Archives for February 2021

TEL AVIV, Israel — Dr. Anthony Fauci has won the $1 million Dan David Prize for “defending science” and advocating for vaccines now being administered worldwide to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The Israel-based Dan David Foundation on Monday named President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser as the winner of one of three prizes. It said he had earned the recognition over a lifetime of leadership on HIV research and AIDS relief, as well as his advocacy for the vaccines against COVID-19.

In its statement, the private foundation did not mention former President Donald Trump, who undermined Fauci’s follow-the-science approach to the pandemic. But it credited Fauci with “courageously defending science in the face of uninformed opposition during the challenging COVID crisis.”

___

THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— COVID-19 conspiracy shows the reach of Chinese disinformation around the world

— Here’s a look at the key superspreaders of virus disinformation

— In Germany, carnival organizers found other ways to have fun — including floats poking fun at the likes of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

— Peru minister resigns amid uproar over government officials being vaccinated before country received 1M doses for health workers

—Washington state’s Sound Transit system faces an $11.5 billion budget shortfall caused in part by the coronavirus pandemic

— A pandemic that has wreaked havoc on the college basketball season is also reshaping the curve, leaving powerhouse programs on the tournament bubble

— San Francisco is the latest California city to temporarily shutter a mass vaccination site due to lack of vaccine

— Italy won’t open its ski slopes due to fears of virus variants

— Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

___

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

___

GENEVA — It’s nearly launch time for COVAX, the United Nations’ unprecedented program to deploy COVID-19 vaccines for hundreds of millions in need around the globe.

More than two months after countries like Britain and the United States started immunizing their most vulnerable people, the U.N.’s health agency gave its approval to a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, which should trigger the release of hundreds of millions of doses by COVAX.

COVAX missed its own target of starting vaccination in poor countries at the same time as immunizations were rolled out in rich countries, and numerous developing countries have signed their own deals to buy vaccine, fearing the program won’t deliver.

The World Health Organization and partners hope COVAX can finally start shipping out vaccines later this month.

___

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia received its first shipment of coronavirus vaccines on Monday and will soon begin to vaccinate its population of 50 million people, the third largest in Latin America.

The government says it aims to vaccinate 35 million people this year including hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants and refugees who are currently living in the South American country.

On Monday, a yellow DHL plane carrying Colombia’s first 50,000 vaccines arrived at Bogota’s international airport and was welcomed personally by President Ivan Duque and his health minister. The shots were supplied by Pfizer, which has a contract to sell 10 million vaccines to Colombia.

“Today I want to thank God, I want to thank science” Duque said from a podium set up on the runway. “We will now walk forward with the “v” of vaccines. With the “v” of victory.”

Colombia will be one of the last countries in Latin America to start vaccinations.

___

MEXICO CITY — Mexico began vaccinating senior citizens in more than 300 municipalities across the country Monday after receiving some 870,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

Most of the effort was concentrated in remote rural communities, but in a few far-flung corners of the sprawling capital, hundreds of Mexicans over the age of 60 lined up before dawn for the chance to get vaccinated.

The government has designated 1,000 vaccination sites, including schools and health centers, mostly in the country’s poorest communities.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador conceded Monday that bad weather and snow had kept the vaccine from arriving to some isolated areas in Mexico’s northwest. He said the armed forces, which are in charge of logistics for the vaccination campaign, were working to access those areas.

Mexico started vaccinating health workers in mid-December with some 726,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

___

MADRID — Spanish hospitals are starting to discharge more COVID-19 patients than the ones they admit in, although authorities say that a waning rate of infection remains too high to relax pandemic restrictions.

Health Ministry data showed that the share of hospital beds treating COVID-19 patients went from a 25% peak on Feb. 1 to 16.5% on Monday, with intensive care unit occupation in the same period dropping from 45% to 38% of the total, expanded capacity.

Spain has halved its 14-day of infection rate following a sharp post-Christmas contagion surge by avoiding a strict lockdown and choosing instead to restrict inter-regional mobility, impose night-time curfews and limit social gatherings. The two-week rate dropped from nearly 900 cases per 100,000 residents at the end of January to 417 infections on Monday.

