The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved requests by COVID-19 vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer to expand the administration of their booster shots to all U.S. adults.

In a release announcing the news, biotechnology company Moderna said the FDA extended the emergency use authorization of a booster dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the 50 µg dose level to all adults aged 18 and older.

The booster can be used in all individuals 18 years and older who have completed a primary vaccination with any other authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine.

“This emergency use authorization comes at a critical time as we enter the winter months and face increasing COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations across the country,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. “We thank the FDA for their review, and are confident in the robust clinical evidence that a 50 µg booster dose of mRNA-1273 induces a strong immune response against COVID-19.”

Pfizer, which partnered with BioNTech on the vaccine, said its booster dose is to be administered at least six months after completion of the primary series and is the same dosage strength as the doses in the primary series.

“With boosters, more adults will now have the opportunity to help preserve a high-level of protection against this disease,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. “We are grateful to the FDA for their rigorous review, and the action taken today that we hope will help accelerate our path out of this pandemic.”

“Today’s FDA decision is supported by clinical data showing robust immune responses following a booster dose of our vaccine, exceeding what has been seen even after the completion of the highly-effective two-dose primary schedule,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said. “These data suggest a booster dose of our vaccine has the potential to maintain a high-level of protection against tested variants, including Delta.”

Later Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet to discuss a potential recommendation for the rollout of COVID-19 boosters to the U.S.

CDC data shows that more than 32 million Americans have already received a booster dose.

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/moderna-pfizer-covid-boosters-approved

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On February 28 a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the Remain in Mexico policy. Groups of asylum-seeking migrants gathered at the southern border causing concern by the Border Patrol that they would try to storm the border. It was a legitimate concern because of past chaos at the border, including caravans from Central America. The Paso del Norte International Bridge in downtown El Paso was closed, as well as other crossings.

CBP spokesman Ralph DeSio addressed the growing tension and the fact that ports of entry are not equipped to handle large groups arriving all at the same time. After the ruling by the 9th Circuit Court, about 30 migrants enrolled in the Remain in Mexico program and waited with their attorneys, requesting to be admitted into the U.S. Fortunately the migrants remained orderly.

“The balance between facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel while upholding our national border security mission and the safety of the public and our personnel is delicate,” DeSio said in a statement. “Ports of entry are not designed or equipped to handle extremely large groups of travelers arriving all at the same time, and temporary closure of a [port of entry] is contemplated as an extreme option, as necessary for public safety and border security.”

The migrants were turned away and the Ninth Circuit Court panel agreed to stay its own order. The Remain in Mexico policy stays in place until the Wednesday deadline. If the Supreme Court rules against taking up the Trump administration’s appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court has ruled that the Remain in Mexico policy will be blocked in the border states within its jurisdiction – California and Arizona. That court does not have jurisdiction over New Mexico or Texas.

The Department of Defense is deploying 160 troops to two cities determined to be key spots should the Remain in Mexico policy end. Eighty active-duty troops will go to San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing and eighty active-duty troops will go to the Paso del Norte bridge in El Paso. The troops are equipped to provide military police support, as well as engineer, and aviation support. They are part of the DOD’s Crisis Response Force.

The 160 troops are part of the Defense Department’s Crisis Response Force, which the Pentagon has made available to CBP since Trump initially deployed soldiers to the border in November 2018 in anticipation of the arrival of a large caravan.

A CBP spokesman said the deployment to San Diego and El Paso would begin Saturday and last for two weeks. The agency has the option, based on current needs, to extend the deployment and even “lift and shift” to other border crossings, he said.

There is the consideration of the government’s efforts to contain the coronavirus at the border, too. COVID-19 screenings have been implemented at the border by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan told reporters on Thursday morning they are working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor and evaluate health risks along the entire border to determine the best approach to contain the virus, known as COVID-19.

“If the health risk shifts and the CDC and the medical experts decide that there is an increased risk to the Southwest border, and CBP will be part of those discussions on what we need to do then to operationalize and reduce that risk,” he said.

Morgan says that more than 60,000 people have been referred to the CDC for additional screenings. Most screenings take place at airports, though, but CBP is following the same protocols on the northern and southern borders.

The perpetually outraged open-borders crowd is not happy with the additional deployment of troops to the border. Some are accusing the Trump administration of using concern over the spread of COVID-19 as a justification for the order.

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a freshman Democrat from El Paso, said in a written statement that the Trump administration is using COVID-19 as “an excuse to sow fear about asylum seekers in an effort to continue to violate the law.”

“While it is no surprise, it is nonetheless deeply disappointing that the Trump administration would use the coronavirus as an excuse to sow fear about asylum seekers in an effort to continue to violate the law,” Escobar said. “It is because we are all concerned about the coronavirus that we need to focus our resources on our real challenges, like the limited number of tests available, something that troops on the border won’t address.”

