A second coronavirus vaccine trial was paused on Monday after an unexplained illness surfaced in one of the trial’s volunteers. Johnson & Johnson, which only began a phase 3 trial of its vaccine last month, did not offer any more details on the illness and did not say whether the sick participant had received the vaccine or a placebo. The trial pause was first reported by the health news website STAT. While Johnson & Johnson was behind several of its competitors in the vaccine race, its candidate has an advantage in that it doesn’t need to be frozen and it could be given in one dose instead of two, The New York Times reported. The J&J vaccine is also the focus of the largest COVID-19 vaccine trial, with a goal of enrolling 60,000 volunteers. “Adverse events — illnesses, accidents, etc. — even those that are serious, are an expected part of any clinical study, especially large studies,” the company said in a statement. “We’re also learning more about this participant’s illness, and it’s important to have all the facts before we share additional information.” “It’s actually a good thing that these companies are pausing these trials when these things come up,” Dr. Phyllis Tien, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco, a vaccine trial site for both Johnson & Johnson and…  read on >

Coronavirus outbreaks in the Midwest and Western United States have driven the national case count to its highest level since August, fueling fears of what the coming winter will mean for the country. COVID-19 cases are starting to climb in 36 states, including parts of the Northeast, which is starting to backslide after months of progress, The New York Times reported. More than 820 new deaths and more than 54,500 new cases were announced across the country on Tuesday, the newspaper said. Idaho and Wisconsin set single-day records for new cases. About 50,000 new cases are being reported each day in the United States for the week ending Monday, the Times reported. That is still less than in late July, when the country was seeing more than 66,000 cases each day. But the trajectory is worsening, and experts fear what could happen as cold weather drives people indoors, where the virus can spread more easily, the newspaper said. The latest spike in cases shows up just before the increased mingling of people that comes with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sixteen states each added more new cases in the seven-day period ending Monday than they had in any other weeklong stretch of the pandemic. North Dakota and South Dakota are reporting more new cases per person than any state has previously, the Times reported. “A lot…  read on >

The nation’s top infectious diseases expert warned Wednesday that Americans need to consider canceling family gatherings for Thanksgiving because coronavirus cases are now surging in 37 states. Dr. Anthony Fauci told CBS News that those surges might worsen if families across the country travel and gather for the beloved holiday. “That is unfortunately a risk, when you have people coming from out of town, gathering together in an indoor setting,” he told CBS News. “It is unfortunate, because that’s such a sacred part of American tradition — the family gathering around Thanksgiving. But that is a risk.” Asked what his advice would be to Americans making plans for the November holiday, Fauci had this to say: “I think people should be very careful and prudent about social gatherings, particularly when members of the family might be at a risk because of their age or their underlying condition. You may have to bite the bullet and sacrifice that social gathering, unless you’re pretty certain that the people that you’re dealing with are not infected.” Fauci noted that his own family’s Thanksgiving “is going to look very different this year.” His children, who live in three different states, will not come home for the holiday to protect his health since he is 79 and considered high-risk. “They themselves, because of their concern for me and my age,…  read on >

The number of new U.S. coronavirus cases topped 60,000 on Thursday, a tally not reported since early August, as health experts worried the coming winter might push the toll even higher. The latest numbers have also sent the country’s total COVID-19 case count past 8 million, the The New York Times reported. The surge is nationwide, with cases multiplying across the country: Forty-four states and the District of Columbia have higher caseloads now than in mid-September, and the new coronavirus is spreading across rural communities in the Midwest, the Upper Midwest and the Great Plains, the Washington Post reported. On Thursday, Wisconsin set a record with more than 4,000 new cases reported, the newspaper said. Illinois also reported more than 4,000 cases on Thursday, breaking records that were set in April and May. Ohio set a new high, as did Indiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Montana and Colorado, the Post reported. “We know that this is going to get worse before it gets better,” Wisconsin Department of Health Services secretary-designee Andrea Palm said during a briefing Thursday, the Post reported. “Stay home. Wear a mask. Stay six feet apart. Wash your hands frequently.” Some hospitals in the Upper Midwest and Great Plains have become jammed with patients and are running low on ICU beds, the Post reported. Montana reported a record 301 hospitalized COVID-19 patients…  read on >

