Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

Boris Johnson hints at U-turn on amber watchlist

Scotlands proposed Freedom Day will be going ahead, first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced today.

The First Minister also suggested that 16 and 17 year olds in the UK may soon start to receive doses of the Covid-19 vaccination.

Most legal coronavirus restrictions in the country are to be lifted on 9 August, next Monday.

Legal requirements for social distancing and limits on the size of social gatherings and access to venues will be removed, but, unlike England, indoor mask-wearing will still be necessary and will be legally mandated for some time to come, the first minister said.

Workers in Scotland will still be advised to work from home wherever possible, she said.

Ms Sturgeon did not, however, rule out the potential for restrictions to be reimposed.

We all hope - I know I certainly do - that the restrictions we lift next Monday will never again have to be re-imposed. But no-one can guarantee that, she told MSPs.

A health commentator, meanwhile, has said England could be over the edge of the third wave of Covid-19 infections.

Jamie Jenkins, former head of health statistics at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), told LBC cases in England and Wales have been falling since 19 July and we might start being over the hill now when it comes to deaths.

We probably are over the edge of the wave at the moment, he said, but added: Lets have a bit of caution as we go into the autumn period.

Good morning and welcome to The Independents live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Well be bringing you rolling updates on the latest news and statistics throughout the day.

Chiara Giordano3 August 2021 08:09

Ministers have abandoned plans to add a new amber watchlist category to the UKs Covid travel rules, after Boris Johnson said the traffic light system should stay as simple as possible.

The government has been considering a new category to let travellers know which amber-list countries are at risk of turning red, but the idea sparked backlash from the travel industry and MPs.

My colleague Adam Forrest has more on this story:

Chiara Giordano3 August 2021 08:10

The nation could be "over the edge" of the third wave of Covid-19, a health commentator has said.

Jamie Jenkins, former head of health statistics at the Office for National Statistics, told LBC: "(Cases) in England and Wales have been coming down since July 19, the cases have been falling for a couple of weeks there, then you get that time-lag effect when cases start coming down you get, around five or six days later, you start seeing hospital admissions come down, and then you start seeing deaths come down.

"I think looking at the data, we normally see deaths peaking around 14 days after cases come down, I think we might start being over the hill now when it comes to deaths."

Mr Jenkins added: "We probably are over the edge of the wave at the moment but let's have a bit of caution as we go into the autumn period."

He said that hospital admissions were around 80 per cent lower than what they would have been in the past and deaths were 90 per cent lower, adding: "The vaccine effect has kicked in as well - if you look at the same number of cases to what we had in the winter, it would have been 800 deaths rather than 65-70."

Chiara Giordano3 August 2021 08:12

Gillian Keegan, the skills and apprenticeship minister, appeared to confirm that the government amber watchlist plan had been ditched.

Asked on LBC radio whether an amber watchlist had been discussed, she said: Everything is discussed before saying the government wanted the traffic light system to stay simple.

The minister said: The important thing when were designing this [travel list] system, and where we came down on, in the end, is to make sure the system is simple enough for people to understand.

Chiara Giordano3 August 2021 08:20

Lifestyle changes driven by the coronavirus pandemic have been linked to a possible rise in short-sightedness among children in a new study.

Analysing children in Hong Kong between the ages of six and eight, researchers found a potential increase in cases of myopia after the pandemic struck.

My colleague Andy Gregory has more details in this piece for Independent Premium:

Chiara Giordano3 August 2021 08:36

A leading behavioural scientist has praised the British public for consistently being ahead of the government in terms of their awareness of the dangers of Covid-19.

Stephen Reicher, professor of Social Psychology at the University of St Andrews and Member of Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (Spi-B), told Sky News: "The public have always been behaving responsibly.

"The remarkable thing when you look at the data is that people have always been ahead of the government in being aware of the dangers (of Covid).

"The problem, to some extent, is that the government is not matching the public with its own responsibilities.

"It does seem as if the changes in the Covid rules come as quickly as medals come to the UK team (at the Tokyo Olympics).

"We've got to use the summer, we squandered it last year.

"We should be installing ventilation in public spaces. In New York, they're going to have two air purifiers in every classroom.

"If the government showed the same responsibility the public is showing, I think we'd be in a far better place in the autumn."

Chiara Giordano3 August 2021 08:45

Gillian Keegan, minister for apprenticeships and skills, has said it is her understanding that the director general of the Joint Biosecurity Centre has resigned, following reports.

Asked on LBC to confirm if Clare Gardiner has resigned, Ms Keegan said: "Yes I believe that she has.

I mean I don't have any responsibility for that area, but you know, all of these things - there is a group of experts who are basically there that are looking at data, analysing data and then giving advice to the government, and so I guess they will be looking for a new chair."

Asked why Ms Gardiner has quit, Ms Keegan said: "I don't have any understanding at all of that, no, I have only heard what you have heard."

Chiara Giordano3 August 2021 08:52

Jeremy Clarkson has criticised Covid scientists and politicians while sharing what he thinks should happen next in a post-pandemic world.

The TV presenter said that he disagrees with the idea of lockdowns designed to keep people safe, calling scientists those communists at SAGE who should get back in their box.

Our culture reporter Jacob Stolworthy has more on this story:

Chiara Giordano3 August 2021 09:02

A new study is being launched to determine what the best gap is between coronavirus vaccine doses for pregnant women, with scientists hoping findings will reassure expectant mothers on the safety of the jabs.

Researchers are aiming to recruit more than 600 pregnant women for the trial, which will monitor the vaccine's effectiveness and follow the development of children up to one year old.

The launch comes less than a week after research revealed the vast majority of pregnant women admitted to hospital with Covid-19 are unvaccinated.

