Category: Coronavirus

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New Jersey Expands Eligibility for COVID-19 Vaccination Program

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Expansion Includes Individuals Ages 55-64, Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Higher Education Workers, and Other Frontline Essential Workers and High-Risk Groups

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Trenton NJ,  Governor Murphy today announced the expansion of eligibility for more frontline essential workers and high-risk groups in New Jersey’s COVID-19 vaccination program. Eligible groups include individuals ages 55-64, individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, higher education educators and staff, and communications and utility infrastructure workers among others.

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March 25th Marked the One Year Anniversary of Governor Cuomo’s Fateful Nursing Home Order

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Albany NY, news broke last night in the Albany Times-Union that while panicked and sick New Yorkers were desperately trying to get scarce COVID tests last March, Cuomo had secretly arranged for his friends and family to skip the line and get tested — in some cases repeatedly — in the comfort of their own homes. It reminds us of the John Lennon line: “How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?”

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The Media Has Scared Americans to Death Over COVID

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, one thing we all know is there’s been an unrelenting torrent of bad news about the coronavirus. It’s a pandemic responsible for half a million deaths, so you’d expect a lot of negative news.

But a new study by Dartmouth College finds that a stunning 87% of COVID-19 coverage in national U.S. media outlets last year was negative.

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US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Questions AstraZeneca COVID vaccine’s Efficacy Estimate

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, according to Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, AstraZeneca announced preliminary results from a Phase 3 clinical trial for its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford. The trial included more than 32,000 participants in Chile, Peru, and the US, including 21,583 who received at least one dose of the vaccine. The press release reports an overall efficacy of 79% against any COVID-19 disease among all age groups and 80% efficacy for adults aged 65 years and older. Additionally, the press release describes 100% efficacy against severe disease and hospitalization. AstraZeneca explicitly noted that an independent review of the safety data “found no increased risk of thrombosis or events characterized by thrombosis” associated with the vaccine. Previous analysis of data from trials in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK estimated the overall efficacy to be 60%.

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AstraZeneca US Phase III trial 79% vaccine efficacy at preventing symptomatic COVID-19

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, The AstraZeneca US Phase III trial of AZD1222 demonstrated statistically significant vaccine efficacy of 79% at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100% efficacy at preventing severe disease and hospitalisation.

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COVID-19 Pandemic : Magnitude of the Economic Disruption Unparalleled

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Ridgewood NJ, according to the US Census Bureau  the COVID-19 pandemic caused a record job losses and transformed the nation’s employment landscape but recently released historical data tables put the magnitude of the economic disruption in clear context.

To get some prospective in 2017, for example, roughly 30 million adults experienced either an end of employment or a reduction in work hours, including both involuntary and voluntary job terminations. But only about 3.8 million collected Unemployment Insurance (UI), which is contingent on involuntary job termination, according to the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

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Rutgers new rapid test can detect all three of the rapidly spreading variants of the coronavirus in a little over one hour

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

New Brunswick NJ, Rutgers researchers have designed a new rapid test that can detect all three of the rapidly spreading variants of the coronavirus in a little over one hour – much shorter than the three to five days required by current tests, which can also be more technically difficult and expensive to perform.

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Comparing Vaccines, Experts say , “The best vaccine is the one that’s in your arm” 

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, according to Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security,  as more data become available from Phase 3 clinical vaccine trials, it is natural to compare vaccines’ performance characteristics against each other. For example, the Mayor of Detroit, Michigan, reportedly declined a shipment of the J&J-Janssen vaccine in favor of prioritizing the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. But unlike many products that have well-established standards and metrics, the clinical trials for each vaccine were designed and implemented independently, which makes direct comparison difficult. The focus on specific efficacy numbers between trials may not provide the whole picture. The relatively small numbers of severe cases and deaths in the clinical trials for all of the vaccines so far make it more difficult to evaluate their efficacy in preventing more severe forms of COVID-19, as a single case could result in major changes to the efficacy estimates.

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What One Year of Lockdowns Have Taught Us All

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, “I stand behind my comment that the lockdowns are the single worst public health mistake in the last 100 yrs,” Jay Bhattacharya, a prof of medicine at Stanford, said. “We will be counting the catastrophic health and psychological harms… for a generation”

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CDC Now Says Vaccinated People can Safely Gather Indoors without Masks

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest it is safe for fully vaccinated people to gather indoors with each other without masks. “If you and a friend, or you and a family member are both vaccinated, you can have dinner together” without wearing masks or without distancing, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters on Monday.

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Majority of Americans Wary of Making COVID-19 Vaccine Mandatory

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Can employers require workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus? At least one lawsuit has already been filed against such a workplace requirement, and Americans aren’t sure employers should be able to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory.

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Kean University Researchers Track COVID-19 Strains

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In a pilot project at Kean University, researchers are looking for new strains of the coronavirus in Union County using genomic sequencing to detect virus mutations. Photo Credit: Kean University

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Union NJ, Kean University’s COVID-19 diagnostic lab is searching for new strains of the coronavirus in Union County as part of a pilot project that uses genomic sequencing to detect virus mutations.
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N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo To Be Stripped Of Pandemic Emergency Powers

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Albany NJ, New York state legislators have reached a deal to strip Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) of his pandemic-linked emergency powers. The changes have been demanded by many state politicians seeking to rein in the Governor, as calls for him to resign grow. Cuomo now faces three worsening scandals: revelations that he hid the death toll in New York nursing homes; sexual harassment accusations by at least three young women; and allegations of verbal abuse by legislators.

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Johnson & Johnson and Merck & Co. Announce Partnership to Manufacture the J&J-Janssen COVID-vaccine

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

New Brunswick NJ, according to Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security industry competitors Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Merck & Co. announced that they will work together to manufacture the J&J-Janssen SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Currently, there are only approximately 4 million doses available for distribution. J&J was supposed to produce 12 million doses by the end of February, but it fell behind schedule.

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