Category: Health

Gavin Newsom, California Governor, speaks during a press conference in Sacramento, California

Rich Pedroncelli | Bloomberg | Getty Images

California Governor Gavin Newsom canceled his planned coronavirus update on Wednesday out of “caution” after a crowd of protesters who supported President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol.

“We are concerned for the safety of the California Congress delegation and US Capitol staff and we endeavor to provide assistance in any way we can,” the Democratic governor said in a statement, adding that he was concerned about the safety of his own office staff California too.

“Peaceful protest is an important mechanism of our democracy, but what we are seeing in our nation’s Capitol is reprehensible and an outright attack on our democracy and democratic institutions,” Newsom said.

The news comes as California faces the deadliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the state reports around 354 Covid deaths daily, a record average per week and an increase of nearly 49% compared to a week ago.

A governor’s spokesman told CNBC that the capital’s staff had been asked to work from home for the rest of the day. People who gathered to protest on the Capitol grounds have since left and there have been no major incidents, the spokesman said.

The Sacramento Police Department said in a tweet that 11 people were arrested for illegally possessing pepper spray and that there were some physical fights. However, the protesters have broken up and a large police presence will remain in the area all night.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned that vaccinating Americans against Covid is more critical than ever, especially since the new South African variant seems to inhibit antibody drugs.

“The South African variant is very worrying at the moment as it appears that it obviates the need for some of our medical countermeasures, particularly the antibody drugs,” said the former FDA head of the Trump administration in an interview on CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith “Tuesday night.” At the moment, this burden seems to be widespread in South America and Brazil, the two parts of the world currently in its summer but also experiencing a very dense epidemic, and this is worrying.

The South African variant is also known as 501.V2, and in mid-December, officials reported that 501.V2 had largely replaced other strains of the coronavirus as early as November. South Africa has already suffered the more than 1.1 million COVID-19 cases and more than 30,000 deaths, most of them in the African continent.

Quoting experimental evidence from Bloom Lab, Gottlieb stated that 501.V2 appears to partially escape previous immunity. This means that some of the antibodies that people produce when they become infected with Covid, as well as the antibody drugs, may not be quite as effective.

“The new variant has mutated part of the spike protein that our antibodies bind to in order to try to kill the virus itself. So that is worrying,” said Gottlieb. “Now the vaccine can be a backlash against those variants that are really gaining a foothold here in the US, but we need to speed up the vaccination rate.”

Operation Warp Speed ​​Director of Supply Production and Sales Ret. Lt. Gen. Paul Ostrowski told host Shepard Smith on Dec. 3 that anyone who wants a vaccine can get one by June. However, the forecasts are currently insufficient. More than 17 million doses of Covid have been distributed to states, but only 4.8 million Americans received their first shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gottlieb suggested working through prioritized categories of people faster, increasing the number of vaccination sites, and keeping a lower percentage of the dosages in order to vaccinate more Americans.

“It is really a race against time trying to get more vaccines into people’s arms before these new varieties become more common here in the US,” said Gottlieb.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, the genetic testing startup Tempus, and the biotech company Illumina. Pfizer has signed a manufacturing agreement with Gilead to manufacture Remdesivir. Gottlieb is also co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean’s Healthy Sail Panel.

As the first step in the largest vaccination campaign in Argentina’s history, first line health workers are receiving the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus.

Patricio Murphy | SOPA pictures | LightRocket | Getty Images

LONDON – The largest global study to date on Long Covid found that many people who suffer from persistent illness after being infected with Covid-19 cannot work at full capacity six months later.

The term “Long Covid” refers to patients who, after initially contracting the virus, suffer from a prolonged illness with symptoms such as shortness of breath, migraines and chronic fatigue.

Public discourse on the pandemic has mainly focused on people with severe or fatal illness, with the ongoing medical problems either underestimated or misunderstood. However, recent studies have shown that an increasing number of Covid patients experience persistent symptoms, with some patients referring to themselves as “long-distance drivers”.

