TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China approved two more COVID-19 vaccines for wider use Thursday, adding to its growing arsenal of shots.

The National Medical Products Administration gave conditional approval to a vaccine from CanSino Biologics and a second one from state-owned Sinopharm. Both are already being used among select groups of people under an emergency use authorization. China now has four vaccines to immunize its population.

CanSino said its one-shot vaccine candidate is 65.28% effective 28 days after the dose is given. It can be stored at 2 degrees to 8 degrees Celsius, “making it more accessible especially to the regions with underserved public health,” it said in a statement.

It relies on a harmless common cold virus, called an adenovirus, to deliver the spike gene of the coronavirus into the body. The body then makes the spike proteins, which generate an immune response. The technology is similar to both Astrazeneca’s and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines, which rely on different adenoviruses.

It is the first COVID-19 vaccine developed by a Chinese company that requires only one shot.

A Sinopharm subsidiary, the Wuhan Institute of Biologics, said its vaccine candidate is 72.51% effective. It uses the same technology as a vaccine that has already been approved from Sinopharm’s Beijing subsidiary in which a live virus is killed and then purified. The inactivated virus is delivered via injection, triggering an immune response.

Neither company has publicly released final testing data showing safety and efficacy.

CanSino’s vaccine was jointly developed with a team led by military researcher Chen Wei at the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences in China.

The vaccine, called Ad5-nCoV, has been in use since last June, when it was approved by the health bureau under China’s Central Military Commission for emergency use in the military. It was not allowed for general use.

It has been given to approximately 150,000 military personnel, according to Xuefeng Yu, CanSino’s CEO.

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The last stage of trials involved more than 40,000 volunteers and was carried out across five countries — Pakistan, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Russia.

Both Mexico and Pakistan have approved CanSino’s vaccine.

The company has less production power than vaccine maker Sinovac and Sinopharm, which have both said they will be able to manufacture 1 billion shots annually by the end of this year. Chen, the military researcher, has said in state media that CanSino can produce up to 300 million doses per year. A spokeswoman for CanSino declined to comment, saying the company will release a statement in a stock exchange filing on Friday.

The Wuhan Institute said its vaccine underwent its last stage of testing in the United Arab Emirates and other countries. The size of the clinical trials and where they were conducted were not immediately clear.

The Wuhan Institute’s vaccine has been in use after receiving emergency approval in China last June. The company said it can produce up to 100 million doses per year.

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Associated Press medical writer Lauran Neergaard in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

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NEW YORK (AP) — February is usually the peak of flu season, with doctors’ offices and hospitals packed with suffering patients. But not this year.

Flu has virtually disappeared from the U.S., with reports coming in at far lower levels than anything seen in decades.

Experts say that measures put in place to fend off the coronavirus — mask wearing, social distancing and virtual schooling — were a big factor in preventing a “twindemic” of flu and COVID-19. A push to get more people vaccinated against flu probably helped, too, as did fewer people traveling, they say.

Another possible explanation: The coronavirus has essentially muscled aside flu and other bugs that are more common in the fall and winter. Scientists don’t fully understand the mechanism behind that, but it would be consistent with patterns seen when certain flu strains predominate over others, said Dr. Arnold Monto, a flu expert at the University of Michigan.

Nationally, “this is the lowest flu season we’ve had on record,” according to a surveillance system that is about 25 years old, said Lynnette Brammer of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hospitals say the usual steady stream of flu-stricken patients never materialized.

At Maine Medical Center in Portland, the state’s largest hospital, “I have seen zero documented flu cases this winter,” said Dr. Nate Mick, the head of the emergency department.

Ditto in Oregon’s capital city, where the outpatient respiratory clinics affiliated with Salem Hospital have not seen any confirmed flu cases.

“It’s beautiful,” said the health system’s Dr. Michelle Rasmussen.

The numbers are astonishing considering flu has long been the nation’s biggest infectious disease threat. In recent years, it has been blamed for 600,000 to 800,000 annual hospitalizations and 50,000 to 60,000 deaths.

Across the globe, flu activity has been at very low levels in China, Europe and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. And that follows reports of little flu in South Africa, Australia and other countries during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter months of May through August.

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The story of course has been different with coronavirus, which has killed more than 500,000 people in the United States. COVID-19 cases and deaths reached new heights in December and January, before beginning a recent decline.

Flu-related hospitalizations, however, are a small fraction of where they would stand during even a very mild season, said Brammer, who oversees the CDC’s tracking of the virus.

