Tag: Delta

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Biden blames delta variant, unvaccinated individuals

Biden blames delta variant, unvaccinated people

President Joe Biden on Friday blamed the coronavirus pandemic for a surprisingly weak jobs report, calling out Americans who have still not gotten vaccinated even amid the spread of the highly infectious delta variant.

Nonfarm payrolls in August increased by just 235,000, the Labor Department reported, far below the 720,000 new hires that economists predicted. The report showed the smallest monthly jobs total since January.

“There’s no question the delta variant is why today’s job report isn’t stronger,” Biden said at the White House shortly after the data came out.

Biden, who has spent much of his first leg in the White House focused on the pandemic, said, “We need to make more progress in fighting the delta variant.”

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Despite the government’s ongoing vaccination push, tens of millions of eligible Americans still have not received even a single dose of a Covid shot. Biden said that group is prolonging the pandemic and contributing to anxieties that impact the economy.

“This is a continuing pandemic of the unvaccinated,” the president said. “Too many have not gotten vaccinated, and it’s creating a lot of unease in our economy and around our kitchen tables.”

Less than 64% of U.S. adults, roughly 175 million people, are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-shot Covid vaccine, the only one to receive full approval from the Food and Drug Administration, is only available for people 16 and older. Kids ages 12 to 15 are still able to get Pfizer’s shot on an emergency use basis.

Biden acknowledged the weak numbers in the report — “I was hoping for a higher number,” he said. But he nevertheless defended the economic progress that the U.S. has seen under his administration.

“What we’re seeing is an economic recovery that’s durable and strong. The Biden plan is working. We’re getting results.”

The president highlighted the decrease in the unemployment rate, down to 5.2% in the latest report from 6.3% in January.

He also teased new steps the White House would take next week to combat the delta variant, suggesting that the actions would focus on protecting schools, businesses, families and the economy from the virus.

The spread of the delta variant has led to another huge surge in Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths around the country, with Southern states hit especially hard. Florida has a higher Covid hospitalization rate than anywhere else in the U.S., and this week broke its record for the largest single-day rise in deaths, with 1,338 reported Thursday.

Some experts are predicting another spike is in store for the Northeast.

“Now whether we see a wave of infection as dense and severe as the South, I don’t think that’s going to be the case because we have a lot more vaccination; we’ve had a lot of prior infection, which we also know is protective,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA chief for two years under then-President Donald Trump, told CNBC earlier Friday.

“But we will probably see a build in cases here in the Northeast,” he said. “I don’t think that we’re done with this.”

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Health

Florida, Texas open Covid antibody remedy facilities as delta surge overwhelms hospitals

Florida, Texas open Covid antibody treatment centers as delta surge overwhelms hospitals

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis holds a press conference to announce the opening of a monoclonal antibody treatment center to help recover COVID-19 patients at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.

Paul Hennessy | LightRakete | Getty Images

Florida and Texas are opening free monoclonal antibody centers to treat a surge in Covid-19 patients in both states in the hopes that early intervention will help keep people out of hospitals and save more lives – even if they do The governors of both states are fighting local officials with mask and vaccination regulations.

Texas is building nine antibody infusion centers, Governor Greg Abbott announced on Friday, while Florida opened its fifth site on Wednesday. With the delta variant spike, coronavirus patients were occupied by more than 46% of Texas intensive care beds and more than half of Florida intensive care units as of Thursday, compared with 27% nationwide, according to the Department of Health and Social Affairs.

“What takes you to the hospital is the inflammation. People get inflammation in their lungs,” said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, Chair of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, told CNBC in an interview. “So what these antibodies do is, if you give them to a patient early, they neutralize the virus.”

Abbott has firsthand experience of the treatment. His office announced Tuesday that he was receiving monoclonal antibody treatment from Regeneron after testing positive for Covid despite being fully vaccinated.

Although monoclonal antibodies like Regeneron and GlaxoSmithKline treatments are one of the few proven ways to fight the virus and reduce hospital stays, they were rarely used during the pandemic because they are awkward to administer. Monoclonal antibody treatments must be injected directly into the vein via an IV infusion, which requires time and dedicated medical staff, often using the same equipment reserved for chemotherapy patients.