England's chief midwife has written to GPs and fellow midwives across the country urging them to encourage expectant mothers to get a jab.

Those behind this latest Preg-CoV trial said while there are currently no safety concerns when it comes to pregnant women having Covid-19 jabs, they hope it will give expectant mothers and those caring for them "the highest quality of data about these vaccines".

Almost 52,000 pregnant women in England have been vaccinated to date - with no safety concerns reported.

Chiara Giordano3 August 2021 09:30

A minister has estimated about 25 per cent of staff at the Department for Education (DfE) are in the office on any one day at the moment.

Gillian Keegan, minister for apprenticeships and skills, told Times Radio: "I have been in the office four days a week since June last year, as have many of us you know because obviously we have had to navigate these very difficult decisions during the pandemic.

"And many of the civil servants are also back now, more and more are coming back, and quite frankly they are all excited to come back."

She said the Government has said "use the summer to sort of reintroduce people coming back".

Asked how many civil servants are back in the office, she said: "In the DfE, I would say probably 20-25 per cent at the moment on any one day, obviously different people are coming in different days."

Chiara Giordano3 August 2021 09:45

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Covid news live: UK cases drop as Sturgeon expected to recommend vaccinations for 16 - 17 year olds - The Independent

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Stage 5 is coming to Austin-Travis County but itll look different - KXAN.com

At their regular pandemic response meetings over the past year, officials in Suffolk County, N.Y., found themselves returning, again and again, to questions of geography.

One of the common questions I used to get was, Where is it bad? said Dr. Harsha Rajashekharaiah, the senior project coordinator for the countys Covid-19 response. Where is the Covid transmission bad? Where is the testing bad? Where should we improve? Where should we invest our resources?

To find answers, Dr. Rajashekharaiah used geospatial data, brandishing brightly colored maps that pinpointed the exact neighborhoods where cases were rising or where testing rates were lagging.

And after inoculations began, he started using digital mapping tools commonly known as geographic information system, or G.I.S., software to explore how vaccination rates varied across the county and how they correlated with a variety of demographic factors.

Several patterns soon emerged on the color-coded maps. In March, for instance, magenta splotches on the western side of the county made it clear that vaccination rates were low in neighborhoods with a high share of residents who did not speak English well. After he presented the map to his colleagues, they quickly added Spanish and Haitian Creole language assistance to their county vaccine hotline.

Over the next few months, as vaccination rates rose in these neighborhoods, portions of the map turned to yellow or even green. I cannot sit here and conclude that our G.I.S. system is the reason that this has happened, Dr. Rajashekharaiah said. But, he added, G.I.S. has been a very, very powerful tool for us to communicate these barriers.

Amid the highly uneven rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, many health officials and community organizations are drawing upon geospatial data to plan their vaccination campaigns and track their progress in fine-grained detail. Esri, a California-based company that makes widely used G.I.S. software, says that hundreds of organizations around the world including many U.S. states and more than 20 national governments are using its digital mapping tools to help them get shots into arms.

G.I.S. and mapping tools have been really important to helping these health departments get people vaccinated to be more organized in the process, more streamlined and strategic and even tactical, said Dr. Este Geraghty, the chief medical officer of Esri.

By allowing officials to quickly spot vaccine deserts, pinpoint high-risk populations and target their resources more efficiently, digital maps have become crucial tools in the effort to ensure that vaccination campaigns leave no neighborhood behind.

Coronavirus Pandemic and U.S. Life Expectancy

As the virus raced across Wisconsin in the spring of 2020, officials in Milwaukee County became concerned about its unequal toll. In late March and early April, for instance, Black residents accounted for 69 percent of the Covid deaths in the county despite making up just 27 percent of its population, according to a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee report.

These disparities were front of mind when the Covid-19 vaccines were finally authorized. We wanted to make sure that we were equitably distributing this vaccine, said David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive.

They began categorizing census tracts according to their vaccination rates and their scores on a national social vulnerability index. The index uses data on 15 different social, economic and demographic factors including the age, minority status and education levels of residents, as well as local poverty and unemployment rates to calculate how susceptible a given community would be in the event of some kind of disaster, like a hurricane or a pandemic.

Then the officials displayed the results online on a color-coded map. In mid-March, when the county first released it, much of the city of Milwaukee was colored dark orange, signaling that the area had high levels of social vulnerability but low vaccination rates.

On the other hand, the suburbs, where the population is wealthier and whiter, were shaded a pale yellow, indicating that they had low scores on the vulnerability index but climbing vaccination rates. And so there was this story of the haves and have-nots, or two different cities, said Dr. Ben Weston, who oversees the medical aspects of the countys Covid-19 response.

County and city officials began pouring resources into deep orange neighborhoods, prioritizing those residents for vaccine appointments, adding more vaccination sites in those areas and creating pop-up sites and events at churches, food pantries, libraries, schools and cultural centers. They also started a community ambassador program the Crush Covid Crew to train volunteers from those deep orange census tracts to talk to their neighbors about the vaccines and dispel misinformation about them.

Although vaccination rates in the most vulnerable areas still lag behind, they have more than tripled since mid-March. The darkest orange communities are now gone, Dr. Weston said. So were making progress.

Aug. 1, 2021, 3:54 p.m. ET

The Count Me In initiative in Georgia which was created by Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia Democratic candidate for governor has taken a similar approach. But instead of focusing on vaccination rates, it mapped vaccination sites across the state and then overlaid data on potential barriers to vaccination, including a lack of computer access and low rates of car ownership.

The map revealed numerous potential trouble spots, particularly in rural, southwest Georgia. We saw this very large concentration of folks that had very limited vaccine access, said Ali Bustamante, a senior research associate at the Southern Economic Advancement Project, which runs the initiative with the nonprofit organization Fair Count. There were very few vaccination sites, while at the same time they were facing huge access constraints.

