Tag: Delta

Health

Pfizer says it’s growing a Covid booster shot to focus on the extremely transmissible delta variant

Post author By
Post date July 8, 2021

Pfizer and BioNTech announced Thursday that they are developing a Covid-19 booster vaccine that will target the Delta variant amid concerns about the highly communicable strain that is already the predominant form of the disease in the United States.

The companies said that while they believe a third vaccination of their current two-dose vaccine has the potential to maintain the “highest level of protection” against all currently known variants, including Delta, they are “vigilant” and are developing an updated version of the Vaccine.

“As evidenced by real evidence from the Israeli Ministry of Health, the effectiveness of the vaccine has declined six months after vaccination, while at the same time the Delta variant is becoming the dominant variant in the country,” the companies said in a written statement.

“These results are consistent with an ongoing analysis of the companies’ Phase 3 study,” they said. “This is why we have said, and continue to believe, that all of the data we have, it is likely that a third dose may be required within 6 to 12 months of full vaccination.”

Clinical trials could begin as early as August, subject to regulatory approvals, the companies said.

The announcement comes on the same day the Olympic Games organizers said they would be banning all viewers from the Games this year after Japan declared a state of emergency designed to stem a wave of new Covid-19 infections that are partly due to the Delta variant is due.

Delta is estimated by the World Health Organization to be about 55% more transmissible than Alpha, the variant first found in the UK that once dominated the US, didn’t do as well at protecting against mild illnesses and the spread of the disease to others, scientists say.

On Monday, Israeli officials reported a decrease in the effectiveness of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine in preventing infections and symptomatic diseases, but said it remained highly effective in preventing serious diseases.

In the US, health officials are urging all eligible Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible, especially before the fall season when Delta is expected to lead to a further surge in new coronavirus cases, especially in places with the lowest vaccination rates.

There are about 1,000 counties in the U.S. with a Covid vaccination rate of less than 30%, mostly located in the Southeast and Midwest, said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky recently. In these areas, the authority already sees increasing infection rates due to the further spread of the delta variant.

Pfizer and BioNtech executives have repeatedly said that people will likely need a booster vaccination or a third dose within 12 months of full vaccination, as they expect vaccine-induced immunity to wear off over time. They also said that people are likely to have to take extra shots every year.

Pfizer and BioNTech are developing booster vaccines and are expected to apply for US approval for a third dose of their vaccine shortly.

Tags booster, Covid, Delta, developing, Highly, Pfizer, shot, target, Transmissible, Variant

Health

U.S. heading for ‘harmful fall’ with surge in delta Covid instances and return of indoor masks mandates

Post author By
Post date July 8, 2021

People wearing protective masks shop at a Walmart store in Hallandale Beach, Florida on May 18, 2021.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

With the highly transmittable Delta-Covid variant continuing to spread rapidly in the United States and elsewhere around the world, scientists and other health experts are warning that indoor mask regulations and other public health measures in the US are likely to return this fall.

The country, which just celebrated July 4th with some of its first major gatherings in more than a year, is heading for a “dangerous” fall season, with Delta expected to cause another surge in new coronavirus cases, health experts say. Delta is already the predominant variant in the US and will hit the states with the lowest vaccination rates the hardest – unless those states and companies reintroduce mask rules, capacity limits, and other public health measures, which they largely withdrew in recent months have, say experts.

With new mutations discovered every few weeks, many scientists are now predicting that Covid will circulate around the world for at least the next two to three years, obliging nations to adopt ad hoc public health measures for the foreseeable future. Authorities in Australia, South Africa and Asia recently reinstated curfews or other measures to contain rising delta outbreaks. Japan has just declared a coronavirus emergency in Tokyo and banned spectators from the Olympic Games. High vaccination rates in the US and the warm summer months have bought the country a little more time, but outbreaks around the world are giving Americans a preview of what could come this fall.

Health workers chats near an ambulance in the parking lot of the Steve Biko Academic Hospital amid a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) nationwide lockdown in Pretoria, South Africa, Jan. 11, 2021.

Siphiwe Sibeko | Reuters

“I could foresee that in certain parts of the country mask requirements, distance and occupancy restrictions for indoor areas would be reintroduced in the coming months,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization’s Cooperation Center for National and Global Health Law.

He fears there will be “major outbreaks” in the US this fall, especially in states with low vaccination rates.

“We are heading for a very dangerous fall, with large parts of the country still unvaccinated, a swelling Delta variant and people taking off their masks,” added Gostin.

The warning from scientists and other health professionals comes as many U.S. companies and offices have largely phased out mask requirements, social distancing, and other pandemic-related restrictions.

Almost immediately after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared in mid-May that fully vaccinated people would not need to wear masks in most indoor spaces, Walmart and Costco followed suit, allowing fully vaccinated customers and employees without state or local laws. Similarly, the Detroit automakers and the United Auto Workers union agreed late last month to make face masks optional for fully vaccinated employees.

A General Motors assembly worker loads engine block castings onto the assembly line at the GM Romulus Powertrain plant in Romulus, Michigan, the United States, August 21, 2019.

Rebecca Cook | Reuters

Other companies like Apple and Amazon are urging most of their employees to return to the office in some capacity this fall as more Americans get vaccinated against the virus. Goldman Sachs employees returned to the office last month, while Citigroup and JPMorgan expect their employees to return on a rotation basis this month.

Confirmed Covid infections in the US have dropped to their lowest level since the pandemic began, averaging about 15,000 new cases per day for the past seven days from a high of about 251,000 average new cases per day in January, according to Johns Hopkins University. Hospital stays and deaths have also declined, with Covid deaths averaging around 225 per day – up from a high of an average of more than 3,400 deaths per day in January.

Should daily Covid cases pick up again in the fall, as expected by health professionals, some employers in states with low Covid vaccination rates may face the difficult decision to make public health measures such as wearing masks and social distancing capacities to reintroduce limits or send office workers home entirely.

