New Cases: 549,972 (⬆︎ .44%)
New Deaths: 10,920 (⬆︎ .39%)
USA
New Cases: 62,459 (⬆︎ .20%)
New Deaths: 873 (⬆︎ .16%)
Vaccination Scorecard
Total Vaccinations: 96 million (⬆︎ 1.05%)
Total Eligible Population: 35.9%
Total Population: 28.9%
Two good news thingies today:
- One of the current vaccines is OK for kids 12-15
- The trials are well underway for younger kids too.
WaPo: (pay wall)
The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine was safe and effective in adolescents as young as 12, the drug companies announced in a joint news release Wednesday. Data from a trial of the vaccine in nearly 2,300 people between the ages of 12 and 15 will be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks, with the hope that vaccinations could begin before the next school year.
The vaccine was 100 percent effective at preventing symptomatic illness within the trial and triggered immune responses that were even more robust than those seen in young adults, said the U.S. firm Pfizer and the German company BioNTech.
The data is the beginning of what many families, eager for normalcy to return, have been waiting to see. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is currently authorized by the FDA for emergency use for people 16 and older. If regulators extend the authorization to younger age groups, Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said, vaccinations could begin before the next school year.
- and -
Coronavirus vaccines are coming for kids — but studies have to be finished first
More than almost anything, Katelyn Evans yearns to be in a play again — onstage, in front of an audience. When the coronavirus pandemic put the world on pause a year ago, she was a high school sophomore three weeks out from opening night of the musical comedy “Once Upon a Mattress.” The show never went on.
Evans, now 17, feels lucky, overall. No friends or relatives have become seriously ill, and she’s attending school in person in Cincinnati. But she’s keeping a mental tally of the performances that could have been.
“Most people my age are aware we’re not the number one priority for getting the vaccine. … There are people in higher-risk groups than teenagers,” Evans said. Still, she said, “it is a tough age for this to happen. These are once-in-a-lifetime things.”
To help speed the journey back to live theater performances, Evans rolled up her sleeve in October and became one of the youngest volunteers, at that point, in a trial to test an experimental coronavirus vaccine in teens. On Wednesday, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German biotech partner BioNTech announced their vaccine was safe and effective in adolescents as young as 12 — the same vaccine Evans received. Vaccinations could begin before the next school year for younger teens, pending a regulatory green light, Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said.
The vaccine was 100 percent effective at preventing symptomatic illness within the trial and triggered immune responses that were even more robust than those seen in young adults, said the U.S. firm Pfizer and the German company BioNTech.
The data is the beginning of what many families, eager for normalcy to return, have been waiting to see. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is currently authorized by the FDA for emergency use for people 16 and older. If regulators extend the authorization to younger age groups, Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said, vaccinations could begin before the next school year.
- and -
Coronavirus vaccines are coming for kids — but studies have to be finished first
More than almost anything, Katelyn Evans yearns to be in a play again — onstage, in front of an audience. When the coronavirus pandemic put the world on pause a year ago, she was a high school sophomore three weeks out from opening night of the musical comedy “Once Upon a Mattress.” The show never went on.
Evans, now 17, feels lucky, overall. No friends or relatives have become seriously ill, and she’s attending school in person in Cincinnati. But she’s keeping a mental tally of the performances that could have been.
“Most people my age are aware we’re not the number one priority for getting the vaccine. … There are people in higher-risk groups than teenagers,” Evans said. Still, she said, “it is a tough age for this to happen. These are once-in-a-lifetime things.”
To help speed the journey back to live theater performances, Evans rolled up her sleeve in October and became one of the youngest volunteers, at that point, in a trial to test an experimental coronavirus vaccine in teens. On Wednesday, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German biotech partner BioNTech announced their vaccine was safe and effective in adolescents as young as 12 — the same vaccine Evans received. Vaccinations could begin before the next school year for younger teens, pending a regulatory green light, Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said.
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