Operation Warp Speed’s Chief Science Advisor Moncef Slaoui told CNBC that Americans can expect to get back to ‘normal’ by summer 2021, as families across the United States spend Thanksgiving apart this year in order to keep their loved ones safe. 

“We hope that we would have vaccinated 70% to 80% of the U.S. population by May or June of 2021, so I would hope that by summer, we should be substantially back to normal,” Slaoui said in a Wednesday evening interview on “The News with Shepard Smith”. 

Doctors and scientists, however, are reassuring Americans that there will be a reprieve. Two weeks after Thanksgiving, the FDA will meet to discuss whether to green-light Pfizer’s vaccine. If it does, the government plans to ship out 6.4 million doses to communities around the country.

Slaoui said that inoculating all Americans will be a “challenge” but he thinks it is achievable. “People need to know that every year between 140 million to 180 million doses of flu vaccine are produced, distributed, and inoculated in the U.S. population in a period that goes between the month of August and the month of, maybe, January,” Slaoui said. “So, we may be doubling that number over the period of time, but it’s not from scratch, which was very different from the testing.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/25/we-should-be-back-to-normal-by-summer-2021-says-operation-warp-speed-advisor.html

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The FDA on Wednesday authorized one of the first Covid-19 tests that measures the amount of neutralizing antibodies produced by the body’s immune system after exposure to the virus — a “new generation” of coronavirus test that is designed to tell how well someone is protected against infection.

The body’s immune system produces antibodies to combat viruses and other foreign pathogens that invade the body. When it comes to Covid-19, it remains unclear how much protection antibodies provide and how long that might last, but this test could help researchers better understand the role of Covid antibodies in immune protection.

Unlike many previously authorized Covid antibody tests that can tell if you’ve had the virus or not, the COVID-SeroKlir test measures your specific levels of Covid-19 neutralizing antibodies. The Food and Drug Administration has previously authorized some tests that estimate the level of antibodies, but not specifically for neutralizing antibodies.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/25/fda-clears-a-new-generation-of-covid-antibody-test-designed-to-tell-how-well-someone-is-protected-against-the-virus.html

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The White House is considering rescinding entry bans for most non-U.S. citizens who recently were in Brazil, Britain, Ireland and 26 other European countries, five U.S. and airline officials told Reuters.

The Trump administration imposed the bans in a bid to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic. It is not considering lifting separate entry bans on most non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in China or Iran, the officials said.

The plan has won the backing of White House coronavirus task-force members, public health and other federal agencies, the people briefed on the matter said, but President Donald Trump has not made a final decision and the timing remains uncertain.

The White House, Department of Homeland Security and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not comment.

Many administration officials argue the restrictions no longer make sense given that most countries around the world are not subject to the entry ban. They contend lifting the restrictions would be a boost to struggling U.S. airlines, which have seen international travel fall by 70%, according to airline industry data.

https://www.reuters.com/article/BigStory12/idUSKBN2851EP

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Canines seem to detect coronavirus infections with remarkable accuracy, but researchers say large-scale studies are needed before the approach is scaled up.

Around the world, canines are being trained to detect the whiff of COVID-19 infections. Dog trainers are claiming extraordinary results — in some cases, they say that dogs can detect the virus with almost perfect accuracy. Scientists involved with the efforts suggest that canines could help to control the pandemic because they can screen hundreds of people an hour in busy places such as airports or sports stadiums, and are cheaper to run than conventional testing methods such as the RNA-amplification technique PCR.

But most of these findings have not yet been peer reviewed or published, making it hard for the wider scientific community to evaluate the claims. Researchers working on more conventional viral tests say that initial results from dog groups are intriguing and show promise. But some question whether the process can be scaled up to a level that would allow the animals to make a meaningful impact.

On 3 November, groups working with the animals met in an online workshop called International K9 Team to share preliminary results from experiments and to improve how their research is coordinated.

“No one is saying they can replace a PCR machine, but they could be very promising,” says veterinary neurologist Holger Volk at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover in Germany, who is leading an effort to train and study COVID-sniffing dogs and did not speak at the event.

Many sniffer-dog scientists turned their attention to COVID-19 early in the pandemic. They have trained their canines to smell samples, most often of sweat, in sterile containers, and to sit or paw the floor when they detect signs of infection. Trials at airports in the United Arab Emirates, Finland and Lebanon are using dogs to detect COVID-19 in sweat samples from passengers; these are then checked against conventional tests. According to data presented at the K9 meeting, dogs in Finland and Lebanon have identified cases days before conventional tests picked up the virus, suggesting that they can spot infection before symptoms start.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03149-9

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said Tuesday that a COVID-19 vaccine would be released “by the end of the second week of December.”

During a segment on Fox News, Redfield was asked by "The Daily Briefing" host Dana Perino how government agencies would determine who received the vaccine first.

“I think it's really important. First, it's, you know, exceptional that we have these vaccines. And it's very exciting. And, again, it just reinforces why I want people to be vigilant because we're turning the corner now. You don't want to be the last group to end up getting COVID, because the vaccine is going to begin to be rolled out probably by the end of the second week of December,” Redfield said.

The CDC director said that there will be a hierarchy to who will receive the vaccine first based on risk and exposure.  

“Initially, in a hierarchical way, nursing home residents and then some combination of health care providers and individuals at high risk for a poor outcome. And those decisions are in the process of being finalized as we speak.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/527408-cdc-director-covid-19-vaccine-will-be-rolled-out-second-week-in-december

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There were no active Covid-19 clusters for the first time since Feb 3, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday (Nov 24).

