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“What worries me are the images of what happens on spring break, in people who do not continue to implement prevention strategies while we are fully developing,” said Dr. Rochelle. Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a White House Covid 19 briefing.
“We have to stay a little longer because we can see a point in the next few months where we will have a lot more people vaccinated and we can really reduce the infection rates,” she added.
“If we choose to invest in prevention now, we will ultimately emerge from this pandemic faster and with fewer lives lost,” said the CDC director.
So, as the United States gets closer to the turn, it’s not there yet. The country continues to add tens of thousands of new cases and hundreds of virus-related deaths every day.
“When you’re at that level, I don’t think you can declare victory and say you’ve turned the corner,” Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist, said during the briefing. “You need to keep doing what we’re doing: more vaccinations and keep taking public health action until we really turn the corner.”
‘A burst of hope for all of us’
The good news: vaccinations are already making a difference.
The pace of vaccinations has doubled in less than two months, according to CDC data, and now more than 70% of people 65 and older have received at least one vaccine.
This population aged 65 and over has also experienced a larger drop in rates of Covid-19 cases, death rates and hospitalizations than any other age group and now represents a smaller share of total hospitalizations than a few months ago, according to an analysis of CDC Data.
In nursing homes, which have been a priority for vaccinations across the country since deployments began, Covid-19 cases and deaths among residents are the lowest since monitoring began in May, according to the reports. data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. .
Several recent studies have also shown that vaccines protect healthcare workers, Walensky and Fauci said at Wednesday’s briefing.
“These findings should be a boost of hope for all of us and serve as a catalyst for everyone to roll up their sleeves when the vaccine becomes available,” Walensky said.
In total, the vaccines have probably saved at least 40,000 American lives by now, former CDC director Dr Tom Frieden told CNN on Wednesday evening.
“They’re remarkably effective, they’re remarkably safe,” Frieden said.
What could stand in the way of more vaccinations
Pfizer’s vaccine is the only one available for people 16 years of age and older, while Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are both licensed for people 18 years of age and older.
As eligibility opens up, some local officials are concerned that soon the challenge will be insufficient demand rather than shortage.
This could happen in the next four to six weeks, says Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
“We’ll get to the point pretty quickly where we’re saying, ‘OK, now we’re in the really tough part of this situation where we’re at the population that isn’t that willing to get the vaccine,’” Freeman mentioned.
It is this last mile of “hesitant people” that will be difficult, she added. And other experts and officials have also expressed concern about this latest step.
“The reluctance is worrying not only here, but across the country, and I believe that as a country we will achieve a vaccination rate of 50% of the population. But we will have a harder time going from 50% to 70%. %, ”Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson told CNN earlier this week.
“It’s about overcoming skepticism, it’s about education,” he said.
CNN’s Deidre McPhillips, Jacqueline Howard, Deanna Hackney contributed to this report.
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