There will be “two Americas,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine advocate who served on advisory boards for both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. “There’s vaccinated America and unvaccinated America, and I think unvaccinated America will pay a price for that.”

This has led some state and local health authorities to reintroduce previously abandoned public health measures.

Patricia Cole receives a shot of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccination from a medical worker at a pop-up clinic operated by the Delta Health Center in that rural Delta community on April 27, 2021 in Hollandale, Mississippi.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

For example, in Mississippi, where less than a third of the state’s eligible population is fully vaccinated, officials last week recommended that all residents continue to wear masks indoors as Delta becomes the predominant variety in the state. About 96% of the new Covid cases in Mississippi are unvaccinated, state health officials said when they called reporters.

White House senior medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said that people in states like Mississippi, where transmission are high and vaccinations are low, may want to consider wearing masks even if they are fully vaccinated.

“Depending on your personal situation, that could be,” said Fauci in an interview that was held on Friday with SiriusXM’s “Doctor Radio Reports” with Dr. Marc Siegel is to be broadcast. “For example, someone who is an elderly person who may not have full robust protection even though the protection is very, very high, or someone with an underlying medical condition,” still wants to wear a mask, he said.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) testifies ahead of a Senate hearing on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to receive an update from federal officials on efforts to fight COVID 19 to be examined in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on May 11, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Jim Lo Scalzo | Getty Images

Officials in Los Angeles County, California last week also recommended that “everyone, regardless of vaccination status,” wear masks as a precaution in public places indoors.

Offit, who advises the FDA on Covid vaccines, said he expected several more states to reintroduce indoor mask requirements this fall.

The United States is still “undervaccinated” and states with low vaccination rates are likely to be hit the worst, Offit said. Less than half of the United States, about 158 million people, have been fully vaccinated, with more than a dozen states having fully immunized less than 40% of their population, according to CDC data. In Texas, the second most populous state after California, only 42% of residents are fully vaccinated, the data shows.

Even people who are fully protected have cause for concern when it comes to variants of Covid, Offit said. While the vaccines are good at protecting against serious illness and death, they may not protect as well against minor illness or the spread of Covid to others, he said. No vaccine is 100% effective, he noted.

“It is not a bold prediction to believe that SARS-CoV-2 will be circulating in two or three years. I mean, there are 195 countries out there, most of which haven’t received a single dose of vaccine. ”“ Offit said. “Will it still be circulating in the United States? I think that would be very, very likely.”

Dr. Christopher JL Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, agreed that more states will need to re-implement mask mandates this fall. More vulnerable Americans may even have to wear masks every year during the peak covid and flu transmission season: November through April, he said. However, he noted that getting some Americans to wear face covers could be difficult now that the pandemic has subsided.

“Given the pandemic fatigue, getting most Americans to follow guidelines on mask use and social distancing will be more difficult. As cases and hospitalizations pick up again, maybe not until fall or winter, it might be easier to convince some. ” Take steps to be careful, “he said.

People crowd to eat at an outdoor restaurant as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions are eased on April 4, 2021 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.

Emily Elconin | Reuters

Dr. Vin Gupta, a Harvard-trained lung specialist and NBC employee, said mask requirements should be reintroduced this fall, but should be enforced at the local level and with Covid vaccination rates and transmissions depending on events in the surrounding community.

“There has to be some specifics and multiple local jurisdictions have to make their own decisions, especially when the seasons shift and get back into cold, dry air,” he said.

Meanwhile, the federal government’s mask mandate for public transportation, including airplanes, commuter buses, and rail systems, is set to expire on September 13, unless the CDC renews it.

Whether the CDC does this is an open question, scientists said. Walensky and the White House have both advised there is no desire to reinstate the lockdowns and will leave much of the decisions about public health measures to the states.

“A lot of it isn’t science. It’s political science,” said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Toronto. “If you have a high rate of Covid-19 transmission in the community and you have a high rate of unvaccinated people, then from a scientific point of view it makes sense to mask indoor spaces. Whether or not this will go into policy is another question. “

Tags cases, Covid, dangerous, Delta, fall, heading, indoor, Mandates, mask, return, surge

Politics

Delta Is Dominant Variant within the U.S., C.D.C. Estimates

Post author By
Post date July 7, 2021

However, vaccination protection remains very inconsistent in both the United States and around the world, and public health experts say Delta poses a serious threat to unvaccinated populations. On Tuesday, President Biden again urged Americans to get their shots, citing concerns about Delta.

“It works. It’s free. And it’s never been easier and it’s never been more important,” he said. “Do it now – for yourself and the people you care about, for your neighborhood, for yours Country. It sounds cheesy, but it’s a patriotic thing. “

Health experts say the Biden government may need to take more aggressive action to promote vaccination, including asking employers and schools to adopt vaccine mandates. As of Tuesday, providers were administering an average of about 0.87 million doses per day, a 74 percent decrease from the April 13 peak of 3.38 million, according to federal data.

As for the virus itself, the country has averaged fewer than 15,000 new cases a day for nearly a month, the lowest level since testing became widely available, and a fraction of what was reported in January when the nation routinely exceeded 200,000 Cases identified in a day. In the past few days, however, the average number of new cases nationwide has started a slight upward trend, largely due to localized outbreaks in places with low vaccination rates, including parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Nevada.

As the Delta variant spreads around the world, the World Health Organization recently reiterated longstanding guidance that everyone, vaccinated or not, wear masks as a precautionary measure, but the CDC hasn’t changed its recommendation that fully vaccinated people wear masks in most situations can skip. US health officials have suggested that the WHO’s blanket proposal was influenced by its global reach, as many countries had far less access to vaccines than the United States.

Tags CDC, Delta, dominant, estimates, Variant

Health

Biden’s new Covid vaccine push focuses on employees, college students, delta variant

Post author By
Post date July 7, 2021

President Joe Biden on Tuesday once again pushed for all eligible Americans to get Covid vaccinations, stressing the importance of being protected against the highly transmissible delta variant.

