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Summer time Camp F.A.Q.: C.D.C. Tips and Solutions From Consultants

Summer Camp F.A.Q.: C.D.C. Guidelines and Answers From Experts

For day camps, the CDC said that children ages 2 and up should always wear masks, except when eating, drinking, swimming, or napping, and should be divided into small groups that only interact with each other. All campers must be three feet from others in their cohort (six feet when eating or drinking) and six feet from everyone else (including their own counselors). The guidelines also recommend daily symptom checks for campers and employees, as well as regular Covid-19 tests for campers, if tests are available. Staff should be tested weekly when interacting with multiple groups of campers.

Updated

April 29, 2021, 7:03 a.m. ET

If your child is attending a night camp, the CDC has recommended that anyone eligible for a Covid vaccine should get a vaccine before they arrive, ideally at least two weeks in advance. Unvaccinated participants should try to practice Covid-19 safety measures – such as avoiding unnecessary travel, physical distancing, and wearing masks in public – for two weeks before the night camp begins, and they should have a Covid-19 test perform for up to three days before arriving.

At the camp, the CDC recommended that the campers be divided into groups by cabin and that daily symptom checks and regular tests be carried out. Campers only need to wear masks and physical distance around those who are not in their bunks.

Note that federal guidelines are intended to supplement, not replace, state and local guidelines. As a result, some states may choose not to follow suit, said Tom Rosenberg, president and executive director of ACA Texas overnight camp guidelines. For example, the camps do not require campers or employees to be checked for Covid-19 before or during the camp.They recommend testing whether a motor home or employee becomes ill during their stay. And some overnight camps allow campers from different groups to mingle over time if local guidelines allow and there have been no cases, Rosenberg said.

State guidelines could also change between now and the beginning of the camp, said Dr. Lucy McBride, a Washington, DC doctor advising an overnight camp in Maine. “The landscape is changing tremendously,” she said. As such, parents may want to review camp logs just before their children’s visit to confirm what procedures are in place.

Campers who are at high risk of coronavirus complications (or their family members) may want to be even stricter with risk reduction and should be sure to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible, added Dr. McBride added. The camps may even advise some families that they are better off not sending their children to camp at all. High risk families may want to see their doctors. Some camps for children with medical conditions – such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association and American Diabetes Association camps – are practically running again this year for safety reasons.

Some camp traditions may not appear this year. “We’re not going to fill the loud, noisy dining room with incomprehensible shouting,” said Dr. Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease doctor at Columbia University, advising a handful of camps this summer. (Campers can still sing and sing, outdoors only.) Parents likely won’t be able to visit the cubicles or even step inside the cubicles, and staff may not be allowed to leave the camp site during breaks.

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New CDC masks steerage is complicated, however the fitting step: Scott Gottlieb

New CDC mask guidance is confusing, but the right step: Scott Gottlieb

Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Wednesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will need to update their coronavirus policies faster if the pandemic situation improves.

The day before, the U.S. Department of Health issued new, relaxed guidelines that require fully vaccinated people to wear masks outdoors.

“The guidelines issued by CDC are a step in the right direction, in my opinion, but relatively confusing,” Gottlieb, a former commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration, told CNBC’s Squawk Box. “It is not very clear what they prescribe. I think we need simpler rules if we want to prescribe something about society.”

People who have been fully vaccinated – two weeks after their final dose – can safely exercise and go to small outdoor gatherings without wearing a face mask, according to the new CDC guidance. However, the agency recommends that those who are fully vaccinated continue to wear masks when attending a crowded outdoor event, such as an outdoor event. B. a parade, a sports game or a concert.

The CDC also said that if those other participants are fully vaccinated, it is safe for unvaccinated Americans to forego wearing a mask while attending a small outdoor gathering with friends and family.

The CDC needs to better define what it wants to achieve at this stage of the pandemic when national infection rates are falling and more than 54% of adults in the US have received at least one dose of vaccine, said Gottlieb, who sits on the board of directors at Covid vaccine maker Pfizer.

“I think the public health goal should be to try to protect vulnerable populations in gathering environments. So keep focusing on nursing homes, day care centers where young children live, and trying to prevent major outbreaks and overarching events to prevent.” he said.

