Federal authorities delivered more positive news on Friday in the race for a vaccine: Operation Warp Speed appears to be on track to have millions of doses of an approved vaccine by the end of 2020.
That’s according to Health and Human Services deputy chief of staff Paul Mango. Early data shows vaccines in development are causing volunteers’ bodies to produce significant amounts of neutralizing antibodies, Mango said. That doesn’t necessarily mean a vaccine candidate will protect against COVID-19, but it may.
In Britain, a study by clinical researchers said the 6-foot rule of social distancing was outdated and should be based on a variety of factors, including the setting, activity, degree of ventilation and use of face coverings. In some cases, they said, that might mean relaxing the social distance rules.
Elsewhere, college football, certainly, is going to look different this fall amid the pandemic. The new normal means significant limitations on the number of fans able to attend games – if they are able to attend, at all – and also decisions on whether tailgating is permitted prior to kickoff.
Some significant developments:
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The NBA says all team owners who also control their arena property will work with local officials to turn their buildings into a voting location for the 2020 general election to allow for safe, in-person voting.
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Americans and Brits are none too pleased with how their governments have responded to the pandemic, survey shows.
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In state and federal prisons, more than 1,000 inmates and staffers have died.
📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has more than 5.9 million confirmed infections and 181,000 deaths. Worldwide, there have been more than 833,000 deaths and 24 million cases, according to John Hopkins University data.
📰 What we’re reading: They’re inaccurate and not everyone with COVID has a fever. So, why are we still doing temperature checks?
This file will be updated throughout the day. For updates in your inbox, subscribe to the Daily Briefing.
Vaccine on track for FDA approval by end of 2020, feds say
The United States expects to have four coronavirus candidate vaccines in large-scale clinical trials by the middle of September, a remarkable timeline considering the SARS-CoV-2 virus was only discovered in December.
The government is “very pleased” with the progress, Health and Human Services deputy chief of staff Paul Mango told reporters Friday afternoon. Mango is the agency’s liaison with Operation Warp Speed, the White House-led task force on coronavirus vaccine and treatment development.
Companies are already manufacturing three of the six candidate vaccines Operation Warp Speed has funded.
No doses of candidate vaccines can be distributed until the FDA declares them safe and effective. The first such approval could come as early as October, Mango said, though December is more likely depending on how quickly clinical trials can be completed.
– Elizabeth Weise and Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY
University of Alabama records nearly 500 cases in three days
Coronavirus cases have mushroomed at the University of Alabama, with 1,043 cases among faculty, staff and students since Aug. 19, the first day of on-campus classes.
On Friday, newly released figures showed the university recorded 481 new cases of COVID-19 on its campus in the previous three days alone. The college had reported 158 cases among employees and students before Aug. 19.
The new cases are a small percentage of the more than 35,100 students, faculty and staff that make up Alabama’s campus. But university and Tuscaloosa officials this week expressed concern about the school’s quarantine dorm capacity along with the strain a rapid surge in cases would place on the city’s health care infrastructure.
– Melissa Brown, Montgomery Advertiser
How the coronavirus is turning more green chiles red in New Mexico
By the beginning of August, farmers in New Mexico are busy harvesting one of their most profitable products: green chile. This year the harvesting season is taking place in the middle of a pandemic, leading to labor shortages and low demand from distributors.
The labor force in the fields has been cut in half, according to Joram Robbs, executive director of the New Mexico Chile Association. Falling behind on the harvesting season may mean that more green chile will turn red this year.
“We have a weird luxury with green chile. We just may lose a green chile crop that turns red too fast. But if we can’t pull the red chile out of the field then we got a real problem,” said Edward Ogaz, owner of Seco Spices.
Read more from the Las Cruces Sun-News
— Veronica Martinez, Las Cruces Sun-News
California governor issues new 4-tier framework for reopening businesses
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced a new framework for reopening California businesses that were shuttered in July amid soaring coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. He called the system “more stringent” but “more steady,” as it will allow counties to modify their activity based on the spread of COVID-19.
