California coronavirus updates: Pfizer to hike prices for COVID-19 dose after government purchases stop

11:37 a.m.: Pfizer to hike prices for COVID-19 dose after government purchases stop

Pfizer will cost $110 to $130 for a dose of its COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the U.S. government stops shopping for the pictures, according to the Associated Press.

Pfizer executives mentioned the industrial pricing for grownup doses might begin early subsequent yr, relying on when the government phases out its program of shopping for and distributing the pictures.

The drugmaker expects that individuals with protection by means of public packages like Medicare or Medicaid can pay nothing because the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cowl many really helpful vaccines with out charging any out-of-pocket bills.

The worth hike would make the two-dose vaccine dearer for cash-paying prospects than a typical annual flu shot, the place prices vary from $50 to $95, relying on the kind.

Last yr, the drugmaker charged the nation $19.50 per dose, and it had three tiers of pricing globally, relying on every nation’s monetary state of affairs.

The vaccine alone introduced in $36.78 billion in income final yr for Pfizer and was the drugmaker’s top-selling product. Analysts predict it’ll rack up one other $32 billion this yr.

11:42 a.m.: Will the COVID-19 pandemic shape our genetic history? Scientists think maybe not.

The Medieval world left a organic legacy — genes that helped them survive the Black Death possible make some folks in the present day extra prone to sure illnesses.

According to the Associated Press, scientists mentioned in a research that it is a prime instance of the way in which germs form us over time. But what helped folks survive the bubonic plague within the 14th century led to issues generations later.

It raised the frequency of genetic mutations that in the present day are detrimental. Some of the identical genetic variants scientists recognized as defending towards the plague are related to sure autoimmune problems similar to Crohn’s illness, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

All of this begs the query: Will the COVID-19 pandemic considerably affect human evolution? One scientist mentioned he does not assume so as a result of the loss of life price is a lot decrease and the bulk of people that have died had already had kids.

In the long run, nevertheless, extra lethal pandemics could effectively proceed to form us on the most elementary degree.

11:20 a.m.: Emissions rose in 2022, but more slowly than expected due to pandemic

The International Energy Agency mentioned that it expects carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels to rise once more this yr, however by a lot lower than in 2021 due to development in renewable energy and electrical vehicles.

According to the Associated Press, final yr noticed a robust rebound In emissions of CO2 — the primary greenhouse gasoline accountable for world warming — after the worldwide financial downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Coal emissions grew 2% as nations that beforehand imported pure gasoline from Russia scrambled for different vitality sources. However, this didn’t outweigh the enlargement of photo voltaic and wind energy, which noticed a file rise in 2022.

Oil use additionally elevated as pandemic-related restrictions eased, leading to extra folks commuting to work and elevated air journey.

Carbon dioxide emissions and different greenhouse gasses want to decline drastically within the coming many years to preserve world temperatures from rising past 1.5 levels Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), the formidable threshold agreed upon within the 2015 Paris local weather act.

Scientists say there’s little room left for maneuvering as a result of temperatures have already risen by 1.2 Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) in contrast to pre-industrial instances.

12:09 p.m.: Pandemic accentuated gap in internet inequity in US

Having a quick web connection at house has grow to be a near-requirement for many Americans, particularly with the rise of distant training and dealing from house due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But an investigation by The Markup has discovered that web service suppliers typically supply drastically completely different speeds to completely different prospects, even when these prospects reside in different elements of the identical metropolis.

In many circumstances, the poorest and least white elements of a metropolis are solely supplied service that’s so sluggish it doesn’t meet federal regulator’s definition of broadband — and suppliers often cost the identical quantity for that service as they do for their quickest speeds in different neighborhoods.

1:17 p.m.: Theme park attendance was a roller coaster in 2021, report shows

Last yr was a curler coaster trip for theme parks worldwide, with U.S. water parks approaching pre-pandemic ranges and parks in China scuffling with lockdowns. 

That’s in accordance to the TEA/AECOM 2021 Theme Index and Museum Index: The Global Attractions Attendance Report.

