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FDA advisers to review

vaccine for children ages 5 to 11

An independent panel of vaccine experts said Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration should grant emergency authorization to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to children 5 to 11 years old.

The decision comes amid a nationwide effort to make vaccines available to this group of 28 million children by the first week of November, according to the Biden administration.

White House officials said they have already acquired enough doses to vaccinate every child in that age group.

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Here’s what to know

5:45 PM: Experts say immunization of younger children will represent milestone in pandemic

More than 10 months after U.S. adults started receiving coronavirus vaccines, the nation’s younger children moved significantly closer to getting a shot of protection when advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday endorsed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

A pediatric vaccine has been eagerly anticipated by many parents who want to ensure their children’s safety in school and holiday gatherings. Experts say the immunizations will represent a milestone in a pandemic that has killed more than 736,000 people in the United States.

“To me, it seems that it is a hard decision but a clear one,” said Patrick Moore, a microbiologist at the University of Pittsburgh. He noted that 94 children have died of covid-19, and “all have names. All of them had mothers.”

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By: Laurie McGinley and Katie Shepherd

5:00 PM: CDC director encourages kids to go outside on Halloween and ‘enjoy your trick-or-treating’

It’s time to prepare your Halloween ensembles. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky encouraged Americans to get outside and relish the holiday.

“I would say put on those costumes, stay outside and enjoy your trick-or-treating,” Walensky said when asked on “Fox News Sunday” what she would say to children about the holiday coming up this weekend.

Walensky added that she “wouldn’t gather in large settings outside and do screaming like you are seeing in those football games if you are unvaccinated — those kids that are unvaccinated.”

“But if you are spread out doing your trick-or-treating, that should be very safe for your children,” she said.

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By: Paulina Firozi

4:01 PM: CDC says some immunocompromised people can get a fourth coronavirus shot

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says some people with weakened immune systems who received either Moderna’s or Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine can get a fourth shot.

The CDC gave the green light last week to “mix-and-match” booster shots of any of the three coronavirus vaccines authorized in the United States to bolster protection for the most vulnerable Americans. In guidance that was updated late Monday, the agency provided more detail about boosters for those with weakened immune systems.

Moderately or severely immunocompromised people who have already received a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines may get a fourth shot six months or more after their last dose was administered, according to the CDC. These people can receive a booster dose of any of the three vaccines for a total of four vaccine doses, the guidance for clinicians states.

Health experts draw a distinction between additional doses and boosters. Additional doses are given to people with weakened immune systems. An additional dose of an mRNA vaccine is aimed at improving immunocompromised people’s response to the initial two-shot vaccine series. A booster is given after a person has completed their vaccine series and protection against the virus has decreased over time.

To learn more about mixing and matching vaccines, read The Washington Post’s FAQ.

By: Lena H. Sun

3:31 PM: Key coronavirus updates from around the world

Here’s what to know about the top coronavirus stories around the globe from news service reports.

By: Adela Suliman

2:30 PM: Belgium announces indoor mask mandates as cases rise

As coronavirus infections in Belgium surge, its government on Tuesday announced mitigation measures that include an indoor mask mandate for restaurants, health-care facilities and other public buildings.

Belgium’s Covid Safe Ticket — a QR code indicating that people are vaccinated, have recently tested negative for the virus or have recently recovered from covid-19 — will be mandatory for hotels, restaurants and bars. Officials said the rules will take effect in the coming days and last three months.

Cases in Belgium have increased by roughly 70 percent in the past week, and hospital admissions have risen by about 50 percent. About 74 percent of Belgians are fully vaccinated, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.

At a news conference Tuesday, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo noted that 8.5 million people have been fully vaccinated in Belgium. He added, “It is clear that if we did not have the vaccines, we would have been confronted with an absolute catastrophic situation for our hospitals.”

By: Quentin Aries

1:38 PM: Election ‘distracted’ Trump team from pandemic response, Birx tells Congress

The Trump administration was “distracted” by last year’s election and ignored recommendations to curb the pandemic, the former White House coronavirus response coordinator told congressional investigators this month.

“I felt like the White House had gotten somewhat complacent through the campaign season,” said Deborah Birx, who President Donald Trump chose in March 2020 to steer his government’s virus response, according to interview excerpts released by the House select subcommittee on the pandemic.

