January 14 coronavirus news

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores is asking states to transfer unused Covid-19 vaccine doses to pharmacies. 

 On Thursday, New York is scheduled to start transferring vaccine doses to pharmacies in the state, Jaeger said. Ohio and Colorado are expected to start transferring vaccine doses to pharmacies very soon, she said.

In addition, the association wants states to soon start sending doses of vaccine directly from manufacturers and distributors to pharmacies.

Nineteen pharmacy chains and associations have partnered with the federal government to carry out vaccinations in their stores. The federal pharmacy partnership program was announced by US Health and Human Secretary Alex Azar in November.  Jaeger said the program is expected to begin in early to mid-February with the exact start date dependent on vaccine supply.

Despite new countrywide restrictions in France – including a curfew — schools will remain open and plans are in place to test one million schoolchildren and teachers per month, French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer announced on Thursday.

He said health measures will be reinforced during mealtimes and sports activities in closed spaces would be cancelled.

Although schools have remained open for most of the pandemic, universities have mainly switched to online learning.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Thursday announced a gradual resumption of in-person teaching at universities, saying he appreciated that the situation was “extremely difficult” for university students and their mental health.

University students “feel that the health crisis stole their best moments,” French Higher Education Minister Frédérique Vidal said, echoing concerns voiced in French media this past week.

All first-year students will be allowed to go to seminars in smaller groups starting January 25, and the measure could later be extended to students in other years depending on the epidemic, Vidal said. 

The government also announced measures to provide economic and psychological support to students.

These announcements come as the French government tightened restrictions nationally, with the extension of a 6pm-6am curfew to the whole country.

The incoming Biden administration may put a greater emphasis on developing or finding new drugs to treat coronavirus, one top adviser said Thursday.

Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at NYU who is advising the Biden transition team, expressed concern about the current administration’s focus on monoclonal antibodies – immune system treatments that appear to help some people early on in the course of infection. The US Food and Drug Administration has given emergency use authorization to two such treatments – one made by Eli Lilly and Co., and one by Regeneron.

“I think, big picture, we need to be thinking about other therapies right now,” Gounder told a webcast sponsored by Johns Hopkins University.

The antiviral remdesivir has been approved to treat coronavirus, although it appears to have at best modest effects. It is not a cure.

Monoclonal antibodies are very specific treatments and they might lose efficacy if the virus evolves much, Gounder pointed out. Scientists are checking to see if some of the variants first noticed in the UK and South Africa might be able to partly evade the effects of monoclonal antibody treatments.

“Here I am speaking as a member of IDSA – the Infectious Diseases Society of America. IDSA still does not recommend the use of monoclonal antibodies, despite emergency use authorization being granted by the FDA,” Gounder added.

Texas is the first state in the US to administer 1 million vaccines, Governor Greg Abbott said in a press release Thursday. 

 The state has now inoculated 1,043,624 people with the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.

"The milestone comes exactly one month to the day after the first doses arrived at vaccine providers in the state on December 14," the release noted.   

Next week, Ohio will start vaccinating members of the public who are 80 years old or older, Governor Mike DeWine (R) has announced. He also said the state hopes to lower the minimum age for vaccine availability by five years every week.

As of Thursday, 361,603 vaccines have been given in the state, he added.

Ohio has 750 provider locations across the state and approximately 100,000 vaccines, which will be available starting next week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, depending on delivery date, according to the governor.

On Friday, the state will launch a tool to allow Ohioans to see a list of providers offering the vaccine in their area. The state is also in the process of working on a state scheduling system, DeWine said.

Despite indications that hospitalizations are beginning to level off in California, the number of available ICU beds has dropped to the lowest level recorded yet, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.

There are currently 1,094 ICU beds available for California’s 40 million residents.

More than 22,000 people are hospitalized with the virus in the state, and nearly 5,000 of those are in intensive care units.

About 90% of the state’s residents remain under stay at home orders as state projections show ICU capacity and other factors will remain at critical levels for at least the next four weeks.

There’s not enough data to say whether an antiparasitic drug called ivermectin can help patients with coronavirus, the National Institutes of Health said Thursday.

A few doctors have heavily promoted the drug, but most mainstream medical professionals have been cautious about its use. Because there’s no cheap drug on the market specifically designed and approved to fight coronavirus, doctors have been trying out existing drugs.

There is reason to experiment with ivermectin, NIH said.

The drug "demonstrates potential anti-inflammatory properties in some in vitro studies, properties which have been postulated to be beneficial in the treatment of COVID-19," the statement also said.

But so far, no one has shown it helps actual patients.

“Results from adequately powered, well-designed, and well-conducted clinical trials are needed to provide more specific, evidence-based guidance on the role of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19,” it concluded.

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice credited a “practical” approach to vaccine rollout, as well as a break from the federal model, in his state’s success in administering vaccine doses.

He said that as of Monday, every vaccine dose the state received had been administered, or was assigned to be administered to an individual in the next day or so.

“We’ve absolutely not gone with the federal model,” Justice told CNN’s John King on Thursday. Instead of utilizing chain drug stores to administer the vaccine, the governor said they’ve relied on partnerships with local pharmacies as well as their state health department and national guard to get the job done.

West Virginia’s “practical approach” also prioritizes vaccinating older residents, through a program called Operation S.O.W., for “save our wisdom.”

West Virginia leads the nation in terms of first doses administered per capita, according to data published by the CDC on Thursday. More than 6,600 first doses have been administered per 100,000 residents – nearly double the national rate.

Instacart, the on-demand grocery delivery platform, said it will provide some financial assistance for its essential workers to ensure they can take time off work to get a vaccine for the coronavirus.

The company said Thursday that beginning February 1, it will have a “vaccine support stipend” of $25 available for in-store employees and its independent contractors who have been vaccinated. To be eligible, its independent shoppers must have shopped and delivered at least five batches for the company in the past 30 days.

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