Flu death data for the whole U.S. population is hard to compile quickly, but CDC officials keep a running count of deaths of children. One pediatric flu death has been reported so far this season, compared with 92 reported at the same point in last year’s flu season.

“Many parents will tell you that this year their kids have been as healthy as they’ve ever been, because they’re not swimming in the germ pool at school or day care the same way they were in prior years,” Mick said.

Some doctors say they have even stopped sending specimens for testing, because they don’t think flu is present. Nevertheless, many labs are using a CDC-developed “multiplex test” that checks specimens for both the coronavirus and flu, Brammer said.

More than 190 million flu vaccine doses were distributed this season, but the number of infections is so low that it’s difficult for CDC to do its annual calculation of how well the vaccine is working, Brammer said. There’s simply not enough data, she said.

That also is challenging the planning of next season’s flu vaccine. Such work usually starts with checking which flu strains are circulating around the world and predicting which of them will likely predominate in the year ahead.

“But there’s not a lot of (flu) viruses to look at,” Brammer said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Refinery29

Johnson & Johnson’s One-Dose Vaccine Was Just FDA Approved — Here’s What You Need To Know

A health worker administers a vaccine to a patient in a car during the Covid-19 mass vaccination for education workers in Granada, Spain, on February 23, 2021. (Photo by Álex Cámara/NurPhoto via Getty Images) As the U.S. surpasses a staggering COVID-19 death toll of 500,000, many Americans are concerned that states nationwide have proven unprepared to meet the high (and time-sensitive) demand for vaccines. But on Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine for emergency use authorization, and if all goes according to plan, we could have a third authorized vaccine as soon as this weekend. The FDA found that Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is “consistent with the recommendations set forth in FDA’s guidance Emergency Use Authorization for Vaccines to Prevent COVID-19.” In the U.S., the vaccine has a 72% efficacy rate against symptomatic COVID-19 and an 86% efficacy rate against severe illness, meaning recipients have a significantly lower risk of death or hospitalization. The efficacy rate is lower in South Africa, which has seen an influx of cases due to a contagious new variant: there, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is reportedly 64% effective at preventing symptomatic cases and 82% effective at preventing severe illness. But until now, the country’s best vaccine — made by Novavax — was only 49% effective, and the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine offered so little protection that the rollout was halted by the South African government altogether. Altogether, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has a lower efficacy rate than the Pfizer-BioNTech (95%) and Moderna (94.1%) vaccines, but according to The New York Times, recipients have reported noticeably fewer side effects. And because it can be stored at normal temperatures for at least three months, the vaccine will also be easier to distribute. Perhaps most importantly, unlike its predecessors, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is only one dose. The one-shot vaccine is a game-changer for people who struggle to or can’t leave the house, including those with disabilities or chronic illnesses and older and incarcerated populations — all of whom comprise at-risk groups. And as states have struggled with low supply, many Americans have been unable to set up appointments for their second dose. Officials have also worried that many people have forgotten or been unable to attend their follow-up appointments, too. “We’re very concerned,” said Dr. Nancy Nielsen of the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “As long as the vaccine remains scarce, and the longer we go, the more we think this is going to accelerate.” The Johnson & Johnson vaccine trials were paused back in October when one participant reported a “serious medical event.” Eleven days later, however, the company resumed the trial, reporting that there were “many possible factors” and “no clear cause” had been identified. It was also unclear whether the recipient had received a placebo vaccine. “Based on the information gathered to date and the input of independent experts, the Company has found no evidence that the vaccine candidate caused the event,” Johnson & Johnson reported in a statement. Hanneke Schuitemaker, PhD, the vice president and global head of viral vaccine discovery at Johnson & Johnson, told Refinery29 last year that the vaccine was based on the company’s HIV and Ebola vaccine candidates. “It’s based on a common cold virus. We have removed the piece of the genetic material of the cold virus to also create room for genetic material from another virus. In this case, the coronavirus,” she said. “And we produce these common cold viral particles with that little piece of genetic material of the coronavirus in them. In the end, they will get injected, and then the body [will hopefully create an immune response].” Now that it has the FDA’s stamp of approval, the vaccine will swiftly move to the next stage in the authorization process: on Friday, an independent group of advisers will review the FDA’s findings and recommend the vaccination’s authorization. If it’s a go, the FDA could authorize the vaccine as soon as Saturday. Dr. Richard Nettles, the vice president of U.S. medical affairs at Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals, said that the company is prepared to deliver 100 million doses of the vaccine by the end of June. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?Why Are COVID Vaccines Only In Wealthy CommunitiesThe Vaccine Rollout Is Failing Incarcerated PeopleWhy Are Israel COVID Cases Suddenly Rising?

