U.S. Coronavirus: Los Angeles County expects Covid-19 cases to grow exponentially as Delta variants predominate and officials are worried

According to new data from the state public health service, this rate reached a low of 0.7% in early June and then exceeded 2% for the first time since early March.

The first detected delta mutant in India was found in 43% of new sequence samples in California, the state said.

It also accounts for more than 50% of sequence samples nationwide. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he was doing more in some places.

“We expected Delta mutants to dominate in the United States, but this surge is a nuisance,” she said.

According to CDC data, some parts of the Midwest and alpine states account for about 80% of cases.

“Extensive vaccination is a real shift in this pandemic,” Warensky said. “Know that if you are not vaccinated, you are susceptible.”

Pfizer says he is developing booster shots after seeing a weakened immune system

In a statement emailed to CNN, Pfizer said, “As seen in real-world data released by the Israeli Ministry of Health, the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent both infections and symptomatic diseases is vaccination. It declined six months later, but prevention of serious illness remains high. ” ..

The Israeli Ministry of Health said in a statement this week that it confirmed that the effectiveness of Pfizer’s vaccine decreased from more than 90% to about 64% as the Delta variant spread.

However, hours after Pfizer’s statement, the US Food and Drug Administration and the CDC issued a joint statement that Americans do not yet need booster shots. Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, supported the position of the US government.

“The answer is that our vaccines are very effective in keeping us away from hospitals and avoiding serious illnesses. That’s what they were designed to do,” he said. Told CNN on Thursday. “Now it’s a bonus if you can prevent the so-called infection. You may get infected, have mild symptoms, or have no symptoms at all. That chance is greatly reduced, but completely off. Cannot be. ”

Former US surgeon Dr. Jerome Adams told CNN on Friday that he discovered that a clear “miscoordinated communication” between the vaccine company and the federal government was “problematic.”

But he explained a different view: While the government is thinking about the present and trying to convince the vaccine, the vaccine company is thinking about the future-or as he said, “Where is the hockey puck?” Are you going? “-Get vaccinated.

“We know that immunity tends to weaken over time as winter begins,” he said. “We want to make sure that we are first vaccinated and are in the best possible position to protect vulnerable people in nursing homes who are considered to be at greatest risk of weakened immunity and delta mutations. “.

Meanwhile, government agencies like the CDC and FDA say, “Your best protection for Americans is vaccines, and in the face of varieties and declines, you get better protection than a particular year’s flu shot. I want to reassure myself that I can do it. Immunity. ”

“Vaccination is the best bet so far, but it’s still incredibly effective,” Adams said. And if Americans eventually need booster shots, “people don’t care too much about it,” he said. “We do it every year because of the flu.”

“We regularly discuss the entire research program with regulators and public health authorities in the United States and other countries of the world,” Pfizer said in a statement on Friday.

Face-to-face learning is prioritized in CDC school guidance

However, it is still important to have safety strategies such as masking, physical distance, and most importantly, vaccination for all qualified people.

According to the CDC guidance, not all people need to be physically distanced in schools that are not vaccinated, but students should not be excluded from direct learning to maintain that physical distance. ..

In line with current guidelines, the CDC recommends that unvaccinated people over the age of 2 wear masks indoors. People who are fully vaccinated usually do not need to wear a mask.

The updated guidance also suggests that schools will take steps to promote vaccination.

The community is required to carefully monitor local Covid-19 infections, vaccination rates, screening tests, and outbreaks when deciding on the necessary preventive strategies.

Schools that are ready to move from pandemic precautions when local infections reach low levels should be removed one at a time and gradually moved, while continuing to monitor local conditions.

Vaccination gap widens

Experts have long emphasized that vaccines are the best defense against pandemics, but the overall proportion is declining across the United States.

As of Thursday, less than half of Americans were fully vaccinated, according to CDC data. And the difference in vaccination rates between Republicans and Democrats has widened over the past two months, a report released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows.

According to a new study, counties who voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election have faster immunization rates than counties who voted for Donald Trump.

The team used data comparing county-wide vaccinations from the CDC with the results of the 2020 presidential election.

In April, the average immunization rate in the counties where most people voted for Trump was 20.6%, compared to 22.8% in the counties who voted for Biden. By this month, the average immunization rate in counties closer to Trump was 35% and in counties closer to Biden was 46.7%. The gap increased by 9.5 points within three months.

Researchers said these numbers were important for targeted vaccination efforts to explain party opposition.

“A key element of every effort to increase vaccination rates among Republicans is to identify the right messenger,” the researchers write.

“Republicans are most likely to trust their doctors and employers to provide reliable information about the COVID-19 vaccine, but government sources are less trusted.”