10.26.20 (Wired.com)
| White House chief of staff downplays virus response, AstraZeneca says its vaccine is effective, and pandemic quiet helps scientists understand endangered animals. Here’s what you should know: Headlines White House chief says the goal is to “mitigate,” not “control,” the pandemic as US cases reach all-time high Yesterday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters that “we’re not going to control the pandemic” as the US reported an all-time high of new Covid-19 cases. Instead, he said, the government would focus on “mitigation” efforts like developing vaccines and therapeutics. This weekend it was also announced that several top aides to the vice president had been infected. Both events emphasize again the administration’s refusal to implement measures that could seriously curb the virus’s spread, nationally and within White House grounds. AstraZeneca says its vaccine produces an immune response as trials resume in the US Today British drugmaker AstraZeneca announced that its Covid-19 vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, produces an immune response in adults of all ages. The fact that it appears to have been effective among older people is particularly significant, as they are more at risk, and the immune system tends to weaken with age. In the US, trials for the vaccine, paused earlier this fall for safety reasons, were greenlit to resume last Friday. |