Last yr, U.S. theme parks recaptured solely about two-thirds of their attendance from 2019. But the yr marked an upward trajectory with attendance growing by 134% over figures from 2020, when most theme parks have been shuttered for a number of months in an effort to restrict the unfold of the brand new coronavirus. 

U.S. water parks approached their pre-pandemic figures. Attendance at Chinese theme parks in 2021 was about half of what it was pre-pandemic.

8 a.m.: California could end state of emergency in 2023

Governor Gavin Newsom will finish California’s COVID-19 state of emergency in early 2023, barring a winter surge in circumstances or new vaccine-resistant variant. 

The finish of the state of emergency won’t imply the top of COVID-19, however Newsom says the state is ready to take care of it and future pandemics.

Most of the emergency provisions have already sundown, and Newsom plans to terminate the remaining on February 28. That’s simply shy of three years earlier than it was declared in the beginning of the pandemic. But he’s asking state lawmakers to go a invoice to permit nurses to proceed to give out COVID-19 remedies.

Senior administration officers say ending the state of emergency is extra of a authorized milestone that gained’t have a serious affect on Californians’ day-to-day lives. They say the emergency might keep in place longer if a surge overwhelms hospitals this winter.

11:14 a.m.: US may yet eliminate monkeypox infection, experts say

Just a couple of months in the past, it appeared just like the U.S. had misplaced its likelihood to get rid of the unfold of monkeypox — that’s, stamp out the outbreak and get circumstances down to zero, besides for new infections from overseas.

According to NPR, consultants have been frightened it was only a matter of time earlier than the virus unfold extra broadly within the U.S., particularly in settings like daycare and faculty dorms.

Now it is clear these considerations did not materialize. Some infectious illness consultants are even elevating the concept the U.S. might get rid of the virus.

Monkeypox circumstances have declined since a peak in early August — from 440 circumstances per day down to 60 — they usually’re the bottom they have been since June. The virus has continued to flow into virtually solely inside homosexual and queer networks. Vaccine provide is plentiful, and it is even outstripping the present demand.

10:35 a.m.: Germany urges stronger COVID measures

Germany’s well being minister is urging the nation’s 16 states to think about stepping up measures towards the coronavirus amid an increase in new circumstances, in accordance to the Associated Press.

Karl Lauterbach mentioned he favors requiring mask-wearing indoors, a measure that had largely light within the nation besides on public transportation, medical services and care properties.

Lauterbach advised reporters in Berlin that it could be higher for states to impose restricted restrictions now than stricter ones later.

German authorities registered over 144,000 newly confirmed circumstances up to now 24 hours and 165 COVID-related deaths. The well being ministry has launched a brand new promoting marketing campaign showcasing actual folks affected by COVID-19 to encourage vaccination.

10:57 a.m.: Biden administration extends COVID public health emergency

The Biden administration says the COVID-19 public well being emergency will proceed by means of Jan. 11 as officers brace for a spike in circumstances this winter, in accordance to the Associated Press. 

The public well being emergency was first declared in January 2020 and has been renewed each 90 days since. It’s dramatically modified how well being providers are delivered. 

The choice comes because the pandemic has light from the forefront of many individuals’s minds. Daily deaths and infections are dropping and other people — lots of them maskless — are returning to faculties, work and grocery shops as regular. 

The administration has mentioned it could present 60 days discover earlier than it ends the general public well being emergency.

9:28 a.m.: In drawn-out recovery, NYC inches out from COVID’s shadow

It’s changing into clearer that New York City’s restoration from the pandemic will likely be drawn out and that some elements of the town’s financial ecosystem could possibly be modified for good. 

More employees returned to their workplaces because the summer time ended. But these restricted numbers imply continued hardship for New Yorkers whose jobs are constructed across the commuting class. 

Remote work has introduced an upswing in jobs and liveliness to some neighborhoods within the outer boroughs. But that hasn’t made up for what’s been misplaced. 

The metropolis’s unemployment price was over 6% in August. That’s considerably greater than the nationwide price of below 4%.

10:09 a.m.: FDA clears updated COVID boosters for kids as young as 5

Updated Oct. 13

Kids as younger as 5 can quickly get up to date COVID-19 booster pictures.

