January 14 coronavirus news

By Helen Regan, Adam Renton, Florence Davey-Attlee, Ed Upright and Hira Humayun, CNN

Updated 12:00 a.m. ET, January 15, 2021
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11:34 p.m. ET, January 14, 2021

Venezuela offers to send oxygen to hard-hit Brazilian state

From CNN’s Taylor Barnes

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza stands at the Miraflores Government Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on February 7, 2020.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza stands at the Miraflores Government Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on February 7, 2020. Carolina Cabral/Getty Images

Venezuela has offered to send oxygen tanks to Brazil's hard-hit Amazonas state, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Thursday.

Amazonas is suffering from what Brazil’s health minister called a “collapse” in the healthcare system due to a spike in Covid-19 cases.

Arreaza said on Twitter that he made the offer during a call with Amazonas Gov. Wilson Lima, and added: “Latin American solidarity above all!”

Lima responded: “The people of Amazonas thank you!”

11:09 p.m. ET, January 14, 2021

White House's Covid-19 vaccine access move set unrealistic expectations, says Biden adviser

From CNN Health’s Lauren Mascarenhas

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, is part of President-elect Joe Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, is part of President-elect Joe Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board. Glen Stubbe/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS/Sipa USA

The Trump administration’s move to expand Covid-19 vaccine access may have set unrealistic expectations that local health departments will have to manage, Michael Osterholm, a member of President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus advisory board said Thursday.

This week, the Trump administration asked states to open vaccinations to people aged 65 and older and those with chronic conditions who are at higher risk of severe disease.

Under the new guidelines, almost 180 million people are eligible to receive a vaccine, Osterholm said on an episode of his podcast, "The Osterholm Update: COVID-19."

“There’s no way vaccines are going to get to that number of people until in the summer, yet we just gave people this message, ‘Well you can get your vaccine now, we're recommending it,’” he said. 

“I think that was a really unfortunate step,” he added. “It truly did not match up with reality.”

When vaccine doses aren’t immediately available to those who are now allowed to take it, people will likely get upset, Osterholm said. 

“These are not vaccines that are just there overnight, and I don't care how many people you recommend get it -- if you don't have the vaccines to give, what have you accomplished except frustration?” he said.

He noted that local health authorities will likely have to answer for that frustration.

“I think what we're all going to be seeing is state and local health departments are going to continue to be the shock absorber,” Osterholm said.

The Trump administration also said this week that it would release all available Covid-19 doses, instead of holding half in reserve for people’s second doses -- adopting the same approach the Biden administration announced last week.

10:58 p.m. ET, January 14, 2021

Brazil's health minister says healthcare collapsing in Manaus, hospitals full

From CNN's Taylor Barnes

Brazil's Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello speaks during the launching ceremony of the National Vaccination Operationalization Plan against Covid-19 at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, on December 16, 2020.
Brazil's Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello speaks during the launching ceremony of the National Vaccination Operationalization Plan against Covid-19 at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, on December 16, 2020. Andre Borges/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said that the healthcare system in the hard-hit Amazonian city of Manaus is in “collapse” during a Facebook live broadcast with President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday.

“I would say, yes, there is a collapse in healthcare in Manaus. The line to get a hospital bed has grown a lot, today we have about 480 people waiting in line. And the reality is that there is a lower supply of oxygen -- not an interruption, but a lower supply of oxygen,” he said.

Pazuello also said Brazil -- which has yet to commence a vaccination campaign even though its Covid-19 death toll is the second highest in the world, behind only the United States -- will begin to vaccinate people in January, though he did not specify a date.

“In January we will start vaccinating. In the beginning with 2, 6, or 8 million doses. … And in February, we will have mass production, and our National Vaccination Program, which we’ve been doing for 45 years, will get ahead of everyone in the whole world, including the United States.”

The Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) will meet on Sunday, Jan. 17 to decide whether to give emergency approvals to the Oxford/AstraZeneca and the Sinovac vaccine, according to state-run news agency Agencia Brasil.

10:43 p.m. ET, January 14, 2021

Pharmacy techs recruited to help get more Covid-19 shots into arms

From CNN's Elizabeth Cohen and Samira Said

Syringes ready for vaccine use sit on a table at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) in Boston, Massachusetts on December 24, 2020.
Syringes ready for vaccine use sit on a table at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) in Boston, Massachusetts on December 24, 2020. Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images

In an effort to speed up the slow US vaccine rollout, pharmacy technicians are being trained to get more Covid-19 shots into arms.

"We need more injectors, and I think all hands-on deck for a period of time is a very good idea," said Dr. William Schaffner, an adviser on vaccines to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Thursday, 30,628,175 coronavirus vaccine doses have been distributed, but only 11,148,991 of those doses have been administered, according to the CDC.

There are nearly 425,000 pharmacy techs in the US, and up until October, most states wouldn't let them administer vaccinations.

But then the Department of Health and Human Services authorized pharmacy techs to give Covid-19 vaccines.

Jenny Arnold, CEO of the Washington Pharmacists' Association, has sent training material for technicians to pharmacy associations and companies that employ pharmacists around the country. She said the technicians have been eager to sign up to learn how to give shots.

"We've had pharmacy techs from all over the country excited to help solve this pandemic," Arnold said.

