesday to recommend that residents and employees of nursing homes and similar facilities be the first people in the United States to receive coronavirus vaccines, along with health care workers who are especially at risk of being exposed to the virus.
December 2: “Warp Speed’s Slaoui Says COVID Spread Speeding Vaccine Development” by Alicia Ault, Medscape
The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 is helping speed the development of vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19 by increasing the number of infected candidates needed for trials, said Moncef Slaoui, PhD, the chief science adviser for the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed program.
December 2: “The Covid-19 Vaccines Are a Marvel of Science. Here’s How We Can Make the Best Use of Them” by Helen Branswell, STAT News
Vaccines that prevent symptomatic Covid infection in roughly 95% of people vaccinated — as the data from clinical trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines suggest — should, over time, help the country and the world return to a life where we can travel without quarantining; where sporting events can be played before live audiences, not cardboard cutouts; and where snowstorms are the only reasons school gets canceled.
December 2: “Doctors Begin to Crack Covid’s Mysterious Long-Term Effects” by Sarah Toy, Sumathi Reddy, and Daniela Hernandez, Wall Street Journal
Nearly a year into the global coronavirus pandemic, scientists, doctors and patients are beginning to unlock a puzzling phenomenon: For many patients, including young ones who never required hospitalization, Covid-19 has a devastating second act. Many are dealing with symptoms weeks or months after they were expected to recover, often with puzzling new complications that can affect the entire body—severe fatigue, cognitive issues and memory lapses, digestive problems, erratic heart rates, headaches, dizziness, fluctuating blood pressure, even hair loss.
December 2: “Covid-19: Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine Judged Safe for Use in UK from Next Week” by Michelle Roberts, BBC
The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccination. Britain’s medicines regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe to be rolled out. The first doses are already on their way to the UK, with 800,000 due in the coming days, Pfizer said.
December 2: “Moderna Plans to Begin Testing Its Coronavirus Vaccine in Children” by Denise Grady, New York Times
The drug maker Moderna said on Wednesday that it would soon begin testing its coronavirus vaccine in children ages 12 through 17. The study, listed Wednesday on the website clinical trials [dot]gov, is to include 3,000 children, with half receiving two shots of vaccine four weeks apart, and half getting placebo shots of salt water.
December 3: “‘Nobody Sees Us’: Testing-Lab Workers Strain Under Demand” by Katherine J. Wu, New York Times
Nearly a year into a pandemic that has claimed more than 272,000 American lives, some 192 million tests for the coronavirus have been processed nationwide. Millions more will be needed to detect and contain the virus in the months ahead. Behind these staggering figures are thousands of scientists who have been working nonstop to identify the coronavirus in the people it infects. Across the nation, testing teams are grappling with burnout, repetitive-stress injuries and an overwhelming sense of doom.
December 4: “As Hospitals Fill Up, Some COVID-19 Patients Are Sent Home” by Roxanne Nelson, Medscape
Overall weekly hospitalizations are at their highest point in the pandemic for much of the nation. And healthcare facilities are becoming overwhelmed — to the point where some patients who may benefit from inpatient care are being sent home from the emergency department (ED), researchers and clinicians say.
December 4: “EU Police Agency Europol Warns of Fake Coronavirus Vaccine” by Mike Corder, ABC News
European Union police agency Europol issued a warning Friday highlighting the risk of organized crime scams linked to COVID-19 vaccines, including the possibility criminals will try to sell dangerous counterfeit vaccines or to hijack shipments of genuine shots.
December 4: “AMA Statement on COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Recommendations” by Susan R. Bailey, American Medical Association
We strongly support ACIP’s evidence-based interim recommendation adopted today for phase 1a of the COVID-19 vaccine allocation process, which align with AMA’s public health policy and Code of Medical Ethics. By first vaccinating our frontline health care personnel and residents of long-term care facilities against COVID-19, we will help ensure patients continue to receive vital care during the pandemic and safeguard those who are most at risk for severe illness and death associated with COVID-19.
December 4: “How Nanotechnology Helps mRNA Covid-19 Vaccines Work” by Elizabeth Cooney, STAT News
Lipid nanoparticles are the fatty molecular envelopes that help strands of mRNA — the genetic messenger for making DNA code into proteins — evade the body’s biological gatekeepers and reach their target cell without being degraded. They are enabling some of the most advanced technologies being used in vaccines and drugs.