The tweaked boosters rolled out final month for Americans 12 and older — pictures designed to goal the presently spreading omicron variants. On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved kid-size variations for 5- to 11-year-olds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention additionally signed off.

Officials hope to broaden safety towards an anticipated winter surge. The up to date pictures comprise half the recipe that focused the unique coronavirus pressure and half safety towards the dominant BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variations.

9 a.m.: Tourists flock to Japan after COVID restrictions lifted

Eager to admire colourful foliage, eat sushi and buy groceries, droves of vacationers from overseas have began arriving in Japan. 

Beginning Tuesday, the government lifted border restrictions that had been in place for greater than two years to curb the coronavirus pandemic. Airlines have added flights and visa-free journey is again for short-term enterprise visits and tourism. 

Travelers are anticipated to ship a sorely wanted $35 billion increase to the world’s third-largest financial system. And given the bargains to be had with the yen weakening towards the U.S. greenback, the flood of tourists is anticipated to continue to grow.

11:25 a.m.: Respiratory illnesses — and not just COVID-19 — spike in U.S. children

Respiratory sicknesses are rising in youthful sufferers within the United States, although the spike has largely been due to sicknesses aside from COVID-19.

According to NPR, some pediatric hospitals throughout the county have begun working out of beds, with many methods nonetheless feeling the pressure from the pandemic.

“We’ve been strapped, and hospitals have sort of been functioning at the edge of how they can function. We’re seeing more people requiring help and fewer beds available, largely due to staffing needs,” Dr. Ibukun Kalu, a specialist in pediatric infectious illnesses at Duke Children’s Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, advised NPR. “This combination is going to create more and more problems.”

The CDC issued a health advisory in September in regards to the improve in pediatric respiratory sicknesses, together with RSV, enteroviruses and rhinovirus.

8:45 a.m.: Families to face bigger bills for subsidized child care as California ends waivers

During the pandemic, California’s low-income households which are required to pay a price to obtain sponsored baby care bought a waiver from paying. That waiver is ready to expire subsequent yr, worrying dad and mom who’ve struggled to afford it up to now. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a invoice final month that will have made the waiver everlasting. Parents say the waiver, which is able to finish in June 2023, allowed them to pay different bills or get caught up on delinquent payments. Now they are going to have to stop paying down debt, saving for emergencies and enrolling their kids in further actions like dance classes to pay the charges as a substitute.

California helps low-income households afford baby care by means of a number of completely different packages. For most households the packages are free, however others should pay a share of their sponsored baby care prices — what the state refers to as a “family fee.” Families pay the price instantly to their baby care supplier or to the contractor that manages their sponsored baby care.

The pandemic put a highlight on the kid care challenges going through households with the bottom incomes, who bought hit hardest by COVID-19. Many labored service jobs that have been frozen or eradicated, or labored important jobs they have been required to do in individual. Their circumstances drove state officers to waive the charges.   

A legislative evaluation of the invoice that will have permanently waived the fees discovered that eliminating the charges for some households and reducing the charges for others would value $136 million a yr. A 2021 research by the California Budget and Policy Center discovered that the state collects about $68 million yearly in baby care charges from households with low and average incomes.

2:35 p.m.: As COVID-19 pandemic assistance ends, homelessness skyrockets in Sacramento

Homelessness is anticipated to be up when the federal government releases outcomes from an annual rely within the coming months — the primary full tally because the coronavirus pandemic started.

Experts say with the top of pandemic reduction measures that saved many individuals housed, the disaster is deepening.

But, according to the Associated Press, the story isn’t uniform throughout the U.S. In two high-rent state capitals, the numbers have been shifting in reverse instructions.

In Boston, the place there’s been enchancment, officers credit score a technique of focusing on housing to individuals who have lengthy been on the streets.

While in Sacramento, persons are changing into homeless quicker than they are often housed.