Read more:

10:43 p.m. ET, January 14, 2021

More than 1.3 million Americans have gotten both doses of Covid-19 vaccine, CDC says

From CNN Health's Michael Nedelman

A Holy Name Medical Center healthcare worker administers the Pfizer BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine to a law enforcement officer at the Rodda Community Center in Teaneck, New Jersey, on January 13.
A Holy Name Medical Center healthcare worker administers the Pfizer BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine to a law enforcement officer at the Rodda Community Center in Teaneck, New Jersey, on January 13. Christopher Occhicone/Bloomberg/Getty Images

More than 1.3 million people in the United States have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to data posted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Thursday.

In total, over 11 million doses have been administered to 9.7 million people. More than 30 million doses have been distributed in total.

Of those 11 million doses, about 6.5 million come from Pfizer/BioNTech, and 4.6 million come from Moderna. 

Pfizer’s vaccine, given in two doses 21 days apart, began rolling out on December 14. A week later came Moderna’s, with two doses administered 28 days apart.

9:02 p.m. ET, January 14, 2021

Biden pledges to help schools reopen with testing, cleaning, ventilation

From CNN Health's Maggie Fox

US President-elect Joe Biden announces a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package in Wilmington, Delaware on Thursday.
US President-elect Joe Biden announces a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package in Wilmington, Delaware on Thursday. Alex Wong/Getty Images

US President-elect Joe Biden promised Thursday to help elementary and middle schools open to in-person learning within the first three months of his administration by helping schools stay clean and improve air circulation.

Researchers are increasingly finding that it’s shared, unfiltered air that is helping spread the coronavirus the most -- which is why people are advised to stay out of enclosed spaces with others, to open windows, and to meet outside if at all possible.

Biden noted this, too, as he laid out his $1.9 trillion pandemic recovery plan.

“We'll also do everything we can to keep our educators, our students to safely open the majority of our K through 8 schools by the end of the first 100 days,” Biden said.
“We can do this if we give the school districts, the schools themselves, the communities, the states, the clear guidance they need, as well as the resources they need that they can’t afford right now because of the economic dilemma that we’re in. That means more testing and transportation; additional cleaning and sanitizing services in those schools; protective equipment and ventilation systems in those schools,” he added.
8:45 p.m. ET, January 14, 2021

Twice as many women as men are getting vaccinated for Covid-19 in the US

From CNN’s Michael Nedelman

Roughly twice as many women as men are getting vaccinated for Covid-19, according to CNN’s analysis of data from a dozen states that publish demographic information online.

In at least three of these states -- Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Nebraska – records that include gender say women account for more than seven in 10 people vaccinated. The percentage of men did not break 39% in any of the states included in CNN’s analysis.

Experts say this may reflect who has been eligible early in the vaccine rollout: health care workers and older adults.

Women represent 76% of full-time health care workers, according to a 2019 report by experts from the US Census Bureau. Life expectancy in 2019 was 76.3 years for men and 81.4 years for women, according to figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last month.

However, national polls have repeatedly shown that women in the general population are slightly less willing to receive a vaccine than men. The reasons for this are “still a bit of a puzzle,” said Cary Funk, director of science and society research at Pew Research Center. 

"That level of trust people have in how the vaccine has been developed is strongly related to how likely they are to get the vaccine," Funk said. "In public opinion surveys, when we're asking about emerging science and tech developments … we tend to see women a little more cautious or wary of those developments and how they'll be applied."

Decades of research have shown that "men and women sometimes approach risk a little bit differently," she added.

States that publish Covid-19 vaccine demographics and included in CNN’s analysis are: Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.

8:21 p.m. ET, January 14, 2021

US President-elect Joe Biden outlines Covid-19 relief plan

From CNN's Hira Humayun

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

US President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday evening outlined a $1.9 trillion emergency legislative package to fund a nationwide vaccination effort and provide economic relief to Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The two-step proposal will be called the American Rescue Plan. It includes direct cash payments, extended unemployment insurance, rent relief, food assistance, keeping essential front-line workers on the job, and aid to small businesses.

It allocates more than $400 billion toward addressing the pandemic, including $160 billion in funding for a national vaccination program and expanded testing, among other measures.

The proposal also includes $1,400 stimulus checks for Americans and extending and expanding unemployment benefits through September.

Read more about the package here.

Watch President-elect Biden discuss details of his relief plan:

8:04 p.m. ET, January 14, 2021

Former Trump admin whistleblower says public trust eroded over vaccine rollout 

From CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen

Bright testifies during a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing to discuss protecting scientific integrity in response to the coronavirus outbreak on Thursday, May 14, in Washington, DC.
Bright testifies during a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing to discuss protecting scientific integrity in response to the coronavirus outbreak on Thursday, May 14, in Washington, DC. Greg Nash/Pool/Getty Images/FILE

A former Trump administration whistleblower said public trust has suffered over the vaccine rollout.

We’ve already seen an over-promise and under-deliver [situation] with this vaccine, that has eroded trust,” Rick Bright said at an Aspen Institute briefing.

Bright, formerly the head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, resigned from his post at the National Institutes of Health last year after filing a whistleblower complaint alleging that his early warnings about the coronavirus were ignored and his caution about hydroxychloroquine led to his removal.

He said vaccine manufacturing doesn’t always go exactly as planned.

“Making vaccines is very difficult. It's biology, things will go wrong, regardless how much effort and attention and quality oversight you put on it, they will go wrong,” Bright, who is a member of President-elect Biden's Covid-19 task force, said.

“As we go forward, we want to make very sure that we lay out the challenges and the areas where things can go wrong and when they go wrong - that's normal,” he said.

“Setting those expectations, doing our best to not over promise and under deliver on those timelines and doses is going to be really critical messaging on the vaccines and vaccination schedules to maintain the trust of the population."