According to CDC data, around 68% of US citizens age 65 and over have been fully vaccinated, while around 82% of the most at-risk populations have received at least one dose.

“We won’t be able to prevent a single rollout where a single person spreads a virus to a single person, but against the backdrop of the decline [coronavirus] Prevalence, rising vaccination rates and more vulnerable Americans protected by vaccinations, we have to lean forward, “said Gottlieb, who headed the FDA in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019.

The 7-day average of new coronavirus cases per day in the US is around 53,800, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. That is 17% less than a week ago.

The US has an average of 676 new Covid deaths per day based on a seven day moving average. This is evident from CNBC’s analysis of the Johns Hopkins data. This corresponds to a decrease of 6% compared to a week ago.

Gottlieb, who called for an end to outdoor mask requirements earlier this week, said he was concerned about the impact of the CDC, which continues to be overly cautious with its guidelines.

“I think the risk to CDC as an institution – it’s a hugely important institution – is that it will lose its relevance and people will stop listening,” he said, warning those in the US to the coronavirus guidelines establish.

“The challenge is that if we do not lift these restrictions with the same speed and efficiency that we have placed on them, we will lose credibility as public health officials to reintroduce them in the future because more of the rest of the world People will worry that this is the case. ” a one-way street, “he said.

The CDC did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, genetic testing startup Tempus, health technology company Aetion Inc., and biotech company Illumina. He is also co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.

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Prime CDC physician says these are attainable lengthy covid signs

Top CDC doctor says these are possible long covid symptoms

VioletaStoimenova | E + | Getty Images

Americans shouldn’t hesitate to seek medical help if they believe they have persistent and debilitating symptoms due to Covid-19, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was notified on Wednesday.

The so-called Long Covid is still not well understood by health experts, said Dr. John Brooks, chief medical officer for the CDC’s Covid-19 response, told a House committee. A family doctor can help determine if you have long-term Covid or an unrelated illness, he said.

“If you have symptoms that you haven’t had before, there’s something new after Covid [such as] Chest pain, difficulty breathing, you can’t think clearly, you just aren’t getting any better than you imagined, you have a low threshold to seeking care, “Brooks said during a hearing for the House’s Energy and Trade Committee .

In general, people worry about going to the hospital and wasting a doctor’s time on something that isn’t too serious, especially during the pandemic, Brooks said. In potentially long covid cases that researchers are still trying to understand, people shouldn’t, he said.

“That may be fine in the short term, until we can really more clearly distinguish what defines this. We are in the learning stage,” he said.

Symptoms of long-term Covid, which researchers now refer to as post-acute consequences of Covid-19 or PASC, can develop well after the initial infection, and the severity can range from mild to incompetent, according to health officials and health experts.

University of Washington researchers released data in February that showed a third of patients reported persistent symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, and insomnia that lasted for up to nine months.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told the House Committee on Wednesday that people hospitalized with the virus appear to have a higher chance of developing Covid for long. But people who haven’t been hospitalized can also have persistent symptoms, he said.

Older Americans, women, and obese people also appear to be at higher risk of developing long covid, Collins told the committee. The US agency is working quickly to identify other potential risk factors.

The NIH launched an initiative in February to study long Covid and identify the causes and possible treatments.

Some people who have suffered from long-term Covid say they find relief after being vaccinated, puzzling health experts.

Sheri Paulson, a 53-year-old North Dakota resident who struggled to get out of bed months after her Covid-19 diagnosis, told CNBC in March that she was feeling better five days after her first Pfizer shot in February

Collins said Wednesday that the agency had heard anecdotal reports from people feeling better after the vaccination. But he added that large studies are still needed to determine if and how the shots actually improve symptoms.

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Former HHS official applauds ‘data-driven’ easing of CDC masks steering

Dr. Scott Gottlieb on Fauci, Paul exchange on face masks

Former health and social worker Dr. Mario Ramirez on Tuesday welcomed President Joe Biden’s support for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s masking updates.

“I think the president made the right point today, namely that today’s guidance is not about politics, but rather a data-driven recommendation based on how these vaccines behave in the wild,” said Ramirez.

