December 2 coronavirus news

Biotechnology company Moderna has started enrolling children as young as 12 years old in trials to test its coronavirus vaccine. It’s the second coronavirus vaccine maker, after Pfizer, to test its vaccine in children and teens.

The trial seeks to enroll 3,000 volunteers who are 12 to 18 years old, according to the listing on clinicaltrials.gov.

Sites in six states are listed. They include Idaho, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah.

Federal officials have said it’s important to test coronavirus vaccines in children before they are used more widely in younger populations.

Mitigation strategies, such as mask wearing, social distancing, and good hand hygiene, in addition to weekly screening and contact tracing, helped dissolve outbreaks on college campuses, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Dr. Robert Redfield.

The CDC director expressed his initial concerns that college students would be problematic in containing the number of infections. 

In August, colleges and universities across the US reported more the 8,700 cases in 36 states. Several outbreaks were reported due to private gatherings and parties among students. 

Some institutions implemented screening procedures to identify asymptomatic carriers and isolated those individuals to prevent transmission, according to Redfield.  

“It reaffirms to me that mitigation can work,” Redfield said. “The idea that coupling mitigation with routine screening surveillance, to be able to identify the asymptomatic carriers these techniques do work.” 

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday defended the White House’s decision to continue its holiday parties, which, as CNN has previously reported, have already begun to flout public health recommendations.

When asked if it was responsible for the White House to be holding the receptions when health agencies are warning against large gatherings and of the impending massive impact the coronavirus will have on the country, McEnany said, “If you can loot businesses, burn down buildings, engage in protests, you can also go to a Christmas party. You can celebrate the holiday of Christmas.”

However, as CNN reported earlier this week, while there are some safety protocols in place for the events, most, if not all, of the holiday parties will still flout US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for size restrictions, as well as Washington, DC, restrictions for indoor gatherings, which is currently capped at 10 people.

In addition, publicly accessible social media images posted by partygoers indicate there was little social distancing at a White House holiday event on Monday, and many guests were not wearing masks.

The Trump White House itself has already been the epicenter of at least three Covid-19 outbreaks among staff and allies, and a series of events, such as holiday gatherings, will likely put in peril several hundred more guests, workers and staff.

UNICEF says it’s ready to distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine in poorer countries, but that "vaccine hesitancy" remains a global issue. 

"We've got to be sure that we are getting the word out that people need to take the vaccines. That vaccines are safe. There's a lot of vaccine hesitancy, and we've got to overcome that if we're going to actually protect the world," Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director, said at a World Economic Forum conference on vaccines. 

In many parts of the world, a vaccine will be the best way to protection people from Covid-19.

"We do not have hand-washing facilities and a bar of soap in many parts of the world, and in many hospitals and community clinics, much less homes or schools. So we've got to get this as a world," she said. 

The number of Covid-19 cases in West Virginia has increased by 91% since Halloween and half of its virus-related deaths have occurred in the past eight weeks, said Gov. Jim Justice, citing data from the National Guard.  

West Virginia currently has 622 Covid-19 patients hospitalized, with 164 in intensive care, a record high, he said. The number of intensive care patients is growing, the governor said.  

Justice announced 43 additional coronavirus-related deaths since Monday. The governor juxtaposed the newly reported deaths with past "horrific disasters" in the state like the Marshall University football team plane crash.  

"I was in a dorm at Marshall University in South Hall," said Justice. "We remember it always 50 years ago this happened, 50 years ago we lost 75 on that plane." 

Justice went on to read the age and sex of each West Virginian who has died from the virus since Monday. 

"Please don't let them become a statistic West Virginia," he said.  

"Will these people be remembered in anyway, compared to that plane crash? Probably not," Justice added.  

In the last 24 hours, the state reported 1,087 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 49,905 cases and 778 deaths, according to West Virginia health officials.  

Moderna had never run a Phase 3 clinical trial before the Covid-19 vaccine, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said at a World Economic Forum conference on vaccines.

The Moderna CEO said he was at the Davos conference in January when he saw data on the virus, and realized, "Oh sh*t, it's a pandemic. I only read about those in history, biology books." 

Bancel also called the UK's approval of the Pfizer vaccine today "great news for the world."

The federal government’s Operation Warp Speed is not trying to pressure the US Food and Drug Administration with its plans to distribute a coronavirus vaccine before one is even authorized, a top official said Wednesday.

The federal government has said it will have 40 million doses of vaccine by the end of December and has told states shipments of vaccines could begin as soon as Dec. 15 – even though the US Food and Drug Administration has not even decided on emergency use authorization and has not scheduled a meeting of its vaccine advisers until Dec. 10.

“It is a white board plan,” Army General Gustave Perna, chief operations officer for Operation Warp Speed, said during a news briefing.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that as he approaches the end of his term at the CDC in January, he has realized that the United States was not prepared for a pandemic, and more investment is needed.

He added that the US had not invested enough in data analytics, laboratory resilience to ensure the public health capacity had multiple platforms, or the public health workforce.

"I had some states that their public health contact tracing workforce was less than 50 people, so there's a huge lack of investment, which I hope this pandemic will change that," Redfield added.

Certain occupations and subgroups could benefit from a vaccine mandate, according to Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

During a livestream event with US Chamber of Commerce Foundation on Wednesday, Redfield said he can see the likelihood of health care, long-term care facility and airline personnel requiring proof of immunization for staff and consumers.

Although the decision is up to institutions, mandating a vaccine for certain occupations could prevent reintroducing the virus.

“Even though we get control of Covid … the pandemic and the world is not going to controlled for multiple years, and so we’ll always have a global risk of reintroduction through susceptibles if they haven’t been vaccinated.”