Category: Health

The intensive care unit and the pulmonologist Dr. Vin Gupta told CNBC that for the next two months in the US, everyone should be in a “disaster mindset” as Covid-19 cases explode across the country.

“Doctors in the reserves, US Air Force reserves, we haven’t used all of our skills, we should use those resources – military, National Guard, as you call them, emergency ID cards for anyone properly trained in critical care,” Professor at the institute for University of Washington health metrics and assessment said Monday evening. “We need all hands on deck here.”

According to the Covid Tracking Project, there were 102,148 people in hospitals across the country with coronavirus as of Monday. New Mexico hospitals have reached the point where they may need to start rationing care. The state is likely to be the first to fill all beds in the intensive care unit during the pandemic. Now they are overloaded. Per Covid, the fourth highest in the nation, there are more than 43 people per 100,000 in the hospital, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

Gupta told The News with Shepard Smith that care rationing was actually spreading to other regions across the country. “This is a fact of life, and one of the reasons we believe that by the end of February about 500,000 Americans will lose their lives because we take care of the care and people can’t get the care they need.” the magnitude they need considering how out of control this pandemic is. “

The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation modeling projects project 538,893 deaths from Covid-19 by April 1.

To save life, governors are using hospitalization and ICU capacity as key metrics to set new restrictions.

On Monday, Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that parts of the state would close when hospitals are 90% full. He also said indoor dining in New York City may close soon.

At least 33 million people in California are regionally locked after ICU capacity fell below 15% in some regions. California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom said the appointment would take at least three weeks.

Gupta, an NBC medical worker, described what he called “common sense” of encouraging people not to travel by bus or plane, minimizing gatherings and stopping eating indoors. “Unfortunately, I think these are the parameters that we have to adhere to,” he said. “Do I think they are draconian? I think they are common sense and I think if we can stick with these things we will be able to mitigate the transmission until vaccines are used in the near future.”

Pleading with Americans to wear three-layer masks everywhere in public, Gupta added that there was “compelling data” for people 55 and older that suggest wearing the extra layer of face shield with a three-layer blue mask be safer.

United States President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony to present wrestler Dan Gable with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on December 7, 2020.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday to ensure that U.S. efforts to help other countries vaccinate their populations against Covid-19 are less of a priority than domestic vaccinations, a senior government official told NBC News.

The executive order will be in line with President America First’s foreign policy, the official said. The plans for the Executive Order have already been announced by Fox News. The official said the order will include a framework for sourcing vaccines overseas “once we have made sure we are meeting the needs of the American people”.

CNBC has not examined the proposed text of the Executive Ordinance, which could prove largely symbolic.

The official said the foreign aid delivery schedule will be supply and demand, but is expected to start in the second quarter. President-elect Joe Biden will take office on Jan. 20 and is likely to shape his own policy for the receipt and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, potentially limiting the impact of Trump’s command.

Also on Tuesday, a Covid-19 summit with vaccine manufacturers, drug distributors and government officials will take place in the White House, the medical news agency STAT reported.

Trump has largely ignored the growing coronavirus crisis over the past few weeks despite a surge in infections and a rising death toll exceeding 2,000 deaths a day, instead focusing on legal efforts to scrap the November presidential election results .

However, the signing will take place at a particularly critical stage in vaccine development.

Trump will sign the order just days before Thursday’s Food and Drug Administration meeting to review a promising vaccine from Pfizer and German drug maker BioNTech.

This vaccine can be approved for use by the end of this week. The FDA will meet on December 17th to discuss another Moderna candidate.

While some particularly at-risk Americans may be vaccinated soon after the vaccines are approved, officials warn that it will be months before anyone who wants a vaccine gets one.

Minister of Health and Human Services Alex Azar predicted on Sunday that vaccines are unlikely to be available to everyone applying for a vaccine by the second quarter.

The Trump administration signed a deal this summer to buy 100 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, if it works, enough to supply 50 million Americans.

On Monday afternoon, the New York Times reported that the government had rejected an offer from Pfizer for additional doses at the time.

The paper reported, citing unnamed individuals who are familiar with the matter, that the company may have limited vaccines supply due to its commitments to other countries and may not be able to supply additional vaccines to the US until June.

A spokesman for HHS, pressured by the Times whether the government missed the opportunity to buy more Pfizer’s vaccine, said: “We are confident that we will receive 100 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, as agreed in our contract and beyond that, we have five other vaccine candidates. “

A Pfizer spokesman told the Times that “the company cannot comment on confidential discussions with the US government.”

The White House and HHS did not immediately provide details of the executive order. Pfizer and BioNTech have not returned any emails seeking comment.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Chris Krebs speaks to reporters from the DHS Election Operations Center and the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) in Arlington, Virginia, USA, on November 6, 2018.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

WASHINGTON – The former head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Sunday that opponents have attempted to steal intellectual property related to the coronavirus vaccine.

“With the big four, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, we’ve seen to some extent that all four countries are espionage or espionage and try to obtain intellectual property related to the vaccine,” said Chris Krebs, former CISA Director on CBS “Face the Nation”.

“What we’d been thinking through at CISA was not just the vaccine developers, but their entire supply chain trying to really look for those critical vulnerabilities,” said Krebs.

“So it’s not just about Moderna and some of the others who are developing the vaccine – it’s about their supply chains, distribution channels and public health facilities,” he said. “These are the people we need to keep providing cybersecurity support from the national security community and the private sector.”

IBM released a report last week that found a global phishing campaign targeting the Covid-19 cold chain, part of the supply chain that keeps vaccines at low temperatures during storage and transportation. CISA encouraged organizations associated with Operation Warp Speed, the US vaccination program, to review the IBM report for possible indicators that may have compromised them.

Krebs, the former head of the KAG, was responsible for leading efforts to protect the US elections. He was fired by President Donald Trump in two tweets last month.

Trump said Krebs made a “highly inaccurate” statement on the security of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump, who has not yet conceded President-elect Joe Biden, claimed the election was fraught with “massive inadequacies and fraud.” Twitter tagged the president’s tweets with a warning that the election fraud allegation is controversial.

Krebs had previously said there was no evidence that the elections were compromised by foreign interference.

“It is time for the leaders of the national security community, the Republican Party, to stand up, accept the results, and move forward,” said Krebs, a lifelong Republican.