The level is still considered of high risk and, according to Spain’s top coronavirus expert, Fernando Simón, “well above the goals established to relax some of the measures.”

___

PRAGUE — The Czech government has approved a plan for children and students to gradually return to schools in March.

Education Minister Robert Plaga says the first to return on March 1 should be the students of the final grade at high schools and schoolchildren of the final grade of elementary schools.

All students still will have to get tested at schools on a regular basis with the government ready to supply all the necessary tests.

Monday’s announcement comes a day after the heads of all 14 regions in the country made it possible for the government to extend the state of emergency and keep in place coronavirus restrictions despite a previous refusal of Parliament to do so. The school reopening was one of the key conditions requested by the governors.

Coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic remain at high levels. The nation of 10.7 million, has had more than 1 million confirmed cases, with 18,250 deaths.

___

LONDON — The daily number of people in the U.K. testing positive for the coronavirus has fallen below 10,000 for the first time since Oct. 2.

Government figures on Monday show that 9,765 people tested positive for COVID-19.

Infections have fallen sharply over the past few weeks from a high of 68,053 largely as a result of lockdown measures. The U.K.’s rapid rollout of coronavirus vaccines to the most at-risk groups has also helped. As of Monday, 15.3 million people in the U.K. have had their first dose of vaccine, or a little more than a quarter of the adult population.

In addition to the fall in infections, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 and dying have also come down.

The government said another 230 people have died after testing positive for COVID-19, the lowest figure since Dec. 26 when the number of deaths was also 230.

The U.K. has witnessed Europe’s deadliest outbreak, with 117,396 people dying in the 28 days after testing positive for the virus.

___

WASHINGTON— A top American epidemiologist says Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic are sufficient but schools will face major challenges in the coming weeks because of virus variants.

Michael Osterholm is head of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and was named to Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force before Biden became president. Osterholm says there’s low virus transmission at schools, especially for younger students, but virus variants are “a real red flag coming down the road.”

Osterholm told CBS on Monday he thinks a virus variant from the United Kingdom in particular is going to cause such a surge in U.S. cases over the next 14 weeks that “a lot of schools are going to

___

WASHINGTON — The makers of COVID-19 vaccines are figuring out how to tweak their recipes against worrisome virus mutations — and regulators are looking to flu as a blueprint if and when the shots need an update.

“It’s not really something you can sort of flip a switch, do overnight,” cautioned Richard Webby, who directs a World Health Organization flu center from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Viruses mutate constantly and it takes just the right combination of particular mutations to escape vaccination. But studies are raising concern that first-generation COVID-19 vaccines don’t work as well against a mutant that first emerged in South Africa as they do against other versions circulating around the world.

The good news: Many of the new COVID-19 vaccines are made with new, flexible technology that’s easy to upgrade. What’s harder: Deciding if the virus has mutated enough that it’s time to modify vaccines — and what changes to make.

___

BERLIN — The European Union’s health agency is urging countries to address what it calls “pandemic fatigue” that is leading to increasing protests and unwillingness to follow virus restrictions.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said Monday that properly addressing pandemic fatigue was “a matter of urgency if further waves of infection are to be avoided.”

The Stockholm-based agency said governments should emphasize the risk of more cases and deaths if hygiene measures are ignored and be transparent about uncertainties regarding issues such as the vaccine rollout, which has raised widespread hopes of an imminent end to lockdowns.

ECDC said that the appearance of variants of the virus in the Europe posed a particular concern and could undo the drop in cases seen on the continent in recent weeks.

The agency said countries should increase testing sequencing of samples for variants, warning that its analysis suggests unless pandemic restrictions such as mask wearing are continued or strengthened during the coming months, “a significant increase in COVID-19-related cases and deaths” in Europe can be expected.

___

GENEVA, Switzerland — The World Health Organization granted an emergency authorization to the coronavirus vaccine made by AstraZeneca, a move that should allow its partners to ship millions of doses to countries worldwide as part of a U.N.-backed program to stop the pandemic.