Despite the U.S. being on track to hit 160 million people fully vaccinated in the coming days, Biden said, millions remain unvaccinated against Covid, “and because of that, their communities are at risk, their friends are at risk, the people they care about are at risk.”

“This is an even bigger concern because of the delta variant,” the president said.

“It seems to me, this should cause everybody to think twice,” Biden said. But “the good news is that our vaccinations are highly effective,” including against the delta variant, he added.

Biden detailed his administration’s latest push to increase vaccination rates two days after failing to reach his Covid vaccination goal for the Fourth of July.

His team is now training its focus on boosting vaccination availability in places such as doctor’s offices and work settings. They are also ramping up efforts to get vaccines to pediatricians and other child health-care providers, Biden said, with the goal of getting more adolescents ages 12 to 18 inoculated before they head back to school in the fall.

The team also aims to expand mobile clinic efforts and will work to refine door-to-door outreach efforts to get information about vaccines to Americans who have yet to get their shots, the president said.

“Our focus now is on doubling down on our efforts” to get more people vaccinated, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing earlier Tuesday afternoon.

“There’s still more work to be done,” Psaki said, before noting that “the vast, vast majority of people are safe from the virus” once they are vaccinated.

“If you are not vaccinated, you are not. That is also a message that we’re going to continue to clearly communicate,” she said.

Biden in his speech at the White House highlighted that nearly 160 million people in the U.S. will be fully vaccinated by the end of this week.

There are currently 157 million people in the U.S. who are fully vaccinated, which is less than half of the total population, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Among people in the U.S. ages 18 and up, the CDC’s percentage for those fully vaccinated rises to 58.2%, and it stands at 78.7% among those ages 65 or older, who face the greatest risk from Covid.

Biden in May had set the goal of having 70% of American adults vaccinated with at least one shot by Independence Day. On the holiday itself, roughly 67% of U.S. adults had received at least one dose, according to the CDC.

“The bottom line is, the virus is on the run and America’s coming back, coming back together,” Biden said. It’s “one of the greatest achievements in American history,” he said, “but our fight against the virus is not over.”

The delta variant, which was first observed in India, has now spread to at least 96 countries, including the U.S., according to the World Health Organization.

The variant, which the WHO says is about 55% more transmissible than another strain of the virus found in the United Kingdom, has threatened to derail some countries’ plans to lift social-distancing restrictions. About 25% of all new reported U.S. Covid cases are of the delta variant, according to the CDC, which predicts it will become the dominant variant.

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci last month called delta the “greatest threat” to the nation’s fight against the pandemic.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, told CNBC last week that while the delta variant may cause an increase in cases, he doesn’t expect a massive surge in infections on the scale of those seen at earlier points in the pandemic.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a raging epidemic across the country like we saw last winter. I think that there’s going to be pockets of spread, and prevalence overall is going to pick up,” Gottlieb said on “Squawk Box.”

The White House is deploying Covid-19 response teams across the nation focused on combatting the variant. The teams, composed of officials from the CDC and other federal agencies, will work with communities at higher risk of experiencing outbreaks.

There are still about 1,000 counties in the U.S. that have vaccination coverage of less than 30%, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters last week.

The counties are mostly located in the Southeast and Midwest and the agency is already seeing increasing rates of disease in these places due to further spread of the delta variant, she said.

— CNBC’s Ylan Mui contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a member of the boards of Pfizer, genetic testing start-up Tempus, health-care tech company Aetion Inc. and biotech company Illumina. He also serves as co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ and Royal Caribbean’s “Healthy Sail Panel.”

Tags Bidens, Covid, Delta, Focuses, push, students, Vaccine, Variant, Workers

Health

Australia’s Covid restoration plans stay unsure as a result of delta variant

Post author By
Post date July 5, 2021

A person exercises at the Sydney Opera House during a foggy start to the day on June 30, 2021 in Sydney Australia. Lockdown restrictions continue as NSW health authorities work to contain a growing Covid-19 cluster.

Brook Mitchell | Getty Images News | Getty Images

A recent spike in Covid cases has Australian authorities scrambling to contain the delta variant, which was first detected in India.

The country has handled the coronavirus pandemic relatively better than most, with fewer than 31,000 total cases due to strict social distancing rules, border restrictions, contract tracing and lockdowns.

Several major cities were locked down last week, including Sydney — the capital of Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, and home to more than five million residents.

On Monday, New South Wales reported 35 new local cases as authorities clamp down on individuals and businesses for flouting restrictions. State Premier Gladys Berejiklian reportedly warned that the situation over the next couple of days would decide if the two-week lockdown in Sydney will be extended beyond July 9.

Last week, Australia’s national cabinet agreed to halve the number of international arrivals allowed into the country by July 14 as part of a four-phase recovery plan. Non-residents are mostly barred from entering the country, with few exceptions.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a trial program would allow some vaccinated travelers to self-isolate at home, in an effort to reduce the pressure on Australia’s quarantine system.

Australia is still in the first phase of its plan, which emphasizes vaccines and social restrictions to minimize community transmission, according to the cabinet’s assessment. The next three phases would be post-vaccination, consolidation and, lastly, the reopening of borders.

Uncertainty remains

The federal recovery plan needs more precision, which would provide greater certainty for Australian businesses looking to reopen, according to Jennifer Westacott, CEO of the Business Council of Australia.

“We need some really clear targets. We need some really clear threshold. We need those to be realistic,” she said Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

“Business can start planning. Airlines can start planning. Small business can start planning. We need a little bit more precision,” she added.

Many businesses, including farmers, rely on international labor. Prolonged border closures mean there’s a shortage in manpower at least until 2022, when borders are tentatively scheduled to reopen.

Westacott said Australia’s recovery plan should take a staged approach and allow more skilled international workers in to fill vacant positions as the vaccination rate increases.

“We can’t wait for 2022 to get skilled workers in the country,” she said, adding that such a delay means Australia’s “capacity to ramp up slows down, but it also means that companies just don’t do stuff here.”

