Johnson & Johnson board member Dr. Mark McClellan told CNBC Friday that there could be enough vaccinations for the entire U.S. adult population by the summer.
“Assuming all of the close review of the J&J data all pans out, we’re going to have the capacity between Moderna, Pfizer, J&J, to have enough vaccines available by June for the entire U.S. adult population,” McClellan, a former FDA commissioner, said on “The News with Shepard Smith.”
The U.S. plans to buy 200 million Covid vaccine doses from Moderna and Pfizer. The Department of Health and Human Services will boost its vaccine supply to states from 8.6 million to a minimum of 10 million doses per week. So far, states have received more than 49 million doses, but only about half of those have actually ended up in people’s arms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency reports that the U.S. is administering a little more than a million shots every day.
McClellan that the U.S. should significantly increase the amount of shots administered per day and “get our capacity for doing vaccinations up closer to 3 million doses per day.”
The United States has ordered 100 million doses of the J&J vaccine, which the company plans to deliver by June. J&J plans to file for emergency use authorization next week. If J&J’s vaccine is authorized by the FDA, it would be the third vaccine approved for emergency use in the U.S. Pfizer’s vaccine was authorized by the FDA on Dec. 11, and Moderna’s was authorized a week later.
The J&J vaccine efficacy numbers were lower than those for Pfizer and Moderna. Pfizer’s vaccine was found to be 95% effective against preventing Covid-19, while Moderna’s was found to be about 94% effective. J&J’s vaccine was found to be 66% effective overall in preventing moderate to severe Covid.
Host Shepard Smith asked McClellan about the lower efficacy numbers compared to Pfizer and Moderna, and he explained to Smith that “we’re fighting a different virus today than we were three months ago when previous trials were done.”
Additionally, J&J ran its trial across three continents and the level of protection varied by region. Its vaccine demonstrated overall, 72% effectiveness in the United States and 66% in Latin America. In South Africa, where the dangerous B.1.351 strain of Covid caused a surge in cases, the J&J vaccine demonstrated 57% effectiveness.
“Unfortunately, we’re probably going to be fighting a different virus three months from now, so most important in winning this battle, is getting as many people vaccinated as possible,” said McClellan. “The faster we get shots in arms, the more people we get vaccinated here in this country and around the world, the better we’re going to do in containing that further spread and the further damage from Covid.”
Dispatchers received a call on Tuesday saying a man walked into the offices of Children’s Medical Group with a gun and was holding hostages inside the building.
Initially several hostages were being held, police said, but several escaped and others were allowed to leave, except Dr. Katherine Dodson, a pediatrician at CMG. Hostages told officers the man was armed with with a pistol and what appeared to be a shotgun, police said. He also had two duffel bags.
The armed man was identified as Dr. Bharat Narumanchi, 43, a pediatrician who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, police said. Records show he had resided in multiple states and that his last state of residence was California.
He had visited the CMG office a week prior to the shooting and applied for a volunteer position, police said. Other than his recent visit, police were unable to find a connection between Dodson and Narumanchi.
Hostage negotiators then arrived on scene and tried to make contact with Narumanchi, but were unsuccessful. After repeated attempts, SWAT officers entered the building where they found Dodson and Narumanchi dead from apparent gunshot wounds.
“It appeared that Dr. Narumanchi shot himself after shooting Dr. Dodson,” according to the police department’s news release. The incident is still under investigation.
The Travis County Medical Examiner will be conducting an autopsy to determine the official cause and manner of death.
Flowers draped the sign of CMG Wednesday as the community mourned Dodson’s death, according to CNN affiliate KEYE-TV.
Dodson, 43, joined CMG as a pediatrician in 2017, the medical center’s website said. She was a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was married with three children, the website said.
“She has the nicest bedside manner,” Michelle Sweitzer told KEYE-TV. “She tells your children, ‘I love you’ and puts them at ease and is the sweetest, kindest caring doctor.”
