Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

Kim Komando| Special to USA TODAY

Travel tip: Keep documents secure on phone

Keep important documents secure on your phone with these tips.

ProblemSolved, USA TODAY

Your phones photo library is good for more than just selfies and pictures of food for Instagram.

Most of us have enough screenshots, memes, and other junk clogging things up that it's hard even to see the photos we need to access quickly. I put together an easy guide to clear out the mess. Tap or click here for the simple trick I use to clean up my photos.

I have a shortcut below to keep track of your most important pics, but theres another easy way to find, for example, that beautiful shot you took at the beach in Hawaii three years ago. Tap or click for the photo search tip everyone needs to know.

Your life will be better organized with these images at your fingertips:.

Your COVID-19 vaccination card

Its useful to have this at the ready in case you ever need to show it to a health care provider, a restaurant, or for travel purposes. It's also safer than keeping it in your wallet, where it can get crumbled or ruined.

Dont want your card getting lost in a sea of pictures? Follow the steps below:

If you use an iPhone, Open Notes and tap the Camera icon > Scan Document. Your phone's camera will open. Snap a photo of your card. When you're happy with your pic, tap on the three dots in the corner and select Pin. That way, its always at the front of the pile.

Did you know you lock notes down with a password, too? Id suggest doing this for anything you dont want others to get their hands on. Tap or click to password protect a note. (Scroll down to number 6.)

Its simple on an Android as well. Open the Google Drive app and tap Add, then Scan. Take your photo, then tap on the three dots to add it to Starred documents.

This well-reviewed Android app, Private Notepad, is another smart way to keep your private info safe and secure.

Your drivers license and other IDs

For most people, a drivers license or state ID is their main form of identification. It easily fits into a wallet or handbag and should always be with you. But there could be instances where you dont have it with you, say when youre hiking.

That's why it's a good idea to have these stored on your phone. Be sure to use the steps above to lock it down with a password.

Your state may offer an app for your drivers license or state ID. Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming are among the states that provide digital license options or pilot programs.Check official state government websites for more on how to apply.

Your cars license plate, VIN number, and auto insurance card

Imagine this: Youre running errands, and when you go back to where you know you parked, your car is gone. In the panic, youre not going to remember details like your license plate number. Instead of rifling through documents once you get home, walk outside now, and snap a few pictures.

This is smart info to have on hand before you need it. Dont forget about your auto insurance card. If you get into a fender bender, you can grab the physical card from your glove compartment, but that might not always be possible.

Your medical and dental insurance cards

True story: A couple of times a year, my son would call and ask me to send him a copy of his insurance card to avoid the universitys mandatory health insurance charges. I get it, it's a pain to keep them around, and you might not always have the physical copy on you.

The requests from my son stopped once I told him to save the picture to his camera roll and "favorite" it. Now he can go to his photo gallery. That's faster than waiting for me.

Your phone is always on you, but your wallet might not be. I love not having to dig through flimsy paper cards to grab my insurance info when Im filling out forms.

Get health smart: Free online tools that reveal if youre overpaying on medical care or hospital bills

Car rental shortage and impact on summer travel, explained

From rental cars to new cars, there is a shortage in the motor-vehicle industry. Here's how it may impact summer travel.

Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

Your rental car before and after

If youre traveling in a city where a car is a must, you rent. Your very first step once you get to the car, even before you turn it on, is snapping photos.

Remember, the rental agency will inspect the vehicle top to bottom once you turn it back in. If they see stains, scratches, or dents, it might be on you to pay for repair. You always want a record of the condition the car was in before you drove a mile. Snap a picture of the odometer, too.

Take photos once you're in the parking lot, dropping it back off. Lucky for you, digital photos contain metadata with the date and time you snapped the pictures. All the proof you need is right there should anything happen.

Hitting the road anytime soon? Here are five smart travel tips to keep you safe. Say it with me: Dont connect to public Wi-Fi.