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House Republican leaders on Wednesday slammed funding for New York in President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill — claiming the cash is a “payout” unrelated to the pandemic for Democrats like Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Sen. Chuck Schumer.

The bill is expected to pass the House on Friday, though a fight over its $15 minimum wage hike is likely in the evenly divided Senate because two Democrats oppose it.

“Unfortunately this bill is too costly, too corrupt and too liberal. Only 9 percent goes to COVID,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said at a press conference.

“We watched the swamp come back to Washington: $100 million for a tunnel in Silicon Valley just outside of Speakers Pelosi’s district, or a bridge for Schumer, or money for schools that two-thirds of it cannot be spent until 2023.”

Schumer, the Senate majority leader, proudly touts winning federal funds for New York, and the bill includes $1.5 million for maintenance of the Seaway International Bridge between Massena, New York, and Canada.

McCarthy said that the bill, which can pass without any Republican support by a simple majority in the Senate — under budget reconciliation rules that avoid the usual 60 vote supermajority requirement — “seems like a payout for those who agree with them politically. It’s a corrupt system.”

Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), the top Republican on the House Budget Committee, took aim at Cuomo specifically and referenced the scandal involving his administration’s coverup of deaths in New York nursing homes.

“If this package was truly about helping all Americans, why did they change the bipartisan budget formula used in all the other COVID packages to reward the blue state governors — one governor that’s being recalled [in California] and another governor that hid disclosure of how many deaths that were in nursing homes? They’re clearly rewarding their friends, their donors and their partisan agenda,” Smith said.

“If this package was not a progressive wish list, why does it spend hundreds of millions of dollars on pet projects in New York City and in San Francisco, like bridges and trailways?” Smith asked.

“If this package was clearly about crushing the virus, then why is less than 9 percent of all total spending actually used to put shots in people’s arms? If this package was clearly about making sure that schools open, why is it that less than 5 percent of all spending for schools will only be spent this year?”

He added: “We’re here today because Pelosi, Schumer and Biden decided to use a pandemic to push forward a progressive wishlist of items to reward political allies, friends and donors at the expense of the American working class.”

Smith did not specify New York City projects funded in the bill, but the city government is expected to receive about $5.6 billion if the bill passes. The state government would get about $12.7 billion, according to estimates released by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and McCarthy also took aim at funds for California in the bill, arguing they are unnecessary.

“California in this bill would get over $40 billion in bailout money when they just announced they have a $10 billion surplus,” Scalise said.

McCarthy added: “I will tell you what California needs. They need to bring in whoever is doing West Virginia’s vaccination. Because [Gov.] Gavin Newsom is not doing it well… So what California needs is probably a new governor. The management is poor and the schools are shut down.”

Spokesmen for Cuomo and Schumer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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An Alabama man who refused to leave his wife’s side despite her COVID-19 diagnosis succumbed to the virus — but relatives say he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Jimmy Smallwood, 77, decided he wasn’t going to part ways with his wife, Mary, when she was diagnosed with the bug following a Christmas family gathering that infected at least 16 relatives, the Anniston Star reported Friday.

The couple’s daughter, LaDonna, said she pleaded with Jimmy to quarantine at her home just several hundred feet from the couple’s residence near Weaver, but he refused to follow a doctor’s advice even in the face of his existing medical conditions.

“I knew with his heart, he couldn’t make it,” LaDonna told the newspaper last week. “He said ‘hush,’ that he knew he was going to heaven if he died, and he wasn’t losing his wife.”

Mary Smallwood, Jimmy’s high school sweetheart and wife of six decades, was diagnosed with the virus in early January after her lips turned purple from a lack of oxygen, her daughter said.

Phillip Smallwood, Jimmy’s son who also contracted the bug, said his father then collapsed as his blood oxygen level dipped to 60 percent.

The couple were both taken to the emergency room at Regional Medical Center in Anniston, where they were treated in its coronavirus ward just two doors apart, according to the report.

Mary Smallwood needed to be put a ventilator and later recovered, but her husband did not, ultimately succumbing to the virus-related stress and sedation needed for ventilation on Jan. 13, LaDonna Smallwood said.

