Dylon Harrison
Managing Editor
Cases of COVID-19 continue to climb around the world and across the country. In the United States, cases officially reached 10 million as of Monday, Nov. 9.
This milestone comes after the US saw multiple consecutive days of more than 100,000 new cases reported daily following the election on Nov. 3.
This past Monday, Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company, announced that early data of their COVID-19 vaccine has shown the vaccine to be more than 90% effective, with no serious safety concerns being found in their test subjects.
It is expected that Pfizer will request emergency authorization for their vaccine by the end of November. If approved, they plan to be able to supply the vaccine to up to 20 million people by the end of this year.
Pfizer’s vaccine is one of 11 potential vaccines in late-stage trials around the world and one of four in the United States.
In addition to the promise of a vaccine being available soon, President-elect Joe Biden has announced the members of his transitionary COVID-19 task force. This team will include some of the country’s leading medical experts, including Trump whistle-blower Rick Bright.
Bright was fired by the Trump Administration after alleging that the administration had early warnings about the severity of COVID-19 and chose not to act.
The President-elect also made a statement urging all Americans to either begin or continue to wear masks in public as the battle against COVID-19 continues. He also emphasized that mask-wearing is a medical issue, not a political one.
“It doesn’t matter who you voted for; where you stood before election day,” Biden said. “It doesn’t matter your party, your point of view. We could save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months.”
The President-elect has released his full seven-step plan to battle COVID-19 on his and the Vice President-elect’s transition website. The complete plan can be found at buildbackbetter.com/priorities/covid-19.
Locally, the state of Idaho had reported that there are currently 684 active cases, as of Sunday, Nov. 8. Idaho State University had 49 active cases as of their most recent update.
Both the state and the university’s recently reported numbers show a downward trend in the total number of cases. This is in contrast to the rising number of cases around the country.
As of now, it is still unclear if we will see a local spike in cases following parties and other events that occurred on the weekend of Halloween and during the recent election.
Currently, it appears that ISU will be able to continue under the same operation standards currently in place for the rest of the semester, allowing classes to finish in the distance-learning-in-person hybrid format before breaking Thanksgiving break. The university is also still expected to continue in the same way when classes resume for the spring semester.
ISU has also made the decision to cancel winter commencement, in order to comply with the state’s return to Phase 3 of the reopening plan and keep the Bengal Community safe.
For more information about COVID-19 at Idaho State University, visit isu.edu/roaringback.
