Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

NEW YORK (AP) New York City will require all of its municipal workers including teachers and police officers to get coronavirus vaccines by mid-September or face weekly COVID-19 testing, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.

The rule is expected to affect about 340,000 city employees, making the city one of the largest employers in the U.S. to take such action.

While it isnt a vaccine mandate no workers will be forced to take a shot officials hope the inconvenience and discomfort of weekly tests will persuade many to overcome a reluctance to get inoculated.

This is about our recovery. This is about what we need to do to bring back New York City, de Blasio said. This is about keeping people safe.

But some of the unions representing city workers balked at the announcement, saying the city couldnt impose the requirement without negotiations.

New York City is a union town, and that cannot be ignored, said Henry Garrido, executive director of District Council 37 of AFSCME. DC 37 represents about 100,000 New York City employees across several departments.

Hours after de Blasios announcement, officials in California announced that state employees and all health care workers will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or get tested weekly.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declined to answer a question about whether he will require state employees to be vaccinated. Speaking at a news conference at Yankee Stadium, Cuomo urged localities to consider vaccinating public-facing government workers.

The Sept. 13 deadline in New York City coincides with the start of public school, when the Democratic mayor has said he expects all pupils to be in classrooms full time. City health care workers and employees in congregate setting such as group homes will face earlier deadlines.

The move comes as the city battles a rise in COVID-19 cases fueled by the highly contagious delta variant. Since the end of June, the daily average of new cases has increased by more than 300%.

Last week, the city had announced it was mandating vaccinations or weekly testing for workers in the citys hospital system.

De Blasio expanded the requirement Monday and urged private employers to adopt similar rules.

My message to the private sector is: Go as far as you can go right now, the mayor said. I would strongly urge a vaccination mandate whenever possible, or as close to it as possible.

City workers unions offered mixed responses to the new mandate.

Vaccination and testing have helped keep schools among the safest places in the city, the United Federation of Teachers said in a statement. This approach puts the emphasis on vaccination but still allows for personal choice and provides additional safeguards through regular testing.

But the union that represents the citys 4,300 EMS workers blasted the city for not consulting them.

The city and the mayor cannot simply disregard the civil liberties of the workforce, said FDNY EMS Local 2507 President Oren Barzilay.

He said some EMS workers like some other people around the country are concerned about taking a vaccine that got fast-track, emergency use authorization but not yet a full approval from federal regulators.

The three vaccines authorized in the U.S. still underwent the normal massive testing required of any vaccine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administrations acting commissioner, Dr. Janet Woodcock, told a Senate committee this week that the agency did not cut any corners on safety.

City workers who choose testing will be responsible for getting it done. Tests are available to city workers and the general public at city-run sites, private walk-in clinics and many other locales for free to the person being tested; insurers or public money covers the cost.

Asked about union objections, de Blasio said the city has a right to require that its workforce gets vaccinated or tested.

When it comes to the health and safety of our workers in the midst of a global pandemic, we have the right, as employers, to take urgent action to protect peoples health, to protect their lives, he said.

The number of vaccine doses being given out daily in the city has dropped to less than 18,000, down from a peak of more than 100,000 in early April. About 65% of adults in the city are fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, caseloads have been rising for weeks, and health officials say the variant makes up about seven in 10 new cases.

De Blasio has said that he does not plan to reimpose a broad indoor mask mandate, as Los Angeles County has done. Masks are required in some settings such as public transportation.

De Blasio said unvaccinated city employees will be required to wear masks indoors at all times.

Asked how the city would handle unvaccinated employees who dont want to wear masks in the workplace, city labor relations commissioner Renee Campion said, If employees refuse to comply, they just cant be at work. And in fact, they will not be paid.

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Associated Press writer Marina Villeneuve contributed to this report.

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NYC to require vaccines or weekly testing for city workers - Associated Press

CNN

Covid-19 infections in fully vaccinated people have come under increasing scrutiny as the virus once again surges across the country due to the more contagious Delta variant.

But those so-called breakthrough infections remain rare and may not even include any symptoms. Those who do have symptoms typically get a milder case, research shows.

Emily Baker Hurley and her family, including two young children, were among those rare cases. Baker Hurley told CNN affiliate KCRA that she regrets not continuing to wear a mask after getting her vaccine. The kids have been really, really sick. One hundred and three (degree) fevers, diarrhea and vomiting, Baker Hurley said. Its been especially scary with a baby.

A breakthrough infection is defined as someone who tested positive for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 at least 14 days being fully vaccinated with either one dose of Johnson & Johnson or two doses of Pfizer and Moderna, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency says that, as with any vaccine, breakthrough cases are expected to happen with the coronavirus vaccine.

More than 163 million people in the United States have been fully vaccinated, or 49.1% of the population, according to the CDC. Over 97% of people getting hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC said recently.

