Adults 20-49 are driving the spread of COVID-19 and vaccinating that group could be key to controlling the pace of infections, a study suggests. Researchers at London s Imperial College estimated that at least 65% of new U.S. infections originate from that age group. Targeting interventions – including transmission-blocking vaccines – to adults age 20-49 is an important consideration in halting resurgent epidemics and preventing COVID-19-attributable deaths, the study s authors say in the publication Science.
Older adults – currently at or near the front of the line for vaccinations and facing the highest death rate – and children drive very little of the spread, the study says. So should vaccination efforts target young adults first?
Coronavirus in Jacksonville: What you need to know for Friday, Feb. 5
11:20 a.m. | Photos: First day of vaccinations at the Clanzel Brown Senior Center on Friday, Feb. 5.
Residents lined up starting at 5:30 a.m. Friday, February 5, 2021, outside the Clanzel T. Brown Senior Center COVID-19 vaccine site on Moncrief Road in Jacksonville, Florida.
9:25 a.m. | Senate clears way to pass COVID relief, Biden to huddle with Democrats
President Joe Biden will meet with House Democratic leaders and deliver remarks on the economy on Friday as his administration presses Congress to pass his $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package.
The Oval Office meeting, which also will include the Democratic chairmen of House committees working on COVID relief, comes just hours after the Senate set the stage for passage of the package, possibly by the end of the month.
The most common injury from errant vaccine shots might no longer be paid through a federal program due to a rule change ushered in during the final days of the Trump administration.
More than 2,200 Americans since 2017 have filed shoulder-injury claims to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
But a rule change signed last month by then-U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar would remove shoulder injuries from the program, known as vaccine court.
The move comes as more than one million Americans get vaccinated against COVID-19 every day at nursing homes, clinics and stadium-style mass immunization sites to curb a once-in-a-century virus. Adding barriers for those who have rare but serious side effects sends the wrong message as the nation undertakes an unprecedented immunization campaign, experts say.