The Food and Drug Administration issued emergency clearances to Regeneron’s treatment in November, saying it reduced hospital admissions for Covid “in patients at high risk for disease progression within 28 days of treatment.” GlaxoSmithKline just received emergency approval for its treatment with Vir Biotechnology in May and said it has reduced hospital stays and deaths in high-risk patients by about 85%.

The FDA approved both companies’ treatments for use in patients 12 years of age and older.

“Many patients who are examined by their doctors and referred for a monoclonal antibody infusion are less likely to be hospitalized,” said Teresa Farfan, spokeswoman for the Texas Division of Emergency Management, in an email to CNBC . “This will help ensure that resources are available in the hospitals to treat those with the most severe cases of the virus.”

Treatment centers couldn’t get there early enough as the Delta variant is driving cases to record highs in Florida. The state, which publishes its cases once a week on Fridays, last reported a record seven-day average of nearly 21,700 new infections, 12.6% more than a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Hopkins.

Texas has been moving closer and closer to its record highs of more than 23,000 average cases per day in January in recent weeks, reporting a seven-day average of just over 15,400 new infections on Thursday, up from a seven-day average of around 3,000 a last month.

“Let me be very clear on this – both monoclonal and vaccines save lives,” said Christina Pushaw, spokeswoman for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, in an email to CNBC. “They certainly aren’t mutually exclusive.”

More than 34% of the 50,706 registered inpatients in Florida have the coronavirus, as does over a quarter of the 51,337 registered inpatients in Texas, as measured Thursday. Abbott called 2,500 medical workers from across the country last week to help fight the virus and urged hospitals to build capacity by postponing election procedures.

A box and vial of the Regeneron monoclonal antibody can be seen at a new COVID-19 treatment site opened by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at Camping World Stadium in Orlando following a press conference.

Paul Hennessy | LightRakete | Getty Images

While both Abbott and DeSantis have urged residents to get vaccinated, they still strictly oppose mask or vaccination regulations, saying it violates personal freedoms. Republican governors have banned local governments and school districts from requiring face-covering. Abbott has threatened $ 1,000 fines for those who fail to comply, and DeSantis said it will withhold pay from educators who prescribe masks.

With many children returning to classrooms this fall, local officials are pushing back. Several school districts in both states have defied their governors’ orders and restored their mask mandates, with appeals courts in Dallas and San Antonio issuing injunctions last week to circumvent the ban.

The Texas Supreme Court on Sunday blocked the injunctions, sided with Abbott and prevented school districts from issuing their own guidelines. Local officials say they plan to continue fighting Abbott in court, and President Joe Biden on Wednesday directed the education secretary to intervene “to protect our children.”

“This includes using all of its regulators and, if necessary, taking legal action against governors who try to block and intimidate local school officials and educators,” said Biden.

Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of infectious diseases at Northwell Health in New York, said states that don’t allow schools to prescribe masks are at great risk this fall.

“These states are gambling as I see it,” he said in an interview. “By not allowing masking and preventing masking and leaving it to the parents, (they) are really playing with fire.”

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Health

Delta variant sparks renewed curiosity in faculty tuition insurance coverage

Delta variant sparks renewed interest in college tuition insurance

A year ago, rising coronavirus cases ended the fall semester at many universities abruptly when classes began.

This year, too, the Delta variant threatens school closings again. And the possibility of further campus closures has sparked renewed interest in college refund policies and tuition insurance.

According to a survey by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, about 78% of colleges and universities plan to resume all classroom courses for the fall, and only 19% plan a mix of classroom and online courses.

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However, some colleges and universities have already announced that they will start remotely due to rising cases of Covid, including the University of Texas at San Antonio and Stanislaus State in California.

“Due to the Delta variant of Covid-19 and the need to reduce potential exposures on campus, we are temporarily postponing the start of face-to-face teaching and resettlement plans until October 1,” said Stanislaus President Ellen Junn in a letter the community.

For most students, distance learning is a poor substitute for face-to-face teaching. And almost everyone says it’s not worth the same high cost.