The Covid-19 vaccines we have in the US do work very well. But no vaccine works 100% of the time, CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen said.

If you have multiple encounters every day with unvaccinated people, and there is a high level of community transmission in your area, your chances of having a breakthrough infection after vaccination will increase.

Wen said wearing a mask reduces that risk.

Baker Hurleys youngest daughter is only 9 months old. Both she and her 5-year-old sibling are too young to be vaccinated.

Despite her childrens illness, Baker Hurley believes getting vaccinated helped her and her husband, who has an underlying health condition, from becoming even sicker.

Obviously my husband was not as sick as he would have been since we had the vaccine, she said.

This is a disease that has taken the lives of over 600,000 Americans and millions of people around the world, Wen said. If you get the vaccine, you know that you are very unlikely to become severely ill to the point of needing to be hospitalized or to succumb to the disease.

An anchor at CNN affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta had a very similar experience.

Fred Blankenship posted his story on his Facebook page. He hadnt been on air for a while, so he took to social media to explain the absence to his followers.

While on vacation in California members of my immediate family came down with Covid. We took all the precautions, got the vaccinations and it still happened, he said.

Blankenship explained that even though he was vaccinated, his symptoms were not as mild as he hoped, but getting his shot helped him from getting the worst of it.

My doctor told me the fact that I got the vaccination and stayed in relatively good shape kept me out of the hospital. Its been a big reminder that health is the true wealth, he said.

Adam Rothman, a history professor at Georgetown, told CNN that he and his wife are both breakthrough cases and their 10-year-old daughter also contracted the virus.

Vaccines do generally seem to be effective and be instrumental, but I think that people need to understand they may not be 100% effective, he said.

But I would say If more people were vaccinated, its less likely that our daughter would have gotten the disease and being vaccinated, we hope, has kept me and my wife out of the hospital.

Dr. Wen agreed with Rothmans belief that if more people had the vaccine, less people would get sick overall.

Your chance of becoming infected from a vaccinated person, if youre also vaccinated, is virtually zero, Wen said. This is also why we have to see vaccination as not just an individual choice. Even if youre vaccinated yourself, it matters if others around you are vaccinated, too.

A CDC study conducted in June shows fully vaccinated people are more than 90% protected against infection. Even partially vaccinated people are 81% less likely to become infected than people who havent had been inoculated, according to the ongoing research.

The study tested more than 3,900 essential workers, and since December only 16 of the 204 people who became infected had been vaccinated.

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These fully vaccinated Americans got breakthrough infections. They say it could have been worse without being vaccinated - CNN

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran recorded over 34,900 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, setting the nations single-day record for cases as vaccinations lag, public complacency deepens and the countrys outbreak spirals further out of control.

The previous record of 31,814 infections had been set only a day earlier, providing a sense of how quickly Irans latest surge, fueled by the contagious delta variant, is mounting. Health authorities recorded 357 COVID-19 fatalities on Tuesday, bringing the total death toll to 89,479 the highest in the Middle East.

The alarming spread of the variant prompted new anti-virus restrictions last week. The government ordered the closure of state offices, public places and non-essential businesses in the capital of Tehran. But as with previous government measures, the lockdown looked very little like a lockdown at all. Tehrans malls and markets were busy as usual and workers crowded offices and metro stations.

Iranian authorities have avoided imposing heavy-handed rules on a population that can little afford to bear them. The country, which has suffered the worst virus outbreak in the region, is reeling from a series of crises: tough U.S. sanctions, global isolation, a heat wave, the worst blackouts in recent memory and ongoing protests over water shortages in the southwest.

Now, health officials warn that hospitals in the capital are overwhelmed with breathless COVID patients too numerous to handle. Fewer than 3% of Iranians have been fully vaccinated in the sanctions-hit country. Many front-line medical workers have been vaccinated with Irans locally produced shots or the Chinese state-backed Sinopharm vaccine that may be less effective than other inoculations.

Irans government announced that its homemade vaccine provides 85% protection from the coronavirus, without disclosing data or details. Iran also imports Russias Sputnik V vaccine, as well as the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot through the United Nations-backed COVAX program.

In Libya, meanwhile, authorities imposed a nightly curfew in parts of the country, including the capital of Tripoli, amid a spike in coronavirus cases and concerns about the highly infectious delta variant.

The 12-hour curfew takes effect starting Tuesday, the government said. All businesses, cafes, restaurants, and parks are required to close during the curfew.

The number of new cases in Libya has risen more than six times since July 1, according to daily figures from Libyas National Center for Disease Control. On Tuesday, the center reported 3,348 confirmed new cases and 24 deaths.

Libya has recorded more than 240,300 cases so far in the pandemic, including 3,422 deaths. The actual figures are believed to be much higher, given the scarcity of testing and the depletion of the countrys health care system after almost a decade of civil war.

