Coronavirus weekly need-to-know: Free COVID tests, mask mandates, vaccines, fraud & more
In the United States, more than 78 million people have tested positive for coronavirus as of Saturday, Feb. 19, according to Johns Hopkins University.
More than 934,000 Americans have died. Globally, there have been more than 422 million confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Additionally, more than 5.8 million worldwide have died from the virus. More than 214 million people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated to date — 64.6% of the population — and 92 million of those people have gotten a booster shot as of Feb. 17, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
The agency reports the weekly average of COVID-19 cases have dropped nationwide as of Feb. 9. Cases are 42.8% lower compared to the prior week’s average, the CDC says.
The omicron variant continues to dominate positive U.S. cases and three of its four lineages made up all sequenced cases the week ending Feb. 12, according to the agency. Omicron BA.1.1 made up 73.2% of cases, B.1.1529 made up 22.9% of cases and BA.2 made up 3.9% of cases.
Here’s what happened between Feb. 13 and Feb. 18:
Still waiting for your free COVID tests from the government? Here’s what to know
Millions of Americans have ordered and received free at-home COVID-19 test kits from the government, shipped by the U.S. Postal Service, as of Wednesday, Feb. 16, the White House says.
However, not everyone has gotten their order shipped within the expected time frame of seven to 12 days after ordering on COVIDTests.gov, according to online chatter. Up to four rapid antigen tests were made available for each household as of Jan. 18 after President Joe Biden’s administration purchased 1 billion tests to send out.
If you’re still waiting on your free COVID-19 tests, here’s what you should know:
Don’t use this COVID rapid antigen test, FDA warns. It could cause inaccurate results
“Destroy” E25Bio’s COVID-19 rapid antigen tests that shouldn’t be used by consumers, the Food and Drug Administration says.
The FDA says there’s a “Class I recall, the most serious type” for the tests after they were recalled by the Massachusetts-based company “for several reasons.”
Don’t use the E25Bio COVID-19 Direct Antigen Rapid Test, also sold as a SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Test Kit, because they’re not FDA authorized or approved despite being marketed and distributed to customers as such, the agency said in a medical device recall alert on Feb. 18. The FDA first warned about the tests on Feb. 4.
Here’s what else you should know:
Do masks protect you from COVID if others aren’t wearing one? What experts are saying
Some states are dropping COVID-19 face mask mandates or are debating doing so as COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are on the decline.
Still, the coronavirus continues to spread even as the weekly average of daily positive COVID-19 cases dropped by 42.8% as of Feb. 9 compared with the week before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If you’re wondering whether a mask can protect you from COVID-19 in public if others around aren’t wearing one, here’s what experts say about the concept of one-way masking:
‘Hearts are shattered.’ Mom dies of COVID a month after son’s birth, Texas family says
When Alexandra Chandler went to the hospital to give birth to her first child, her family says she tested positive for COVID-19.
She then delivered her son Beau via a successful cesarean section on Jan. 9 and was able to go home a few days later, a GoFundMe says, but by Jan. 15 the Texas mom was unable to breathe on her own.
After a month-long fight in the hospital, Chandler died on Sunday, Feb. 13, her mother shared on Facebook.
“It is finished. She has passed,” Jenny Clay wrote. “Our hearts are shattered. The best girl in the world. FU COVID.”
“After years of fertility struggles and finally giving birth, COVID-19 has robbed Alex of the joy of being a first time Mom,” the GoFundMe says, adding that she was fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Continue reading here:
Better masks for children will soon be easier to find, White House says. Here’s why
Efforts to expand access to masks will soon direct more of its focus to children, White House officials said in a Feb. 16 briefing.
Dr. Tom Inglesby, senior adviser to the White House COVID-19 Response Team, said that 230 million adult masks have already been distributed to pharmacies and community centers and are free.
“We are now in the process of planning for the distribution of masks for children,” Inglesby said. “We’ll have more to say about that in the days ahead. But there’s a commitment to do that, and there’s a process underway, certainly, for all adults to get masks now for free at pharmacies and community health clinics across the country.”
Keep reading below:
Most people in US working remotely want to continue that — and not because of COVID
The coronavirus created an unforeseen adjustment for those who had to start working from home as workplaces across the country shut down over the spread of the coronavirus.
Now, close to two years later, most remote workers in the U.S. want to continue working out of their homes, and the reasons have changed “considerably” compared with those in 2020, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
“Roughly six-in-ten U.S. workers who say their jobs can mainly be done from home (59%) are working from home all or most of the time,” researchers wrote in the survey released Feb. 16.
Keep reading for why remote workers want to keep working from home:
Texas man tried selling 50 million N95 masks he didn’t have to Australia, feds say
After a Texas man tried to fraudulently sell 50 million N95 face masks to the Australian government, officials say he has been sentenced to federal prison.
Authorities say 56-year-old Arael Doolittle, of Houston, didn’t have any masks when he and his co-defendant tried selling them for $5.50 each — plus “additional fees and mark-ups” by a middleman — for $317 million as COVID-19 swept across the world in a global outbreak.
Doolittle pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud July 27, 2021, records show, and was sentenced to 4.5 years in federal prison on Feb. 16.
For more on the case, keep reading:
FDA says official suggesting annual COVID vaccines ‘does not work on vaccine matters’
A video has emerged of a Food and Drug Administration executive suggesting there are plans for annual COVID-19 vaccines to be implemented in the United States.