Birx, who sat for interviews with the subcommittee Oct. 12 and 13, also detailed advice that she said the White House ignored late last year, including more aggressively testing younger Americans, expanding access to virus treatments and better distributing vaccine doses in long-term-care facilities.

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By: Dan Diamond

12:45 PM: Raytheon CEO expects to lose ‘several thousand people’ over vaccination mandate

The top executive of the aerospace and defense giant Raytheon Technologies said Tuesday that he expects to lose thousands of staffers who will not comply with a companywide coronavirus vaccination mandate for U.S. employees.

In an interview on CNBC, CEO Greg Hayes said, “We will lose several thousand people,” adding that hiring was underway. The news agency Reuters first reported on Hayes’s comments about the expected departures, which amount to a fraction of Raytheon’s 125,000-strong U.S. workforce.

The company announced the vaccination mandate last month. Other large defense contractors have instituted their own mandates, following President Biden’s announcement of sweeping vaccination requirements that cover millions of contractors that do business with the federal government. In August, the Pentagon announced that it was making coronavirus vaccinations mandatory for military personnel.

Like other U.S. corporations that have instituted vaccination mandates, Raytheon sees the shots as a way to improve its business and industry. “Higher vaccination rates will continue to build confidence in the safety of air travel going forward,” Neil Mitchell, Raytheon’s chief financial officer, said during a call with analysts on Tuesday, as the company reported its quarterly earnings.

By: Hamza Shaban

11:58 AM: Tyson Foods reaches 96 percent vaccination rate after deal with union for paid sick leave

Nearly all workers at meat producer Tyson Foods have been vaccinated against the coronavirus after the company recently negotiated a deal with the union to grant paid sick leave, the company and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union said Monday.

More than 96 percent of Tyson’s front-line workers have been immunized after the company agreed in September to provide up to 20 hours of paid sick leave, according to the union.

In August, Tyson announced that it would require its 120,000-member U.S. workforce to get vaccinated by Nov. 1. Nearly 60,000 workers have since gotten their shots, and the company has seen “a significant decline” in infections, Tyson CEO Donnie King wrote to front-line employees.

The company temporarily shut down several plants in April 2020 after coronavirus outbreaks, including one at its Waterloo, Iowa, facility that eventually included more than 1,000 infections. The company and two other major meat producers failed to provide protective gear to all workers, and some employees said they were made to keep working in crowded plants while sick, an investigation by The Washington Post found. Tyson, meanwhile, raised an alarm that the pandemic could disrupt food supply chains and said its facilities had to remain operational to feed American families.

By: Marisa Iati

10:10 AM: New York City police union sues over vaccine mandate, while Chicago union resists similar requirement

The union representing New York City’s rank-and-file police officers asked a judge Monday to block enforcement of the city’s requirement that all employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The Police Benevolent Association, which represents about 24,000 officers, wrote that the mandate violates officers’ autonomy and privacy by suggesting that medical or religious exemptions will be limited. The union also argues in the lawsuit, filed in New York’s Supreme Court, that an existing policy requiring unvaccinated officers to get tested for the coronavirus weekly is sufficient to prevent outbreaks on the force.

“As of this writing, less than five days before the mandate is supposed to take effect, there is still no written, NYPD-specific policy guidance on how the mandate will be implemented,” PBA President Patrick Lynch wrote in a letter to union members.

Under the policy announced last week, city employees have until Friday to prove that they have received at least one vaccine dose. Unvaccinated employees will be put on unpaid leave until they can show that they have begun their regimen. More than 70 percent of workers have already gotten at least one dose, the city said.

In Chicago, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police went to City Hall on Monday to urge aldermen to overturn Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s policy that city employees report their vaccination status, the Chicago Tribune reported. Unvaccinated employees can choose to undergo regular testing.

Several dozen union members protested the mandate outside City Hall and pushed for an ordinance that would give aldermen the power to approve or reject future vaccine requirements. The same day, the Tribune reported, a judge declined to grant a temporary restraining order that would have banned local FOP President John Catanzara from publicly discouraging his members from complying with the city’s policy.

By: Marisa Iati

9:50 AM: Biden announces $100 million for Southeast Asian nations, including $40 million for covid-19 response

During a virtual summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), President Biden announced an initiative that would provide up to $102 million to expand the United States’ partnership with the 10-nation bloc, including $40 million to help the region deal with the pandemic and prevent future outbreaks.