Sluggish vaccine rollout

Mixed messaging around the AstraZeneca vaccine from the Australian government and the advisory board that advises the health minister on vaccine issues in the country has been “really problematic,” according to Archie Clements, pro vice-chancellor of the health sciences faculty at Curtin University.

“If you look at the vaccine rollout statistics, the rate of increase in vaccines slowed through June and I do think that’s largely down to the mixed messaging around AstraZeneca,” he told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation prefers that people below 60 are given the Pfizer vaccine — which is in short supply — to avoid the risk of an extremely rare blood clotting disorder related to the use of AstraZeneca shots. The government, meanwhile, says those people can opt for AstraZeneca after consulting their doctors.

“The federal government should have backed AstraZeneca very strongly from the very beginning, really should have been promoting it. It is a very safe vaccine,” Clements said, pointing out that only a minuscule number of people have had a severe reaction to the shot.

“We should be encouraging everyone to get vaccinated and to take the vaccine that’s available to them, regardless of whether it’s AstraZeneca or Pfizer,” he said.

Tags Australias, Covid, Delta, due, plans, recovery, remain, uncertain, Variant

Health

Emirates, Etihad put together for summer season amid delta Covid warnings

Post author By
Post date July 5, 2021

A Boeing 777 of the Emirates airline at Sydney International Airport on May 01, 2021 in Sydney, Australia.

James D. Morgan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Emirates airline is preparing for a summer travel surge over the next two weekends, despite growing concerns about the variant delta coronavirus, which is responsible for more than a third of infections in the United Arab Emirates.

Emirates expects more than 450,000 passengers on over 1,600 flights to, from and through Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport (DXB) in the coming days.

“The busiest days for the airline will be the next two weekends, July 2-3 and July 9-10, although high passenger traffic is expected today and will last until July 12,” Emirates said in a statement on Wednesday.

Almost 100,000 passengers will arrive in Dubai on Emirates flights over the same period to begin their summer vacation, the airline added. The seasonal surge in travel comes when temperatures heat up in the United Arab Emirates, where mercury can soar to 40 degrees Celsius and more in July.

Emirates, one of two national airlines in the United Arab Emirates, plans to increase its flight capacity to 90% of pre-pandemic levels by July. Dubai Airports also reopened Terminal 1 and Hall D on June 24th after being closed for 15 months due to the pandemic.

“All Emirates and DXB touchpoints are well prepared to cope with the increase in passenger numbers, with measures and protocols that increase the security of customers’ passage through Terminal 3,” said Emirates.

The more than half a million people who are expected to cross the UAE in the coming days correspond to almost the entire passenger volume of London’s Heathrow Airport in May of this year, according to Heathrow Airport.

A Boeing 787-9 “Dreamliner” operated by Etihad Airways displays Israeli and Emirati flags after arriving from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on the company’s first scheduled commercial flight from Abu Dhabi landed in April 02/06/2021.

JACK GUEZ | AFP | Getty Images

Etihad Airways from Abu Dhabi also extended their “Verified to Fly” program on Wednesday. The program enables travelers to validate Covid-19 travel documents prior to arriving at the airport to improve passenger turnaround time.

“We know these are challenging times for travelers and this has been an important initiative to make our guests’ journeys as easy as possible,” said John Wright, Etihad vice president for global airports and networking, in a statement.

Delta concerns

The expected increase in summer travel comes despite new warnings about the Delta variant of the virus, which has been shown to be more transmissible, causing more hospital stays and reducing vaccine effectiveness. The Delta variant, identified for the first time in India, accounts for 33.9% of cases in the UAE, according to the UAE Ministry of Health.

The British variant accounts for 11.3% of the cases, while the South African variant still has the highest infection rate at 39.2%. The United Arab Emirates reported 1,747 new cases of the virus on Tuesday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday issued a renewed level 4 “do not travel” warning for the UAE, the highest possible category, citing concerns about the virus. The United Arab Emirates are also still on the United Kingdom’s “red list”, where they have been since the end of January.

Britons living in the United Arab Emirates have expressed confusion and anger over the decision, particularly the Red List quarantine requirements.

Forty percent of the UAE’s roughly 10 million residents are now fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University. The high local vaccination rate, new flight routes and the easing of restrictions on vacation hotspots have given locals and residents the confidence and desire to travel again despite warnings about dangerous coronavirus variants.

Emirates has vowed to adhere to strict security measures for travelers. The airline was one of the first in the world to introduce the IATA Travel Pass, which will be extended to all routes in its network in the coming weeks. Emirates has also partnered with Al Hosn, the UAE covid tracing app, to support safe passenger movement.

“Emirates customers can travel knowing that the airline and its partners have spared no effort to make their airport trip as safe and smooth as possible,” said the airline.

Tags Covid, Delta, Emirates, Etihad, Prepare, Summer, warnings

Health

Indonesia’s well being minister on delta Covid surge, hospital capability

Post author By
Post date July 4, 2021

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the Indonesian government increased hospital bed capacity in preparation for a surge in Covid infections after the holidays, but parts of the country are still running out of beds as daily cases hit new highs.

He told CNBC Street Signs Asia that Indonesia has up to 130,000 beds for Covid patients and 72,000 people have been in isolation beds as of yesterday.

But he admitted that the Southeast Asian nation faces two problems.

“The first problem is that the acceleration is much faster than it was in January and February,” he said. “So for a very dense area … we’re starting the mobility restrictions next week to ensure that the speed of incoming patients to the hospital is reduced.”

He attributed the increase in new cases to the Delta variant, which was first discovered in India.

Indonesia tightened restrictions on sources of infection last week and announced on Thursday that stricter emergency measures would apply from July 3 to July 20.

In the Jakarta region it already reaches 90% of the bed capacity.

Budi Gunadi Sadikin

Indonesia’s Minister of Health

The second problem is that the infections are concentrated in certain parts of the country, particularly the most populous island of Java.

“In the Jakarta region it already reaches 90% of the bed capacity,” he said on Wednesday.

Jan Gelfand of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said “action at lightning speed” is needed to give countries like Indonesia access to vaccines.