Your Airbnb or other rental property

Just like with a rental car, youre likely responsible for damage to an Airbnb, VRBO, or other rental property. After I get my bags inside, I take a photo in each room of my rental. You can zoom in on damage, like a big mark on the wall, for extra backup.

Be sure to take a selfie standing in front of the rental. When you take a photo using your smartphone, it is geotagged. That means its easy to get directions back using your phones Map app or by showing the address to your Uber or Lyft driver.

No more pulling up the rental property listing in your email or an app every time you go out.

Bonus Tip: Tech Refresh is my fun, fast podcast about all things tech

Check out my podcast Tech Refresh on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast player.

Each week, I sit down with my tech-smart and savvy friends Allie and Ben to talk about the latest tech news, wacky stories trending online, and much more. We try to stump each other with fake news headlines, and Ben always has a stellar product review. It's like sitting around the kitchen with your pals.

Listen to the podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for "Tech Refresh." You'll love it!

Learn about all the latest technology on theKim Komando Show, the nation's largest weekend radio talk show. Kim takes calls and dispenses advice on today's digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks. For her daily tips, free newsletters and more, visit her website atKomando.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

Read more from the original source:

From IDs to COVID-19 vaccination card, 9 photos to keep on your phone. - USA TODAY

SACRAMENTO Education and public health leaders in California and throughout the country applauded Governor Newsoms announcement that the state plans to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of vaccinations required to attend school in-person when the vaccine receives full approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for middle and high school grades, making California the first state in the nation to implement such a measure.The measure follows Californias other first-in-the-nationschool masking and staff vaccination measures, measures that have helped California to maintain thelowest case rate in the entire country. California is currentlythe only state to advance to the CDCs moderate COVID transmission category.

Heres what education and public health leaders had to say about Governor Newsoms first-in-the-nation announcement:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President:I agree with what Gov. Newsom did in California. People need to realize that having a vaccine requirement for schools is not a new, novel thing that is very peculiar or specific to COVID-19. Weve been doing this for decades.

California State Parent Teacher Association President Carol Green:California State PTA supports the use of vaccines to protect the health and safety of children and families across California. The state of California has required student vaccinations in public schools for years and PTA has long-held positions on vaccine requirements to protect our most vulnerable children.

Vaccination is an important tool to ensure our schools remain open for in-person instruction while protecting the health and safety of our students, staff, and entire communities.

Throughout the pandemic, California State PTA has been working with state leaders including the California Surgeon General, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the California Education Coalition, and various equity groups to advocate for children and families and we will continue to do so. We look forward to working with parents and families, the governor, and policymakers to ensure students and families are involved in the rollout of this new regulation.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten:@CFTunion ready to work with Gov. Newsom on Covid vaccines for children and staff including the mandating of vaccines (with appropriate exemptions) the semester following full authorization. Good step by @GavinNewsom

California Teachers Association President E. Toby Boyd:Teaching and learning are most effective in person, and the COVID-19 vaccine is a proven measure to prevent life threatening illness, keeping schools safe and open for in-person instruction, and will get us closer to being able to put this devastating pandemic behind us. Since the beginning, CTA has called for access to vaccines, testing and multi-layered safety measures in order to be reunited with our students in our classrooms. As the science advances and COVID vaccines are approved for younger students, this is the next step toward ensuring the health and safety of our schools and communities consistent with other vaccine requirements in schools. While recognizing the need for medical and religious exemptions, we believe vaccinations are key for both student and educator safety, keeping our schools open for in-person instruction and for combating this pandemic. Ninety percent of CTA members are vaccinated, and an overwhelming majority supports a vaccine mandate for students and staff. Several California school districts have already worked with educators and families in announcing vaccine mandates and will not be impacted by this new order. Phasing in the implementation timeline will allow local districts to prepare with families and educators and offer schools a vaccination site. Working together we can and will beat the deadly coronavirus that has claimed nearly 70,000 Californians and 700,000 lives in the U.S.