“Our bottom line is that ASEAN is essential. I want to say that it is essential for the regional architecture of the Indo-Pacific, and the United States is committed to ASEAN centrality,” Biden said during a brief appearance at the beginning of the summit. ASEAN nations, he said, are a “linchpin” to security in “our shared region.”

The $102 million will fund health-care programs and research, including for emerging infectious diseases in the region, as well as a climate initiative. The funding will also support new economic growth programs and fund education-related loans.

“You can expect to see me personally showing up and reaching out to you. You can expect to see the United States deepening our long-standing cooperation,” Biden said. “I am truly looking forward to working with you to advance not only our many shared interests, but our shared values and shared vision for a region where every country can compete and succeed on a level playing field, and all nations, no matter how big or powerful, abide by the law.”

Brunei is hosting this year’s ASEAN Summit. The member nations are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Because Myanmar’s top general seized power in February, he was excluded from this week’s virtual summit.

Biden’s announcement comes as the United States tries to advance its relationship with the Pacific nations against China’s growing presence there. ASEAN leaders will also meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and representatives of China and South Korea.

By: Mariana Alfaro

8:43 AM: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey joins states pushing back against Biden administration’s vaccine mandates

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) ordered state agencies to resist the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandates on Monday, pledging to fight the White House in court.

In her executive order, she says state officials should not penalize any business or individual for ignoring federal vaccine mandates. It also says that even when compelled to enforce federal laws, state officials should “take all practical steps to notify the affected” that Alabama opposes all vaccine mandates. Her attorney general is preparing a lawsuit to stop the mandates, she said.

“Alabamians are overwhelmingly opposed to these outrageous, Biden mandates, and I stand with them,” Ivey said in a statement.

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By: Andrew Jeong

8:00 AM: BioNTech says it will build a vaccine factory in Rwanda

German biotechnology company BioNTech, which partners with Pfizer on a coronavirus vaccine, said Tuesday it will build a manufacturing facility in Rwanda next year.

“Our goal is to develop vaccines in the African Union and to establish sustainable vaccine production capabilities to jointly improve medical care in Africa,” Ugur Sahin, BioNTech CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.

The factory is meant to allow “end-to-end vaccine supply solutions on the African continent,” the company said, with BioNTech to initially staff, own and operate the facility “to support the safe and rapid initiation of the production of mRNA-based vaccine doses.” BioNTech said it ultimately plans to transfer manufacturing capacities and know-how to local partners to take over ownership and operational duties, but it did not specify a date.

The World Health Organization welcomed the news. “State-of-the-art facilities like this will be life-savers and game-changers for Africa and could lead to millions of cutting edge vaccines being made for Africans, by Africans in Africa,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said in a statement.

Only 15 African nations have fully vaccinated 10 percent of their populations against covid-19, according to the WHO, with the Seychelles, Mauritius and Morocco making the most progress. Just 2 percent of the more than 6 billion vaccines given globally have been administered to the continent’s 1.3 billion people.

Moderna, the U.S.-based drugmaker, said Tuesday it had earmarked up to 110 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine for the African Union, with the first batch of the shipment prepared to be delivered before year’s end.

By: Adela Suliman

7:16 AM: How zoos persuade animals to get the coronavirus vaccine: M&Ms and ice cream help

Just like 189 million Americans, Molly the tiger is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. This summer, 16-year-old Molly was one of several tigers and more than 50 animals at the Oakland Zoo that received at least one dose of a vaccine made by the New Jersey-based company Zoetis.

Unlike some humans, she didn’t hesitate when it came time to get her shot. A keeper gave a verbal command, and she slinked up to the enclosure’s fence, offering her hip for the jab. After a few warm-up pokes, a veterinarian injected the vaccine. Then, Molly got a treat: “For all of our large, exotic cats — that’s lions, tigers and mountain lions — they’re being positively reinforced with goat’s milk sprayed in their mouths,” Alex Herman, vice president of veterinary services at the Oakland Zoo in California, told me. “They really love it.”

The big cats aren’t the only zoo residents trained to receive the vaccines. “The bears got ice cream and whipped cream. To get the chimp to stay still, we gave her marshmallows and M&M’s,” Herman says.