“Every day we see how this Delta variant brings Indonesia closer to the brink of a Covid-19 catastrophe,” said Gelfand, the head of the Indonesian delegation of the IFRC, in a press release.

No nationwide lockdown

The Indonesian health minister is reportedly pushing for stricter Covid measures in Indonesia, but told CNBC that authorities will not consider a nationwide lockdown.

“Definitely not, because … the cluster is only in a certain area,” he said. “Kalimantan doesn’t have that. Sulawesi doesn’t. Most of Sumatra doesn’t and (and) Bali is still under control.”

Indonesia’s tourism minister told Reuters this week that the country, Bali, a popular holiday destination, plans to reopen in late July or early August, but needs to “watch out for the recent surge” in cases.

Health Minister Budi said in Sumatra and Kalimantan only 30 to 40 percent of hospital beds were occupied. “It’s not evenly distributed.”

A Covid-19 patient in the complex of the Wisma Atlet Covid-19 Emergency Hospital.

Risa Krisadhi | SOPA pictures | LightRakete | Getty Images

He also said Indonesia could increase oxygen production if necessary, adding that the country has diverted some of its industrial supplies to hospitals.

Distribution is a problem, however, as the factories are mostly located in West and East Java, while Central Java needs oxygen, he said.

Vaccination progress

Regarding vaccinations, Budi said the country has given 43 million vaccinations to around 28 million people. This corresponds to a little more than 10% of the approximately 276 million inhabitants of Indonesia.

He said the vaccination rate has remained constant at around 1 million doses per day this week.

“Our president asked me to go from 1 million doses a day to 2 million doses a day, which … can be done because we are now asking the entire private sector, all the police and the entire army to help,” said he.

Indonesia has received donations from China, Japan, Australia, the United States and Covax, a global alliance that aims to provide vaccines to poorer countries, Budi said. It also had agreements to buy vaccines from AstraZeneca and Pfizer, he said.

According to the World Health Organization, the new Covid cases reported in Indonesia between June 21 and 27 are up 60% from the previous week. 2,476 deaths were also recorded during this period.

As of June 29, Indonesia has confirmed 2.16 million coronavirus infections and 58,024 deaths, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.

Tags capacity, Covid, Delta, health, Hospital, Indonesias, Minister, surge

Health

Simply because the field workplace hit its stride, the delta variant appeared

Post author By
Post date July 3, 2021

A slow and steady increase in box office receipts could be threatened by a new variant of the coronavirus.

The domestic box office has gained momentum since March, bringing in up to $ 98.7 million in ticket sales last weekend, a record during the pandemic era.

Around 80% of the cinemas are open to the public this weekend, and mask restrictions on those who have received the coronavirus vaccination have been relaxed. With cinemas opening wider and Covid cases falling, studios have been confident of releasing big blockbuster pictures.

Last weekend, Universal’s “F9” hit the highest opening weekend of any movie released during the pandemic for a grand total of $ 70 million and helped increase total weekend loot to $ 98.7 million, another record for the industry .

Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards

More than half of the US population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, which has resulted in a sharp decrease in the number of deaths from Covid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of new cases had fallen significantly in the last few weeks and is still well below its peak. However, public health officials are watching the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant in communities with low vaccination rates, which has led to a surge in cases recently.

It is feared that an increase in the cases of Delta variants could lead to a resurgence of health and safety restrictions not only domestically but also internationally and discourage worldwide moviegoers from going to the movies.

Cities like Los Angeles have already chosen to reverse mask guidelines and strongly recommend that both unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals wear masks in public places such as restaurants, shops, and movie theaters. Cinema chains have told CNBC that cinema locations will continue to comply with all local regulations.

“Each state is loosening mask strategies so many companies could be affected if it flares up,” said Eric Handler, media and entertainment analyst at MKM Partners. “I hope the vaccines can help fight it off enough that it’s not a big problem.”

CDC director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that the US has a high vaccination rate and its highly potent vaccines have allowed them to relax mask restrictions and social distancing measures. In comparison, much of the world is still unvaccinated and there is currently evidence that vaccines developed outside of the United States have been less effective.

“The global outlook also remains important as studios and exhibitors closely monitor key international markets and the evolution of their various vaccine distributions in the second half of the year,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com.

In some countries where the Delta variant is on the rise, new lockdown measures have been imposed.

The Delta variant currently accounts for about 25% of the new cases sequenced in the US, and officials believe it will become the dominant strain in the country. In some counties, the delta variant rates are up to 50% according to the CDC.

The US government is concerned about parts of the US where vaccination rates are low. Domestically, about 1,000 counties in the United States have a vaccination coverage rate of less than 30%, Walensky said Thursday. These counties are mainly in the Southeast and Midwest and are the most prone to getting Covid infection, she said. The authority already sees increasing disease rates in these districts due to the further spread of the more transmissible delta variant.

“The movie industry, like many others, has been considering variant scenarios similar to the current one under the reopening plans and nothing is taken for granted,” said Robbins. “At this point, however, there is no evidence of an immediate impact on domestic cinemas as long as the vaccinated individuals remain protected, as health officials have widely reported.”

– CNBC’s Rich Mendez contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “F9”.

Tags appeared, Box, Delta, hit, Office, Stride, Variant

World News

Covid Reside Updates: Vaccines, Delta Variant and Circumstances

Post author By
Post date July 2, 2021

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA, via Shutterstock

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators on Friday cleared a batch of vaccine that could furnish up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot coronavirus vaccine, deciding they can be safely distributed despite production failures at the vaccine-making factory that ruined 75 million other doses.

The move brings the total number of Johnson & Johnson doses made at the Baltimore facility and cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for distribution in the United States to roughly 40 million. But Johnson & Johnson remains far from its goal of delivering 100 million doses to the federal government by the end of June. European Union officials have said the firm is missing its delivery targets there, as well.

