Category Archives: Vaccine Hesitancy Rate

FDA just fully approved the Pfizer vaccine. Here’s what it means for you.

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What full FDA approval means for Covid-19 vaccines: Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson - Vox

FDA on Monday issued its full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, making it the first Covid-19 vaccine to receive approval from the agency.

Up until now, the vaccine—which FDA said will be marketed under the brand name Comirnaty—was authorized for use under an emergency use authorization (EUA). Now, however, the vaccine is fully approved for the prevention of Covid-19 in individuals ages 16 and older.

FDA said the vaccine will remain available under an EUA for individuals ages 12 to 15. A third dose of the vaccine is also still available under the EUA for certain immunocompromised individuals.

Peter Marks, director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said FDA “evaluated scientific data and information included in hundreds of thousands of pages, conducted our own analyses of Comirnaty’s safety and effectiveness, and performed a detailed assessment of the manufacturing process, including inspections of the manufacturing facilities.”

“The public and medical community can be confident that although we approved this vaccine expeditiously, it was fully in keeping with our existing high standards for vaccines in the U.S.,” Marks added.

What does FDA’s approval mean for you?

This new FDA approval, new guidance from the federal government, and new regulations from schools and private business have the potential to shift the posture of the currently unvaccinated. Today, just over 70% of American adults have had at least one dose Covid-19 vaccines. The question now is, how far can we get? The answer is up to you.

It may feel like decisions about the treatment and prevention of Covid-19 are out of your control. And while federal agencies and private businesses are making decisions quickly, every one of you has a vital role to play in this next phase of the pandemic. But there are three constituencies I want to speak to directly.

Employers

Many employers have been hesitant to come down hard on vaccine mandates or implementing clear consequences for the unvaccinated (such as submitting to weekly tests). Much of that fear had to do with the fact that vaccines were only approved for emergency use. Today’s announcement of the full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine should offer many employers enough comfort to move forward with vaccine mandates. In fact, on the heels of announcing full approval, New York City announced that it would require all education staff to be vaccinated. I expect to see more employers inside and outside of health care following suit. If you are still questioning whether a vaccine mandate is appropriate, we recommend asking yourselves these five questions:

  1. Are you complying with federal and state guidance?
  2. Is a Covid-19 vaccine mandate the best way to achieve your goals?
  3. How will you manage individuals who have legitimate exemptions if you impose a Covid-19 vaccine mandate?
  4. How will you collect ‘proof of vaccination’?
  5. How will you address workforce retention concerns?

Provider executives

Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, we’ve recommended that providers adopt a single source of truth mentality to combat misinformation associated with the virus, it’s treatment, and concerns over vaccination. Today, vaccine skepticism is largely why adults continue to pass on their shot, and while the FDA’s full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine isn’t going to appease all of their fears, full approval really does matter to some vaccine hesitant patients, at least according to polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Your job is to identify those patients, offer custom outreach that shares the good news of full approval, and direct patients to the right next steps. The more customized the communication can be, the better. But there are some common principles everyone can take when developing strong Covid-19 vaccine communication strategies. In fact, we’ve built a readiness assessment for this purpose. And while this readiness assessment was built for initial rollout, the questions within should continue to guide your organization in addressing key factors such as patient navigation, equity in vaccine access, public health messaging, and vaccine hesitancy and mistrust.

The best communication strategy generates action—action for the patient (e.g., making an appointment for their first dose) but also action steps for frontline providers. Leaders must make sure that their staff is equipped to recognize vaccine hesitancy vs. skepticism, which is rooted in misinformation. Leaders must train staff to listen to personal narratives and not merely default to scientific facts, and leaders must make sure clinicians feel equipped to ease potential patient concerns.

