Info Magzine: Texas cancels mask mandate; Senate stimulus debate

The Senate is anticipated to start debate Wednesday on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus plan below a timeline that might begin rolling out $1,400 stimulus checks inside two weeks.

The invoice additionally consists of funding for state and native governments, tax credit for households and greater unemployment checks.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stated Tuesday that Democrats are “on track” to go the invoice by March 14, when the present federal increase to unemployment advantages expires.

“I expect a hearty debate. I expect some late nights on the floor,” Schumer stated.

Far exterior Washington’s political beltway, Dolly Parton was vaccinated in Tennessee, months after donating $1 million to vaccine efforts. The regular decline in hospitalizations prompted Texas and Mississippi to drop all mask mandates. The governors additionally cited the vaccine rollout’s accelerating tempo – though a USA TODAY investigation reveals some states are discovering the federal authorities’s rollout tracker cumbersome and of little worth.

Also within the information:

►New York state is testing a high-tech “Excelsior Pass’ allowing participants to confirm vaccinations or recent negative COVID-19 tests and gain entry to events at theaters and arenas.

►The federal government has crossed the 100 million mark vaccine doses distributed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

►The variant of coronavirus first identified in Brazil has emerged in Oregon, the first known case on the West Coast, medical authorities said Tuesday. There have been 10 other cases of the P.1 variant reported in the United States: five in Florida, two in Minnesota and one each in Oklahoma, Alaska and Maryland, the CDC says.

►A new report by the Geneva-based Insecurity Insight and the University of California, Berkeley’s Human Rights Center identified more than 1,100 threats or acts of violence against health care workers and facilities last year. Researchers found that about 400 of those attacks were related to COVID-19.

📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has more than 28.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 516,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 114.8 million cases and 2.55 million deaths. More than 102.3 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and about 78.6 million have been administered, according to the CDC.

📘 What we’re studying: More COVID-19 variants are rising nearer to dwelling: What to know about the ones discovered in Brazil, New York, California.

USA TODAY is monitoring COVID-19 information. Keep refreshing this web page for the most recent updates. Want extra? Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates to your inbox and join our Facebook group.

Dolly Parton, who helped fund vaccine, gets ‘dose of her own medicine’

Exhale, country music lovers. Dolly Parton has received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccination. The country music legend — who helped fund the Moderna vaccine with a $1 million donation to Vanderbilt researchers — received her shot Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, per an Instagram post. Her caption simply reads: “Dolly will get a dose of her personal medication.”

In a video published Tuesday, Parton, 75, encouraged viewers to get vaccinated because “the earlier we get to feelin’ higher, the earlier we’re gonna get again to being regular.”

Fed’s high-tech vaccine tracker is too complicated for many states

Operation Warp Speed spent $16 million on Tiberius, a high-tech system meant to track shipments of vaccines and guide local decisions of where to send them. Tiberius – a tyrannical, moody Roman emperor and the middle name of Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk – would allow “granular planning” all the way down to the doctor’s office, provide “a ZIP code-by-ZIP code view of priority populations” and “ease the burden” on public health officials, the federal government said.

But for a lot of states, Tiberius proved either so irrelevant or too complicated. That has contributed to a patchy vaccine rollout, the place entry relies upon extra on the place you reside and the way Internet savvy you might be.

Even if native officers opted to make use of Tiberius, “they would be giving us data that they got from us,” stated Dr. Bela Matyas, deputy director of public well being for Solano County, California. “Local public health officials have an immense amount of data and know their communities well.

– Aleszu Bajak and David Heath

Ominous variants gain foothold in US

The country has more than 2,500 cases of coronavirus variants that can spread more easily and dodge some treatments that were successful for the original virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.

More than 100 new cases of the B.1.1.7 variant first seen in the United Kingdom were reported just since Sunday, bringing the nation’s total to 2,506. The number of known U.S. cases of the B.1.351 variant first seen in South Africa has risen to 65. The United States has 11 known cases of the P.1 variant first seen in Brazil.

– Mike Stucka

Texas, Mississippi governors defy health officials, end mask mandates

Defying warnings from federal health officials about the need to stay vigilant against the coronavirus, the Republican governors of Texas and Mississippi said Tuesday they’re lifting COVID-19 restrictions, including mask mandates.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he’s moving to “open Texas 100%” and will issue an executive order to take effect March 10 rescinding most of his earlier orders, including restrictions on business occupancy and the July 2 statewide mask order.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves tweeted Tuesday that, starting Wednesday, all county mask mandates would be lifted and businesses allowed to operate at full capacity. Hospitalizations and case numbers have plummeted, and the vaccine is being rapidly distributed, he said: “We are getting out of the business of telling people what they can and cannot do.”

COVID-19 can affect immune system in complex ways, research shows

In some COVID-19 patients, scientists say unprepared immune cells appear to be responding to the coronavirus with a devastating release of chemicals, inflicting damage that may endure long after the threat has been eliminated.

“If you have a brand-new virus and the virus is winning, the immune system may go into an ‘all hands on deck’ response,” stated Dr. Nina Luning Prak, co-author of a January examine on COVID-19 and the immune system. “Things that are normally kept in close check are relaxed. The body may say, ‘Who cares. Give me all you’ve got.’”

While all viruses discover methods to evade the physique’s defenses, a rising subject of analysis means that the coronavirus unhinges the immune system extra profoundly than beforehand realized.

– Liz Szabo, Kaiser Health News

Contributing: Nicholas Wu and Ledyard King, USA TODAY, The Associated Press