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By: Matt Blitz

6:17 AM: More D.C.-area employers are coming to terms with telework flexibility and hybrid schedules, survey says

Workers in the Washington area have gradually returned to offices since the summer, but a new survey suggests it could be a long wait before downtown regains its pre-pandemic vitality with the majority of the region’s workers back on a daily basis.

Twenty months since the coronavirus pandemic hit the region, forcing hundreds of thousands of workers into telework, many employers remain uncertain about when and how to fully reopen offices amid continuing virus concerns and employee demands for flexibility, according to a study released Monday by the Greater Washington Partnership.

The survey of 164 employers in the District, Maryland and Virginia found less than half of employees are expected to be back in the office on a typical workday this fall. Employers say they expect that number will grow to about two-thirds by summer.

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By: Luz Lazo

6:09 AM: FDA advisers to review vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old

An independent panel of vaccine experts is scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider whether the Food and Drug Administration should grant emergency authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old, a group that includes 28 million people.

The advisory committee is expected to hear from the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Pfizer in an all-day meeting on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, and to vote by the end of the day on whether the benefits outweigh the risks of the shot.

The FDA isn’t required to follow its advisers’ recommendation but often does; it could clear the vaccine as soon as this week. The CDC’s immunization advisers are scheduled to meet Nov. 2 to recommend to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky how to use the shot. If all goes without a major hitch, the pediatric vaccine could be available in the first or second week of November.

Pfizer-BioNTech reported last week that the two-shot regimen is almost 91 percent effective for children. But safety is likely to be the focus of much of the advisers’ deliberations, given the vaccine’s association with a rare side effect called myocarditis, a kind of heart inflammation that can occur after the second dose.

The FDA used statistical modeling to assess the risks and benefits of the vaccine, estimating how many hospitalizations caused by covid-19 would be prevented compared with the number of heart complications that would be triggered by the shot. The agency’s analysis concluded the benefits outweigh the risks in almost all scenarios, except possibly when there are very low levels of viral transmission.

The issue of myocarditis “is the only potential roadblock to this moving quickly on the path” to emergency authorization, said Jason L. Schwartz, an associate professor of health policy at the Yale School of Public Health. But he added that the FDA’s statistical modeling was persuasive and that he expected the panel to recommend the vaccine.

By: Laurie McGinley

5:37 AM: Moderna pledges to earmark up to 110 million vaccine doses for African Union

Moderna, the Cambridge, Mass.-based drugmaker, said Tuesday that it would earmark up to 110 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine for the African Union, with the first batch of 15 million doses to be delivered before the year’s end and the rest throughout 2022.

The doses, which would be offered at the company’s lowest-tiered price “in line with its global access commitments,” would be in addition to the 500 million doses that it has promised to Covax, the World Health Organization initiative that aims to distribute vaccine doses more equitably across the world.

Moderna and its founders, who made large financial gains during the pandemic, have faced public backlash as high-bidding first-world countries received the company’s earliest doses, ahead of low-income countries, despite previous promises to supply them to lower-income countries on “equitable access principles.”

A day ahead of Moderna’s announcement, World Health Organization Secretary General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged wealthy nations to do more so that lower-income countries could increase their vaccination rates.

“No country can end the pandemic in isolation from the rest of the world,” he said Sunday at the World Health Summit in Berlin, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

The World Health Organization aims to have all of the world’s nations vaccinate at least 40 percent of their population by the end of this year, and 70 percent by the “middle of next year.”

Africa remains one of the least vaccinated continents. About 8.3 percent of the 1.3 billion people there have received at least one dose, according to figures compiled by researchers at Our World in Data.

The world as a whole has at least partially vaccinated 49 percent of the population. South America has the highest figure among continents, with 66 percent of its people having received at least one vaccine shot.

By: Andrew Jeong

4:48 AM: Singapore invokes ‘fake news’ law in push against anti-vaccine website

The Singapore-based website Truth Warriors falsely claims that coronavirus vaccines are not safe or effective — and now it will have to carry a correction on the top of each page alerting readers to the falsehoods it propagates.

Under Singapore’s “fake news” law — the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act — the website must carry a notice for readers that it contains “false statement of fact,” the Health Ministry said Sunday. A criminal investigation is also underway.

Singapore has one of the world’s farthest-reaching anti-misinformation laws enacted in recent years. Rights groups, however, have warned that the law’s broad scope could be used to hinder free speech and target government critics.

