We are facing unprecedented amount of Covid infections, and once Biden takes power, the increasing numbers seem beyond daunting. Some strategies that they might employ involve getting help from the Right - former Senator Dr. Frist who is also a doctor, and a Republican to set up a straight narrative (from that Right.) Perhaps they might also get Hannity or Carlson’s help, but someone like Lebron James may be able to help as well.
Long, well-researched article in NYT…on where we are with the pandemic, how to plan for large numbers, what the vaccine can do and where Biden must act.
Mr. Biden has said he supports a national mask mandate, although his plan calls on governors to impose state ones.
Among the suggested names with those skills were Heidi J. Larson of the Vaccine Confidence Project in London, Carl T. Bergstrom of the University of Washington and Zeynep Tufekci of the University of North Carolina.
Others said the panel had too many members tied to the Obama-Biden administration. Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, for example, was an architect of the Affordable Care Act and Dr. Eric Goosby was Mr. Obama’s global AIDS coordinator. To reach Mr. Trump’s base, they said, the panel needs credible Republican experts.
“Otherwise,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner, “there will be even more of a mistaken perception that this is Democrats and doctors trying to shut down the economy, when actually controlling the virus is key to economic recovery.”
Experts suggested adding Dr. Bill Frist, a transplant surgeon and former Republican senator, or Dr. Marc K. Siegel, an internist and Fox News opinion writer.
Mr. Warren suggested consulting marketing experts and recruiting “everyone from Santa Claus to LeBron James” as trusted spokesmen.
Another expert suggested adding Dr. Mehmet C. Oz, a heart surgeon and television personality who was criticized for promoting hydroxychloroquine on Fox News (he later relented), and possibly even asking Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson to join, because they are popular with Mr. Trump’s base and might be persuaded to accept science that would save the lives of their own viewers.
…All the experts interviewed by The Times praised the plan, but several felt it was not aggressive enough. The pandemic is raging so far beyond control, they argued, that it can be contained only with deeply unpopular but necessary measures, such as rigorously enforced mask laws, closing bars and restaurants, requiring regular testing in schools and workplaces, isolating the infected away from their families, prohibiting travel from high-prevalence areas to low ones, and imposing quarantines that are enforced rather than merely requested.
Many other countries have imposed such measures despite fierce opposition from some citizens, they said, and they have helped.
“Colleges are the Wuhans of this fall surge,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan’s medical school. Universities, he and other experts said, must stop students from going back and forth between their hometowns and college towns, both of which have many vulnerable residents.
…
The next dozen weeks will be long and painful. But spring is likely to bring highly effective vaccines and a renewed commitment to medical leadership, something that has been missing under Mr. Trump.
“The C.D.C. will have to be rebuilt, and its guidelines and the F.D.A.’s have to be promptly re-evaluated,” said Dr. Robert L. Murphy, director of the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University’s medical school. “The Biden team will move quickly. It’s not like they don’t know what to do.”
Honestly, I wish he could be prosecuted!
He’s done damage that is still lingering! 
SCOTUS seems to side with all religious freedoms…that’s what is to come. No concern for health issues which are glaring.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a blow to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s pandemic-related ban on indoor religious services, siding with a church that defied the policy and challenged it as unconstitutional religious discrimination.
The decision followed a similar action by the justices on Nov. 25 that backed Christian and Jewish houses of worship that challenged New York state restrictions in coronavirus hot spots.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a blow to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s pandemic-related ban on indoor religious services, siding with a church that defied the policy and challenged it as unconstitutional religious discrimination.
The decision followed a similar action by the justices on Nov. 25 that backed Christian and Jewish houses of worship that challenged New York state restrictions in coronavirus hot spots.
The justices, with no noted dissents, set aside a lower court ruling that rejected a challenge to Newsom’s policy by Harvest Rock Church Inc, which has several campuses in the state, and Harvest International Ministries Inc, an association of churches. Both are based in Pasadena, a city in Los Angeles County.
The justices directed the lower court to reconsider the case in light of their ruling in the New York case.
Gov Newsom is taking the next step and putting 5 regions of California under Stay-at-Home orders because the Covid numbers are so high - !9K deaths to date, and 2500 + new cases per day - 12% infection rate and ICU’s are at near capacity.
OAKLAND, Calif. — California regions will face stay-at-home orders when their hospital capacity shrinks to an alarmingly low level under a new plan Gov. Gavin Newsom’s health chief announced Thursday.
In a region where rising cases threaten to overwhelm limited intensive care units, pushing available units to below 15 percent of capacity, residents will be directed to remain in their homes unless they are conducting essential activities.
