The US health authorities report new highs with 3,656 corona deaths within one day and almost 250,000 new infections. Meanwhile, the vaccination campaign is running – also with prominent US politicians.
For more than a month, the corona virus has been spreading again at a particularly high pace in the USA. The health authorities have again reported high levels. Within 24 hours, 3,656 people died from or with the corona virus, as the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore announced on its website. 247,403 other US citizens have been newly infected with the virus.
In total, the US authorities have registered around 16.9 million infections with the virus since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of deaths is 307,501. This makes the United States the country in the world most severely affected by the pandemic in absolute terms. According to the Ministry of Health, there are currently around 113,000 people in hospitals for treatment for a corona infection.
Vaccination campaign has started
To contain the pandemic, health authorities started large-scale vaccinations on Monday. First of all, health workers and residents of old people’s and nursing homes are to be vaccinated. The US drug regulatory authority FDA issued an emergency approval for the vaccine from the Mainz company Biontech and the US company Pfizer last week.
Two vaccinations with undesirable side effects caused a sensation in the US state of Alaska. A health care worker had a severe reaction to the drug after vaccination, said Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau. The patient was blushed and felt out of breath. The diagnosis afterwards was an allergic shock, according to officials. Another person was vaccinated on Wednesday with side effects and then fully recovered.
US politicians are publicly vaccinated
In order to convince the population of the safety of the vaccine, prominent US politicians want to be immunized in the media. US Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen are said to receive a vaccination on Friday in front of the cameras. The purpose of this is to demonstrate “the safety and effectiveness” of the vaccine and to increase the confidence of US citizens in the vaccine, the White House said.
The elected next president Joe Biden also wants to be publicly vaccinated in his own words. The US chief immunologist Anthony Fauci advised Biden to vaccinate quickly. He should get it “sooner rather than later,” said Fauci, according to Biden.
During the start of the vaccination campaign, further corona cases became known at the highest level: Interior Minister David Bernhardt tested positive on Wednesday. A ministry spokesman said he had no symptoms and would continue to work in quarantine. Shortly before, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also gone into quarantine because he had contact with a person who tested positive. According to the State Department, however, a first test was negative.