Smallwood’s son said his father couldn’t be dissuaded from being kept apart from his wife despite the threat of a deadly pandemic.

“He loved his wife, and that’s the way he was,” Phillip Smallwood told the newspaper.

Mary Smallwood remembered her husband as a devout member of the Weaver Church of Christ, but insisted the father of three was in a “better place” now.

“I miss him something bad, something terrible, but I wouldn’t bring him back here for nothing in the world,” she told the Anniston Star. “He’s in a better place now. A better place than this.”

Mary Smallwood is back at home recovering with the help of an oxygen machine that she’ll need for several more weeks. She told The Post Monday during a brief interview that the couple would have celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary in November. She said she was “satisfied” by his decision not to quarantine from her.

“No, it did not cost him his life,” Smallwood, also 77, told The Post. “He only had 27 percent of his heart working and we already thought that if he had it, it would take him out of this life and it did.”

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Leading progressive Democrats are expressing confidence that President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package will include a provision setting the federal minimum wage at $15 per hour.

In a statement released over the weekend, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he was optimistic that the Senate parliamentarian would permit the change.

“Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is not incidental to the federal budget and is permissible under the rules of reconciliation,” the socialist Democrat said, “The CBO has found that the $15 minimum wage has a much greater impact on the federal budget than opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and repealing the individual mandate penalties — two provisions that the parliamentarian advised did not violate the Byrd Rule when Republicans controlled the Senate.

“I’m confident that the parliamentarian will advise next week that we can raise the minimum wage through the reconciliation process,” he continued.

(Left to right) Sen. Brian Schatz, Sen. Robert Menendez, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. John Tester, Sen. Sherrod Brown and other Democratic senators meet with U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

The Senate parliamentarian, acting in compliance with the Byrd rule, is required to determine whether items like a $15 minimum wage provision would count as “extraneous matter” or be permitted in legislation through a process called budget reconciliation.

Democrats have said they will pass the goliath spending bill through a procedural process known as “budget reconciliation,” which will allow them to sidestep opposition from the GOP.

Had Democrats been able to maintain some Republican backing, they wouldn’t need to use the reconciliation process.

Joe Biden has said he could not guarantee that the wage hike would be in the legislation.Anna Moneymaker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The current parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, has not yet determined whether the minimum wage rule could be included through reconciliation.

A decision is expected this week.

Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Sanders continued to maintain his confidence, saying, “I’m very proud of the strong arguments our legal team is making to the parliamentarian that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is not ‘incidental’ to the federal budget and is permissible under the rules of reconciliation.”

Speaking to CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wa.) reiterated Sanders’ message.

Pramila Jayapal is also confident that the minimum wage increase will pass.Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“I know there are questions about whether or not the Senate can get it through,” the progressive pol told the network, adding that she had been speaking to Sanders, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the White House on the matter, “If Republicans could give a $2 trillion tax break to the wealthiest people and stop Arctic drilling, then — or continue drilling in the Arctic — then I think that Democrats can make sure that 30 million Americans get a raise [through reconciliation].”

Asked if she’d still support the package if the minimum wage provision did not make the final text language, Jayapal sidestepped, saying she believed she wouldn’t have to make that choice.

“I think it’s going to be included, so I don’t think we’re going to have to make that decision.”

President Biden, however, has not shared Jayapal’s optimism on the matter, cautioning on multiple occasions that he could not guarantee that the wage hike would be in this legislation.

