September 24 coronavirus news

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a Senate Health Committee on Wednesday that a “large proportion” of the United States will not be vaccinated against Covid-19 this year.  

If a vaccine is approved and begins to get rolled out by the end of the year, Fauci said, “If you're talking about who's going to get vaccinated in December, or November, it is not going to be a large proportion of the population.”  

When you get to January and February of next year, then further into April, that’s when the US could potentially see “a total of about 700 million” doses, he added.

Those prioritized for an early vaccine will likely be health care providers and those who are vulnerable, with underlying conditions, he said.  

Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine candidate begins Phase 3 trials in the United States today. Trials for the single-dose vaccine will include up to 60,000 adult participants at nearly 215 sites in the US and internationally.

Phase 3 trials will begin immediately, with the first participants receiving doses on Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Paul Stoffels said on a call with reporters. The vaccine candidate was developed by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

Johnson & Johnson is now the fourth company to begin large-scale clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine in the United States, behind Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca.

While the other vaccine candidates require two doses, Johnson & Johnson's candidate will be studied as a single-dose vaccine, which should expedite results, said Stoffels.

Initial findings from the vaccine's Phase 1/2 trials in the United States and Belgium suggest that a single dose of the vaccine provokes an immune response and is safe enough to move into large-scale trials. The Phase 3 trial is being conducted in collaboration with Operation Warp Speed, the federal government's coronavirus vaccine effort.

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Once a fixture at the administration's coronavirus briefings, Dr. Deborah Birx has confided to aides and friends that she has become so unhappy with what she sees as her diminished role as coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force that she is not certain how much longer she can serve in her position, sources familiar with her thinking tell CNN.

Birx has told people around her that she is "distressed" with the direction of the task force, describing the situation inside the nation's response to the coronavirus as nightmarish.

According to people familiar with her thinking, Birx views Dr. Scott Atlas, a recent addition to the task force, as an unhealthy influence on President Donald Trump's thinking when it comes to the virus.

Birx believes Atlas is feeding the President misleading information about the efficacy of face masks for controlling the spread of the virus, the source said. Trump, whose rallies draw crowds of supporters who refuse to wear masks, has repeatedly mocked Democratic rival Joe Biden for using them.

Speaking from the White House briefing room Wednesday evening, Atlas claimed there isn't any bad blood between himself and Birx.

"Dr. Birx speaks for herself but that's a completely false story and she denied it today. It's completely false," Atlas said at a news conference.

Birx has not yet responded to request for comment on the story, despite Atlas saying she had denied the report.

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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says thousands of passengers on board commercial flights may have been exposed to coronavirus since the start of 2020.

In a statement emailed to CNN, the CDC says it was made aware of 1,600 flights between January and August where a person on board may have had Covid-19, potentially exposing 10,900 people "within a 6-foot range for droplet transmission" to coronavirus.

"CDC identified and notified relevant health departments about these 10,900 on-board close contacts," said the statement.

CDC said it has received reports of Covid-19 cases among people who were identified as contacts on flights, but noted this data is limited by incomplete contact information, delayed notification of an infectious traveler and incomplete information about testing and outcomes for contacts, among other factors.

The new data, first reported by The Washington Post, comes as air carriers are ratcheting up their insistence that air travel is safe. Air travel in the United States remains at roughly 30% of last year's levels.

In June, Vice President Mike Pence called for airlines to implement a contact-tracing app, but no announcement has been made since. 

The United Kingdom recorded its third highest daily increase in new coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic on Wednesday, with 6,178 cases confirmed over the last 24 hours. 

The latest government data marks the highest daily increase since May 7 and brings the UK's total number of confirmed cases to 409,729.  

As of Wednesday, there are currently 1,469 coronavirus patients in hospitals across the UK -- 134 of which were admitted in the last 24 hours.  

A further 37 virus-related fatalities were reported on Wednesday, raising the UK's Covid-19 death toll to 41,862.  

New restrictions: This latest surge in cases comes just a day after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a series of new restrictions to stem the spread of the virus, including a curfew on parts of the country's hospitality industry and tougher financial penalties for those who violate regulations.