Coronavirus category, Page 30
Merck asks FDA to authorize promising anti-covid pill
WASHINGTON — Drugmaker Merck asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its pill against covid-19 in what would add an entirely new and easy-to-use weapon to the world’s arsenal against the pandemic. If cleared by the Food and Drug Administration — a decision that could come in a matter of weeks...
Allen West, Texas GOP candidate for governor, contracts covid-19
AUSTIN — Republican gubernatorial hopeful Allen West has contracted covid-19 and suspended in-person campaign events as he recuperates. West spokesman Luke Twombly confirmed late Saturday that West, 60, tested positive for the virus. West, who hours earlier tweeted that he had not been vaccinated against coronavirus, disclosed that his wife,...
Western Pa. hospitals: We won’t deny organ transplants to patients who refuse covid-19 vaccine
Medical providers in Colorado and Washington state have begun denying organ transplants to patients who refuse to get vaccinated for covid-19. That’s not happening in Western Pennsylvania, the Tribune-Review has learned. Neither of the region’s two largest hospital systems and transplant providers are linking transplant eligibility to covid-19 vaccination status....
Officials: Breakthrough covid cases increase, but vaccinations remain effective against severe illness, death
State health officials on Friday released new data that sheds some light on the frequency of covid-19 breakthrough cases as well as the related rates of hospitalization and death, though a lack of demographic data means some key questions about such cases remain unanswered. Over the past month, 135,098 people...
Boosters, employer mandates drive increase in U.S. vaccines
The number of Americans getting covid-19 vaccines has steadily increased to a three-month high as seniors and people with medical conditions seek boosters, and government and employer mandates push more workers to take their first doses. Demand is expected to spike in a few weeks if regulators authorize the Pfizer...
Many Pa. school districts are passing up free coronavirus testing even after a rise in cases
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Even after covid-19 cases rose among children and district leaders worked to contain outbreaks among students, Pennsylvania schools have...
What pregnant women should know about covid vaccines
Pregnant women are considered to be at high risk of severe covid-19 infection, sparking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to again urge them to be vaccinated. They also are eligible for a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine, if they had received the Pfizer inoculation initially. “Although the...
Anti-vaccine chiropractors are rising force of misinformation
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The flashy postcard, covered with images of syringes, beckoned people to attend Vax-Con ‘21 to learn “the uncensored truth” about covid-19 vaccines. Participants traveled from around the country to a Wisconsin Dells resort for a sold-out convention that was, in fact, a sea of misinformation and conspiracy...
Colorado woman who won’t get vaccinated denied kidney transplant
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — When a Colorado woman found out her hospital wouldn’t approve her kidney transplant surgery until she got the covid-19 vaccine, she was left with a difficult decision pitting her health needs against her religious beliefs. Leilani Lutali, a born-again Christian, went with her faith. Even though...
More than 120,000 U.S. kids had caregivers die during pandemic
NEW YORK — The number of U.S. children orphaned during the covid-19 pandemic may be larger than previously estimated, and the toll has been far greater among Black and Hispanic Americans, a new study suggests. More than half the children who lost a primary caregiver during the pandemic belonged to...
Ghost towns: Nursing home staffing falls amid pandemic
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — When Natalie Walters arrived at her father’s nursing home, the parking lot was nearly empty and, inside, the elevator made no stops. On the 13th floor, the lights were off and the TVs silent. The last time she was allowed inside, nine months earlier, aides passed in...
Pfizer’s request to OK shots for kids a relief for parentsVideo
Parents tired of worrying about classroom outbreaks and sick of telling their elementary school-age children no to sleepovers and family gatherings felt a wave of relief Thursday when Pfizer asked the U.S. government to authorize its covid-19 vaccine for youngsters ages 5 to 11. If regulators give the go-ahead, reduced-dose...
Biden plans $1 billion push to boost rapid covid-19 testingVideo
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will announce a $1 billion purchase of rapid at-home covid-19 tests on Wednesday, an additional investment geared at expanding the availability of such products in the coming months, a White House official said. Along with the authorization of another at-home test product on Monday, the...
Allegheny County had 90 covid-related deaths in September, officials say
Covid-19 killed 90 people in Allegheny County in September, the highest monthly total since April, said Dr. Debra Bogen, the county’s health director. From Sept. 1 through early October, the death toll is 105. Of those, nine residents in the 25 to 49 age range have died from the virus,...
Los Angeles approves one of strictest U.S. vaccination mandates
Los Angeles leaders on Wednesday approved one of the nation’s strictest vaccine mandates — a sweeping measure that would require the shots for everyone entering bars, restaurants, nail salons, gyms or even a Lakers game. The City Council voted 11-2 in favor of the ordinance that will require proof of...
Covid spike pushes Alaska’s health care system to brink
TANACROSS, Alaska — One Alaska Native village knew what to do to keep out covid-19. They put up a gate on the only road into town and guarded it round the clock. It was the same idea used a century ago in some isolated Indigenous villages to protect people from...
Arizona can’t use covid money for anti-mask grants, feds say
The Biden administration on Tuesday ordered Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to stop using the state’s federal pandemic funding on a pair of new education grants that can only be directed to schools without mask mandates. In a letter to Ducey, the Treasury Department said the grant programs are “not a...
Vaccines are here. School’s open. Some parents still agonize.
Eight days into the school year, all five of Amber Cessac’s daughters, ages 4 to 10, had tested positive for COVID-19. Having them all sick at once and worrying about long-term repercussions as other parents at their school, and even her own mother, downplayed the virus, “broke something inside of...
J&J seeks U.S. clearance for covid-19 vaccine booster doses
WASHINGTON — Johnson & Johnson asked the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to allow extra shots of its covid-19 vaccine as the U.S. government moves toward expanding its booster campaign to millions more vaccinated Americans. J&J said it filed a request with the FDA to authorize boosters for people...
Doctors grow frustrated over covid denial, misinformation
The covid-19 patient’s health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctor’s diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didn’t think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside...
EU regulator OKs Pfizer vaccine booster for 18 and older
AMSTERDAM — The European Union’s drug regulator gave its backing Monday to administering booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine for people 18 and older. The European Medicines Agency said the booster doses “may be considered at least 6 months after the second dose for people aged 18 years and...
Penn State professors will protest university’s covid policies in a unique way this week
More than 50 Penn State professors — mostly from University Park — will protest several university-related covid policies this week by holding a “Teach-Out(side),” where classes will be moved to the safer outdoors and away from their usual locations. The protest, organized by the faculty-based group Coalition for a Just...
Covid vaccine mandate takes effect for NYC teachers, staff
NEW YORK — New York City teachers and other school staff members were all supposed to be vaccinated against covid-19 when the bell rang Monday morning in one of the first school district mandates in the country requiring employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. Mayor Bill de Blasio gave...
Eligible for a covid-19 booster? Here’s how to get one in Pa.
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. Anywhere from one to two million Pennsylvania adults are now eligible for a covid-19 booster, and state officials say it should...
Covid-19 cases in Idaho children have ‘skyrocketed.’ That could affect hospitals, care
BOISE, Idaho — Adult intensive care unit beds at many Idaho hospitals are past capacity, a result of a covid-19 surge that caused crisis standards of care to be implemented statewide. What could complicate that already delicate situation is that infections among children have been soaring, meaning pediatric wards are...
