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Study: 99.75% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients weren't vaccinated
The Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday released a study showing that 99.75% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 between Jan. 1 and April 13 were not fully vaccinated, according to data provided to Axios.
Why it matters: Real-world evidence continues to show coronavirus vaccines are effective at keeping people from dying and out of hospitals. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been found to be 95% and 94% effective, respectively, at preventing symptomatic infections.
Details: The study also looked at 47,000 Cleveland Clinic employees who had received one shot, both shots or no shots at all.
- The Cleveland Clinic found that 99.7% of its employees who were infected with the coronavirus were not vaccinated, and 0.3% of infections occurred in those who were fully vaccinated.
- The study found that in this group, mRNA vaccines were more than 96% effective in protecting against coronavirus infections.
Go deeper: Vaccines: What you should know
Elon Musk suspends Tesla purchases with bitcoin
Consumers can no longer buy Tesla vehicles with bitcoin, CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter Wednesday.
What he's saying: Musk cited the environmental concerns associated with bitcoin — the cryptocurrency has a massive carbon footprint — as his reasoning behind Wednesday's decision.
"Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using bitcoin," Musk said.
- "We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil; fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel."
- "Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future."
- "[W]e intend to use it as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy," he said, adding that Tesla is considering other cryptocurrencies that consume less energy.
Flashback: Musk in March approved the use of the cryptocurrency for Tesla purchases in the U.S. Some critics at the time said the move could tarnish the company's environmentally friendly image.
Our thought bubble, from Axios' Ina Fried: The energy issues related to Bitcoin have been long known and less energy consuming options have been available for some time.
Bipartisan group of senators urges Blinken to vaccinate Americans abroad
Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) are leading an effort urging the Biden administration to coordinate with the Defense Department to donate supplemental COVID-19 vaccine doses to U.S. embassies and consulates.
Why it matters: Millions of Americans living in countries where they are not considered eligible for the vaccine or those living in places where vaccines are not being authorized by the FDA or the World Health Organization may have to wait for months or even years to receive a vaccine.
Driving the news: Murphy and Moran, along with a group of 24 bipartisan senators, wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken Thursday outlining their request.
- They urge Blinken to coordinate with the Defense Department to administer vaccines to the nine million Americans living abroad.
Of note: While the State Department has vaccinated tens of thousands of foreign service personnel, along with their families, the Defense Department administered more than 1 million doses across more than 80 international facilities globally.
The big picture: The U.S. is closer each day to approaching President Biden’s target goal of vaccinating 70% of adults in the nation.
- But the vaccination rate abroad is starkly different depending on the location.
- The senators underscore in their letter that 85% of shots administered so far have been in high- and upper-middle-income countries, while only 0.3% of doses have been administered in low-income countries.
- They make the point that while Americans living abroad might wish to travel to the U.S. to be vaccinated, they may have to worry about the financial burden of travel, in addition to quarantine requirements when they return to their host country.