ROME—Dr. Carlo Mosca’s online patient reviews describe a loving “humanitarian” who saved countless lives before the coronavirus pandemic struck Italy. Patients and their families lavished praise on the loving father, whose hospital in Brescia in northern Italy was one of the hardest hit during the first wave of the pandemic last March.
Something clearly changed in Mosca as the pandemic raged on. The 47-year-old was arrested on double homicide charges this week, accused of killing weak COVID patients and doctoring their medical records in order to free up beds for other patients. Mosca describes the allegations as “baseless” claiming that the overwhelmed health care system is the reason the patients died.
During the first months of the pandemic, Italian doctors were faced with horrifying decisions in deciding who to give respirators and other supplies to, often deciding who lives or dies based on their chance of survival, essentially letting the weak die due to lack of treatment. But what Mosca is accused of is taking it one step further and killing the patients himself.
Two patients who died under Mosca’s care, Natale Bassi, 61, and Angelo Paletti, 80, were exhumed last month as the prosecution built the case against the primary care physician using text messages among nurses who watched the once-loving physician transform from Dr. Jekyll into a sinister Mr. Hyde—although one very likely overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the human tragedy around him.
The investigating magistrate in the case has suggested that Mosca was the “victim in the throes of extreme stress originating from having to face the growing influx of COVID cases,” according to the court documents. “The replication of the extreme conditions that led to his crimes made it probable that he resolved to administer prohibited drugs to the most serious patients in order to speed up their death, thereby falsifying the data contained in the relative medical records.” By simply withholding treatment, the patients could linger for weeks or months. By injecting them, the prosecutor wrote, he could more quickly free up the much-needed beds.
Authorities are now combing through records of all of Mosca’s dead patients to search for anomalies in their treatment and deaths. They do not rule out exhuming further bodies, although the majority of the people who died during the height of the first wave of the pandemic were cremated.
As Mosca’s hospital became overwhelmed and more than 600 COVID patients were suddenly under his care, nurses say he started directing them to inject lethal doses of Succinylcholine and Propofol, which are often used when intubating patients, on COVID sufferers who were never meant to be intubated. Using the drugs on non-intubated patients causes them to suffocate, according to the court documents. During the months of March and April, before a nurse confronted Mosca threatening to report him, orders for both drugs grew by 70 percent, according to court documents seen by The Daily Beast.
As things grew more frantic, the nurses started exchanging worrying messages that now form the prosecution’s case and at least one confronted him about his state of mind. “Did he ask you to administer the drugs without intubating them?” one nurse wrote. “I’m not killing patients just because he wants to free up the beds. This is crazy,” wrote another.
When nurses started refusing Mosca’s orders, he allegedly started injecting the patients personally, asking the nurses to leave him alone with the patients. Prosecutors say he also wrote false terminal diagnoses on the patients’ charts, giving them a more believable cause of death.
Mosca, who has been put on leave from his hospital, is on house arrest until his trial begins this spring.
The Austin Police Department’s SWAT team is currently in a more than six-hour standoff at a medical center in central Austin, Texas, that began around 4:30 p.m.
At least one doctor is being held inside the building, KVUE reports. The parent of a patient at the medical center tells Fox News that their doctor is being held in the building.
Police are currently talking to the suspect, who also appears to also be a doctor, through a bullhorn, according to KVUE. The witness also told Fox News the suspect is a doctor.
“You don’t deserve to go through this..for all you have done for others…that is why I want to help you work through this,” the local news outlet reports that a police officer said through a bullhorn to the suspect. “You have saved a lot of lives.”
In a 911 call that came in about the incident around 4:30 p.m., it was reported that the suspect entered the office and took a hostage or hostages at gunpoint, FOX 7 in Austin reported.
In a 9 p.m. update, a FOX 7 reporter said a witness told her everyone inside the medical office had been taken hostage by the suspect, but he let at least three people go immediately.