While no area of California currently faces a severe enough ICU shortage to meet those requirements, health officials said some regions could hit the threshold and come under stay-at-home requirements as soon as this week.
“If we don’t act now, our hospital system will be overwhelmed,” Newsom said Thursday.
Newsom is dividing the state into five geographic regions and lockdowns would last for three weeks minimum. Residents would be unable to gather, while playgrounds, salons and restaurant dining would have to close. Food takeout would still be allowed, while hotels could only open for critical infrastructure support. Religious institutions would be limited to outdoor services.
Schools that are already open can remain so even if they are in counties that come under the new orders. Retailers would be able to continue operating indoors but would need to sharply curtail their operations so they only allow 20 percent of their capacity. People could still seek non-urgent medical and dental care.
The governor said the order is "fundamentally predicated on the need to stop gathering with people outside your household."
The five regions are the Bay Area; Southern California; Greater Sacramento; San Joaquin Valley; and Northern California. Regions would have 48 hours to adopt a stay-home order once the state imposes one.
The new guidance.
Sideshow Rudy gets Covid -
Is it true?? I’ve gotten so cynical these 4 years, I think he might have already had it (when he was practicing w/ T on his debates) but Rudy needs and easy “out” that would get him out of the multiple (by 10’s) lost ‘voter fraud’ lawsuits.
Just a thought. This administration will do and say anything…
Yes it is true…he has gone to the hospital
Rudy’s appearances results in this…
Where we are with the distribution of the vaccine…Not sure why the heading on this Bloomberg article is hard to load…but from Bloomberg.com
LInks here.
She was the whistleblower in Florida, telling the people that the Covid infection numbers were being underreported. She went home and continued to send out the infection rates, based on her data technology techniques. Today her house was raided and she was met with a gunpoint
checking her ‘data.’
Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents on Monday raided, at gunpoint, the home of the former Department of Health employee who had claimed she’d been told to censor COVID-19 data before being fired in May.
Since her ouster, Rebekah Jones has been a vocal critic of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic, as cases soared and he refused to issue a mask mandate, among other preventative measures that could have saved lives.
The state said authorities were investigating whether Jones is the one who hacked into the state’s emergency communications channel to send a message that urged people to “speak up before another 17,000 people are dead,” the Tampa Bay Times reported last month.
Operation Warp Speed is standing still.
It’s highly contagious…(so is stupidity) Trump ‘lawyer’ Jenna Ellis gets Covid
How many tons of karma dumped on T’s legal team now? 
One Pfizer trial participant told CNBC that after the second shot, he woke up with chills, shaking so hard he cracked a tooth. “It hurt to even just lay in my bed sheet,” he said.
Many people are now wondering whether this will be just like getting the flu vaccine.
The short answer is: No, not really.If Pfizer’s shot is granted an emergency use authorization, or EUA, the immunizations — which are administered in two doses about three weeks apart — could start as soon as next week.
Others experienced headaches and fatigue.The FDA said that while side effects of the Pfizer vaccine are common, there are “no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an EUA.”
Be prepared for the second shot
The Pfizer vaccine is one of four U.S.-backed candidates in phase three trials. Next up is one from U.S. biotech firm Moderna, which has also submitted its EUA application.
Both companies have said that taking their vaccines could result in side effects similar to mild Covid symptoms. Think muscle pain, chills and a headache.
When trial participant Yasir Batalvi first read Moderna’s 22-page consent form warning of side effects ranging from nothing at all to death, he felt pretty worried, he told CNBC.
“You have to keep in mind, I joined the trial when we didn’t know it was going to be a safe vaccine,” said Batalvi, a recent college graduate living in Boston.
The 24-year-old said that when he got the first injection in mid-October, it felt just like a flu shot. “I experienced stiffness and pain in my left arm where I had gotten the shot, but it was mild,” he explained. “By that evening, I didn’t want to move my arm above my shoulder, but it was localized, and it disappeared by the next day.”
The second dose was a different story.
“After the injection, I had the same side effects as the first: localized pain and stiffness, but it was a little bit worse. My arm got sore faster, and by the time I got home, I started feeling fatigued and like anyone would feel if they were coming down with the flu,” said Batalvi.
More significant symptoms presented that evening. “I developed a low-grade fever and had chills,” he said. “That evening was rough.”
After a restless night, he called the study doctors, who reassured him it was a normal reaction and no cause for concern. By that afternoon, Batalvi said, he felt like himself again.
