Just Two Days Old, Newborn Fights, Loses Battle With Virus

ACROSS AMERICA — It was just after 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 17 when Ashley Wadley received a call no parent wants to get.

"My baby passed away at 9:34 p.m. and had tested positive for COVID-19," Ashley told KEPR in Oregon.

David James Wadley Jr. was two days old. He was born prematurely, weighing just under 4 pounds, and was immediately flown to another hospital following his birth. Doctors say he likely contracted coronavirus while in the womb, after Ashley tested positive on Jan. 11.

Ashley never got to meet David before he died.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is possible — albeit extremely rare — for unborn children to contract coronavirus in the womb.

Meanwhile, Ashley and her husband are struggling, both emotionally and financially. She shared her story with KEPR, she said, because she wants other families to know this could happen to them, too.

Read more via KEPR

The Latest

As the week comes to a close, President Joe Biden on Friday toured a Pfizer production facility in Portage, Michigan, telling employees there the work they're doing is "life-saving."

Biden's visit to Michigan came as the country quickly approaches 500,000 coronavirus-related deaths. It also came as the White House announced that 6 million vaccine doses have been held up due to winter weather, creating a backlog that's affecting every state and throwing off the pace of vaccination appointments over the next week, according to a New York Times report.

Of the 6 million doses, 1.4 million were already in transit on Friday, the Times reported. Remaining doses are expected to be delivered in the next week.

During Biden's Pfizer visit, he vowed that the United States will "beat this" pandemic.

"All of you here are doing some of the most important work in this facility, right here, that can be done," Biden said.

• Biden Tours Portage Pfizer Plant, Vows 'We're Going To Beat This'

Meanwhile, Biden's pre-inauguration goal to have 100 million shots administered during the first 100 days of his presidency is looking like a "lowball" number, according to another report from the Times. About 35.6 million doses have been administered in the first four weeks of his presidency, an average of 1.72 million doses a day over the past week.

Biden said Tuesday night that vaccines should be available to anyone who wants one by the end of July, the Times reported.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has a similar projection. He told CNN earlier this week he expects that widespread vaccinations could begin in the spring, and that a large portion of the country will have the opportunity to be vaccinated by the end of the summer.

As the week comes to a close, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday tried to dig himself out of a growing controversy over his handling of nursing home deaths during the coronavirus pandemic.

Cuomo devoted 30 minutes during his Friday briefing to a sweeping defense of his administration, which has been accused of covering up the actual number of nursing home deaths in the state.

During the briefing, Cuomo said every nursing home resident has been included in the state's total deaths from COVID-19 — an assertion that appears to be true but sidesteps concerns the tally didn't properly categorize deaths of nursing home residents.

He also took responsibility for creating a "void" over nursing home deaths from COVID-19 that got filled with, in his telling, conspiracy theories, politics and rumors.

"People wanted information, we did not produce public information fast enough," he said.

• Cuomo Defends Record On Nursing Home Coronavirus Deaths

Meanwhile this week, American life expectancy saw its steepest dip since World War II during the first half of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic was claiming its first wave of deaths. Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that life expectancy dropped an entire year during that period.

Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with Black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics, nearly two years, the Associated Press reported, citing the CDC's preliminary estimates.

"This is a huge decline," Robert Anderson, who oversees the numbers for the CDC, told the AP. "You have to go back to World War II, the 1940s, to find a decline like this."

It could get worse, other experts have added.

"What is really quite striking in these numbers is that they only reflect the first half of the year. ... I would expect that these numbers would only get worse," said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a health equity researcher and dean at the University of California, San Francisco.

Newest Numbers

As of midday Saturday, the United States had reported more than 28 million cases and more than 496,500 deaths from COVID-19-related illnesses, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

At least 2,520 deaths and 75,288 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the United States on Friday, according to a Washington Post database. The Post's reporting shows that over the past week, new daily cases have fallen 28.9 percent, new daily deaths have fallen 20.5 percent and COVID-19-related hospitalizations have fallen 16.3 percent.

More than 78.1 million vaccine doses have been distributed and nearly 59.6 million administered in the United States as of Saturday, according to the CDC. Nearly 42 million people have received one dose, and more than 17 million have received two.

Currently, 59,882 people are hospitalized with a coronavirus-related illness in the United States, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

As of Saturday, 26 states and U.S. territories remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news via The New York Times or The Washington Post.

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