Tag: Covid

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C.D.C. Recommends Covid Vaccines Throughout Being pregnant

C.D.C. Recommends Covid Vaccines During Pregnancy

Still, many pregnant patients who are reluctant to introduce foreign substances into their bodies want more long-term data and scientific evidence that the vaccines have no effect on the development of the fetus, said Dr. Adam Urato, a Framingham, Massachusetts maternal-fetal medical specialist providing advice to patients about the vaccine.

“The only question my patients ask me all the time is, ‘Are we absolutely sure that these vaccines won’t harm my baby?'” He said.

Tista Banerjee, 32, who gave birth to twins in late June, said she chose not to get vaccinated until after she was pregnant.

“During pregnancy, they say that if you don’t need to take external medication, then you shouldn’t and that you should be extra careful with what you put into your body,” said Ms. Banerjee. The vaccine was still fairly new in April when she was considering vaccinating, she said, and she was lucky enough to be able to work remotely and avoid unnecessary exposure to the virus.

She was fully vaccinated in July, shortly after giving birth, she said.

Pregnant women, who were often excluded from medical trials, were not included in the clinical trials of the Covid vaccines, and the World Health Organization was ambiguous in its guidelines on vaccines, both for breastfeeding women for whom safety data are not available, and for and for pregnant women.

In interim recommendations issued in June, the global health organization said it recommends vaccination “when the benefits of vaccination to the pregnant woman outweigh the potential risks.” Examples were women who are at high risk of exposure to Covid and those with chronic health conditions such as obesity or diabetes who are at higher risk for serious illness.

Sabrina Imbler contributed the reporting.

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U.S. academics union says Covid case surge in youngsters led to again necessary photographs

U.S. teachers union says Covid case surge in kids led to back mandatory shots

A healthcare worker administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to a student during a ‘Vax To School’ campaign event at a high school in the Staten Island borough of New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021.

Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A recent surge of Covid cases in kids across the U.S. led the nation’s second-largest teachers union to back vaccine mandates for educators as schools prepare for in-person learning this fall, said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

“This is what really scares me: in the last three weeks, we’ve gone from the number of kids testing positive from 20,000 to 40,000 to 72,000,” she said, citing data from July. The number of kids who tested positive for Covid during the week ended Aug. 5 was even higher at 93,824, according to the most recent data from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Weingarten, who was speaking in an interview Wednesday with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” said schools should give teachers time off to get the shots and allow for medical and religious exemptions for those who don’t want them.

“Kids under 12 can’t get vaccines, this delta virus is very transmissible, so we need to be in school for our kids, with our kids, but we need to keep everyone safe,” Weingarten said. “And that means vaccines are the single most important way to do it, and the second way to do it is masks.”

Approximately 90% of teachers are already vaccinated, Weingarten said during the interview, citing White House data. But with many children still ineligible for vaccination, Weingarten stopped short of advocating for an immunization requirement for students under 12.

As the delta variant surges, states have begun enhancing their Covid mitigation protocols to prevent the virus from spreading among faculty and students. On Aug. 4, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker introduced a mask mandate for all state students regardless of their vaccination status.

New Jersey also issued a mask mandate for all students and staff on Friday, and Louisiana’s mask mandate for public indoor settings includes students from kindergarten through college.

Becky Pringle, president of the largest U.S. teachers’ union, the National Education Association, told the New York Times last week that any vaccine mandate should be negotiated at the local level.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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WHO says it urgently wants $7.7 billion to assist poorer nations survive delta Covid variant

WHO says it urgently needs $7.7 billion to help poorer nations survive delta Covid variant

Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on July 28, 2021.

Jaber Abdulkhaleg | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The World Health Organization is calling for $ 7.7 billion, which officials say is badly needed to help low-income countries survive the Delta-Covid variant through the provision of vaccines, oxygen and medical care.

The funds will be used for the WHO’s Access to Covid-19 Tools program, or ACT, accelerator program that provides critical medical supplies to fight the coronavirus worldwide, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, senior advisor to the WHO director-general, during a question and answer session with WHO officials, streamed a live stream on their social media accounts on Tuesday.

Aylward said the funds are needed to partially cover a $ 16.8 billion shortfall that hampers WHO’s ability to fight the pandemic in developing countries with little or no access to vaccines.

“Aside from the moral question – people shouldn’t die if the technology is available elsewhere, you know, technology should help humanity as a whole – there is also the problem that we can’t solve this pandemic in one country at a time. “Said Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO Deputy Director General for Access to Medicines, Vaccines and Medicines.

“That’s the reality,” she continued. “We have to help the countries move closer together. Otherwise we will live with this virus much longer than necessary.”

