Nearly 50,000 front-line healthcare workers have received the first of two doses of the coronavirus vaccine in the past week, and millions more are set to be vaccinated in the coming weeks.
Hospitals across the United States this week received the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine to prevent COVID-19, the first to be authorized for public use by federal regulators. The vaccines were administered to 49,567 healthcare workers this week, Bloomberg reported. That figure will balloon in the days to come as more doses are administered and more hospitals update their data.
The federal government began shipping the first tranche of Pfizer vaccines last weekend, with 2.9 million doses, meant to be the first of two shots. It will be followed by another round of 2.9 million shots. Pfizer struck a deal with administration officials over the summer to provide 100 million doses, enough to immunize 50 million people.
The federal effort to vaccinate staff and residents of long-term care facilities began Friday. CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance, which are heading up the program, began vaccinating people at long-term care facilities in Connecticut, Florida, and Ohio. A dozen more states will start next week, including Kentucky, Nevada, New York, and Oklahoma.
With over 15,600 nursing homes and 29,000 assisted-living facilities in the U.S., the effort faces major challenges in getting the consent of workers and residents. Nursing homes are tasked with securing consent from residents and staffers before pharmacy teams arrive. However, some residents and staffers are reluctant to receive the vaccine. For other residents, consent from family members is needed.
High-profile officeholders also began receiving the vaccine Friday.
Vice President Mike Pence got the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine Friday on camera in an effort to assure the public that it’s safe and effective and tout the Trump administration’s vaccine development initiative Operation Warp Speed.
“I didn’t feel a thing — well done,” Pence said to the technician who administered the shot.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 80, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, 78, were among the first members of Congress to get the vaccine on Friday.
“As the vaccine is being distributed, we must all continue mask wearing, social distancing & other science-based steps to save lives & crush the virus,” Pelosi said, including photos of her getting the shot.
McConnell said shortly after, “Vaccines are how we beat this virus.”
The vaccines will also be provided to each Supreme Court justice, five of whom are at least 65 years old and at higher risk of getting severely ill. Amy Coney Barrett, the newest justice on the bench, tested positive for COVID-19 over the summer. Barrett, 48, has fully recovered and tested negative several times since then.
Hospitalizations are rising in 13 states, COVID Tracking Project data shows, including in hot-spot states such as New York, Florida, and California. Roughly 111,000 new patients were admitted to hospitals on average over the past week. The death rate is also increasing rapidly and exceeding spring records for new deaths every day. More than 3,400 new deaths due to COVID-19 were confirmed on Thursday, the highest daily total ever reported.
The rate of new deaths reported each day had dipped from previous highs in the spring and remained relatively low throughout the summer. By mid-November, daily deaths had surpassed 2,000 for the first time since May, leading government health experts to ramp up pressure to skip holiday gatherings with family.
To date, nearly 17.4 million cases and more than 312,000 deaths due to COVID-19 have been confirmed in the U.S. Current case totals are undercounts, given that many infections go undetected and undiagnosed.
Sens. Ron Johnson and Josh Hawley, both Republicans, sparred over a proposed bill on Friday that would send a new round of stimulus checks for $1,200 to people struggling financially, as opposed to the $600 amount that is currently being negotiated by congressional leaders.
“There’s no doubt about it. I completely support some kind of program targeted for small businesses,” Johnson said Friday. “What I fear we’re going to do with this bipartisan package, and what the senator from Missouri is talking about, is the same thing — a shotgun approach.”
Hawley, who has teamed up with independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to get the direct assistance added to the next stimulus package, rejected the suggestion that the economic relief was insufficiently targeted, arguing that there is no relief “more important than relief for working people.”
Fifty-one percent of adults now think that the worst is yet to come for the coronavirus pandemic, a jump from 42% in October, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll. A majority of people also said they could maintain social distancing for more than six months until a vaccine becomes widely available.