Case rates and test positivity are the crucial metrics to be used by the state within a four-tier system to determine allowable reopening. Newsom said this is a simpler approach than what’s currently used, with a commitment to health equity.
The four tiers include:
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Purple (widespread): Most non-essential indoor business operations are closed; more than 7 daily new cases per 100,000 residents; a positivity rate of 8% or higher
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Red (substantial): Some non-essential indoor business operations are closed; 4-7 daily new cases per 100,000 residents; a 5-8% positivity rate
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Orange (moderate): Some business operations are open with modifications , 1-3.9 daily new cases per 100,000 residents; a 2-4.9% positivity rate
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Yellow (minimal): Most businesses open with modifications; less than 1 daily new case per 100,000; a positive rate of less than 2%.
If a county fails to meet their current tier’s metrics for two weeks, they will move back to the prior tier, Newsom said.
Heath and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly said the announcement is about a framework, not reopening. “This is just an important message to remind people that we’re not out of the woods,” Ghaly said.
– Nicole Hayden, Melissa Daniels, Palm Springs Desert Sun
Thousands at D.C. rights rally take temperature checks, don face masks
As thousands converged on Washington on Friday to march for law enforcement reform and voting rights, event organizers took temperature checks at the main entrance and required the use of face masks. Hand-washing stations were made available.
Buses from COVID hot spots were discouraged from attending the March on Washington as organizers pointed to their virtual march programming, where people from around the country could tune in to hear the speeches.
“We are socially distant, but spiritually united,” Martin Luther King III said, as he spoke to the crowd from the Lincoln Memorial.
Minneapolis native Rebecca Anderson Fly, 63, said her family took precautions against COVID 19, including driving two days instead of flying and staying in an Airbnb instead of a hotel. She said she’d had her temperature checked at least three times on the way in.
“It’s worth the risk,” Fly said. “It is absolutely a historical event that hopefully won’t have to happen again.”
– Grace Hauck
Study: 6-foot social distance rule should be revised based on activity, air flow
Six feet of social distance might not be enough to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, according to a new study by a British medical journal, but in some cases may be more than is necessary.
The report issued this week by The BMJ includes a chart applicable to a range of activities and calls for a more “nuanced model” for social distance based on the setting, activity, degree of ventilation and use of face coverings.
“Rigid safe distancing rules are an oversimplification based on outdated science and experiences of past viruses,” the team, led by Oxford clinical researcher Nicholas Jones. In some cases like singing, coughing and sneezing, the report says, some droplets can travel as far as 24 feet.
“Instead of single, fixed physical distance rules, we propose graded recommendations that better reflect the multiple factors that combine to determine risk,” the team writes.
This, they say, would affect not only highest risk situations, but also “greater freedom in lower risk settings, “potentially enabling a return toward normality in some aspects of social and economic life.”
Florida drops to 3rd place in national COVID-19 cases as Texas surges
For the first time since July 25, Florida no longer claims the second highest number of coronavirus cases in the nation, according to a coronavirus tracking site operated by Johns Hopkins University.
With 691,821 confirmed cases as of Friday, California leads the nation. It is the most populous state in the country, followed by Texas and then Florida.
Florida, with 611,991, dropped into third place behind California and Texas, with 614,549, after cases in the Lone Star State continued to spike in recent days while those in Florida have held steady.
But Texas’ hold on the No. 2 spot is tenuous. On Friday morning, it had reported only about 650 more cases than Florida.
– Jane Musgrave, the Palm Beach Post
LA to file criminal charges for Hollywood Hills violations of large party ban
Los Angeles plans to file criminal charges over recent parties in the Hollywood Hills, held despite a city ban on large gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.
City attorney Mike Feuer plans to announce a crackdown Friday against so-called party houses, including one reportedly rented by TikTok celebrities Bryce Hall and Blake Gray.
Mayor Eric Garcetti last week authorized the city to shut off water and power to the home after they repeatedly held large and raucous parties in violation of public health orders aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19. He says with bars closed in town, large house parties can become “super spreaders.”
