As Covid-19 hospitalizations rise, doctors hope vaccine approval and boosters can prevent outbreak

by



[ad_1]

Full US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is “imminent,” a senior federal official told CNN last week. vaccines available in the United States have so far been distributed under emergency use authorization.

The approval could also help businesses, schools and states enforce vaccine mandates, experts said. Such warrants could help crack down on the ever-growing number of cases, especially in states that lack available intensive care beds.

The number of vaccine doses given daily has mostly increased over the past week – with three days exceeding one million doses reported, according to data released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Meanwhile, the daily average of new reported cases is around 147,000, and experts have warned it could exceed 200,000 on the current trajectory.
More than half of the total United States population, 51.5% or about 170 million people, was fully vaccinated on Sunday, CDC data showed, while 60.7% received at least one dose. In total, 25 states have fully immunized more than half of their residents.

But in many states with lower vaccination rates, hospitals have been overwhelmed by an increase in the number of Covid-19 patients.

In Mississippi, where 36.8% of the population is fully vaccinated, Gov. Tate Reeves said on Sunday that a 23-person active-duty Covid-19 military response team had been deployed to Jackson to provide medical personnel. additional in hospitals. A second team is expected to arrive in Tupelo next week.

An increase in cases among school-aged children after returning to in-person learning has also worried health officials, with thousands of children quarantined over the past week due to the Covid outbreaks -19. Experts stressed that to protect those under 12 who cannot yet get vaccinated, it is important to ensure that those who are eligible get vaccinated. Another key prevention method is wearing a mask.
Students in a classroom on the first day of class at a private school in North Miami Beach, Fla., Aug. 18.

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CBS ‘Face the Nation on Sunday that warning signs of what could happen nationwide in the coming weeks have already been seen in the South.

“Schools are opening earlier in the South, against a background of still high prevalence [of Delta] and the infection enters schools, and it is difficult to control in schools, ”Gottlieb explained. “The Delta is a very contagious variant so I think it’s a harbinger of the challenges we’re going to face nationally. when schools reopen. “

How to keep schools open and children safe

As districts continue to return to in-person learning, a debate is brewing between districts, parents and local officials on how to make the return to class as safe as possible.

In Texas and Florida, governors have threatened to withdraw funding from districts that create mask mandates, but several local school boards are pushing back and telling students to mask themselves.

Florida school district with thousands in isolation or quarantine calls emergency board meeting
In Texas, where the issue is making its way to court, one district has managed to forgo formal orders by incorporating the mask mandate into its school uniform policy.

In Florida, nearly 20,000 students and staff have had to be quarantined after more than 6,000 cases of covid have been identified among the 15 largest school districts in the state since the start of the school year, according to a CNN analysis carried out last week. Of these, 4,641 students and 1,547 employees tested positive. This does not include the two largest school districts in the state, Miami-Dade and Broward.

As the number of cases increased in the middle of going back to school, Gottlieb said it’s difficult to assess whether it’s because the Delta variant itself is more aggressive in children or because we let’s just expose more children to the virus.

He said schools should follow the lead of some districts in North Dakota, where schools test close contacts every few days to make sure asymptomatic cases do not go undiagnosed.

“Immediately test close contact with children to make sure there are no other asymptomatic cases that go undiagnosed, then test them at a certain interval, maybe three days and five days to make sure that there is no outbreak started in the school, ”Gottlieb told CBS.

Which families are afraid and excited for this school year during Covid-19, survey reports

US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy echoed the importance of protecting children in the face of increasing pediatric cases.

“It is our moral responsibility as a society to do everything possible to protect our children,” he told ABC “This Week” on Sunday. “Number one, all of us getting vaccinated as adults is important. Children too young to get vaccinated rely on those around them to protect them from the virus.”

Recalls of vaccines under study

While vaccination rates still lag in the United States, those already vaccinated are assessing the need for booster vaccines.
Beginning September 20, those eight months away from their second dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine will be eligible for a booster, if the FDA clears them and the CDC recommends them.

And those who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will likely need a booster as well, according to Murthy.

Full approval of the Covid-19 vaccine will not only build confidence. This will likely lead to new business demands, says surgeon general

“We believe recipients of J&J will likely need a booster, but we are awaiting data from the company regarding a second dose,” Murthy said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

So far, only Pfizer has submitted initial recall data to the FDA; the company said results from Phase 3 evaluating the third dose are expected shortly.

At the same time as it is considering boosters, the FDA is also working with Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson towards full approval – a process known as the Biologics License Application or BLA.

Pfizer / BioNTech’s submission has been accepted for priority review by the FDA. Once approval is received, the companies said they also plan to seek approval for a booster dose for people 16 and older.

Moderna has started submitting data for full approval of its two-dose vaccine, and Johnson & Johnson have yet to submit data for full approval, but expect to do so, CNN previously reported.

CNN’s Nadia Kounang and Gregory Lemos contributed to this report.

[ad_2]

Source link