Frontline clinicians

Doctors must also be equipped to handle individual conversations with patients and discuss what this full approval means. Since patients typically turn to their doctors as a top, trusted source of insight, frontline clinicians are more important than ever in driving vaccine confidence. Yet in a recent poll from SymphonyRM, 41% of patients lost trust in their doctors amid the pandemic—and among those individuals, just over half noted it was because their provider rarely or never communicated with them about Covid-19. To regain trust and communicate the importance of the full approval, frontline clinicians should be prepared to proactively communicate and answer the following questions: 

  1. How does full approval differ from an emergency use authorization? Under what conditions is a full approval granted?
  2. Why did the FDA decide to grant this approval? What data or evidence led to their increased confidence in the vaccine?
  3. How should patients view this approval? What concerns, fears, or questions about the vaccine should this approval counter?
  4. How might this full approval lead to increased mandates or pushes for vaccination, and what does that mean for patients?   

Doctors should also continue to be prepared to answer any skepticism or misinformation about the full approval, which may come up during these discussions. In a July poll from KFF, 34% of unvaccinated adults were not at all confident about the safety of Covid vaccines, and 31% were not too confident. Today’s full approval should be used as an opportunity to help increase patient confidence in the safety of the vaccine.

The best defense we have against this virus is vaccination, and full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine gives employers, providers, and frontline clinicians the shot in the arm they need to keep motivating Americans to get vaccinated (pun intended). It’s up to you to capitalize on the momentum of the FDA announcement, whether through your own vaccine regulations or through direct communication to the “watchful waiters” who have been waiting for this moment to get vaccinated. 

Do Covid-19 ‘booster’ shots really work? Here’s what early data shows.

Posted on by • Posted in Asymptomatic Transmission, Coronavirus, Coronavirus Delta Variant, Coronavirus Mutation, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Schools, Public Trust, Scientists, Unvaccinated, Vaccination, Vaccine, Vaccine Efficacy, Vaccine Hesitancy Rate, Vaccine Safety, Vaccine Skepticism, Vaccine Supply • Leave a comment
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Booster shots for COVID-19: Will we need to get one every year? | khou.com

As Israel faces a surge in Covid-19 cases due to the delta variant, data from the Israeli Health Ministry shows that a third dose of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine significantly improved protection against hospitalization or serious disease.

Background

The rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in Israel was one of the fastest and most comprehensive in the world. By March 25, more than half of Israel’s population was fully vaccinated, and by June, the country had lifted all coronavirus-related restrictions.

However, in the summer, Israel saw a surge in Covid-19 cases, which experts believe was fueled by two factors: waning protection from the vaccine and the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.

“The most influential event was so many people who went abroad in the summer—vacations—and brought the delta variant very, very quickly to Israel,” Siegal Sadetzki, a former public health director in Israel, said.

Even so, the rate of severe Covid-19 cases among the vaccinated remains low. As of Thursday, according to data from the Health Ministry, the rate of severe Covid-19 cases was nine times higher among unvaccinated people over the age of 60 than among vaccinated people in the same age range.

Similarly, the rate of severe Covid-19 cases among unvaccinated people under 60 was about twice the rate of severe cases among vaccinated people under 60.

But because so many people in the country have been vaccinated, even a low rate of severe breakthrough infections has led to a significant surge in hospitalizations. NPR reports that half of the seriously ill patients in Israel hospitalized with Covid-19 had been fully vaccinated at least five months ago, and the majority of them are over the age of 60 with comorbidities.

Data shows booster shots provide significantly increased protection

On July 30, Israel began administering booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to those over the age of 60. On Thursday, the country dropped that age eligibility to 40.

Data from the Health Ministry indicate that a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provided four times the protection against infection as two doses in people aged 60 and over, Reuters reports. (According to Reuters and NPR, the findings are similar to data released by Israel’s HMO Maccabi Healthcare Services last week, which found that among 149,144 people, a third Pfizer shot among recipients above age 60 reduced the odds of infections by 86% and cut the risk of severe infection by 92%.)

Similarly, a third dose offered about five to six times the protection of two doses against serious illness and hospitalization in people aged 60 and over, according to the Health Ministry data.

According to Reuters, the data underlying these figures was presented at a health ministry panel meeting on Thursday and later published on the ministry’s website. Full details of the study, however, still have not been released.

