People vaccinated against COVID-19 do not transmit the virus or get sick, says US CDC director

In a statement that sparked interest and caused noise in world opinion, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, celebrated the fact that those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 for the most part, “they are not carriers of the virus”.

Rochelle Walensky, MD, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that “Our CDC data now suggests that people vaccinated do not carry the virus.” they don’t get sick either. “It’s not just clinical trials, it’s real data as well. “ added.

Walensky’s comments appeared to refer to a CDC study released early Monday that looked at Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines and found that under real-world conditions they reduced the risk of infection by 90% within two to three weeks of more after the second. dose. The CDC said the study showed that vaccines “They can reduce asymptomatic and symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections.”

Walensky expressed his optimism about this finding, saying: “You can almost see the end ”of the pandemic according to the vaccination rate in the United States. However, he reiterated his concern about the increase in COVID-19 cases. “What I would really hate for that to happen is for another increase to come just as we’re trying to vaccinate a lot more people.”, He said.

Walensky previously expressed similar concerns on Monday about a possible fourth spike in COVID-19 cases, saying in a briefing he had a feeling. “Imminent death” while urging Americans to “wait a little longer”.

At the request of Dr Wallensky, White House chief infectologist Anthony Fauci joins who stressed that in the coming months a very important question will have to be answered: whether vaccinated people are infected asymptomatically and, if they do, whether they transmit the infection to other people. Walensky microbiologist is still concerned about the possibility of a fourth wave of casesBecause still many Americans – especially young adults – are not vaccinated, and the most transmissible and deadly variants of the virus are multiplying rapidly.

Walensky noted: “We did well to vaccinate the oldest age group of our society, to reduce mortality. Now we have to bet that more and more arms will quickly receive the injections, not only to slow the spread of new variants, hospitalizations and deaths, but also to reduce the potential for long-term effects of the COVID-19 disease ”.

The United States surpassed another dismal figure linked to the COVID-19 pandemic this week: that of the 30 million positive cases. The North American country achieved this amid a new unfavorable context, considering that daily cases have risen again over the past week: 12 percent from the previous. That’s why, given the real possibility of a fourth wave of cases and deaths across the country, the CDC had asked people to take extreme precautions, including limiting travel.

“We are seeing more travel than during the entire pandemic, even on Christmas or New Years. I think people are taking advantage of what they see as a relative drop in the number of infections and are taking the spring break to travel.“Said Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, at a press conference.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Transport Security, throughout the month of March the country’s airports saw an average of more than a million passengers per day. For reference, the day before the pandemic was declared, in 2020, the average daily traveler at airports in the United States was 2 million people. That number fell to 90,000 daily passengers in April of last year, a number that has remained relatively constant except for a few peaks during the holidays.

Walensky reiterated the need to adopt behaviors so that the effects of the vaccination rate lead to a sustained decline in infections and deaths: “With the level of immunization we have, we can start to think about the end of the pandemic, but that end will be much further away if we enter a new wave of massive infections.Added the official.

US President Joe Biden announced on Monday that given the expansion of production and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as the decision by most states to expand the demographic groups eligible for vaccination, 90 percent of the country’s adult population You will be able to access an inoculant from April 19. And he said that figure will reach 100% on May 1.

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