Pandemic is ‘out of control’ due to unvaccinated people, Trump administration official says

By Travis Caldwell, Holly Yan and Dakin Andone, CNN

For anyone who loves freedom and hates mask warrants or distance learning, Dr. Jerome Adams has a clear message: get vaccinated.

“More mitigation is coming. Whether it’s masking, closures, or returning your kids to virtual learning, it happens, “the Trump administration’s surgeon general told CBS” Face the Nation “on Sunday.

“And this is coming because this pandemic is getting out of hand again. And it’s getting out of hand because we don’t have enough people vaccinated. “

As of Sunday, only 49.1% of Americans had been fully immunized, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is far from sufficient to stop the spread of the Delta variant, the most contagious strain of the new coronavirus never identified.

In 48 states, the rate of new cases of Covid-19 last week jumped at least 10% from the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

In 34 of those states, the rate of new cases increased by more than 50%.

Hospitals are filling up again with Covid-19 patients except now, patients are younger than before, said doctors from Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Missouri.

“What makes this possible is the fact that we are dealing with the most transmissible version of Covid-19 that we have seen to date,” said current US surgeon general Dr Vivek Murthy.

So eligible Americans who want to prevent more mask warrants, business closings and a return to distance learning must do their part and get vaccinated, said Adams, the Trump administration official.

“It will help every American to enjoy the freedoms we want to return,” he said.

Mandatory vaccines more easily with FDA approval, official says

Vaccination warrants would be the fastest way to increase vaccination rates, Adams told CBS on Sunday. But it won’t happen without full approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

“If you want to get a group of people vaccinated very quickly, get a license for those vaccines,” Adams said. “And then you will see the military making it compulsory, you will see the companies making it compulsory.”

Every vaccine available in the United States has been cleared by the FDA for emergency use, but they have not yet been fully approved.

And the lack of full-blown approval contributes to the reluctance to vaccinate, he said.

When asked on Sunday if vaccination warrants should be on the table, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeffrey Zients told CNN that city governments and businesses should consider any strategy that would allow entry safely in their location, whether they are vaccines or negative Covid-19 tests.

But he wants the FDA to take its time to thoroughly review the approval requests, so the public will know the agency is “not giving in to political pressure.”

Dr Doran Fink of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research said last week the agency was “working as quickly as possible” to review requests for approval.

Zients is hoping that an approval will come in August or September. President Biden declared full approval last week could arrive before the end of August.

Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna have started their requests for full FDA approval, while Johnson & Johnson has announced plans to file for licensure.

Immunocompromised people may be the first to receive an extra dose

Covid-19 vaccines used in the United States do not have coronavirus in them, but they require an immune system response to function.

So the millions of Americans who are immunocompromised or taking drugs that suppress the immune system might not get as much help from a vaccine like the others do.

Although there has been a lot of speculation as to if (or when) booster shots might be needed, the CDC, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said this month that “Americans who have been fully immunized do not need a booster right now.”

But that could change as the data evolves, said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

If a vaccine booster dose is needed, people with weakened immune systems could be the first to receive one, Fauci told CNN on Sunday.

People with weakened immune systems can include transplant patients, those undergoing cancer chemotherapy, people with autoimmune diseases, and those taking immunosuppressive drugs, Fauci said.

As with many other vaccines, a small fraction of those vaccinated received breakthrough infections.

Corn more than 97% of people hospitalized with Covid-19 are not vaccinatedCDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky said last week.

Among the small percentage of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in the United States and fully vaccinated, one study found that 44% of them were immunocompromised.

The CDC and the FDA are “exploring several options” for how to make a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine possible for people with compromised immunity if needed, according to a statement released Friday.

“Emerging data shows that there is an improved antibody response after an additional dose of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in some immunocompromised people,” the CDC said in a statement to CNN on Friday.

“While early data shows a potential benefit from giving an extra dose, more evidence is needed to determine safety and effectiveness in people with compromised immune system.”

Those who are immunocompromised and vaccinated against Covid-19 might still want to continue wearing masks, Murthy said.

Booming Covid-19 figures

In California, the counties of San Diego and Los Angeles have both reported their the greatest number of cases since February, and hospitalizations in LA County have more than doubled in two weeks. Los Angeles County officials said on Sunday that hospitalizations exceeded 700 for the first time since March.

In Florida, state health data shows the positivity of new cases nearly doubled in two weeks, from 7.8% in the week of July 2 to 15.1%.

A total of 870 hospital patients were reported in Alabama on Sunday, according to the state’s public health department. Covid-19 dashboard. Hospitalizations there have steadily increased since early July: on July 4, only 213 hospitalized patients were reported.

And Louisiana now has the largest increase in per capita cases in the United States, state officials said on Friday.

“We know that over 80% of them are the Delta variant – that’s what is causing this increase,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said.

“And what allows the increase is a very small percentage of people who have been vaccinated.”

In the rare event that a fully vaccinated person becomes infected later, this infection is likely to result in mild or no symptoms, Murthy said.

“If you get a breakthrough infection – which in itself will be unusual – it’s more likely to be mild or asymptomatic,” the surgeon general said.

The bottom line? “If you get the vaccine and still get an infection, you are almost 100% protected against hospitalization, serious illness and death,” said Dr Saju Mathew, primary care physician and specialist in public health.

“What more do you want from a vaccine? “

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Melissa Alonso, John Bonifield, Elizabeth Cohen, Deanna Hackney, Chuck Johnston, Lauren Mascarenhas and Alexandra Meeks contributed to this report.