Thanksgiving travel surges; Trump cocktail gains FDA OK
The variety of vacationers passing by means of Transportation Security Administration checkpoints has been rising in latest days regardless of warnings from public well being specialists that Thanksgiving travel may additional spike already-spiraling COVID-19 numbers.
More than 2.9 flyers passed through TSA security over the three-day interval that ended Saturday, together with over 1 million on Friday. That marked solely the second time the quantity surpassed 1 million because the begin of the pandemic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s high infectious illness knowledgeable, advised USA TODAY’s Editorial Board final week that “you’ve got to decide, during this interesting period of a lot of infection going on, colder weather, indoors: Do you want to travel and go to a Thanksgiving meal where there may be 12, 15, 20 people?”
The U.S. reported its 12 millionth case of COVID-19 on Saturday, days after the nation surpassed 250,000 deaths from the coronavirus – by far the most important complete on this planet. Experts say it should worsen except Americans take masks and social distancing extra severely.
📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has reported greater than 12 million circumstances and greater than 255,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The international totals: 58 million circumstances and nearly 1.4 million deaths.
🗺️ Mapping coronavirus: Track the U.S. outbreak in your state.
📰 What we’re studying: It’s a tough time to be in school. Now greater than ever, college students are facing incredible mental health stressors.
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Experimental drug cocktail given to Trump will get FDA authorization
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Regeneron Pharmaceutical an Emergency Use Authorization for a drug cocktail to deal with COVID-19. President Donald Trump has touted the experimental antibody treatment and took it whereas he was being handled for the illness.
“In a clinical trial, the investigational therapy was shown to reduce COVID-19-related hospitalization or ER visits in certain patients who are at high risk for progressing to severe,” the FDA tweeted Saturday.
The drug, a pair of monoclonal antibodies, is meant to imitate the pure strategy of the immune system, offering it with molecules the physique usually manufactures to combat off particular ailments. Trump was in a position to get it underneath a “compassionate use” exemption, which the corporate stated on the time it has granted to fewer than 10 folks, after requests from their docs and approval by the FDA. An analogous monoclonal antibody therapy was additionally given emergency authorization earlier this month.
– Joel Shannon, Karen Weintraub and Elizabeth Weise
Kansas counties that opted out of masks order noticed COVID-19 circumstances rise
We already know that sporting face masks in public areas slows the unfold of COVID-19. And now the coronavirus situation in Kansas is providing further proof. Gov. Laura Kelly issued a face masks mandate in early July, and the counties that upheld the order noticed a decline in circumstances, whereas the counties that opted out noticed circumstances rise, based on a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Countywide mask mandates appear to have contributed to the mitigation of COVID-19 transmission in mandated counties,” based on the report, which analyzed county-level information one month earlier than, and after, the governor’s mandate went into impact.
As of mid-August, 24 of Kansas’s 105 counties had abided by the state mandate or adopted their very own masks mandate, and 81 counties had opted out, as Kansas regulation permits. At that point, the variety of new every day circumstances per capita – calculated as a seven-day rolling common – had decreased a median of 6% amongst counties with a masks mandate and elevated by 100% in counties and not using a mandate. Read more.
Relatives returning house carry greater danger for Thanksgiving gatherings
At a time when Americans are pondering find out how to have fun Thanksgiving safely amid the nation’s worst surge in coronavirus circumstances, many families will be faced with yet another complicating factor: the return of scholars. Colleges and universities have reported 252,000-plus circumstances because the pandemic started, based on a New York Times tracker. Returning college students – whether or not they lived in dorms or off-campus housing within the fall time period – “exponentially increase the risk (of infection),” particularly in the event that they take some type of mass transportation to get house.
That’s the evaluation of Dr. Teresa Bartlett, senior medical officer for the claims administration agency Sedgwick, who advises firms about medical methods and security practices. Like different specialists within the area, Bartlett is worried that vacation gatherings, mixed with pandemic fatigue and the necessity to transfer indoors because the climate will get colder, will exacerbate what’s already a significant nationwide spike in COVID-19 circumstances. Read more.
Texas National Guard to supply help to El Paso morgues
The Texas National Guard will be providing help to El Paso morgues because the area continues to be slammed by COVID-19 deaths.
“After completing an assessment of the situation on the ground in El Paso County this week, the state has mobilized a team of 36 Texas National Guard personnel to provide mortuary affairs support beginning at 9 o’clock tomorrow (Saturday) morning,” Seth Christensen, spokesperson for the Texas Division of Emergency Management, stated.
After the announcement, El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego requested extra help from Gov. Greg Abbott within the type of leeway to impose some restrictions to curb the unfold of COVID-19. Samaniego stated in a letter to the governor’s workplace that his earlier order that was ended by an appellate courtroom was achieved so erroneously and the order was not inconsistent with Abbott’s statewide restrictions.
– El Paso Times
COVID-19 sources from USA TODAY
Contributing: The Associated Press