In a statement on Monday, the U.N. health agency said it was greenlighting the AstraZeneca vaccines made by the Serum Institute of India and South Korea’s AstraZeneca-SKBio.

“Countries with no access to vaccines to date will finally be able to start vaccinating their health workers and populations at risk,” said Dr Mariângela Simão, WHO Assistant-Director General for Access to Medicines and Health Products.

___

ZAGREB, Croatia – Croatia is another European Union state after Hungary that has shown interest in procuring Russian developed Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine after hiccups in deliveries of Western-made shots.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said Monday that Russia is ready to provide the vaccine and Croatia’s health authorities will decide on its use after approval from the European Medicines Agency.

Croatia earlier this month launched its vaccination campaign with AstraZeneca shots, imposing none of the age limits that have been put in place by some other EU states.

Hungary has become the first EU member to start using Sputnik V and hopes to deploy China’s Sinopharm vaccine soon, despite neither having received approval from EU’s medicines regulator.

Non-EU member Serbia has been the first to start administering both the Russian as well as Chinese vaccines in Europe, helping it become one of the top states on the continent in the speed of the vaccination rollout.

___

BEIRUT — Coronavirus case numbers are stabilizing in parts of the Middle East but the situation remains critical, with more than a dozen countries reporting cases of new variants, the World Health Organization said Monday.

Ahmed al-Mandhari, director of WHO’s eastern Mediterranean region, which comprises most of the Middle East, said in a press briefing from Cairo that at least one of the three new coronavirus variants was reported in the 13 countries in the region. He did not name the countries.

All three of the new variants are more contagious, according to WHO.

Al-Mandhari said there are nearly 6 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the region and about 140,000 deaths. WHO urged people to continue taking precautionary measures against the virus.

___

LONDON — Britain’s newly established quarantine hotels have received their first guests as the government tries to prevent new variants of the coronavirus from derailing its fast-moving vaccination drive.

Passengers arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport on Monday morning were escorted by security guards to buses that took them to nearby hotels.

Britain has given a first dose of coronavirus vaccine to almost a quarter of the population, but health officials are concerned that vaccines may not work as well on some new strains of the virus, including one first identified in South Africa.

Under the new rules, people arriving in England from 33 high-risk countries must stay in designated hotels for 10 days at their own expense, with meals delivered to their door. In Scotland the rule applies to arrivals from any country.

___

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Some 500 people have gathered in a theater in the central Dutch city of Utrecht for the first in a series of test events aimed at charting a path toward a post-pandemic normality for large-scale gatherings.

Economic Affairs Minister Mona Keijzer says that, “returning to normal, whether it’s a conference with your colleagues, a sports match or a concert: everyone wants that.”

When that might be possible remains unclear. The Netherlands is in a tough lockdown until at least next month, with large-scale gatherings banned altogether, shops, bars, restaurants and museums closed and sports like professional soccer happening behind closed stadium doors.

Participants in Monday’s trial had to present a negative COVID-19 test result, had their temperatures taken on arrival and will have to undergo another test after attending the event.

The government says it will use data gathered at the event to help decide “how to work toward safe and responsible events” in the future.

The event came with Dutch infections on a gradual downward trend in recent weeks and vaccinations ramping up after a slow start that made the Netherlands become the last of the 27 European Union nations to begin its vaccination campaign.

___

BRUSSELS — The EU’s anti-fraud office, OLAF, is urging member states to be vigilant against scammers offering to sell fake COVID-19 vaccines as the 27-nation bloc faces delays in the supply of shots.

In a statement Monday, OLAF said it was made aware of a number of reports of scammers offering to sell vaccines in a bid to defraud EU governments trying to speed up the pace of vaccination.

The EU has been criticized for a slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in comparison with other parts of the world, lagging behind the pace of countries like Britain or Israel. The EU commission has signed six contracts for more than 2 billion doses of various coronavirus vaccines, but only three of them have been approved for use so far and the delivery of shots has been disturbed by production delays.

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

MIAMI (AP) — Small crowds at Marlins Park will be back this season.

The attendance-challenged Marlins plan to allow fans at home games, although crowds will initially be limited to about 25% of capacity. That would mean a maximum of about 9,300 spectators in the 37,446-seat ballpark.