California Federation of Teachers President Jeff Freitas:CFT believes that vaccines are essential to ensuring that our students, school workers, and communities are safe. We know that in-person instruction is best for our students, and that vaccines are the most important safeguard to prevent serious illness from COVID-19 infection.

In a recent poll conducted by CFT, we found that an incredible 89% of CFT members are already vaccinated against COVID-19. We also found that 79% of CFT members support a vaccine mandate for all school staff, with 75% also supporting a vaccine mandate for students.

This supermajority of support underscores just how much CFT members understand the safety of vaccines and the protection they offer to our school communities.

We look forward to working with Governor Newsom, state health and education officials, and our local school districts as they implement a vaccine requirement for our schools. We will work to ensure our members continue to have a voice at the state and local level to address the impacts of any new policies. We will also continue to advocate for other essential safety mitigation strategies, including mask requirements, ventilation upgrades, and regular testing in schools.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond:I have no doubt that todays announcement by the Governor will lead to safer schools and safer communities. I look forward to working with the Governor, his administration, school districts, and school communities across the state to implement this important change.

In the coming weeks, I will be launching a public service campaign to expand vaccination rates across the state. California is already leading the way in combatting this virus, with one of the lowest COVID-19 test positivity rates in the country; the safety measures we take collectively now in our schools will be pivotal to how our communities emerge from the pandemic, and this is especially true for our most vulnerable communities. COVID-19 vaccines provide the best protection possible that will allow students to get back to enjoying what they love most, including school sports, clubs, and social events. We look forward to working with the California Department of Public Health to support this effort that will keep schools safely open. Thanks to public health measures, our communities have opened up, we have been able to hug loved ones, and can now gather again. Lets not lose that progress. The Governors action comes at the right time.

California School Boards Association President Dr. Susan Heredia:The California Schools Boards Association welcomes the states decision to use its longstanding legal authority to add COVID-19 inoculations to the vaccine requirements. CSBA endorses approaches to COVID-19 mitigation that are supported by data and science and that maximize the safety of students and staff principles that are reflected in the new mandate. The patchwork of different methods for COVID-19 mitigation at the local level was not the most effective approach for this particular crisis. California requires a more comprehensive strategy that frees local school boards from the need to act as de facto public health officials. Those decisions are better left to people at the state level who are designated to perform public health functions. In addition, a statewide standard for student vaccinations may help defuse some of the unlawful behavior directed at school board trustees by those who oppose local mandates.

California School Employees Association President Matthew Shane Dishman:As classified staff, we have dedicated our careers to caring for our students by keeping them safe, fed and learning. I can think of no better way to keep students and staff safe than by ensuring every eligible person on campus is vaccinated. Broad vaccination is the only way to get us out of this pandemic so we can ensure every student can learn in person and have the best educational opportunities possible.

San Diego Unified School District President Richard Barerra:We think that it is important to set a standard across the statethat all students public and private schools will be required to receive the vaccination at the point theyre eligible and it certainly builds on the action not only our district has taken, but several other districts in CA have already taken.

California Medical Association President Peter N. Bretan, Jr., M.D.:CMA strongly supports Gov. Newsoms common-sense action to protect our students, teachers and school staff. This is not a new idea. We already require vaccines against several known deadly diseases before students can enroll in schools. The Newsom Administration is simply extending existing public health protections to cover this new disease, which has caused so much pain and suffering across our state, our nation and the entire globe over the last 18 months. We are proud that California continues to put public health first, and urge all who are eligible to get their COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible so we can keep each other safe.

Kaiser Permanente Chair and Chief Executive Officer Greg A. Adams:Kaiser Permanente supports California Gov. Gavin Newsoms strong and timely action to protect students, faculty, and staff who have returned to in-person learning by requiring eligible students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend schools for in-person instruction, once approved by the Food and Drug Administration, beginning in 2022. This is an important step that will protect students and school employees across the state who have returned to full, in-person instruction.

