Month: October 2021

Downtown KCK Art Walk tonight

The Downtown Kansas City, Kansas, Art Walk will be from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15, in the downtown Kansas City, Kansas, area.

The event will feature food, low riders, art and music. The general area is 6th and Sandusky to Minnesota Avenue. A low rider event will be near 6th and Minnesota.

Also at the event, participating sites will have a trunk and treat for kids.

A Latino Arts Festival will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at El Centro, 650 Minnesota Ave. The event at El Centro will include food, free to those who show proof of vaccination. There will be free COVID-19 vaccines available at the event at El Centro. A poetry reading from Donnelly College will take place at 6 p.m. at El Centro.

The Merc at 5th and Minnesota will have a new mural celebration.

Epic Arts at 609 N. 6th will have an art workshop, as well as music.

City Hall lobby, 701 N. 7th St., will be the site of the opening of an exhibit on the riverfront. The exhibit is by the Kansas City Design Center, in partnership with the Unified Government Planning and Urban Design Department. It depicts idea for riverfront development here. The exhibit will open at 4 p.m. Friday and will be open through 7 p.m. Friday during the Art Walk. Afterward, it will be open during regular City Hall hours.

For more information, visit the Downtown Shareholders site at https://www.facebook.com/DowntownShareholders/photos/a.549155951766867/5078693788813038.

Showers possible this morning, skies clearing this afternoon

Photo by Steve Rupert
Friday evening forecast. (National Weather Service graphic)

After isolated sprinkles or showers this morning, skies will clear and the high will reach near 61, according to the National Weather Service forecast.

Showers are possible between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., followed by sunny skies, the weather service said. Dry weather will remain for the next several days.

Tonight’s weather will be windy, with intermittent wind gusts from 15 to 20 mph from the northwest with temperatures at 57 around 6 p.m., according to the weather service. Wind will drop to 5 to 10 mph from the northwest, with temperatures at 52 at 8 p.m., the weather service said.

Today, there is a 20 percent chance of showers between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., the weather service said. Skies will be mostly cloudy, gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 61. A north orthwest wind of 8 to 10 mph will gust as high as 20 mph.

Tonight, skies will be clear, with a low of 41, according to the weather service. A west northwest wind will be around 6 mph.

Saturday, it will be sunny, with a high near 64, the weather service said. A west northwest wind will be 6 to 8 mph.

Saturday night, it will be clear, with a low of 43 and a light southwest wind, according to the weather service.

Sunday, it will be sunny, with a high near 72 and a south southwest wind of 3 to 7 mph, the weather service said.

Sunday night, it will be clear, with a low of 49, according to the weather service.

Monday, it will be sunny, with a high near 72, the weather service said.

Monday night, it will be partly cloudy, with a low of 54, according to the weather service.

Tuesday, it will be sunny, with a high near 74, the weather service said.

Tuesday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 52, according to the weather service.

Wednesday, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 69, the weather service said.

Wednesday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 45, according to the weather service.

Thursday, it will be sunny, with a high of 65, the weather service said.

FDA panel recommends booster shot of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine

by Laura Olson, Kansas Reflector

Washington — Millions of Americans who received Moderna’s two-shot COVID-19 vaccine are expected to be eligible soon for booster shots, after a federal advisory panel on Thursday recommended a third dose for older and higher-risk adults as well as certain workers.

The unanimous recommendation from the Food and Drug Administration vaccine panel came a few weeks after federal health officials authorized a booster dose of Pfizer’s vaccine, to be given at least six months after an individual gets a second shot.

Unlike the Pfizer booster, the additional Moderna shots will be half doses, 50 micrograms compared to the 100 micrograms in the first and second Moderna shots that are given four weeks apart. The smaller dose resulted in fewer side effects while still boosting immune-system antibodies, according to company officials.

The FDA panel’s Moderna recommendation is for people who are 65 and older, as well as those between 18 and 64 who are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19 or who live or work in situations that increase their risk. The same population groups are eligible for the Pfizer booster.

As with Pfizer, the Moderna boosters are intended to be given six months after the second shot.

That matching eligibility was by design. Peter Marks, director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said at the beginning of Thursday’s meeting that he hoped the panel would seek to “harmonize” who is getting boosters across the different vaccines in order to reduce confusion.

The next step for the Moderna booster shot is the granting of emergency authorization by the FDA, and then action by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on who should receive the boosters. A CDC panel will meet next week to debate those specifics.

The same FDA panel that made Thursday’s recommendation will meet Friday to consider an additional dose of the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

The vaccine panel also will be reviewing data on the potential to mix and match different brands of COVID-19 vaccines. That would give more flexibility to state and local officials overseeing vaccination campaigns and to providers administering shots.

Some who received the J and J shot also have sought approval to receive a follow-up dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, which studies have shown to have higher efficacy against infection.

The approval of booster shots was initially bumpy, with some federal vaccine officials frustrated by the Biden administration’s aggressive timeline for approving additional shots. Several longtime FDA officials announced their departure from the agency.

The FDA remains led by an acting commissioner, though that may soon change: The Washington Post and Politico reported Thursday that former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Robert Califf, currently a professor of cardiology at Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina, is expected to be tapped to head the agency.

The advisory panels weighing the Pfizer shot also expressed unease about the broad categories proposed for boosters, questioning whether health care workers, teachers and others really needed another dose due to potential exposure to the virus at their workplace. The eligibility categories were pared back after a contentious committee hearing, and later expanded in the CDC’s recommendation.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2021/10/14/fda-panel-recommends-booster-shot-of-modernas-covid-19-vaccine/