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Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine is about to be released to the public and there are some big changes you should know about.

USA TODAY

As he highlighted his administration’s progress in the massive vaccination campaign against the coronavirus Thursday, President Joe Biden made a plea for Americans not to let their guard down despite a dwindling number of infections and hospitalizations in recent weeks.

“This is not a time to relax,’’ Biden said as he warned about the possible impact of virus variants. “We must keep washing our hands, stay socially distanced, and for God’s sake – for God’s sake – wear a mask.’’

Biden made the comments as part of a ceremony to mark 50 million vaccine doses being administered since he took office Jan. 20. He had promised 100 million shots in his first 100 days – a goal critics later decried as not ambitious enough – and the halfway point was reached on his 37th day.

The president said vaccine distribution to states has increased by 70% since his inauguration – from 8.6 million doses a week when President Donald Trump left to 14.5 million now – and that nearly 60% of people over age 75 have received at least one shot. The same goes for close to 50% of those over 65, he said.

In addition, Biden said 75% of residents of long-term facilities – vulnerable populations who account for 30% of the 507,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. – have gotten at least one vaccine dose, a major factor in the drastic reduction in their fatality rate over the last two months.

The vaccination program will get a major boost if the Food and Drug Administration gives the new, single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine an emergency use authorization, as is expected in the coming days.

An advisory committee of the FDA will decide Friday whether to recommend authorization, and Biden sought to reassure the public there would be no outside interference.

“We’re going to do this the right way,’’ he said. “The FDA will decide on emergency use authorization of a vaccine based on science, not due to any political pressure from me or anyone else.’’

Also in the news:

►The Food and Drug Administration will allow Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to be shipped and stored at freezers commonly found in pharmacies rather than the ultra-frigid ones initially required after data from the company showed the vaccine remains stable for up to two weeks in standard freezer temperatures. Thursday’s decision will make it easier to distribute and administer the vaccine.

►Three days after the U.S. became the first country to lose 500,000 lives to the coronavirus, the worldwide total of COVID-19 deaths reached 2.5 million Thursday. The U.S. accounts for more than 20% of the global death toll, and more than 150,000 Americans have been killed by the disease already this year. 

►Country music star Trisha Yearwood is “under the greatest care” at home after contracting the virus, her husband, Garth Brooks, said in a statement. The press release says Yearwood is dealing with unspecified symptoms but “doing OK so far.” Brooks said he tested negative.

📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has more than 28.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 506,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 112.7 million cases and 2.5 million deaths. More than 88.6 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and about 66.4 million have been administered, according to the CDC.

📘 What we’re reading: Surgery for a child, paying a loan, electric bills: We asked Americans how they would spend $1,400 stimulus checks. This is what they said.

USA TODAY is tracking COVID-19 news. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates. Are you on Clubhouse? If so, tune in to our live discussion on COVID-19 at 7 p.m. EST Thursday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci warns against cherry-picking vaccines

Americans should not try to pick and choose which vaccine they get but should take the first one available, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday.

Fauci, a top U.S. infectious disease expert, warned people not to hold off on getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine if it soon becomes available while waiting for the slightly more effective Pfizer or Moderna shots. Fauci also told NBC News a third vaccine becoming available “is nothing but good news.”

Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine offers strong protection against severe COVID-19. It’s expected to be authorized soon by the FDA.

Fauci said it’s a race “between the virus and getting vaccines into people” – and the longer people wait, “the better chance the virus has to get a variant or a mutation.”

Pfizer to begin testing booster shot targeting variants

Pfizer-BioNTech will begin testing a booster shot to combat COVID-19 variants, the companies announced Thursday. The announcement came one day after new research published in the New England Journal of Medicine confirmed that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine cut symptomatic COVID-19 cases across all age groups by 94%.

Now the two-company collaboration has asked 144 volunteers who participated in the earliest phase of its clinical vaccine trials last year to volunteer again to receive the booster, a third shot of the same vaccine designed to see whether it will help them fight off new, more infectious variants that have been circulating in recent months. It’s not yet clear whether a new vaccine or booster will be needed to address the known variants, but companies want to be prepared if studies show a new vaccine is needed.

