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Vaccines to Pharmacies Boosted; U.K. Variant Gets Worse; 1 Case, Total Lockdown

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Starting next week, the Biden administration will ship about 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses directly to about 6,500 pharmacies across the country to help speed the vaccination process. (NPR)

As of 8:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the unofficial COVID-19 tally in the U.S. reached 26,436,594 cases and 446,901 deaths — up 114,229 and 3,288, respectively, from Tuesday.

A small number of people in England who have the highly transmissible U.K. coronavirus variant also have the E484K mutation, which is part of the variants driving new waves of infections in South Africa and Brazil. (BBC)

Vexed by variants? NPR plays with Legos to make them easier to understand.

Final data from a U.K. Biobank study showed that 99% of study participants who tested positive for previous SARS-CoV-2 infection retained antibodies for at least 3 months; 88% did so for 6 months.

Just hours after the release of early results of an advanced study saying Sputnik V was about 91% effective, Mexico approved the Russian coronavirus vaccine. (Reuters)

Chinese police arrested more than 80 people thought to be involved with manufacturing and selling fake COVID-19 vaccine doses. (CNN)

The country of Tanzania “has no plans to receive vaccines for COVID-19,” its health minister announced; vaccines for the virus are “inappropriate,” the Tanzanian president said recently, maintaining that God has eliminated the coronavirus in the country. (AP)

Pfizer expects to make at least 2 billion doses and generate $15 billion in sales of the COVID-19 vaccine it developed with BioNTech, about a quarter of its total revenue this year. (Reuters)

Four in 10 physician mothers in the U.S. had test scores indicating moderate or severe anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, an online survey showed. (American Journal of Psychiatry)

The Rhode Island doctor whose medical license was suspended for allegedly exposing patients to COVID-19 deliberately now faces federal claims that he and the manager of his four practices violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. (The Providence Journal)

One mild COVID-19 case in Perth — a young security guard at a quarantine hotel who tested positive; now 2 million Australians are under complete lockdown. (New York Times)

Capt. Sir Tom Moore, the “one-man fundraising machine” who raised $45 million for Britain’s National Health Service by walking laps of his garden during the country’s spring lockdown, died at the age of 100. (Washington Post)

A fit, 52-year-old SoulCycle instructor in New York City came under fire for getting a COVID vaccine as an “educator,” ahead of essential workers and vulnerable populations. (New York Times)

In other news:

  • Sixteen people reported being sick and one person died after the latest E. coli outbreak linked to an unknown food source, the CDC said.
  • A former researcher at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and must pay $2.6 million in restitution for conspiring to steal trade secrets about exosomes and exosome isolation. (WBNS TV)
  • Doctors at government hospitals have threatened to stop working as resistance to the military takeover in Myanmar grows. (BBC News)
  • After a 9-year-old girl was pepper-sprayed in Rochester, New York, state lawmakers introduced legislation banning law enforcement officers from using chemical irritants on minors. (WHEC-TV)
  • Judy George covers neurology and neuroscience news for MedPage Today, writing about brain aging, Alzheimer’s, dementia, MS, rare diseases, epilepsy, autism, headache, stroke, Parkinson’s, ALS, concussion, CTE, sleep, pain, and more. Follow

Source: MedicalNewsToday.com