That’s a particular concern in a place such as Singapore, which severely restricts political speech. Other countries have modeled similar legislation after Singapore’s.

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By: Miriam Berger

4:02 AM: International body for pandemic preparedness issues stark warning in latest report

An international body that tracks preparedness for international health crises says in a new report that the current global system does not have the capacity to end the current covid-19 pandemic — let alone prevent the next pandemic — unless there are major changes.

The report released by Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) on Tuesday states that as many as 17 million people may have died because of covid-19, but that “there is scant evidence that we are learning the right lessons from this pandemic” and that the pandemic has “exposed a world that is unequal, divided, and unaccountable.”

The report points to the vast disparities in vaccine supplies between nations, as well as a lack of accountability for promises and heightened nationalism as evidence of a “broken world” and calls on world leaders to meet and write new international legislation to deal with this and future pandemics.

“Unless we are able to counteract these destructive trends, our response to the next pandemic is unlikely to be much better,” the report states.

“If the first year of the covid-19 pandemic was defined by a collective failure to take preparedness seriously and act rapidly on the basis of science, the second has been marked by profound inequalities and a failure of leaders to understand our interconnectedness and act accordingly,” Elhadj As Sy, a Senegalese public health expert who leads the GPMB, said in a statement before the release of the 2021 GPMB report, titled “From Worlds Apart to a World Prepared,” at the World Health Summit in Berlin.

The GPMB is an independent, 12-person panel of experts first convened by the World Health Organization and the World Bank Group in 2018 after the prior outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. The group’s first report, released in 2019, issued a prescient warning that “there is a very real threat of a rapidly moving, highly lethal pandemic of a respiratory pathogen killing 50 to 80 million people.”

“The world is not prepared,” the 2019 report noted.

The body makes several recommendations in its 2021 report, including calling on world leaders to convene a summit on health emergency preparedness and response and adopt an international agreement. The group also calls for a stronger WHO, with greater resources, authority and accountability.

The report’s release comes ahead of the Group of 20 summit in Rome this weekend and a later World Health Assembly session in November, where member states are expected to discuss the need for an international agreement on global health crises — what some public health experts have called a “pandemic treaty.”

By: Adam Taylor

4:01 AM: Cruises will no longer be required to follow CDC rules starting in January

The public health rules that dictate how cruise ships can operate in U.S. waters during the pandemic will become recommendations in mid-January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

Authorities replaced an earlier ban on cruise travel with a “conditional sailing order” in October 2020, which laid out steps cruise companies had to take to sail with passengers from U.S. ports. That order — which required ships to sail with at least 95 percent of people vaccinated or perform a test cruise to demonstrate safety procedures — was set to expire on Nov. 1.

Instead, the CDC will extend the order, with some tweaks, through Jan. 15. Those changes include new procedures for ships that come to U.S. waters after operating in other jurisdictions, new instructions for ships that want to switch from 95 percent of passengers vaccinated to a lower number and the end of required CDC travel advisories or warnings about cruising in marketing material.

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By: Hannah Sampson

4:01 AM: International visitors with proof of vaccination, negative test will soon be allowed to enter U.S.

With less than two weeks to go before the United States lifts a travel ban on visitors from 33 countries, federal health officials offered more specifics for travelers and airlines before restrictions are lifted Nov. 8.

Although vaccination won’t be required for children, most noncitizens and nonimmigrants arriving by air will have to show both proof of vaccination and proof of a negative coronavirus test taken at least three days before departure. Those under 18 will have to show proof of a negative coronavirus test before boarding a flight, according to rules outlined Monday by the Biden administration.

“With science and public health as our guide, the United States has developed a new international air travel system that both enhances the safety of Americans here at home and enhances the safety of international air travel,” the White House said in a statement.

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By: Lori Aratani and Adela Suliman

Unlike some humans, she didn’t hesitate when it came time to get her shot. A keeper gave a verbal command, and she slinked up to the enclosure’s fence, offering her hip for the jab. After a few warm-up pokes, a veterinarian injected the vaccine. Then, Molly got a treat: “For all of our large, exotic cats — that’s lions, tigers and mountain lions — they’re being positively reinforced with goat’s milk sprayed in their mouths,” Alex Herman, vice president of veterinary services at the Oakland Zoo in California, told me. “They really love it.”