- The US is at risk of losing all its recent gains in the battle against Covid-19 as highly contagious variants take advantage of Americans getting lax with safety measures.
- After weeks of tumbling case numbers, new infections are on the rise again — about 2% more this past week compared to the previous week, Walensky said Monday.
- Ultimately, vaccination is what will bring us out of this pandemic. To get there, we need to vaccinate many more people.
Holly Yan and Christina Maxouris write for CNN about the recent progress with Covid-19 and how it could be wiped out by variants.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
“Please hear me clearly: At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Similarly, the most recent seven-day average of deaths has also increased more than 2% … to nearly 2,000 deaths per day.”
More insights from Walensky
More states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19.
Continue wearing your well-fitting mask and taking the other public health prevention actions that we know work.
New variants keep spreading
March will be a very important chapter in this pandemic.
The CDC has predicted the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the UK will become the dominant strain in the US this month.
The US has lagged behind dozens of other countries in the proportion of cases tested for variants, but the CDC said it’s working to scale up those efforts.
Many more need vaccine before herd immunity
While news of third Covid-19 vaccine is worth celebrating, the US is still a long way off from herd immunity.
That’s when enough people are protected against a virus that it cannot spread through the population.
About 15.3% of the US population has received at least one shot of their two-dose Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, according to CDC data available Monday.
About 7.7% of Americans have been fully vaccinated with both doses.
Vaccines will be tested in children
Now that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has proven to be safe and effective in adults, the company will begin studies with children, said Dr. Macaya Douoguih, head of clinical development and medical affairs with J&J’s vaccine arm, Janssen.
“We will conduct several immunogenicity and safety studies in children from 17 years of age down to neonates,” Douoguih told a CDC advisory committee Sunday.
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Source: CNN