The groups partnered with vaccine providers to send mobile clinics to some of these vaccine deserts and began an all-out canvassing effort, borrowing the tools of a political campaign to encourage people to get shots. Volunteers ultimately made 79,000 phone calls, delivered vaccine information to 17,000 doors and helped book 4,500 vaccine appointments. Particularly in rural areas, we have seen the vaccination gap close considerably, Dr. Bustamante said.

Geospatial data is also critical for logistics. Carto, a cloud-based platform for analyzing geospatial data, has helped dozens of logistics companies around the world optimize their vaccine storage and transportation networks to get the shots distributed more quickly and efficiently, said Luis Sanz, the companys chief executive.

And in Clackamas County in Oregon, G.I.S. data has become the backbone of efforts to vaccinate people who are homebound. Because we are a large county with somewhat rural areas, we do have some transportation issues and access is a challenge for many of our residents, said Kim La Croix, a public health program manager for the county. Those mass vaccination sites were just not accessible to homebound seniors and homebound people with mental, developmental or physical disabilities.

Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.

When residents call or email the county to request an at-home vaccination, staff members log their location, which pops up on a digital map. Then, when assigning specific appointment slots, they review the map, which displays the number and type of vaccines that have been requested across the county. The goal is to reduce nurses travel time, maximize the number of shots they give in a day and to minimize waste, by ensuring that the number of doses a nurse gives in a shift matches the number of doses in a vial.

In low and middle-income countries, basic geospatial data about how many people need to be vaccinated and where they live has been critical to the success of prior mass vaccination campaigns. About a decade ago, for instance, government officials and global health experts realized that polio vaccination teams in northern Nigeria were using inaccurate, hand-drawn maps.

There were missing settlements, wrong settlement names, said Emilie Schnarr, the Nigeria project manager for the Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development, or GRID3, program. And that was one of the reasons children were being missed.

Without reaching these children, the highly contagious polio virus was likely to continue circulating. So in the years that followed, the Nigerian government, in partnership with several global health organizations, used satellite imagery and local field teams to create detailed, high resolution maps, filling in missing buildings, settlements, and local points of interest.

The maps helped Nigeria eradicate polio, which the country finally achieved last year. And GRID3, which grew out of these efforts, recently distributed updated maps to local officials across Nigeria, who are using them to help plan and track their Covid-19 vaccination campaigns.

Theyre not alone. In March, five organizations that specialize in geographic data and information management Alcis, CartONG, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, iMMAP and MapAction joined forces to launch the Geographic Information Management Initiative for Covid-19 Vaccine Delivery. Their goal is to help 15 low-income countries, including Haiti, Sudan and Bangladesh, fill gaps in their geospatial data and then harness that information to get vaccines out to their residents.

The work, the say, will be of use not just for this pandemic, but for the delivery of all sorts of essential services, ensuring that local health authorities know where their citizens live and can help them meet their needs.

To be on the map is to be acknowledged, said Ivan Gayton, the senior humanitarian adviser to the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. Every community in the world should be able to put themselves on the map.

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X Marks the Spot: Officials Map a Route Out of the Pandemic - The New York Times

In one sense, the world got lucky with the new coronavirus. By sheer chance, scientists just happened to have spent years studying coronaviruses, developing exactly the tools needed to make Covid vaccines as soon as the viruss genetic sequence was published.

But what will happen if the next pandemic comes from a virus that causes Lassa fever, or from the Sudan strain of Ebola, or from a Nipah virus?

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is promoting an ambitious and expensive plan to prepare for such nightmare scenarios. It would cost a few billion dollars a year, take five years for the first crop of results and engage a huge cadre of scientists, he said.

The idea is to make prototype vaccines to protect against viruses from about 20 families that might spark a new pandemic. Using research tools that proved successful for Covid-19, researchers would uncover the molecular structure of each virus, learn where antibodies must strike it, and how to prod the body into making exactly those antibodies.

If we get the funding, which I believe we will, it likely will start in 2022, Dr. Fauci said, adding that he has been promoting the idea in discussions with the White House and others.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, also thought it likely that the necessary funds would be allocated, calling the project compelling.

As we begin to contemplate a successful end to the Covid-19 pandemic, we must not shift back into complacency, Dr. Collins said.

Coronavirus Pandemic and U.S. Life Expectancy

Much of the financial support would come from Dr. Faucis institute, but a project of this scope would require additional funds that would have to be allocated by Congress. This years budget for the infectious diseases institute is a little over $6 billion. Dr. Fauci did not specify how much additional money would be needed.

If surveillance networks detected a new virus spilling over from animals into people, the logic goes, scientists could stop it by immunizing people in the outbreak by quickly manufacturing the prototype vaccine. And if the virus spread before the world realized what was happening, the prototype vaccines could be deployed more widely.

The name of the game would be to try and restrict spillovers to outbreaks, said Dr. Dennis Burton, a vaccine researcher and chairman of the department of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research Institute.

The prototype vaccines project is the brainchild of Dr. Barney Graham, deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He presented the idea in February of 2017 at a private meeting of institute directors.

Year after year, viruses had threatened to turn into pandemics, Dr. Graham said: the H1N1 swine flu in 2009, Chikungunya in 2012, MERS in 2013, Ebola in 2014, Zika in 2016. Each time scientists scrambled to try to make a vaccine. Their only success was a partial one, with an Ebola vaccine that helped control the epidemic but would not work against other Ebola strains. The other epidemics waned before the vaccines could be made or tested.

Aug. 1, 2021, 3:54 p.m. ET

We were tired, Dr. Graham said.