“We look forward to having the opportunity to have fans come back to our ballpark,” CEO Derek Jeter said Monday. “There will be a limited number of fans that are allowed at the onset. We hope those numbers increase throughout course of the season, but the most important thing for us is to make sure everyone is healthy and safe.”

The Marlins, like the rest of MLB, didn’t allow fans during the 2020 regular season because of the coronavirus pandemic. Limited crowds were permitted for the postseason, and that will be the case for spring training games in Florida and Arizona starting late this month.

The Marlins averaged about 10,000 fans in 2018 and 2019, the first two seasons that Jeter’s group owned the team. They finished last in the majors in attendance both years, and ranked last in the National League 14 out of 15 seasons through 2019.

The 2020 season might have brought an increase as the Marlins made surprising run to their first playoff berth in 17 years. But because of COVID-19, the size of the bandwagon was impossible to gauge.

“One thing that was a little bit disappointing last year — going through the pandemic, you hear about the excitement of our fan base, but they weren’t able to come to games,” Jeter said. “I would have loved to have seen what that looked like.

“There is a level of excitement, and we need to continue to build on that, not only on the baseball side but on the business side as well.”

The Marlins anticipate increased revenue this year not only at the box office, but thanks to a pending rights agreement that is expected to more than double income from local game telecasts.

“We will no longer have the worst deal in major league baseball,” majority owner Bruce Sherman said.

Pitchers and catchers report Wednesday to spring training in Jupiter, Florida, and like every team at this time of year, the Marlins are optimistic. Their young, promising rotation provides a strong foundation, and the minor league system is much improved since Jeter’s group bought the franchise in late 2017.

The Marlins are low on star power, but Jeter — a former Yankees captain who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer — knows how quickly that can change.

“Every star wasn’t always a star,” he said. “I can go off experience. When our group was younger, nobody knew who we were. After a couple of years and a little bit of success, you become a household name.

“Last year was a good first step for us, getting to the postseason. That’s how you become a star — having personal success, but even more so having team success.”

Still in doubt is how well Miami will support baseball even if the team consistently wins. The pandemic interrupted the Jeter group’s efforts to build a bigger following.

“We wouldn’t have put together an ownership group and purchased the organization if we didn’t feel as though Miami was a baseball town, and that fans ultimately would come out and support the team,” Jeter said. “I wish we would average 37,000 fans this year, but we understand it’s going to take some time.”

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

___

Follow Steven Wine on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Steve_Wine

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

NEW YORK (AP) — As more coronavirus vaccine doses become available in the weeks and months ahead, many business owners face a difficult decision: whether to require employees to be inoculated.

And if they decide “yes,” they have to be ready for the possibility that some staffers will refuse.

Dentist Andrew Geller initially didn’t feel comfortable with requiring his staff to get the shots because of the many unknowns about the vaccine. But he did extensive research and concluded that the 23 employees at Geller Family Dental should be vaccinated. Turns out most were grateful that as health workers they could receive the vaccine when it first arrived.

However, Geller did have more difficult conversations with a handful of employees who were uneasy about getting the shots.

“I did my best to ensure them that this was going to maintain the health and safety of their families. It took a little bit longer for some to make an appointment, but they did, thankfully,” says Geller, whose practice is located in Bronxville, New York.

State governments determine who can be vaccinated and when; in most states, priority has been given to health workers, first responders and older people, but employees of some businesses — for example, restaurant workers in New York — are eligible. The general population isn’t expected to be vaccinated until the spring at the earliest, so most business owners still must decide what their policy on vaccinations will be.

It’s not known how many employers will require staffers to get the vaccine — and many companies likely haven’t made a decision. About two-thirds of Americans say they plan to get vaccinated or have already done so, according to a poll released Wednesday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The survey also found that 15% of Americans say they will definitely not get the vaccine and another 17% say they probably will not.