A preliminary study, published Tuesday on MedRxiv, is believed to be the largest collection of symptoms yet identified in the long Covid population.

In the non-peer-reviewed study, the researchers interviewed 3,762 people aged 18 to 80 from 56 countries to identify the symptoms and other problems resulting from the long Covid.

205 symptoms were recorded in 10 organ systems, with 66 symptoms followed over seven months. On average, the respondents had symptoms from nine organ systems.

What were the results of the study?

The most common symptoms after six months were: fatigue, post-exercise fatigue, and cognitive dysfunction, sometimes called brain fog.

Respondents with symptoms over six months had an average of 13.8 symptoms by the seventh month. This is evident from the study by members of patient-led research for COVID-19, a self-organized group of patients with long coviden who are also researchers.

Over 45% of respondents said they needed a reduced work schedule compared to their previous illness, and 22.3% said they were not working at the time of the survey due to their state of health. Almost 86% experienced relapses, with exercise, physical or mental activity, and stress identified as the main triggers.

The analysis was limited to suspected and confirmed Covid cases with an illness that lasted more than 28 days and started before June. This should allow for an examination of symptoms over an average of six months, the researchers said.

A woman wearing a protective face mask walks on the levee at Stanley Park on January 4, 2021 in Vancouver, Canada.

Andrew Chin | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

“We mustn’t forget Long Covid,” said Dr. Gabriel Scally, President of Epidemiology at the Royal Society of Medicine, on Tuesday via Twitter.

“Thousands of new cases develop every day. Vaccination is critical, but it needs to be carried out effectively and backed by other control measures that the Independent Sage has tirelessly advocated,” said Scally, a member of the scientific group that provides scientific advice on the pandemic British government and public.

The results of the study come from countries across Europe adopting tough new health measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, more than 85 million people worldwide have infected Covid with 1.85 million deaths.

The medical staff will receive the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine in the Favoriten Clinic in Vienna on December 27, 2020 on the occasion of the launch of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine.

Georg Hochmuth | AFP | Getty Images

The UK’s decision to delay the administration of the second dose of a coronavirus vaccine is controversial as experts, advisors and vaccine manufacturers weigh the strategy.

The UK was one of the first countries in the world to launch a mass vaccination campaign against the coronavirus after approving the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech in early December. Oxford University and AstraZeneca began rolling out the vaccine on Monday of this week after it was approved for use just before the New Year.

As both vaccines require two doses per person, the UK government initially said that a second dose would be given either three or four weeks after the first dose, depending on which vaccine was given and in line with the dosage regimens tested in clinical trials.

However, a break of up to 12 weeks is now recommended to give more people an initial dose – and initial protection against Covid-19.

Concerns from the vaccine manufacturer

BioNTech and Pfizer have responded to the decision, saying there is no evidence that their vaccine will continue to protect against Covid-19 if the second shot is given more than 21 days after the starting dose.

“Pfizer and BioNTech’s Phase 3 study of the COVID-19 vaccine was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the vaccine on a 2-dose regimen separated by 21 days. The safety and efficacy The majority of study participants received the second dose within the window specified in the study design, “the companies said in a statement to CNBC on Tuesday.

“Although data from the Phase 3 study showed partial protection from the vaccine as early as 12 days after the first dose, there is no data to show that protection is maintained after 21 days after the first dose.”

The companies said it was now “critical to conduct surveillance efforts” with alternative dosing schedules in place.

The final analysis of data from the Pfizer / BioNTech clinical trials found the vaccine to be 95% effective given seven days after the second dose in preventing Covid-19.

For the Oxford University / AstraZeneca candidate, the interim analysis of the late-stage study results was somewhat more nuanced, as the vaccine doses to the study participants showed an anomaly. When the vaccine was given in two full doses, it was found to be 62.1% effective, but when some study participants received half a dose followed by a full dose of 90%. In both dosing regimens, the two shots were given one month apart. AstraZeneca was not immediately available for comment on the UK’s decision to postpone the second dose.