Moderna stopped testing the highest dose of its vaccine during the trial because of the number of reports of severe adverse reactions.
As for any long-term effects, Batalvi isn’t giving it much thought. “I’m not too concerned,” he said. “We know from vaccination trials that any adverse events mostly show up in the first couple of months.”
House Oversight Committee Chair: Testimony Points To Political Interference At CDC
A new kerfuffle is unfolding in a House oversight committee with the Democratic chair accusing White House appointees of political meddling and attempting to influence the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strategies on the coronavirus pandemic in a manner that paints the administration in a more favorable light.
In a Thursday letter to the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Rep. James Clyburn expressed “serious concern about what may be deliberate efforts by the Trump Administration to conceal and destroy evidence that senior political appointees interfered with career officials’ response to the coronavirus crisis” at the CDC.
Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, chairs the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. In addition to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, the letter was also addressed to CDC Director Robert Redfield.
Clyburn suggested Redfield may have instructed subordinates to delete an email from an HHS appointee instructing the CDC to alter or rescind reports believed to be damaging to President Trump. The congressman also accused Redfield of pushing back the publication of a report on a coronavirus outbreak among children in Georgia so that the White House could continue to push for school reopenings.
The allegations stem from the transcribed interview of Charlotte Kent, chief of the Scientific Publications Branch and editor-in-chief of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report at the CDC, who addressed Select Subcommittee staff on Monday. During her testimony, Kent said she was instructed to delete an Aug. 8 email sent by HHS senior advisor Paul Alexander, and that she understood the direction came from the CDC head Redfield.
As she recounted the incident, Alexander’s email demanded that the CDC insert new language in a previously published scientific report on coronavirus risks to children or “pull it down and stop all reports immediately,” according to Clyburn.
The letter says Alexander also vented about alleged bias within the CDC against Trump: “CDC tried to report as if once kids get together, there will be spread and this will impact school reopening. … Very misleading by CDC and shame on them. Their aim is clear. … This is designed to hurt this Presidnet [sic] for their reasons which I am not interested in.”
Alexander, who served as a scientific advisor to HHS spokesman Michael Caputo, is no longer with the department. He left in September and is now is an assistant professor of health research at McMaster University near Toronto. Caputo formerly served as a Trump campaign official. He has no medical or scientific background.
This is not the first time Alexander has been called out as improperly trying to influence the nation’s leading health officials. In September, Politico uncovered emails showing Alexander tried to prevent Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, from speaking about the risks that coronavirus poses to children.
Earlier this week, Kent explained that when she later searched for the email it had already vanished. Federal employees must generally preserve documents under the Federal Records Act. When asked, she said she did not know who had deleted the correspondence.
On Thursday Clyburn said the Trump Administration’s “political meddling with the nation’s coronavirus response has put American lives at greater risk,” and called the efforts “dangerous.” He called for all documents to be preserved or recovered.
House Republicans on the Select Subcommittee, including ranking member Steve Scalise of Louisiana, called Clyburn’s allegations false, adding that all stonewalling claims have been debunked.
“The Select Subcommittee Democrats’ letter drastically mischaracterizes Dr. Kent’s interview,” Scalise wrote in a statement.
“The letter fails to acknowledge the predicate of the Democrats’ investigation is now fully debunked. Despite there being zero evidence of actual interference in CDC scientific reports, Select Subcommittee Democrats continue to search for illusory evidence in obstruction of the Trump Administration’s unprecedented whole-of-America response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
He added that during Monday’s testimony, Kent, a career CDC official, “unequivocally confirmed that there was no political interference and the scientific integrity of the MMWR was never compromised.”
“Case closed,” he declared.
Redfield also addressed the allegations on Thursday, issuing a statement that reads: “Regarding the email in question, I instructed CDC staff to ignore Dr. Alexander’s comments.”
“As I testified before Congress, I am fully committed to maintaining the independence of the MMWR, and I stand by that statement.”
Meanwhile, Clyburn is now seeking to interview Redfield about the incident.
He says that hours after Kent’s testimony, HHS “abruptly canceled” four additional transcribed interviews the select subcommittee had scheduled for the week. Clyburn called it part of a broader pattern of “obstruction” and warned that if the Department failed to produce all missing documents by Dec. 15, “the Select Subcommittee will have no choice but to issue subpoenas to compel production.”
U.S. Government May Find It Hard To Get More Doses Of Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine
With Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine poised for Food and Drug Administration authorization for emergency use, there’s speculation about when the United States will buy another batch of doses — and whether the Trump administration already missed its chance.