December 7: “Facebook Bans False Claims About COVID-19 Vaccines” by Katie Paul and Elizabeth Culliford, Reuters
Facebook Inc on Thursday said it would remove false claims about COVID-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts, following a similar announcement by Alphabet Inc’s YouTube in October. The move expands Facebook’s current rules against falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the pandemic.
December 7: “PPE Shortage Crisis Continues at Most Hospitals, Survey Shows” by Damian McNamara, Medscape
A majority of hospitals and healthcare facilities surveyed report operating according to “crisis standards of care” as they struggle to provide sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE).
December 7: “The Elderly vs. Essential Workers: Who Should Get the Coronavirus Vaccine First?” by Abby Goodnough and Jan Hoffman, New York Times
With the coronavirus pandemic surging and initial vaccine supplies limited, the United States faces a hard choice: Should the country’s immunization program focus in the early months on the elderly and people with serious medical conditions, who are dying of the virus at the highest rates, or on essential workers, an expansive category encompassing Americans who have borne the greatest risk of infection?
December 7: “Years of Research Laid Groundwork for Speedy COVID-19 Shots” by Lauren Neergaard, Associated Press
How could scientists race out COVID-19 vaccines so fast without cutting corners? A head start helped — over a decade of behind-the-scenes research that had new vaccine technology poised for a challenge just as the coronavirus erupted.
December 8: “CDC Urges Universal Mask Wearing for First Time” by Alicia Ault, Medscape
As the United States faces a worsening surge of SARS-CoV-2 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has, for the first time during the almost year-long pandemic, urged Americans to wear face masks universally.
December 8: “Covid-19 Vaccine: First Person Receives Pfizer Jab in UK” by BBC
A UK grandmother has become the first person in the world to be given the Pfizer Covid-19 jab as part of a mass vaccination programme.
December 8: “Oxford COVID Vaccine Paper Highlights Lingering Unknowns About Results” by Heidi Ledford, Nature
The first formally published results from a large clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine — which scientists hope could be among the cheapest and easiest to distribute around the world — suggest that the vaccine is safe and effective. But the data also highlight a number of lingering unknowns, including questions about the most effective dosing regimen and how well it works in older adults.
December 9: “Canada Approves First COVID-19 Vaccine, Expects Inoculations Next Week” by Steve Scherer and David Ljunggren, Reuters
Canada on Wednesday approved its first COVID-19 vaccine and said initial shots will be delivered and administered across the country starting next week, while every Canadian will be able to be inoculated as early as the end of September. Canada is the third country after Britain and Bahrain to give the green light to Pfizer Inc’s vaccine, developed with Germany’s BioNTech SE.
December 9: “The Vaccine Is Not Coming Soon Enough for Nursing Homes” by The COVID Tracking Project, The Atlantic
A new COVID-19 spike in long-term-care facilities emerged in the West and Northeast last week, with both regions reporting their highest numbers of new cases in the past six months. The Midwest and South saw a small downturn in new cases, which is promising, yet the week still saw the nation’s highest number of newly reported cases—51,574—in long-term-care facilities since we started collecting these data in May.
December 10: “Johnson & Johnson Cuts Size of Covid-19 Vaccine Study Due to Prevalence of Disease in U.S.” by Matthew Herper, STAT News
Johnson & Johnson is cutting the size of its pivotal U.S. Covid-19 vaccine trial — the only major study testing a single dose of a Covid vaccine — from 60,000 volunteers to 40,000 volunteers. The change is being made possible by the fact that Covid-19 is so pervasive across the country, according to a person familiar with the matter. The more virus there is in the U.S., the more likely it is that participants will be exposed to it, meaning researchers will be able to reach conclusions based on a smaller trial.
December 10: “F.D.A. Advisory Panel Gives Green Light to Pfizer Vaccine” by Katie Thomas, Noah Weiland, and Sharon LaFraniere, New York Times
Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine passed a critical milestone on Thursday when a panel of experts formally recommended that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the vaccine.
December 11: “Healthcare Workers Have 7-Fold Increased Risk of Severe COVID-19” by Dawn O’Shae, Medscape
Healthcare workers have more than a seven-fold increased risk of severe COVID-19 compared to non-essential workers, with the risk rising almost nine-fold in medical support staff, finds research from the first UK-wide lockdown.
December 11: “Demoralized Health Workers Struggle as Virus Numbers Surge” by Marion Renault, Associated Press
Doctors and nurses around the U.S. are becoming exhausted and demoralized as they struggle to cope with a record-breaking surge of COVID-19 patients that is overwhelming hospitals and prompting governors to clamp back down to contain the virus.