Reasons for the decision

The decision to extend the dosage window is made as UK hospitals struggle with increasing admissions. The coronavirus is running amok in the UK, with a new, transmissible strain of the virus spreading exponentially in London and the South East, and now appearing in other parts of the country.

To date, the country has recorded over 2.6 million cases of coronavirus and more than 75,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The UK recorded 58,784 new cases on Monday and has now reported more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for seven days in a row. On Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a third nationwide lockdown for England.

Against this dire backdrop, the UK Medicines Agency, Joint Vaccination and Immunization Committee and the UK’s four chief medical officers agreed to move the gap between the first and second vaccine dose to “protect the greatest number of people in India” the shortest Time. “

There are signs that other Britain may follow suit. The German Ministry of Health is now asking an independent vaccination commission for advice on whether the British strategy on dose delay should be adhered to. Denmark has reportedly already approved a delay of up to six weeks between the first and second vaccinations.

‘Finely balanced’

So far, more than a million people in the UK have been vaccinated with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, according to government figures, and some, like the first recipient of this vaccine outside of a clinical trial, have received their second dose.

But now, thousands of others in the top priority category are being told to wait up to 12 weeks for their second dose.

The British Medical Association described the move as “grossly unfair” to thousands of high-risk patients in England, but the UK’s Independent Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE) said in a statement released on Sunday that it was a “very difficult and finely balanced” move be decision. “

In response to the BMA’s concerns, SAGE said, “Under normal circumstances, we would advocate continuing our previous plans to give two doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine 21 days apart. However, these are not normal circumstances, and so it is are other important public health considerations. “

The UK is prioritizing vaccination of elderly care home residents, their carers, people over 80, and frontline health and social workers.

The country has pre-ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, enough for 20 million people, and signed a contract with AstraZeneca for 100 million doses, enough for 50 million people. There are around 66 million people in Great Britain.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold a press conference at 10 Downing Street in central London on December 24, 2020 to brief the nation on the post-Brexit trade deal.

Paul Grover | AFP | Getty Images

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said England was passing a national lockdown which he hopes is tough enough to hold a new, highly contagious variant of Covid-19 in.

People can only leave their homes to shop for essentials, work when they cannot be from home, play sports, see a doctor and escape domestic violence, he said in an announcement on Monday evening. Elementary schools, secondary schools and colleges will also switch to distance learning on Tuesday, except in rare cases, he said.

“I understand the inconvenience and hardship this change will cause millions of people and parents across the country,” said Johnson. “The problem is not that schools are unsafe for children … the problem is that schools can act as transmission vectors, causing the virus to spread between households.”

The UK chief medical officers recommended that the country move to alert level 5. If the country doesn’t take action, the National Health Service could “be overwhelmed in 21 days,” Johnson said.

The changes come as the UK grapples with a more transferable variant of Covid-19. To date, the country has recorded over 2.6 million cases of Covid-19 and more than 75,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The UK recorded 58,784 new cases on Monday and has now reported more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for seven days in a row.

“The number of deaths has risen by 20% in the last week and will unfortunately continue to rise … With most of the country already facing extreme measures, it is clear that together we must do more to keep this new variant under control Vaccines are being introduced, “Johnson said, noting that the mutated strain is estimated to be 50 to 70% more contagious.

Johnson warned earlier Monday that Britain had “tough, tough weeks” ahead of it and that there was “no question” that tougher measures would be implemented.

Before the announcement, more than three-quarters of England lived under the toughest of restrictions.

On Monday afternoon, Scottish head of state Nicola Sturgeon announced a new order for citizens of the country to stay at home from midnight. Schools in Scotland will be closed until early February.

Kier Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labor Party in the UK, tweeted on Sunday that Johnson “must introduce national restrictions within the next 24 hours”.