The debate over booster shots continues

The news comes as experts in the United States continue their debate over the necessity of booster shots. On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that Americans who had received an mRNA vaccine would be able to get a booster shot beginning in September, pending approval by FDA and a recommendation by CDC.

However, health experts are divided on whether booster shots are necessary, a debate that prompted CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) to push back its meeting to discuss booster shots by one week, Bloomberg reports.

“The data [is] coming in rapidly, and we want to make sure we follow our process for review and to ensure we can have a robust deliberation at the next open meeting,” Grace Lee, chair of ACIP, said.

Joshua Barocas, associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, said he believes the “federal government is simply trying to stay ahead of the curve.” However, Barocas said, “I have not seen robust data yet to suggest that it is better to boost Americans who have gotten two vaccines than invest resources and time in getting unvaccinated people across the world vaccinated.”

The World Health Organization has also called for wealthier countries to not offer booster shots to their population and instead help poorer countries get vaccinated.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said the United States’ efforts to provide boosters to its population won’t interfere with efforts to provide other countries with shots.

“We have to protect American lives and we have to help vaccinate the world, because that is the only way this pandemic ends,” Murthy said.

He did acknowledge that providing booster shots to Americans could “take away” from the supply of vaccines for the rest of the world, but added that the United States has been working to improve the global vaccine supply and production recently to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“We don’t have a choice,” Murthy said. “We have to do both.”

Scripps delays nonurgent procedures amid staffing shortages

Posted on by • Posted in Deferred Healthcare, Delayed Care, Employee Staffing, Employee Staffing Shortage, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Nurses Shortage, Pandemic, Unvaccinated, Vaccination, Vaccine, Vaccine Efficacy, Vaccine Hesitancy Rate, Vaccine Safety, Vaccine Skepticism, Vaccine Supply • Leave a comment
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Scripps delays some procedures over staff shortage, COVID spike

Scripps Health is temporarily postponing some medical procedures because of significant staffing shortages and a jump in COVID-19 cases, the San Diego, Calif.-based system said Aug. 20, according to CBS News 8.

Medical staff is deciding which procedures to delay based on clinical factors and emergency status, with time-sensitive care still being delivered, Scripps leaders said. 

The health system said it is also considering temporarily consolidating some ambulatory care sites due to workforce shortages. 

At present, Scripps said it is looking to fill 1,309 open positions. In August 2019, the system had just 832 openings. About 430 of the openings are for nursing positions, up from 220 open positions in 2019, according to the report.

At the same time, the health system is seeing its COVID-19 patient volume grow. Scripps has 173 patients admitted at its five hospitals, up from 13 patients on June 13.

“The COVID pandemic has taken a serious toll on healthcare workers across the nation, and many have decided to leave the field entirely for reasons such as fatigue and burnout,” said Scripps’ President and CEO Chris Van Gorder, according to CBS News 8. “We’re doing all we can to fill open positions and shifts, but options are currently limited across the board in healthcare, so we’re doing what’s necessary to ensure we have staff available for our most urgent cases.”

To view the full article, click here.

Overwhelmed hospitals are sending Covid-19 patients 500+ miles away for care

Posted on by • Posted in Asymptomatic Transmission, Coronavirus, Coronavirus Delta Variant, Coronavirus Mutation, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Bed Shortage, Hospital Industry, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Schools, Public Trust, Scientists, Unvaccinated, Vaccination, Vaccine, Vaccine Efficacy, Vaccine Hesitancy Rate, Vaccine Safety, Vaccine Skepticism, Vaccine Supply • Leave a comment
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Coronavirus: Video Shows Overwhelmed Hospital ICU in Bergamo, Italy

As some states set Covid-19 hospitalization records, many overwhelmed hospitals are outsourcing patients on planes, helicopters, and ambulances to distant cities and states for treatment, Heather Hollingsworth and Jim Salter write for the Associated Press.