WHO officials have set a goal to vaccinate at least 10% of the world’s population by the end of September, at least 40% by the end of this year, and 70% by the middle of next year. Some nations around the world have not yet started their vaccination campaigns, while wealthier countries like the US and Israel have already fully vaccinated more than half of their populations.

Aylward said people in poorer countries who have a fever or other symptoms don’t have the test materials to know if it’s Covid or other diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia or HIV. In addition to providing doses of vaccine, Aylward said the funding will also include Covid testing, oxygen treatments and masks.

Wealthy nations have spent trillions of dollars to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, he said. “Your economy tells you to vaccinate the world and of course we didn’t listen,” he said.

The WHO previously said it was in dire need of $ 7.7 billion to run the ACT Accelerator, and at that point was calling for an additional $ 3.8 billion to buy 760 million doses of Covid vaccine for delivery the next Year, reported Reuters.

“This is the defining moment of our time,” said Aylward. “At some point we look back and that will be the question: How did you behave in those crucial moments?”

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Covid vaccines required for journey, unvaccinated folks do not prefer it

Covid vaccines required for travel, unvaccinated people don't like it

Unvaccinated people are eager to travel again. But more and more, the rules make that harder.

Travelers are increasingly required to show proof of vaccination before they can cruise, book group tours, avoid quarantines, or vacation to tropical islands. Beyond that, vaccines are needed for everyday activities including attending some universities, returning to the workplace or eating in restaurants.

More cities and companies — from Paris to New York, from Disney to Fox Corp. — are issuing vaccine requirements of one sort or another, paving the way for others to follow.

The new rules fall short of true mandates, since people can often avoid them by submitting to rigorous testing and safety protocols. But the “near-mandates,” as they are being called, have the practical effect of making life logistically difficult for some unvaccinated people.

Vaccine-based rules have more support in Europe, but Americans are divided over them. The latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey found 49% favoring mandates and 46% opposing them. Views were sharply divided by age and political affiliation, with nearly 80% of unvaccinated people against them.

CNBC interviewed nearly a dozen unvaccinated travelers. A complex picture of their views emerged, highlighting fears, frustrations and an indifference toward vaccines and the restrictions that require them.

Waiting it out

Several people who oppose mandatory vaccines said they resent being grouped with so-called “anti-vaxxers.” Among them was a mental health counselor from the U.S. South, who asked not to be named due to her occupation.  

She said she is vaccinated against other diseases, and her children are as well. “I’m not anti-vaccine at all,” she said.

But she’s “against these rushed vaccines,” referring to the ones designed to combat Covid.

A mental health counselor from the Deep South was one of several people CNBC interviewed who expressed concern that the vaccines were not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Wolfgang Kumm | picture alliance | Getty Images

She travels monthly and fears catching the virus. Vaccine-based restrictions haven’t impeded her ability to travel, but she’s concerned they could, especially since her spouse is European. She said Covid tests “make more sense” — an argument which gained traction in The Atlantic last week — and are more equitable for those who can’t or won’t vaccinate.

“I will continue to wait it out and hope that over time a less desperate and more logical approach will arise,” she said. “When and if these vaccines are proven safe, I will get one.”

Singaporean Ng Syn Jae agrees. Singapore is on target to have 80% of its population vaccinated by next month, but the 27-year-old said he won’t be among them.

From Aug. 10, vaccinated people in Singapore can dine in restaurants again, while most unvaccinated adults and teenagers cannot.

Suhaimi Abdullah | NurPhoto | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Ng said he feels the vaccines being administered in Singapore — from Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna — are still in “an experimental stage.” He said he’s worried about possible long-term negative side effects, a fear expressed by others who spoke to CNBC.

The World Health Organization, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other health agencies around the world do not share those worries. They’ve said repeatedly that approved vaccines, including those from Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna, are safe and effective against Covid-19 and existing variants.

Covid vaccines have been administered in 199 countries around the world with 30% of the global population having received at least one shot, according to the Our World in Data project at The University of Oxford.

Travel mandates likely would encourage Ng to get vaccinated, he said, though he feels they are unethical. He said he would likely opt for the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine because “the technology the vaccine uses is older” than the newer mRNA vaccines.

He said he will vaccinate “when the vaccine companies show they have done all the proper safety tests —and then, I might wait even longer.”

Frustrated, but not angry

Bert Valdez, a professional surfer living in Hawaii, isn’t vaccinated and doesn’t plan to be.

“It’s a drug, and we were always told not to do drugs,” he said.

His travel experience is wide — coastal locations including Tahiti, Fiji, Taiwan, Mexico and Costa Rica. He acknowledged that his decision not to get vaccinated will probably limit his ability to compete and earn money in the future.

