Covid-19 vaccine 'unlikely' by October, says National Institutes of Health director

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The director of the National Institutes for Health, Dr. Francis Collins, said it’s “unlikely” that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by October. 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told public health officials around the United States to prepare to distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine as soon as late October. It’s also provided planning scenarios to help states prepare. 

“This is like the Boy Scout motto, ‘Be Prepared,’” Collins said. “Even if it's very low likelihood, if everything happened to come together really beautifully and we had an answer by then and we knew we had a vaccine that was safe and effective, wouldn't you want people to be ready to figure out how to do the distribution? That's all that CDC is saying.”

“Now keep in mind that the likelihood of that is pretty low,” Collins added.

There are currently three vaccines in the US in phase 3 clinical trials.

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Google search's data visualization programs now include a platform to see what coronavirus-related symptoms have been looked up by users around the world, the US, states, and counties.

Google has for years tried to refine algorithms to come up with ways to predict disease activity based on people’s searches for symptoms.

Google search has previously offered data to help researchers studying health impacts from heatwaves, prediction models for the seasonal flu and monitor Lyme disease incidence.

Brazil’s health ministry reported 46,934 new Covid-19 cases and an additional 1,184 virus-related deaths on Wednesday.

These new figures bring the country’s total number of cases to 3,997,865 and its death toll to 123,780.

Some context: According to figures released by the health ministry during a news conference on Wednesday, the number of deaths from coronavirus reported last week in Brazil reflected an 11% decrease from the week prior. 

Brazil has the second-highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the world, behind only the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The University of Missouri has reported that it has 483 active student cases of Covid-19. 

According to the university's Covid-19 dashboard, a total of 683 student Covid-19 cases, which includes active cases, have been reported since the university began receiving data from the Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services on Aug. 19.

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The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contrasted his first two years as head of the agency with the last eight months in an interview with Yahoo Finance today.

The last eight to nine months, however, have been like being in the middle of "a real battle," he said.

"This is one of the most critical, complicated public health crises that this nation has faced in over a century… and to sort of be in the middle of that, it's a big effort. I mean it's an honor, but I sure liked the first two years a lot more because I was seeing meaningful progress in making meaningful improvements in a variety of areas,” Redfield said, listing drug use disorder, Ebola outbreaks, the AIDS epidemic, nicotine use in children and maternal mortality.

Redfield recalled the time in late February and early March when he received the first models of the pandemic.

“It was a very difficult time for me because those models — by very smart people in my agency — told me that they anticipated one million to 2.4 million people would die from Covid before October 2020. That was catastrophic, if you start to think about that. I think we all committed to do all we can to try to save human life,” he said.

Los Angeles County health officials announced that K-12 schools can resume limited on-campus teaching for students most in need of in-person learning.

The decision allows for K-12 students with Individualized education plans, those requiring English as a second language instruction and others needing assessments or specialized in-school services to return to campuses for in-person learning starting on Sept. 14.

Under state guidelines, schools located in counties in California’s first reopening tier, where coronavirus risk remains “widespread,” cannot reopen to all students for in-person learning.

However, state rules allow for school officials to apply for a waiver to reopen grades K-6 only to students if the coronavirus daily case rate falls below 200 per 100,000 residents, a metric Los Angeles County now meets.

On Wednesday, health officials said they will not yet be opening the waiver program for elementary schools while it monitors the implementation of the new K-12 in-person learning program for students with specialized needs. 

Kentucky Governor's office

Gov. Andy Beshear has urged Kentuckians to keep gatherings small over the upcoming Labor Day weekend, which will also feature the 2020 Kentucky Derby.

On Tuesday, the governor announced that he would not be presenting the trophy at the Kentucky Derby in person this year and would instead be watching the race from home, with a planned video presentation of the trophy. 

“So please, let's not look back and say something as special as what this weekend can be, turned into the time when this virus got out of control,” Beshear added.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca speaks during a press conference held after a meeting of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Scientific Advisory Board in Ankara, Turkey on September 02 Ministry of Health of Turkey/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Turkey reported 1,596 new Covid-19 cases over the last 24 hours, according to the Turkish health ministry, making this the third day the country has recorded more than 1,500 cases.

The Turkish health minister warned that the capital city of Ankara now leads with more cases than any other province, including the previous hotspot of Istanbul.

Last week, Turkey reintroduced remote and flexible hours for government workers who are densely based out of the capital.

While confirmed cases in Istanbul and the Aegean region have stabilized, Central Anatolia and Southeast Turkey are experiencing surges in cases, Koca said.

Los Angeles County Health Officer Muntu Davis Pool

Los Angeles County health officials on Tuesday announced that hair salons and barber shops are allowed to reopen for limited indoor operations, bringing those businesses in California’s most populous county in line with the state’s sweeping new reopening guidelines.

The announcement allows hair salons and barber shops in the county to immediately reopen with 25% indoor capacity, provided they are in compliance with health protocols to reduce spread of the coronavirus, which includes the use of face masks. 

The daily new coronavirus case rate in Los Angeles County has been reduced to 10 per 100,000, health officials said, placing it in the first tier of the state’s reopening plan, where viral risk is considered “widespread.”

In order for the county to advance to the second tier, where risk is considered “substantial,” it must reduce the infection rate to no more than seven daily new cases per 100,000.

By the numbers: The county reported 51 new coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday, two of which were between the ages of 18 to 29, and three who were between the ages of 30 and 49, for a total of 5,878 deaths.

Health officials urged the public to be especially careful to avoid crowds and gatherings over the upcoming Labor Day weekend.