December 14: “Farmworkers, Firefighters and Flight Attendants Jockey for Vaccine Priority” by Rachel Bluth and Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News
With front-line health workers and nursing home residents and staff expected to get the initial doses of COVID vaccines, the thornier question is figuring out who goes next. The answer will likely depend on where you live.
December 14: “Arab Nations First to Approve Chinese COVID Vaccine–Despite Lack of Public Data” by David Cyranoski, Nature
Two Arab nations have become the first countries to approve a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, a significant boost for China’s plans to roll out its vaccines worldwide. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) approved a vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned Sinopharm on 9 December, and Bahrain followed days later. But researchers say a lack of public data on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine could hinder the company’s plans to distribute the vaccine in a range of other countries.
December 15: “America Is Running Out of Nurses” by Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker
Just how big is the coronavirus’s winter wave? It can be hard to get your mind around it. One way to try is to note that, right now, more than a hundred thousand Americans are in the hospital with COVID-19—which is roughly as many people as can fit into the country’s biggest stadiums for the Super Bowl, and nearly twice as many as were hospitalized during the pandemic’s worst days in April and July. Another is to note that, around the U.S., hospitals are running out of nurses and doctors.
December 15: “How COVID-19 Is Changing the Cold and Flu Season” by Nicola Jones, Nature
By mid-December, the Northern Hemisphere is usually well into the start of its annual cold and flu season — but so far this year, even as the COVID-19 pandemic surges in dozens of countries, the levels of many common seasonal infections remain extremely low.
December 15: “With First Dibs on Vaccines, Rich Countries Have ‘Cleared the Shelves’” by Megan Twohey, Keith Collins, and Katie Thomas, The New York Times
As a growing number of coronavirus vaccines advance through clinical trials, wealthy countries are fueling an extraordinary gap in access around the world, laying claim to more than half the doses that could come on the market by the end of next year. While many poor nations may be able to vaccinate at most 20 percent of their populations in 2021, some of the world’s richest countries have reserved enough doses to immunize their own multiple times over.
December 16: “Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Gets Positive Review from FDA Staff” by Kerry Dooley Young, Medscape
US regulators on Tuesday posted a largely positive review of Moderna Inc’s SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, signaling that the nation might soon have a second shot available to prevent COVID-19.
December 16: “The Virus Trains: How Lockdown Chaos Spread COVID-19 Across India” by Jeffrey Gettleman et al., The New York Times
India has now reported more coronavirus cases than any country besides the United States. And it has become clear that the special trains operated by the government to ease suffering — and to counteract a disastrous lack of lockdown planning — instead played a significant role in spreading the coronavirus into almost every corner of the country.
December 16: “COVID-19 Is 10 Times Deadlier for People with Down Syndrome, Raising Calls for Early Vaccination” by Meredith Wadman, Science
Among groups at higher risk of dying from COVID-19, such as people with diabetes, people with DS stand out: If infected, they are five times more likely to be hospitalized and 10 times more likely to die than the general population, according to a large U.K. study published in October.
December 16: “Inmates Facing Big Virus Risks Not Near the Top of Vaccine Lists” by Colleen Slevin and Patty Nieberg, Associated Press
Prisons across the U.S. have been hit hard by COVID-19. Social distancing is virtually impossible behind bars: inmates sleep in close quarters and share bathrooms. Masks, hygiene supplies and safety protocols are often lacking, and many inmates have health problems that make them susceptible to the virus.
December 18: “Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Wins Decisive Recommendation from FDA Panel” by Kerry Dooley Young, Medscape
Federal advisers on Thursday overwhelmingly recommended an emergency clearance for Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine, while noting concerns about potential allergic reactions and the challenges of continued testing of this medicine.
December 18: “COVID-19 Ranks as Leading Cause of Death in US” by Carolyn Crist, Medscape
COVID-19 became a leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020, particularly for people over age 35, according to a new report published in JAMA on Thursday.
December 21: “Chinese and Russian Vaccines Remain Unproven–But Desperate Countries Plan to Use Them Anyway” by Emily Rauhala, Eva Dou, and Robyn Dixon, Washington Post
In the race to vaccinate the world, China and Russia appear headed to becoming international players, as countries buy up doses and push ahead with approvals even before the release of crucial trial data. Although both countries’ coronavirus vaccine efforts were initially viewed with skepticism, a growing list of nations remains eager to work with Beijing and Moscow to slow the virus’s deadly spread. Much of this has to do with scarcity.