This is not going to kill me.

Valdez said he’s frustrated, but not angry, about vaccine-based travel restrictions, which he said will be short-lived because the “people in power won’t be much longer,” both in the United States and abroad. He did not elaborate on how or why this global transition of power would occur.

Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, he said he believes vaccinated people are spreading the Covid variants while unvaccinated people take the blame.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unvaccinated people are much more likely to contract and transmit the virus that causes Covid-19, including the highly contagious delta variant.

As for the pandemic itself, Valdez said he laments how anger is dividing families and friends. He’s less worried about himself, but more for his three daughters.

“I’ve been through a lot in my life,” he said. “This is not going to kill me.”

Fearing the vaccine more than the virus

Beegy Morter lives in Dallas and described herself as a practitioner of “energy medicine.” She isn’t happy about vaccine-based travel restrictions. She said she can’t take vaccines because she’s allergic to a preservative they contain.

“I do feel discriminated” against, the 77-year-old told CNBC. “I’m not anti-vaxx — I’ve just done the research.”

Morter also said she has trouble wearing masks. They make her dizzy, so she avoids stores that require them.

“I would rather take my chances…”

She’s been given the “cold shoulder” by people who discover she’s unvaccinated, she said. She described encounters which mirror reports of rising resentment and hostility toward the unvaccinated.

Even without her allergy, Morter said she still wouldn’t get vaccinated. For one thing, she doesn’t fear getting Covid, she said.

“The survival rate of catching Covid is so good,” she said. “I would rather take my chances … than take the vaccine.”

U.S. officials have repeatedly contradicted views like hers about the risk Covid poses toward the unvaccinated. The vast majority of Covid-related hospitalizations and deaths in the United States are now occurring among unvaccinated people.

How Americans are responding to Covid variants

Likely to wear masks     Likely to avoid large gatherings
Vaccinated 62% 61%
Unvaccinated 37% 40%
Source: KFF Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor

Yet Morter isn’t alone. A new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows 53% of unvaccinated adults in the United States fear the vaccines more than the disease itself.

Unvaccinated people are also less worried about getting “seriously sick” from Covid (73%) than vaccinated people (61%), according to the report.

‘Stubborn’

Dan Morris of Dunedin, Florida, said his plans to visit Australia this year are looking “extremely unlikely.”

He understands not getting vaccinated won’t help, since “there’s talk of [Australian authorities] not being willing to take unvaccinated people in the future” too.

Morris said he has “a range of reasons” for his decision, including having “a messed-up immune system” due to Crohn’s Disease, and concerns that mutations are making the vaccines less effective.

When asked if that was a circular argument — i.e., refusing vaccines because they may not be as effective against variants which, in turn, are more likely to develop if people refuse the vaccines — Morris said:

“Yes, if it is true that mutations are more likely or mostly occurring in the unvaccinated, then ‘the vaccines are continuing to mutate’ is not a great argument … I would be contributing to the problem. However, I think the mutations are going to come whether I vax or not.”

I’m really not bothered at all by the various restrictions…

The WHO has repeatedly said that Covid-19 vaccines are safe and life-saving. “One of the best ways of guarding against new variants is to continue… rolling out vaccines,” according to the WHO’s website.

In the meantime, Morris said he’s fine to wait years for long-term studies to be published. As to whether he would vaccinate to visit Australia, he isn’t budging.

“Tougher enforcement and restrictions make me less likely to be vaccinated in the future,” he said. “I’m stubborn!”

‘Not bothered’

Bryan Hale, a 54-year-old self-employed coach from Phoenix, isn’t vaccinated. But he isn’t averse to the idea either.

“I’m more than willing to get vaccinated if it becomes a serious issue or need,” he said. “I’ve just been busy.”

His vaccination status has resulted in backlash from his family, some of whom have refused to see him until he is immunized, he said.

Though studies indicate that unvaccinated people are less likely to wear masks or practice social distancing, Hale said he does both, especially since he travels weekly by car in the U.S. Southwest and Mexico.

Bryan Hale said he has experienced “zero” Covid-related delays at the U.S.-Mexico border — though news reports show others haven’t been as lucky.

Erin Clark | Boston Globe | Getty Images

“I’m really not bothered at all by the various restrictions and protocols that have been put in place for travelers,” he said, adding that he feels the government and society at large are “doing the best they can to deal with an unpredictable, complex and serious challenge.”

Hale said he respects the rights of individuals to choose to vaccinate, as well as businesses to implement rules for their organizations.

Deciding to vaccinate

Travel restrictions are coaxing people like Lois Lindsey over the line. The retired accountant from Houston got vaccinated last week solely to safeguard her upcoming vacation plans, she said.  

