Liz Szabo
Kaiser Health News
As an emergency physician, Dr. Eugenia South was in the first group of people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. She received her second dose last week – even before President-elect Joe Biden.
Yet South said she’s in no rush to throw away her face mask.
“I honestly don’t think I’ll ever go without a mask at work again,” said South, faculty director of the Urban Health Lab at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “I don’t think I’ll ever feel safe doing that.”
And although vaccines are highly effective, South plans to continue wearing her mask outside the hospital as well.
USA TODAY NETWORK
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan wants state lawmakers to pass a $1 billion COVID-19 economic relief bill that includes stimulus payments for about 400,000 eligible residents of the state.
The Republican said Monday that the bill, if passed, would provide a total of $267 million in stimulus money to individuals and families who qualified for the Earned Income Tax Credit in 2019 and 2020.
Families would receive $750 and individuals would receive $450 under the RELIEF Act, which Hogan will ask legislators to pass when they convene for the first time in 2021 on Wednesday. I cannot imagine anything that could possibly be more important for the legislature to pass, Hogan said.
The fate of President Donald Trump s call for an increase in pandemic stimulus checks to $2,000 was in doubt Tuesday as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked Democrats initial attempt to approve higher payments.
All eyes are on McConnell and whether he will allow a bill increasing the one-time payments from $600 to $2,000. The Kentucky Republican did not indicate whether any measure would be brought to the Senate floor.
Instead, the GOP leader outlined three priorities the president demanded Congress examine, linking the increased stimulus payments with Trump s calls to repeal Section 230 that allows big tech companies legal immunity and an examination of election integrity after Trump s baseless claims of voter fraud after his defeat.
“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.