But researchers had new tools developed over the past decade that could make a big difference. They allowed scientists to view molecular structures of viruses, isolate antibodies that block the viruses and find out where they bind. The result was an ability to do structure-based design for new vaccines that target the pathogen more precisely.

When he heard Dr. Grahams pitch in 2017, Dr. Fauci was inspired. It struck me and others in the executive committee as something that is really doable, Dr. Fauci said.

Dr. Graham published a review paper outlining the proposal in Nature Immunology in 2018. But without the urgency of a threatening pandemic, his idea remained just that.

Now, though, many think the time has come.

The allergy and infectious diseases institute has created a spreadsheet for each of the 20 virus families showing what is known about each pathogens anatomy and vulnerabilities, said Dr. John Mascola, director of the Vaccine Research Center at the institute.

Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.

For each virus family we are in a different state of knowledge and vaccine development, Dr. Mascola said. Vaccines for Lassa fever and Nipah virus, for example, are in early stages. Vaccines for Chikungunya and Zika are further along.

The work to fill in the gaps in vaccine development would be done with research grants to academic scientists. There is a lot of enthusiasm among academic researchers, said Dr. Barton Haynes, director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. Although the proposal is not well known among the general public, Dr. Fauci said he has discussed it in talks to scientific audiences.

The program would also establish collaborative agreements with pharmaceutical companies to produce prototype vaccines quickly, Dr. Fauci said.

That is what happened with the shots for Covid-19. The SARS and MERS epidemics led scientists to work on a coronavirus vaccine. That led to the discovery that coronaviruses use a spike protein to infect cells, but the spike changes shape readily and needs to be held in one position to be useful as a vaccine. That could be done, researchers discovered, with tiny molecular changes in the spike protein.

Days after the new coronaviruss sequence was published, scientists had designed vaccines to fight it.

That, Dr. Fauci said, is what pandemic preparedness can do. Hed like to have prototype vaccines for 10 out of the 20 virus families in the first five years of work.

It would require pretty large sums of money, Dr. Fauci acknowledged. But after what weve been through, its not out of the question.

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Fauci Wants to Make Vaccines for the Next Pandemic Before It Hits - The New York Times

Even though they can contract the delta variant, vaccinated people are far less likely to end up in the hospital.

COVID-19 infections are surging throughout the US again (more than 95,000 new caseson Thursday) due to the highly contagiousdelta variant, with outbreaks particularly impacting areas with low vaccination rates. This week, anew studyreleased by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the delta infection has similarly high viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated people. So what does that mean asmore of these breakthrough casesare happening?

Currently,164 million peoplein the US have been fully vaccinated, nearly half the country's total population. The CDC's researchsuggesting that vaccinated people infected with delta can also easily transmit the virus was the key factor motivating the new federal guidance that fully vaccinated individuals continue to wear masks indoors. At the same time, the CDC report underlines that the number of cases and deaths among fully vaccinated people is very small compared with the number among the unvaccinated.

Learn smart gadget and internet tips and tricks with CNET's How To newsletter.

Should you be concerned about getting COVID-19if you've been inoculated? Since there's more community spread and there are more breakthrough cases despite vaccination, new data suggests yes. We'll explain what a breakthrough coronavirus infection is, how it's possible for fully vaccinated people to become infected and what it all means. This information comes from the CDC, the World Health Organization and other experts.

A breakthrough COVID-19 infection is when a fully vaccinated person becomes infected with the coronavirus without any symptoms, experiences symptoms, is hospitalized or dies from the infection. A small percentage of fully vaccinated people can get COVID-19 if exposed to the virus, but they're much less likely to become sick, according to the CDC.

If someone's fully vaccinated and does test positive for coronavirus, it's likely they'll have milder symptoms (see below) or be asymptomatic, Dr. Clare Rock, a Johns Hopkins medical professor, told me.

Now that it's been found that fully vaccinated people can be infected with high viral amounts of the delta variant, the CDC is concerned they can transmit the virus. If you do become ill, experts urge you to isolate yourself to prevent others from getting sick, especially people with medical vulnerabilities.

Now playing: Watch this: What to do if you lose your vaccination card, and how...

3:00

Someone can become infected with COVID-19 just before or right after they get the vaccination, because it takes roughly two weeks before the vaccine is most effective. However, even after the immunity builds up, there's still a chance they can become infected, according to the WHO, since the vaccines aren't silver bullets against disease (though they're highly effective).

With millions of unvaccinated people around the world, new variants will emerge, Rock says. For example, the delta variant can pose a threat to people who are fully vaccinated -- especially those who have high-risk medical conditions (see the next section).

Someone who's fully vaccinated has a much smaller risk of experiencing severe symptoms from COVID-19. People who've received all their doses of a vaccine are less likely to be hospitalized or die than those who haven't been vaccinated,the CDC says. Vaccinated people typically see symptoms like a runny nose, which they mistake for a sign of a common cold, Rock said.

But that's not to say serious cases can't happen. The CDC says some fully vaccinated people can still be hospitalized and die. This can include people who have medical conditions that make them immunocompromised, Rock said, including those with cancer and people who've had organ transplants -- in general, people who are more vulnerable.

It's possible for a fully vaccinated person to become infected with COVID-19.

If you're fully vaccinated but worried about getting sick, you can take the following precautions.

At this time, there's not a clear answer. Though some people say a booster shot may be necessary down the line, the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration don't agree with that, at least not yet. Scientists are continuing to study the immunity of fully vaccinated people to get a better idea of how well the vaccines protect them.

Moderna is currently researching if and when a booster shot may be necessary. For instance, vulnerable people who don't have a robust immune system, such as those with serious medical conditions, may need an additional shot, Rock said.

Pfizer says it's working on a booster shot for its COVID-19 vaccine (PDF) to enhance immunity for those who've already received both doses. The UK is also prepping for booster shots, with vaccine experts in Britain saying a booster shot may be needed before winter.