“When I arrived on scene, I saw a woman being escorted by police out of the taped area where she was met and hugged by a child. And that’s what we’ve been seeing over the past few hours: multiple people being walked out and handed off to what we can only assume are loved ones,” FOX 7’s Amanda Ruiz reported.
HOUSTON DEPUTY SHOT IN BOTH HANDS, MANHUNT FOR SUSPECT INTENSIFIES
Law enforcement escorted at least one woman in scrubs away from the building, but it is unclear if she was ever held hostage, KXAN reports.
An officer also said through the bullhorn, “Everything that is happening tonight doesn’t take anything away from everything that you have accomplished as a doctor,” according to KEYE-TV reporter Melanie Barden.
“I cannot guarantee your safety unless you comply,” KVUE-TV reporter Tony Plohetski tweeted earlier of the hostage negotiator’s attempted communications with the suspect. “I am letting you know, doctor, there is a way to resolve this. I need your help to fix the situation. That starts with you answering the phone.”
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Police have evacuated homes in the area surrounding the 1900 block of W 35th Street and are asking the public to stay away.
I, along with millions of others, whooped for joy to see the first people in the world receive their first COVID-19 vaccinations. This monumental event is on a par with the other most amazing events in history, such as the discovery of penicillin, or the first steps on the moon. Why on earth, after all the heartache this despicable virus has caused, would anyone not want to have this stupendous vaccine? I’m incredulous. So, as a doctor, I’m writing this to try and set the record straight on the COVID vaccine. Read on—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss theseSure Signs You’ve Already Had Coronavirus.
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According to a recent poll, only around half of Americans want to be vaccinated, about a quarter remain unsure, and the final quarter plan to refuse. How can anyone say ‘No’ to this vaccine—our golden ticket? Across the globe, immunizations are currently in use which protect against 19 different viruses. Every year these vaccinations save 2-3 million lives. Vaccinations are a phenomenal public health success. The new COVID-19 vaccine now becomes number 20 on the list.
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If enough of the population take up an immunization, it is possible to eradicate an infection completely. However, even if total eradication is never achieved, a virus can still be eliminated to such an extent that cases of viral infection become rare. For eradication, or elimination to occur, large numbers of the population need to be vaccinated.
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For you as an individual, the aim of having the vaccine is to stop you from becoming infected. If, however, you do become infected, there is every likelihood that the infection will be less severe and less prolonged. Vaccines stop you from becoming severely ill and can save your life.
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Vaccinations have wider overall health benefits for the nation. Worldwide, vaccinations result in thousands of millions of dollars of health-care savings. They also lead to lower antibiotic prescribing, which in turn reduces antibiotic resistance.
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For example, in one US study of older people, those who had had a flu vaccine, had a 20% reduction in cardiovascular risk (strokes and heart attacks), and a 50% reduced chance of dying from these events, than those who did not have the vaccine. The following are true statements about vaccines:
Immunizations:
Allow us to undertake safe international travel
Protect babies and young children from common childhood infections
Protect and support primary care health services
Empower women to plan their families, continue their education and maintain their options in the workplace
Reduce the threat of bioterrorism
Redress disparities in health between different communities
Help maintain peace and prosperity
…according to WHO. Who could fail to be impressed with the numerous benefits of vaccination?
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A 2015 publication in the journal Vaccine reviewed the medical evidence on vaccine safety. The authors described the meticulous testing and safety procedures used in vaccine development and declared that vaccines are amongst the safest medicines in clinical use.
Vaccines have a very sophisticated adverse reporting system. Very often when an adverse outcome is reported about a vaccine, it is not actually something caused by the vaccine. For example, the flu vaccine contains dead flu virus and cannot give you the flu. If you go down with the flu within a few days of being vaccinated, the chances are you had probably become infected with flu a few days before you had the vaccine.
Anyone can be allergic to anything, and this is serious because if you are unlucky enough to experience acute anaphylaxis, this is life-threatening. However, the risk of anaphylaxis with vaccines in general, is low and rarely fatal, because anaphylaxis is treatable.
