New COVID vaccines OK'd by FDA, escaped convict search: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub breaks down the latest batch of COVID-19 vaccines that have been approved by the FDA. More than 2,800 are now confirmed dead after the Morocco earthquake. Here's how to help. The search continues for an escaped convict in Pennsylvania. USA TODAY Pentagon Correspondent Tom Vanden Brook explains military efforts to retrieve remains on an Alaskan glacier decades after a plane crash. The U.S. set a record for natural disasters and climate catastrophes in 2023.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and this is Five Things you need to know, Tuesday, the 12th of September 2023.

Today, a new batch of COVID vaccines, plus the latest on an escaped convict in Pennsylvania, and how the military aims to leave no soldier behind decades after a crash in Alaska.

The FDA yesterday authorized updated COVID-19 vaccines. For more on how this latest batch of vaccines is different and who should think about getting the shots, I spoke with USA Today health reporter Karen Weintraub. Hey there, Karen.

Karen Weintraub:

Hello.

Taylor Wilson:

What's different this time around?

Karen Weintraub:

This target a different variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. You won't notice a difference. Same side effects, same everything, but it's just slightly different formula to target that different variant. That variant, unfortunately, is no longer the dominant one. And they knew it when they decided to target that particular variant, but they didn't really have a choice because they couldn't predict the future when they made that decision.

Taylor Wilson:

Karen, in terms of the current guidance from health experts who should be getting these vaccines? And going forward, how often should people be updating their COVID shots?

Karen Weintraub:

So it's hard to say exactly who needs it and who doesn't. The general guideline is if you're older, and by which they mean probably over 65, but if you're super healthy, maybe 75, if you're really unhealthy, maybe a little younger, if you're immunocompromised, definitely you should be getting a vaccine. And immunocompromised means if you say you have rheumatoid arthritis and you're taking drugs that reduce your immune tolerance, if you're on cancer therapy, particularly if you have blood cancer, things like that. Even people who have, say diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease should probably be getting a COVID vaccine at least once a year. Again, if you're severely immunocompromised, maybe twice a year at least. Because your immune protection doesn't last that long, you may not get that much to begin with.

Taylor Wilson:

Karen, for those who have been infected with COVID before, this is a lot of folks at this point.

Karen Weintraub:

Mostly all of us, yes.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. Is there immunity from previous infections strong enough to avoid getting vaccinated every year?

Karen Weintraub:

Most of us have gotten, at this point, an infection or two, and that does provide protection from part of the immune system. So you have T-cell immunity it's called. You probably will not get severe disease, again, especially if you're young and otherwise healthy. What you do not have is protection against all infection unless you really have caught it just recently. My husband's just recovering, he's probably safe for a couple of months. Everybody else, if you caught it last year, you do not have protection against mild infection. But again, you probably are protected if you're otherwise healthy against severe disease.

Taylor Wilson:

And a third COVID vaccine, this one from Novavax, is ready for delivery. What's the latest on this option and how does it differ from the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines?

Karen Weintraub:

The first two, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, are mRNA, Messenger RNA vaccines. Novavax has a different technology than the other two vaccines. It's a protein-based vaccine. It's kind of a more traditional vaccine. It takes longer to make, but it's just as good. There's some thought that it may be better to combine it with the mRNA vaccines, but there hasn't been a lot of data to support that yet. We'll know more in probably a year or two about that. So that vaccine is ready. It arrived in the United States on Monday, the updated version, but it still needs to get FDA and CDC approval before it can be at the pharmacy near you.

Taylor Wilson:

We always hear about case numbers going up as we approach the colder months. What's the expectation for COVID this year and should folks be concerned or aware of any other viruses out there as we move into fall?

Karen Weintraub:

Right. So it's not yet clear how seasonal COVID is going to be. It's been going up since the end of July. It may be that COVID is more contagious when we're inside and around each other than the same pattern that say flu takes, which is more of a winter virus. There is a lot of concern that when we go inside for winter, when it gets cold, that that is that same time that flu and RSV and some other respiratory viruses are circulating, and that if they happen at once, hospitals could be overwhelmed with a lot of people sick at the same time. Nobody wants to be sick. Nobody wants to be sick with more than one thing at once. That's the concern.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Karen Weintraub, thanks as always.