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The New York Times

A Ripple Effect of Loss: U.S. COVID Deaths Approach 500,000

CHICAGO — A nation numbed by misery and loss is confronting a number that still has the power to shock: 500,000. Roughly one year since the first known death by the coronavirus in the United States, an unfathomable toll is nearing — the loss of a half-million people. No other country has counted so many deaths in the pandemic. More Americans have perished from COVID-19 than on the battlefields of World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times The milestone comes at a hopeful moment: New virus cases are down sharply, deaths are slowing, and vaccines are steadily being administered. But there is concern about emerging variants of the virus, and it may be months before the pandemic is contained. Each death has left untold numbers of mourners, a ripple effect of loss that has swept over towns and cities. Each death has left an empty space in communities across America: a bar stool where a regular used to sit, one side of a bed unslept in, a home kitchen without its cook. The living find themselves amid vacant places once occupied by their spouses, parents, neighbors and friends — the nearly 500,000 coronavirus dead. In Chicago, the Rev. Ezra Jones stands at his pulpit on Sundays, letting his eyes wander to the back row. That spot belonged to Moses Jones, his uncle, who liked to drive to church in his green Chevy Malibu, arrive early and chat everybody up before settling in to his seat by the door. He died of the coronavirus in April. “I can still see him there,” said Jones, the pastor. “It never goes away.” There is a street corner in Plano, Texas, that was occupied by Bob Manus, a veteran crossing guard who shepherded children to school for 16 years, until he fell ill in December. In the Twin Cities of Minnesota, LiHong Burdick, 72, another victim of the coronavirus, is missing from the groups she cherished: one for playing bridge, another for mahjong and another for polishing her English. At her empty town house, the holiday decorations are still up. There are cards lined up on the mantel. “You walk in, and it smells like her,” said her son, Keith Bartram. “Seeing the chair she would sit in, the random things around the house, it’s definitely very surreal. I went over there yesterday and had a little bit of a breakdown. It’s hard to be in there when it looks like she should be there, but she’s not.” The Spaces Left Empty The virus has reached every corner of America, devastating dense cities and rural counties alike. By now, about 1 in 670 Americans has died of it. In New York City, more than 28,000 people have died of the virus — or 1 in 295 people. In Los Angeles County, which has lost nearly 20,000 people to COVID-19, about 1 in 500 people has died of the virus. In Lamb County, Texas, where 13,000 people live scattered on a sprawling expanse of 1,000 square miles, 1 in 163 people has died of the virus. Across America, the holes in communities, punctured by sudden death, have remained. In Anaheim, California, Monica Alvarez looks at the kitchen in the house she shared with her parents and thinks of her father, Jose Roberto Alvarez. Jose Alvarez, 67, a maintenance supervisor, worked the overnight shift until he died from the virus in July. Before he got sick, he would come home from his usual workday and prepare an early-morning meal. Monica Alvarez, beginning her workday as an accountant from her computer in the nearby dining room, would chat with him while he scrambled a plate of eggs. “With his passing, we’ve rearranged some rooms in the house,” she said. “I don’t work in the dining room anymore. I’m glad for that. I’m sad, but I’m glad. It’s a reminder, being there.” The physical emptiness is next to Andrea Mulcahy on the couch in her house in Florida, where her husband, Tim, who worked at a cellular telephone company, loved to sit. “We would hold hands, or sometimes I would put my hand on his leg,” Mulcahy said. Her husband, who believed that he contracted the virus from a co-worker, died in July at the age of 52. They used to go on adventures, road trips and cruises in the Caribbean, but Mulcahy is not sure she wants to travel without him. They had dreams of someday moving to a quaint town in Kentucky, on the Cumberland River, and retiring there. She said it was difficult even to stop at the grocery store without her husband, who liked to goof around and entertain her while they shopped. Now she sees a display of Oreos, his favorite cookies, and breaks down in tears. A Staggering Toll One year ago, as the coronavirus took hold in the United States, few public health experts predicted its death toll would climb to such a terrible height. At a White House briefing March 31, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the country, and Dr. Deborah Birx, who was coordinating the coronavirus response at the time, announced a stunning projection: Even with strict stay-at-home orders, the virus might kill as many as 240,000 Americans. “As sobering a number as that is, we should be prepared for it,” Fauci said at the time. Less than a year later, the virus has killed more than twice that number. The virus has disproportionately caused the deaths of Americans in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, where infections spread easily among vulnerable residents: They account for more than 163,000 deaths, about one-third of the country’s total. In New Hampshire, 73% of COVID-19 deaths were linked to nursing homes through last week. In Minnesota, it was 62%. The coronavirus has been especially lethal to Americans 65 and older, who account for about 81% of the country’s COVID-19 deaths. One of them was a man nearly everyone called Mr. Bob. Bob Manus, 79, was an unmistakable presence on the corner of Clark and Yeary in Plano, Texas. There was his black whistle, hanging around his neck on a lanyard — sharp, shrill and authoritative. A neon vest that he wore as part of his safety uniform. And his careful way with the children he guided across the street each morning and afternoon. “He knew the families. He knew their dogs,” said Ann Lin, who lives nearby and walks her children to school. After Manus died of the coronavirus in January, the block changed, she said. “There’s a noticeable