Coronavirus vaccines are the only bright spot in a pandemic that continues to rage across the UK and much of the West. On Monday, the UK began rolling out the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after the use of the Pfizer / BioNTech shot began in December.

“There is a big difference from last year. We are now launching the largest vaccination program in our history,” said Johnson.

If things go well, Johnson said everyone in the top four priority groups should get their first shot of the two-dose vaccines by mid-February. That includes nursing home residents and their carers, anyone over 70, all frontline health and social workers, and anyone who is clinically at risk, he said.

“If we can manage to vaccinate all of these groups we will have removed large numbers of people from the path of the virus. And of course that will allow us to lift many of the restrictions we have been through for so long,” he said.

The country might consider reopening schools after the February half-year if the vaccine rollout continues to go well, deaths fall and “everyone does their part to keep the rules”.

He said the coming weeks will be the toughest, “but I really believe we are entering the final phase of the fight because with every push that goes into our arms, the odds against Covid and in favor of the British are tilting” , he said. “I know how hard it is, and I know how frustrated you are, and I know you had more than enough government guidance on how to fight this virus. But now, more than ever, we need to pull ourselves together.”

The UK government has decided to introduce a 12 week delay between the first and second doses of the coronavirus vaccines Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca in order to cover as large a segment of the population as possible.

The UK’s independent scientific advisory group on emergencies said Sunday that it was in favor of the move under certain conditions. However, the British Medical Association criticized the UK’s decision to postpone the second dose.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson poses for a photo with a vial of the vaccine candidate Covid-19 from the University of AstraZeneca / Oxford.

WPA pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON – UK has started rolling out the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. This is another step in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The country’s National Health Service (NHS) is the first in the world to use the push after it was approved for use in the UK by the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) last week.

The approval and use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are seen as a boon in the race against Covid-19 as it is cheaper than the alternatives developed by Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna.

In addition, unlike other vaccines, it can be stored, transported, and handled under normal refrigeration conditions (2 to 8 degrees Celsius or 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least six months.

When the vaccine was approved last week, AstraZeneca stated its goal of “delivering millions of doses in the first quarter” under its contract with the UK government to deliver up to 100 million doses in total.

As a two-dose vaccine, according to the agreement, it could vaccinate up to 50 million people in the UK of around 66 million people.

In a statement on Monday, the UK government said there are now more than half a million doses available, “with an additional ten million doses to be delivered over the coming weeks and months once batches have been quality checked by the MHRA.”

The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine complements a Covid-19 vaccination program launched by the UK back in December, when the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine launched with two doses. According to the government, more than a million people in the UK have already been vaccinated with the Pfizer shot. It was announced on Monday that more than 730 vaccination sites have been set up across the UK and that hundreds more will be opening this week.

As with the Pfizer vaccine, the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot will be introduced first for priority groups, including residents and employees of nursing homes, people over 80 and health and care workers, and then for the rest of the population in order of age and risk, including those who are extremely clinically vulnerable.

“Decisive moment”

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “This is a pivotal moment in our fight against this terrible virus and I hope it gives everyone renewed hope that the end of this pandemic is in sight”.

Another vaccine may not come early enough for the UK, which is grappling with an increase in infections, largely due to a mutation in the virus that is making it easier to spread. Britain has now registered over 2.6 million cases of the virus and over 75,000 deaths, according to a record by Johns Hopkins University.

On Monday, Hancock told Sky News that the UK cannot roll out the vaccine any faster than supply allows. However, experts agree that the UK needs to step up its vaccination program as soon as possible. Last week, a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine concluded that the UK must vaccinate two million people a week to avoid a third wave of the coronavirus outbreak.

On Saturday, The Times newspaper anonymously quoted a “key member of the Oxford AstraZeneca team” as saying the drug company would increase production so that it would produce two million pounds each week by mid-January.

This goal is achievable, but challenging, says Dr. Andrew Freedman, Infectious Disease Reader at Cardiff University School of Medicine. He told CNBC on Monday that the speed of the rollout will depend on “the availability of the vaccine, vaccine production, but also its distribution and establishment of new vaccination centers and the recruitment of new vaccines”.

