US Covid-19: Millions More Americans Can Now Get Vaccinated, Including All Teachers

About 70% to 85% of people must obtain immunity – either by surviving Covid-19 or by receiving a vaccine – to achieve herd immunity. This is when enough people are protected against a disease that they cannot spread among the population.

“What we need to do is find a way to dissociate the anti-science (beliefs) of the Republican Party,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

In order for the United States to end this pandemic as quickly as possible, more Americans must roll up their sleeves – especially as more contagious variants and travel increase, health experts say.

Despite warnings, air travel hits record highs

More people have traveled by air in the past four days than any other four-day period in this pandemic, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

At least 5.2 million people have flown since Thursday, TSA said.

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said “too many spring break activities” had taken place over the weekend.

“We have a problem with too many people coming here,” the mayor said. “We have a problem with too many people coming here to let go.”

And just because spring breakers are outside on a beach doesn’t mean they’ll be safe.

“They won’t be (outside) all day and all night,” Hotez said. “They’re going to be in bars and everything.”

With masks, is a distance of 3 feet sufficient?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is examining new data to see if physical distance guidelines for schools should be changed from a minimum of 6 feet to a minimum of 3 feet, a federal official said on Monday.

“Less physical distancing policies can be adopted in schools with masking mandates without compromising the safety of students or staff,” the authors concluded.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: “The CDC is very aware that data is piling up, which makes it look like 3 feet is OK under certain circumstances. “

“I can assure you that within a reasonable time – absolutely reasonable – they will issue direction based on the data they have,” Fauci told CNN on Sunday. “It won’t be very long.”

How to beat variants before they get out of hand

In the race between vaccines and variants, “the best way to avoid any threat from variants is to do two things,” Fauci said.

One voice could help quell vaccine hesitancy

A recent poll by NPR / PBS NewsHour / Marist found that 47% of people who backed President Donald Trump in the 2020 election said they would not get a Covid-19 vaccine if it was released. their disposition. (Only about 10% of people who backed President Joe Biden said they would not get the shot.)

Fauci told “Fox News Sunday” that if Trump told Republican supporters to get vaccinated, it “would make all the difference in the world.”

“He’s a very popular person among Republicans. If he would go out and say, ‘Go get vaccinated, this is really important for your health, the health of your family and the health of the country’, it seems absolutely inevitable that the vast majority of people who are close to him will l ‘would listen,’ Fauci said.

And there are even more good reasons to get vaccinated. Growing evidence suggests that coronavirus vaccines don’t only keep people from getting sick, they can also keep you from getting infected and spreading the virus to others.

“All the evidence on all vaccines now indicates that these vaccines reduce asymptomatic infection and reduce transmission,” Dr Scott Gottlieb, former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and current member of the board of directors, told CBS on Sunday. from Pfizer.

“If this is the case, the vaccine creates what we call ‘dead end hosts’ – a large number of dead end hosts – which means people will no longer be able to transmit the infection.”