difference now. It’s this heaviness. And it’s a reminder of what COVID took.” A group of parents has planned an honorary plaque to be erected at the spot where Manus worked. “My kids were devastated,” said Sarah Kissel, the PTA president. “They went from seeing him every day to him never coming back.” Manus has not yet been replaced. For now, his corner sits empty. ‘There’s Always This Hope’ Ignacio Silverio and his sister, Leticia Silverio, used to have a ritual. They would meet and chat over coffee in her restaurant, Cheliz, which she opened in their hometown, Redlands, California, four years ago. Ignacio Silverio still comes by the restaurant. But now his sister is gone, after dying from the coronavirus in August at the age of 40. Her husband has kept the restaurant operating, a main source of income. Other family members have pitched in to help. “When I go inside, it’s a surreal moment, and there’s always this hope,” Ignacio Silverio said. “You know, maybe it’s all a dream, and she would greet me, and we would sit down together and drink coffee.” Some families have moved away from the places that are so painfully entwined with memories. In April, Karlee Greer picked up her father, Michael Horton, 66, from the hospital where he had been battling the coronavirus. The doctors said he was ready to continue his recovery at home, and Greer had him stay with her family, setting him up in a bed in her daughter’s room. Four days later, he died there, without warning. Even now, 10 months after her father’s death, Greer remains haunted by the space. “Every time I walk into my daughter’s room, it’s like I see him there,” she said. “I see him around the whole house. I can’t stand to be there.” On Friday, the family moved out, hoping that a new home would bring new memories. The feeling of loss throughout the United States goes beyond physical spaces. “People are feeling a psychological and spiritual void,” said Paddy Lynch, a funeral director in Michigan who has worked with families who have lost relatives to the coronavirus. Part of that void, he said, comes from the missing rituals, the lack of a communal catharsis after a death. Aldene Sans, 90, once a stay-at-home mother who raised five children in Illinois, died in December while living in a nursing home that was ravaged by the virus. Her funeral service was kept small, an effort to make sure the gathering was safe. “It was sad and so strange,” said her daughter Becky Milstead. “Only nine people were there.” ‘Sad Day in Our History’ As the United States approaches 500,000 deaths from the coronavirus, there are few events in history that adequately compare. The 1918 influenza pandemic is estimated to have killed about 675,000 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when the country’s population was one-third of what it is now. But it also happened at a time when influenza vaccines, antibiotics, mechanical ventilation and other medical tools did not exist yet. Drew Gilpin Faust, a historian and former president of Harvard University, said medical and societal achievements in the United States had caused many Americans to believe that “we were ready for anything — that we had conquered nature.” “When there were field hospitals in Central Park, and bodies piled up because there was no capacity to bury them, we were just so shocked at ourselves and had not thought this would ever happen to us,” said Faust, whose book “This Republic of Suffering” explores how Americans grappled with death after the Civil War. “That sense of mastery over nature has been so seriously challenged by this pandemic.” Deaths from COVID-19 in the United States came faster as the pandemic went on. The first known death occurred in February 2020, and by May 27, 100,000 people had died. It took four months for the nation to log another 100,000 deaths; the next, about three months; the next, just five weeks. Although daily deaths are now slowing, about 1,900 deaths in America are being reported each day. As of late Saturday night, the toll had reached 497,403. “This will be a sad day in our history,” said Dr. Ali Mokdad, a public health researcher at the University of Washington. “Our grandchildren and future generations will look back at us and blame us for the biggest failure in facing a pandemic, in the country that’s the richest country in the world. That we allowed people to die, that we didn’t protect our vulnerable populations — Native American, Hispanic and African Americans. That we did not protect our essential workers.” It will still take months to vaccinate the American public, and new, more contagious variants of the virus could quickly undo the nation’s progress and lead to another spike. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an independent global health research center at the University of Washington, has projected that the nation could reach more than 614,000 deaths by June 1. Factors like how well people adhere to guidelines like mask-wearing and social distancing, plus the speed of vaccinations, could affect that estimate. Mark Buchanan, manager at the Side Door Saloon in Petoskey, Michigan, has been thinking of the stool where his friend Larry Cummings, a professor, used to sit on Monday nights for a chat, some football and a glass of ice water. “It was like 9:10 every Monday,” Buchanan said. “We knew that when the door opened, it was Larry walking in.” Cummings’ widow, Shannon, said she had tried to take comfort in knowing that her husband, who died of COVID-19 in March at the age of 76, had a full, meaningful life, rich with family, friends and travel. But ever since he died, she has been sleeping on his side of the bed. “By doing so, this space isn’t empty,” she said. She recently cleaned out her husband’s university office and sifted through everything he had tucked away there: a collection of political buttons, handwritten cards from their daughters and a file of papers from an extended trip they were supposed to take to the Balkans last summer. This month, she finally sold his car, a Volvo sedan, that had been sitting unused for much of the past year. “I didn’t realize how hard it would be to sell it,” she said. “It hit me in a way that surprised me and shocked me. It was admitting that he’s really not here.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company