According to the CDC, fully vaccinated people can exercise outdoors and attend small gatherings without wearing a face mask. Biden said the new recommendations underscore the strides the US has made in fighting Covid.

Ramirez, a former HHS Pandemic and Emerging Threat Coordinator for the Office of Global Affairs, told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that while the US is headed in the right direction on vaccinations, officials have an “ongoing messaging campaign “to convince skeptical Americans to vaccinate.

In the US, 232 million shots of vaccine have been put into guns, according to CDC data, with 43% of the total population receiving at least one dose and nearly 20% of the country being fully vaccinated.

Dr. Peter Hotez told The News with Shepard Smith on Friday that daylight saving time in the US could return to a pre-Covid-19 normal if 75% to 80% of the US population are vaccinated.

Ramirez said improving vaccine convenience will be another helpful step in getting more Americans vaccinated.

“One of the things we’re looking forward to this fall is whether vaccine makers can actually pool a flu and a coronavirus vaccine together. If we can, it will go a long way toward improving vaccine uptake,” he said Ramirez.

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C.D.C. Eases Out of doors Masks Steerage for Vaccinated Individuals

C.D.C. Eases Outdoor Mask Guidance for Vaccinated Americans

WASHINGTON – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took an important step on Tuesday to lure Americans into a post-pandemic world. They have relaxed the rules for wearing masks outdoors as coronavirus cases decline and people scrape at restrictions.

The mask tour is humble and carefully written: Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus no longer need to wear a mask outdoors, while walking, running, hiking, or biking alone or in small gatherings, including with members of their own household. Masks are still required in crowded outdoor venues such as sports stadiums, the CDC said.

But President Biden hailed it as a milestone in the pandemic. He wore a mask as he approached the lectern in the White House grounds on a warm spring day – and held it off sharply as he walked back into the White House when he was finished.

“Go get the shot. It’s never been easier, ”said Biden. “And once you are fully vaccinated, you can do without a mask when you are outside and away from crowds.”

The CDC stopped telling even fully vaccinated people that they could take off their masks completely outdoors – citing the worrying risk that remains for the transmission of the coronavirus, unknown vaccination levels in people in crowds and the still high case numbers in some regions of the country. The instructions also warned vaccinated people not to go without a mask at medium-sized outdoor gatherings.

But even the director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, emphasizing a more expansive interpretation, told reporters at a briefing at the White House, “We no longer feel that the vaccinated people need masks in the open air,” outside of “large public venues like concerts, stadiums and the like.”

The order had an immediate impact on states. Governors in California, New York, Louisiana, Maine and Massachusetts relaxed all outside mask mandates following the CDC’s announcement. In Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, went much further and ignored the advice of the federal government when he said it was “time for parties and weddings and conventions and concerts and parades and proms,” “with no limits to the gathering of greats” . ”

On Capitol Hill, a group of Republican lawmakers who are also medical professionals posted a vaccination advertisement Tuesday wearing white coats with stethoscopes around their necks. Senator Roger Marshall, a newly minted Republican from Kansas and a doctor, told viewers the reason for the vaccination was simple: “So we can throw away our masks and live life as freely as before.”

Mr Marshall, who organized the effort, said it was based on research by Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who worked to reduce vaccine reluctance among conservatives. In an interview, Mr Luntz said Mr Biden’s announcement was a positive move and could give people who are not vaccinated a reason to get their shots.

“It gives them a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “‘Tell me when to get rid of my mask’ is actually the language they use. The fact that this is a meaningful, measurable step towards returning to normal is a big deal.”

For Mr Biden, who will address Congress on Wednesday and will celebrate his 100th day in office on Thursday, the CDC announcement was a moment to learn about the “amazing progress” Americans have made since taking office . Next week, he said, he will outline a plan “to bring us to July 4th as our target date, to bring life in America closer to normal and to celebrate our independence from the virus”.

Since the pandemic began, Americans have been misled about wearing masks when senior health officials said people didn’t need them – also because of the severe lack of protective equipment for frontline health workers. Masks became the centerpiece of the culture wars that surrounded the pandemic, especially after President Donald J. Trump insisted they were voluntary and he wouldn’t wear one.