Transfers hundreds of miles away

As of last week, the number of Covid-19 patients in most hospitals remained below winter surge levels, Hollingsworth and Salter report. However, Florida, Arkansas, Oregon, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Mississippi recently set pandemic hospitalization records.

And unlike in the winter surge, many hospitals were already strained this summer due to patients catching up on previously deferred care, according to Hollingsworth and Salter.

“We are seeing Covid patients and we are seeing car accidents and we are seeing kids come in with normal seasonal viral infections. And we are seeing normal life come into the emergency department along with the extra surge of Covid patients, so it is causing that crisis,” said Mark Rosenberg, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Amid the influx of patients, many of these overwhelmed hospitals are looking to neighboring cities and states for relief. For instance, in Arizona, a Covid-19 hotline is receiving calls from hospitals in Wyoming, Arkansas, Texas, and California in search of bed space, Hollingsworth and Salter report—although the hotline often cannot provide any help.

In Kansas, officials at the Wilson Medical Center in Kansas had to call 40 other facilities in several states seeking a bed for a Covid-19 patient before finally finding an available bed about 220 miles away. Across the state, according to Motient, a company contracting with Kansas to manage transfers, Covid-19 patients generally have to wait an average of 10 hours before being flown to another hospital location, which could be in Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado, or Texas.
“That is just the worst day that you can have in the emergency room as a provider,” Richard Watson, Motient’s founder, said, “to be taking care of a patient that you are totally helpless to give them what you know they need.”

Similarly, in Washington state, the 25-bed Prosser Memorial Hospital, doesn’t have an intensive care unit, so critically ill patients are being sent as far as eastern Idaho—600 miles away.

Staffing shortages, low vaccination rates add to the problem

Finding a hospital to take in patients has become more difficult due to recent staffing shortages, according to Robin Allaman, CNO at the Kearny County Hospital in Kansas.

“Most [hospitals] are saying it isn’t that they don’t have an open bed, it is that they don’t have nursing staff to care for them,” he said. Officials at his hospital called health systems in Nebraska, Oklahoma, and New Mexico before one in Colorado Springs, Colo.—200 miles away—agreed to take a recent patient.

Watson said these delayed transfers can have dire consequences for patients, especially those who need to see specialists, who often are available only in larger hospitals. “Imagine being with your grandma in the ER who is having a heart attack in western Kansas and you are saying, ‘Why can’t we find a bed for her?’ We are watching this happen right in front of us. ‘This is America. Why don’t we have hospital bed for her?’ Well, here we are,” he said.

And while experts had hoped that the vaccines would prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed again, Justin Lessler, a professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, said there hasn’t been the reduction in hospitalizations that officials had hoped for. That’s in part because the delta variant seems to be more severe, particularly in younger people, whose vaccination rates are lower.

Steve Edwards—CEO of CoxHealth, whose hospital in Springfield, Mo., is treating patients from as far away as Alabama—added, “Just imagine not having the support of your family near, to have that kind of anxiety if you have someone grow acutely ill.”

A Delta-driven decline in consumer confidence

Posted on by • Posted in Consumer Confidence, Consumer Engagement, Consumer Research, Consumerism, Coronavirus, Coronavirus Delta Variant, Coronavirus Mutation, Deferred Healthcare, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Schools, Public Trust, State of the Union, Unvaccinated, Vaccination, Vaccine, Vaccine Distribution, Vaccine Efficacy, Vaccine Hesitancy Rate, Vaccine Safety, Vaccine Skepticism, Vaccine Supply • Leave a comment

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After a calmer start to the summer, the Delta variant is eroding consumer confidence as COVID-19 surges across many parts of the US once again. Using the latest data from Morning Consult’s Consumer Confidence Index, the graphic above shows the fluctuations in consumer confidence levels across the last year. 

The most recent COVID surge has caused a five-point drop in confidence in the past month and, with cases still rising, we expect this trend to continue into the fall. Notably, with renewed masking guidance and increasing reports of breakthrough infections, confidence has dropped more among fully vaccinated individuals than among the unvaccinated.