“Paying full price for a fraction of the college experience is going to piss off a lot of people,” said Jill Gonzalez, an analyst at WalletHub.

Almost half of the students believe universities haven’t done enough to support them during the pandemic, a recent report from WalletHub found.

In the future, some families will become more proactive about protecting their investments.

Laura Hoder, 52, recently purchased a tuition refund policy for her daughter who will be a junior at Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts. “It is unknown what will happen to Covid,” she said.

Hoder, who works as a nurse in Fairfield, Connecticut, said she wanted the extra coverage also because of her job and the increased risk posed by her family. “There’s an added level of fear just because of what I’ve seen and know,” she said.

Laura Hoder with her daughter at Dean College.

Source: Laura Hoder

While a number of colleges and universities have announced that they will reimburse fees and room and board if campus closes again, reimbursement policies vary from school to school – and almost all have drawn the line on tuition.

Depending on when a student de-signs out during a semester, a school’s refund policy can reimburse a significant amount (especially if it is done within the first month or so of the semester, although this varies by school).

However, refunds are usually staggered and most schools don’t give any money back after the fifth week of classes.

Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards

Typical refund policy for schools

Source: GradGuard

Many schools now also offer protection from outside lessons or can be purchased directly from a provider such as GradGuard or AWG Dewar up to the first day of class.

Tuition insurance, also known as Tuition Reimbursement Insurance, generally covers families for medical or psychological reasons, with some obvious exclusions, such as:

GradGuard tuition insurance starts at $ 39.95 for $ 2,500 per semester coverage. Most families, however, buy $ 10,000 per term insurance coverage starting at $ 106 to cover their expenses, excluding loans and grants. This covers tuition fees as well as financial losses from room and board and tuition fees.

Since the beginning of Covid, we have seen dramatic interest from schools, students and families.

Natalie Tarangioli

Marketing manager at GradGuard

“Since the beginning of Covid, we’ve seen dramatic interest from schools, students and families,” said Natalie Tarangioli, Marketing Director of GradGuard. The company now works with more than 400 universities.

Before the pandemic, health conditions such as mononucleosis and pneumonia were among the top diseases that stood in the way of timely or even conclusion.

“The real concern last year was that the students were getting Covid,” said Tarangioli. There are additional concerns this year given the Delta variant, mental health and well-being, and other risks, she added. “Sales are more than four times as high as in 2019 and twice as high as in 2020.”

Even though 63% of parents said their child’s plans after high school have returned to what they were before the coronavirus crisis, cost remains a top concern.

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Tuition and fees plus room and board for a four-year private college averaged $ 50,770 for the 2020-21 school year. It was $ 22,180 at four-year state colleges, according to the College Board, which tracks trends in college pricing and student grants.

When you add other expenses, the total bill can be in excess of $ 70,000 a year for students at some private colleges, or even for students out of state attending public four-year schools.

While the cost of a four-year college degree continues to skyrocket, tuition insurance is relatively inexpensive, said Nick Holeman, director of financial planning at Betterment.

Additionally, some tuition insurance policies will reimburse you for up to 100% of the total cost of attending – not just tuition fees – including room and board and even books and other materials.

However, not all policies offer the same level of protection, added Holeman.

“Many Covid-19 tuition fee insurances only pay out if your child actually falls ill with the disease,” he said. “So you will not be reimbursed if you pull your child out due to Delta variant concerns or future outbreaks.”

“You are also non-refundable if your child’s college changes their teaching method from face-to-face to virtual,” added Holeman, which means you can still be hooked on college courses through Zoom.

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Health

Map reveals newest outbreak in mainland China as delta instances rise

Map shows latest outbreak in mainland China as delta cases rise

In recent weeks, new pockets of Covid-19 cases have surfaced in parts of mainland China as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads across the country.

So far this month, locally transmitted cases reported in mainland China have risen to 878 – more than double the 390 cases recorded for the entire month of July, according to the CNBC daily statistics from China’s National Health Commission.

To be clear, the number of reported infections is much lower in China than many countries – including the US, where an average of about 100,000 new cases a day, and Southeast Asia, where daily cases have risen sharply.