There were two cases of anaphylactoid reaction on the first day of the COVID-19 UK vaccination program, both of whom were treated and have completely recovered.
The UK regulatory agency, the MHRA, has said that anyone who suffers from immediate anaphylaxis – usually requiring them to carry an EpiPen – should not have the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine until further information has been established.
The vaccine is not grown in hen’s eggs and is latex-free. It may be that the risk of an anaphylactoid reaction is due to the small quantity of polyethylene glycol (PEG) in the vaccine. PEG is a common ingredient of cosmetic products and is not been associated with significant safety concerns to date.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine trials did not include people with severe anaphylaxis, as is normal practice, in their clinical trials. From the trial data, possible allergic reactions were reported in 0.63% of those who were vaccinated, and 0.51% of those given a placebo. Experts have commented this is a very low risk of vaccine-related allergy. New medicines are always closely monitored, and the monitoring system is working well.
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Live attenuated vaccines are vaccines which contain living organisms that have been modified, so they do not cause an infection if you have a healthy immune system. However, people with a severely weakened immune system should not use them as they can cause illness.
The COVID-19 vaccines are not live attenuated vaccines — so they could potentially be used in people who are immunocompromised. What is not known, is how good the antibody response will be in these patients. Further advice is awaited.
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GBS is an auto-immune condition triggered by a bacterial or a viral infection, leading to nerve damage.
It is uncertain from medical studies if vaccination might increase the risk of GBS. In one 2009 study, those who had received the H1N1 vaccination had a lower rate of BGBS than those who did not. In other studies, deaths in people with GBS were not considered to be related to the use of any specific vaccinations.
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Around 3% of the population have a fear of needles, and may collapse due to fainting, when they have a blood test or an injection. Associated head injuries have been reported. The healthcare professional will ensure you are a safe as possible when you have your vaccination. A period of 15 minutes observation is recommended after an injection.
RELATED: Unhealthiest Habits on the Planet, According to Doctors
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There are a whole host of incorrect facts being bandied about regarding the COVID vaccine. Please take a look at the following statements and rest assured these are all telling the truth:
The COVID vaccine will not change your DNA
The COVID vaccine does not contain material from a dead foetus
The COVID vaccine does not contain heavy metals
The COVID vaccine does not contain a microchip
Vaccines are not a cause of autism
Just because the vaccine was produced in record time does not mean its not safe
If you want more details about all these points see this extremely eloquent post by Chris York at The Huffington Post.
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You might be thinking, if everyone else has a vaccination, I don’t need to bother. But hang on—this is not correct. For starters, some of the population can’t have the vaccine for medical reasons, for example, people who have severe allergies or who are immunocompromised. By not having the vaccine you will also inevitably encourage others to follow this example. To protect the population, we need to create herd immunity, meaning large numbers of people need to be vaccinated.
Herd immunity means that so many people in the population have antibodies to the virus, it has nowhere to go. Having this high level of immunity in the population, stops the virus from spreading person to person. This will only happen when enough people are immune. For herd immunity to COVID, 80-90% of people need to take up the vaccine.
RELATED:If You Feel This, You May Have Already Had COVID, Says Dr. Fauci
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COVID-19 is not an infection to be trifled with.
“Since December 2019,” writes virologist Andrew Stanley Pekosz, Ph.D., “COVID-19 has killed more people in the USA than influenza has in the past 5 years.” One of the reasons, he goes on to explain, is that none of us has any pre-existing immunity to COVID-19, whereas we are likely to have met the influenza virus before. COVID causes much more severe disease than influenza, and has a higher mortality in all age groups, except in children under the age or 12.
COVID infection is particularly risky for older adults and those who are immunocompromised, or have other comorbidities such as high blood pressure, raised cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity.