Three weeks after becoming the first big urban area to reopen public schools since the pandemic began, New York City is not seeing a feared surge in cases among students and staff. Instead, health officials are seeing a surprisingly small number of COVID-19 cases, The New York Times reported. Of 15,111 staff members and students tested randomly in the first week of its testing regimen, the city has gotten back results for 10,676. There were only 18 positives: 13 staff members and five students, the Times reported. Even better, when officials put mobile testing units at schools near the Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods that have had new outbreaks, only four positive cases surfaced in more than 3,300 tests conducted since the last week of September, the newspaper said. New York City is facing fears of a second wave of the virus fueled by local spikes in Brooklyn and Queens, and official have closed more than 120 public schools as a precaution, the Times reported. Still, the sprawling system of 1,800 public schools is a bright spot as the city tries to recover from a pandemic that has killed more than 20,000 people and severely weakened its economy. When the city reopened its school system in September, roughly half of the city’s students opted for hybrid learning, where they are in the building some days, but…  read on >

Facebook chatter from the anti-vaccination movement now frames the issue as one of civil liberties, a new study finds. As a COVID-19 vaccine gets closer to becoming a reality, opposition from so-called anti-vaxxer groups could become a political movement, researchers warn. For the study, the investigators looked at more than 250,000 posts on 204 Facebook pages opposing vaccines between October 2009 and October 2019. Opposition has traditionally centered on medical safety and government conspiracy theories. But vaccine opponents have recast their objections, saying it is a civil right to refuse vaccination. The latest recent spike in the anti-vaxxer movement was a 2019 Facebook campaign with posts that included a U.S. state in their title, such as “Michigan for Vaccine Choice.” The posts cited vaccine safety concerns and alternative medicines, and encouraged opposition to vaccine mandates. “Starting in 2019, we saw a large increase in these state-level pages, especially in places considering vaccine-related legislation,” said study co-author Mark Dredze, an associate professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore. “These pages make it easy for vaccine opponents to know how to vote in their local elections to make it easier to opt out of vaccination,” Dredze added in a Hopkins news release. There were two prior events that also changed the online discourse, the study authors reported. The first event was a measles outbreak…  read on >

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Wednesday that it is seeking emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an experimental antibody cocktail given to President Donald Trump shortly after he was diagnosed with COVID-19. Hours before the company made the announcement, Trump proclaimed in a video released by the White House that the drug had an “unbelievable” effect on his recovery from coronavirus infection, the Washington Post reported. “I think this was the key,” Trump said, after acknowledging that the antibody cocktail was one of several drugs he was prescribed by his medical team. While there is no hard evidence yet proving the drug’s effectiveness in humans, it has shown promise in treating mild cases of the new coronavirus, the Post reported. In his video, Trump said, “I have emergency-use authorization all set, and we’ve got to get it signed now.” However, an FDA spokeswoman told The New York Times Wednesday that the agency does not confirm or deny product applications. Regeneron said in its statement that it could initially produce doses of the antibody cocktail for 50,000 patients, and then ramp production up to doses for 300,000 patients in the next few months if granted emergency authorization. The antibody cocktail is now in late-stage testing. The company has granted fewer than 10 “compassionate use” requests allowing people not enrolled in its trials to…  read on >

FRIDAY, Oct. 2, 2020 (HealthDay News) — President Donald Trump announced early Friday morning that he and his wife, Melania Trump, have tested positive for the coronavirus. In a tweet sent out at 1 a.m., Trump said they will both quarantine in the White House for an unspecified period of time, The New York Times reported. The diagnosis forces him to temporarily withdraw from the campaign trail just 32 days before the election on Nov. 3. The White House did not say whether the 74-year-old or his wife were experiencing symptoms. The president’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said Trump could carry out his duties “without disruption” from the Executive Mansion, the Times reported. On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence and wife Karen, along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, all announced that they had tested negative for the new coronavirus. While Trump’s age and weight automatically put him in a high-risk category, Conley pronounced Trump to be “in very good health” last year after his last full medical checkup. And, unlike many of those who have succumbed to the virus, Trump will have the best medical care available, the Times said. On Thursday, reports swirled that Trump’s close advisor, Hope Hicks, had tested positive for COVID-19, the Times said. She had traveled with him several times recently. There was no immediate word on how far…  read on >