Los Angeles County has recorded nearly 237,000 coronavirus cases and more than 5,700 confirmed deaths, making it the hardest-hit county in the state.
More than 1,000 inmates, staff have died of the coronavirus in state, federal prisons
More than 1,000 inmates and staff at state and federal prisons have died from COVID-19 while new cases among prisoners, which had slowed in June, has reached an all-time high, according The Marshall Project.
The project, which is aided by The Associated Press in its reporting of prison-related coronavirus cases, said 927 prisoners had died as of Aug. 25, a 4% increase in a week. The number of inmate cases hit 108,118, representing a 5% increase from the previous week.
At least 72 deaths have been reported among prison staff out of 24,029 cases.
“The growth in recent weeks was driven by big jumps in prisoners testing positive in Florida, California and the federal Bureau of Prisons as well as outbreaks in Arkansas, Hawaii and Oklahoma,” The Marshall Project reported Thursday.
Overprescribing antibiotics to treat COVID-19 could lead to ‘medical hell’
Infectious disease experts are concerned that overprescribing antibiotics to treat COVID-19 could lead to drug-resistant bacteria and expose patients to dangerous side effects.
Calvin Kunin, an emeritus professor of medicine at Ohio State University and a former president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said one drug touted by President Donald Trump could lead to widespread resistance: azithromycin.
“Azithromycin is a very, very valuable drug,” he said. “You remove azithromycin, and what do you have left? I call this the road to medical hell.”
Trump endorsed the drug in April as a medication that “can clean out the lungs,” especially when paired with another of his favorite drugs, the anti-malaria hydroxychloroquine. After Trump made his announcement, use of these two drugs spiked.
Prescriptions of the drug combination increased dramatically – up 539% in one week alone – from mid-March to mid-April, according to IPM.ai, a Cambridge, Massachusetts subsidiary of Swoop, which provides health care data and analytics. Read more about this story at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
– John Fauber and Daphne Chen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Americans, Brits not impressed by national coronavirus responses
The USA and United Kingdom stand out in a new survey as two nations whose populations are split over how well their governments have handled the pandemic.
Across 14 mostly European countries, people were canvassed for attitudes about whether their leaders did a good job responding to the coronavirus: 52% of Americans and 54% of Britons have a negative or “bad” impression, according to the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan “fact tank” that carried out the survey of advanced economies.
This compares with a median of about 7-in-10 – 73% – who give their nation’s coronavirus response a positive or “good” review in Denmark, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Italy and Sweden. More than half of those surveyed in Belgium, France, Japan and Spain look favorably on the job their government has done responding to the pandemic, the surveyed says.
– Kim Hjelmgaard
In-person vs. in-school learning: What is America doing?
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, has said reopening schools is best for kids, but districts shouldn’t bring people together if the rate of local positive virus cases exceeds 10%.
“You go in, people get infected, and – boom – you get shut down,” Fauci said in a webinar hosted by Healthline, a medical news website.
America’s schools are lurching into a new pandemic school year over the next few weeks.
Among urban districts, almost 80% will open remote-only, according to a new report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education, an education research organization in Washington. Those districts often serve communities of color, which have been disproportionately hammered by the virus. Polling shows many Black parents would prefer to learn from home. Read more.
– Erin Richards
How college football schools are handling attendance and tailgating
The challenge of playing college football during a pandemic is requiring schools to adjust the traditional game day experience for activities inside and outside stadiums this fall.
The new normal means significant limitations on the amount of fans able to attend games – if they are able to attend, at all – and also decisions on whether tailgating is permitted prior to kickoff.
Many schools are opting to have stadiums empty. Others are allowing fan attendance, albeit with significantly limited percentage of the seats to be filled. Most will have bans on the pregame gatherings outside the stadium that could make social distancing difficult. Read more on where each of the Power Five schools stand.
– Tom Schad
COVID-19 resources from USA TODAY
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Contributing: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID updates: March on Washington; masks; California reopening