Coronavirus weekly need-to-know: Vaccines, at-home test, Thanksgiving & more
Each week, McClatchy News offers you a round-up of our noteworthy coronavirus coverage from across the nation.
More than 11.9 million people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Saturday, Nov. 21, according to Johns Hopkins University.
That includes more than 255,000 people who have died nationwide.
Globally, there are more than 57 million confirmed cases of the highly infectious virus, with more than 1.37 million reported deaths.
Here’s what happened between Nov. 13 and Nov 19.
Moderna vaccine 94.5% effective, company says
Drugmaker Moderna announced Monday that early results show its coronavirus vaccine candidate is 94.5% effective at protecting against the highly infectious disease.
The announcement was made a week after drug company Pfizer and its partner BioNTech revealed the results of an “interim analysis” showing their vaccine candidate was “more than 90% effective,” McClatchy News previously reported.
Continue reading to learn more about the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.
New rapid COVID test gives you results at home
Americans over 14 years old with a prescription from their health care provider can conduct their own COVID-19 nasal swab test and receive results within 30 minutes at home for the first time, officials say.
The test was also approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in doctor’s offices, hospitals, urgent care centers and emergency rooms.
Read on to understand how the test works.
Negative result isn’t enough to keep family safe for Thanksgiving
Just because you test negative for COVID-19 in the days prior to your Thanksgiving celebration doesn’t mean you are clear of coronavirus infection, experts say.
The mix-up in results comes down to the timing of your test versus the timing of your exposure to the virus, as well as the type of test you take.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that people should not travel for Thanksgiving, but rather celebrate with people you already live with.
Experts explain why you can receive a false negative test result.
Photos show why cigarette smoke worsens COVID infection
Smoking cigarettes is known to increase risks of severe COVID-19 and death, and now new microscopic photos that zoom into a human airway tissue model reveals why that’s the case.
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles realized that airways exposed to cigarette smoke produced two to three times more coronavirus-infected cells than airways free of smoke contamination.
Take a look at what coronavirus-infected lungs look like and why.
Anxiety drug may help prevent severe COVID-19
A small-scale study conducted by the Washington University School of Medicine revealed fluvoxamine, an antidepressant, may help prevent serious illness in COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms who did not require hospitalization.
After 15 days, none of the 80 patients who took fluvoxamine “experienced serious clinical deterioration,” according to the study. Six of the 72 patients who received the placebo became ill and four of those were hospitalized.
Continue reading to learn how the drug works.
Can your employer require you to get a COVID-19 vaccine?
Legal experts largely agree that employers are within their rights to institute a COVID-19 vaccine requirement once it’s approved by federal authorities and available to the masses. But there are some exceptions.
Read on to understand the exceptions and limitations.
Could COVID-19 get as bad as the 1918 Spanish flu?
The 1918 influenza pandemic, also known as the Spanish flu, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide and killed at least 50 million, with about 675,000 deaths occurring in the U.S. About nine months into the coronavirus pandemic, more than 56.6 million people have contracted COVID-19 and more than 1.3 million people have died.
“Our behaviors are not helping us, and we are seeing a rapid increase of cases and deaths, and unfortunately we may surpass what we have seen in 1918 if we continue this behavior,” said Dr. Ali Mokdad, a professor of global health at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , expressed similar concerns.
Here’s what else experts say on the topic.
Preterm births and COVID-19 lockdowns
Much to researchers’ surprise, premature births have consistently dropped throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The reasons behind the trend remain unknown, but it’s a positive pattern that suggests there might be something about lockdowns and COVID-19 preventive measures that’s preventing them.
At the same time, evidence shows that women battling coronavirus during pregnancy have a 25% higher risk of premature birth than healthy women.
Here’s why.
In other coronavirus coverage outside McClatchy...
Oxford research confirms COVID-19 vaccine candidate’s strong response in older adults
Bedsores kill over 60K people in the US each year. Amid COVID, experts worry more may be at risk.
Mayo Clinic: 900 employees at top US hospital catch Covid-19 in two weeks
More than 3 million people in U.S. estimated to be contagious with the coronavirus
Pfizer coronavirus vaccine was 95% effective with no safety concerns
Fauci says he should’ve been ‘more vocal’ about Covid-19 testing early on
Over 1 million US children have been diagnosed with Covid-19
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 7:36 AM with the headline "Coronavirus weekly need-to-know: Vaccines, at-home test, Thanksgiving & more."
