Lori Torres was nervous about returning to teaching in-person this week in Chicago. Torres, 47, teaches Spanish to all grades at her preK-8 school and has a medical condition that puts her at increased risk for COVID-19, but her request to continue to teach from home hadn t been approved.
Her short-term concern was addressed when the Chicago Teachers Union voted to stay remote while union and city leaders haggled over the safety of working conditions in buildings.
But Torres long-term concern – getting a vaccine before she returns to Monroe Elementary School – is unresolved.
Chicago Public Schools vaccination schedule for teachers won t start until mid-February – and the district wants staff and students back before that. Some teachers in Chicago s suburbs, meanwhile, already have received vaccinations.
New U.S cases of the coronavirus have fallen 35% from their Jan. 11 peak, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. The average number of daily cases has fallen to about 162,000, from 249,000.
And there are positive signs for hospitalization: The COVID Tracking Project said Wednesday that the number of people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is decreasing in every major US region. About 107,000 Americans were hospitalized because of the virus Tuesday, down from a peak of more than 130,000 three weeks ago.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said this week that the improvement in numbers appears to be the result of “natural peaking and then plateauing” after a holiday surge, rather than an effect of the rollout of vaccines that began in mid-December.
“Historically with a vaccine, the terrible (serious adverse events) that we’re always worried about actually present themselves in a matter of weeks,” Djavaherian, an ER doctor who leads the pandemic response at Carbon Health, a national primary and urgent care provider. “We’re not seeing that type of spike . in the weeks we see people taking the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.”
Experts say Americans should feel confident in the vaccines now based on the data. The U.S Food and Drug Administration released a 53-page evaluation that confirmed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is highly effective and safe.
Another 54-page FDA evaluation also confirmed Moderna’s vaccine is safe and effective. It is likely to be authorized Friday by the FDA.
USA TODAY
As the USA approaches the once-unthinkable threshold of 300,000 COVID-19 deaths Sunday, experts fear the country is hurtling nonstop toward the next milestone of surpassing the total of American fatalities in World War II – even as vaccines are on the way.
A weeks-long surge in coronavirus transmission, leading to an average of more than 210,000 new infections and nearly 2,500 deaths a day this month, has public health experts considering the next major round number practically inevitable. According to Johns Hopkins University data, the USA had recorded more than 299,000 coronavirus deaths as of 5 a.m. EST on Monday.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned the country could reach 450,000 fatalities before Feb. 1, days short of the one-year anniversary of the first known COVID-19 death in the USA.