Escobar’s complaint doesn’t hold water. The Trump administration, especially President Trump himself, has been very careful to not “sow fear” to anyone over COVID-19 while trying to get the message out about its potential spread, which is likely. Trump shut down flights from China early and assembled a team of public health professionals to tackle the problem. The storming of the border by migrants hoping to receive asylum and be released into the United States, as has happened in the past, cannot be allowed. Not only is it a national security risk, but it is also a public health risk. The open-borders crowd will never be happy until the southern border, in particular, no longer exists. They are not concerned with protecting the sovereignty of the United States. Fortunately, President Trump is and continues to do a good job on that front.

Source: https://hotair.com/archives/karen-townsend/2020/03/08/dept-defense-orders-crisis-response-force-southern-border/

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Iran’s coronavirus death toll rose to 16 on Tuesday, the most outside China, while Italy reported its 11th death. The virus has jumped to about 30 countries and territories, with some three dozen deaths outside China, according to a Reuters tally.

Worsening infections in Iran, Italy, and South Korea are of particular concern, world health officials said. South Korea and Italy stepped up emergency measures to help curb the virus’ global spread.

Believed to have originated from wildlife in Wuhan city late last year, the flu-like disease has infected 80,000 people and killed close to 2,700 in China. But the World Health Organization (WHO) said the outbreak there has been declining since Feb. 2.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, an official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters that data on the virus’ spread over the past week had heightened the agency’s expectations of transmission within the United States.

“Disruption to everyday life might be severe,” she cautioned.

While saying the immediate risk from the coronavirus in the United States remained low, another top CDC official, Dr. Anne Schuchat, said it was no longer a question of if the virus would become a global pandemic. “It’s a question of when and how many people will be infected.”

The Dow and S&P 500 tumbled 3% on Tuesday in their fourth straight day of losses as investors struggled to gauge the virus’ economic impact.

Iran’s outbreak, amid mounting U.S. sanctions pressure, threatens to leave it further cut off. Several countries suspended flights and some of its neighbors closed their borders, while Oman’s Khasab port halted imports and exports with Iran.

“It is an uninvited and inauspicious visitor. God willing we will get through … this virus,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech.

Iran’s deputy health minister and a member of parliament were among those infected.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait Bahrain, and Oman this week reported their first cases, all in people who had been to Iran. Bahrain said it now has 24 confirmed cases.

Iran canceled concerts and soccer matches nationwide, and schools and universities closed in many provinces. Many Iranians took to social media to accuse authorities of concealing facts.

Tehran says U.S. sanctions are hampering its response to the coronavirus by preventing imports of masks and medicines.

“THERE IS STILL HOPE”

A top WHO expert urged countries to step up preparations.

“Think the virus is going to show up tomorrow,” Bruce Aylward, head of the joint WHO-Chinese mission on the outbreak, told reporters on his return to Geneva. “If you don’t think that way, you’re not going to be ready.”

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Tuesday asked a Senate subcommittee to approve $2.5 billion in funding to expand surveillance systems for the virus, help the development of vaccines and boost stockpiles of protective equipment.

In South Korea, which has the most coronavirus cases outside China with 977 infections and 10 deaths, authorities were testing all the estimated 215,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

The country’s outbreak is believed to have begun in the city of Daegu with a 61-year-old woman who is a member of its congregation.

There was misery too for 34 South Korean newlyweds whose honeymoons on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius became a holiday from hell after they were put in isolation.

TOURISM, SPORT, AND CULTURE IMPACTED

In Europe, Italy is the front line with more than 280 cases, as the outbreak is spreading from its origins in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto.

Italy’s tourist industry, which accounts for about 13% of its economy, fears a plunge amid travel warnings and restrictions on soccer matches, cinemas, and theatres.

Italy’s health minister, Roberto Speranza, said neighboring countries had agreed not to close their borders, calling such a step “disproportionate … at this time.”

But airlines began restricting flights to Italy, prices of protective gear skyrocketed, a planned shoot in the country for Tom Cruise’s seventh “Mission: Impossible” movie was postponed, Milan cathedral was closed and the Venice carnival canceled.

Switzerland, Austria, and Romania reported their first cases, all in people who had been to Italy. Algeria and Croatia also recorded their first infections.

Spain reported its first case on the mainland, a woman from Barcelona who had also visited northern Italy, while a four-star hotel on Tenerife was in lockdown after a couple tested positive there.

China reported a rise in new cases in Hubei province, the outbreak’s epicenter. But excluding those, it had just nine new infections on Monday, its fewest since Jan. 20.