Consumers’ comfort levels aren’t only dropping when it comes to daily activities, like grocery shopping or dining at a restaurant, but also with respect to healthcare. A recent survey from Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock finds that while consumers feel safer visiting healthcare settings in August 2021 than they did back in January, more than a third of consumers report the current COVID situation is making them less likely to seek non-emergency care, and 44 percent say they are more likely to pursue virtual care alternatives. 

Health systems must be able to seamlessly “dial up” or “dial down” their virtual care capabilities in order to meet fluctuating consumer demand and avoid another wave of missed or deferred care.

Cartoon – State of the Union (Vaccine Hesitancy)

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May be a cartoon of text that says 'JON ADAMS @CITYCYCLOPS "Honey, come look! I've found some information all the world's top scientists and doctors missed."'

Employee badges to identify vaccination status a hit, Wisconsin health system says

Posted on by • Posted in Coronavirus, Coronavirus Delta Variant, Coronavirus Mutation, Employee Mandate, Identification Badge (ID), Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Unvaccinated, Vaccination, Vaccine, Vaccine Distribution, Vaccine Efficacy, Vaccine Hesitancy Rate, Vaccine Mandate, Vaccine Mandatory, Vaccine Safety, Vaccine Skepticism, Vaccine Supply • Leave a comment
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Covid-19 vaccine buttons, T-shirts, and merch are selling out fast on Etsy - Vox

About 8,000 Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic Health System employees have requested black ID badge reels to indicate they are fully vaccinated, the health system told Becker’s Aug. 11.

The nine-hospital health system, which has more than 12,000 employees, started offering the black reels in July. Many Marshfield employees are already required to wear white reels. However, the new black reels are voluntary. Employees who have them may meet in person, but must be masked, if all meeting attendees are vaccinated, the health system said. 

“We all look forward to having the opportunity to interact with co-workers outside of the virtual world,” said health system spokesperson Jeff Starck. “The badge reels are a way for more personal interaction and create a sense of normalcy for many employees during what has been a challenging, mostly virtual work environment. The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Mr. Starck said that some employees may not have not asked for the new reels because they use clips or other devices to display their name badges. Employees who work off-site and don’t attend in-person meetings may not have requested them since they haven’t needed them, and some employees who are vaccinated simply may not want to identify themselves, he speculated. 

Marshfield Clinic announced Aug. 4 that it would require employees to become fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Nov. 15.

As of Aug. 11, about 72 percent of employees are vaccinated, although the health system said that number will rise as it receives proof of vaccination from employees who were inoculated outside the health system. 

CommonSpirit Health mandates COVID-19 vaccination for employees in 21 states

Posted on by • Posted in Compliance, Compliance Issues, Core Values, Coronavirus, Coronavirus Delta Variant, Coronavirus Mutation, Employee Mandate, Employee Termination, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Schools, Public Trust, Quality of Care, Responsibility, Unvaccinated, Vaccination, Vaccine, Vaccine Development, Vaccine Efficacy, Vaccine Hesitancy Rate, Vaccine Mandate, Vaccine Mandatory, Vaccine Production, Vaccine Safety, Vaccine Skepticism, Vaccine Supply • Leave a comment
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About Us | Serving the Common Good | CommonSpirit Health

CommonSpirit Health is requiring full COVID-19 vaccination for its 150,000 employees, the Chicago-based health system said Aug. 12. 

The requirement applies to employees at CommonSpirit’s 140 hospitals and more than 1,000 care sites and facilities in 21 states. It includes physicians, advanced practice providers, volunteers and others caring for patients at health system facilities. 

“As healthcare providers, we have a responsibility to help end this pandemic and protect our patients, our colleagues and those in our communities —  including the most vulnerable among us,” Lloyd H. Dean, CEO of CommonSpirit, said in a news release. “An abundance of evidence shows that the vaccines are safe and highly effective. Throughout the pandemic we have made data-driven decisions that will help us best fulfill our healing mission, and requiring vaccination is critical to maintaining a safe care environment.”