The variant causing the most concern right now is thedelta variant, which is now thedominant strain in the USand other countries. This variant has caused an increase in COVID-19 cases, which is also affecting people who are fully vaccinated.

In comparison with the alpha variant, researchers have found delta to be60% more transmissible, and hospitalization risks are much higher in unvaccinated people.

In most instances, the cases are happening in areas with low vaccination rates. For instance, US states like Louisiana and Florida havelow vaccination ratesand their COVID-19 cases are surging again.

Wearing a mask can help you protect yourself from COVID-19.

The breakthrough infections don't mean the vaccines aren't powerful.

"The effectiveness against severe disease is still substantial," Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a White House press briefing July 22. "Get vaccinated. It offers good protection against disease."

The main reason for breakthrough cases is the number of people who still haven't been vaccinated. Once more people are fully vaccinated, the virus likely won't infect as many people. Until then, the virus cancontinue to mutate and spread, creating new variants.

For more information, here's everything to know about the delta variant. Also, here are more details about a potential COVID-19 booster shot, and here's info on the debate over whether fully vaccinated people should wear masks.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

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Breakthrough COVID cases among the fully vaccinated are real. Here's the latest - CNET

Covid news live: UK cases fall slightly as student vaccine passport plan is ditched  The Independent

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Covid news live: UK cases fall slightly as student vaccine passport plan is ditched - The Independent

Nashville radio talk show host Phil Valentine remains hospitalized in critical condition with COVID-19 more than two weeks after being admitted for the disease.

Valentine who broadcasts on SuperTalk 99.7 WTN was known for his COVID-19 vaccine skepticism.

"What are my odds of getting COVID? They're pretty low, he wrote on his blog. What are my odds of dying from COVID if I do get it? Probably way less than 1%."

He added: Im not an anti-vaxxer. Im just using common sense.

Now Phil Valentine wants people to know that he was wrong and that he should have taken the vaccine. He wants others to reconsider their thoughts on vaccines.

Because Phil Valentine is struggling to breathe, Mark Valentine has been speaking on his brothers behalf. Workers often reposition the radio host, who is still extremely sick, so fluid doesnt collect in his lungs, Mark Valentine says.

We're in for the long haul, it looks like. It's just a bad time, his brother says, and he wishes he could do it over.

The 61-year-old believed he was in a group that didnt need the vaccine. But the virus doesnt discriminate: Young and healthy people can still get sick and end up in the hospital from the disease.

The radio host believed he would be back at his job within a few days of first getting the virus. Instead, he was very close to death at several points when his oxygen levels dropped, his brother says. While Phil Valentine has been communicative, health care workers have encouraged him to sleep as much as possible to save strength, Mark Valentine says.

A lot of people didn't get the vaccine because I didn't get the vaccine, the radio talk show host told his brother. Now Mark Valentine is on a mission to spread Phil Valentines new view on COVID-19 vaccines.

That's my purpose for being here today, is to take the message that he's unable to take, and that is: Take politics out of it. It's time for us to get together and fight this thing collectively, he says. Just put all the conspiracies and microchips and all that business aside and go get vaccinated and don't put your family through what his wife and the rest of us are going through.

Mark Valentine understands theres a chance his brother could die. And while he cant change whats already happened to his loved one, he says Phil Valentines message has inspired others to get the shot.

Mark Valentine says hes heard from dozens of Phil Valentines listeners who say they received the vaccine because of his brothers dire situation including Mark Valentine himself. He went to Wal-Mart and got inoculated after seeing what his brother was going through.

Americans can disagree on a lot of issues, Mark Valentine says, but politics aside, his family firmly believes that vaccines can save lives. When Phil Valentine is back on air, Mark Valentine says his brother will double down on that message.

Phil will be the most pro-vaccine person you've ever seen as soon as he's able to be, he says.

Karyn Miller-Medzonproduced and edited this interview for broadcast withChris Bentley. Serena McMahonadapted it for the web.

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Conservative Talk Show Host Battling COVID-19 Regrets Disseminating Vaccine Skepticism - Here And Now

People wearing masks cross a road in Tokyo, Japan, on 27 July, 2021.

(Getty Images)

Tokyo has recorded its highest ever number of daily Covid-19 infections, with officials growing increasing alarmed by the countrys outbreak.

The capital. which is currently hosting the 2020 Olympic Games, announced 3,177 new infections on Wednesday, several hundred higher than the 2,848 seen on Tuesday.

This comes as the country had more than 10,000 cases on Thursday, the most cases seen in a 24-hour period since the start of the pandemic.

We have never experienced an expansion in the infections of this magnitude, chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato said.

In response, Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese prime minister, said the government will decide on Friday whether to declare regional states of emergency.

Meanwhile, federal workers in the US will need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or be tested regularly, reports suggest.

President Joe Biden is expected to announce the policy in a press conference later on Thursday. It will affect at least 2.18 million civilian employees.

Vietnam will speed up its vaccination programme in Ho Chi Minh City, authorities have said.

The coronavirus hotspot is battling an outbreak of the Delta variant.

The countrys health ministry said it planned to partially vaccinate 70 per cent of the citys inhabitants in August.

It must be done quickly, using up all the vaccines as they arrive, health minister Nguyen Thanh Long said.

Rory Sullivan29 July 2021 15:30

People should only travel to Greeces south Aegean islands for essential reasons, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has warned.

The group of 13 islands, which include Mykonos and Rhodes, are coloured dark red on the health bodys Covid-19 map because of a surge in infections there.

This comes as Greece tries to kickstart its travel industry by promoting its Covid-free islands.