But the FDA says the executive isn’t involved with “vaccine matters.”
The footage was taken with a hidden camera by conservative outlet Project Veritas and shared in what the organization called an effort to “expose” the health agency.
Project Veritas, founded by right-wing political activist James O’Keefe, “is known to publish surreptitiously recorded and selectively edited videos to embarrass liberals and mainstream media outlets,” according to the Columbia Journalism Review.
“You’ll have to get an annual shot [COVID vaccine]. I mean, it hasn’t been formally announced yet ‘cause they don’t want to, like, rile everyone up,” a man purported to be Christopher Cole, the FDA’s executive officer of Medical Countermeasures Initiative, is heard saying in the video.
“The person purportedly in the video does not work on vaccine matters and does not represent the views of the FDA nor does he speak on behalf of the agency,” FDA spokesperson Abigail Capobianco told McClatchy News in a statement.
Keep reading for the FDA’s response below:
COVID mask mandates are ending, but should you keep wearing one? What experts say
COVID-19 mask mandates are ending across the U.S., and while many may take that as a sign that it’s time to quit covering up, experts say there’s a lot to consider before going barefaced in public.
Though cases are plummeting, deaths and hospitalizations remain high, proving COVID-19 is still lethal. Even with the “milder” omicron variant now accounting for nearly all new infections, coronavirus killed more Americans in January than the flu has in three years, McClatchy News reported.
When going maskless in public, the risk is never zero — but depending on who you are, where you’ve been and where you’re going, and your vaccination status, there may be little to fear. Or there may be a dozen good reasons to keep an N-95 across your face.
Keep reading for more:
Disneyland set to loosen mask rules. Here’s what to know if you’re planning a trip
Disneyland is starting to ditch face masks — but you’ll still want to have one with you.
The California theme park loosened its mask requirements starting Thursday, Feb. 17.
Until then, all Disneyland and Disney California Adventure tourists over the age of 2 were required to wear a face mask at all times while indoors, even if they were vaccinated against COVID-19. That meant people needed to mask up on many rides, on shuttles and buses, and while entering the park.
Going forward, however, that won’t always be the case. Disneyland is dropping the indoor mask requirement for vaccinated guests.
Here’s what else to know:
Man who ‘loved with all he had’ dies of COVID minutes after wife in North Carolina
A North Carolina man who loved his wife “with every fiber of his being” spent some of his final moments holding her hand.
Thomas Fortenberry and his longtime partner, Diane, were in side-by-side hospital beds before they both died of COVID-19 on the same day in January, according to their obituaries and a Raleigh-area health care provider.
“Mr. and Mrs. Fortenberry were high school sweethearts, married at 16 and 17 years old,” WakeMed hospital said last week in a blog post. “They had just celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary.”
Continue reading below:
Exercising after a COVID or flu shot can boost effectiveness, study says. Here’s why
Hitting the gym after getting your COVID-19 vaccine might make it more effective, according to new research from Iowa State University.
In the study, which will be published in the journal ”Brain, Behavior, and Immunity,” researchers found that partaking in physical exercise within 90 minutes of receiving the shot could increase the body’s immune response.
To collect the data, researchers randomly assigned participants to either complete 90 minutes of exercise or to avoid exercise the day of their first COVID-19 vaccination. Afterward, they observed that the participants who exercised for 90 minutes soon after receiving the vaccine had more antibodies in the following weeks than those who didn’t.
Continue reading for more on the study’s findings:
They flashed cash from COVID fraud on Instagram, feds say. NC judge sends 3 to prison
Three men accused of plotting to get $2.7 million worth of fraudulent COVID-19 relief loans at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic have been sentenced to prison in North Carolina.
A federal judge in the Middle District of North Carolina sentenced 30-year-old Joseph Marsell Cartlidge and 32-year-old David Christopher Redfern, both from North Carolina, to six years and five years in prison, respectively, on Feb. 14. Eric Alexander McMiller, 30, of Chicago, was sentenced to five and a half years.
The trio pleaded guilty to various counts of wire and bank fraud last year.
Keep reading about the case below:
23 inmates given unauthorized COVID drug instead of vaccine, Washington officials say
Nearly two dozen inmates received a COVID-19 drug when they were supposed to get a vaccine at a Washington prison, officials said.
The 23 inmates at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center were administered REGEN-COV during a COVID-19 vaccine clinic on Feb. 10, the Washington State Department of Corrections said in a Feb. 11 news release.
One staff member also received the medication, the news release says.
The drug was given emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November 2020 to treat mild and moderate cases of COVID-19 in adults and children over the age of 12 who are at high risk of having a severe case, such as hospitalization or death.
Keep reading here:
Top Levi’s executive quits so she can continue fighting COVID school closures, she says
A top Levi Strauss & Co. executive says she’s leaving her job to continue her battle against school shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an essay on Common Sense, Jennifer Sey said she quit her job as brand president after other company executives told her to stop advocating against school closures.
“I’ll always wear my old 501s,” Sey wrote. “But today I’m trading in my job at Levi’s. In return, I get to keep my voice.”
In a statement, the company confirmed Sey had left her position, MarketWatch reported. A search for a new brand president has begun.
Continue reading below:
Reporters Kaitlyn Alanis, Vandana Ravikumar, Maddie Capron, Hayley Fowler, Mitchell Willetts, Simone Jasper, Helena Wegner and Don Sweeney also contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 7:22 AM.
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