As a health journalist, a physician and a former foreign correspondent who lived through SARS in Beijing, I often get questions from friends, colleagues and people I don’t even know about how to live during our current pandemic. Do I think it’s safe to plan a real wedding next June? Would I send my kids to school, with appropriate precautions? When will I trust a vaccine?
Jackson Health System has announced it expects to receive a supply of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in mid-December. In a statement to CBS4, the health system said its prepared to begin immediate distribution after having already “purchased equipment, such as ultra-cold freezers, to ensure we have capacity to safely store the vaccine. Jackson Health System said the vaccine will first be made available to “frontline healthcare workers in hospitals, long-term care staff and residents, and first responders.”
This is bad as the pandemic has ever been — the most cases, the most explosive growth and the greatest strain on hospitals. If businesses were closed right now, it would not be safe to reopen them. And holiday travel will be risky no matter where you’re coming from or where you’re going.
With coronavirus cases on the rise in all but one state and a newly reached American death toll of 250,000, this would not seem the moment for the United States to take a patchwork response to the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic is hurtling toward crisis levels in Los Angeles County, with officials saying hospitals are in danger of being overwhelmed and significant new restrictions are possible.
As the nation gears up for a massive vaccination effort, the Trump administration is doubling down on a novel, unproven injection device by providing more than half a billion dollars in government financing for something that is still awaiting FDA approval.