Rory Sullivan29 July 2021 15:10

A French island in the Indian Ocean is the reason holidaymakers travelling from France to the UK need to self-isolate upon arrival, the foreign secretary has said.

Dominic Raab told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that the country was on the amber plus travel list based on the prevalence of the so-called Beta variant, in particular in the Reunion bit of France.

He added that we want to get France up the traffic light system as soon as possible.

In response, a spokesperson for Brittany Ferries said: This is madness. It would be like France hammering British holidaymakers due to a Covid outbreak on the Falkland Islands.

It makes you wonder if those in the centre of power have access to an atlas or a geography GCSE between them.

Rory Sullivan29 July 2021 14:50

From this weekend, all travellers arriving in Germany will have to prove immunity from Covid-19 or show a negative test result.

This was previously only required of passengers travelling from high-incidence areas.

The incidence level in Germany is currently quite low in comparison to other states, the health ministry said in a paper on Wednesday. Increased travel activity risks turning that trend.

Germany had 3,142 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, far below the levels seen in places like the UK.

Rory Sullivan29 July 2021 14:30

The country should expect a bumpy autumn and winter, Englands deputy chief medical officer has warned.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam told the BBC that he was unsure whether there would be a fourth coronavirus wave.

Rory Sullivan29 July 2021 14:25

Around 60,000 deaths and 22 million Covid-19 cases have been prevented by coronavirus vaccines, Public Health England figures show.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam announced the latest figures while speaking to the BBC on Thursday afternoon.

This was truly massive, Englands deputy chief medical officer said.

Rory Sullivan29 July 2021 14:21

Bookings for flights from the US to the UK have soared after the government announced it will lift its quarantine requirement from Monday.

Juha Jarvinen, the chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic, said: Flight bookings are up by more than 100 per cent week-on-week, with bookings from New York to London increasing by nearly 250 per cent, compared to the previous week. Weve missed flying our US-based customers and were excited to welcome them back on board soon.

He added that the UK was still overly cautious in its approach to international travel.

Rory Sullivan29 July 2021 14:00

Israel will start offering a third dose of the Pfizer jab to its over-60s, local media reports suggest.

The move comes in a bid to ward off the threat of the Delta variant.

Rory Sullivan29 July 2021 13:41

On Thursday, Japans daily coronavirus cases rose above 10,000 for the first time.

In response, Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese prime minister, said the government will decide whether to declare regional states of emergency.

The worsening outbreak comes a week into the Tokyo Olympics.

Rory Sullivan29 July 2021 13:17

Fears over the shadow cast by long Covid on the UKs military have been raised after more than 450 personnel sought rehabilitation help for the effects of the virus.

Government data shows 462 armed forces personnel have sought out at least one Covid-related appointment at a special rehabilitation centre.

Of those, 447 had a check-up via a Covid outpatient appointment, and 260 attended a Defence Covid Recovery Service appointment.

Another form of support, a Covid course appointment, was provided to 224 people.

The numbers asking for rehabilitation support were described as deeply concerning by Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus.

She said: These striking figures add to an already concerning picture of the shadow being cast by long Covid over our armed forces. The total inadequacy of the Governments response to the rise of this condition so far is plain to see.

We rely on our armed forces for our protection, so its deeply concerning to hear that such numbers have been living with this often life-limiting condition. With personnel numbers already cut back so far in recent years, we cant afford to let long Covid add to that any further.

An urgent strategy is needed to respond to the threat posed by long Covid and provide support to the thousands of people suffering from the long-term consequences of this pandemic.

Jane Dalton29 July 2021 13:03

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Covid news live: Tokyo sees record number of daily infections as US to require vaccines for federal workers - The Independent

As coronavirus cases resurge across the country, many inoculated Americans are losing patience with vaccine holdouts who, they say, are neglecting a civic duty or clinging to conspiracy theories and misinformation even as new patients arrive in emergency rooms and the nation renews mask advisories.

The country seemed to be exiting the pandemic; barely a month ago, a sense of celebration was palpable. Now many of the vaccinated fear for their unvaccinated children and worry that they are at risk themselves for breakthrough infections. Rising case rates are upending plans for school and workplace reopenings, and threatening another wave of infections that may overwhelm hospitals in many communities.

Its like the sun has come up in the morning and everyone is arguing about it, said Jim Taylor, 66, a retired civil servant in Baton Rouge, La., a state in which fewer than half of adults are fully vaccinated.

The virus is here and its killing people, and we have a time-tested way to stop it and we wont do it. Its an outrage.

The rising sentiment is contributing to support for more coercive measures. Scientists, business leaders and government officials are calling for vaccine mandates if not by the federal government, then by local jurisdictions, schools, employers and businesses.

Ive become angrier as time has gone on, said Doug Robertson, 39, a teacher who lives outside Portland, Ore., and has three children too young to be vaccinated, including a toddler with a serious health condition.

Now there is a vaccine and a light at the end of the tunnel, and some people are choosing not to walk toward it, he said. You are making it darker for my family and others like mine by making that choice.

On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City ordered that all municipal workers be vaccinated against Covid-19 by the time schools reopen in mid-September or face weekly testing. Officials in California followed suit hours later with a similar mandate covering all state employees and health care workers.

The Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday required that 115,000 on-site health care workers be vaccinated in the next two months, the first federal agency to order a mandate. Nearly 60 major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association, on Monday called for mandatory vaccination of all health care workers.

Its time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks, a frustrated Gov. Kay Ivey, Republican of Alabama, told reporters last week. Its the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.

There is little doubt that the United States has reached an inflection point. According to a database maintained by The New York Times, 57 percent of Americans ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated. Eligible Americans are receiving 537,000 doses per day on average, an 84 percent decrease from the peak of 3.38 million in early April.