“It’s a goal, but it’s realistic and I think it can be achieved by the end of the month,” he told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe.

The most vulnerable are first vaccinated with shots initially taken in hospitals before the bulk of the shipments are sent to hundreds of doctor’s offices and nursing homes later in the week.

Somewhat controversial, the MHRA, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) and the UK’s four chief medical officers agreed to move the gap between the first and second dose of coronavirus vaccines that are now being given to the public . The change in strategy was to get most people protected in no time.

The British Medical Association said the decision to postpone the post-dose of the Pfizer vaccine and to cancel appointments for patients who had already been given the second dose was “grossly unfair” for thousands of high-risk patients. However, experts like Freedman said that with a vaccine like the Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate, a longer gap between doses could increase the effectiveness of the sting.

The government last week insisted that “the priority should be to give as many people in risk groups as possible their first dose, rather than delivering the required two doses in as short a time as possible”.

“Everyone will continue to receive their second dose within 12 weeks of the first. The second dose completes the course and is important for longer term protection,” he added.

A FDNY EMS Fire Department employee receives a COVID-19 Moderna vaccine amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, United States. December 23, 2020.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

The head of the federal government’s Covid-19 vaccination program said Sunday that health officials are considering the idea of ​​giving a large group of Americans half-volume doses of a vaccine to speed up adoption.

Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp Speed, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that one way to speed up immunization against Covid-19 is to give some people two half-volume doses of the Moderna vaccine.

“We know that for the Moderna vaccine, half the dose is given to people between the ages of 18 and 55 – two doses, half the dose, which is exactly the goal of getting twice the number of people using the doses immunize that we have – we know it induces an identical immune response to the 100 microgram dose, “Slaoui said.

“And that’s why we’re in talks with Moderna and the FDA – of course it will ultimately be a decision of the FDA – to accelerate the injection of half the volume,” he added.

Moncef Slaoui, a former executive director of GlaxoSmithKline, speaks to President Donald J. Trump during a vaccine development event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday, May 15, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images

The comments came in response to why the US is not adopting the strategy of giving all available vaccine doses now, even though the approved vaccines require a second round of firing to be fully effective. The UK has taken this approach in the hope that continued production will enable the second recordings in the future.

Slaoui said it was a mistake to make a decision that was not supported by the experimental data. White House Health Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, commented similarly on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, said the strategy “goes against science” and would not solve the problems with the US launch.

“The idea of ​​expanding it so you can get more people is when you don’t have enough vaccine and a lot of people are waiting in line to wait for a vaccine,” Fauci said. “That’s not our problem now. We have a vaccine. We have to get it into people’s arms. It really is the right solution to the wrong problem.”

The FDA and Moderna did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The dispute over different vaccination approaches stems from the fact that the introduction of the vaccine in the US did not achieve the goals of Operation Warp Speed ​​and the pandemic continues to devastate the country. President Donald Trump has blamed states for the slow adoption as the number of vaccinations given lags behind the number of vaccines sent and delivered.

Health officials wanted to inject a vaccine to 20 million Americans by the end of the year. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 4.2 million people had received gunfire by January 2.

The last 7-day average for new cases of the coronavirus in the US is 205,093, according to John Hopkins University. That number has grown by 8% week-to-week, although tests and reports tended to be inconsistent during the holiday season. According to Johns Hopkins, the nation has an average of more than 2,600 deaths a day attributed to the virus.

A man is given a COVID-19 nasal swab test at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) amid a coronavirus surge in southern California on December 22, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.

Mario Tama | Getty Images

Three US states have now identified cases of the new coronavirus strain in people with no travel history, a sign that the variant could already unwittingly spread among Americans.

Florida health officials announced Thursday that they had found the first case of Covid-19 in the state with the new, more contagious variant of the virus. The man, who lives in the county north of West Palm Beach, is in his twenties and has no travel history, the Florida Department of Health said in a Twitter post.

