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CDC says Michigan not likely to get extra vaccine to combat surge; Regeneron cocktail protects from infection: Live COVID-19 updates

The federal government is not inclined to ship extra vaccine supplies to Michigan to combat the state's severe surge in cases, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky noted that it takes two to six weeks from the time vaccines are jabbed until the impact could be realized.

"When you have an acute situation, an extraordinary amount of cases like we have in Michigan, the answer is not necessarily to give vaccine, the answer is to really close things down," Walensky said at a White House COVID response briefing. "If we tried to vaccinate our way out of what is happening in Michigan we would be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work, to actually have the impact."

Andy Slavitt, the White House senior COVID adviser, said shifting vaccine supplies "to play Whac-a-Mole isn't the strategy that public health leaders and scientists have laid out."

Also in the news:

►Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attacked YouTube and its parent company Google on Monday, accusing the tech giant of censorship for its decision last week to remove from its platform video of a coronavirus discussion he organized where his panel criticized lockdowns and some mask wearing as ineffective.

►“Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda joined New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday at the grand opening of a Times Square COVID-19 vaccination site intended to jump-start the city’s entertainment industry.

►All schools in Canada’s most populous province of Ontario will be shut down and move to online learning because of a record number of coronavirus infections fueled by more-contagious virus variants, the province’s premier announced Monday. Premier Doug Ford said his government is moving to online-only after the April break this week.

►The U.S. set a one-day record on Saturday by administering 4.6 million vaccine doses, White House senior COVID adviser Andy Slavitt said Monday. More than 45% of adult Americans have had at least one dose, and 28% are fully vaccinated, he said.

►Illinois opened up vaccine eligibility to those 16 and older Monday, and on Thursday Washington state and California will join the more than 40 states providing vaccine access to all adults.

►For the first time in months, shops, hairdressers and pub "gardens" reopened Monday in England. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged people to “behave responsibly.” Northern Ireland's "stay-at-home" order is ending and some rules are being relaxed in Scotland and Wales.

►Travel is rising throughout the US: The country averaged more than 1.5 million travelers on Thursday and Friday and nearly 1.4 million travelers on Saturday, similar to the numbers from Easter weekend, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration.

📈 Today's numbers: The U.S. has more than 31.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 562,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: 136.1 million cases and 2.93 million deaths. More than 237.79 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and 187 million have been administered, according to the CDC.

📘 What we're reading: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is paying a maximum of $9,000 per funeral and a maximum of $35,500 per application in a program that launches Monday, April 12. Here's what to know.

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More women are getting vaccinated than men

More women than men are getting COVID-19 vaccines, even as more men are dying of the disease. Vaccination dashboards for all 50 states and the District of Columbia in early April show that each of the 38 that listed gender breakdowns indicate more women had received shots than men. Public health experts cited many reasons for the difference, including that women make up three-quarters of the workforce in health care and education, sectors prioritized for initial vaccines. Dr. Rebecca Wurtz, director of public health administration and policy at the University of Minnesota, said women have been more likely to lose jobs during the pandemic, and in many cases bear the brunt of teaching and caring for children at home.

“Women are ready for this to be done even more than men are,” Wurtz said.

Laura Ungar, Kaiser Health News

Regeneron says its cocktail helps protect against COVID infection

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals announced Monday that a Phase 3 trial of its antibody cocktail offered strong protection against COVID-19 for people living with someone infected with the coronavirus. The treatment lessens the likelihood of infection and improves outcomes for those who do become infected, Regeneron said in a statement. The treatment also appears to be potent against emerging variants, the company said.

Regeneron’s cocktail, a combination of two drugs, was given to former President Donald Trump when he became ill with the virus. The company said it will share data with the FDA and request emergency use authorization expansion to include COVID prevention for appropriate populations.

The data suggests the treatment "can complement widespread vaccination strategies, particularly for those at high risk of infection," said Myron Cohen, M.D., who leads the monoclonal antibody efforts for the NIH-sponsored COVID Prevention Network.

These colleges were more likely to provide in-person learning

Colleges looking to enroll more students or those in Republican-controlled states were the most likely to reopen for in-person learning during the fall 2020 semester, according to a study by the College Crisis Initiative, a group at Davidson College that has been tracking how colleges responded to the pandemic.

The researchers found that colleges that accept fewer applicants and whose students are more academically prepared were more likely to be online during the pandemic. And those that accepted more students and were in Republican-controlled states were more likely to be in-person compared to colleges in blue states.

What didn’t seem to influence a college’s plan to open in-person? Coronavirus cases. The researchers wrote they didn’t find an association between a state’s coronavirus infection rate per 100,000 residents and college’s plans to offer online or in-person courses.

Chris Quintana

Doctors said they had done all they could do. Then his wife spoke up

On the same day Debbie Lloyd's father succumbed to COVID-19, doctors told her there was little more they could do for her husband. Kevin Lloyd's lungs had been scarred by the virus, and only high-flow oxygen was keeping him alive. His doctors saw little long-term hope for him, given the damaged state of his lungs. Debbie Lloyd determined that she could not lose her father and husband on the same day to the same disease. So Debbie, an elementary school secretary, took a shot in the dark.

What about a lung transplant? she asked. Today Debbie and Kevin Lloyd are breathing easier. Read their story here.

Shari Rudavsky, Indianapolis Star

Florida reports single-digit increase in COVID-19 deaths

For the first time in almost seven months, the state of Florida reported only a single-digit increase in new reported deaths linked to the coronavirus pandemic. The state health department said Sunday that seven more Floridians and two additional non-residents have died from COVID-19. Over the past two weeks, daily reported COVID deaths across the state have ranged from 22 to 98, and the week-to-week reported deaths have been on a slow decline since January. Just five new coronavirus deaths in Florida were reported Sept. 28.

The state continues to lead the country in the number of U.K. variants of the coronavirus: 3,510 cases identified, as well as 126 Brazil variant cases and 27 cases with the variant first identified in South Africa.

– Hannah Morse, Palm Beach Post

US vows to be leader in global vaccinations

China's failure to share information and provide access to international public health experts in the early stages of the pandemic fueled the global crisis, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday. "I think China knows that in the early stages of COVID, it didn't do what it needed to do," Blinken said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "And one result of that failure is that the (virus) got out of hand faster and with, I think, much more egregious results than it might otherwise."

The secretary pledged that the U.S. will be "the world leader on helping to make sure the entire world gets vaccinated."

Blinken said the pandemic revealed the need for a "stronger global health security system to make sure that this doesn't happen again" and to ensure the world can mitigate public health crises. Blinken said the World Health Organization must be strengthened and reformed, and that "China has to play a part in that."

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals antibody cocktail; Michigan