The vaccine cleared on Friday is not yet bottled, and the Biden administration’s plans for it remain unclear. But with the pandemic abating and the country awash in vaccines from the two other authorized manufacturers, any new Johnson & Johnson doses produced in the United States are likely destined mostly for export.

Johnson & Johnson has been unable to produce much vaccine since regulators shut down the Baltimore factory, operated by Emergent BioSolutions, nearly three months ago because of major production errors. Johnson & Johnson had been relying on Emergent, its subcontractor, to produce vaccine for use in the United States as well as to meet its commitments overseas while it expanded its own plant in Leiden, the Netherlands.

Even with the newly cleared batch, Johnson & Johnson remains nearly 40 million doses short of its 100-million-dose pledge for U.S. use. The F.D.A. did not disclose the precise number of doses cleared Friday, but multiple people familiar with Emergent’s operation said the batch amounted to as many as 15 million doses.

Also on Friday, European regulators approved the reopening of Johnson & Johnson’s Dutch plant, a piece of good news for the firm amid its supply woes. “Today’s approval represents progress in expanding our global manufacturing network to supply our Covid-19 vaccine worldwide,” the company said in a statement.

And on Thursday, Johnson & Johnson reported that early results of unpublished studies showed that its vaccine is effective against the highly contagious Delta variant, even eight months after inoculation. That was a reassuring finding for the those who have gotten the company’s shot.

The Baltimore factory is expected to remain shuttered for several more weeks while Emergent tries to bring it up to standard, according to people familiar with its operation who spoke on condition of anonymity. The F.D.A. said in a statement Friday that it was not yet ready to certify that the plant was following good manufacturing practices.

Credit…Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

The highly contagious Delta variant has gained ground in New York City in recent weeks, though overall case counts remain low, according to a recent analysis by the city’s Health Department.

Since mid-June, there has been a steady daily average of about 200 new Covid-19 cases detected in New York City, the lowest since the early days of the pandemic and an indication that there is relatively little virus circulating there.

“The stability in terms of the daily numbers of cases is quite reassuring,” said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

The city’s daily Covid deaths are usually in the single digits now, and the number of new hospitalizations has been relatively steady for a couple of weeks — about 171 Covid patients were in area hospitals at the start of July.

In England, where the Delta variant now accounts for most cases, epidemiological data released on Thursday showed that it was not driving any surge in the rate of hospitalizations.

Dr. Torian Easterling, the first deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said that “young adults” made up most of the new cases involving the Delta variant.

For now, Delta’s growing presence has not prompted any dramatic shifts in Covid-19 guidance from City Hall, and more and more people are shedding their masks.

The variant was first identified in India and is now causing a new surge of cases in many places around the world, including a handful of places in the United States. It was detected in New York in March. At that point, the city’s vaccination campaign was gaining momentum, but the long second wave that began last fall had yet to recede. Research shows that a full regimen of the vaccines in use in New York offer a high degree of protection against the Delta variant.

By the end of May, the city’s genome sequencing program suggested that the Delta variant made up about 8 percent of overall new cases in the city, even as case counts were plummeting. New data released on Thursday, based on genome sequencing of just 54 case samples, suggested that by mid-June, Delta could have accounted for 44.4 percent of new cases. (The data is reflected in a chart near the bottom of this page on the Department of Health’s website.)

The city’s sequencing program has been robust in recent months, with more than 10 percent of confirmed cases tested for variants in some weeks. The latest sample of cases to be sequenced was unusually small, involving only about 5 percent of confirmed cases.

Public health experts have said Delta’s gains should motivate New Yorkers to get vaccinated. About 49 percent of the city’s population has not been fully vaccinated — about four million people, including children not yet eligible.

And vaccination rates are uneven across the city, leaving pockets at risk. Vaccinations are lagging generally among Black New Yorkers, and, geographically, in northern Manhattan, the Bronx, and parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

“We need to always emphasize the fact that even though the percentage of Delta cases is going up, the total number of people getting Covid continues to go down and the vaccines continue to be very effective,” Dr. Jay Varma, a senior adviser for public health to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said at a news conference earlier this week.

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Credit…Jens Schlueter/Getty Images

In a bid to provide effective coverage against the Delta variant, German health authorities broadened their recommendation that those who received a first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine get a second dose with either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.

This “is one of the best available vaccine combinations currently available,” Jens Spahn, the country’s health minister, said on Friday, after agreeing to formally adopt a recommendation from the country’s vaccination expert panel with state lawmakers.

Studies have shown that while mixing vaccines may increase the odds of mild and moderate side effects, including fever, fatigue and headache, the protection is at least on par with two jabs of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

Germany had already been advising people under 60 to take the mixed regimen after worries about rare but severe side effects were observed in younger women receiving AstraZeneca shots. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is 66, was inoculated with a Moderna vaccine last month after receiving an AstraZeneca shot earlier this year.

Now, authorities believe the combination can help protect all vaccine recipients in the fight against the Delta virus, which is currently estimated to make up 50 percent of new cases across the country.

Mr. Spahn also said that doctors and nurses could give the second shot just four weeks after the first, significantly shortening the period between shots that was initially recommended for a full AstraZeneca treatment, when the wait between shots could be as long as 12 weeks.

“The more vaccinations in the summer, the better the autumn,” said Mr. Spahn.

Currently 56 percent of Germans have received at least one dose and 38 percent are fully vaccinated. Nearly 17 percent of all vaccines delivered to Germany come from AstraZeneca, which for a while was the jab of choice for people who were not high on any priority list.

Despite the spread of the Delta variant, the number of new cases is at the lowest level in about a year.

Here’s what’s happening around the world:

Portugal is imposing a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. in Lisbon, Porto and other popular tourism spots to fight a Delta-driven surge, reversing course after it had reopened its economy to prepare for summer travelers. The measure is designed to discourage gatherings of younger people at night, said Mariana Vieira da Silva, a cabinet minister. The country reported almost 2,500 new cases on Thursday, the highest daily rise since mid-February, although cases have remained far below its January peak of more 16,000 per day.

