Coronavirus: Hungary and Poland blocked the European Union’s sprawling coronavirus stimulus package.
Speaking on the economy, President-elect Joe Biden warned of a “very dark winter” ahead and called on Congress to pass an economic stimulus package immediately.
Researchers say the U.S. is approaching what may be a significant tipping point — a health crisis so widespread that every American knows someone who has been infected.
Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and vaccines in development.
And then there were two
A second pharmaceutical company is reporting encouraging results on a coronavirus vaccine that has far exceeded expectations.
The drugmaker Moderna said today that its vaccine was 94.5 percent effective, based on preliminary results from a clinical trial. The announcement came one week after Pfizer and BioNTech said that their vaccine was more than 90 percent effective.
Neither vaccine showed any significant side effects. Research on the two vaccines has been reviewed by outside scientists but has not yet been peer reviewed, and the clinical studies are not yet complete.
Nevertheless, our colleague Carl Zimmer, who covers science for The Times, said the Moderna news was a big deal.
“The F.D.A. set a very modest target of 50 percent efficacy, so it was pretty impressive when Pfizer blew past that,” Carl told us. “I think it’s more impressive when Moderna blows past it, too. It shows that there wasn’t anything super special about Pfizer’s secret sauce.”
Both vaccines are based on an experimental method that opens the door to an entirely new way of creating vaccines very quickly. They use a package of genetic instructions called messenger RNA to program human cells to make copies of a fragment of the virus. That fragment sets off alarms in the immune system and stimulates it to attack, should the real virus try to invade.
“Vaccine makers had to pick a target on the virus for their vaccines, and both of these vaccines picked the same target — it’s called the spike protein,” Carl said.
The biggest apparent difference between the two vaccine candidates, Carl said, is how they will be delivered. Pfizer’s vaccine has to be kept at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit, while Moderna’s can be delivered at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit. Moderna said its vaccine had a longer shelf life in the refrigerator than previously thought: 30 days, not seven. And it will last 12 hours at room temperature, the company said.
There are dozens of vaccines under development around the world and we need as many as possible, because Pfizer and Moderna will not have nearly enough doses ready to vaccinate everyone in the U.S., let alone the world, Carl said.
And while we know more about these two vaccines, there are still some big outstanding questions.
Who will receive access to scarce vaccines first?
How long will it take for the vaccines to become widely available?
Will they work equally well in older and younger people? What about children, who are not included in the initial vaccine trials, and those with pre-existing conditions?
Will the vaccines prevent people from spreading the virus?
How long will immunity last?
Restrictions on the rise
Despite the positive vaccine news, there is still plenty of cause for concern in the U.S. The country is averaging 150,000 new cases a day and just surpassed 11 million total cases. Sometime this week, we expect to tell you that 250,000 Americans have died from the virus. Cases are surging in 48 states.
In Chicago, a sweeping stay-at-home advisory went into effect today. Philadelphia will prohibit indoor dining and close gyms, libraries and museums beginning Friday. California will ban indoor operations in museums, houses of worship, gyms and restaurants in most of the state beginning tomorrow, and the governor is considering a curfew. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will shut down some businesses and halt in-person learning at high schools and colleges for three weeks beginning Wednesday.
If you haven’t felt the seriousness of the latest surge yet, then maybe you haven’t been to a supermarket. Many businesses in the U.S. have recently put in place new restrictions as they brace for a long winter.
The grocery chains Kroger and Wegmans have begun limiting purchases of items that were in high demand earlier in the pandemic, like toilet paper, paper towels, disinfecting wipes and hand soap.
Walmart is now counting the number of people who enter its stores, to ensure they don’t exceed capacity. Costco members with a medical condition used to be exempt from wearing a mask; now they must wear a face shield instead.
The New York Times