December 22: “California Records Half a Million Covid Cases in Two Weeks” by The Guardian
California has recorded a half-million coronavirus cases in the past two weeks, overwhelming emergency rooms across the state. The state could be facing a once-unthinkable scenario of nearly 100,000 hospitalizations within a month, the governor Gavin Newsom said Monday.
December 23: “COVID-19 Mortality Rates Declined, but Vary by Hospital” by Jake Remaly, Medscape
Mortality rates for inpatients with COVID-19 dropped significantly during the first 6 months of the pandemic, but outcomes depend on the hospital where patients receive care, new data show.
December 23: “Makers of Successful COVID-19 Vaccines Wrestle with Options for Placebo Recipients” by Jon Cohen, Science
Now that regulators around the world have begun to issue emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for COVID-19 vaccines—the United States authorized a candidate vaccine from the biotech Moderna on Friday—a theoretical debate that has simmered for months has become a pressing reality: Should ongoing vaccine efficacy studies inform their tens of thousands of volunteers whether they were injected with a placebo or the vaccine, and also offer an already authorized vaccine to those who got the placebo?
December 23: “‘Every Day Is an Emergency’: The Pandemic Is Worsening Psychiatric Bed Shortages Nationwide” by Roger Rapoport, STAT News
The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically cut the availability of inpatient psychiatric beds, with facilities across the country forced to reduce their capacity to meet social distancing requirements, stem outbreaks of the virus, or repurpose psychiatric beds to care for the surge of Covid-19 patients. The crisis — combined with years of mental health care budget cuts, rising demand for mental health care, and an existing shortage of both psychiatric beds and providers — appears to have put health care systems on a wartime footing.
December 23: “As the Terror of COVID Struck, Health Care Workers Struggled to Survive. Thousands Lost the Fight.” by Christina Jewett and Robert Lewis, Kaiser Health News
Ten months into the pandemic, it has become far clearer why tens of thousands of health care workers have been infected by the virus and why so many have died: dire PPE shortages. Limited COVID tests. Sparse tracking of viral spread. Layers of flawed policies handed down by health care executives and politicians, and lax enforcement by government regulators. All of those breakdowns, across cities and states, have contributed to the deaths of more than 2,900 health care workers, a nine-month investigation by over 70 reporters at KHN and The Guardian has found.
December 24: “The Pandemic Is Delaying Cancer Screenings and Detection” by Anna Goshua, Scientific American
The rate of routine cancer screenings plummeted from January through April, according to an analysis by the Epic Health Research Network. Screenings for breast and cervical cancers dropped by 94 percent. Colon cancer screenings were down by 86 percent.
December 24: “Kenya: Doctors Call Off Strike, Nurses Continue Picketing” by Tom Odula, ABC News
Doctors, pharmacists and dentists in Kenya called off a three-day strike over inadequate personal protective equipment and insurance Thursday after the government acquiesced to their most immediate demands. However, most other health workers remained on strike as nurses and clinicians vowed to stay off the job until their different set of demands is met.
December 29: “Novavax Starts Late-Stage Trial of COVID-19 Vaccine in the United States” by Reuters Staff, Medscape
Novavax Inc has begun a large late-stage study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, the drug developer said on Monday, after delaying the trial twice due to issues in scaling up the manufacturing process.
December 28: “Small Number of Covid Patients Develop Severe Psychotic Symptoms” by Pam Belluck, The New York Times
Beyond individual reports, a British study of neurological or psychiatric complications in 153 patients hospitalized with Covid-19 found that 10 people had “new-onset psychosis.” Another study identified 10 such patients in one hospital in Spain. And in Covid-related social media groups, medical professionals discuss seeing patients with similar symptoms in the Midwest, Great Plains and elsewhere.
December 28: “Spain Will Register Those Who Choose Not to Get Vaccinated, and Will Share the Information with the E.U.” by Raphael Minder, The New York Times
Spain plans to collect and share with other European Union nations information about residents who decide not to get vaccinated for Covid-19, the country’s health minister said on Monday. Spain’s health minister, Salvador Illa, stressed that vaccination would not be made compulsory, but, he said, a register would be set up that would include all the people who turned down the vaccine after being called up for vaccination by Spain’s public health service.