Employers can require many staffers to be vaccinated under guidelines from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. They can’t require inoculations for employees with medical conditions protected by the Americans with Disability Act or those who object to vaccinations for religious reasons. The ADA covers employers with 15 or more workers, and some state and municipal laws cover smaller businesses. Owners must find what the law calls a reasonable accommodation to allow these staffers to keep working. One example during the pandemic would be an assignment that could be done in a space a safe distance from co-workers or customers.

Employers have been contacting attorneys and human resources consultants and asking, what should we do?

“We are having some very honest and real conversations with clients to make sure it’s the right decision for them,” says Fernanda Anzek, a consultant with the human resources provider Insperity.

A frequently asked question is whether an employer can dismiss a staffer who refuses to be vaccinated and who isn’t protected by law. The short answer is yes.

“The employer has the latitude under the EEOC to keep the workplace safe,” says Jerry Maatman, an employment law attorney with Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago. But Maatman cautions that while the EEOC has released guidelines about the vaccine, issues over employers’ rights to dismiss staffers who don’t comply are likely to end up in court.

“These rulings are going to take place in the second and third quarters,” he says.

Maatman and Anzek advise businesses to seek legal or human resources advice before disciplining or dismissing employees over vaccinations, whether or not the staffers are in what’s called a protected class.

Legal and HR experts also recommend employers create companywide policies on vaccinations, provide each staffer with a copy and explain to everyone why the shots are necessary. And owners should keep in mind that this is a subject that requires sensitivity and understanding — an overbearing approach can be a morale buster.

“The best plan is education and policies and letting employees know that everything is uniform and you’re not singling anyone out,” says Andrew Zelmanowitz, an employment attorney with Berger Singerman in Fort Launderdale, Florida.

Owners may feel some trepidation before broaching the topic. Joann Butler decided to ask her 10 staffers how they felt about getting vaccinated, and “fortunately, everyone agreed it was something we need to do.”

“It’s always a slippery slope when you mandate something like this — with religious and health issues, not everyone is gung-ho,” says Butler, owner of Consultancy Media, a broadcast and production studio in New York.

The circumstances of a particular workplace can make the conversations easier. When Denise Buzy-Pucheu talked to the three staffers at her Newtown, Connecticut, bridal shop, “they were very on board — they want to keep safe,” she said. While in many stores the sales associates can keep a safe distance from shoppers, or have plastic barriers at checkout counters, employees of The Persnickety Bride have to help customers get in and out of gowns. There’s no way to do that without being right next to a bride.

“They understand the severity of this,” Buzy-Pucheu says of her staffers. “We are physically in touch with people.”

Some employers have opted to let staffers make their own decisions. Finally Restaurant Group, which operates 15 restaurants in four western states and Louisiana, is offering information about the vaccines and time off for employees to get them, but isn’t requiring shots.

“We’re letting them know what their options are, and they can make choices themselves,” says Ashley O’Bryan, director of human resources for the Bozeman, Montana-based company.

At Knead Hospitality & Design, a restaurant group in Washington, D.C., hourly employees are being offered four hours pay and those on salary will get a day of paid time off if they are inoculated.

While co-founders Jason Berry and Michael Reginbogin want their employees to be vaccinated and are offering them incentives to get the shots, they’re stopping short of requiring inoculations.

“There are a lot of people out there who are vaccine hesitant for religious and ethical reasons. I don‘t think it‘s our job to tell people how to live their life,” Berry says.

Restaurant workers come in close contact with diners, but “we hope there’ll be enough peer pressure or excitement to get people on board on their own volition,” Berry says.

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. announced Sunday that it had reached its goal of giving at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot to the most vulnerable people in the country, increasing pressure on ministers to clarify when they will ease a lockdown imposed in early January.

More than 15 million people, or 22% of the U.K. population, have received their first shot. The figure includes most people in the government’s top four priority groups, including everyone over 75, frontline healthcare workers and nursing home staff and residents. Over 537,000 of them have also received their second dose.

“15,000,000! Amazing team,” Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, said in a tweet that featured a red heart and three syringes. “We will not rest till we offer the vaccine to the whole of phase1 the 1-9 categories of the most vulnerable & all over 50s by end April and then all adults.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to unveil his roadmap for easing restrictions on Feb. 22 amid signs that infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths have fallen sharply since England’s third national lockdown began on Jan. 4.