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Iran hits new COVID infection record for 2nd straight day - Associated Press

As the more contagious Delta variant sows more coronavirus infections among the countrys unvaccinated, it has also started to send more unprotected Americans to the hospital, straining health care centers in portions of the Midwest, the West and the South.

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Note: Data is for the week ending July 15.

Covid-19 hospitalizations are trending upward in 45 states, though levels remain well below previous peaks. In parts of the country with relatively low vaccination rates, including Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Nevada, hospitalizations have increased more rapidly.

Hospital staff members and health officials in these areas say the rise has come quickly and unexpectedly, driven by the more aggressive Delta variant, low vaccination coverage and their communities return to the social activities of pre-pandemic life.

At Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Mo., in a county where just over a third of the population is fully vaccinated, staff say that this summers surge in patients came nearly five times as fast as last fall. In just over a month, the hospitals Covid patient count grew to 115 from 26, and it briefly faced a shortage of ventilators.

And now with 155 Covid patients, the hospital has far surpassed its last peak, and expects to see more than 200 patients by early August. To prepare, its readying a third I.C.U. for patients with Covid-19.

I think any community that has low vaccination rates and has not experienced this yet, better get ready, said Erik Frederick, chief administrative officer at Mercy Hospital Springfield. Because what we are seeing with this Delta variant, its not an if, its a when.

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Hospital and state officials across the country report that a vast majority of people hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 97 percent of patients who have gone to the hospital with Covid-19 havent been immunized.

And while breakthrough cases and hospitalizations can happen for those who are vaccinated, officials say that these patients tend to be less sick because the vaccines are highly protective against severe illness and death.

Vaccination patterns and the high rates of coverage among the countrys oldest and lower rates among the young also seem to have changed who is coming to the hospital.

We have seen the elderly population like we had before, said Shannon Nachtigal, the chief nursing officer at Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home, Ark. But with this surge they are definitely more of a younger group, people in their 30s and 40s.

Read more: Some Florida Hospitals Have More Covid Patients Than Ever Before

At Mercy Springfield in Missouri, just over half of patients are under the age of 60.

You walk through the I.C.U.s and you just look and youre like, Wow, those people dont look much older than me, added Mr. Frederick, who is 48. Its a little alarming to see.

National data reveal a similar shift. While the overall number of people newly admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 each day is lower now than it was in January, the share of those admitted under age 60 has grown. In July, about 54 percent of new admissions were people under 60, and in early January it was 36 percent.

Note: Data is through July 21.

The Delta variants ability to spread may also be to blame for the shifting demographics of people going to the hospital with Covid.

If its more transmissible, its more likely to also transmit to healthy individuals as well as people who are less healthy, said Dr. Thomas Tsai, an assistant professor of health policy at Harvard University. You may have an increase in hospitalizations just because you are putting a broader swath of individuals at risk.

But with the vaccine readily available to most Americans, hospital staff say it has been frustrating to watch people of all ages suffer when there is now a weapon to fight back.

It makes me so sad that we are doing this again, because it is so preventable at this point, said Dr. Rachel C. Keech, an inpatient physician serving Mercy Hospitals eastern Missouri region, who helped the Mercy Springfield location in recent weeks.

The first three waves, we didnt have this great tool of vaccines and now we do, she added. Its really heartbreaking.

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Where Covid-19 Hospitalizations Are Rising in the U.S. - The New York Times

Over the last decade, Dr. Mercola has built a vast operation to push natural health cures, disseminate anti-vaccination content and profit from all of it, said researchers who have studied his network. In 2017, he filed an affidavit claiming his net worth was in excess of $100 million.

And rather than directly stating online that vaccines dont work, Dr. Mercolas posts often ask pointed questions about their safety and discuss studies that other doctors have refuted. Facebook and Twitter have allowed some of his posts to remain up with caution labels, and the companies have struggled to create rules to pull down posts that have nuance.

He has been given new life by social media, which he exploits skillfully and ruthlessly to bring people into his thrall, said Imran Ahmed, director of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which studies misinformation and hate speech. Its Disinformation Dozen report has been cited in congressional hearings and by the White House.

In an email, Dr. Mercola said it was quite peculiar to me that I am named as the #1 superspreader of misinformation. Some of his Facebook posts were only liked by hundreds of people, he said, so he didnt understand how the relatively small number of shares could possibly cause such calamity to Bidens multibillion dollar vaccination campaign.

The efforts against him are political, Dr. Mercola added, and he accused the White House of illegal censorship by colluding with social media companies.

He did not address whether his coronavirus claims were factual. I am the lead author of a peer reviewed publication regarding vitamin D and the risk of Covid-19 and I have every right to inform the public by sharing my medical research, he said. He did not identify the publication, and The Times was unable to verify his claim.

July 24, 2021, 11:34 a.m. ET

A native of Chicago, Dr. Mercola started a small private practice in 1985 in Schaumburg, Ill. In the 1990s, he began shifting to natural health medicine and opened his main website, Mercola.com, to share his treatments, cures and advice. The site urges people to take control of your health.