This is after the cluster at Cassia @ Penjuru at 15 Penjuru Walk was closed as it had no new cases for the past two incubation periods, or 28 days.

On Tuesday, MOH also announced 18 new coronavirus cases including 13 foreign domestic workers.

With Tuesday's new cases being all imported, it means that there were no new community cases and none from worker's dormitories for the 14th day in a row.

This is the longest stretch without a community case since the first coronavirus case was reported in Singapore on Jan 23.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/no-active-covid-19-clusters-for-the-first-time-since-feb-3

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France's coronavirus lockdown will be lifted on December 15 - but bars and restaurants will stay closed over the Christmas period, Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday evening in a televised address.

It was part of a three-stage easing of restrictions over the next two months.

November 28

- Shops can reopen under strict hygiene restrictions
- Lockdown will continue but restrictions on how long one can leave home for is extended. Currently, one can exercise for up to an hour with a one-kilometre radius of one's residence. That will be extended to a radius of 20 kilometres for up to three hours.
- Religious centres can reopen but with no more than 30 people at any one time.

December 15

- Lockdown is lifted if the health situation continues to improve, allowing people to move around the country and spend Christmas with their families and friends.
- Cinemas, theatres and museums will reopen their doors.
- Instead of a lockdown, the country will revert to a night-time curfew (9 pm to 7 am).
- Bars and restaurants will stay closed over Christmas
- Ski resorts unlikely to be open for Christmas. Final decision expected in the coming days.

January 20

- If the health situation allows it, bars and restaurants will be allowed to reopen.
- Sports centres and gyms will be allowed to reopen
- What else did Macron say?
- Macron said the country had passed the peak of its second wave of coronavirus. He said the easing of restrictions had been made possible by an improving picture nationwide. But, he added, several more weeks of restrictions would need to be endured to allow the country to get the pandemic fully under control.

He said the most vulnerable in society should begin to get a COVID-19 vaccine from the end of December or the beginning of January.

www.euronews.com/2020/11/24/will-emmanuel-macron-ease-france-s-coronavirus-lockdown

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Up to three households can meet indoors during a five-day Christmas period of 23-27 December, leaders of the four UK nations have agreed.

A source told the BBC that full details on how Covid restrictions will be relaxed will be announced shortly.

BBC Scotland's chief political correspondent said people will be allowed in each other's homes, a place of worship and outdoor public spaces.

But they must comply with hospitality rules place in their areas.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55064962

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As G20 leaders pledged to ensure the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, drugs and tests so that poorer countries are not left out, the US, UK and Germany each announced plans to begin vaccinations in their countries in December, while Spain said it would start administering the vaccine to its citizens in January.

Britain could give regulatory approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine as early as this week, even before the US authorises it, the UK’s Telegraph newspaper reported on Sunday. Pfizer and BioNTech could secure emergency US and European authorisation for their Covid-19 vaccine next month after final trial results showed a 95% success rate and no serious side effects.

Moderna last week released preliminary data for its vaccine showing 94.5% effectiveness.

The better-than-expected results from the two vaccines, both developed with new messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, have raised hopes of an easing of a pandemic that has killed more than 1.3 million people.

In the US, the head of the US vaccine program, Moncef Slaoui, said the first Americans to receive a vaccine could get it as soon as 11 December, CNN reported on Sunday.

“Our plan is to be able to ship vaccines to the immunisation sites within 24 hours from the approval, so I expect maybe on day two after approval on the 11th or the 12th of December,” he said in an interview to CNN.

Citing government sources, the Telegraph also said the UK’s National Health Service had been told to be ready to administer it by 1 December.

Britain formally asked its medical regulator, the MHRA, last week to assess the suitability of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The UK Department of Health had no comment on Sunday on when the first vaccinations would be administered.

Britain has ordered 40m doses and expects to have 10m doses, enough to protect 5 million people, available by the end of the year if regulators approve it.

Germany could also start administering shots of Covid-19 vaccines as soon as next month, health minister Jens Spahn was quoted as saying on Sunday. He said Spain and Germany were the first European Union countries to have a complete vaccination plan in place.

“There is reason to be optimistic that there will be approval for a vaccine in Europe this year,” Spahn said in an interview with publishing group RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland. “And then we can start right away.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/23/us-germany-and-uk-could-start-covid-vaccinations-as-early-as-december

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Victoria has no active coronavirus cases after the last patient was discharged from hospital.

It’s the first time in 269 days that Victoria hasn’t had an active case and comes after 25 consecutive days of zero infections.

Monash infectious diseases physician Rhonda Stuart said the last active case was an elderly man who was infected with his wife in early October.

She told 3AW his wife was discharged from hospital last week and the man was discharged on Tuesday night.

The joy was twofold for the hospital, with the team responsible for treating the country’s first coronavirus case also in charge of caring for Victoria’s last, the Herald Sun reported.

Dr Stuart told the newspaper there were “mixed emotions” as doctors farewelled the man, explaining battling the virus had been a “rollercoaster ride”.

“The whole treating team have gone on that journey with them, from being really concerned to now waiting out for us to release them as the last person from isolation in Victoria,” she said. “It’s a pretty remarkable story.”

Deputy chief health officer Allen Cheng said the achievement was certainly a milestone for Victoria.

“It doesn’t mean the threat is gone, but certainly a milestone considering we had 7880 active cases on August 11,” he tweeted.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/major-milestone-as-zero-active-coronavirus-cases-achieved-in-victoria/news-story/322c0d2cf7f9f108ebf0119081962235

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