This led states to introduce patchwork mask restrictions, often by party-political standards, even though a mask has been proven to protect individuals and their surroundings. Many states have already lifted the restrictions they put on indoor and outdoor activities. Others upheld the requirements for wearing masks for outdoor areas and pointed out the danger of potentially more contagious variants.

Updated

April 27, 2021, 8:03 p.m. ET

The guidelines issued on Tuesday reflect some basic coronavirus calculations: as the number of people vaccinated increases, the number of cases decreases.

To date, about 43 percent of Americans have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and 29 percent have received both doses of the two vaccines that require double shots. According to a New York Times database, the United States has an average of 55,000 new cases per day, a decrease of around 20 percent from two weeks ago.

“I know the quarantine and shutdowns were stressful during the pandemic,” said Dr. Walensky. “I know we all miss the things we did before the pandemic, and I know we all want to do the things we love, and soon. Today is another day where we can take a step back to normal. “

Her remarks and those of the president have even been welcomed by some of the Biden administration’s fiercest Republican critics in Congress, many of whom have complained that the coronavirus restrictions are an encroachment on their personal freedoms.

“The time has come,” said Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, recently named Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease specialist, angry at a hearing on Capitol Hill. “When do we get the rest of our freedoms back?”

Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who promoted marginal theories and gave vaccine skeptics a platform, said the guidelines were “long overdue.”

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas who stopped wearing masks indoors after being vaccinated, said he was “glad the CDC finally recognized what has long been apparent, namely that wearing a mask outside is stupid and not science is remotely justified. “

In fact, the science behind the CDC’s new guidelines is not comprehensive. A growing body of research shows that the likelihood of the virus spreading outdoors is far less than indoors, but the risk is not zero and difficult to quantify.

Most, if not all, of the outdoor virus transmission studies were done before the vaccine was available. Therefore, no distinction is made between the risk to vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

However, experts say that virus particles disperse quickly outdoors, meaning that brief encounters with a passing walker or jogger pose a very low risk of transmission.

“The two most important things you need to do outdoors are that the virus dilutes quickly” and breaks down quickly in sunlight, “said Linsey Marr, aerosol expert at Virginia Tech.People are really cheek to cheek, side by side and in front and one after the other, and there is screaming, cheering – I would wear a mask in this situation. “

Even so, the evidence is a bit thin. A recent systematic review of studies examining the transmission of the novel coronavirus and other respiratory viruses in unvaccinated individuals found only five studies on the coronavirus that met the authors’ criteria.

The study concluded that less than 10 percent of infections occurred outdoors and that the likelihood of transmission indoors was 18.7 times as high as outdoors (the likelihood of super-spreading events was 33 times as much high as indoors).

One of the authors of the paper, Dr. Nooshin Razani, associate professor of epidemiology, biostatistics, and pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco, warned that the low probability of transmission outdoors may simply reflect the fact that people spend little time outdoors.

In a documented case in Italy, the virus spread between joggers who ran together outdoors.

The CDC’s new guidelines came out in a growing debate about why the federal government still recommends that people wear masks outdoors. Dr. Paul Sax, an infectious disease expert at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine last week that it was time to end outdoor mask mandates.

Along with the guidelines, the CDC released a color-coded table of masking recommendations for a variety of scenarios such as “dine in an outdoor restaurant with friends from multiple households,” “go to a hairdresser or hair salon,” and “go to an uncrowded mall or museum. “

But dr. Marr said it was too complex: “I’d have to carry around a piece of paper – a cheat sheet with all these different provisions.” She added, “I am concerned that this is not being as helpful as it could be.”

And there are other scenarios that the guidelines don’t address where wearing a mask outdoors can still send an important social signal. For example, Dr. Mercedes Carnethon, an epidemiologist at Northwestern University, notes that no vaccine has yet been approved for children under 16 years of age.

“When we ask children to wear masks in school and in the playground when they are in school,” she said, “I think it is up to the adults in the situation to model this behavior and to normalize the mask to wear outside too. “

Emily Anthes and Nicholas Fandos contributed to the coverage.

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CDC Particulars New Out of doors Masks Recommendation for Vaccinated Folks

CDC Details New Outdoor Mask Advice for Vaccinated People

President Biden and federal health officials said Tuesday that Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus will no longer have to wear masks outdoors in most situations, except at large gatherings – a move, the president said, to save “life.” to bring America closer to the normal ”Its target date is July 4th.

