What's next now that 100 million Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19
30 April 2021
100 million Americans are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the CDC's tracker.
Why it matters: That's 38% of the country's adult population — and 55% of the adult population has had at least one shot. All told, the U.S. has administered nearly 240 million shots.
- That is an enormous success, in such a short time. But, of course, it only gets harder from here — both domestically and globally.
What's next: Moderna is planning to dramatically expand its manufacturing capacity, both to keep up with the extreme global demand and to start making booster shots to address COVID-19 variants.
- The company upped its minimum expected output for this year, saying it now expects to make at least 800 million doses, and that it'll be able to make as many as 3 billion doses in 2022.
Between the lines: The U.S. has a stranglehold on the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines doses right now, and Moderna said it's increasing its domestic manufacturing capacity by 50%.
- But it's also making big investments in overseas facilities, which will allow it to serve more of the world.
- For the first time, Pfizer is now exporting some of the doses it's making in the U.S., Reuters scoops.
Go deeper:mRNA vaccines 94% effective in preventing hospitalization in adults 65 and older
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.