“I don’t want to take the vaccine but feel forced to do so since I will be taking a trip to Kentucky in October and a cruise in January,” she said. “I don’t want to … pay more or be delayed at the airport if I’m not vaccinated.”

If I could make my own decision, I would put my life in God’s hands.

According to a Time/Harris poll conducted in March, more than half (52%) of vaccinated respondents indicated their decision was influenced at least in part by the desire to travel.   

Lindsey’s cruise on Carnival Cruise Line requires all passengers aged 12 and older to be vaccinated. Exemptions are available, but unvaccinated travelers have to pay a $150 surcharge, submit to additional Covid tests, buy travel insurance (if leaving from Florida or Texas) and forgo “independent sightseeing in ports of call,” according to the company’s website.  

Lois Lindsey said she, her daughter and eldest grandchild decided to get vaccinated to go on a cruise departing this winter from Galveston, Texas.

Thomas Shea | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Lindsey says she feels there’s “conflicting information floating around” about who is spreading Covid, the effectiveness of masks, and whether vaccines protect against variants. She gets her news from CNN, Fox News, NBC News and talk radio, she said.

“If I could make my own decision, I would put my life in God’s hands,” said Lindsey.

A 50-year-old woman who works in New York’s financial sector and who did not wish to be identified told CNBC she’s considering getting vaccinated due to an upcoming trip to Hawaii.

Vaccinations aren’t required to enter the state, but she wants to avoid “any surprises” during the trip. Her travel companion is also pressing her to get vaccinated, which she feels she will likely do “for travel and for my parents … to feel safer.”   

She is currently working virtually from New Jersey, which lets her take a wait-and-see approach on vaccines. If called back into her New York office, “I would go forward with the vaccine,” she said.

‘Incredibly stubborn and foolish’

After a mild bout with Covid left her with a lingering cough for 10 months, Monica McLary, 45, decided to get vaccinated. She was initially hesitant, but the desire to travel with fewer restrictions spurred her to act.

“I want freedom to travel, I don’t want to get Covid again and I want to know that others cannot get the virus from me,” she told CNBC. “I feel like it’s everyone’s civic duty and find myself angered by those that continue to refuse based on misinformation.”

I am a conservative, voted for Trump, but these people are incredibly stubborn and foolish.

Since the pandemic started, the part-time Pilates instructor and real estate agent from Atlanta has traveled to Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks (“oblivious to the pandemic with no rules or regulations”), Boston and Nantucket, Massachusetts (“so many restrictions”); Jackson Hole, Wyoming (“no masks required”); and Louisville to watch the Kentucky Derby (“we flew privately so that was the best”), among other places.

McLary persuaded her two teenage sons to get vaccinated so they could avoid masks and travel restrictions. Problems began, she said, when unvaccinated people stopped wearing masks too. Now Covid hospitalizations are rising again in Georgia and other U.S. states with low vaccination rates.  

“I am a conservative, voted for Trump,” she said, “but these people are incredibly stubborn and foolish.”

An article in the Economist last week indicated that the single greatest predictor of whether an American has been vaccinated is who they voted for in the last U.S. presidential election.

“I hope [Trump] doesn’t run again, and I hope more businesses — airlines included — and schools mandate vaccines,” McLary said.  

“It is not about politics, but about public safety,” she said. “We are all in this together.”

Read more from CNBC about travel and vaccinations

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David Roche on China Covid outbreak hitting progress, markets

David Roche on China Covid outbreak hitting growth, markets

Medical personnel work on the sixth round of covid-19 test since late July in Nanjing in east China’s Jiangsu province on Sunday, August 08, 2021.

Feature China | Barcroft Media | Getty Images

China has tightened Covid-19 measures to combat an uptick in daily cases — a move that could hold back the country’s economic growth and hit its stock markets, said veteran strategist David Roche.

Investor sentiment toward Chinese stocks has been dampened by Beijing’s regulatory crackdown on sectors including technology and after-school tutoring.

“Markets have got into the mode of thinking Covid is very … bad, but economic recovery (is) taking away lockdowns, removing social restrictions — that’s kind of the world recipe at the moment,” Roche, president and global strategist at Independent Strategy, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Tuesday.

“Well it’s very much not the world recipe in China for good reasons, and therefore markets have to come to terms with the fact that there are economic costs not only within China, but globally as a result of this,” he added.

I think China is in the process of exiting its big recovery story from Covid …

David Roche

president and global strategist, Independent Strategy

The country’s National Health Commission reported 143 new Covid cases in mainland China on Monday — the highest number of daily infections since January, according to Reuters. Chinese state media attributed the latest resurgence in infections to the highly transmissible delta variant.