As a result of lagging vaccination and lifted restrictions, infections are rising. As of Sunday, the country was seeing 52,000 new cases daily, on average, a 170 percent increase over the previous two weeks. Hospitalization and death rates are increasing, too, although not as quickly.

Communities from San Francisco to Austin, Texas, are recommending that vaccinated people wear masks again in public indoor settings. Citing the spread of the more contagious Delta variant of the virus, the counties of Los Angeles and St. Louis, Mo., have ordered indoor mask mandates.

For many Americans who were vaccinated months ago, the future is beginning to look grim. Frustration is straining relations even within closely knit families.

Josh Perldeiner, 36, a public defender in Connecticut who has a 2-year-old son, was fully vaccinated by mid-May. But a close relative, who visits frequently, has refused to get the shots, although he and other family members have urged her to do so.

She recently tested positive for the virus after traveling to Florida, where hospitals are filling with Covid-19 patients. Now Mr. Perldeiner worries that his son, too young for a vaccine, may have been exposed.

It goes beyond just putting us at risk, he said. People with privilege are refusing the vaccine, and its affecting our economy and perpetuating the cycle. As infections rise, he added, I feel like were at that same precipice as just a year ago, where people dont care if more people die.

Hospitals have become a particular flash point. Vaccination remains voluntary in most settings, and it is not required for caregivers at most hospitals and nursing homes. Many large hospital chains are just beginning to require that employees be vaccinated.

July 27, 2021, 9:15 p.m. ET

Even though she is fully vaccinated, Aimee McLean, a nurse case manager at University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, worries about contracting the virus from a patient and inadvertently passing it to her father, who has a serious chronic lung disease. Less than half of Utahs population is fully vaccinated.

The longer that were not getting toward that number, the more it feels like theres a decent percentage of the population that honestly doesnt care about us as health care workers, Ms. McLean, 46, said.

She suggested health insurers link coverage of hospital bills to immunization. If you choose not to be part of the solution, then you should be accountable for the consequences, she said.

Many schools and universities are set to resume in-person classes as early as next month. As the number of infections increases, these settings, too, have seen tension rise between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on K-12 school reopening are tied to rates of community virus transmission. In communities where vaccination lags, those rates are rising, and vaccinated parents must worry anew about outbreaks at schools. The vaccines are not yet authorized for children under 12.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has advised that children wear masks in class when schools reopen. On Friday, school districts from Chicago to Washington began putting mandates into effect.

Universities, on the other hand, often can require vaccinations of students and staff members. But many have not, frustrating the vaccinated.

If were respecting the rights and liberties of the unvaccinated, whats happening to the rights and liberties of the vaccinated? said Elif Akcali, 49, who teaches engineering at the University of Florida, in Gainesville. The university is not requiring students to be vaccinated, and with rates climbing in Florida, she is worried about exposure to the virus.

Some are even wondering how much sympathy they should have for fellow citizens who are not acting in their own best interest. I feel like if you chose not to get vaccinated, and now you get sick, its kind of your bad, said Lia Hockett, 21, the manager of Thunderbolt Spiritual Books in Santa Monica, Calif.

Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.

As the virus begins to spread again, some vaccinated people believe the federal government should start using sticks rather than carrots, like lottery tickets.

Carol Meyer, 65, of Ulster County, N.Y., suggested withholding stimulus payments or tax credits from vaccine refusers. I feel we have a social contract in this country with our neighbors, and people who can get vaccinated and choose not to get vaccinated are breaking it, Ms. Meyer said.

Bill Alstrom, 74, a retired innkeeper in Acton, Mass., said he would not support measures that would directly affect individual families and children, but asked whether federal government funding should be withheld from states that dont meet vaccination targets.

Maybe the federal government should require employees and contractors to be vaccinated, he mused. Why shouldnt federal funding be withheld from states that dont meet vaccination targets?

Though often seen as a conservative phenomenon, vaccine hesitancy and refusal occur across the political and cultural spectrum in the United States, and for a variety of reasons. No single argument can address all of these concerns, and changing minds is often a slow, individualized process.

Pastor Shon Neyland, who regularly implores members of his church in Portland, Ore., to get the Covid-19 vaccines, estimated that only about half of the members of the Highland Christian Center church have gotten shots. There have been tensions within the congregation over vaccination.

Its disappointing, because Ive tried to help them to see that their lives are in jeopardy and this is a serious threat to humanity, he said.

Shareese Harris, 26, who works in the office of Grace Cathedral International in Uniondale, N.Y., has not been vaccinated and is taking my time with it. She worries that there may be long-term side effects from the vaccines and that they were rushed to market.

I shouldnt be judged or forced to make a decision, Ms. Harris said. Society will just have to wait for us.

Rising resentment among the vaccinated may well lead to public support for more coercive requirements, including mandates, but experts warn that punitive measures and social ostracism can backfire, shutting down dialogue and outreach efforts.

Elected officials in several Los Angeles County communities, for example, are already refusing to enforce the countys new mask mandate.

Anything that reduces the opportunity for honest dialogue and an opportunity for persuasion is not a good thing, said Stephen Thomas, a professor of health policy and management at University of Maryland School of Public Health. We are already in isolated, siloed information systems, where people are in their own echo chambers.

Gentle persuasion and persistent prodding convinced Dorrett Denton, a 62-year-old home health aide in Queens, to be vaccinated in February. Her employer urged Ms. Denton repeatedly to be immunized, but in the end it was her doctor who persuaded her.

She says to me: Youve been coming to me from 1999. How many times did I do surgery on you, and your life was in my hands? You trust me with your life, dont you? Ms. Denton recalled.

I said, Yes, doctor. She said, Well, trust me on this one.

Giulia Heyward contributed reporting from Miami, Sophie Kasakove from New York and Livia Albeck-Ripka from Los Angeles.