France warned on Friday that the Delta variant now accounted for a third of all new cases. Olivier Véran, France’s health minister, said that while the virus was under control, the decline in new cases has slowed, and that the variant was a “real threat” that could “ruin” summer holidays. Mr. Véran said authorities would not make vaccination mandatory for the general population but were debating doing so for health workers.
Three guests and one firefighter died in a blaze at a quarantine hotel in Taiwan, and more than 20 people were injured. Some guests had worried that leaving their rooms would violate Covid rules, and the owner at first thought it was a false alarm and urged people to stay in their rooms. The fire renewed debate over the use of hotels as quarantine facilities.

Credit…Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

With just a few days to go, there is no longer much doubt that the United States will fall just short of President Biden’s goal to have 70 percent of adults at least partly vaccinated against the coronavirus by Independence Day.

It was always more of a rhetorical deadline than a practical one: It doesn’t make much difference exactly what the national figure will be on July 4 (probably 67 or 68 percent) or which day the national odometer will roll past 70 percent (perhaps around mid-month). The point was to give the public something to shoot for, to keep up the pace of progress.

That progress has hardly been uniform. Some parts of the country have embraced vaccination avidly, others diffidently and some grudgingly — just as happened with precautions like mask-wearing, social distancing, and school and business closures.

Here is a rundown of which states have led the way and which have lagged, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data tracked by The New York Times:

Over the goal line

Twenty states, Washington, D.C., and two territories exceeded the 70 percent threshold by Thursday, three days ahead of Mr. Biden’s target date.

Twelve are in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region, including Vermont, the national leader, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

California, Oregon and Washington have surpassed 70 percent, as has Hawaii.

The other four states that have cleared 70 percent are Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New Mexico, along with the territories of Puerto Rico and Guam.

Close but not quite

Fourteen states, mainly in the Midwest and Southwest, were between 60 and 65 percent on Thursday. Two of the nation’s most populous states are in this group: Florida at 65 percent and Texas at 61 percent.

The remaining 16 states, including nearly the whole South, were below 60 percent, with Mississippi in last at 46 percent.

Credit…Carl Court/Getty Images

Denis McDonough, the secretary of veterans affairs, said this week that he was considering a move to compel workers at V.A. hospitals to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, fearing that centers with low inoculation rates were risking the health of veterans seeking care.

The military is struggling to fully vaccinate more troops across all service branches. While the Army and Navy are outpacing the civilian population in vaccine uptake, the Air Force and the Marine Corps have faced greater challenges. About 68 percent of active-duty members have had at least one dose of a vaccine, officials said.

President Biden could legally require members of the military to get vaccinated, but he has declined to exercise that power even as the highly contagious Delta variant has become an increasing threat to unvaccinated Americans.

The military has worked hard to combat vaccine misinformation in its ranks since the shots first became available. More than 80 percent of active-duty service members are under 35, a group that often views itself as impervious to coronavirus infections. Many worry that the vaccines are unsafe, were developed too quickly or will affect fertility.

A lack of vaccine acceptance among hospital workers who care for veterans could be more worrisome; because of their average age and service-related injuries and illnesses, veterans can be more vulnerable to infection. Nearly 12,500 veterans have died from coronavirus-related complications since the pandemic began.

Credit…Kenny Holston for The New York Times

President Biden’s plan to celebrate “independence from the virus” on the Fourth of July is running into an unpleasant reality: Less than half the country is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, and the highly contagious Delta variant is threatening new outbreaks.

Mr. Biden will visit Traverse City, Mich., on Saturday as part of what the White House calls the “America’s Back Together” celebration. On Sunday, he and Jill Biden, the first lady, have invited 1,000 military personnel and essential workers to an Independence Day bash on the South Lawn of the White House.

But public health experts fear that scenes of celebrations will send the wrong message when wide swaths of the population remain vulnerable and true independence from the worst public health crisis in a century may be a long way off.

On Friday, Mr. Biden urged those who have yet to get vaccinated to “think about their family” and get a shot as the Delta variant spreads. At a news conference mainly focused on the strong jobs report from the Labor Department, he said he wasn’t worried about another major coronavirus outbreak, but instead wanted to make sure next year’s July 4 holiday was even better than this year’s.

“I am concerned that people who have not gotten vaccinated have the capacity to catch the variant and spread the variant to other people who have not been vaccinated,” he said. “To those of you who haven’t been vaccinated, it doesn’t hurt. It’s accessible. It is free. Don’t just think about yourself. Think about your family.”

Dr. Thomas Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other experts said they feared that if the Delta variant continued to circulate, it would mutate in a way that left even the vaccinated vulnerable. That already seems to be happening elsewhere in the world; South Korea and Israel, where the virus seemed to be in check, have new clusters of disease.

“Compared to many other countries, we are in a much more secure situation,” said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. But, she added, “I really do worry that as America enjoys its freedoms, we forget about the rest of the world, and that could come back to bite us.”

Credit…Joel Carrett/EPA, via Shutterstock

SYDNEY, Australia — Three days after the emergence of a rare Covid case in Sydney, around 40 friends gathered for a birthday party. Along with cake and laughter, there was a hidden threat: One of the guests had unknowingly crossed paths with that single Covid case.

Two weeks later, 27 people from the party have tested positive, along with 14 close contacts. And the seven people at the gathering who were not infected? They were all vaccinated.

For Australia and every other nation pursuing a so-called “Covid zero” approach, including China and New Zealand, the gathering in western Sydney amounts to a warning: Absent blanket vaccinations, the fortress cannot hold without ever more painful restrictions.

The Delta mutation has already raced from Sydney across Australia. Half of the country’s 25 million people have been ordered to stay home as the caseload, now at around 200, grows every day. State borders are closed, and exasperation is intensifying.

It’s a sudden turn in a country that has spent most of the past year celebrating a remarkable achievement. With closed borders, widespread testing and efficient tracing, Australia has quashed every previous outbreak, even as almost every other country has lived with the virus’s unceasing presence, often catastrophically.