“Starting today, we’re meeting a group of friends in a park to have a picnic,” said Biden, speaking to reporters in front of the White House about what he thought was a “nice day” in Washington. “As long as you are vaccinated and outdoors, you can do this without a mask.”

Just two days before his 100th day in office after US coronavirus cases, hospital stays and deaths fell sharply since January, Mr Biden noted that Americans have made “amazing strides”. But his comments have been tempered with caution – masks are still necessary at outdoor concerts or sporting events, he said – an appeal to Americans who haven’t already done so to roll up their sleeves and get a chance.

Not long before that, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines requiring Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus no longer need to wear masks outdoors when walking, running, hiking, or cycling alone or with members of theirs Household and in small outdoor gatherings.

The risk of the virus spreading outdoors is so small that even those who have not been vaccinated will not need to wear a mask when hiking, jogging, cycling, or running alone or with a household member. This is evident from the updated recommendations from the CDC.

People who haven’t got their recordings can go to small outdoor gatherings even without a mask, as long as they are with fully vaccinated friends and family members.

The guidelines for people who have been vaccinated have been further relaxed: they can take off their masks when attending small gatherings with people who have not taken their pictures and when dining in an outdoor restaurant with people from multiple households.

The CDC stopped telling even fully vaccinated people that they could take off their masks completely outdoors – citing the worrying risk that remains for the transmission of the coronavirus, unknown vaccination levels in people en masse, and the still high number of cases in some regions of the USA country.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, who warned a few weeks ago that she felt a sense of “impending doom”, said she now feels “more hopeful” as the total number of vaccinations increases and the daily number of cases sinks . ”

According to a New York Times database, the United States has an average of 55,000 new cases per day, a decrease of around 20 percent from two weeks ago.

“I know the quarantine and shutdowns were stressful during the pandemic,” said Dr. Walensky. “I know we all miss the things we did before the pandemic, and I know we all want to do the things we love, and soon. Today is another day we can take a step back. “

Trying to link the news to the government’s public campaign to have most American adults vaccinated by the summer, trying to reassure that a semblance of normal life can return, Mr Biden concluded his brief remarks on a public notice for the vaccine.

In unveiling the new guidelines for wearing masks, public health officials on Tuesday emphasized how vaccinated people can enjoy mask-free recreational activities, rather than the guidelines also lifting some restrictions on those who have not received their shots. It was a concerted message at a time when vaccination rates were falling and raising concerns about reluctance among hard-to-reach populations.

However, the CDC continues to advise on other safety measures, saying that all adults continue to wear masks and stay in large public spaces, such as in large public spaces. It would be unknown, for example, to keep a distance of two meters during outdoor performances or at sporting events, shopping malls and cinemas where vaccination and the health of other people are guaranteed. And they should still avoid medium and large gatherings, crowds and poorly ventilated rooms, officials said.

“I welcome less restrictive guidelines for outdoor masking,” said Linsey Marr, aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech. “We know that it is much less likely to be transmitted outdoors than indoors because the virus cannot collect in the air outdoors. It dilutes quickly. “

However, the guidelines themselves, which contain different masking recommendations for a variety of scenarios, seem too complex, she said.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Americans have been given advice on how to wear masks when senior health officials said people didn’t need them – also because of the lack of protective equipment for frontline health workers.

And mask restrictions have since been a patchwork of state to state, despite growing evidence of a mask protecting individuals and those around them.

However, the pace of vaccination has helped loosen these limits. To date, about 42 percent of Americans have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and 29 percent have received both doses of the two vaccines that require double shots.

The vaccines are highly effective in preventing people from getting seriously ill with the coronavirus.

“Scientifically, the vaccines are good enough that it is highly unlikely that someone who is vaccinated will be exposed to enough virus outdoors to get a breakthrough infection,” said Dr. Marr.

Early evidence also suggests that vaccinated people may be significantly less likely to transmit the virus, but the exact risks are not yet known.

Masking and distancing are generally still recommended when meeting with unvaccinated people from more than one different household, or with an unvaccinated person who is at high risk of serious illness from Covid or who lives with a vulnerable person.