Chinese authorities last week ordered mass testing in Wuhan city — where the coronavirus was first detected — and imposed widespread movement restrictions in major cities including Beijing.

Some economists have raised concerns about China’s “zero tolerance” approach to Covid, which refers to the country’s aggressive clampdown on any flare-ups in Covid cases. The approach, which includes strict lockdowns and mass testing, helped China keep previous outbreaks under control before the latest resurgence.

Read more about China from CNBC Pro

But the delta variant is more contagious and could be more difficult to contain — and that could hurt economic recovery in China, economists have warned.

“If lockdowns and vaccination progress do not allow local economies to reopen by mid-August or early September we will need to revisit our 8.8% 2021 GDP forecast,” economists from Australian bank ANZ wrote in a Tuesday report.

China effect on the global economy

Any disruptions in the Chinese economy could affect global economic growth, said Roche.

The strategist explained that broader lockdowns across China could interrupt global supply chains – much of which are located in the country.

That could hit international trade, increase the costs of some goods, and raise inflation expectations around the world, he added.

Roche expects China’s year-on-year growth in the third quarter to slow to between 2% and 3% from the second quarter’s 7.9% expansion.

Over the longer term, China’s economic growth will settle at around 5% to 6%, according to Roche.

“I think China is in the process of exiting its big recovery story from Covid, which of course is ahead of the world … and is now converging with a long-term growth trajectory which is much, much lower than what people became used to in China,” he said.

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Why absolutely vaccinated folks can get Covid

Why fully vaccinated people can get Covid

Nurses watch a computer screen in Bogota, Colombia on February 18, 2021.

JUAN BARRETO | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – People fully vaccinated against Covid-19 are highly protected from serious infection, hospitalization and death from the virus. But coronavirus cases among the fully vaccinated – so-called “breakthrough” covid cases – are still seen in those who received two doses.

It does this for a number of reasons, experts note.

First off, none of the vaccines used in the US or Europe are 100% effective at preventing infections.

In addition, new Covid strains such as the highly contagious Delta variant – which is now widespread worldwide – have made the efficacy picture more difficult. There is also incomplete data on how long immunity to Covid lasts after vaccination.

The alarm was raised over groundbreaking Covid cases when preliminary data released in late July in Israel – which had one of the fastest vaccination programs in the world – showed that the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine was only 40.5% effective at preventing symptomatic illness was.

The analysis, conducted when the Delta variant became the dominant tribe in the country, nonetheless found that two doses of the shot offered strong protection from serious illness and hospitalization, the country’s health ministry reported.

The data also appeared to show declining effectiveness of the Pfizer BioNTech shot, with the vaccine being only 16% effective against symptomatic infections in those who received two doses of the shot in January. However, in people who had received two doses by April, the rate of effectiveness (against symptomatic infection) was 79%.

However, a study conducted in England from April to May found that after two doses, the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic diseases caused by the Delta variant.

However, comparing the results is difficult given the differences in the nature of vaccination programs in the two countries (for example, Israel has given the Pfizer vaccine to the entire adult population, while in the UK several vaccines with the Pfizer BioNTech shot mostly at younger people) as well Differences in study dates, Covid test regimes and age groups.

Like the Israeli data, the English data concluded that the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine was 96% effective against hospitalizations from the Delta variant after two doses. Similarly, after two doses, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was found to be 92% effective in preventing hospitalization. Initial data on the vaccine’s efficacy from clinical studies published last year by Pfizer and BioNTech showed that the vaccine was 95% effective.

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick Medical School in the UK, told CNBC that cases of Covid in fully vaccinated people are a reminder that “no vaccine is 100% effective”.

“There will always be a proportion of people who are still susceptible to infection and disease,” he said on Monday.

“There are also two other factors that affect the effectiveness of the vaccine: (1) Waning immunity – we still don’t know how long the protective immunity induced by the vaccine will last. This is very likely a factor in older and more vulnerable people who vaccinated at the beginning of the vaccine rollout program, “he noted.

The second factor, he added, relates to “breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals due to the more contagious Delta variant,” which made the case more important for booster programs, he said. In the case of booster programs, the jury has not yet made a decision, in the USA and Great Britain a decision has yet to be made

Breakthrough cases by number

It’s difficult to know the full extent of the “breakthrough” Covid cases, but figures from NBC News have shown that at least 125,000 fully vaccinated Americans have tested positive for Covid and 1,400 of them have died. Still, the 125,682 “breakthrough” cases in 38 states found by NBC News represented less than 0.08% of the more than 164.2 million people (and will be) fully vaccinated since the beginning of the year, or about every 1,300.