In Australia, no one has died from Covid-19 in all of 2021. While New York and London sheltered last year from a viral onslaught, Sydney and most of the country enjoyed full stadiums, restaurants, classrooms and theaters with “Hamilton.”

That experience of normalcy — diminished only by a lack of overseas travel, occasional mask mandates and snap lockdowns — is what Australian politicians are so desperate to defend. To them, keeping Covid out, whatever it takes, remains a winning policy.

On Friday, Australia doubled down on this approach, announcing that the trickle of a few thousand international arrivals allowed each week (and quarantined) would be cut by half.

Tags cases, Covid, Delta, Live, Updates, vaccines, Variant

Health

Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Protects In opposition to Delta Variant, Firm Experiences

Post author By
Post date July 2, 2021

Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine is still effective eight months after being vaccinated against the highly contagious Delta variant, the company reported Thursday – a result that should reassure the 11 million Americans who received the vaccination.

The vaccine showed a slight decrease in effectiveness against the variant compared to its effectiveness against the original virus, the company said. But the vaccine was more effective against the Delta variant than the beta variant, which was first identified in South Africa – the pattern was also seen with mRNA vaccines.

Antibodies stimulated by the vaccine get stronger over time, researchers also reported.

The results were described in a press release, and the company announced that both studies were submitted for online publication on Thursday. One of these studies was accepted for publication in a scientific journal. Both studies are small, and the researchers said they published the results early because of the great public interest.

“The coverage of the variants will be better than expected,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “There was a lot of misinformation out there so we decided we had to get this public right away.”

The intense discourse about Delta’s threat has made even immunized people worry about whether they are protected. The variant first identified in India is much more transmissible than previous versions of the virus, and its global spread has resulted in new health restrictions from Ireland to Malaysia.

In the USA, the variant now accounts for every fourth new infection. Public health officials said the vaccines approved in the United States will work against all existing variants, but the data is primarily based on studies of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

That made some people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine ask, What about us?

The frustration built before the Delta variant appeared. For example, the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that vaccinated people could do without masks in many indoor situations were mainly based on data for mRNA vaccines. And reports of an accumulation of infections among players on the Yankees baseball team that the J. & J. Shot did nothing to allay fears that the vaccine might be inferior to others.

Martha Young, 63, of Mountain View, California received the J. & J. shot on April 9th. It wasn’t their first choice, but it was offered. But since then she has said, “I’m very, very frustrated with the lack of information.”

She added, referring to the J. & J. “I felt like I didn’t count, like I was statistically insignificant because so few of us stand a chance that we don’t have to worry about us.”

Some people familiar with the J. & J. Vaccine complained that they felt cheated by experts who said the vaccines were all equally good. “I was surprised to see others make that claim,” said Natalie Dean, biostatistician at the University of Florida. “I did not like it. People don’t want to feel misled. “

However, other experts said the clinical trials should have shown that the J. & J. Vaccine was lower than that of the mRNA vaccines. “Of course, 72 percent is less than 95 or 94 percent,” says Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine on Mount Sinai in New York.

Part of the difficulty with comparing the vaccines is that they were all tested individually and with different measures of success. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna studies were designed to capture symptomatic infections, while the J. & J. Study looked at the prevention of moderate to severe infections by the vaccine.

Still, it’s clear that all vaccines keep people out of the intensive care unit and morgue far more effectively than scientists could hope for, said Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London.

Updated

July 1, 2021, 10:13 p.m. ET

“It’s like arguing whether you want a Ferrari or a Porsche that goes 250 or 180 mph on a road that is only allowed to drive 30 miles an hour,” he said.

However, there are differences: The J. & J. The vaccine can allow more so-called breakthrough infections – which occur in people who are fully vaccinated – with mild to no symptoms than the mRNA vaccines.

People with asymptomatic infections are very unlikely to spread the virus, but their diagnosis can become a problem when they’re caught by routine tests – as was the case with the Yankees cluster – and they have to go into quarantine, said John Moore, one Virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

Information on the effectiveness of the J. & J. The vaccine was slow to get to market because it was launched later and its use was suspended due to concerns about infrequent blood clots. Many medical centers and hospitals offered staff the mRNA vaccines early on and were able to conduct studies to evaluate these vaccines.

But blood samples from people who were tested with the J. & J. Vaccines are a comparatively rare commodity, said Dr. Krammer. “It’s not that nobody cares, or we’re hiding something because the vaccine isn’t good,” he said. “It’s more of an access problem.”

In the absence of data, some experts had suggested that the J. & J. Vaccination against the Delta variant probably performed about as well as the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is widely used in Europe. But this vaccine is given in two doses compared to J. & J’s single dose.

“The thing that I do at J. & J. is that their technology platform is essentially very, very similar – almost indistinguishable from AstraZeneca, ”said Dr. Altmann. “Should it really be a two-dose vaccine like everything else?”

The single dose offers benefits for those with limited access or who do not want two doses for other reasons. The J. & J. The vaccine also lasts longer in the refrigerator than the others and was a welcome option earlier in the pandemic when vaccines were scarce.

But after the advent of variants like Beta and Delta, which seem to bypass the immune system in part, the discussion about boosters for J. & J. Receiver intensified. One dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is much less effective against variants than two doses, and experts feared that J. & J. Shot could be similar.

The new study addressed some of these concerns.

While blood antibody levels produced after immunization with Pfizer or Moderna decrease after an initial increase, antibodies – and immune cells – are released by the J. & J. Vaccine remains at a high level. (Other studies have shown that immune responses generated by mRNA vaccines are likely to last for years, too.)

A lack of information about the J. & J. Vaccine had led many people to speculate that it might need to be supplemented with a dose of an mRNA vaccine. But at least for now, people who have the J. & J. Vaccine shouldn’t need a booster shot, nor can they legally get one, “unless they’re playing the system, unless they pretend they’re vaccine naïve and get an mRNA vaccine and are essentially lying,” said Dr . Moore, “and I certainly … don’t recommend people do that.”

Tags Company, Delta, Johnson, Protects, reports, Vaccine, Variant