Coronavirus in the US: As delta variant becomes more prevalent, US ‘wasting time’ in vaccination race, expert says

[ad_1]

“We’re wasting time here. The delta variant is spreading, people are dying, and we really can’t wait for things to make more sense,” Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health told CNN Wednesday. It’s been available to most Americans for months, but only 48.2% of the country is still fully immunized, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — and the rate of new vaccinations is declining.

Meanwhile, case rates have skyrocketed. In 47 states, the rate of new cases in the past week was at least 10% higher than the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Of those, 35 experienced an increase of more than 50%.

Officials and experts have said that disinformation is largely responsible for the large number of unvaccinated Americans, a group that is now seeing the biggest effects of the pandemic.

“This is not just a matter of people expressing opinions that may be wrong, this is life and death,” Collins said.

Collins said a lot of data now shows that more than 99% of people currently in hospital with Covid-19 are not immune. This means that those who have been vaccinated are protected enough that they don’t get very sick, Collins said.

He said vaccines are still showing signs of being highly effective against the delta variant, which is one of health experts’ biggest concerns at the moment.

Collins said he hopes the American public will heed the data and decide that vaccination is the safe and smart thing to do.

“I hope people hear this, right now they’re listening to this: If you’re in a critical situation about whether a vaccination will help you, listen to these numbers,” Collins said. “Why do we wait for people? Let’s roll up our sleeves if we haven’t already.”

Excess doses may help people with weakened immune systems

Experts have speculated that boosters for the Covid-19 vaccine may be needed in the future, but many have said that for now, current vaccines appear to provide sufficient protection.

Pfizer said last week that a boost to its vaccine would be needed from six months to a year after the first two doses of the vaccine were completed, drawing a rare public reprimand from the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The company met with administration and top public health officials this week to discuss the data.

“We don’t believe there is a need for boosters at this time,” Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said on Wednesday.

“We will follow the data on diminished immunity over time and data on acquiring infections by vaccine to see if, at some point, it appears that an immune boost is warranted,” Woodcock said in a conversation hosted by STAT News.

The most important conversation at this point, she said, is the vaccination of unvaccinated people.

But Collins notes, for some people, an extra dose — not a booster — may help get their immune response to a full vaccination level.

“People who are immunocompromised, who didn’t get a full response to the original pair of doses from Moderna or Pfizer, or one dose of J&J — maybe an extra dose would help these people,” Collins told CNN reporter Erin Burnett, specifically. Referring to organ transplant recipients and cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

“I wouldn’t call that a booster,” Collins added. “I would just say that this is trying to raise the level of basic fortification to the level it should be – and this is under consideration.”

Routine vaccinations for children are lagging behind

Experts say rates of Covid-19 vaccination are lagging among certain age groups in the United States, and routine vaccinations for children appear to be slowing, too.

A senior federal vaccine official said Wednesday that Pediatric Vaccines, a federally funded program that provides vaccines to children whose families may not be able to pay, has seen orders drop below pre-pandemic rates, putting children at risk of contracting preventable diseases. with vaccines.

“These are really big reductions that raise a lot of concern for children who have missed doses,” Dr. Melinda Wharton, director of the CDC’s Division of Immunization Services, said in an online briefing.

Through the Children’s Vaccines Program (VFC), the CDC purchases and distributes vaccines to clinics and doctors’ offices. About 50% of children nationwide qualify for the VFC program, according to a 2014 report.

Since January 2020, VFC orders have fallen by 12.5 million doses, according to Wharton. A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said states, doctors’ offices and others had ordered 98.7 million doses of vaccines under the program in 2019. As of mid-June this year, 86.2 million doses had been ordered.

Orders for measles vaccines are 18.5% less delayed than they were before the pandemic. That rate, said Wharton, “may be a little exaggerated because of the measles outbreak that occurred during 2018-2019, but it’s still a really big drop, and it raises a lot of concerns when we think about getting kids back to school.”

Virginia Langmaid, Lauren Mascarenhas, and Sarah Branner of CNN contributed to this report.

.

[ad_2]