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Over 90,000 more Americans are likely to die from COVID-19 related causes by June 1, a leading forecasting institute says. The projection comes as the U.S. expects to surpass 500,000 deaths within the next two days.

The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE) also warns that the world may never reach herd immunity.

IMHE projects that 589,197 Americans will have died by the end of May. The good news is the institute projects that deaths could drop to less than 500 per day by then, and the number could be even lower if Americans are vigilant about wearing masks. The U.S. is currently averaging about 2,000 deaths per day.

More than 75% of Americans now say they wear masks in public. To reach the lower death numbers, the percentage should be about 95%, IHME says.

The institute notes that some political and public health leaders have argued that vaccinating 70%-80% of the global population could effectively end further transmission. But even nations fortunate enough to procure sufficient quantities of vaccine may never reach herd immunity, in which case COVID-19 could become a seasonal affliction that comes each year.

“While it’s possible to reach herd immunity by next winter, it seems increasingly unlikely we will do so, and in light of that we all need to shift our expectations,” IHME says.

►Monday, Britain’s leader will unveil his plan for unwinding one of the world’s strictest COVID-19 lockdowns. American public health officials will be watching closely. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that by April B.1.1.7, the more transmissible COVID-19 variant originally identified in Britain, is likely to be the dominant one within U.S. borders.

►Nationwide, enrollment at community colleges dropped 10% from fall 2019 to fall 2020, according to the National Student Clearinghouse.

►It has been 10 months since Abby Adair Reinhard’s father died from COVID-19. The Rochester, New York, woman whose chronicle of his death drew nationwide empathy, is still struggling with the loss.

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►Fifteen athletes who were supposed to be participating in sports at U.S. colleges as first-year international students during the 2020-21 academic year are suing the Department of Homeland Security and ICE over a policy that prevents students from coming to the U.S. if their schools aren’t offering in-person courses.

►Public health officials in Alaska, where distribution of vaccines has set a gold standard, said 3,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine will arrive later than expected because of a winter storm that has ravaged the continental U.S.

Today’s numbers: The U.S. has more than 28 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 497,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 111 million cases and 2.46 million deaths. More than 78.1 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and about 59.5 million have been administered, according to the CDC.

What we’re reading: After early confusion, experts say it’s always better to use leftover shots than toss them. “Don’t waste vaccine!”

Hawaii elongates pre-travel virus test window to 96 hours

The Hawaii Department of Health has temporarily elongated the window incoming travelers have to complete a negative coronavirus test. The state said that travelers can now take their pre-boarding coronavirus test up to 96 hours before their flight instead of 72 hours because of winter storms that have ravaged the continental U.S.

The test will still have to be conducted by a state-approved provider. The extension will be in effect through Sunday, Hawaii News Now reported.

Could your Apple Watch, Fitbit help slow the pandemic?

Growing evidence suggests that a smartwatch or Fitbit could help warn wearers of a potential COVID-19 infection prior to a positive test result. Wearables such as the Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy smartwatch, Fitbit and other devices can collect heart and oxygen data, as well as sleep and activity levels. Researchers are studying whether a body’s health data might signal an oncoming COVID-19 infection.

A COVID-19 infection may not be imminent for a person whose heart or activity data suggests a potential infection. But the increased likelihood – and the ability to alert the patient to get tested and possibly quarantine – could provide a vital tool in preventing the spread of the disease and tracking it, researchers say. Such findings, if proved out, could lead to remote medical alerts for other possible viruses, flu and undue stress.

– Mike Snider

Entire school board quits after mocking parents on livestream

The president and all three other members of a California school board have resigned after mocking parents in a livestreamed meeting on school reopening that they appeared to think was private. Greg Hetrick, superintendent of the Oakley Union Elementary School District in Costa County, announced the board members had submitted their resignations in a letter to the school community Friday, calling it an “unfortunate situation.” Video of the Wednesday night meeting has circulated on social media and appears to capture board members mocking parents who have been writing letters to petition the board to reopen schools amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“They want to pick on us because they want their babysitters back,” said Board President Lisa Brizendine.