The Florida man was among the first to be diagnosed with the new variant B.1.1.7, which was first identified in the UK. California has now identified at least four cases of the new strain in San Diego County in men with no reported travel history. The cases came just days after Colorado health officials discovered the first cases in people who had not traveled.

“I’m not surprised you have a case and probably more cases in California,” said White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday after announcing that state health officials had found her first case. “We’ll likely see reports from other states.”

U.S. health officials have said the variant’s arrival in the nation comes as no surprise, although if it is allowed to spread uncontrollably it could make matters worse. While the evidence suggests that the new strain is easier and faster to transmit compared to previous versions of the virus, it is not believed to cause more serious diseases in infected people, and current vaccines should continue to work against it, according to the Officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a conference call Wednesday.

Nevertheless, the new variant threatens to worsen the situation if more people are hospitalized due to its spread, according to experts. December was the deadliest month of the pandemic in the U.S. as hospitals reached capacity and the much-anticipated vaccine rollout ended slower than expected.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the nation reported more than 6.3 million new infections and more than 77,500 deaths in December. On the way into 2021, a little more than 125,000 people with Covid-19 are currently being hospitalized – more than twice as high as in mid-April last year. This comes from data from the COVID Tracking Project, which is carried out by journalists at The Atlantic.

Another cause for concern: The first cases of the new variant were found in the most populous states in the country amid a busy vacation travel season, Mercedes Carnethon, vice chairman of preventive medicine at Northwestern University, told MSNBC on Friday.

TSA officials said they screened 1.28 million passengers at US airports on the Sunday after Christmas. This is the highest number since Covid stopped traveling in mid-March.

“We can be sure that from the photos we all saw at TSA checkpoints on vacation, we have traveled millions of people between these destinations,” Carnethon said. “We can be pretty sure that this variant is everywhere now.”

The latest findings from Imperial College London also show that the new variant appears to affect people under the age of 20 more than older adults. Part of that shift, however, could be because schools stayed open during a period of lockdown orders, the study says.

The age gap could be an issue as younger people are more likely to be key workers in the community than the first to be vaccinated, Carnethon said.

“I think the priority, I think, needs to be to reinforce the basic messages we know about how to stop community transmission,” Carnethon said. “As we know, our vaccination strategy begins with strengthening our infrastructure for healthcare workers. However, this is not necessarily the population that is causing the coronavirus to spread to the community.”

A pharmacist dilutes the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as he prepares it for administration to staff and residents at Goodwin House Bailey’s Crossroads, a senior community in Falls Church, Virginia, on December 30, 2020.

Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

Dozens of people in West Virginia were mistakenly given Regeneron’s Covid-19 antibodies instead of the Moderna vaccine, the West Virginia National Guard said Thursday.

According to the state’s National Guard, 42 people received the intravenous treatment at a Boone County Department of Health vaccination clinic. The National Guard said it learned of the mistake on Wednesday.

Everyone who received the antibody treatment instead of the vaccine, which is given through a shot in the arm, has been contacted, Julie Miller, a Boone County Health Department administrator, told CNBC via email. She added, “We don’t think there is any risk of harm.”

Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment, which must be given via an IV drip, is seen as a promising treatment for Covid-19 – especially if given early in the course of the infection. But the West Virginia mix-up is just one example of the confusion in the rush to distribute the vaccine to tens of millions of people. The rollout was slower than expected and was characterized by logistical challenges.

“It was determined that this was an isolated incident,” Miller said. “All those affected will be offered the COVID-19 vaccine today.”

She said the health department will work closely with the state National Guard and the Department of Health and Human Resources to review their policies and procedures.

Miller did not provide details on what caused the mix-up.

Representatives from the West Virginia National Guard and the West Virginia Governor’s Office did not respond to CNBC’s request for further comment on the occurrence of the error.

Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard, said in a statement that his forces “acted immediately” to correct the mistake as soon as they found out what happened. “We immediately reviewed and strengthened our logs to improve our sales process and prevent this from happening again,” he said in a statement.

He added that the state will continue to promote the vaccine “to save more lives every day”.

Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s Covid-19 tsar, noted in a statement that the Regeneron treatment mistakenly given in place of the vaccine is the same product “that was given to President Trump when he became infected”.

“Although this injection is not harmful, it has replaced the vaccine,” he said. “However, this event provides an important opportunity for our leadership team to review and improve the safety and vaccination process for every West Virginian.”

Decommissioned and suspended commercial aircraft will be stored at Pinal Airpark in Marana, Arizona on May 16, 2020.

Christian Petersen | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Covid-19 pandemic has been brutal for U.S. airlines, and significant relief is not expected until the second half of 2021.

FactSet analysts estimate that U.S. airlines’ net losses for 2020 are likely to exceed $ 35 billion. That includes Southwest Airlines’ anticipated first annual loss in more than four decades.

The pandemic ended a decade of profits that the historically booming industry saw through 2020. During that time, they hired tens of thousands of workers, bought new planes, and expanded their networks.

In 2020, airline stocks fell the most in years. American Airlines ‘stock price was down 45%, the largest percentage decline since the airline’s merger with US Airways in 2013. Delta Air Lines’ stock was down 31% while United Airlines was down 51% over the past 12 months. This was the biggest drop since 2008. Southwest lost 14%. The S&P 500 rose more than 16% in 2020.

The pandemic forced transportation companies to rapidly shrink, cut routes and park hundreds of jets. According to the Airlines for America trade group, US airlines increased their total debt by $ 67 billion to over $ 172 billion in 2020 to weather the crisis. The repayment will face headwinds for the next few years.

The good news is that demand for air travel has rebounded sharply from the levels seen at the start of the pandemic. On April 16, the Transportation Security Administration screened 95,085 people at US airports, less than 4% of the 2.6 million people who had passed through those checkpoints a year earlier. TSA airport screenings, triggered in part by the year-end holidays, hit more than 1 million people a day for the last five days through Wednesday, though that’s still about 45% fewer than last year.

As lucrative business and international travel largely got out of hand, vacation travel became the most important market.

Airlines are expected to reduce their losses and in some cases – including Southwest, Delta, Alaska – analysts estimate they will become profitable next year. The approval of coronavirus vaccines has contributed to optimism about future demand for travel, although it is not yet clear when more people will resume flying.

“Our mission to connect the world was reaffirmed by the events of last year, but we do not yet know what the demand for travel will be when it recovers,” said Ed Bastian, Delta CEO, in an employee report on new year day. “Simply recreating the delta from 2019 is not an option. Our customers give us the draft for the delta from 2021 and beyond.”

Bastian reiterated that Delta expects the airline to generate positive cash flow in the spring.

Airline executives recently warned that difficult months await as they have set breakeven point targets and say they will continue to operate limited capacity to meet weak demand. American Airlines President Robert Isom said earlier this week that the airline’s capacity is expected to be 45% of 2019 levels in January and February.

Many potential customers are still not flying as coronavirus infections rise to ever higher records, new travel restrictions are introduced and government officials recommend avoiding travel to slow the spread of the disease.

US officials said last week that all passengers must test negative for Covid-19 before flying to the US after a highly contagious strain of the disease was found in the UK, although this was also found in California and Colorado.

Carriers recently received $ 15 billion in additional wage support under the latest coronavirus relief package that President Donald Trump signed on Sunday. This requires airlines to keep their staff by March 31st and recall more than 30,000 workers they took on leave when the terms of the last $ 25 billion package expired on October 1st.

United Airlines executives believe this will only be temporary.

“The truth is, we don’t see anything in the data that shows a huge difference in bookings over the next few months,” said CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart in a December 21 employee statement. “So we expect the recall to be temporary.”