Fueled by a long-running housing scarcity, rising hire prices and the financial hangover from the pandemic, the general variety of homeless in a federal government report to quickly be launched is anticipated to be larger than the 580,000 unhoused earlier than the coronavirus outbreak, the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

In West Coast cities similar to Sacramento and Portland, Oregon, rising homelessness has grow to be a humanitarian disaster and political soccer over the previous decade.

Numbers are up 68% in Sacramento from 2020 to 2022.

Research has proven that in locations seeing spikes in homelessness typically comply with a scarcity of reasonably priced housing. To make issues worse, pandemic government reduction packages — together with anti-eviction measures, emergency rental help and a toddler tax credit score that saved folks housed who could have been on the streets in any other case — are ending.

2:52 p.m.: Americans’ personalities may have shifted during the pandemic

Do you’re feeling like a unique individual than you have been in the beginning of the pandemic? A brand new research has discovered that many Americans have skilled a persona shift through the previous three years.

According to NPR, the analysis noticed that early within the pandemic many individuals noticed a drop in traits related to neuroticism. But because the pandemic wore on, researchers have been extra possible to see declines in traits similar to belief and artistic pondering.

“The first year [of the pandemic] there was this real coming together,” Sutin says. “But in the second year, with all of that support falling away and then the open hostility and social upheaval around restrictions … all the collective goodwill that we had, we lost, and that might have been very significant for personality.”

1:36 p.m.: Tax cut trend reaches two-thirds of states

About two-thirds of U.S. states have adopted some form of tax reduction this yr. The tax-cut development has been fueled by file state funds surpluses and huge development in state revenues after an preliminary downturn through the coronavirus pandemic. 

Missouri turned the newest state to act, when Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed an revenue tax reduce into legislation Wednesday, the Associated Press reports. Republican-led states have been extra apt to approve everlasting tax price reductions. Many Democratic states, in the meantime, have opted for one-time tax rebates, together with California. 

A bipartisan assortment of states even have suspended gasoline taxes or reduce gross sales taxes on groceries.

12:05 p.m.: Germany warns other nations of rising fall/winter COVID-19 cases

Germany’s well being minister, Karl Lauterbach, warned that the nation is seeing a gentle rise in COVID-19 circumstances because it goes into the autumn and urged older folks to get a second booster shot tweaked to shield towards new variants.

According to the Associated Press, different European nations similar to France, Denmark, and the Netherlands are additionally recording a rise in circumstances. Lauterbach mentioned that Germany is “clearly at the start of a winter wave.”

German officers recorded 96,367 new circumstances up to now 24 hours, about twice as many as every week in the past.

Starting Saturday, Germany’s 16 states can once more impose pandemic restrictions similar to a requirement to put on masks indoors.

12:13 p.m.: Flu season is coming — here’s some advice on when to get your flu vaccine

After nearly disappearing for two years within the U.S. because the COVID-19 pandemic shut down society, there are hints the flu might reemerge this fall, probably inflicting an unusually early and presumably extreme flu season.

As a end result, many consultants urge folks to get their flu pictures instantly to guarantee they’re protected — however what’s the very best timing?

The traditional flu season begins in November within the U.S. and peaks in January or February. In basic, some docs could wait till mid-October to get the flu shot, however circumstances are already rising.

According to NPR, the exact timing of while you get a flu shot over the following month or so does not matter as a lot, so long as you get one — particularly this yr.

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases mentioned that in a worst-case state of affairs, the flu might hospitalize as many as 560,000 folks within the U.S. this yr and kill as many as 63,000.

11:51 a.m.: Older adults are urged to get both flu vaccine and COVID-19 booster

Doctors have a message for vaccine-weary Americans: Don’t skip your flu shot this fall.

And for the primary time, seniors are urged to get a particular extra-strength sort. There’s no means to predict how unhealthy this flu season will likely be, in accordance to the Associated Press.

Australia simply emerged from a nasty one. In the U.S., annual flu vaccinations are really helpful beginning with 6-month-olds. Because older adults don’t reply as effectively, the U.S. now recommends they get considered one of three sorts made with greater doses or an immune-boosting ingredient.

Meanwhile, the businesses that make the 2 most generally used COVID-19 vaccines at the moment are testing flu pictures made with the identical know-how.