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 | | The New York Times |
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The deadly winter storm that devastated parts of Texas and the South, blanketing nearly three-quarters of the continental United States in snow, is hurting the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. |
In Texas, a witches' brew of icy indoor temperatures, power outages and spikes in emergency room visits have created chaotic scenes in hospitals, compounded by high rates of coronavirus hospitalizations. Water was in such short supply in some areas that hospital systems were hauling in water on trucks in order to flush toilets and health workers were using bottled water for chemotherapy treatments. |
On Thursday night, another winter storm brought more freezing rain, snow and frigid temperatures. Millions of Texans have gone without heat this week, and many have had to face tough decisions about whether to risk infection to seek help from neighbors, warming shelters or community centers. |
While the number of new coronavirus cases in the state have fallen sharply from a month ago, doctors caution that the situation may worsen as the state tries to recover from the storm. |
Delayed shipments of hundreds of thousands of doses had already been reported in states including California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Utah and Washington, forcing vaccine sites to temporarily shutter. |
Dr. Anthony Fauci said the storm delays had brought vaccinations in some areas "to a grinding halt." |
"We're just going to have to make up for it as soon as the weather lifts a bit, the ice melts and we can get the trucks out and the people out," he said. "We're going to just have to make up for it, namely do double time when this thing clears up." |
Vaccines in the real world |
- A new study in Israel found that the Pfizer vaccine was 85 percent effective after one shot, a finding that could lead some countries to delay the second shot in order to get more people vaccinated more quickly.
- The results echo research on the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has been shown to offer protection weeks after the first dose.
- A separate study published today suggested that the AstraZeneca vaccine was more effective when people received a second dose after three months, instead of six weeks.
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The new findings lend ammunition to experts and governments, including that of Britain, which have advocated a "first dose first" strategy, which prioritizes giving as many people as possible an initial dose. But Dr. Fauci said that U.S. health officials were not willing to change their recommendations that all people receive two shots. |
Pfizer and BioNTech also announced today that their vaccine can be stored at standard freezer temperatures for up to two weeks, rather than five days as recommended in their initial guidelines. Distribution of doses has been complicated by the requirement that the vaccines be stored at ultracold temperatures, and the change has the potential to expand the number of smaller pharmacies and doctors' offices that can administer the vaccine. |
Separately, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech and Moderna were reassuringly safe and that side effects were rare. The agency examined nearly 14 million vaccinations and found nearly 7,000 reports of adverse events — including headaches, fatigue and muscle aches — and said that 91 percent of those cases were not serious. |
My colleague Katie Thomas, who covers the business of health care, told me that this rush of new studies and information is what happens when medicine begins to be used in the real world. |
"Before the vaccine began to roll out, all we had to go on were the large-scale clinical trials," she said. "Now, as millions of people get these shots around the world, we are starting to learn more about how they work in the real world — from how far apart one can space shots to how they can be stored to the risks of side effects. And so far, the results are largely positive and encouraging." |
Vaccine alarmism. In The Morning newsletter, our Times colleague David Leonhardt addressed the conflicting messaging that may dissuade people from getting vaccinated. Polls suggest that nearly half of Americans would refuse a shot if one were offered to them. |
While their children and grandchildren continue to wait for a vaccine, Americans over 65 are driving a new wave of bookings in hotels, cruise lines and tours. |
My colleague Debra Kamin reports that women in their 60s and 70s are booking trips to South America with friends, couples are escaping to Hawaii, while others are frequenting resorts closer to home. The increase in booked trips has been a badly needed boon to the battered tourism industry, and hotels and tour operators are responding with new programming and features geared toward an older demographic. |
Still, the return to leisure travel spearheaded by older Americans offers limited comfort to the airline industry, which had a terrible year in 2020. Air travel has recovered somewhat in recent months, but airlines rely disproportionally on revenue from corporate travelers, not tourists, and it doesn't look like business travel will rebound anytime soon. |
What else we're following |
For years I have held in my tears. Now I just let them flow. — Erin, Michigan |
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