December 29: “Algorithms Are Deciding Who Gets the First Vaccines. Should We Trust Them?” by Drew Harwell, The Washington Post, and re-published on MSN
When front-line workers at Stanford Health Care were passed over for the first wave of coronavirus vaccines, officials at the hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., blamed the “very complex algorithm” it had built to decide employees’ place in line. But unlike the sophisticated machine-learning algorithms that underpin the modern Internet, Stanford’s system was actually just a basic formula, simple enough for an Excel spreadsheet. And a breakdown of the algorithm, sent to medical residents and first published by MIT Technology Review, shows that its real error came from the humans who had designed it: namely, prioritizing employees based on age rather than their exposure to the virus at work.
December 29: “Do-It-Yourself Contact Tracing Is a ‘Last Resort’ in Communities Besieged By COVID-19” by Brett Dahlberg, NPR
COVID-19 cases are spreading so fast that they’re outpacing the contact-tracing capacities of some local health departments. Faced with mounting case loads, those departments are asking people who test positive for the novel coronavirus to do their own contact tracing.
December 29: “The Error of Fighting a Public Health War with Medical Weapons” by Adam Rogers, Wired
Here’s the wild part, the most 2020 thing about 2020: That schism—that conflict between public health and private well-being, between personal liberties and communal gain—is as old as pandemics. The germ of the idea was, in fact, the idea of the germ.
December 30: “The Autopsy, a Fading Practice, Revealed Secrets of COVID-19” by Marion Renault, Associated Press, and re-published on Medscape
The COVID-19 pandemic has helped revive the autopsy. When the virus first arrived in U.S. hospitals, doctors could only guess what was causing its strange constellation of symptoms: What could explain why patients were losing their sense of smell and taste, developing skin rashes, struggling to breathe and reporting memory loss on top of flu-like coughs and aches? At hospital morgues, which have been steadily losing prominence and funding over several decades, pathologists were busily dissecting the disease’s first victims — and finding some answers.
December 30: “EXPLAINER: Scientists Trying to Understand New Virus Variant” Associated Press
Does it spread more easily? Make people sicker? Mean that treatments and vaccines won’t work? Questions are multiplying as fast as new variants of the coronavirus, especially the one moving through England and now popping up in the U.S. and other countries. Scientists say there is reason for concern and more to learn but that the new variants should not cause alarm.
December 30: “China Clamps Down in Hidden Hunt for Coronavirus Origins” by Dake Kang, Maria Cheng, and Sam McNeil, Associated Press
Deep in the lush mountain valleys of southern China lies the entrance to a mine shaft that once harbored bats with the closest known relative of the COVID-19 virus. The area is of intense scientific interest because it may hold clues to the origins of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide. Yet for scientists and journalists, it has become a black hole of no information because of political sensitivity and secrecy.
December 30: “No Half Measures and Mind the Gap: UK Nod for AstraZeneca Vaccine Raises More Questions” by Alistair Smout, Reuters
British health officials greenlighted the AstraZeneca and Oxford COVID-19 shot on Wednesday but also rebuffed one of their central claims: that a half-dose followed by a standard dose offered more protection against infection. The reassessment of the best dosing regimen for the vaccine was an unexpected move by Britain’s medicines regulator based on its own analysis of as-yet-unpublished data and it raised fresh questions about the efficacy of a vaccine which has yet to be approved in other countries.
December 30: “China Approves Sinopharm Covid-19 Vaccine, Promises Free Shots for All Citizens” by Nectar Gan, CNN
China approved its first homegrown coronavirus vaccine for general public use on Thursday, with officials promising to provide the general public with free inoculations. The approval comes a day after its manufacturer, state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, said the vaccine is 79.34% effective, citing interim analysis of Phase 3 clinical trials.
December 31: “U.S. Vaccinations in 2020 Fall Far Short of Target of 20 Million People” by Rebecca Spalding and Carl O’Donnell, Reuters
Only about 2.8 million Americans had received a COVID-19 vaccine going into the last day of December, putting the United States far short of the government’s target to vaccinate 20 million people this month. Shots are reaching nursing home residents at an even slower pace than others first in line even though they are most at risk of dying of the virus.
December 31: “With Limited Surveillance of Covid-19 Variant, It’s Deja Vu All Over Again” by Helen Branswell, STAT News
As health officials in the United States announced a second and possibly a third person infected with a new, more transmissible strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, infectious diseases experts are feeling a sense of déjà vu all over again.