Still, Chinese authorities have imposed targeted bans, tightened movement controls and ordered mass tests to curb the recent resurgence in Covid cases.

Impact on China’s Economy

Economists have raised concerns about China’s zero tolerance for Covid. The government has insisted on stamping out any flare-ups in Covid cases, even as many countries around the world – including the UK and Singapore – have started to accept that the virus will never go away.

The recent resurgence of Covid cases in China is due to the fact that some economic growth engines continue to lose momentum while domestic consumption struggles to fully recover, HSBC economists said in a report on Wednesday.

The economists found that the number of new infections reported in China is the highest since an outbreak in northern China in December 2020.

“As a result, many provinces and cities have tightened social distancing restrictions and bans on travel between cities and provinces,” the report said.

“These measures will inevitably weigh on growth, especially domestic consumption, which has not yet seen a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels,” the analysts said.

HSBC said mounting economic pressures could lead Beijing to adopt “more supportive” fiscal policies. This could include major infrastructure spending and tax cuts for small and medium-sized businesses, the bank said.

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How the Delta Variant Is Affecting Wedding ceremony Season

How the Delta Variant Is Affecting Wedding Season

Despite the furious variation that led to the CDC’s recent recommendation that all Americans, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in most parts of the country, some still feel uncomfortable with the demand for evidence. Brides like Mariah Hughes of Bangor, Maine, would rather use the honor system.

“I think I can make an educated guess if my family and friends are vaccinated,” she said. Ms. Hughes and her fiancé Stephen Cormier had planned to get married in September but postponed their date until next June as the photographer they wanted to work with was firmly booked. You are less frustrated than relieved. “With the Delta variant that is so widespread, we feel we have made the right decision,” she said.

Not that she or anyone can rely on Covid to be history next year. In Denver, Brittney Griffin, the event manager at the Blanc wedding venue, is ready to pull masks out again, despite the high vaccination rates in Colorado. “We haven’t had to do that yet,” but she said new mandates could come. “Unfortunately we’ve been through this before, so if it becomes necessary again we’ll at least be prepared.”

Niche players like McKenzi Taylor, the founder of Cactus Collective Weddings in Las Vegas, could be one of the few whose businesses got back on their feet thanks to Delta. Ms. Taylor plans small weddings in remote, outdoor settings.

“We’re usually people’s second choice,” she said, which means that most of the couples they contact do so because Covid has spoiled their original plans. With the virus outbreak in 2020, it saw bookings surge by 30 percent. Now business is booming again. “Unfortunately we are in a completely new cycle with Delta. I get a lot of calls asking ‘How soon can we get married?’ “

However, timing cannot be everything. “In four years we will still have breakthrough infections,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, Infectious Disease Specialist and Senior Scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. “It will still be a problem.”

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Dr. Scott Gottlieb expects Covid to be ‘endemic’ in U.S. after delta surge

Dr. Scott Gottlieb expects Covid to be 'endemic' in U.S. after delta surge

Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday that he expected the coronavirus to become an endemic virus in the US and other western countries after the recent surge in Delta variant infections settled.

“We are going from a pandemic to a more endemic virus, at least here in the United States and probably in other western markets,” said Gottlieb on “Squawk Box”. An endemic virus is one that remains relatively infrequent in the American population, such as seasonal flu.

Gottlieb – Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 2017 to 2019 during the Trump administration and now a board member at several companies, including vaccine maker Pfizer – has previously said that “true herd immunity” for Covid in new infections may indeed be impossible for years to come .

“It’s not a binary point in time, but I think after we get through this delta wave this becomes more of an endemic disease where you see some kind of persistent infection through winter … but not at the level” we certainly do experience right now, and it doesn’t necessarily depend on the booster shots, “added Gottlieb on Friday.

Gottlieb said he anticipates the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant will remain remarkable in the coming weeks.

“You will probably see the course of the delta wave between the end of September and October,” said Gottlieb. “Hopefully we’ll be on the other side, or come the other side, sometime in November, and we won’t see a big bout of infection on the other side of this delta wave after that.”

