June 14 coronavirus news

Gov. Phil Scott says Vermont is the first state to vaccinate over 80% of its population over the age of 12 against Covid-19. 

"Now here's the news many have been waiting to hear, and I've been waiting to deliver for 15 months: now that we hit 80% – effective immediately, I'm lifting all remaining state pandemic restrictions. The state of emergency, will formally end at midnight, June 15," Scott said on Monday. 

"Why? Because it's safe to do so," Scott said. 

On Facebook, Scott said "Vermont has been a leader throughout this once-in-a-century crisis," but added the work in his state is note done. 

"We will continue to vaccinate as many Vermonters as we can, because every shot given today, tomorrow, and the weeks to come, is just as important as the ones we administered yesterday," he said. "When vaccines are approved for younger Vermonters in the months ahead, we will be ready." 

Authorities have received more than 3,000 reports of unruly airplane passengers this year, the Federal Aviation Administration told CNN on Monday.  

The sharp spike in misbehaving and even violent passengers includes 2,300 reports that passengers refused to comply with the federal requirement to wear face masks on airplanes. The mandate also applies to other modes of group transportation such as buses.  

The FAA said it has identified potential violations so far in 465 of the 3,000 cases and has begun enforcement action in 57 cases.  

The agency has publicly released details of 23 incidents and announced proposed fines totaling more than $400,000. The largest single fine was proposed as $52,500.   

The latest high-profile unruly passenger was an off-duty Delta Air Lines flight attendant who allegedly used the plane’s intercom system and assaulted two other flight attendants.  

Read more about this here.

Residents of Viana, a small town in southeastern Brazil, are taking part in a new coronavirus study in which medical researchers are trying to vaccinate all of the town's adult population ages 18 to 49 against Covid-19, but with only half the typical dose of AstraZeneca's vaccine. 

In the study, most of Viana’s adult population will be given two half-doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine three months apart – the usual timespan in which AstraZeneca doses are administered in Brazil. The researchers from Brazil’s Fiocruz Foundation are examining whether a half-dose can provide enough protection against the virus, and then compare its efficacy with the full dosage.

The study aims to vaccinate 35,000 people, around 85% of Viana's population.

The town was chosen for its closeness to the metropolitan region of Vitoria, Espirito Santo state’s capital, which is a Covid-19 hotspot.

The first round of vaccinations is expected to take two days, to be administered on Sunday, June 13 and Monday, June 14, and will be done using AstraZeneca doses donated by the Brazilian health ministry.

The Delta variant, which is also known as B1.617.2 and was first identified in India, is associated with approximately double the risk of hospitalization compared with the Alpha variant (or B.1.1.7) first identified in the UK, according to the preliminary findings of a Scottish study published Monday in The Lancet. 

A research team from the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde and Public Health Scotland analyzed data from 5.4 million people in Scotland as part of the “EAVE II” project. The study comes after Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced last week the Delta variant makes up 91% of new cases in the UK.

During the period included in the study, April 1 to June 6, there were 19,543 community cases and 377 hospitalizations, according to the study. Among those, 7,723 cases and 134 hospitalizations were found to be the Delta variant. Risk of admission was “particularly increased in those with five or more relevant comorbidities,” the study says. 

The early findings suggest two Covid-19 vaccine doses provide protection against the Delta variant, but it may be a lower level of protection than against the Alpha variant. Vaccines were found to reduce the risk of being admitted to hospital, but strong protective effects against the Delta variant were not seen until at least 28 days after the first vaccine dose, the study added.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was found to provide 79% protection against infection from the Delta variant, compared with 92% against the Alpha variant, in community cases at least two weeks after the second dose.

“Over a matter of weeks the Delta variant has become the dominant strain of SARS-CoV-2 in Scotland. It is unfortunately associated with increased risk of hospitalization from Covid-19. Whilst possibly not as effective as against other variants, two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines still offer substantial protection against the risk of infection and hospitalization. It is therefore really important that, when offered second doses, people take these up both to protect themselves and to reduce household and community transmission,” professor Aziz Sheikh, director of the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute and EAVE II study lead, said in a statement.