And there are scenarios where wearing a mask outdoors can still be an important social signal, said Dr. Mercedes Carnethon, an epidemiologist at Northwestern University. For example, no vaccine has yet been approved for children under the age of 16.

A growing body of research shows that the risk of spreading the virus outdoors is far less than indoors. According to experts, viral particles spread quickly outdoors, which means that brief encounters with a passing walker or jogger pose a very low risk of transmission.

Most, if not all, of the outdoor virus transmission studies were done before the vaccine was available.

A recent systematic review of studies examining transmission of the coronavirus and other respiratory viruses in unvaccinated people found that less than 10 percent of infections occurred outdoors and the likelihood of indoor transmission was 18.7 times higher than outdoors. (The likelihood of super-spreading events was 33 times higher indoors.)

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CDC Updates Masks and Distancing Steerage for Summer season Camps

CDC Updates Masks and Distancing Guidance for Summer Camps

Children camping this summer can be in the same group within three feet of their peers, but must wear masks at all times, according to federal health officials. Children should only remove their masks when swimming, napping, eating, or drinking. They should be far apart for these activities, positioned head-to-toe for naps, and at least three feet apart for meals, snacks, and water breaks.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the expected updated guidelines for summer camp operators this weekend, just weeks before many camps resume operations in mid-May. Many parents were anxious to find camps for their children who had spent months in distance learning classes during the pandemic.

One topic covered in the updated guidelines is the emphasis on engaging in as many activities as possible outdoors, where the risk of infection is considered to be much lower than indoors. If activities need to be brought indoors, rooms should be well ventilated and windows should be kept open (windows should also be open on camp buses and vans), the CDC said.

The guide tells children not to share toys, books, or games. Every camper should have a labeled storage room for their belongings, and sleeping mats should be assigned to individual children and disinfected before and after use.

However, some activities should be avoided altogether, including close-knit or indoor sports, and large gatherings or gatherings. Singing, singing, shouting, or playing instruments is recommended for outdoor use.

Wearing a mask is a crucial part of prevention efforts, even as federal health officials are weighing whether to reduce this restriction for outdoor use, especially for those who are fully vaccinated.

“All persons in camp facilities should wear masks at all times, with the exception of certain people or certain attitudes or activities, e.g. B. when eating and drinking or swimming, ”says the guide in the only sentence that is highlighted in bold in the 14-page advice.

The federal health authorities also issued rules for overnight camps requiring eligible staff, volunteers, campers, and family members to be fully vaccinated two weeks before traveling to the camps, while those who are not vaccinated should self-vaccinate two weeks prior to their arrival at the camp should quarantine. Those who are not fully vaccinated should also have a negative test for the virus one to three days before arrival at the warehouse.

Campers and staff should be screened for symptoms of Covid upon arrival at camps, and screening tests should be done if there is significant community transmission in the area. Daily symptom checks should also be done to monitor for possible illnesses, the council said.

Anyone who works in a camp who is 16 years of age or older is “strongly encouraged” to get vaccinated “as soon as the opportunity arises,” health officials said.

But vaccinated people still have to wear masks around children who cannot yet be vaccinated and stay three feet away from them. Children should also stay six feet from children in other groups.

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CDC panel debates J&J Covid vaccine after uncommon blood clot challenge

CDC panel debates J&J Covid vaccine after rare blood clot issue

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An advisory panel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is holding an emergency meeting Friday to discuss Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine and its use after six women developed a rare but potentially life-threatening bleeding disorder called the one left dead.

A positive recommendation from the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices could pave the way for US regulators to lift the recommended hiatus for the use of the J&J shot earlier this weekend.

The CDC panel decided to postpone a decision on the vaccine last week while officials continued to investigate cases of six women who developed cerebral sinus thrombosis (CVST) within about two weeks of receiving the shot.

Earlier this week, J&J announced that it would restart its vaccine rollout in Europe after regulators there backed the single vaccine by recommending adding a warning to the label. The European Medicines Agency has examined all available evidence, including reports from the United States.

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Physician on CDC advisory panel expects pause lifted

Doctor on CDC advisory panel expects pause lifted

A member of a key CDC advisory body told CNBC Friday morning that he expects the U.S. hiatus on Johnson & Johnson’s one-off coronavirus vaccine to be lifted at some point.