The tri-state region of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will see a spike in delta cases as rates slow in the south, Gottlieb said.

“This is a big country and the delta wave will be regionalized to sweep across the whole country,” he said. “Hopefully by September you will see the other side of that curve very clearly in the south, but falls will increase in the northeast, in the Great Lakes region, maybe in the Pacific Northwest. … It will likely coincide with a restart at school, some companies are coming back if you look at last summer too. “

Gottlieb’s comments on Friday morning came before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave final approval to begin distributing Covid vaccine booster vaccines to recipients of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines who have weakened immune systems. The CDC’s approval followed a unanimous vote on Friday to recommend booster vaccinations for its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. It now enables the shots to reach vulnerable people such as organ transplant recipients, cancer and HIV patients.

The day before, the FDA approved booster injections for people with compromised immune systems. They make up about 2.7% of the US adult population, but account for about 44% of hospitalized breakthrough Covid cases among fully vaccinated people, according to recent data from the CDC.

Gottlieb said the ability to give these Americans booster vaccinations, which help strengthen their immunity levels, will push the US further into the “endemic phase”.

“I think this is both a political call and a public health call for US officials to continue trying to promote initial vaccinations before they move on to booster vaccinations,” Gottlieb said of the FDA’s announcement on Thursday.

Some of the people Gottlieb believes should get Covid booster vaccinations soon include nursing home residents, who tend to be older and have underlying medical conditions that make them more prone to Covid. That’s especially worrying as the Delta variant invades the northern states and continues to postpone its first round of vaccination in the rearview mirror, he said.

“I would be concerned about nursing homes entering these environments now, given that there is a patient population that is likely to have declining immunity and is more vulnerable than it was five months ago.”

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

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Are Delta Signs Completely different? – The New York Occasions

Are Delta Symptoms Different? - The New York Times

Two years ago a sneeze or cough would not have been a cause for concern, but now even the mildest symptoms can make us wonder, “Do I have Covid?”

At the beginning of the pandemic, we learned about the typical signs of infection, which can include loss of taste and smell, fever, cough, shortness of breath, and fatigue. But what about now, more than a year later? Have the symptoms changed since the Delta variant is currently the most common form of the virus in the US?

There is little data on this question and much remains to be unraveled.

Unvaccinated patients make up the vast majority of patients hospitalized with Covid-19, so they are more likely to develop severe symptoms such as difficulty breathing or persistent chest pain or pressure. In areas with lower vaccination rates, such as Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, unvaccinated children and young adults are hospitalized in higher numbers than at other times during the pandemic. Researchers don’t yet know for sure whether Delta is solely responsible for these severe symptoms or whether it is the rise in childhood infections that may lead to more hospitalizations.

The Delta variant is almost twice as contagious as previous variants and just as contagious as chickenpox. It replicates quickly in the body, and people carry large amounts of the virus in their noses and throats.

Dr. Andrew T. Chan, an epidemiologist and physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lead investigator on the Covid Symptom Study, has tracked millions of people from the UK, United States and Sweden through an app that prompts participants to report their symptoms. A preprint of data from the study that has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal suggests that those who are vaccinated are well protected against Delta. Breakthrough infections, while rare, tend to produce milder symptoms that are shorter in duration.

Understand the delta variant

At this point, nearly 90 percent of the UK adult population had received at least one dose of the vaccine. In the United States, 71 percent of adults are partially vaccinated.

In vaccinated adults, “the symptoms we are seeing now are much more likely to be identified with a cold,” said Dr. Chan. “We still see people presenting with a cough, but we’re also seeing a higher prevalence of things like runny nose and sneezing.” Headaches and sore throats are other top complaints, he added. Fever and loss of taste and smell are reported to a lesser extent.

Updated

Aug. 12, 2021, 11:24 p.m. ET

Dr. Chan said that at the time the Delta variant became widespread in the UK, researchers began seeing milder symptoms from late spring, which also coincided with the country’s mass vaccination program.

