December 4 coronavirus news

The National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) voted Friday to not recommend issuing emergency use authorization for administering a Covid-19 vaccine in children.

“NVAC will warn against issuing an EUA for Covid-19 vaccines in children, considering that children experience generally mild disease,” the committee wrote in its recommendation.  

The committee, which advises the Health and Human Services Department on the best ways to adequately provide vaccines, also voted on a series of recommendations responding to questions posed by Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brett Giroir regarding Covid-19 vaccine safety and surveillance.

NVAC recommended that vaccine developers begin including pregnant women in Phase 2 of its trials.

The US Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet Dec. 10 to discuss Pfizer’s application for an EUA for its coronavirus vaccine. The FDA can attach restrictions to any EUA. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention then decides who receives the vaccine.

Six San Francisco Bay Area jurisdictions issued a stay-at-home order Friday ahead of the governor’s statewide mandate, restricting activities and limiting capacity at businesses in an effort to reduce the spread of Covid-19 as hospitals and intensive care units see a surge of patients.

The regional order applies to the Northern California counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Santa Clara, San Francisco and the city of Berkeley. The order, which will affect more than 5.8 million people, speeds up the timeline of the statewide regional stay-at-home order announced Thursday by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Under the new local health orders, businesses will be required to further reduce occupancy to 20%, and will be required to write and enforce plans to ensure proper face coverings and maximum capacity rules are followed. Restaurants must close outdoor operations and convert to takeout and delivery only. Hair cutting and nail cutting services have also been ordered to close, officials said.

The new health orders will go into effect Dec. 6 and will remain in effect until Jan. 4, Contra Costa Health Director Chris Farnitano said.

The Bay Area was projected to be the last region in the state to be subject to the governor’s stay-at-home order, predicted to surpass the threshold by mid to late December. But Friday’s decision means the region will instead be the first.

US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said he expects to see a rise in positive Covid-19 cases during the Christmas holiday.

“The measures people take now will help determine how long this surge lasts and how big it gets,” Adams told Fox News’ John Roberts on Friday. “We also expect to see another bump over Christmas.”

Adams said he is concerned about the increase in gatherings during the holiday season. 

Adams encouraged Americans to celebrate safely, with immediate members of their household, and limit travel as much as possible.

“Find out how to do it safely because the actions we take now will determine how many people make it with us to this finish line that is so close,” he said.  

As the country anticipates the authorization and distribution of a Covid-19 vaccine, Adams is encouraging everyone – particularly leaders – to continue following public health measures such as wearing a mask and social distancing.

“More people than ever are doing the right thing,” he said. “We just need to hang on a little bit longer.” 

He added: “To all the leaders out there, we need to lead by example over the next couple of weeks and really help people get over the finish line because, again, it's in sight.”

President-elect Joe Biden said “there's a lot more that has to be done” when it comes to distributing any possible coronavirus vaccine. 

The Trump administration has “clued us in on their planning on how they plan to distribute the vaccine to the various states,” Biden said. “But there is no detailed plan that we've seen, anyway, as to how you get the vaccine out of a container into an injection syringe into somebody's arm. It's going to be very difficult for that to be done and it's a very expensive proposition.”

Biden said he agrees with prioritizing first-responders, nursing home residents and health care workers, but there also “has to be some equity in the way this is distributed.”

Biden called Covid-19’s effects on Black and Latino populations a “mass casualty event.”

He said delivering the vaccine to “major drug chains does not get you into a lot of these neighborhoods, and it doesn't guarantee that it gets around, so we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

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Masks are “critical” in controlling the spread of coronavirus — and that includes at home sometimes, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

A CDC review of what works makes it clear that mask use, physical distancing, avoiding crowds and washing hands all could help control the spread of the virus – and would allow kids to go back to school and businesses to reopen.

“Consistent and correct use of face masks is a public health strategy critical to reducing respiratory transmission of SARS-CoV-2, particularly in light of estimates that approximately one half of new infections are transmitted by persons who have no symptoms,” the CDC summary of guidance reads.

The CDC has gradually been strengthening its recommendations on mask use. “Compelling evidence now supports the benefits of cloth face masks for both source control (to protect others) and, to a lesser extent, protection of the wearer,” the team wrote.

Masks work so well that certain communities should consider giving them out, the CDC team said. 

“A community-level plan for distribution of face masks to specific populations, such as those who might experience barriers to access, should be developed,” the CDC team wrote in the agency’s weekly report.

Physical distancing is also important.

“Although the impact of physical distancing is difficult to disaggregate from other interventions, one study estimated that physical distancing decreased the average number of daily contacts by as much as 74%,” they added. Consistent physical distancing could stop the spread, the CDC said.

President-elect Joe Biden said one of the most important aspects of the $900 billion relief package being negotiated on Capitol Hill is the money it will provide to public health as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage in the US.

Biden was emphatic that "Congress and President Trump have to get this deal done for the American people."

"But any package passed in the lame duck session is not going to be enough overall. It's critical, but it's just a start. Congress are going to need to act again in January," the President-elect said.

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President-elect Joe Biden called today's job's report — the last of 2020 — "grim," and said that the coronavirus pandemic has put millions of Americans into financial trouble "through no fault of them own."

He said the federal government must step up "now."

Biden applauded the bipartisan effort in the Senate for a coronavirus relief package.

What was in today's job's report: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the US economy added 245,000 jobs in November on a seasonally adjusted basis. It was 224,000 fewer than economists had expected, as the job recovery continues to slow.

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California has shattered its own Covid-19 records in Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions.

The state added 22,018 new Covid-19 cases Friday, a new record for California's daily infection figure. The total number of confirmed cases is at least 1,286,557 since the start of the pandemic. 

Hospitalizations are also at the highest level seen yet, with more than 9,940 admitted patients. More than 2,200 of those are in intensive care units.

ICU capacity is the single threshold that will trigger California’s new stay-at-home order by region. If and when each of the five regions dip below 15% ICU capacity, the stay-home order will be enacted. None of the areas currently meets that threshold.

The positivity rate in California stands at about 7.5% with an average of about 210,000 tests being conducted each day.

To note: These numbers were released by the California Department of Public Health and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project. 

By the end of this year, it's expected that at least 20 million people in the United States will be able to get Covid-19 vaccines, Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brett Giroir said Friday.

"We have the expectation that at least 20 million Americans will be able to receive Covid vaccines by the end of this year," Giroir said in recorded remarks during a meeting of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee hosted by the US Department of Health and Human Services Friday.

Remember: The US Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved any coronavirus vaccine.

The FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, a panel of independent experts, will meet Thursday to review Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine candidate and make a recommendation about whether to authorize the vaccine. A similar FDA committee meeting for Moderna's vaccine candidate is set for Dec. 17.

FDA officials say their decisions on the vaccines could come days to weeks after the meetings — it depends on what questions come up.