“This country has achieved an extraordinary feat — administering a total of 15 million jabs into the arms of some of the most vulnerable people in the country,” Johnson said in a tweet.

Johnson said in England, everyone in the four top priority groups had been offered the vaccine. He plans to release further details on the vaccination effort on Monday.

Jockeying has already begun between those who want the measures lifted as soon as possible and those who fear moving too fast will lead to a resurgence of the virus.

Britain got a head start on its vaccination effort in December, when it became the first country to authorize widespread use of a COVID-19 shot. It ranks behind only Israel, 73%, the Seychelles, 53%, and the United Arab Emirates, 51% in the percentage of people who have received one dose, according to Oxford University. The U.S. is fifth at 15%.

At the same time, coronavirus lockdown rules that have closed schools, restaurants and nonessential shops in the U.K. are starting to pay off. The number of new infections, hospital admissions and deaths recorded over the past seven days have all dropped by more than 20% from the previous week.

When Johnson announced the lockdown, he said the government would review the measures in mid-February based on their success in controlling the pandemic and progress in the vaccination effort. Johnson’s first priority is to reopen schools, and he has promised to give schools two weeks notice to give teachers time to prepare.

Britain has reported over 117,000 virus-related deaths, the highest pandemic toll in Europe.

Mark Harper, a lawmaker from the ruling Conservative Party, has warned the government against “moving the goalposts” for deciding when to ease the lockdown.

Johnson should start by reopening schools, then gradually lift other restrictions as more people are vaccinated, said Harper, who leads a group of about 70 lawmakers who have lobbied the government to consider the negative economic and social impacts of the restrictions along with the health benefits.

“Once you have protected people from serious illness and from death, I don’t think these draconian restrictions of not being able to meet your family, not see your friends, not see your children, not see your parents, not visit people in care homes, I don’t think they are justifiable anymore,” Harper told Times Radio.

After meeting the target for reaching the most vulnerable, U.K. authorities will progressively expand the vaccination drive to the next five priority groups until everyone over 50 and vulnerable younger people with health conditions that put them at higher risk from the virus have been offered the vaccine.

Public health officials say the top nine priority groups account for 99% of the deaths caused by COVID-19 so far.

While the vaccines currently authorized for use in the U.K. require two doses to ensure full protection against COVID-19, British authorities say one dose provides a significant level of protection.

Because of this, they have made it their priority to give the first dose to as many people as possible as quickly as possible. To do this, Britain is planning to give second doses after three months, instead of one month as recommended by the manufacturers.

Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust health think tank, said the number of COVID-19 infections in Britain is still too high to think about lifting the restrictions.

“We’ve made enormous progress … but the transmission is incredibly high still and we’ve got to get it lower,” he said.

There are other dangers on the horizon. U.K. government scientific advisers say the COVID-19 variant now predominant in the country may be up to 70% more deadly than previous variants, underscoring concerns about how mutations may change the characteristics of the disease.

The findings from the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, published Friday on the government’s website, builds on preliminary research released Jan. 21. The group, known as NERVTAG, includes experts from universities and public agencies across the U.K.

The new report is based on analysis of a dozen studies that found the so-called Kent variant, named after the county where it was first identified, is likely 30% to 70% more deadly than other variants. The studies compared hospitalization and death rates among people infected with the variant and those infected with other variants.

The results of the analysis are worrisome, said Dr. David Strain, a clinical senior lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School and the clinical lead for COVID at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital.

“The higher transmissibility means that people who were previously at low risk of catching COVID (particularly younger fitter females) are now catching it and ending up in hospital,” Strain said. “This is highlighted by the latest figures for hospitalization that now suggest almost 50:50 male to female ratio compared to this being predominantly in men during the first wave.”

___

Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Though many people with disabilities are more vulnerable to COVID-19, in some U.S. states they fear being left behind in a massive effort to get limited vaccines into the arms of those who need them most.

People with disabilities have been pushed down the priority list in places like North Carolina and California, where the state reversed course after days of public pressure. In Minnesota, parents are begging unsuccessfully to give their vaccination spots to their children whose Down syndrome makes them up to 10 times more likely to die if they catch the virus.

