Good news for vaccine-seeking teenagers out there: Moderna announced today that its coronavirus vaccine is both safe and effective in people between 12 and 17 years old, my colleague Alice Park reports. In a recent trial, none of the 3,700 adolescent participants who received the vaccine exhibited COVID-19 symptoms, and those who experienced side effects only had relatively minor or moderate reactions, including headache, fatigue, muscle aches and chills.
Moderna plans to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to extend the vaccine's emergency use authorization to cover the 12-17 age group soon. If that process follows recent history—the FDA took about a month to approve a similar request from Pfizer-BioNTech—youths may be able to get Moderna's vaccine in July.
That U.S. teenagers could soon have another vaccine option could help all of us more quickly put the pandemic behind us. Teens are more likely to have symptomatic COVID-19 than young children, and they tend to have more contact with others than older people, potentially driving viral spread. Moreover, it would make it easier to safely reopen schools for in-person learning, which is good for students and their parents alike.
Where does the teen vaccination rollout stand now? Less than 2% of those 16 or 17, who only recently became broadly eligible for the shot, have been vaccinated so far. The rate is about the same for 12-to-15-year-olds, who were able to start getting the Pfizer shot starting about two weeks ago. However, as the most recently eligible group for vaccination, youths account for the lion's share of recent vaccinations, as the charts below show:
Still, many parents are in no rush to get their kids inoculated. In an April KFF survey, only three in 10 parents of kids age 12-15 said their children would get the shot as soon as it became available to them.
But that sentiment could change as another vaccine comes online for kids—hesitancy more broadly decreased as lots of people got vaccinated, and people saw friends and family get the shot with no or few ill effects. More parents may also want their teens to get vaccinated if it becomes essential for them to resume "normal" life: according to the Kaiser survey, 18% of parents said their teen would get the shot if schools required it. There's also no doubt that some adolescents will mount their own pro-vaccination campaigns, and tell their parents: I want to get the shot so I can be a teen again.
About 359 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this afternoon, of which 287.7 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 39.5% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
A vanishingly small percentage of vaccinated people in the U.S. have experienced "breakthrough" coronavirus infections, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released today. Of the 101 million people who have been fully vaccinated so far, fewer than 11,000 in 46 states have developed COVID-19. Among the breakthrough cases, 27% were asymptomatic and less than 2% were fatal. "Even though FDA-authorized vaccines are highly effective, breakthrough cases are expected, especially before population immunity reaches sufficient levels to further decrease transmission," the CDC said.
Alabama governor Kay Ivey signed a law yesterday banning government institutions from issuing vaccine passports—documents that can grant vaccinated people access to certain spaces. "I am supportive of a voluntary vaccine and by signing this bill into law, I am only further solidifying that conviction," Ivey said in a statement posted on Facebook. Governors in several other states, including Texas, have also banned vaccination passports by executive order.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
The Global Situation
More than 167.3 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 3.4 million people have died. On May 24, there were 454,300 new cases and 8,824 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
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 2.5 million confirmed cases:
B.1.617.2, a variant first detected in India, is spreading rapidly in the United Kingdom, the New York Times reports. Government officials have warned that it's "highly likely" that the variant is more contagious than B.1.1.7, which fueled a surge in the U.K. this past winter. While the new variant hasn't yet sparked another spike in the U.K., where more than half of residents are at least partially vaccinated, the trend is a warning sign for less-vaccinated countries.
An Indian couple that got married aboard a chartered plane with about 160 passengers to circumvent a rule that would have otherwise capped the event at 50 people is being investigated by local authorities, the New York Times reports. А video posted online showed the bride and groom decked out in wedding attire and standing in front of the passengers as the group cheered and snapped pictures.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. had recorded more than 33.1 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. More than 590,300 people have died. On May 24, there were 25,925 new cases and 427 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
Half of U.S. adults will be fully vaccinated by the end of the day, White House COVID-19 advisor Andy Slavitt said during a press briefing today (this is a different figure than that shown in TIME's chart above, which tracks all U.S. residents). However, vaccination rates are inconsistent across states. More than 52% of Vermont's population is fully vaccinated, for instance, but that figure is less than 27% in Mississippi.
Less than half of Americans—44%—reported social distancing over the last week, a 12% decline from two weeks ago, according to an Axios/Ipsos poll conducted May 21 to 24 and released today. Meanwhile, just 45% said they now wear a mask outside the home at all times, compared to 74% in January. Widespread vaccination and the CDC's latest masking guidance has likely contributed to these changes; nearly three quarters of Americans said they don't trust others to be honest about their vaccination status when going unmasked.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of May 25, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Doctors Are Rethinking How They Treat Patients
While some experts are worried that patients missed out on essential care during the pandemic, the outbreak has also given physicians an unprecedented opportunity to think about which tests and treatments are truly necessary, Bruce Alpert reports for the Washington Post. Read more here.
Vaccine Waitlist Dr. B Looks Different in Hindsight
Millions of people signed up for a service known as Dr. B, which promised to connect them with extra vaccine doses. However, there's little evidence that many people were actually vaccinated through the program, and it's unclear what the company will do with people's data, Mia Sato reports for MIT Technology Review. 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 Tara Law and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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