An informed guide to the pandemic, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment. |
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 | | New daily cases in the U.S., seven-day averageThe New York Times |
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 | | A public school in Manhattan prepared to administer vaccines for students last year.Jeenah Moon for The New York Times |
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For American parents with young children, it's been a frustrating and confusing couple of months. |
In February, federal regulators said that they would evaluate Pfizer's vaccine for the youngest children, only to reverse course 10 days later. Shortly thereafter, scientists reported that the vaccine was only weakly protective against an Omicron infection and appeared to offer little defense against moderate illness among adolescents ages 12 to 17. |
The C.D.C. found that record numbers of children under 5 had been hospitalized during the Omicron surge, underscoring the need for vaccines. But it also said that 90 percent of Americans could safely stop wearing masks in public indoor spaces, even in schools with young children. |
Experts worry that the most recent findings on protection have made it even more challenging to persuade some parents to immunize their children, even though vaccines are continuing to prevent severe disease and death. Fewer than one in four children ages 5 to 11 are now fully vaccinated. |
To help add some clarity, my colleague Apoorva Mandavilli wrote about the recent string of head-scratching news. What the studies suggest, she wants parents to know, is that "the problem is not so much the vaccine as the dose." |
In adult trials in 2020, manufacturers made best guesses at the right dose and opted for short intervals between the shots to protect people as quickly as possible during the initial surge. Those guesses worked. But the trials in children were complicated by the arrival of the Delta and Omicron variants, and the vaccine appeared to be less protective in children ages 2 to 4. |
In the Pfizer trials, adolescents ages 12 to 17 were given 30 micrograms, the same dose given to adults. But children ages 5 to 11 received 10 micrograms, and those 6 months to 5 years old received just three micrograms. |
These doses may have been too low to rouse an adequate and lasting response. But federal officials who have seen the data told The New York Times that higher doses produced too many fevers in children. |
Pfizer is now testing a third dose in children under 12 to determine whether it can deliver the level of protection that two doses could not. The F.D.A. is still evaluating the Moderna vaccine for use in children ages 6 to 11. |
"Unfortunately, there is not much parents can do at this point beyond waiting for the results," Apoorva told me. "I know that's frustrating, but there simply is not enough information yet to say how effective the third dose will be in the youngest children." |
Fortunately, she said, clarity is on the horizon. |
Both Pfizer and Moderna plan to report results from their vaccine trials in young children. If the results are positive, that should lead to a new round of regulatory review, and possibly vaccinations for tens of millions of youngsters. |
"The good news," Apoorva said, "is we should have some answers very soon — probably in about a month or less." |
 | | A funeral at Park Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles last year.Isadora Kosofsky for The New York Times |
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The U.S. government will reimburse up to $9,000 in funeral expenses for deaths related to the coronavirus. There have been more than 960,000 Covid deaths in the U.S., but as of last month, fewer than half have been the subject of a claim. Roughly 273,000 applicants had been paid as of early February. |
For details about the program, I spoke to my colleague Tara Siegel Bernard, a personal finance reporter. |
Who qualifies for this program? |
Basically, anybody who lost a loved one. There are no income limitations and there's no deadline. You can even apply retroactively if you're just learning about the program and you never applied. The only factors that would disqualify an applicant would be an existing contract that you already paid to a funeral home, or some sort of funeral or burial insurance. But, for example, if the policy only paid out $5,000 and the funeral costs $10,000, you could still apply for that $5,000 gap. |
You must also be a U.S. citizen, a noncitizen national or a qualified alien. But the deceased person doesn't need to meet those requirements, they just need to have died in the U.S. or one of its territories. |
What's your advice on applying? |
It's really hard to think about keeping good records when you are mourning, but that seems to be a key piece of advice here. Before you apply, you want to make sure that the death certificate clearly states that Covid was a direct or indirect cause. |
Make sure all the names on the FEMA application match the names on the receipts and, when possible, make sure they're legible and clear. I spoke with a woman who was just entangled in this endless loop of correspondence with FEMA because they couldn't read the burial receipt. And even though there's no deadline now, I wouldn't wait too long if you do plan on filing an application, because then at least you have a record that it's in the system. |
What else we're following |
My college, which is very liberal, just ended our campus mask mandate. I was uneasy about unmasking at first but made the decision to not wear a mask as I had Covid a few weeks ago and students are still getting tested every week. The first day I spent without a mask was surprisingly euphoric. I felt free and it was nice to see my classmates' faces. I never realized how angsty I was when wearing a mask! — Maddie, Colorado Springs |
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