Heres what education and public health leaders have said about vaccine requirements for schools:

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona:I wholeheartedly support [a school vaccine mandate]. Its the best tool that we have to safely reopen schools and keep them open. We dont want to have the yo-yo effect that many districts had last year, and we can prevent that by getting vaccinated.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra:I am very supportive, both personally and as secretary of health and human services of a school district, of a local jurisdiction, of a governor, that says, It is time to keep kids in school safe, and we will, therefore, move to requiring masks and vaccination. The federal government doesnt have jurisdiction to tell schools what to do.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy:The vaccine could make a big difference for the health of our kids and for the peace of mind of parents everywhere. The COVID-19 vaccines are FDAs top priority, and they know the urgency with which our children need a vaccine.

Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown Universitys School of Public Health:Are we willing to use the tools we have to keep schools open? Pretty straightforward: vaccines for everyone eligible, ventilation and filtration, regular testing, indoor masking while community transmission is high, and avoiding crowding. Lets do it.

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What They're Saying: Education and Legislative Leaders Support Announcement of COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements for Schools | California Governor -...

News 12 Staff

Oct 05, 2021, 10:03am

Updated on: Oct 05, 2021, 10:03am

Research shows the risk ofdeveloping a heart condition after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine is rare.

The research was justpublished by a group of doctors at Kaiser Permanente.

The group studied over 2million people who received at least one dose of the Pfizer and Modernavaccine.

Researchers say 15 peopledeveloped myocarditis, a kind of heart inflammation.

The study showed all 15 caseswere in men between the ages of 20 and 32 years old.

View post:

Study: Risk of developing heart condition from COVID-19 vaccine is rare - News 12 Bronx

All vaccines, including those against COVID-19, undergo rigorous clinical trials, in some cases involving tens of thousands of people. But those trials might not involve enough people with a particular risk factor, meaning certain issues might not be noticed by researchers at the earlier stages. Moreover, any vaccine might cause rare side effects that emerge later on.

Launched in 1990, VAERS is used by the CDC and FDA to detect concerning patterns or unusual and unexpected changes that might indicate a safety problem once vaccines are on the market, according to a 2015 academic paper published by researchers at both agencies in the journal Vaccine.

VAERS is important because it can capture events that were not routinely collected in active surveillance in clinical trials, more rare than would have been observed in trials because of limited sample sizes, or occur in populations not adequately studied in clinical trials, says Steven J. Jacobsen, MD, interim executive director of the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, a Wisconsin-based medical research institute, and former president of the American College of Epidemiology.

For example, government researchers investigated reports of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, that were submitted to VAERS, and then alerted the public when they deemed that risk plausible. The CDC has said its continuing to monitor the development.

VAERS reports on their own communicate only that some sort of adverse event, minor or major, happened after someone received a vaccine. Additional work and information are needed to establish whether the vaccine was the cause.

Physicians, epidemiologists, and statisticians at the CDC and FDA assess the number of reports received, what sort of events are reported, and the number of doses distributed. Then they compare the rate an adverse event is reported in VAERS with the rate of the same adverse event with other vaccines.

So while the reports alone generally cant tie a vaccine to an adverse event, it can play an important role.

VAERS can often provide the earliest information on potential vaccine safety problems, the 2015 vaccine paper by CDC and FDA researchers says.

If it does detect potential safety issues, researchers at the CDC and FDA can then investigate further using other systems, such as the CDCs Vaccine Safety Datalink, which receives more specific data from nine major healthcare organizations and can help measure attributable risk, says Emorys Orenstein.

Read the original:

How Government Data Is Being Misused to Question COVID-19 Vaccine Safety - ConsumerReports.org

LANTANA, Fla. The latest figures show that COVID-19 vaccination rates are dropping in Florida.

The numbers are very telling from the Florida Department of Health. In Palm Beach County at the end of August, more than 10,000 people got a vaccine shot.

By the end of September, the number was just over 4,600.

