 Welcome to Thursday’s Overnight Health Care. An FDA panel endorsed the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, meaning an authorization is likely to come within days. Meanwhile, the CDC director warned of a daunting death toll in the short term, and more states imposed restrictions. We’ll start with the big FDA meeting. FDA panel recommends authorizing Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine A federal panel of outside experts on Thursday endorsed a coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, and recommended the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) move forward with emergency authorization. The panel voted 17-4, with one abstention, that the safety and efficacy of the vaccine outweigh the risks for use in individuals age 16 and older. The vote is an important step in the right direction, as the country is poised to start an unprecedented vaccination campaign to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. FDA doesn't necessarily have to follow their recommendation, but it's widely expected to do so. Agency Commissioner Stephen Hahn said Wednesday a decision would be made in "days to a week" following the panel meeting. Once FDA gives the official green light, the administration plans to start shipping millions of doses to states across the country. Read more here. A vaccine will help, but not right away. In the meantime, get ready for a brutal winter. Quite a grim projection from the CDC director today: Redfield says daily US COVID-19 deaths likely to exceed 9/11 toll for 60 days CDC Director Robert Redfield issued a stark warning about the worsening death toll from the coronavirus on Thursday. “We are in the timeframe now that probably for the next 60 to 90 days we're going to have more deaths per day than we had at 9/11 or we had at Pearl Harbor,” Redfield said during an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. The U.S. on Wednesday set a new record for single-day deaths from coronavirus, with 3,054. That total is more than the roughly 2,900 people who died on 9/11 or the roughly 2,400 who died in the Pearl Harbor attack at the start of World War II. Redfield said Thursday he expects the death toll from those attacks to continue to be exceeded for weeks, a staggering loss of life. So what should you do? Redfield, echoing a wide range of health experts, urged people to “double down” on basic precautions in the short term until a vaccine is widely available. Those precautions include wearing a mask and avoiding indoor gatherings, including even small gatherings with a few different households, which Redfield said are a significant source of spread. Read more here.
CDC official tells Congress she was told to delete email seeking to alter scientific report A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official told Congress this week that she was instructed to delete an email from a Trump administration official seeking to alter a scientific report on the risk of coronavirus to children. Charlotte Kent, the CDC official in charge of widely respected scientific reports from the agency, told the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis in a transcribed interview on Monday that she was instructed to delete an Aug. 8 email from Paul Alexander, at the time scientific adviser to Michael Caputo, assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), seeking to interfere in a scientific report, according to excerpts of the interview released by the subcommittee. “I was instructed to delete the email," Kent told the subcommittee, adding that she considered the request “very unusual.” She said she was told by other officials that the instruction came from CDC Director Robert Redfield, though she did not speak directly to Redfield, and she said when she went to delete the email it was already gone. She said she did not know who deleted it. Redfield’s side: "I would never tell somebody to delete an email," Redfield said Thursday when asked about the report at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. "I instructed CDC to ignore Dr. Alexander's comments and they didn't need to reply to his email." Read more here. More states issue pandemic restrictions Virginia to impose overnight curfew as COVID-19 cases rise Virginia residents will have an overnight curfew and a 10-person limit on gatherings under a new executive order announced Thursday by Gov. Ralph Northam (D) in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the state. Under the curfew, which Northam called a "modified stay at home order," residents are asked to stay home between midnight and 5 a.m. Exceptions will be made for people traveling for work or seeking medical attention and obtaining food. Northam did not include an enforcement mechanism, so there's no law requiring people to be home overnight. Like other states with curfews, the intent is to encourage people to stay home at a time when they may be drinking at bars and restaurants, and thus more lax about following basic public health requirements. The measures, which will take effect Monday, do not change the current rules on restaurants, stores or houses of worship. Northam last month stopped on-site alcohol sales after 10 p.m. and said restaurants must close by midnight. Read more here.
Pennsylvania governor bans indoor dining, gyms under new virus order
Pennsylvania Gov Tom Wolf (D) unveiled a new set of coronavirus restrictions on Thursday in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the disease. Under the restrictions, all indoor dining will be closed, while outdoor dining and take-out services can continue. Indoor gatherings and events of more than 10 people are prohibited, with the exception of places of worship such as churches, synagogues and mosques. Outdoor gatherings of over 50 people will also be prohibited. Additionally, all in-person businesses that serve the public can operate at 50 percent capacity. Indoor operations at gyms and fitness facilities are prohibited, as well as all in-person entertainment such as theaters, concert venues and museums. The restrictions will go into effect Saturday, Dec. 12, and will remain in place until Jan. 4, 2021. Read more here. Some bipartisanship: 50 senators call for averting Medicare payment cuts A group of senators in both parties signed a letter to Senate leadership calling to avert scheduled cuts to Medicare payments for certain doctors. The cuts are part of a large Medicare regulation finalized on Dec. 1, and come to offset other payment increases under budget neutrality rules. But the senators write the cuts should be averted in a year-end package. “Health care professionals across the spectrum are reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 emergency as they continue to serve patients during this global pandemic,” the senators wrote. “The payment cuts finalized by CMS would pose a threat to providers and their patients under any circumstances, but during a pandemic the impact is even more profound.” Read the letter here. | 
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