INDIANAPOLIS — There were several developments in the coronavirus pandemic you may have missed overnight.
Here’s a look:
Vaccine switch. The Hamilton County Health Department will switch from the Moderna to the Pfizer vaccine today at its clinic at the 4H Fairgrounds in Noblesville.
The State Department of Health asked the Hamilton County Health Department to make the switch so it could free up the Moderna vaccine for mobile units in rural areas.
Hoosier J&J vaccines. A third vaccine was packed and shipped Monday for distribution in the United States. Johnson & Johnson cleared its inventory of 3.9 million doses.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Indiana will get 53,900 doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine by the end of the week.
The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) says they should have 20,000 by mid-week, and those doses will be going to clinics where they are needed the most. Our local hospitals and clinics say they hope to begin administering the shots by Friday.
Senate vote. President Joe Biden is looking to the Senate to approve his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that passed in the House over the weekend. But as the bill reaches the Senate, it’s facing GOP opposition.
“Less than 10% of this bill has anything to do with COVID,” Sen. Rick Scott said Monday.
The Florida Republican said the current bill doesn’t have his support.
“I’m not gonna go waste $2 trillion. It’s taxpayer money. It’s somebody’s money,” he said. “I want a targeted bill.”
One item that won’t be in the bill is the proposed $15 minimum wage increase that’s now declared off limits by the Senate rules.
Protect Purdue Pledge violated. At least 12 students at Purdue University are facing disciplinary action after several large gatherings during “an abnormally active weekend,” the university announced Monday.
Purdue says off-campus parties over the weekend are being looked into by the Office of the Dean of Students, property management and county health officials.
The university says the most concerning gathering happened inside an apartment in a high rise building with an estimated 125 people inside a single 750-square-foot unit. The gathering clearly violated health guidelines laid out in the Protect Purdue Pledge and county event regulations, Purdue noted.
Chinese vaccine diplomacy. China’s vaccine diplomacy campaign has been a surprising success: It has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccines to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country tally by The Associated Press.
With just four of China’s many vaccine makers claiming they are able to produce at least 2.6 billion doses this year, a large part of the world’s population will end up inoculated not with the fancy Western vaccines boasting headline-grabbing efficacy rates, but with China’s humble, traditionally made shots.
However, concerns over safety and efficacy, as well as a dearth of publicly available data also means many are suspicious. But due to the pandemic’s urgency, many countries have chosen to use China’s vaccines.