The board members also use expletives and laugh about parents who take medical marijuana. Toward the end of the recording, the board members appear shocked to receive a message alerting them that the livestream is public. In a statement, the board members expressed their “sincerest apology” and said they “deeply regret the comments that were made in the meeting.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID news: 90,000 more US deaths forecast; world’s herd immunity

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Sanders expressed confidence that the minimum wage hike will remain in the COVID-19 relief package.

The Senate parliamentarian will determine if the wage increase can be passed through reconciliation.

Sanders still faces resistance from Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Saturday expressed confidence that the proposed minimum wage hike to $15 per hour will remain in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that congressional Democrats are aiming to pass through the budget reconciliation process.

President Joe Biden supports the minimum wage hike but has expressed doubt that it would be permissible under reconciliation rules. But, Sanders, the independent chairman of the Senate Budget Committee who caucuses with the Democrats, thinks the measure will pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian.

“Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is not ‘incidental’ to the federal budget and is permissible under the rules of reconciliation,” Sanders said in a statement to CNN. “The CBO [Congressional Budget Office] has found that the $15 minimum wage has a much greater impact on the federal budget than opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and repealing the individual mandate penalties – two provisions that the parliamentarian advised did not violate the Byrd Rule when Republicans controlled the Senate.”

He added: “I’m confident that the parliamentarian will advise next week that we can raise the minimum wage through the reconciliation process.”

The CBO has ruled that the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 would have a substantial impact on the budget, which might meet the threshold of the Byrd Rule and be passed through the reconciliation process.

Sanders has insisted that reconciliation – which would rely on all 50 Democratic senators supporting the legislation – is the way to make the minimum wage increase happen.

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“It’s gonna be in reconciliation if I have anything to say about it – it’s the only way we’re gonna get it passed,” he told Insider’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig earlier this month.

But even if the parliamentarian rules in Sanders’ favor, he’ll still face resistance from moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Manchin told The Hill earlier this month that he could support raising the minimum wage to $11 an hour, which he said was “responsible and reasonable.”

“The minimum wage provision is not appropriate for the reconciliation process,” Sinema told Politico last week. “It is not a budget item. And it shouldn’t be in there.”

The federal minimum wage, at $7.25 per hour, has been unchanged since July 2009.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Democrats formally unveiled their $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package in the House — and the big-spending measure was swiftly panned by GOPers as a bloated “liberal wish list.”

The 591 page bill unveiled Friday night includes $1,400 direct checks to eligible Americans making less than $75,000 a year, extensions for $400 in federal unemployment benefits and the long sought Democratic priority of a federal minimum wage increase to $15.00.

The bill contains billions of dollars for other Democratic priorities including $350 billion to state and local government — of which New York can expect to see at least $50 billion — $130 billion in school funding, $19.1 billion to state and local governments as housing aid.

There’s also cash for small business, medicaid expansion, nutrition assistance programs and expansions of child tax credits.

There’s also $1 billion dollars earmarked for “vaccines confidence activities” — public relations to convince Americans skeptical of getting the jab.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, right, and Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez walk together on Capitol Hill in Washington.EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS

The Senate is expected to weigh the package in the next two weeks. Democrats aim to pass the goliath spending bill through a procedural process known as “budget reconciliation,” allowing them to sidestep GOP dissent and pass the package with a simple majority vote.

In 2017, Republicans under Trump used the same move to pass a $1.5 trillion tax cut. Most if not all Republicans in both houses of Congress likely to oppose the measure, with many already accusing it of being a pork fest.

“It’s clear Democrats have no interest in approaching COVID relief in a timely and targeted fashion and are instead using the reconciliation process to jam through their liberal wish list agenda,” House GOP whip Rep. Steve Scalise said in an email to colleagues urging them to oppose the bill.

“Less than 1% of the COVID relief bill will actually go to vaccine development and distribution. When a top priority accounts for such a small part of the overall spending, it just shows how massive (and unnecessarily bloated) this spending bill is,” Freshman Staten Island Republican Nicole Malliotakis said in a tweet blasting the bill Saturday.

Many Republicans, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham and 134 Republican members of the House voted in favor of $2,000 direct checks, at President Trump’s urging.

“It’s partly partisan. Joe Biden is president and now they can be fiscal hawks but also there are bad parts of this bill like the $15 minimum wage will hurt lower income people and will cause jobs to mechanize, like we have seen in the fast food industry,” GOP consultant Ryan Girdusky told The Post.

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