The compliance deadline for the vaccination requirement is Nov. 1, although the implementation date will vary by region in accordance with local and state regulations. Employees who are not in compliance and do not obtain a medical or religious exemption risk losing their jobs.

How the delta variant took over the US

Posted on by • Posted in Asymptomatic Transmission, Coronavirus, Coronavirus Delta Variant, Coronavirus Mutation, Evidence Based Decision Making, Evidence-Based Care, Evidence-based Leadership, Evidence-Based Plan, Evidence-Based Policy, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Schools, Public Trust, Scientists, Unvaccinated, Vaccination, Vaccine, Vaccine Distribution, Vaccine Efficacy, Vaccine Hesitancy Rate, Vaccine Mandate, Vaccine Mandatory, Vaccine Production, Vaccine Safety, Vaccine Skepticism, Vaccine Supply • Leave a comment

How the delta variant took over the US

3 Things You Need to Know About the Delta Variant - COVID-19, Featured, Health Topics - Hackensack Meridian Health

The delta variant has overtaken the U.S. in a matter of weeks as it spreads around the world in what President Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci called a “global outbreak” of the strain.

The highly contagious variant of COVID-19 is considered at least two times more contagious than the previously dominant alpha strain, and experts say the increased transmissibility has likely fueled the surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths nationwide.

But much is still unknown about delta as scientists scramble to better understand the strain.

Here’s what we know about the delta strain and how it blunted earlier momentum in the fight against the coronavirus.


Delta is more transmissible than previous COVID-19 strains

Delta’s contagiousness is considered key to its domination, having spread to at least 117 countries after first being detected in India. Like other viruses, COVID-19 is evolving, particularly through unplanned mutations.

A study from the United Kingdom in May suggested the delta strain could be 60 percent more transmissible than the alpha variant, which was already more contagious than the original strain.

But experts are split on that figure, with some saying delta could be more transmissible and others saying it could be less.

“You don’t necessarily want to attribute that all to the virus. You know, a lot of it may reflect the people as well,” said David Dowdy, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Researchers aren’t certain about what makes the delta variant more transmissible, but there are some clues.

Michael Farzan, head of the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research, said one of the variant’s advantages is that it can more strongly attach to a certain receptor when spreading in the body.

“This is one of the reasons why the virus … in a person gets made at a higher level, meaning that there’s a lot more being spit out or coughed out, meaning that it’s more likely to hit the next person,” he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has its own figures illustrating how the strain became so prevalent this summer. The agency’s latest projection is that 97.4 percent of all coronavirus cases come from all the different lineages of the delta variant, as of the week ending last weekend.

That marks an astronomical increase from the 1.6 percent estimated at the beginning of May and the 14.1 percent from the beginning of June.

Most people infected with COVID-19 at this point won’t know for sure whether they contracted the delta strain since available testing doesn’t make the distinction between strains — it only shows whether the virus itself is present.


It has a higher magnitude of viral loads

Health experts are examining the delta variant’s viral load, the measure of how much virus a person carries and can potentially transmit, compared to previous COVID-19 strains.

A study from China suggested that the strain’s viral load could be more than 1,000 times higher than the original strain, which Fauci on Thursday said “is a mechanistic reason why you have such a tremendous increase in transmissibility.”

Basically a higher viral load can make it more likely that an infected person can “shed” the virus, allowing someone nearby to contract it.

“If a little droplet that you sent out, it has more particles and that means it’s more likely to infect the next person over and it’s more likely to infect the next person over more times,” Farzan said.

Dowdy of Johns Hopkins cautioned that other variables, including people’s behavior, may be influencing how scientists understand delta’s viral load. With more people relaxing their COVID-19 precautions and interacting with others indoors, those same people could contract more of the virus than they might otherwise.

A study of a Massachusetts outbreak indicated that delta led to fully vaccinated people having a similar viral load compared to the unvaccinated, sparking the CDC to update its mask guidance late last month.

