American coronavirus: a quarter of Americans fully vaccinated against, according to CDC

“We’re getting to the point where we’re getting to a tough audience,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

“Those who are not sure or are not on the vaccine, do not have enough information or are downright … not interested in the vaccine for other reasons,” she said.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN on Sunday it was frustrating enough that a “disturbing proportion of Republicans” say they don’t want the vaccine.

“They want to be able to say that these restrictions imposed by the public health recommendations are things of great concern to them, we are all concerned about this, we share that concern,” Fauci told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union. “” But the way you get rid of those restrictions is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly and as quickly as possible. “

When that happens, “it is absolutely certain” that the level of the virus in the community drops to the point where restrictions are not needed, he said.

“It is almost paradoxical that, on the one hand, they want to be relieved of the restrictions, but on the other hand, they don’t want to be vaccinated,” Fauci said. “It almost makes no sense.”

J&J vaccine break

Fauci told CNN he expected a decision on the vaccine to be made by Friday.

“I don’t want to get ahead of the CDC, the FDA, and the advisory board, but I imagine what we would say is that he would come back and he would come back in some sort of warning or restriction.” he said.

Fauci said taking a break was the safe thing to do, saying “you want to make sure you have all the information you need.”

Speaking to CNN on Saturday, CNN emergency physician and medical analyst Dr Leana Wen also said she welcomed the break.

“I’m glad the hiatus is happening because it really illustrates that our system is working, that our federal health officials are prioritizing – more than anything else – safety,” Wen said. “If they’re willing to pause on something that’s less than one in a million, we should be really reassured about their commitment to safety.”

The other two Covid-19 vaccines that also got the green light in the United States – Pfizer and Moderna – are not involved in the hiatus. And in the weeks to come, it will be essential to continue the important message about their safety, Wen said, and why vaccinations against Covid-19 remain essential.

“We are doing this because we have a pandemic that has killed over 500,000 people here in the United States,” Wen added.

Fauci warned that even vaccinated Americans must continue with other mitigation measures, such as wearing masks.

He told CNN that it was possible that someone could be vaccinated but still infected without any signs of clinical illness. They could then inadvertently pass the virus on to someone who has not been vaccinated.

Breakthrough variants and infections, while unusual, are another reason to continue wearing masks, he told CNN.

“We don’t want people to think that you don’t drastically reduce your risk when you get the vaccine, you absolutely do, the risk is very low and people will make decisions about what they want to do and that will be a parent. risk, ”he said.

Surge overwhelming Michigan hospitals

And there are several reasons for the crisis.

“First, we believe the overall infection rate in Michigan has been lower during the pandemic to date,” Beaumont Health CEO John Fox told CNN on Saturday. “Second, Michigan has opened recently … with various relief orders in the works.”

“Unfortunately, I think people have given up on their infection control issues, they don’t wear their masks as much as they should, (or) social distancing, hand hygiene,” Fox added.

Fauci told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the most effective way for places like Michigan to deal with large outbreaks of Covid-19 was to stop, rather than redeploy vaccines from other states.

“The best way when you’re in the middle of a real big epidemic and a big wave is to really stop things a lot more,” Fauci said. “If you take vaccines from other places and move them around, you make that place vulnerable to what’s going on in Michigan. This is the reason why you don’t see a lot of interstate vaccine remobilization.

And with much of the elderly population vaccinated against the virus, the variant has hit younger groups hard.

“It really shows up in all of our emergency rooms and quite frankly in our inpatient units,” Fox said. “We are treating younger patients than ever before.”

Dr Wen says she’s worried about what this might mean for Michigan and the United States.

Looking ahead, Fauci told ABC’s “This Week” Sunday that it should be clear by fall whether people will need reminders for Covid-19.

“I believe when we get to the end of summer and early fall, we’ll have a pretty good idea of ​​whether or not we really need to give people a helping hand and when to give it to them. “he told ABC’s Martha Raddatz.

Fauci said the determination would be based on the level of what would be considered “correlative immunity,” such as the level of antibodies. “When the slope starts to go down, you can predict when you’re going to drop below the safe level or you might start to see breakthrough infections,” he said.