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The Most Influential Spreader of Coronavirus Misinformation Online - The New York Times

Alba Feliz is a little nervous about getting the vaccine. At 17, she's the first person in her immediate family to seriously consider getting it. "In my house, they never really trust the vaccine," she says. Social media has been her main source of information, and the contradictory messages have been confusing.

She doesn't believe the COVID vaccines will put a chip in you, but she does have some concerns about "side effects and all that."

Another teen, Ryan Howard, 16, says he has become the resident vaccine expert among his friends. "My friends will send it to our group chat and I'll be like 'ehhhh that's kinda, like, wrong.' "

A lot of teens are still deciding about the vaccine. People ages 12 and up have been able to get one since mid-May, but two out of three teens have not gotten their shots.

Yet getting vaccinated could mean freedom for a lot of young folks who've been pretty cooped up. "A lot of us didn't like being at home for a whole year," says Feliz.

NPR asked teens to share their most pressing questions about the vaccines. Here are answers from several ace pediatricians and trusted sources of health information.

Let's start with what's similar. All three COVID-19 vaccines are currently available for free in the U.S., and they're proven to be safe and effective. And all three offer good protection against all known strains of the coronavirus.

What's different is the way they teach your immune system to recognize the coronavirus.

The J&J vaccine uses a harmless virus an adenovirus, not a coronavirus to ferry instructions, in the form of DNA, to your cells. These instructions, train your immune system to recognize proteins that stud the surface of the coronavirus and to create antibodies and immune cells that can fight off the virus if you ever become infected. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines uses a microscopic bubble of grease to carry instructions to your cells in the form of something called messenger RNA.

Here's another difference: The two mRNA vaccines (Pfizer's and Moderna's) each require two doses, spaced three to four weeks apart. The J&J vaccine is just one shot. In all cases, it takes time for your body to make sufficient antibodies so a person is considered "fully vaccinated" and protected from COVID-19 only after at least two weeks since the final shot.

Right now, only the Pfizer vaccine is authorized for use in people as young as 12 to 17 years old. The FDA is reviewing data from Moderna's studies in younger people right now, and it's likely that Moderna shots will become available to teens soon, too.

The common side effects are basically the same for all three vaccines, and all the evidence from the Pfizer vaccine the one currently available to teens suggests teens experience the same range of side effects as adults do.

Your arm might be a bit sore that day or the next, explains Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatrician at Stanford Children's Hospital. Beyond that, many people don't really feel bad at all, but worst case, if you do get symptoms, it would be like getting a mild flu.

You might get a low fever within a day or so after getting your shot, says Maldonado. You could also feel some body aches, tiredness, headaches or nausea.

If you feel this way, don't worry. Just rest, drink plenty of fluids and take acetaminophen if you have a headache. You'll feel better soon. Remember, these symptoms are signs that your body is revving up to fight the virus if it comes your way.

In online forums, we've seen other concerns from teens that the vaccines might increase the risk of infertility, for example, or chronic fatigue. But anything that suggests those is misinformation pure and simple.

So let's be clear. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (the group of top medical doctors who have been keeping an eagle eye out for any worrisome side effects regarding pregnancy, infertility or reproduction) is very firm in dismissing the first concern: "Claims linking COVID-19 vaccines to infertility are unfounded and have no scientific evidence supporting them."

And while long-term fatigue is certainly a part of what's come to be called "long COVID" in adults and young people, that's a side effect of an infection with the coronavirus not a side effect of the vaccine. Getting vaccinated is your best protection against getting COVID-19 and long COVID.

For most people, even those with significant allergies, the risk is very small. If you have hay fever or even a severe allergy to bee stings, peanuts or other foods, no problem. The vaccine is as safe for you as it is for anyone else.

On the other hand, if you've ever had any kind of allergic reaction to an ingredient in one of the vaccines (such as the food additive polysorbate in the J&J vaccine or the common drug additive polyethylene glycol, in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines), you should get a different COVID-19 vaccine, the CDC advises. And if you've ever had a severe allergic reaction to past vaccinations of any kind, check in with a doctor for advice specific to your situation.

In a very few cases, people have had severe allergic reactions, or anaphylaxis, after getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Luckily, as serious as that is, it's reversible and treatable, generally with a shot of epinephrine. When you go get your vaccine, you'll be asked to sit and wait for 15 to 30 minutes, just in case you have a severe reaction, so you can be treated on the spot.

How rare are these allergic reactions? For every million doses given out, roughly two to five people have an anaphylactic reaction.

OK, yes. It's true that very, very rarely, some people are getting serious side effects. One that's turned up related to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is temporary heart inflammation, which appears to be happening in about 13 out of every million shots given to people under 40, and more so in young men.