The outbreak on Cape Cod, where nearly three-quarters of confirmed cases were among fully vaccinated people, suggested that vaccinated people could potentially transmit and spread the delta variant. But researchers said at the time that microbiological studies would be needed to confirm whether vaccinated individuals can transmit the strain.


Vaccines are still effective against delta

Studies have found that at least five vaccines, including all three used in the U.S., are effective against the delta variant in lab and real-world settings, Fauci said on Thursday.

It was previously unclear whether the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires only one dose instead of two, was equally effective. But a study released last week found the immune response lasted at least eight months, resulting in the first real-world data for the vaccine, Fauci said.

Recent studies have indicated that vaccines may see a very slight dip in effectiveness against symptomatic versions of the coronavirus caused by the delta variant. The COVID-19 vaccines, like any other, are also not perfect at preventing all delta infection and illness.

But scientists agree that studies have demonstrated that the vaccinated population is less likely to get infected and much less likely to be hospitalized or die from the delta variant than the unvaccinated.

“The only reason our case numbers are lower now than they were back in December is because half of our population has been fully vaccinated,” Dowdy said.


Still more to learn 

Experts acknowledge there is much more to learn about the delta variant.

“A big thing is we still don’t know how much of what we’re seeing is due to the virus versus due to behavior,” Dowdy said. “That makes a big difference because things that are due to the virus, we can’t really change as a society.”

Although there’s a growing number of studies, not all scientists are certain that the variant itself necessarily causes more serious illness among the unvaccinated, leading to more hospitalizations and deaths. It’s also unclear whether the strain is sparking more severe illness among children as pediatric hospital admissions have picked up.

Additionally, scientists have more analysis to do on under-researched mutations that may give the virus more of an advantage, Farzan said.

Driven by the Delta Variant, the Fourth Wave of COVID-19 in the U.S. Could Be Worse Than the Third. In Some States, It Already Is

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https://time.com/6090218/fourth-wave-surpassed-third-in-some-states/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=sfmc&utm_campaign=newsletter+brief+default+ac&utm_content=+++20210815+++body&et_rid=145958240
Why the delta variant is hitting kids hard in the U.S. and how we can prevent that in Canada | CBC News

Just a month ago, even as signs of a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections in the U.S. were blossoming in the lower Midwest, the memory of a long, miserable winter kept us warm. Even places with burgeoning case rates were far below their catastrophic peaks over the holidays, when a combination of cold weather and defiant travelers contributed to a third wave in infections and deaths that drowned out the previous two spikes in April and July of 2020.

This is regrettably no longer the case. In four states—Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida—the current number of daily new COVID-19 infections, averaged across seven days, has surpassed that winter peak, even with a substantial percentage of the population having received a complete dosage of the COVID-19 vaccine (though not nearly as many as public officials would prefer).

Hawaii is something of an anomaly, as its winter peak was not nearly as high as in colder, more accessible regions. But several other states threaten to join this quartet in the near future. Oregon’s daily rate of new infections is at 36.5 per 100,000 residents, or 99% of the peak value on Dec. 3, 2020. Nationwide, the rate is 37.7, just under 50% of the winter peak of 76.5.

While plenty of states remain far below the winter peaks, as the Delta variant tears across the country, we can expect more and more states to experience a fourth wave that crests higher than the third, even as new outbreaks are inspiring more vaccine holdouts to hold out their biceps and breakthrough infections, while frightening and non-trivial, remain reasonably rare.

What is perhaps most sobering about this surge is that COVID-19-related deaths, which typically lag behind case surges by about two weeks, are starting to rise again. No state has yet surpassed the winter peak in deaths, but at 65%, Louisiana very well may. That figure is still 15% nationwide, well below the Jan. 13, 2021 peak of 1.04 fatalities per 100,000 people. It is currently at 0.16.

When it comes to the pandemic, no one wants to sound like Chicken Little. The sky might not be falling. But neither is the national case rate, or the number of people dying.