The findings of the research were released ahead of an announcement from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson about a potential delay to the lifting of all social contact restrictions in England, with the government suggesting this will allow more time for people to receive two doses of the vaccine.   

“It is important to recognize that these are preliminary results using rapidly accessible data. A fuller understanding will come when the results presented here are combined with similar analyses from other data sets in the UK,” professor Chris Robertson of Strathclyde University added.

The American biotechnology company Novavax announced on Monday that its coronavirus vaccine candidate was found to have an overall efficacy of 90.4% in a Phase 3 trial conducted across the United States and Mexico.

Additional analyses of the trial are ongoing, according to the company, and will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals for publication.

The trial results appear consistent with the efficacy and safety profile the vaccine previously showed in a Phase 3 trial conducted in the United Kingdom, Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development for Novavax, told CNN.

The study launched in December and enrolled 29,960 adults across 113 sites in the United States and six sites in Mexico. Some of the participants were given a placebo and some were administered two doses of the Novavax vaccine 21 days apart.

The company said the vaccine was "generally well-tolerated" and common side effects included pain at the injection site, lasting less than three days, and fatigue, headache and muscle pain, lasting less than two days.

There were 77 Covid-19 cases that emerged among participants during the study, according to Novavax. Sixty-three of the cases were in people in the placebo group and 14 in the vaccine group.

The company noted that all cases in the vaccine group were mild. There were 10 moderate and four severe cases in the placebo group, demonstrating a vaccine efficacy of 100% against moderate or severe disease, according to Novavax.

Novavax's coronavirus vaccine, called NVX-CoV2373, differs from the three vaccines already in use in the United States. The vaccine relies on what is called recombinant nanoparticle technology and Novavax's adjuvant, called Matrix-M, to stimulate an immune response.

What's next: Novavax said on Monday it plans to apply in the US for emergency use authorization of its vaccine in the third quarter of this year and is "on track" to manufacture about 100 million doses per month by the end of the third quarter.

The B.1.617.2 Covid-19 variant, or Delta variant, “could spike a new epidemic heading into the fall,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday.

“That doesn't mean that we're going to see a sharp uptick in infections, but it does mean that this is going to take over,” he added.

Gottlieb cited data suggesting the Delta variant, which was first detected in India, is about 60% more transmissible than the B.117, or Alpha, variant first identified in the UK. He noted that current Covid-19 vaccines appear to provide some protection against the variant.

“I think in parts of the country where you have less vaccination – particularly in parts of the south, where you have some cities where vaccination rates are low – there's a risk that you could see outbreaks with this new variant,” Gottlieb said.

Remember: There is evidence the existing Covid-19 shots are working against the Delta variant.

A team of researchers at BioNTech and the University of Texas Medical Branch reported last week they had found evidence the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would protect against infection with the Delta variant and others.

Early data published by PHE showed similar results for the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines. They, too, appeared to be effective against the Delta variant once both doses have been administered.

The Delta variant is quickly on its way to becoming the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the US, raising concerns that outbreaks could hit vulnerable communities come fall.

Experts have been warning that the Delta variant — which is also known as or B.1.617.2 and was first identified in India — could pose considerable danger to those who are unvaccinated.

The good news is that two doses of Pfizer/BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine appear to provide good protection against some of the worrisome new variants circulating, including the Delta variant, other researchers reported this week in the journal Nature.

"New variants will continue to emerge as the pandemic persists," researchers said, adding that there has been no evidence that variants have largely escaped such vaccine protections.

Early data published by PHE showed similar results for the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines. They, too, appeared to be effective against the Delta variant once both doses have been administered.

CNN's Aya Elamroussi and Madeline Holcombe contributed reporting to this post.

Airport security checkpoints on Sunday recorded the busiest day of the pandemic for the second time this weekend.   

The Transportation Security Administration said it screened nearly 2.1 million people on Sunday, after screening 2.03 million on Friday. Those were the only two days since the pandemic collapsed air travel in March and April 2020 that the number of people screened was above the 2-million mark.  

The numbers represent a growing number of Americans looking to vacation or visit family this summer, as airlines say business travel has not recovered. United said Friday it expects to have most of its crewmembers actively flying by the fall. 

On the equivalent days in 2019, TSA screened 2.6 and 2.7 million people, according to its data.