COVID has specific effects on the body which differ from infection with influenza, for example, it stimulates blood-clotting mechanisms, and increases the risk of thrombosis (blood clots). The death rate from COVID is at least three times higher than the death rate from influenza. Those who survive severe COVID can be left with long-lasting symptoms including chronic lung disease and heart and kidney disease – so-called ‘long COVID.’
The best way to deal with COVID-19 – which has wreaked havoc with our entire civilization – is to prevent it. How can we prevent it? – By have the COVID vaccination.
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We are all human and humans make mistakes. But not having the COVID vaccine is a mistake you can stop from happening.
If you have read through this post, you should be convinced that COVID-19 is a deadly infection and that the new COVID vaccine is safe and effective. Many of the rumours you have heard about the vaccination are completely untrue.
You need to have this vaccination to protect yourself, but also to help protect everyone you love. This is not someone else’s responsibility—It’s yours.
If you want life to return to normal by the Spring – or even the Summer – it’s time to roll up your sleeve. The COVID vaccination is really your golden ticket.
So follow the public health fundamentals and help end this surge, no matter where you live—wear a face mask, social distance, avoid large crowds, don’t go indoors with people you’re not sheltering with (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene, get vaccinated when it becomes available to you, and to protect your life and the lives of others, don’t visit any of these 35 Places You’re Most Likely to Catch COVID.
The emergence of new variants of the virus that causes Covid-19—including one in the U.K. that British officials say could be more deadly than earlier versions—signals a future in which health authorities are locked in a cat-and-mouse battle with a shape-shifting pathogen.
Faster-spreading coronavirus strains that researchers fear could also make people sicker or render vaccines less effective threaten to extend lockdowns and lead to more hospitalizations and deaths, epidemiologists caution. But, they said, it doesn’t mean the contagion can’t be contained.
“We’re living in a world where coronavirus is so prevalent and rapidly mutating that there are going to be new variants that pop up,” Anthony Harnden, a physician who advises the U.K. government, told Sky News. “We may well be in a situation where we end up having to have an annual coronavirus vaccine” to cope with emerging strains.
SERIAL KILLER INVITED TO GET COVID VACCINE BEFORE ELDERLY IGNITES OUTRAGE
People exercise along the bank of the River Thames in London, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021, during England’s third national lockdown since the coronavirus outbreak began. The U.K. is under an indefinite national lockdown to curb the spread of the new variant, with nonessential shops, gyms and hairdressers closed, and people being told to stay at home. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
As the new variant in the U.K. has spread across the country, hospitals have been under more strain than they were in the first wave of the pandemic in the spring, and the national Covid-19 death toll is expected to surpass 100,000 in coming days. But in the week ended Sunday, new daily cases were down 22% from the previous seven days.
Matt Hancock, the U.K.’s health secretary, said that was because of national restrictions in place since the start of the year. But in a television interview, Mr. Hancock warned, “We are a long, long, long way” before cases would be low enough for restrictions to be lifted.
The U.K. variant is one of several that have emerged in recent months to cause concern among researchers. Others have emerged in South Africa and Brazil.
Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser for the Covid-19 pandemic, said on CBS on Sunday that U.S. authorities need to expand genomic surveillance to identify variants of the virus.
Dr. Fauci said current vaccines remain effective. “What we will do and are doing already is making preparations for the possibility that down the pipe, down the line, we may need to modify and upgrade the vaccines. We don’t need to do that right now,” he said. “The best way to prevent the further evolution of these mutants is to vaccinate as many people as possible with the vaccines that we have currently available to us.”
Jeffrey Barrett, director of the Covid-19 Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said the huge number of cases around the world has given the virus a lot of opportunities to evolve in ways not seen earlier in the pandemic.
“We’re going to have to really contend with these new variants in the virus in the next phase of the pandemic,” he told an online seminar last week. “Something happened that basically allowed a new constellation of mutations to arise,” presenting scientists with new challenges.