“While we have not seen any evidence that the circulating variants result in a loss of protection provided by our vaccine, we are taking multiple steps to act decisively and be ready in case a strain becomes resistant to the protection afforded by the vaccine,”  Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

– Karen Weintraub

Is a new variant spreading in New York, or isn’t it?

Two preliminary studies have identified a new variant, called B.1.526, in New York, although neither study has been through crucial peer review. Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University who was not involved in the new research, told The New York Times that while the discovery is not welcome news, “just knowing about it is good because then we can perhaps do something about it.”

Others, however, have questioned releasing information so early in the vetting process. Nathan Grubaugh, a public health professor at Yale, tweeted that he was “asked to provide comment on someone’s draft manuscript that still had tracked changes and didn’t include the figures. … This is an absolute mess.” Dr. Jay Varma, public health adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio, tweeted a “plea to academics: please review high impact studies w/govt health depts before marketing it to media.” Varma added that “Pathogen porn isn’t helping public health.”

Bill Neidhardt, spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, tweeted: “Please, please for the love of all that is holy share the data with public health officials before you publicize pre-writes.”

‘Massive pandemic of mentally ill adolescents’ blamed on COVID

Dr. Brian Alverson, director of the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at Rhode Island’s Hasbro Children’s Hospital, says he has witnessed what he described to The Providence Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, as “a massive pandemic of mentally ill adolescents,” many of them admitted to Hasbro Children’s. The Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry has published articles on the nationwide phenomenon stemming in part from social isolation and loneliness.

“And when I say massive, I don’t want to understate this,” Alverson said. On a recent Friday, “when I looked at the census of the hospital, three-quarters of the hospital was adolescents who wanted to hurt themselves because of mental illness.”

G. Wayne Miller, The Providence Journal

Some GOP mayors warm to Biden stimulus package

As President Joe Biden’s $1.9 billion relief package heads for a vote Friday in the Democrat-controlled House, cash-strained city halls are some of the legislation’s biggest boosters. The bill could pass with zero support among GOP House members, even though Republican mayors are among those seeking federal assistance to replenish tax revenue shortages. Thirty-two Republicans are among 425 mayors nationally who urged passage of Biden’s COVID-19 relief package in a letter through the U.S. Conference of Mayors to Congress.

“The need is real and it’s not just in Democratic-core communities,” said Bryan Barnett, the Republican mayor of Rochester Hills, Mich..

Joey Garrison

They’re back: Schools will be administering standardized tests again

When the world of K-12 education spiraled into confusion last spring, many teachers and students quietly delighted in the disappearance of high-stakes achievement tests. The Department of Education dropped the requirement for states to administer annual achievement exams in reading and math, which usually happens in spring. Schools pivoted to connecting with students digitally. But now those tests are coming back. President Joe Biden’s administration this week decided against another blanket waiver on federally mandated achievement exams this year, saying instead states can delay or shorten the tests or give them virtually – or skip testing remote learners. 

“We know that schools and districts have approached (schooling in the pandemic) with different levels of competence and technology,” said Ethan Hutt, an education professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “If we want to direct policy and resources to schools that are particularly hard hit, we need more precise information about what’s happening.”

Erin Richards and Alia Wong

Want the COVID vaccine? For many people of color, it’s a trust issue

Less than 14% of the U.S. population has received the vaccine, and preliminary data suggests people of color are being vaccinated at lower rates than white Americans. 

Chelsea White, executive director of the Dallas Bethlehem Center, said historically the community has not trusted the government or outside groups, particularly when it comes to health care.

“COVID is bad enough for anyone, but when you have this kind of crisis in this neighborhood, it’s just catastrophic and it will affect this neighborhood for years,” White said. “They’ll overpromise, underdeliver and then leave.” Read more here.

Ad Council launches $500M campaign to promote COVID-19 vaccines

The Ad Council’s $500 million campaign to promote the COVID-19 vaccines launched Thursday, aimed at the 40% of Americans who haven’t yet made up their minds about getting vaccinated. It will slowly change as the landscape of who is eligible for vaccines and what questions they have shifts.

The ads, which will appear on TV, radio and online, feature images of people holding hands, families at a child’s birthday party, people walking into church together or friends sharing pizza side by side, a reminder of how much things have changed in a year. 

The tagline to all is, “It’s up to you.” Not to get vaccinated, but to get informed, said Sherman. 

– Elizabeth Weise

Contributing: The Associated Press

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