Although a Pfizer board member says the government declined to buy more doses beyond the initial 100 million agreed upon in July, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told PBS Newshour that this is inaccurate. The company never made a formal offer saying how many doses it would deliver and when — two things that are needed to sign an additional deal.
“They refused to commit to any other production or delivery by a time certain,” he said, explaining that the initial doses will be delivered by March, and there is an option for the government to buy another 500 million after that. “I’m certainly not going to sign a deal with Pfizer, giving them $10 billion to buy vaccine that they could deliver to us five, 10 years hence. That doesn’t make any sense.”
Azar said the government started new negotiations with Pfizer in early October, but “they still resisted giving us any date by which they would do it.” He said they’re making progress in their negotiations, but the government is willing to use “every power of the Defense Production Act” to get the additional necessary Pfizer vaccine doses.
Pfizer board member and former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC Tuesday that the federal government declined “multiple times” to purchase more doses of Pfizer’s vaccine over the summer, and it may have missed out on getting more in the second quarter of 2021.
“Pfizer did offer an additional allotment coming out of that plan — basically the second quarter allotment — multiple times,” Gottlieb told CNBC.
Gottlieb noted that the government has agreements to buy hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines from six manufacturers as part of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s more than $10 billion push to make a coronavirus vaccine available in record time. He suspects the government is betting more than one vaccine would ultimately get the FDA’s authorization.
“That perhaps could be why they didn’t take up that additional 100 million option agreement, which really wouldn’t have required necessarily them to front money. It was just an agreement that they would purchase those vaccines,” Gottlieb said. “So Pfizer has gone ahead and entered into some agreements with other countries to sell them some of that vaccine in the second quarter of 2021.”
And that could mean there’s less available for the U.S. government to buy when it’s ready to do so.
The New York Times first reported Monday on the negotiations for more doses, saying that Pfizer offered the U.S. government between 100 million and 500 million additional doses and warned that its vaccine could be in short supply, given demand around the world. As a result, a second allotment might not be available to the U.S. until next June.
A senior administration official told reporters during a briefing Monday that the Times reporting wasn’t accurate: “We’re in the middle of a negotiation right now and we can’t talk publicly about it, but we feel absolutely confident we will get the vaccine doses for which we’ve contracted and will have a sufficient number of doses to vaccinate all Americans who desire one before the end of second quarter 2021.”
A spokesperson for HHS echoed that explanation in a series of tweets on Tuesday, saying, “At no time did OWS turn down an offer from Pfizer for any number of millions of doses having a firm delivery date and quantity, and it’s a shame that someone is misinforming the American public.”
Pfizer didn’t respond to NPR’s request for comment on this story.
In July, Pfizer signed a $1.95 billion agreement with Operation Warp Speed. As part of the deal, the government agreed to purchase 100 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, but the transaction would occur only if the vaccine Pfizer is developing in partnership with BioNTech, a German company, received the FDA’s OK.
It’s not unusual for a company under contract with the government to suggest a modification, such as more doses in the first allotment, said Franklin Turner, a partner at McCarter & English who specializes in government contracting. But there can be any number of reasons the government might decline.
“If I had a dime for every time the government took a step or a position that seems counterintuitive and quite frankly, mind-boggling, I’d be a very rich human being at this point in my life,” Franklin said.
Pfizer’s vaccine could be given the green light this week. A panel of outside experts is set to convene on Thursday and advise the FDA on whether to authorize the vaccine for emergency use in the pandemic.
It’s possible the government could have gotten better follow-on delivery contract terms to begin with, said James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International. Though he noted that the intellectual property rights in the contract aren’t particularly favorable to the federal government either, as NPR has reported. “At some point, not placing orders when the whole world is placing orders, was a mistake,” Love said.
If the U.S. did miss out on more doses because it declined them, it would be “a spectacular failure,” said Rena Conti, a health economist at Boston University.
“Contracts are forward-looking, that means we could have (and did) sign contracts with other manufacturers that reserve future capacity when it became available,” she said. “We should have [been] including language in every contract reserving the rights to more quantity in advance at a given price.”
Although the Pfizer contract includes the option to buy an additional 500 million doses of its vaccine, that transaction would require a separate agreement, and the price would be subject to change, the contract says.
“Having more quantity reserved is smart economics given the uncertainty entailed in which vaccine comes to market in a given time period, and which vaccine will be most safe, [effective] and able to manufacture at scale,” Conti said. “There is no downside cost or risk to having these forward contracts and there is plenty to gain for the American public.”