But here's the thing: This is a short-term issue that gets better with rest and care in a matter of days.

"There's no zero-risk proposition," explains Dr. Brian Feingold, medical director of the heart transplant program at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. But, he says, the health risks you face if you don't get vaccinated are much higher. He has been advising his friends, family members and most patients, including those with existing heart problems, to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

A few other very rare side effects have turned up in relation to the J&J vaccine: Serious blood clots have occurred in around three out of every million people who got the vaccine, mostly middle-aged women. And Guillain-Barr syndrome, a neurological disorder that can lead to weakness in the muscles and sometimes paralysis, has occurred in around eight of every million people who get the vaccine, mostly among men over 50 but it's usually temporary.

But before you get too freaked out, remember that the risks associated with getting COVID-19 include long-term heart damage and long-haul COVID, and in the worst case, you can die from the disease.

To stay healthy, it still makes a lot more sense to get vaccinated than not. "If you're statistically going after what's safest, the data right now stacks up [to show] that vaccines are absolutely the safer route," Feingold says.

Breakthrough cases, in which someone who is fully vaccinated still gets infected with the coronavirus at some point, do happen but the infections have mostly been mild or even symptomless.

Once you're fully vaccinated, your body is prepped to fight the virus. That means if you're exposed to the delta variant or any other form, you are very unlikely to get sick enough to require hospitalization.

The other thing you should know is that in this latest surge of COVID-19 cases across the U.S., 97% of people who got hospitalized were unvaccinated.

"If you are vaccinated you are protected," says CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. "If you remain unvaccinated, you are at risk."

Yes! Vaccine experts now say you can get the COVID-19 vaccine at the same time you get other routine vaccines, like the HPV vaccine or the flu shot.

If you missed a regularly scheduled vaccine like a Tdap or the meningococcal jab during the pandemic, you're not alone. Doctors say that getting several vaccines together this summer is safe and effective and could be a good opportunity to catch up on vaccines before going back to school.

You will probably need a COVID-19 booster shot at some point, say doctors who are tracking the pandemic, but it may not be any time soon.

So far, the best evidence suggests that people who are fully vaccinated even those who got their shots way back in December or even earlier are well-protected from getting very sick or dying from COVID-19.

Still, health officials are particularly watching for any sign of lowered protection in a couple of different groups, especially the elderly and the immunocompromised.

If boosters are needed, they'll likely be recommended for specific groups first based on when you got your vaccine and whether you're at special risk for getting very sick from COVID-19 yourself or accidentally spreading it to vulnerable people (like if you work at a hospital or nursing home).

It's true that the younger and healthier you are, the less likely you are to get very sick or die from an infection with the coronavirus. But some kids and teens have gotten serious cases of COVID-19, which can lead to complications like MIS-C, an inflammatory disorder that can cause a range of serious effects that are sometimes lethal.

Then there are the lingering effects of an infection what's come to be called long COVID. Among adults, the evidence shows that one out of every three or four has lingering problems after getting COVID-19 fatigue or difficulty breathing for weeks or months after the virus is gone. There's less research about this condition in teens, but some do develop it.

"The question," Maldonado says, "is: Are you willing to take that risk of getting infected and having those long-term impacts when we don't have any answers to how to treat them whereas we know we have an answer to how to prevent them?"

And even kids and teens who don't get very sick from the coronavirus can still infect those around them, including friends or family members who are older or in worse health or not able to get vaccinated.

Teens and 20-somethings, Maldonado says, are "the primary age group that could really make a difference in preventing transmission of the disease."

Whatever your age, in an era when so much of life seems beyond our individual control, she says, choosing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is a way to contribute personally to the health of your community and the world.

Good point. Dr. Benjamin Danielson, a pediatrician at the University of Washington School of Medicine, says he finds the spirit of this comment refreshing. It's an unfortunate reality that people who make more money in the U.S. often have better access to good health care than people who make less.

COVID-19 has hit communities of color particularly hard Black, Latinx, and Native peoples have been more likely to catch COVID-19 and get very sick and die from it.

That tragedy is one way the pandemic has illuminated how poverty and systemic racism are hurting people's health, Maldonado says.

"This is an opportunity to shine a light," she says. "I think this is something that communities of color, and all communities, should take on as a social justice issue."

While there are no easy answers here, Danielson says he's happy to hear young people starting to reject the status quo. He says it reflects "an expectation of things being different, which is a whole different mindset from hope or aspiration." It's the right mindset to spark change, Danielson says, to start demanding equity in the U.S. health care system.

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Teens And The Vaccine: Answers To Your Frequently Asked Questions : Shots - Health News - NPR

CNN

For anyone who loves freedom and hates mask mandates or remote learning, Dr. Jerome Adams has a blunt message: Get vaccinated.

More mitigation is coming. Whether its masking, or whether its closures or whether its your kids having to return to virtual learning, that is coming, the Trump administration surgeon general told CBS Face the Nation on Sunday.