That is, the number of cases and deaths among the vaccinated is very low compared to the number among the unvaccinated. Health authorities, especially in the US, are urging unvaccinated people to register for a Covid vaccination.

Andrew Freedman, an infectious disease reader at Cardiff Medical School, UK, told CNBC that “breakthrough cases” are expected.

“The vaccines are very good at protecting against serious infections, hospitalizations, and death, but they are less effective at providing complete protection against infection, and we know that many people who have been fully vaccinated are still having delta infections in most cases get mild symptoms. ” “He said on Monday to CNBC’s” Squawk Box Europe “.

“What we don’t know is whether there is an additional booster will actually increase protection and reduce infections with delta variants, “he noted.

It must be emphasized that studies show that fully vaccinated people are much less likely to contract Covid – or even contract the virus at all.

New research from the UK published last Friday showed that people who were double-vaccinated were three times less likely to test positive for the coronavirus than those who were not vaccinated.

Analysis of the PCR test results in the REACT-1 study – a large coronavirus surveillance program in the UK led by Imperial College London – also suggested that fully vaccinated people may also be less likely to pass the virus on to others than those who were not vaccinated, because they have an average lower viral load and therefore probably less virus shedding.

Professor Paul Elliott, director of the Imperial School of Public Health’s REACT program, said the results highlight both the benefits and the limitations of Covid vaccines.

“These results confirm our previous data, which show that both doses of a vaccine offer good protection against infection. But we also see that there is still a risk of infection as no vaccine is 100% effective and we know that some are double vaccinated. “People can still get the virus,” he said.

Steven Riley, professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial, said “breakthrough infections” need further investigation in fully vaccinated people, especially as parts of the world are grappling with the spread of the Delta variant.

“The Delta variant is known to be highly contagious, and as a result, we can see from our data and others that breakthrough infections occur in fully vaccinated people. We need to better understand how contagious fully vaccinated people become infected as this will help better predict the situation in the months to come, and our results will help build a broader picture of it. “

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Pentagon to require all service members to get Covid vaccine by mid-September

Pentagon to require all service members to get Covid vaccine by mid-September

A U.S. Marine receives the Moderna coronavirus vaccine at Camp Foster on April 28, 2021 in Ginowan, Japan.

Carl Hof | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon said Monday it would try to make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for service members by mid-September at the latest.

President Joe Biden supported the move.

“I am proud that our military and men will continue to take the lead in the fight against this pandemic, as is so often the case, by setting a good example to protect their fellow Americans,” the president said in a statement on Monday afternoon.

In a message to the force, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he had consulted with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, secretaries and chiefs of sister service branches, and the White House Covid Task Force before reaching that decision.

“I have every confidence that the service and your commanders will implement this new vaccination program with professionalism, skill and compassion,” Austin wrote in his memo to all Department of Defense officials.

United States President Joe Biden listens as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, USA on Wednesday, February 10, 2021.

Michael Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“We will also keep a close eye on the infection rates that are now increasing with the Delta variant and their impact on our operational readiness President, if I think it is necessary,” wrote Austin.

The decision is made because the delta variant of Covid-19 is spreading rapidly, driving up hospital stays and serious illnesses in unvaccinated people.

The Pentagon says roughly half the U.S. military is already fully vaccinated, with the Navy recording the highest vaccination rates. The Navy says about 73% of sailors are fully vaccinated.

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The military already requires vaccinations against several other diseases.

The White House welcomed Austin’s decision, saying the vaccines were safe and would “help our service members stay healthy, better protect their families and ensure our armed forces are operational anywhere in the world.”

“These vaccines will save lives. Period. You are safe. They’re effective, ”said Biden.

According to the Pentagon, 28 service members have died as a result of Covid since the outbreak of the corona virus.

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Covid vaccine mandates sweep throughout company America as delta surges

Covid vaccine mandates sweep across corporate America as delta surges

United Airlines ramp services worker John Dalessandro receives a COVID-19 vaccine at United’s onsite clinic at O’Hare International Airport on March 09, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

The U.S. government may not require that everyone get Covid-19 vaccines, but large employers across corporate America are stepping into the void.

More than a dozen large U.S. corporations, including Walmart, Google, Tyson Foods and United Airlines, have recently announced vaccine mandates for some or all of their workers.

“With rapidly rising COVID-19 case counts of contagious, dangerous variants leading to increasing rates of severe illness and hospitalization among the U.S. unvaccinated population, this is the right time to take the next step to ensure a fully vaccinated workforce,” Dr. Claudia Coplein, Tyson’s chief medical officer, said in a statement Tuesday.

