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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say “the war has changed” against COVID-19[female[feminine and that the agency should recognize this in communications, according to an internal agency presentation.
Data in the document, which was first obtained by the Washington Post, underscores the danger posed by the highly contagious delta variant of the virus which was first spotted in India.
In the presentation, dated July 29, the agency does not believe that vaccinated Americans are at a significantly higher risk of so-called “breakthrough” infections. In fact, he cites recent unpublished data from several of the CDC’s ongoing cohort studies that examined large groups of Americans, suggesting that the vaccine’s efficacy remains high for months after their second injection, suggesting that the vaccines Pfizer and Moderna remain 65-75% effective even against asymptomatic infection. .
Public health officials have repeatedly stressed that vaccines offer strong protection against serious illness, hospitalization and death, even if a vaccinated person contracts the virus.
The CDC’s presentation also points to new “preliminary data” from its COVID-NET system that suggests those vaccinated remain a minority of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States. In May, fully vaccinated people accounted for 9% of all hospitalizations according to the document, which the presentation said reflects “increases in immunization coverage” that are higher “in the elderly.”
The CDC previously revealed that less than 3% of hospitalizations were in people who were fully vaccinated.
However, the CDC now also believes in its submission that the Delta variant could be as transmissible as chickenpox and much more than other diseases like Ebola or the original ancestral strain of SARS-CoV-2.
A spokesperson for the CDC declined to comment on the leaked document.
The agency cites data – which is expected to be released Friday – from an outbreak of July 4 cases among residents and visitors to Provincetown, Massachusetts, showing that the amount of virus in samples collected from vaccinated and unvaccinated cases was virtually identical. This echoes previous reports from India, which the agency cites in the presentation, suggesting that vaccine breakthrough cases with the delta variant could be much more transmissible than with previous mutant strains, even spreading as much as in some unvaccinated cases.
Research into the July 4 outbreak has prompted federal health officials to urge even fully vaccinated Americans to wear masks indoors in areas with “substantial” or “high” spread of the virus, urging all people in schools to wear masks this fall and revise its previous guidelines exempting many fully vaccinated people from COVID-19 testing recommendations.
Local health officials have since tracked the outbreak from the popular Cape Cod retreat to hundreds of confirmed cases, many among fully vaccinated residents.
CDC director Rochelle Walensky and Dr.Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser, also briefed members of Congress on the new data on Thursday, according to a statement from the House coronavirus subcommittee. Fauci warned the group that the Delta variant is “considerably more transmissible” with a viral load “about a thousand times higher” than the original strain.
The CDC had also faced growth critical for failing to publish the data driving the change behind its recent directions, in addition to citing “unpublished data”.
Informing reporters earlier this week of the agency’s shift in focus, Walensky acknowledged their science on the risk that fully vaccinated people run to spread the virus to others – in the rare event that they have an infection. “breakthrough” – had changed.
“Public health experts, scientific experts, medical experts, when we showed them this data, universally said it needed action.
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