American coronavirus: The vaccination rate in the United States is at its highest level in weeks. But warrants may be needed for children returning to school, expert says

The vaccinations “hold up even against the Delta variant. The problem is, we don’t have enough people vaccinated,” Frieden told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “Vaccination is within reach during this pandemic, but we need to increase the numbers. “

The vaccines are even more effective than experts expected, Frieden said.

According to a CNN analysis of CDC data, more than 99.99% of people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 have not had a breakthrough case resulting in hospitalization or death.

But as effective as the vaccines are, Frieden said that with rates that are too low, vaccination may have to be combined with mask warrants.

“What we know very well is that vaccines work and masks work,” he said. “Doubling the protection is especially important because we have this doubly infectious variant of Delta.

Expert calls for vaccination mandate for school-going adolescents

Concerns about the increase in cases are mounting for many as parents begin to send their children to school for the New Year.

An August 5 CNN analysis found that at least seven states – Arkansas, Arizona, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Utah – prohibit districts from requiring masks in schools.

On August 6, an Arkansas judge temporarily blocked enforcement of state law banning mask warrants in schools, in response to two lawsuits – one from a school district and the other parents – who want schools to be able to require masks if they so choose.

School districts are allowed to enforce mask warrants while the prosecution continues.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis escalated the fight in the state over mask warrants on Monday when his office said the state’s education board may decide to withhold salaries for superintendents and board members school that do not comply with the Governor’s decree which effectively prohibits the warrants of masking school neighborhoods.

The superintendent of public schools in Alachua, Florida, Dr. Carlee Simon, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that her district is defying the ban. She told CNN’s Don Lemon that DeSantis is not taking the coronavirus situation seriously enough.

A health expert said immunization warrants for children ages 12 to 17 may be needed at the start of the new school year.

Speaking about the increase in pediatric intensive care admissions in parts of the country, Dr. Peter Hotez, vaccinologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that “schools are going be an accelerator “for childhood infections without universal masking.

“It will not even be enough to have mask warrants in schools,” he said. “We need all teens to be immunized, and we really need to move towards immunization mandates for 12 to 17 year olds in schools.”

Some states have only vaccinated a quarter of the teenage population, Hotez said, so masking and increasing vaccination rates among students will be important in containing the spread at school.

“If we are to give our chance to fight for a successful school year, we will need everyone who is eligible for the vaccine to get vaccinated and everyone to be masked,” Hotez said.

Local leaders take different positions in mandate debates

Some health experts have pointed to the warrants of vaccines and masks as possible solutions for the increase in cases. And while some local leaders move towards these efforts, others reject them.

Washington joined many states on Monday that announced requirements for state employees to be vaccinated against the virus.

Governor Jay Inslee’s term would cover 60,000 state employees and 400,000 health workers as well as thousands of contractors. Under the mandate, these workers must be vaccinated in places where the state does business.

Some local leaders are pushing back against Texas’ anti-mask mandate policy as many hospitals in the state are inundated with Covid-19 cases.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent a letter to the Texas Hospital Association on Monday asking hospitals to voluntarily postpone elective medical procedures in order to “increase hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients,” according to a press release from the Abbott’s office.

Last month, Abbott issued an executive order stating that no government entity, including school districts, could require masks to be worn.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins asked a Texas court for a temporary restraining order on the ban on mask warrants on Monday.

“Governor Abbott has decided on a course of action that bans statewide face covering warrants. Whatever his motives or the dangerous nature of such a decision, it is within his legislative authority. delegate to decide whether to impose the face covering or refuse to do so, “Jenkins wrote in her filing Monday. “But the governor also tried to prohibit local elected officials from making a different decision, in response to local conditions, to protect their own communities.”

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice told his constituents “you are taking a hellish risk if you are not vaccinated”, but added that he “absolutely” did not want to impose anything like masks or vaccines.

Justice said if things continue as they are, a mask warrant may have to revert to some level.

“You, at that point, have to run towards the fire and get vaccinated, and your children have to run towards the fire with you taking them, if need be, to get them vaccinated,” Justice said. “I’m telling you as a governor, as a friend, as a person you really trust, right now you need to make this a number one priority in your life and run to the fire and get vaccinated. . “