The variants likely delay the day when life can get back closer to normal thanks to vaccines and raise the prospect of outbreaks of infections periodically even after large numbers of people are inoculated. And their emergence also suggests that international travel restrictions—where governments impose bans on people coming from places where more troubling versions of the virus are prevalent—could be in place intermittently for years.
The likelihood that many people in poorer countries won’t have access to vaccines for some time suggests that more new variants will be incubating around the world even if levels of immunity in the developed world are high enough to curb the virus’s spread.
The U.K. announcement on Friday that the British variant that now dominates infections across the country—and is also well-entrenched in the U.S.—could be more deadly than earlier versions of the virus is preliminary and could be unduly pessimistic.
It is based on the assessment of an expert advisory panel to the government that in turn used four separate academic studies of raw data to decide that there was a “realistic possibility” that the variant was deadlier.
The studies suggested that a greater proportion of people with this variant were ending up in the hospital or dying. It didn’t suggest that once in the hospital a patient was more likely to die than if he or she had been hospitalized with an earlier variant.
Faster-spreading variants imply that, for any given level of restrictions, cases will rise more rapidly or fall more slowly than with earlier versions. That suggests lockdowns, other things being equal, would have to last longer to bring cases down.
FAUCI SAYS UK COVID-19 STRAIN COULD ‘CAUSE MORE DAMAGE,’ US WILL TEST FOR VACCINE EFFICACY
So far, scientists haven’t seen evidence the British variant, first identified in someone in the southeast of England in September, is more resistant to vaccines. But another variant first identified in South Africa has a mutation that could lower the effectiveness of vaccines.
As vaccination programs roll out across the world, they should start to reduce the numbers of people who are seriously ill. If vaccines also confer some immunity as well as prevent serious illness—something so far unknown—they will turn the case curve downward.
Vaccine-resistant variants would slow such downward momentum until scientists tweak vaccines to capture the new variants, too. Some new vaccine technologies, such as those used in the two mRNA vaccines now authorized in the U.S., could be adjusted relatively quickly to deal with new mutations.
Coronaviruses mutate less frequently than certain others, such as influenza viruses that demand an annual vaccination to cope with new variants. However, the virus responsible for Covid-19 appears to be mutating frequently enough to suggest that vaccinated people may need further shots periodically to keep up their protection from the virus.
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The good news in the U.K. is that its vaccination program is moving ahead rapidly, faster than any of its European peers. Up to Saturday, nearly 6.4 million people have received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose, and Mr. Hancock said three-quarters of people over the age of 80, as well as people in three-quarters of nursing homes across the country, had received a shot.
When Emma Roberts‘ baby boy arrived he was brought into this world by a doctor who did the same for Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner‘s kids.
Emma and actor Garrett Hedlund‘s son, Rhodes Robert Hedlund, was delivered by Dr. Thais Aliabadi … according to the birth certificate, which also shows he arrived at 5:07 PM on December 27.
The birth certificate, obtained by TMZ, says Dr. Aliabadi delivered Rhodes on familiar turf … L.A.’s famed Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. We say it’s familiar because it’s the same place where Stormi Webster was born.
You’ll recall … Dr. A flew from L.A. to Ohio to deliver True Thompson for Khloe and Tristan.
TMZ broke the story … Rhodes weighed in right around 9 lbs on the day he was born. It’s Emma and Garrett’s first child. During her pregnancy … Emma wasn’t shy about showing off her baby bump, as she was seen out and about town frequently.
A couple weeks after giving birth … Emma posted a pic of her holding her baby boy with the caption, “Thank you 2020 for getting one thing right. Our bright light Rhodes Robert Hedlund.”
One of the most curious aspects of COVID-19 is that when infected, some people remain completely asymptomatic, while others end up hospitalized and unable to breathe. Since the start of the pandemic, health experts and researchers have been studying the highly infectious virus in hopes of understanding why the type of infections varies so dramatically on a person-by-person basis. According to one infectious disease expert, it boils down to three factors. Read on to find out the three most common factors that influence the type and severity of COVID symptoms—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss theseSure Signs You’ve Already Had Coronavirus.
