UNITED STATES President Joe Biden received a booster shot made by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE on Monday and said he would press for more vaccination mandates to improve the inoculation rate.
Americans who have refused to be vaccinated are causing “an awful lot of damage for the rest of the country,” he said at the White House. “This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. That’s why I’m moving forward with vaccination mandates wherever I can.”
Biden, 78, meets federal guidelines that those over age 65 get a third shot. The president received his second in January, putting him well past the six-month threshold for getting another.
In Montana, residents eligible for shots but not fully vaccinated are 4.4 times more likely to contract Covid-19 than people who are fully inoculated, state health officials said. Unvaccinated people account for 88 percent of the state’s Covid-19 admissions. Hospitalization and death rates are 5.1 and 3.3 times greater, respectively, for unvaccinated people.
Meanwhile, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to fight for a vaccine requirement for school workers and said 90 percent of teachers and 97 percent of principals have received their first shot. The city’s school system was temporarily blocked by a judge from enforcing a mandate forcing teachers and other staff to get vaccinated by Monday. A federal appeals court is expected to hold a hearing Wednesday.
Groups representing teachers and administrators argued that a mandate would result in employee shortages that would endanger student safety and said the district had no plan to redeploy substitutes and central office employees to cover absent teachers and other workers.
Key developments:
US boosts travel warnings for HK, Singapore
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its travel advisories for Hong Kong and Singapore by one notch each. Hong Kong has a moderate level of Covid-19, the agency said, while Singapore’s is high.
Unvaccinated travelers should avoid nonessential travel to Singapore, where all travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading variants, the CDC said.
Rutgers mandate can be enforced, judge rules
A federal judge rejected a motion for a temporary restraining order that would have blocked Rutgers University from demanding that students be vaccinated before returning to campus. Plaintiff Children’s Health Defense isn’t likely to succeed on the merits of its case against the New Jersey school, the judge held, saying that rights to informed consent and to refuse unwanted medical treatment “are not absolute.”
“Given the severity and number of cases and deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic so far, there is a real and substantial relation between the policy and the need to protect public health,” the judge held.
United Airlines notches 98.5 percent vaccination rate
United Airlines Holdings Inc. said 98.5 percent of its US-based employees have been vaccinated and expects the figure to exceed 99 percent in its final tally of compliance with its mandate. The carrier had set a Monday deadline for all US-based workers to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or an initial dose of a two-shot vaccine. Failure to comply could result in termination.
South Africa, UK discuss red list
South Africa said government scientific experts met with U.K. counterparts to discuss the African country’s continued presence on a so-called red list of nations whose citizens are banned because of Covid-19 risks. Britain also is looking to extend recognition of certificates for vaccines administered in South Africa “as rapidly as possible,” South Africa’s Department of Health said.
Crowdsourced pill research gets $11 million
A crowdsourced effort to design a Covid-19 pill won 8 million pounds ($11 million) in funding from the Wellcome Trust. About 250 people submitted to the Covid Moonshot effort more than 4,500 potential molecular designs intended to block a key protein that helps the virus replicate.
“It is a way of working that none of us realized was possible,” said University of Oxford Professor Frank von Delft, a leader of the project. It has been “an express train on tracks we have had to lay down as we go.”
The Wellcome funding will help pay for the expensive last step of research needed to bring the project into human clinical trials but is unlikely to beat big pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer Inc. is in late-stage trials on an oral antiviral.
Pfizer starts advanced trial of oral drug
Pfizer Inc. advanced testing of an experimental oral antiviral drug. The medicine, PF-07321332, is intended to be given at the first sign of exposure or infection, without requiring patients to be hospitalized first.
Pfizer’s new trial is enrolling as many as 2,660 adults who live in the same household as someone with a confirmed infection. Participants will get either a placebo or a combination of the experimental drug plus ritonavir twice daily for five or 10 days, the company said.
Monoclonal antibodies from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co. are authorized in the US for preventing Covid-19 in high-risk individuals who have been exposed, but no oral drugs have been approved yet.
Slow J&J deliveries hobble South Africa
Slow delivery of Johnson & Johnson vaccinations is hampering South Africa’s inoculation drive, Business Day reported, citing Nicholas Crisp, acting director-general of the country’s health department. While South Africa has ample supply of Pfizer Inc. vaccines, it needs J&J’s for people in remote areas, since those shots can be stored with normal refrigeration and only one dose is needed.
“We don’t have plenty of J&J vaccines, and that is a problem for us because there are communities that are very hard to get back to a second time,” Crisp said. No doses were delivered in May and June and only 1.5 million were in July, Crisp said. South Africa has agreed to buy 31 million.
UK doctors seek priority access to fuel
Health-care workers should get priority access to fuel as the U.K.’s shortage continues, according to a trade union representing doctors. The British Medical Association stressed the importance of fuel for both emergency and essential workers, stating that it not only affects traveling to work, but work itself. It said there’s a “real risk” that National Health Service staff would be unable to do their jobs and provide vital services.
Indonesia takes steps to avoid new variants
Indonesia said it’s taking steps to reduce the possibility of any new variants entering the country, including restricting arrivals from places with high infections, such as Turkey and the US. Flight arrivals will be better managed to avoid crowding at airports.
The government is preparing to reopen Bali’s Nusa Dua, Sanur and Gianyar beaches during a trial phase in a decision to be made this week, Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno said earlier. Fully vaccinated foreign tourists who test negative for coronavirus will first be quarantined at facilities to be set up in Sanur, Ubud and Nusa Dua. The government said a new Covid variant is inevitable and it’s anticipating the next wave of outbreak in November and December.
China infections are tailing off
China reported 16 infections on Monday, as the spread of Delta variant appears to be tailing off. The cluster in southeastern province Fujian dwindled to two cases, all in Xiamen, a city of 5.2 million and a manufacturing hub for electric components that was placed under lockdown following detection of cases in early September.
The Northeastern city of Harbin reported 13 infections, including two asymptomatic cases, while a smaller city in the north called Suihua reported one infection, raising concern that the virus is spreading within the broader Heilongjiang Province. Bloomberg News