CDC director issues stark warning as new U.S. coronavirus cases top 200,000

The top Democratic congressional leaders on Wednesday embraced a $908 billion coronavirus relief framework — a massive concession meant to prod President Trump and Senate Republicans into accepting a compromise as cases spike and the economic recovery shows signs of faltering ahead of the holiday.

And potentially building even more momentum behind the plan, at least one new Republican senator offered measured support for the idea.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement that “we believe the bipartisan framework introduced by Senators yesterday should be used as the basis for immediate bipartisan, bicameral negotiations.”

BERLIN — Britain’s decision to grant emergency authorization to the Pfizer vaccine for the coronavirus was met with a skeptical reaction in much of Europe on Wednesday.

Some foreign officials complained about a sense of British patriotism and accomplishment over a product by two non-British companies. European Union lawmakers cautioned against a “hasty” rollout.

Despite concerns that the U.K. emergency authorization could put pressure on regulators in the United States and Europe to speed up their own approval processes, there were no immediate signs of that on Wednesday.

A Maryland official acknowledged publicly Wednesday, for the first time, that none of the 500,000 coronavirus tests the state purchased from South Korea in April were used to diagnose whether people had the virus.

More than 496,000 of the tests were handed back to the manufacturer as part of a deal for replacement tests, acting health secretary Dennis Schrader told the Board of Public Works. About 3,500 were used as lab workers tried to validate them.

His statement contradicted assertions by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) last month after The Washington Post reported that none of the original tests had been used. Asked by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd about that specific Post finding, Hogan said: “They worked great. They were using them all over the country. We were using them.”

The standard 14-day coronavirus quarantines potentially can be shortened to 10 days or even seven, according to revised guidance issued Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an effort to boost compliance with one of the most important tools for limiting spread of the virus.

The move reflects the agency’s recognition that the two-week quarantine rule is onerous for many people and that most of the public health benefit from quarantining people exposed to the virus can be gained with a more flexible approach.

As President-elect Joe Biden makes fighting the raging coronavirus his most-urgent mission when he takes office next month, two figures already playing central roles in his transition are emerging as the most likely possibilities to preside over the new White House’s pandemic response.

One contender for Biden’s coronavirus coordinator, envisioned as a powerful role in setting the agenda and orchestrating the work of federal agencies, is Jeff Zients, a co-chairman of the Biden transition team who led the Obama administration’s National Economic Council. Another is Vivek H. Murthy, a co-chair of the transition’s covid-19 advisory board and a former U.S. Surgeon General.

Two weeks after announcing its potential coronavirus vaccine is 95 percent effective, Moderna, with significantly less fanfare, disclosed the design of a trial to test the vaccine on children 12 and up.

The company — one of several firms racing to bring a coronavirus vaccine to market — has not yet opened the pediatric trial to participants, but the plan posted Wednesday on the National Institutes of Health website indicates about 3,000 children would be enrolled across seven locations in the randomized study. Moderna follows Pfizer’s similar announcement in November of testing its vaccine on about 100 children ages 12 to 15. However, experts fear these trials may come too late or take too long to guarantee children across all age groups are vaccinated in time for the new school year.

The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is quarantining after a possible exposure to the coronavirus, he disclosed Wednesday, as the virus continues to work its way through the upper echelons of the Trump administration.

Andrew Wheeler, who leads the EPA, said in a statement that he had been informed earlier in the day that he “experienced secondary exposure from an individual who tested positive for covid-19.”

“After consulting my doctor and out of an abundance of caution, I will quarantine until I’ve gone through the proper testing protocols,” Wheeler’s statement read.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s husband, Sean Gilmartin, seems to be the latest person to breathe new life into the controversy swirling around the lax adherence to mask-wearing in the White House.

Gilmartin, a pitcher who is currently a free agent, stood in the briefing room Wednesday afternoon sans face covering during the length of McEnany’s approximately 25-minute briefing, according to a pool report by Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson. Face coverings are required in White House press areas to help curb transmission of the coronavirus.