WPTV on Monday spoke to a woman named Medre outside the Florida Department of Health center in Lantana where she received her first COVID-19 shot after weeks of resistance.

"I was between getting it or not getting it," Medre said. "Theres always a fear of the reactions, but we are seeing so many deaths and cases of COVID and I also have young children, so we have to take care of ourselves."

Medre was one of the few getting a shot here on Monday.

The numbers of those getting shots is quickly dropping, as Dr. Larry Bush of Wellington said.

"In Florida in the last several weeks, since the last week of August, every week the number of people getting vaccinated is decreasing," Bush said.

Since early September, the number of weekly vaccinations has dropped from over half a million to just over a quarter a million.

Bush said the decline may be for several reasons, including those still skeptical may be feeling better about monoclonal antibody treatments and other viral medications in the news.

"I clearly understand why people dont want to get vaccinated. They feel the risk is small and they wont get sick. We dont know enough about the vaccine and all that is somewhat true, but what we do know is the people who have the highest risk of dying are those who arent vaccinated," Bush said.

And dr bush says the age group that has some of the highest unvaccinated rates is adults 18-30, which he says is also the group that is most socially active.

Continue reading here:

COVID-19 vaccination rates dropping in Florida - WPTV.com

Rick Barry on NBA's greatest players

NBA players with long, distinguished careers deserve place on all-time list before adding younger players, Rick Barry says

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Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins explained why he got the COVID-19 vaccine, saying he felt"forced" to receive the shot.

Wiggins had been hesitant to take the shot, and risked forfeiture of half his $31.5 million salary for the 2021-22 seasonif he didn't.

The city of San Francisco, where the Warriors play their home games, mandates that anyone over 12 years old must be vaccinated to attend indoor events. At the Chase Center, Golden State players will need proof of vaccination to enter the building.

"The only options were to get vaccinated or not play in the NBA," Wiggins said Monday. "It was a tough decision. Hopefully, it works out in the long run and in 10 years I'm still healthy."

Wiggins said he got the Johnson & Johnson shot and added heis the only one in his family who is vaccinated.

The former No. 1 overall pick went on about his reasons and complaints about the city's mandate, saying he doesn't blame the Warriors for it.

"They didn't make the rule," Wiggins said. "But I guess to do certain stuff, to work, I guess you don't own your body. That's what it comes down to. If you want to work in society today, then I guess they made the rules of what goes in your body and what you do. Hopefully, there's a lot of people out there that are stronger than me and keep fighting, stand for what they believe, and hopefully, it works out for them."

Wiggins averaged18.6points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists last season for the Warriors.

"It feels good to play, but getting vaccinated, that's going to be something that stays in my mind for a long time," Wiggins said. "It's not something I wanted to do, but I was forced to."

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Andrew Wiggins says he was 'forced' to get COVID vaccine 'or not play in the NBA' - USA TODAY

A combination of higher Trump vote share and lower educational attainment help explain the lower COVID-19 vaccination rates in rural areas of the United States, according to a new study published in the Journal of Rural Health.

The researchers conclude that as the pandemic enters its second winter and vaccination rates vary widely across the U.S., mandates may be the most effective strategy for increasing vaccination rates and saving lives in rural areas.

Very few people who havent gotten vaccinated are going to change their minds at this point; theyve dug in their heals, and misinformation is rampant, said researcher Shannon Monnat, an associate professor of sociology at Syracuse University and director of the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion. The most effective way to prevent continued spread, reduce hospitalizations and save lives is to mandate vaccines.

According to public health officials, achieving high vaccination coverage is the best way to prevent coronavirus spread, promote economic recovery and save lives. But as of September 2021, only 66.6% of U.S. adults had been fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In their published study, Rural-urban and within-rural differences in COVID-19 vaccination rates, researchers Monnat and Lerner Graduate Fellow Yue Sun compared COVID-19 vaccination rates across the U.S. rural-urban continuum and identified the major contributors to lower rates of vaccination in rural counties.