Karen Weintraub:

Thanks for having me.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

The death tool has risen to at least 2,800 after Friday's devastating earthquake in Morocco. Rescue teams continue to work to try and find survivors who may still be alive, thanks to air pockets inside the rubble, while also searching for remains. Some structures and villages outside Marrakesh, where the worst of the quake hit, lost more than half their residence and many of the buildings that do remain standing hang precariously, ready to fall at any moment. Search teams initially made up of survivors themselves and local authorities have now been joined by Moroccan soldiers, non-governmental organizations and teams sent by Spain, Qatar, Britain and the United Arab Emirates. Officials have only accepted government aid from those countries to this point, saying they want to avoid a lack of coordination. That differs to the approach taken in Turkey where broad international help was requested after a massive earthquake there earlier this year.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Another sighting was reported yesterday of escaped convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante as police continue to search across Pennsylvania. He escaped on August 31st from a facility in Chester County outside Philadelphia while awaiting transfer to a state prison to serve a sentence after a jury convicted him of the 2021 murder of his girlfriend. Cavalcante, a Brazilian national is also wanted in his native country for a 2017 murder. Security footage showed him breaking free by crab-walking up a wall before reportedly pushing through razor wire. Cavalcante has been contacting former coworkers for help according to authorities. He traveled to the home of one former colleague on Saturday night and was seen on a doorbell security camera, though that person wasn't home at the time. Meanwhile, authorities in Pennsylvania yesterday pushed back against questions about whether they've blown a chance to catch Cavalcante. The fugitive cleared an initial area where hundreds had been searching for him. Authorities said the terrain in the area is complex and includes heavy woods, underground tunnels, and drainage ditches. They said yesterday that the reward for information leading to Cavalcante's capture has risen to $25,000.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

The military promises to leave no soldier behind, but that's been put to the test by harsh conditions in Alaska where remains are still being pulled from a glacier decades after a 1950s crash. I spoke with USA Today, Pentagon Correspondent Tom Vanden Brook to learn more. Tom, thanks for making the time as always.

Tom Vanden Brook:

Taylor, good to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

So Tom, what exactly happened on this fateful day in 1952?

Tom Vanden Brook:

Well, there was a troop transport, a big cargo plane that left Tacoma, McChord Air Force Base at the time, and was flying to Anchorage with 52 passengers and crew, and they were headed to Elmendorf Air Force Base and a bunch of these soldier sailors, airmen and marines were headed to new jobs in Alaska. They were just outside of Anchorage, 40 miles away, when the weather got horrible, the pilots were flying with instruments only and they crashed into a mountain just before Thanksgiving, five days before Thanksgiving in 1952.

After the plane crash, the weather was so bad it took a while for them to get out there and look for their debris. They didn't find it right away. It wasn't until February march of the next year that they were able to locate the site. At that point, it became covered in snow after that and it remained hidden for decades. It wasn't until 2012 when some Alaska National Guard helicopter pilots found the debris about 12 miles away that this glacier, colony glacier, had carried the bodies and the wreckage down that far.

Taylor Wilson:

Nowadays, what does this search look like? And just why has it been so complicated for more than half a century?

Tom Vanden Brook:

It's on this glacier. Some of this stuff had been buried by dozens of feet of ice and snow. And the weather's only good enough a couple of weeks out of the year in June typically for the mission to take place. So it's very difficult to tease this stuff out of the ice and the rocks. There's debris from the plane itself. There are human remains that need to be recovered. And also just kind of the stuff that these guys carried with them, playing cards, uniforms, that sort of thing. And it's just difficult to get to it. They've taken mountaineering courses, the team that goes out there, so that they can rope down into crevasses to find it.

Taylor Wilson:

Is it common for the Defense Department to identify remains from troops who died in missions and conflicts so long ago? And Tom, how does this fit in with the military's promise of not leaving any troops behind?

Tom Vanden Brook:

That's behind it all, Taylor. You hit on it. It's just that there's a compact that's made that if you're lost or you're fallen, that somebody's always going to look for you. They've made a solid commitment to do that. It's happening every week or so, or maybe month or so, there's a new identification that's made through DNA technology primarily that dates to World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War where remains have been found and identified and they can be reunited with their families. And there's a big project going on in the South Pacific right now where a prisoner ship that had been sunk by the United States, it was a Japanese cargo ship with American prisoners aboard. They didn't realize that there were American prisoners aboard. It was sunk and there are hundreds of remains that need to be identified from that, and they're just beginning that project now.

Taylor Wilson:

Tom Vanden Brook, great insight for us as always. Thank you, Tom.

Tom Vanden Brook:

Thanks, Taylor.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

As of yesterday, the US has endured 23 weather and climate disasters this year that have each led to at least a billion dollars in damage according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's a new record, breaking the bar of 22 such disasters set in 2020.

Rachel Cleetus from the Union of Concerned Scientists, which was not involved in the NOAA report, said, "These record-breaking numbers during a year that is on track to be one of the hottest ever are sobering and the latest confirmation of a worsening trend in costly disasters, many of which bear the undeniable fingerprints of climate change." NOAA said the total cost of this year's events exceeds $57.6 billion. From 1980 to 2022, the annual number of billion dollar disasters in the US adjusted for inflation averaged around 8. Over the past five years. That average has been 18. You can read more including some great visual graphics that helped tell this story with a link in today's show notes.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. If you like the show, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And if you have any comments, you can email us at [email protected]. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA Today.