COVID vaccine latest

WASHINGTON, D.C. (NBC) – As COVID deaths near half a million in the U.S., the race to distribute vaccines is accelerating.

A hundred new “super sites” are being set up around the country, in partnership with states.

It’s good news and discouraging news on the COVID-19 front. The discouraging news is 450,000 people have now died from COVID-19. The encouraging news is that the pace of vaccinations is in fact picking up.

In fact, the administration now says 1.3 million shots a day is what they’re averaging, and, at that pace, they expect in fact will have 100 million people vaccinated by early May. That would be the first 100 days of the administration.

The inoculation campaign ramping up as the national numbers are trending down for new infections and hospitalizations.

The spread of new more contagious mutations is threatening to undermine those gains. At the moment, the vaccines do seem to protect against most of the earliest new mutating strains of the virus.

Meanwhile, a new study from Oxford University found AstraZeneca’s vaccine not only protects people from getting sick, it’s 76% effective after just one dose and they also prevent them from spreading the virus.

And that’s critical. We haven’t known yet whether getting vaccinated will prevent you from spreading the virus and now this new study from AstraZeneca suggest in fact it may.

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