Coronavirus Updates: White House to spend $1 billion on at-home tests

October 07, 2021

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Important developments in the pandemic.

By Ben Guarino
with Leana S. Wen

The Post's coronavirus coverage linked in this newsletter is free to access from this email.

The latest

The White House has made plans to beef up U.S. capabilities for coronavirus testing. The Biden administration will buy $1 billion worth of rapid, at-home coronavirus tests, per an announcement Wednesday. Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration also approved the sale of an at-home antigen test made by Acon Laboratories. Together, the two actions should increase home tests to 200 million per month by the end of the year, the White House predicts.

Johnson & Johnson has asked the FDA for emergency use authorization for a booster shot. This request follows similar ones from vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna. Mathai Mammen, global head of research and development for Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceuticals division, told The Post that the best immune response from a J&J booster occurs when the shot is given at least six months after the first.

When it comes to vaccine mandates in businesses, it's a tale of two employers: The biggest companies are faring well. But some smaller corporations have found the vaccine mandates to be a tough sell to their workers. To help, an organization called the Health Action Alliance is working with companies to get workers vaccinated. Its tips include phrases to use — "personal responsibility" and to avoid — "anti-vaxxers." Meanwhile, in Republican-controlled states, attorneys general are gearing up for a legal battle against the president's corporate vaccine mandate.

First, the pandemic spread through nursing homes. Now, schools may be coronavirus hot spots. More than 5.7 million children have been infected since the pandemic began, data from the American Academy of Pediatrics show. About 540 people ages 18 or younger have died. Pediatric cases are highest in states with low vaccination rates; in Tennessee, where 17 percent of teens 12 to 17 are vaccinated, infections in children were at the highest level yet in September.

Stay-at-home orders and shutdowns that canceled scheduled procedures were a significant drain for hospitals last year. Now, as taxpayer support shrinks and labor costs rise, many medical centers continue to struggle with financial deficits. In places where delta is keeping cases high, some hospitals are canceling moneymaking procedures once again. And where staffing is short, nurses paid by contract can command higher wages. "At one point, we were seeing four or five nurse resignations per week," said a senior vice president for the 21-hospital Ballad Health system. "They couldn't do it again; they emotionally didn't have it. They were so upset with our community."

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Other important news

Francis S. Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health who played a leading part in the U.S. pandemic response, announced that he will retire by year's end.

A health system in Colorado has stopped providing organ transplants to unvaccinated patients. In its decision, UCHealth cited scientific reports indicating that covid-19 can be particularly deadly for organ recipients.

Online searches for "Fort Detrick," a U.S. military base, may return conspiracy theories about the coronavirus's origin pushed by Chinese state media, according to the nonpartisan Alliance for Securing Democracy.

The Trump administration gave inside support to a troubled trucking corporation that sought federal pandemic loans. Those loans were intended to help companies "critical to national security."

Guide to the pandemic

Track confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. and the spread around the world.

U.S. vaccine distribution and delivery, tracked by state.

Guides: Finding vaccine appointments | Vaccines | Variants | Masks

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Your questions, answered

We invited Post Opinions contributor Dr. Leana Wen to answer one of our reader questions. She has a new newsletter, out every Thursday, that features a Q&A with readers. Click here to sign up for "The Checkup with Dr. Wen."

"I want to visit family in Florida at Thanksgiving. I am 75 and a diabetic, and I don't want to drive myself. The problem is the person I would drive with, on an 8-hour trip, is unvaccinated. I am fully vaccinated and might have a booster by then. Is it safe to make this drive if we both wear masks in the car?" — Alice in North Carolina

I certainly understand the desire to see family over Thanksgiving!

Given your age and underlying medical condition (diabetes), you are at elevated risk of having severe disease if you were to contract covid-19. Getting vaccinated certainly reduces your likelihood of getting the virus, and a third dose — a booster — would enhance your protection.

The booster, though, is not bulletproof armor. Even with the booster, you could still contract covid-19. To optimize your protection, I'd advise that you get the booster dose at least two weeks before your trip.

There are two issues to consider regarding the covid-19 safety of your trip. First is the one that you mentioned around travel itself. Spending 8 hours in a car with an unvaccinated individual definitely carries risk, even if you are both masked the entire time. If this is the only possible method of travel for you, is it at all an option to ask that individual to quarantine for at least three days and then get tested before getting in the car with you?

(Of course, I'd be remiss not to ask if there is any chance this person might be open to a conversation about vaccination. The vaccine protects them, as well as you and anyone else they come into contact with.)

If your potential driver is unwilling to quarantine and test, and also won't get vaccinated, you could reduce your risk by keeping all the windows open and sitting in the back seat on the opposite side of the driver. Wear an N95 or KN95 mask the entire time you are in the vehicle with the driver, who should also be masked the entire time.

I also want to flag a second issue, which is your risk exposure when you arrive in Florida to visit your family. Is everyone that you're visiting vaccinated? Are there plans to go to crowded indoor restaurants that don't require proof of vaccination? It wouldn't make sense to take such careful precautions during your drive only to have high-risk exposures at your destination.

None of this is to say that you shouldn't visit your family, or even that you shouldn't go by car with an unvaccinated driver. At this point in the pandemic, there are few clear-cut answers. Almost everything we do has some degree of risk. People need to choose activities based on their own medical circumstances, their risk tolerance, and, importantly, the value of the activity to them. If they still want to do the activity, there are ways to reduce that risk as much as possible.