The Vaccination Campaign

Total People Fully Vaccinated (two doses of Moderna or Pfizer or one dose of Johnson & Johnson) Massachusetts: 5,280,882 (up 5,032 from Tuesday) Rhode Island: 849,490 (up 895 from Tuesday) Reported changes from the last issue of this newsletter. View all vaccine news and numbers on Globe.com Top Stories: Vaccinations A new COVID vaccine from Europe-based pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK achieved 100 percent efficacy against severe disease and hospitalizations. The CDC changed its guidance to say that some people should wait eight weeks — rather than the three to four previously recommended — between the first and second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine.  In 2021, vaccine sales made Moderna $12 billion in profit.

 

 

 

 

The Local Impact Massachusetts:  1,536,565 cases (up 2,494 from Tuesday)  ·  22,626 deaths (up 181 from Tuesday)  · 512 hospitalizations (down 61 from Tuesday) Rhode Island:  355,294 cases (up 477 from Tuesday)  ·  3,406 deaths (up 2 from Tuesday)  ·  140 hospitalizations (down 10 from Tuesday) Reported increases or decreases from the last issue of this newsletter. Sources: Massachusetts Department of Public Health Rhode Island Department of Health View all COVID-19 news and numbers on Globe.com Top Stories: COVID-19 Impact Schools in New Hampshire schools will no longer be able to mandate masks under the state’s new public health guidance. The Supreme Court declined to hear arguments in a lawsuit that sought to challenge Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health workers. Rhode Island will soon begin hosting vaccine clinics in schools with vaccination rates of less than 20 percent.

 

 

Across the US and Around the World US 551,416,813 vaccine doses administered 78,777,944 cases 943,624 deaths Sources: Johns Hopkins Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Most and Least Vaccinated US States (% of population fully vaccinated) Top Ranked Rhode Island (80.5%) Vermont (80.1%) Maine (78.3%) Connecticut (77.7%) Massachusetts (77.6%) Bottom Ranked Alabama (50.2%) Wyoming (50.5%) Mississippi (50.8%) Louisiana (52.4%) Idaho. (53%) Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Worldwide  10,442,795,155 vaccine doses administered 430,892,202 cases 5,925,492# deaths Source: Johns Hopkins  Top Stories: US and Worldwide Pregnancy-related deaths for US mothers climbed higher in the pandemic’s first year, according to a new government report. England lifted all its coronavirus restrictions Thursday, including the legal requirement for people who test positive for COVID-19 to isolate at home.

 

 

What's Next The coronavirus mutant widely known as “stealth Omicron” is now causing more than a third of new Omicron cases around the world, but scientists still don’t know how it could affect the future of the pandemic.