- President Biden is expected to announce new guidelines for mask wearing tomorrow.
- According to the CDC, five million people who received their first dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine never received their second dose.
- The FDA and CDC expressed their full confidence in the safety of the J&J vaccine and that the benefits outweigh the risks.
- New research suggests that six feet of distance indoors does not prevent the spread of COVID-19.
White House and Federal Agencies
- President Biden is expected to announce new guidelines for mask wearing tomorrow.
- Vice President Kamala Harris will address the United Nations about planning for the next pandemic.
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its monthly data snapshot of how COVID-19 is impacting the Medicare population.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Updates
- According to the CDC, five million people who received their first dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine never received their second dose.
- The CDC published the following reports and websites updates:
- Overall US COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution and Administration Update as of Mon, 26 Apr 2021 06:00:00 EST
- Cases in the U.S.
- Stay Safer While You Wait for COVID-19 Vaccines
- Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests (NAATs)
- COVID-19 Travel Recommendations by Country
- Recommendation to Pause Use of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine
- U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Program: Vaccine Channel Portfolio by Jurisdiction
- COVID Data Tracker Recent Updates – 2021-04-22 – Updated Variant Proportions tab that shows variant proportions by region
- ACIP Presentation Slides: April 23, 2021 Meeting
- COVID-19 Hospitalization and Death by Race/Ethnicity
- Reporting COVID-19 Vaccination Demographic Data
- COVID-19 Vaccine Information for Specific Groups
- COVID-19 Vaccination Considerations for Persons with Underlying Medical Conditions
- Different COVID-19 Vaccines
Economy, Vaccines, Testing and Treatment
- The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended the continued use of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine. This prompted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to end its pause on the use of the vaccine. Use of the vaccine was temporarily halted for 10 days while ACIP and federal agencies investigated a small number of severe blood clots associated with the vaccine.
- The FDA and CDC expressed their full confidence in the safety of the vaccine and that the benefits outweigh the risks.
- The National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins characterized the clotting risk as incredibly low.
- States have resumed administering the vaccine.
- The J&J pause prompted new concerns about hesitancy for the vaccine.
- An Economist/YouGov poll published on April 15 found that the number of respondents who viewed the J&J vaccine as “unsafe” increased from 26% before the pause to 39% after the pause.
- However, an Axios-Ipsos survey released on April 20 suggested the pause had no noticeable effect on people’s likelihood to get vaccinated.
- The U.S. will begin sharing its supply of AstraZeneca’s (AZ) COVID-19 vaccine with the rest of the world after a safety review. The AZ vaccine is not yet approved in the U.S. and the U.S. might not need it with supplies of the three approved vaccines expected to meet demand.
- The U.S. also will send vaccine supplies to India to help the country with its massive surge in cases.