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The first and only controllable part of the equation is how the individual is infected and the dose of the virus they receive, says Carlos R. Oliveira, MD, Ph.D., Yale Medicine pediatric infectious disease doctor. “For example, if an individual infected with COVID-19 coughs directly on you, you will likely get a much higher dose of the virus than if you are infected by touching a contaminated surface,” he points out. “A higher infectious dose usually leads to more rapid onset and more severe symptoms.”
This is a prime example of why wearing a mask and social distancing is so crucial in protecting yourself and others. Multiple studies have concluded that masks are effective in preventing tiny, infected viral particles from transmitting from person-to-person. While they might not stop all of them, they will certainly help reduce the viral load, likely resulting in a less serious infection.
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Another crucial factor in determining the type and severity of COVID symptoms is “the health status at the time of infection,” according to Dr. Oliveira. Early on in the pandemic, it became clear that people with certain pre-existing conditions were more prone to severe infection than others.
According to the CDC, anyone who is suffering from cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), Down Syndrome, heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies, an immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant, obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 30 kg/m2 or higher but < 40 kg/m2), severe Obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2), sickle cell disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, are pregnant, or a smoker, are at the highest risk of severe infection.
“It is especially important for people at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19, and those who live with them, to protect themselves from getting COVID-19,” the CDC warns.
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Age is also a very important factor, according to Dr. Oliveira, influencing not only the severity of the virus but the symptoms it can manifest. “Several studies (including Agyeman, Mayo Clinic, 2020) have shown that in adults, loss of smell is a common early manifestation, occurring in up to 40-60% of infections. It may also be the only manifestation of infection in some adults,” he points out.
In contrast, loss of smell is rarely seen in children, he adds, citing the COVID Symptom Study. “In fact, gastrointestinal symptoms, like abdominal pain, loss of appetite, and diarrhea, are frequent initial manifestations in children, occurring in about 1 in 3 cases.”
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“As is the case for many infectious diseases, the progression of discernible symptoms can be quite variable,” Dr. Oliveira says.
RELATED:7 Tips You Must Follow to Avoid COVID, Say Doctors
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Due to the fact that asymptomatic spread is a common characteristic of COVID, taking precaution even when you feel healthy is crucial in order to prevent the spread of the virus. So follow Dr. Anthony Fauci‘s fundamentals and help end this surge, no matter where you live—wear a face mask, social distance, avoid large crowds, don’t go indoors with people you’re not sheltering with (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene, get vaccinated when it becomes available to you, and to protect your life and the lives of others, don’t visit any of these 35 Places You’re Most Likely to Catch COVID.
A Texas doctor has been charged with stealing nine doses of the coveted COVID-19 vaccine while working at a county vaccination site, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Dr. Hasan Gokal, who worked with the Harris County Public Health system, is accused of stealing a vial that contained the doses from a vaccination site in Humble on Dec. 29, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement.
A week later, Gokal bragged about the theft to a co-worker, who then complained to his supervisors, Ogg said.
Gokal was later fired from his job.
Ogg said Gokal stole the doses to give them to his family and friends, leaving those who need a shot the most without one.
“He abused his position to place his friends and family in line in front of people who had gone through the lawful process to be there,” Ogg said of Gokal. “What he did was illegal and he’ll be held accountable under the law.”
Lawyer Paul Doyle defended his client arguing the vaccine would have expired anyway.
“Dr. Gokal is a dedicated public servant who ensured that COVID-19 vaccine dosages that would have otherwise expired went into the arms of people who met the criteria for receiving it,” Doyle said in a statement to KHOU11.
“Harris County would have preferred Dr. Gokal let the vaccines go to waste and are attempting to disparage this man’s reputation in the process to support this policy. We look forward to our day in court to right this wrong,” the lawyer continued.
Gokal faces up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
