National News - Page 150

After being pummeled, Southeast US faces the threat of more storms and tornadoes

By Madeline Holcombe and Michael Guy After a calm night, Tuesday is expected to bring severe weather to the Southeast US, which has already been pummeled by deadly tornadoes. A storm system moved out of Oklahoma and Texas — where more than 36,000 people were without power early Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutages.us — and into the Lower Ohio Valley and Tennessee area. The evening brought diminished downpours and wind gusts, but daybreak threatens to bring severe weather again. Large hail, damaging wind gusts and tornadoes are forecast to impact the areas from the Ohio River Valley down to the

FDA to authorize Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for 12-to-15-year-olds by early next week, official says

By Maggie Fox The US Food and Drug Administration is poised to authorize Pfizer/BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine in children and teens ages 12 to 15 by early next week, a federal government official tells CNN. Pfizer has applied for emergency use authorization for its coronavirus vaccine for teens and children ages 12 to 15. The FDA will have to amend the emergency use authorization for the vaccine, but the process should be straightforward, said the official, who was not authorized to speak about the process publicly and requested anonymity. The FDA is currently reviewing data submitted by Pfizer to support the

Vaccines are helping bring down US Covid-19 numbers. But the virus is now hitting one group of Americans harder

By Christina Maxouris America’s daily Covid-19 cases and deaths are now about one-fifth of what they were during their winter peaks — and one expert says the country’s improved numbers have a lot to do with the climbing vaccinations. The weekly average of daily Covid-19 deaths is more than 660, according to Johns Hopkins University data. In mid-January, that seven-day average was roughly 3,400 deaths daily. And the country has averaged more than 49,400 new Covid-19 cases daily in the past week, according to Johns Hopkins. On January 8, the country averaged more than 251,000 cases every day — the

Experts are divided on the new CDC mask guidance. Here’s what they’re saying.

Q&A by Paul LeBlanc New mask guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week has divided experts and fueled a new debate about the best way to steer Americans out of the pandemic. The guidance boils down to this: Fully vaccinated people can now unmask at small outdoor gatherings, or when dining outside with friends from multiple households. The CDC is telling unvaccinated people that they still need to wear a mask at such gatherings. Some public health experts have cast the new guidelines as too cautious as health officials pivot to reaching vaccine-hesitant Americans, while

100 million US adults are now fully vaccinated, White House says

By Kaitlan Collins and Kate Sullivan One hundred million adults in the United States are now fully vaccinated, White House coronavirus response director Jeff Zients announced Friday. “That’s a hundred million Americans with a sense of relief and peace of mind, knowing that after a long and hard year, they’re protected from the virus,” Zients told reporters at a White House Covid-19 briefing. He continued: “Knowing their decision to get vaccinated protects not just themselves but also protects their families, their friends and their communities.” “A hundred million Americans who can follow the new CDC guidance released this week and

Biden says schools ‘should probably all be open’ in the fall

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By Kate Sullivan President Joe Biden said Friday that K-12 schools “should probably all be open” in the fall for in-person learning after more than a year of most of the country’s kids facing the challenge of remote instruction due to the coronavirus pandemic. “Based on the science and the (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), they should probably all be open. There’s not overwhelming evidence that there’s much of a transmission among these people, young people,” Biden told NBC. Biden has made reopening schools a priority since taking office, but has stressed his administration would follow the guidance of

Confusion over masks sparks new political showdown

Analysis by Stephen Collinson America’s emerging limbo between a full-blown pandemic and a return to normal is throwing up new public health dilemmas that spark instant political fires — like a fresh round of grandstanding over mask wearing. Top White House adviser Anita Dunn Sunday defended President Joe Biden over his continued use of a mask outdoors — even though the practice appears to conflict with new and relaxed administration guidelines for fully vaccinated citizens. In comments that didn’t necessarily clarify the situation, Dunn told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that “extra precautions” were being taken for

The US is taking a major step toward resuming normal life

By Travis Caldwell As May arrives, the US is taking a major step toward resuming normal life, with cities, businesses and entertainment venues announcing plans to begin reopening after the deadly winter surge of Covid-19 infections. The travel industry is gearing up for a big summer season. This week, Delta will resume filling the middle seat on flights while Disneyland in California is opening its park gates for the first time in more than a year at around 25% attendance capacity. In sports, the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta United are among the first teams in their respective leagues to return

Full FDA approval of Covid-19 vaccines could help fight vaccine hesitancy, officials say

By Jacqueline Howard As a condition of the emergency use authorizations issued for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines, those companies are expected to work toward asking the US Food and Drug Administration for full approval — and some health officials are hoping it will happen soon. These vaccines have been in use since mid-December under emergency use authorizations, known as EUAs. During the pandemic, real-world data have shown the vaccines are effective against the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Wednesday he hopes

Majority of Americans say US economic conditions are good for the first time during the pandemic, per CNN Poll

By Matt Egan For the first time during the pandemic, most Americans approve of the economic conditions in the United States, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS that was released Wednesday. With jobless claims sinking and GDP growth expected to accelerate, a majority of Americans — 54% — say economic conditions are either somewhat or very good, the poll found. That marks the first time since the first week of March 2020, just before the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, that most Americans in CNN polling said economic conditions were good. The milestone provides

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