Beijing said restrictions on travel and movement that have paralyzed activity in the world’s second-largest economy should begin to be lifted.

In an example of the outbreak’s global ripple effects, experts said travel restrictions introduced uncertainty in the timeline for Apple’s introduction of new iPhone models later this year since engineers would normally be in Asia now ironing out assembly processes.

Sources: https://www.aol.co.uk/news/2020/02/26/us-braces-for-coronavirus-spread-as-outbreaks-worsen-in-italy-i/

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed nearly 900 cases of mumps among people at adult migration detention facilities across the United States in the last year.

The virus swept across 57 detention centers in 19 states, sickening 898 migrants between Sept. 1, 2018, and Aug. 22, the CDC said Thursday.

Thirty-three staff members were also infected.

The CDC said the virus continues to spread as more migrants are arrested or transferred between facilities.

Mumps is a contagious virus that causes swollen glands, puffy cheeks, fever, headaches and, in severe cases, hearing loss and meningitis.

Mumps outbreaks are rare in the U.S. because of vaccinations, but the disease is easily transmittable in spaces where people have close prolonged contact.

The CDC said most of those infected were men who caught the virus while in detention.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Bryan Cox said all detainees go through a medical screening within 24 hours of arriving at the facilities.

Source: https://www.voanews.com/usa/cdc-mumps-spread-us-migrant-detention-centers

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The post ‘Zombie deer disease’ has spread to 2 provinces and 24 states first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Of those sickened, 42 have been hospitalized, a higher rate than usually seen in E. coli cases, and nine of those patients have developed kidney failure, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday. No deaths have been reported.

The search for the source of the outbreak is ongoing. The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration say the Yuma, Ariz., growing region is the source, but no farm has been identified. The Yuma area grows most of the lettuce harvested in the United States during the winter months, but officials say that lettuce now in stores or at restaurants is probably from California’s Central Valley or Salinas Valley and has not been implicated in the outbreak.

The CDC urges consumers not to eat any romaine lettuce unless they know it is not from the Yuma area. That includes all kinds of lettuce, whether chopped, whole-head or in a salad mix. The CDC advises consumers to throw away any romaine that might be from the Yuma region even if some of it has been eaten already with no sign of illness.

The three additional states affected by the outbreak are Colorado, Georgia and South Dakota. Pennsylvania has led the nation in reported cases, with 18, followed by California with 13 and Idaho with 10. The most recent case involved a person becoming sick April 12, but the CDC notes that sicknesses since April 5 may not have been reported yet to authorities.

E. coli is a bacterium that can be present in animal or human feces. This particular strain of E. coli produces a Shiga toxin that causes severe symptoms, such as vomiting and diarrhea, and can also lead to kidney failure.

Izabella Radovich of Wilton, Calif., was among those who got sick from eating contaminated salad. The 16-year-old from rural Sacramento had been eating salad every day the week before she got sick.

“She’s a teenager. She was trying to cut out junk food and be healthier,” her mother, Tiffany Halley, told The Washington Post. But Radovich started getting chills, fever and stomach cramps April 6. Within two days, she was doubled over in pain and having bloody stools and diarrhea.

Over the course of several days, Halley took her daughter to see a pediatrician twice, and twice rushed her to the emergency room because she was in so much pain. By April 10, the CDC had issued its first announcement about the E. coli illness outbreak. The next day, Halley went to the pediatrician’s office and remembers being told that this dangerous E. coli strain could affect her daughter’s kidneys.

The doctor said that Radovich was young and had healthy kidneys, Halley said.

“She told us, ‘her kidneys are perfect,’ ” Halley recalled. Two days later, on April 13, Radovich’s skin had turned pale and yellow, and she was no longer urinating, signs that she was suffering from a potentially life-threatening type of kidney failure known as Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, or HUS.

They went back to the emergency room, where the hospital said Radovich was having kidney failure and sent her by ambulance to a nearby children’s hospital in Roseville. The teenager stayed in the ICU for eight days. She has had to receive all her nutrition intravenously, and has had four blood transfusions to treat severe anemia.

“They’re waiting for the toxins to leave her body completely,” Halley said. On Monday, test results from her stool samples confirmed her illness is part of the outbreak. The teenager was still in the hospital on Wednesday, and doctors said it could take three months for her blood count to rise to a normal level, Halley said.

Even after her daughter became sick, some friends and acquaintances didn’t realize how serious the illness was until they saw Radovich in the hospital.

“This has been an absolute nightmare,” said Halley, 36. “The only way I can describe it, just watching your child get sick like that, it’s the most gut-wrenching feeling on Earth.”

(CDC)

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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/04/25/dangerous-e-coli-outbreak-from-romaine-lettuce-expands-with-19-states-affected/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.435afbee3828

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