And its coming because this pandemic is spiraling out of control yet again. And its spiraling out of control because we dont have enough people vaccinated.

As of Sunday, only 49.1% of Americans have been fully vaccinated, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thats nowhere near enough vaccinations to stop the spread of the Delta variant, the most contagious strain of novel coronavirus ever identified.

In 48 states, the rate of new Covid-19 cases this past week jumped by at least 10% compared to the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

In 34 of those states, the rate of new cases increased by more than 50%.

Hospitals are filling up again with Covid-19 patients except now, patients are younger than before, said doctors in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Missouri.

The thing thats making this possible is the fact that we are dealing with the most transmissible version of Covid-19 that weve seen to date, current US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said.

So eligible Americans who want to prevent more mask mandates, business closures and a return to remote learning need to do their part and get vaccinated, said Adams, the Trump administration official.

Its going to help every single American enjoy the freedoms that we want to return to, he said.

Vaccine mandates would be the quickest way to raise vaccination rates, Adams told CBS Sunday. But that wont happen without full approval by the US Food and Drug Administration.

If you want to get a bunch of people vaccinated really quickly, get these vaccines licensed, Adams said. And then youll see the military make it mandatory, youll see businesses make it mandatory.

Each vaccine available in the United States has been authorized by the FDA for emergency use, but they have yet to be fully approved.

And the lack of full-fledged approval is contributing to vaccine hesitancy, he said.

Asked Sunday if vaccine mandates should be on the table, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeffrey Zients told CNN municipal governments and businesses should consider any strategy that would make it safe to enter their location, whether thats requiring vaccines or negative Covid-19 tests.

But he wants the FDA to take its time to thoroughly review the applications for approval, so the public knows the agency wasnt bowing to political pressure.

Dr. Doran Fink of the FDAs Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research said last week the agency was working as rapidly as possible to review submissions for approval.

Zients is hopeful some approval will come sometime in August or September. President Biden last week said full approval could come before the end of August.

Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have started their applications for full FDA approval, while Johnson & Johnson has said it intends to file for licensure.

The Covid-19 vaccines used in the US dont have any coronavirus in them, but they do require an immune system response to work.

So millions of Americans who are immunocompromised or take drugs that suppress the immune system might not get as much help from a vaccine as others do.

While theres been much speculation as to whether (or when) booster shots might be needed, the CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration said this month that Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a booster shot at this time.

But that could change as the data evolves, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

If a booster dose of vaccine is needed, people with suppressed immune systems might be the first to get one, Fauci told CNN on Sunday.

Those with suppressed immune systems can include transplant patients, those undergoing cancer chemotherapy, people with autoimmune diseases and those who are taking immune-suppressing drugs, Fauci said.

Like with many other vaccines, a small fraction of vaccinated people have gotten breakthrough infections.

But more than 97% of those hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said last week.

Within the tiny percentage of US hospitalized Covid-19 patients who were fully vaccinated, a study found 44% of them were immunocompromised people.

The CDC and the FDA are exploring multiple options for how to make a third dose of Covid-19 vaccine possible for immunocompromised people if needed, according to a statement Friday.

Emerging data show there is an enhanced antibody response after an additional dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in some immunocompromised people, the CDC said in a statement to CNN on Friday.

While early data show some potential benefit to administering an additional dose, more evidence is needed to determine safety and effectiveness in immunocompromised people.

Those who are immunocompromised and vaccinated against Covid-19 might still want to keep wearing masks, Murthy said.

In California, San Diego County and Los Angeles County both reported their highest number of cases since February, and hospitalizations in LA County have more than doubled in two weeks. On Sunday, Los Angeles County officials said hospitalizations surpassed 700 for the first time since March.

In Florida, state health data shows that new case positivity nearly doubled in two weeks, from 7.8% the week of July 2 to 15.1%.

A total of 870 hospitalized patients were reported Sunday in Alabama, according to the states public health Covid-19 dashboard. Hospitalizations there have been steadily rising since early July: On July 4 there were just 213 hospitalized patients reported.

And Louisiana now has the highest increase in cases per capita in the US, state officials said Friday.

We know that more than 80% of these are the Delta variant that is whats causing this surge, Gov. John Bel Edwards said.

And whats enabling the surge is a very low percentage of people who have been vaccinated.

In the rare case that a fully vaccinated person later gets infected, that infection will likely result in mild or no symptoms at all, Murthy said.

If you do get a breakthrough infection which itself will be unusual it will be more likely to be mild or asymptomatic, the surgeon general said.

The bottom line? If you get the vaccine and still get a breakthrough infection, you are protected close to 100% from being hospitalized, getting severely sick and dying, said Dr. Saju Mathew, a primary care physician and public health specialist.

What more do you really want from a vaccine?

