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“I don’t know if there’s something we don’t do that’s definitely going to make us cross the line of results,” Dr. Marcus Plesia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territory Health Officials, told CNN. . “Here’s the problem – we’re doing all the things that we know can be effective, but it just allows us to maintain this stable state, when what we really need is to put the order back in.”
Biden set a goal earlier this year to have 70% of American adults receive at least one dose of the vaccine by July 4. Although the country is closing in, with 65.4% of adults receiving at least one dose, its demand and vaccination rates have been turned down, leaving experts concerned about whether enough of the population will be vaccinated in time to stem the upsurge in fall and winter. . Low vaccination rates are dangerous when combined with the prevalence of variants such as delta, which are thought to be more transmissible and cause more serious diseases. . Steve Edwards, CEO of CoxHealth, a health care system in Springfield, Missouri, told CNN that the group is responsible for the sixfold increase in hospitalizations in his system.
“I think it’s delta-type and there’s a lot of fueling at low vaccination rates, so it’s spreading really fast,” Edwards said. “Almost all of our cases are non-vaccinated people who, in my opinion, have put themselves in harm’s way during this pandemic.”
Fortunately, Plesia said, tactics are underway to encourage vaccinations that have had success. Some states, such as Colorado, are taking a final push by calling non-vaccinated people directly to provide them with information and help with scheduling. The incentives — from big companies like the multi-million dollar lottery to free tickets to the zoo or food stamps — have also worked, Plesia said.
He said the strategy that Plescia and other experts have recently backed is to move from mass vaccination efforts to local provider offices — a plan that moves slowly but can be effective.
“We expect this to be an important public health function for some time,” Plesia said.
Young people are late for vaccinations
Many officials have directed their interest in vaccination to young people — a population group that is low in both vaccination rates and willingness to vaccinate, according to studies by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“High vaccination coverage among all age groups is important for reducing COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, especially among groups with lower vaccination uptake, such as young adults,” the authors of a study published Monday wrote.
If the average frequency of weekly vaccinations continues from the week of May 22, only 57.5% of adults under 30 will have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of August.
More than 71% of those aged 30-49 had at least one dose vaccinated at the same time, as well as nearly 86% of adults aged 50-64 and nearly 95% of the elderly 65 and up, according to the study found.
Another study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that about half of adults under the age of 30 said they had received the vaccination or were planning to be vaccinated, less than those between the ages of 30 and 34 (55%) and those aged between 35 and 39 years old (53%).
“A desire to protect others and resume social activities was a motivator for vaccination, suggesting that messages emphasizing that vaccination will allow them to resume social activities and encourage vaccination for the greater good may be effective,” the study authors said.
Study finds celebrations still risk contagion
Along with the increased vaccinations, came more reopenings and more social gatherings, including weddings, birthdays and holiday celebrations.
In many places, reopenings have not dampened progress in fighting the pandemic. On Monday, Maryland reported no Covid-19 deaths for the second day in a row and Virginia reached the milestone of fully vaccinating 60% of adults in the state.
But in counties that still have high rates of Covid-19, such celebrations may further spread the virus, according to research published in JAMA Internal Medicine Monday.
The researchers used private insurance data from 6,535,987 individuals living in 2,926,530 households between January 1 and November 8, 2020. They compared Covid-19 infections between families with and without birthday in the past two weeks, adjusting for family size.
They found that families were more likely to confirm cases of Covid-19 two weeks after Christmas. The study stated that the risk was highest when it was a child’s birthday.
While informal gatherings can affect the spread of Covid-19, they are much more difficult to track than formal events. The team says birthdays, which are often celebrated with gatherings, provide an opportunity to study their impact on the spread of Covid-19.
“This study indicates that events leading to small and informal social gatherings, such as birthdays, and especially children’s birthdays, are an important potential source of SARS-CoV-2 transmission,” the team wrote.
Jane Christensen, Virginia Langmaid, Deidre MacPhillips, Jennifer Henderson, and Lauren Mascarenas contributed to this report.
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