We know, we know, you just got done deciding how to handle your annual Thanksgiving dinner in a time of pandemic, and for millions of people the result was a drearier—or at least lonelier—gathering than usual. Now, many families are facing the same question about Christmas. My colleague Jamie Ducharme has some answers, as part of TIME’s new COVID Questions advice column.
Our first question comes from a New Jersey-based reader named J.B. Typically, J.B.’s 70-year-old parents host a large Christmas gathering, and this year, an aunt and uncle from Florida who both tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies in July hope to attend. “Their plan is to donate blood in early December to see if they still have antibodies, then fly up from Florida to New Jersey,” J.B. writes. “They believe they can’t get COVID-19 again or spread it to others as long as they have antibodies.”
J.B’s question essentially boils down to: Do COVID-19 survivors still need to take precautions? For expert opinions, Jamie consulted Dr. Kelly Michelson, director of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a physician at Lurie Children’s Hospital, and Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine. The answer, it turns out, is essentially "yes, they do."
“It’s true that people who have recovered from the coronavirus are probably at a lower risk of getting the virus again or spreading it to other people," Jamie writes. "But there have been documented cases of people getting COVID-19 twice, and there’s a lot that scientists still don’t know about COVID-19 immunity, including how long antibodies last (estimates run anywhere from a few months to a year-plus) and how well they prevent subsequent infections.”
Michelson and Iwasaki both say that J.B.'s aunt and uncle should remain in Florida, or, if they decide to come, quarantine for 10 to 14 days before their flight to make the trip a little less risky. The good news: Michelson says she can imagine a possible return to group gatherings by next summer, with effective vaccines seemingly headed toward approval. In the meantime, though, it's best to stay as safe as possible.
“It would be really sad,” Michelson told Jamie, “to have one of the people you love get sick knowing that if you had waited five or six months, things would be different.”
Editor's note: Today we’re introducing a new section of the Coronavirus Brief, where we’ll collate and explain the latest news on the unprecedented effort to bring a COVID-19 vaccine to the world’s population. We hope it will help you better follow and understand this complicated scientific and logistical undertaking.
The U.K. began administering the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine nationwide today. To manage the demand, temporary clinics are being set up in village halls, libraries, parking lots and even a race course outside of London, The New York Timesreports. Tens of thousands of first aid workers are also being recruited to administer the tens of millions of shots. Complicating matters are security concerns, including fears of shipment hijackings and hackers sabotaging cold storage facilities, where the vaccine is kept at -70°C (-94°F). So far, no foul play has been detected.
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted its analysis of the Pfizer vaccine, concluding that it is strongly protective against COVID-19. Next up: a Dec. 10 agency meeting during which independent scientists will debate the data. A ruling is expected within days of the hearing.
Meanwhile, The Lancetpublished the results from a Phase 3 study of a vaccine candidate developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. The details—that the vaccine protects against symptomatic disease in 70% of cases—aren’t new, but this is, notably, the first time a vaccine developer has published results in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
The Global Situation
More than 67.5 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 1.5 million people have died. On Dec. 7, there were 517,473 new cases and 8,477 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here is every country with over 1 million confirmed cases:
As vaccines begin rolling out and the world starts to recover from the pandemic, the global economy should follow suit in what experts are predicting will be a post-pandemic boom—sort of. According to CNN, both the reopening of businesses and the release of pent-up demand should lead to a rapid rebound. But there are caveats. For one thing, the economy is starting in a deep hole, which means even the most robust recovery may only bring us back to where we were a year ago. Also, not all sectors will benefit equally. Expect industrial production to bounce back fast, for example. But the service industry—particularly long-haul travel? Not so much.
One more sign that the pandemic endgame is in sight: Europe’s resumption of elective surgeries that were put on hold for the last year to clear hospital beds for coronavirus patients, reports the Associated Press. In part, these procedures can resume because doctors now better understand how to treat COVID-19, meaning fewer sick people need to be hospitalized and those who do wind up needing treatment can be released faster. The result: procedures like hip replacements, cataract surgery and intestinal tucks to treat chronic obesity are all slowly resuming.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. had recorded nearly 15 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. More than 283,000 people have died. On Dec. 7, there were 192,299 new cases and 1,404 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
If you’re planning to fly any time soon (which, by the way, is a truly terrible idea at the moment), you may have the option of spending an extra $129 for a preflight COVID-19 test—at least if you're traveling on American Airlines. That’s the price of the at-home coronavirus test that the airline is offering to passengers en route to U.S. cities with travel restrictions beginning on Dec. 12. The cost covers shipping as well as time with a virtual doctor to walk people through the testing steps and help them interpret their results.
In a White House event later today being dubbed the "Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit," both U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are expected to celebrate the likely imminent authorization of vaccines for distribution in the U.S., with Trump signing an executive order mandating that Americans receive first access to U.S.-developed vaccines (it's unclear, however, how this order will be enforced.)
Also on the agenda: how the vaccine will be distributed to 64 designated jurisdictions—states, cities and territories—as well as the thousands of vaccinators being trained to administer the shots. The group will also discuss vaccine quantity, with 6 million doses anticipated in the first week after approval, then 40 million in December and an additional 60 million by February.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Dec. 8, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Overcoming Vaccine Skepticism in the Black Community
Fewer than half of Black Americans report that they will take a coronavirus vaccine, compared to 61% of Whites and 63% of Hispanics, per the Pew Research Center. And no wonder: a long history of economic and health disenfranchisement and notorious episodes like the Tuskegee experiment has bred a deep suspicion of the medical industry. Here, the Washington Post reports on efforts to overcome that mistrust. Read more here.
Worries Over Misuse of Vaccine Data
The Trump Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention want U.S. states to submit names, birthdates, addresses and even ethnicities of people who receive coronavirus vaccines to the federal government. The stated reason, as The New York Times reports, is to ensure that people who move across state lines receive follow-up doses and to track adverse effects. But states are pushing back amid fears that the data could be misused and that their collection could discourage undocumented residents from getting inoculated. Read more here.
Housing Crisis Looms
With extended unemployment benefits set to expire Dec. 26 and a ban on some renter evictions lapsing on Jan. 1, up to 40 million people who have been economically clobbered by the pandemic could be facing eviction in the U.S., according to Reuters. It’s not just tenants and homeowners who will be hit—so too will landlords, whose bills keep coming due even as tenants are unable to pay up. Read more here.
Pandemic? What Pandemic?
Viruses are nonpartisan, but one political party is inviting trouble as the winter approaches. As Politico reports, Republican lawmakers and activists are conducting political business as usual, crowding D.C. steakhouses, continuing with plans for a fundraising event at a Utah ski resort, and pressing ahead with live attendance at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference in early 2021. Democrats, by contrast, are generally laying low. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jeffrey Kluger and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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