Pediatricians in New York City, where 67 percent of adults are fully vaccinated, say they see many of the same symptoms in children that they have seen since the pandemic began, and that the more severe cases usually occur in unvaccinated adolescents. especially those with underlying conditions like diabetes or obesity. Some toddlers or school-age children can also get very sick with Covid, but doctors don’t always know why one child gets much sicker than another, said Dr. Sallie Permar, Pediatrician-in-Chief at New York-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine.

Fever, cough, fatigue, headache and sore throat are the “classic presentation of Covid” in symptomatic children, she added.

If your child has potential Covid symptoms, including gastrointestinal issues, get both you and your child to take a Covid test and then stay home until the results are negative, said Dr. Adam Ratner, director of the Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone.

“That’s part of how we keep schools safe,” he added.

Tests are important for adults too, the experts said. Even if you have been vaccinated and your symptoms are mild, it is best to get tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe that people who have been vaccinated can still pass the virus on to others.

“It is time to be humble that this is a new twist. We’re still learning, “said Dr. Mark Mulligan, the director of the NYU Langone Vaccine Center and the director of the Infectious Diseases Department at NYU Langone Health. “Be careful and play it safe when taking a test.”

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Breakthrough Infections and the Delta Variant: What to Know

What to Know About Breakthrough Infections and the Delta Variant

“Long Covid” is a poorly understood set of symptoms that can plague people for several months after an active infection has ended. While these symptoms eventually go away in many patients, “there is this subset of people who have long had Covid who just cannot recover,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University.

Only a few small studies have looked at how common or how severely Covid can occur after breakthrough infections. It’s likely rare, say some experts, because breakthrough infections are unusual to begin with and of shorter duration.

In a study in Israel, about seven out of 36 people with breakthrough infections had symptoms that lasted more than six weeks. And in a survey of Covid-19 survivors, 24 out of 44 people with a symptomatic breakthrough infection reported persistent problems.

“We really need a broader national or even international survey,” said Dr. Iwasaki.

If you can survive a breakthrough infection relatively unscathed, you will likely get away with more robust protection against variants. Essentially, the infection acts as a booster shot, researchers say, boosting your immune system’s ability to recognize and fight the virus.

Studies have shown that when people recovering from Covid-19 receive even one dose of a vaccine, their antibody levels skyrocket. “I assume similar things would happen if you had a breakthrough infection,” said Dr. Iwasaki.

The vaccines train the immune system to recognize a piece of the original virus, a strategy that could leave us vulnerable to future variants. But any exposure expands the immunity repertoire, said Dr. Mina.

Eventually, through booster vaccinations or through repeated infections, our bodies will gain sufficient training in the virus to face versions with new mutations, he said, adding, “But we’re not there yet.”

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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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What to Know About Breakthrough Infections and the Delta Variant

What to Know About Breakthrough Infections and the Delta Variant

“Long Covid” is a poorly understood set of symptoms that can plague people for several months after an active infection has ended. While those symptoms eventually resolve in many patients, “there are this subset of people who have long Covid who just aren’t able to recover at all,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University.

Only a couple of small studies have investigated how common or severe long Covid may be after breakthrough infections. It is likely to be rare, Dr. Iwasaki said, because breakthrough infections are uncommon to begin with and shorter in duration.

In one study in Israel, about seven of 36 people with breakthrough infections had persistent symptoms for more than six weeks. And in a survey of Covid-19 survivors, 24 of 44 people with a symptomatic breakthrough infection reported lingering problems.

“We really need a wider national or even international survey,” Dr. Iwasaki said.

If you get through a breakthrough infection relatively unscathed, you are likely to walk away with more robust protection against variants. The infection essentially acts as a booster shot, researchers say, strengthening your immune system’s ability to recognize and fight the virus.

Studies have shown that when people who recover from Covid-19 receive even one dose of a vaccine, their antibody levels skyrocket. “I expect similar things would happen when you have a breakthrough infection,” Dr. Iwasaki said.

The vaccines train the immune system to recognize a piece of the original virus, a strategy that may leave us vulnerable to future variants. But every exposure broadens the repertoire of immunity, Dr. Mina said.

Eventually, through booster shots or through repeated infections, our bodies will gain an education in the virus sufficient to counter versions with new mutations, he said, adding, “But we’re not there yet.”