With vaccine supplies limited and the rollout shaky in much of the United States, getting a shot is difficult. Groups like older people and essential workers are in dire need of the vaccine and state health departments say their plans are aimed at making the most of limited supplies. But the pandemic has also taken a disproportionate toll on people with disabilities around the world.

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are often immunocompromised, putting them at greater risk for complications if they get sick. They’re also more likely to lose their jobs, can have a harder time with mask-wearing and social distancing, and have had to worry about whether they would be less likely to get critical care at hospitals. Many have also had to make do with less help, since caregivers can be an infection risk.

The Centers for Disease Control added Down syndrome to its list of high-risk conditions in late December, but each state makes its own vaccine distribution plan and 20 haven’t explicitly placed people with intellectual and developmental disabilities disabilities on their priority lists, said Donna Martin with ANCOR, a national trade association for service providers for people with disabilities. Many of those who do have priority live in group homes, a higher-risk location but one that includes only a small portion of the community.

Some states like Ohio and Tennessee are already vaccinating people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In Tennessee, officials said data showed people with those disabilities had a death rate three times higher than the general population, and put them higher on the priority list. In Ohio, a wide range of people with disabilities became eligible for the vaccine in late January, said Kari Jones, head of the Down Syndrome Association of Central Ohio.

“It’s been terrifying, so to actually have the vaccine in people’s arms, at least the first round so far, has been such a relief,” she said.

In states such as North Carolina and Minnesota, meanwhile, health officials say their plans are still in progress and aimed ending the pandemic as soon as possible. In California, public health officials said people with disabilities could begin getting the vaccine in a month, an announcement that came nearly two weeks after they were pushed down the list.

The wait was agonizing for people like Nicole Adler. The 25-year-old was a thriving college student in Redwood City studying communications, eating lunch with friends and going to concerts. All that stopped with the onset of the virus because Down syndrome makes it five times more likely she’d have to be hospitalized if she got sick. It also made online school much more difficult to comprehend so she had to stop taking classes.

Now, she lives with her mother and usually leaves home one just once a week to get takeout dinner.

“I was really depressed,” she said. “My life changed. I put my life on hold.”

In Minnesota, there’s no word yet on when people with disabilities who don’t live in group homes might get the vaccine, said Sarah Curfman, executive director of the Down Syndrome Association of Minnesota.

The terrified parents include people like Suzy Lindeberg of Stillwater. Her hockey-obsessed son John Lindeberg, 20, managed the high school team before the pandemic, but even as the teens get back on the ice his Down syndrome means he has to stay home.

“He watches his brother leave for his high school hockey practices, and that’s hard because and he really wants to be at the hockey rink,” she said. “COVID has been very hard on our house.”

In North Carolina, people with disabilities were recently moved down the list, and don’t know when they’ll be eligible for the shot.

Rebecca DiSandro of Charlotte has a rare genetic disorder called Freeman Sheldon syndrome that affects nearly every part of her body.

DiSandro has been working from home on data entry but has been depressed, missing visiting friends, swimming and cheerleading. “It’s hard for them to comprehend,” said mother Sharon DiSandro.

Even if people with disabilities do have some priority status, there can be confusion on the ground. Many states have given priority to people with high-risk medical conditions, but if orders don’t specifically mention conditions like Down syndrome, they can be turned away from getting their shots, said Michelle Whitten with the Global Down Syndrome Foundation.

In some cases, states have listed a specific condition without including other rare conditions where there may be fewer scientific studies on the risk level. Betty Lehman of Centennial, Colorado, said her 32-year-old son’s disability-associated medical complications left him near death more than once a child. But his specific conditions don’t move him up the list, so he likely won’t be eligible for the shot until this summer, when other adults his age are eligible, she said. State health officials say their plan is aimed at saving as many people as possible, but it remains a hard pill to swallow for families like the Lehmans.

“This is a horror show of a broken value system,” she said. “My son is at massive risk, other people I care about are at massive risk, and people are turning a blind eye to them.”

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.