“I think we are ready to use this vaccine. We had to take an important pause to review this safety information to consider the risks. But I think there is a large amount of evidence that the Benefit far outweighs this risk, “said Dr. Wilbur Chen, professor in the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Chen spoke on the Worldwide Exchange before attending a meeting of the Agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices later on Friday to discuss the rare but serious bleeding disorder some women had after receiving the J&J shot.

In addition to the six patients who experienced rare but severe blood clotting problems after receiving the vaccine, the CDC is investigating two other possible cases: a deceased Oregon woman and a Texas woman who was hospitalized. Of the original six women, one died and one became seriously ill. Approximately 8 million J&J vaccine doses have been administered.

Concern over the problem led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA to temporarily stop using the J&J vaccine in the US last week. When asked by CNBC’s Brian Sullivan whether he believes Americans will get the J&J vaccine at some point, Chen said, “Yes.”

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, known as ACIP, is an external panel of experts that makes recommendations to the CDC. A meeting on the J&J vaccine was called last week, but a decision was postponed until this week. Ultimately, it is up to the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration what to do next.

Chen said ACIP now has better information about the blood clotting problems on which to base its vaccination instructions. “We’ll be able to get a good sample size. It may not be perfect, but we don’t have to be perfect to have actionable information,” said Chen, adding that he expects the panel to “get a number.” working out of recommendations that I think everyone will be happy with. “

In a statement emailed to CNBC, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, she hopes the Public Health Agency will receive a “recommendation” that considers the risk versus benefit of using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine based on the new case data and the risk-benefit ratio analysis CDC has in last week. “

“I really appreciate the complex issue before the committee and look forward to hearing from you. I also appreciate the importance of working with the FDA to act quickly as soon as we hear about ACIP,” added Walensky .

Given the urgency of the coronavirus pandemic, some people have criticized the decision to discontinue the J&J Covid vaccine – which only requires one dose for full immunity protection – while the clot investigation was in progress.

Chen disagreed.

“The risk is very, very small, but until we could fully take into account this information we haven’t been able to contextualize this for the rest of the medical community and the public too,” he said. “We only took a 10-day break. Hopefully this won’t be detrimental in the long term, but we obviously want to instill confidence in the security information collection system.”

The other two emergency-approved Covid vaccines in the US come from Pfizer and Moderna. Both require two shots.

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CDC recommends pregnant ladies get Covid vaccine after examine reveals it is secure

CDC recommends pregnant women get Covid vaccine after study shows it's safe

A health worker doses the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine to a pregnant woman on January 23, 2021 at Clalit Health Services in the Israeli Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv.

Jack Guez | AFP | Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend Covid-19 shots for pregnant women after preliminary data from the largest study of coronavirus vaccine use in expectant mothers showed that Pfizer and Moderna shocks were effective for both women and men are safe for their babies.

The researchers did not find “obvious safety signals” in any of the 35,691 women followed in the peer-reviewed study published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. The data used in the study were self-reported and the ages of the participants ranged from 16 to 54 years.

“No safety concerns for third trimester vaccinees or safety concerns for their babies were observed,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Friday. “Therefore, CDC recommends pregnant people to receive Covid-19 vaccines.”

Researchers used the V-Safe Post-Vaccination Health Checker monitoring system, the V-Safe Pregnancy Register, and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System to characterize the initial safety of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines in pregnant women.

Pregnant women were more likely to report injection site pain than those who weren’t, but fewer other side effects such as headache, myalgia, chills, and fever. Of the 827 participants who completed their pregnancies, the miscarriage rates were the same as before the pandemic.

The results are preliminary and only cover the first 11 weeks of the US vaccine rollout from December 14th to February 28th.

Pregnant women are more likely to be hospitalized and have a higher risk of death if they become infected with Covid-19. According to CDC data, vaccination is particularly important for this population group. Pharmaceutical companies have not included pregnant women in early efficacy and safety studies, but recent studies suggest that the vaccines are safe for them.

The researchers said “more longitudinal research, including tracking large numbers of women who were vaccinated earlier in pregnancy, is needed to inform mother, pregnancy and child results.”