CNNs Melissa Alonso, John Bonifield, Elizabeth Cohen, Deanna Hackney, Chuck Johnston, Lauren Mascarenhas and Alexandra Meeks contributed to this report.

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The pandemic is 'spiraling out of control' due to unvaccinated people, Trump administration official says - CNN

A prospective observational safety study on ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 corona virus vaccine (recombinant) use in healthcare workers- first results from India  The Lancet

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A prospective observational safety study on ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 corona virus vaccine (recombinant) use in healthcare workers- first results from India -...

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More Than 200 Facebook Groups Have Been Actively Circulating Coronavirus Vaccine Misinformation - Forbes

"My darling," it says. "How are you? Are you enjoying school? Do you have friends? Your brother is one year old now. I hope you can come and see me in Australia one day. I love you and think of you often -- from 'Nana in Australia.'"

"Nana in Australia" is the pixelated face on my laptop, the voice cutting out on my phone.

She lives on the other side of the world, in a place where Covid-19 doesn't exist, or at least not to the degree that it has ravaged the United Kingdom with a terrifying ferocity.

For much of 2020, Australia's success in controlling the virus was the envy of the world. By March of that year, as Italian hospitals drowned in cases and the UK dithered about restrictions, Australia decisively closed its borders -- and the tactic initially paid off.

A country of 25 million people, it has recorded just over 900 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began. Its total case numbers are around 32,000 -- a figure the UK is exceeding daily. And its economy has bounced back.

But more than a year on, Australians remain shut inside their gilded cage, relying on a series of short, sharp lockdowns to quell an outbreak of the highly-contagious Delta variant.

More than half the population -- including those in state capitals Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide -- are again living under lockdown measures following dozens of new cases.

"Fortress Australia" is now facing uncomfortable questions about just how far this island sanctuary is willing to go to protect itself from external threats -- including raising the drawbridge to its own citizens.

Australians have been willing to "put up with restrictions which elsewhere in the democratic world would have been entirely politically impossible," said Marc Stears, director of the Sydney Policy Lab at the University of Sydney.

That's because these restrictions speak to "quite a deep cultural sense that danger lurks overseas, and the best thing that Australia can do in these moments is cut itself off from the world," Stears added.

The challenge now is how to rejoin it.

'Couldn't quite believe our luck'

As a kid growing up in Australia, I always believed my home was the "Lucky Country" -- a beautiful, peaceful nation with cool marsupials and the best Olympic swimmers.

It was only later I realized that "Lucky Country" was an ironic phrase, penned by author Donald Horne in the 1960s: "Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck."

Australia's good fortune held steady at the start of the pandemic, when the country closed its borders "just in time," said Stears. What's more, it "had that remarkable stroke of luck that there wasn't very much community transmission," he said.

For much of last year, life in Australia went on relatively unchanged: A friend in Cairns continued cheering on his local basketball team at packed games. A cousin on the Gold Coast talked of crowds at music concerts.

Aside from Melbourne, which underwent one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, "the rest of the country couldn't quite believe its luck," said Stears. "There was a real sense of: 'Oh gosh, we've dodged a bullet here.'"

Closing the borders was a crucial part of the "Lucky Country's" zero-Covid strategy, but experts say the policy has also roused a fearful and isolationist instinct.

"There is a strong protectionist streak in the national psyche," said Tim Soutphommasane, professor of sociology and political theory at the University of Sydney and Australia's former race discrimination commissioner.

"In the past, this had its most potent expression in the form of the White Australia immigration policy," said Soutphommasane, referring to historical racial policies that barred non-European immigrants.

"Obviously that's no longer in place," he said. "But the sentiment remains there under the surface. There remains a strong reflex of closing down our borders to any perceived threat."

It brings to mind the anti-asylum seeker rhetoric that emerged under former Prime Minister John Howard in the 1990s and 2000s. His famous quote: "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come" has been a key issue in almost every federal election since.

And with another election due next year, current Prime Minister Scott Morrison won't be flinging open the doors anytime soon, said Latika Bourke, London-based journalist with Australian newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

"This is a country that puts cities of millions into lockdowns over one, or two, or three cases," she said. Morrison is "not going to want to risk a major outbreak, or general circulation of this virus in the country, even if everyone's had their vaccine, probably before the election."

They have seen how quickly the virus can spread, even in countries with advanced health systems. Health officials give daily press conferences updating local numbers, however small. Local clusters are invariably linked back to leaks from hotel quarantine where returning travelers must spent 14 days in isolation.

Cutting the number of returning travelers is seen as an easy way to relieve pressure on the system, as contact tracers gather information on exposure sites and state leaders impose local restrictions and lockdowns.

But the latest series of lockdowns are testing Australians' patience, with protests against the new restrictions on Saturday drawing thousands across the nation's major cities.