The U.S. reported a seven-day average of more than 108,600 new cases per day as of Sunday, up 36% from a week earlier, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. With 83% of sequenced coronavirus cases nationwide stemming from the delta variant, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, vaccinations are seen by health officials and corporate management as the safest way to get employees who have been working remotely back to the office.

Though some employers now unilaterally mandate vaccines, most have limited the scope of their guidance to certain offices or specific groups of workers.

Google and Facebook have mandated Covid immunizations for anyone returning to their U.S. offices. Walmart, which has 1.6 million U.S. employees, has imposed a vaccine mandate for all corporate and management staff, while store employees must wear masks in high-risk counties.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon outlined the retailer’s plans to keep “gradually coming back into our office spaces with the idea of being closer to pre-pandemic levels after Labor Day.”

In April 2020, a Gallup poll found that 70% of employees surveyed were working from home. Companies are attempting to bring their workforce back into the office, but some have already begun pushing back their return dates as Covid case counts surge. Late last month, Google postponed its return to office deadline to Oct. 18, a delay of more than a month.

“Although I’m not a big fan of mandates, we need to use a variety of incentives to encourage as many people as possible to practice effective infection control,” said Dr. Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “If that’s the best or only way to motivate some people, then that’s one tool in our toolbox.”

United Airlines said Friday that all of its roughly 67,000-person U.S. employees must provide proof that they are vaccinated against Covid no later than Oct. 25, becoming the country’s first major airline to issue such a mandate. Employees risk termination if they don’t comply, though United said there will be exemptions for religious or medical reasons.

“We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees,” United Airlines’ CEO Scott Kirby and the airline’s president, Brett Hart, wrote to employees announcing the vaccine requirement. “But, we have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when you’re at work, and the facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated.”

Budget carrier Frontier Airlines followed suit hours later with its own mandate but said employees either need to show proof of inoculation by Oct. 1 or take regular Covid tests.

For better or worse, vaccines and other tools to fight the virus such as masks, have become controversial in the U.S. But health officials say the measures are necessary to save lives.

“To leave it up to the individual is to say that there are people who are going to make a choice that puts co-workers at risk,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious disease physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “So I think it’s a responsible, important, necessary thing to do.”

Even companies with the most expansive mandates are required by law to allow some exceptions.

Facebook’s vice president of people, Lori Goler, said the company of nearly 59,000 global employees will have a process in place for people who can’t be vaccinated for medical or other reasons and that it’s working with experts “to ensure our return to office plans prioritize everyone’s health and safety.”

The Alphabet Workers Union, which represents over 800 employees across Google and its parent company, expressed concern over the exceptions to Google’s vaccine mandate, saying the company has provided insufficient details surrounding the exemption process. A spokesperson for the union said the mandate exists “to convince white collar workers to come back to the office,” while “a boatload of people” remain unvaccinated.

Google did not respond to a request for comment. Alphabet employed over 135,000 employees worldwide as of last year.

Other companies have faced pushback from unions on their vaccine directives. After Tyson announced last week that all 120,000 of its office and plant personnel must get vaccinated, United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents 24,000 Tyson meatpacking workers, voiced reservations about mandating vaccines that lack the FDA’s full approval.

“UFCW will be meeting with Tyson in the coming weeks to discuss this vaccine mandate and to ensure that the rights of these workers are protected, and this policy is fairly implemented,” UFCW International President Marc Perrone said in a statement. Perrone added that he wanted to ensure Tyson’s union workers receive paid time off to receive and adjust to the vaccine.

United and its pilots’ union, the Air Line Pilots Association, agreed earlier this year not to implement a vaccine mandate for its nearly 13,000 aviators. United offered extra pay to pilots who received the vaccine and up to three days off for flight attendants. More than 90% of the pilots and about 80% of flight attendants are inoculated, the company said. The union said that some aviators who don’t plan to get vaccinated should talk with their pilot chief.

“The vaccine requirement represents an employment change we believe warrants further negotiations to ensure our safety, welfare, and bargaining rights are maintained, the pilots union said.

Other airlines including American, Southwest and Delta said they have not made any changes to their policies to encourage, but not mandate, vaccines for their employees. In May, Delta was the first major carrier to require the vaccine for new employees. United had followed suit. American and Delta have offered incentives like extra time off for employees who get vaccinated. Delta says more than 73% of its staff is vaccinated.

When asked how it would react to a potential companywide requirement, Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents some 15,000 pilots at American, said: “Our position is it’s a personal choice between pilots and their medical professional. As the bargaining agent for the pilots, any change to the conditions of employment must be discussed with the representative union.” The union last week, however, urged pilots to get vaccinated and estimated in a staff note that about 60% of them are inoculated.

