• Doctors in the U.K. are pushing back on the decision to delay administering the second dose of Pfizer’s vaccine later than the three week period studied in clinical trials.
• The U.K. on Wednesday said it would prioritize giving as many people their first dose of vaccine as quickly as possible, which could delay providing second dose beyond what’s recommended.
• U.K. health officials said the decision would “ensure that more at-risk people are able to get meaningful protection from a vaccine in the coming weeks and months.”

Source: Doctors criticize UK health officials for changing Pfizer Covid vaccine plan

Reporting that a half-vaccinated person has Covid-19 is “really the equivalent of saying someone went outside in the middle of a rainstorm without an umbrella and got wet,” said Dr. Taison Bell, a critical care physician at the University of Virginia. Dr. Bell received his first dose of Pfizer’s vaccine on Dec. 15, and will be getting his second shot soon.

Data from Pfizer’s clinical trials suggests the vaccine might start safeguarding its recipients from disease around one or two weeks after the first injection. A second jab of mRNA, delivered three weeks after the first, helps immune cells commit the virus’s most prominent features to memory, clinching the protective process.

Source: For Osie the rescue cat, 2020 was just perfect | CBC News

Source: For Osie the rescue cat, 2020 was just perfect | CBC News

Once upon a time, all the way back in 2019, a little black and white cat was one of 347 rescued from a single, squalid two-bedroom Toronto apartment. Her rescuers wore hazmat suits due to the poor air quality inside. “There were cats everywhere,” a city official said as the story hit the news. The last cat saved, possibly a kitten, was almost left behind until a wee squeak revealed their hiding spot: a narrow gap between the fridge and the wall. But this, dear reader, is a happy story. Because in 2020, amid a global pandemic that’s seen Torontonians and millions around the world urged to stay home, that little black and white cat has a new home and a name: Osie. And Osie, still smaller than she maybe should be and more than a little timid, has become the best thing of her human Beverly Leung’s year.

Source: For Osie the rescue cat, 2020 was just perfect | CBC News

“No one would believe this is in the United States,” said Scott Byington, a critical care nurse at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. “Everyone is doing what they can do. It’s not that anybody is slacking. It’s just that it’s too overwhelming for everyone.” Source: Bodies pile up, patient care falters as COVID-19 slams L.A. – Los Angeles Times

Source: Coronavirus: More than 9,600 daily cases reported in Ohio