And frustration is growing over the country's woeful vaccine rollout. The government initially planned to fully vaccinate all adults by the end of October. On Thursday, an increasingly under pressure Morrison said he was "sorry" Australia hadn't been able to meet its targets.

Locked in

On a dreary winter evening, Melbourne's fifth lockdown grinds on for Genevieve Neve, a 38-year-old actor, originally from San Diego, who moved to Australia as a teenager with her family.

"Australia was a penal colony, and it kind of feels like that now," she said. "We feel like prisoners in this country."

The lockdowns have been tough financially on Neve, her tattooist husband and their 2-year-old daughter; she says they have received little government assistance while unable to work.

Emotionally, too, the situation has taken a toll: Neve couldn't attend her aunt's funeral in the United States.

Over the past year she's watched the tables turn in her homeland. "This time last year I felt a lot better living in Australia than I did America, because it seemed quite chaotic over there," she said. But under the Biden administration's vaccine rollout, she feels there's "more of a sense of hope in the States."

Neve is "dying to get vaccinated," she said, but: "I'm too young."

Jabs are being offered to people over 40 and other eligible groups including health care and elder-care workers, those with disabilities, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over the age of 16.

A generational divide is now emerging in Australia, with lockdowns and closed borders disproportionately affecting younger people, according to Soutphommasane.

Many young lives had been put "on hold," he said. Young people had been denied the "opportunities and freedoms previous generations have enjoyed, if not taken for granted."

The government's lack of urgency in procuring vaccines -- Morrison said Australia could enjoy a "front row seat" to watch immunization rollouts in other countries -- has meant the country has so far had a limited supply to draw on.

It had planned to vaccinate most Australians with AstraZeneca doses produced within the country. But fears over blood clots changed the official health advice, meaning most Australians are now waiting for Pfizer vaccines that are yet to be delivered.

People under 40 haven't been formally offered the first dose of Pfizer, due to low supplies, so the government has invited them to take the surplus stock of AstraZeneca vaccine, but only after consulting their doctor.

The mixed messaging over AstraZeneca has undermined public confidence in the vaccine, with many people content to "wait for Pfizer," said Soutphommasane.

"Unfortunately, many Australians believe there are only two real choices: Either bunker down in 'Fortress Australia' for as long as necessary, or allow the virus to let rip in the community," he said.

But Soutphommasane believes there is a third way: "Vaccinate as quickly as possible, and have a staged, controlled and safe reopening of Australia."

Locked out

Outside the country, patience is also wearing thin. There are around 37,300 Australians registered overseas who want to return home, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Since the start of the pandemic, DFAT has helped more than 50,400 Australians get home -- including more than 22,400 on 150 government facilitated flights, it told CNN.

But many remain unable to obtain travel exemptions or to stump up the thousands of dollars in airfare and hotel quarantine costs. At one point, those returning from India even faced the prospect of five years in jail or $50,000 fines, if they breached a temporary ban on flights from the country during the peak of India's second Covid wave.

Compassion for their plight is all in the "eye of the beholder," said Bourke.

"From the average, onshore Australian's view, compassion is not letting tens of thousands of your citizens die. Compassion is not letting your borders remain open to allow that virus to spread," she said.

Meanwhile, for Australians outside the country, "compassion is not needing to lock out your own citizens in order to achieve health outcomes," said Bourke.

Angela O'Connell, a 39-year-old teacher from Australia, moved to Singapore six years ago along with her Australian husband and two children. Their work contracts end later this year, and the family is now expecting to pay up to 12,000 Australian dollars ($8,800) for airfares and quarantine fees to return home.

"Never in my mind would I ever think that there would be a possibility that your own country would shut the borders on you," she said, the sound of traffic on Singapore's Orchard Road roaring in the background.

"When I think of past disasters, it's always been: 'Get our people home.' This one seems to be very different."

Before the pandemic, being an expat was always viewed as a "very positive thing," said O'Connell. "I think we're bringing back great skills from where we've come from, and a different world view."

But with Covid-19, she said the mood had changed. "Suddenly it was like, 'oh no, they shouldn't have gone over there.'"

Georgina Scholes, a 39-year-old Australian living in Denmark with her Danish husband and two children, always thought she would return home at some point, "because I want my kids to grow up a little bit Australian." Those plans have now been put on hold indefinitely; her Australian family is yet to meet her five-month-old son.

Scholes initially supported Australia's coronavirus elimination strategy. But she now casts doubt over whether such a policy is achievable anywhere in the world -- particularly in Europe, she said, where "it's not as possible to just lock the borders and keep people out."

Speaking to fellow Australians locked both in and out of the country, the question that comes up time and time again is: How long can this go on for?

Meanwhile, back home, "Nana in Australia" waits for her second jab, waits for a 4-year-old's postcard and waits to cuddle a 1-year-old grandson she's never met.

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Australia once reveled in being the 'lucky country' on Covid-19. Now weary Aussies 'feel like prisoners' - CNN