By mandating inoculations, corporate America is taking action in a way federal legislators cannot, said Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law. Outside of requiring vaccines for its own employees, Reiss said the federal government “probably doesn’t have the power to say everybody in the U.S. has to get vaccinated or pay a fine.”  

But insurance agencies might, a recent op-ed by Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal and Glenn Kramon in The New York Times suggests. In the model of policies that deny coverage for injuries sustained during dangerous activities, the authors indicate that insurers could start “penalizing the unvaccinated” because their refusal to immunize poses a threat to public health. Rosenthal is editor in chief of Kaiser Health News and Kramon is a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Companies also have the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on their side, said Thomas Lenz, a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. As long as their mandates abide by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the commission said in May, companies could require “all employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated” against the coronavirus.

Despite the EEOC’s guidance, some businesses are still refraining from issuing mandates for fear of alienating their personnel, Lenz said.

“We see that employers are as concerned with what they perceive as a skill shortage, a labor shortage, as anything in deciding whether to mandate the vaccinations,” Lenz said. “And for that reason, employers don’t want to scare people away, as they feel they might be able to accommodate and keep the workforce in some other way.”

-CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed reporting.

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Health

Covid delta will result in improve in breakthrough infections: Moderna

Covid delta will lead to increase in breakthrough infections: Moderna

The highly contagious Delta variant will lead to an increase in breakthrough infections in those who are fully vaccinated as people begin to exercise indoors after the summer, Moderna said Thursday.

While Moderna’s two-dose vaccine remains “stable” six months after the second vaccination, immunity to the coronavirus will continue to decline and ultimately reduce the vaccine’s effectiveness, the company said in the slides accompanying its second quarter earnings report were attached.

The company said its vaccine was 93% effective six months after the second dose. By comparison, Pfizer and BioNTech reported that their vaccine effectiveness decreased to about 84% after six months.

“Given this overlap, we believe a dose 3 refresh will likely be needed before the winter season,” wrote Moderna.

Moderna’s warning comes as the Delta variant becomes more widespread in more than 100 countries, including the United States. Delta, the predominant form of the disease in the United States, is more transmissible than the common cold, 1918 Spanish flu, smallpox, Ebola, MERS, and SARS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A healthcare worker treats a patient in a negative pressure room in the Covid-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Freeman Hospital West in Joplin, Missouri, Tuesday, August 3, 2021.

Angus seed dressings | Bloomberg | Getty Images

For some Americans, concerns about the effectiveness of the vaccine have grown with the advent of the variant, which can cause more serious illnesses than the original coronavirus. Some people have even gone so far as to look for an extra dose not yet recommended by the CDC. This week, San Francisco health officials announced that they would allow patients who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to have a second vaccination from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.

Drug makers have been saying for months that they expect people to need booster shots and perhaps additional doses annually at some point, just like they did with seasonal flu.

Moderna said Thursday that results from a Phase 2 study showed that a booster dose of its vaccine elicited a “robust” antibody response against three variants, including Delta.

The CDC and World Health Organization say booster doses are not currently required due to a lack of data. In fact, on Wednesday the WHO called on wealthy nations to stop distributing Covid booster vaccinations to give the world a chance to meet the WHO’s goal of vaccinating 10% of each country’s population by October.

“We need an urgent turnaround from moving the majority of vaccines to high-income countries and the majority to low-income countries,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The move comes after Israel announced that the country will be giving booster doses to its elderly population. The Dominican Republic has also given its population booster doses, while neighboring Haiti recently secured its first vaccine doses.

People in the US are also finding ways to get booster vaccinations.

– CNBC’s Rich Mendez contributed to this report.

Categories
World News

Rising Covid Instances Drive Organizers to Cancel New Orleans Jazz Fest

Rising Covid Cases Force Organizers to Cancel New Orleans Jazz Fest

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has been canceled, officials said Sunday, citing the “exponential growth of new Covid cases in New Orleans and the region.”

The festival, which usually takes place in the spring, has been postponed to October 8-17 in the hopes that vaccinations would make the event possible. Ticket holders will receive emails shortly describing the refund options.

Coronavirus infections hit a record high in Louisiana this month, with the state reporting an average of 4,600 new cases per day over the past week, according to a New York Times database. Hospital stays rose 140 percent to an average of 2,037 per day, and deaths rose 193 percent to an average of 30 per day.

Louisiana reintroduced indoor masking requirements this month in an attempt to contain infections fueled by the state’s low vaccination rate and the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus. Only 37 percent of the state’s population, including children under 12 who are not yet eligible for vaccination, have been fully vaccinated, according to the New York Times.