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As Virus Cases Rise, Another Contagion Spreads Among the Vaccinated: Anger - The New York Times

CNN

While people putting their masks back on indoors will help reduce the spread of Covid-19 across the country, getting more Americans vaccinated is still central to ending the pandemic, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Tuesday.

The bottom line is the masks will help us reduce spread further, but the vaccinations remain the bedrock of ending this pandemic, Murthy told CNNs Wolf Blitzer.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its mask guidance Tuesday to recommend fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas with substantial or high transmission of Covid-19 more than half of all US counties.

Whats really important, also, is to say what has not changed, Murthy said. And what has not changed is that vaccines still work. They still save lives. They still prevent hospitalizations at a remarkably high rate.

Much of the country remains unvaccinated, despite incentive programs and urging from health experts. Only 49.2% of the US population is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. More than 34.6 million people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Murthy said he doesnt want Americans to think the new mask guidelines mean that progress against Covid-19 is lost.

That is not the case, he said, adding that vaccines have prevented many hospitalizations and deaths.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the situation could have been different.

If we had the overwhelming proportion of the people vaccinated, we would not be having this conversation, he told PBS.

Fauci addressed the changing guidance from the CDC, which in mid-May said most fully vaccinated people dont have to wear masks indoors or outdoors.

We are dealing with an evasive type of a virus. It evolves, Fauci said. People need to understand. Its a painful realization, but its true. Were dealing with a virus thats a wily character.

The CDCs May guidance was based on the Alpha coronavirus variant being dominant, he and Murthy said. It no longer is, so the CDC isnt flip-flopping, Fauci said; its keeping up with the changing science.

The CDC updated the When Youve Been Fully Vaccinated section of its website on Tuesday.

The guidance change also included the recommendation that everyone in and around K-12 schools wear masks, even if they are fully vaccinated.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday on a telebriefing that the agency, through investigations of clusters of Covid-19 outbreaks, determined the Delta variant is more likely to infect even fully vaccinated people.

What weve learned in that context is that when we examine the rarer breakthrough infections, and we look at the amount of virus in those people, it is pretty similar to the amount of virus in unvaccinated people, Walensky said.

She said the vast majority of transmission is through unvaccinated people.

Nearly two-thirds of US counties have high or substantial transmission of Covid-19, according to CDC data; 46% of counties have high transmission and 17% have substantial transmission.

The CDC defines high transmission as at least 100 new cases per 100,000 people or a test positivity rate of at least 10% in the past seven days. The threshold for substantial transmission is 50 new cases per 100,000 people or a test positivity rate of 8%.

Schools are filled with unvaccinated people who can spread Covid-19 to other settings, former US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said.

Schools are a large reservoir of unvaccinated people of superspreaders, if you will who can take the Delta variant home and to other places, Adams told CNNs Anderson Cooper.

Adams said the risk of serious illness or death is low for children but the point is they also spread the virus to other people.

Florida is one state unlikely to require masks in schools. Gov. Ron DeSantis, responding through a spokesperson to the CDC recommendations, said parents know whats best for their children.

Fortunately, the data indicate that Covid is not a serious risk to healthy children, which is why schools in most countries were among the first institutions to reopen, said spokesperson Christina Pushaw. At the end of the day, the governor trusts parents to weigh the risks and benefits and make the best choices for their kids.

DeSantis statement is in contrast to CDC evidence that shows Covid-19 can be a serious risk to children. CDC data indicate more children have died from Covid-19 517 so far than are killed by the flu annually, even in a bad influenza year.

There were reports of more than 38,600 new cases in children for the period between July 15 and 22, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Children have accounted for 1.3% to 3.6% of the hospitalizations, depending on the state, according to the organization, which represents pediatricians.

The US could see nearly four times the current rate of Covid-19 cases in the next four to six weeks as the Delta variant spreads and the population hits a wall on vaccinations, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN.

Were heading into a rough time. Its likely, if our trajectory is similar to that in the United Kingdom, that we could see as many as 200,000 cases a day, Dr. Tom Frieden said Monday, adding the US likely wont see the horrific death tolls of earlier in the pandemic thanks to the number of vulnerable people who are vaccinated. Frieden was CDC director during the Obama administration.

But, he said, You will see a steady increase in deaths, and these are preventable deaths.

Cases have jumped as the Delta variant has spread.

The US averaged more than 57,300 new daily cases over the last week an average thats generally risen since the country hit a 2021 low of 11,351 daily on June 22, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

As of Tuesday, cases have risen by 50% or more in 35 states over the past seven days compared to the week before.

The last time more than 200,000 US cases were reported in a day was in January, according to Johns Hopkins.

The Delta variant is believed to be more transmissible than other strains so much so, Frieden said, that it is essentially finding people who are unvaccinated.

Vaccination rates have hit a wall, and that could have serious consequences, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.

Now we are at a point where there is a solid 25 or 30% of the population thats saying they dont want to get vaccinated, that they are okay with allowing this virus to continue to spread, continue to do harm and, worst of all, continue to possibly create variants that are going to be resistant to vaccine-induced immunity, Offit said.

And vaccinated people will likely pay a price for those choices, CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen said. Even though vaccines offer strong protection against the virus, being surrounded by unvaccinated people could lead to infection spillover, and vaccinated people could get sick or pass on the infection to their loved ones, she said.

CNNs Keith Allen, Tina Burnside, Jen Christensen, Kacey Cherry, Kaitlan Collins, John Couwels, Rosa Flores, Virginia Langmaid, Kevin Liptak, Lauren Mascarenhas, Deidre McPhillips, Sarah Moon, Jenn Selva and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.

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US surgeon general says putting a mask back on will help, but vaccinations will stonewall the pandemic - CNN