The study is summarized in the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion research brief, Why are COVID-19 Vaccination Rates Lower in Rural than in Urban areas of the U.S.?

Here are the researchers key findings:

The vaccination rate disparity is concerning given that COVID-19 infection and mortality rates are higher in rural areas, and rural hospitals have less capacity to deal with surges in severe cases, Monnat said. Right now, unvaccinated people are filling up emergency rooms and putting us all at risk. What happens when there are no beds available for people who have other serious illnesses or injuries?

Vaccines are an effective tool we have at our disposal to get us out of this pandemic, Monnat added. We simply must get vaccination rates up across the entire country.

For more information or to schedule an interview with a researcher, please contact Matt Michael, media relations specialist, by email at mmicha04@syr.edu or by phone at 315.443.2990 or 315.254.9037

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Why COVID-19 Vaccination Rates Are Lower in Rural Areas of the US - Syracuse University News

With the Biden administrations vaccine mandate deadline fast approaching, and many states and private employers continuing to require vaccination, many unvaccinated American workers could soon lose their jobs if they dont comply with these inoculation requirements. That has already been the case for hundreds of health care workers and airline workers across the country who have refused the vaccine.

Among some of the arguments against the COVID-19 vaccine mandates is that immunity from a previous coronavirus infection should count as an alternative to vaccination. This topic has received a lot of attention of late, with NBA players and health care workers speaking out and citing natural immunity as what they believe to be a valid reason for refusing to get the shot.

Last week NBA player Jonathan Isaac said at a press conference that he wasnt getting vaccinated against COVID-19. His reasoning? Natural immunity.

I would start with Ive had COVID in the past, and so our understanding of antibodies, of natural immunity, has changed a great deal from the onset of the pandemic and is still evolving, Isaac said.

The natural immunity argument has also emerged as a potential legal challenge to states and federally mandated vaccination policies.

In New York, a vaccine mandate for more than 650,000 hospital and nursing home workers has prompted a flurry of lawsuits across the state brought by nurses and others who are seeking various exemptions, including one for people who have had COVID-19.

On Thursday a judge upheld the University of Californias COVID-19 vaccine requirement against a challenge by a professor who alleged he was immune to COVID-19 due to a prior coronavirus infection. The U.S. District Court judge overseeing the case said the university system acted rationally to protect public health by mandating the vaccine and not giving exemptions to individuals with some level of natural immunity. The ruling appears to be the first on the issue, and it may influence future rulings on this matter.

Story continues

But what does the scientific evidence say about which offers better protection natural immunity or vaccine immunity? The answer is, like almost everything around COVID, complicated.

Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, says the data available is mixed, with some studies pointing to natural immunity being as effective as some of the vaccines, and other studies suggesting the opposite.

When data is mixed, we say we have equipoise and keep on studying, Gandhi tweeted.

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and most medical professionals in the U.S. widely recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for everyone who is eligible regardless of whether they have already been infected with the coronavirus.

According to the CDC and health experts supporting this guidance, one reason for this recommendation is that research has not yet shown how long protection from the virus lasts after recovering from COVID-19. In addition, the agency says one of its recent studies, which went through a rigorous multi-level clearance process, showed that vaccination offers higher protection than a previous coronavirus infection.

The peer-reviewed study of 246 Kentucky residents concluded that unvaccinated people who already had COVID-19 were more than 2 times as likely than fully vaccinated people to get COVID-19 again.

Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Childrens Hospital, told Yahoo News that another reason why those who have had COVID-19 should get vaccinated is because not everyone builds robust immunity after infection.

If you look at some of those early studies, people who are infected and recover have highly variable heterogeneous responses to the virus, Hotez said. Some have pretty strong, vigorous responses. Others have almost no virus, neutralizing antibodies or responses at all, and are highly susceptible to reinfection, Hotez added.

Since it is difficult to determine where someone may wind up on that scale, Hotez says the best thing to do is to recommend vaccination for those whove had the disease already.

But proponents of including natural immunity in the vaccine mandates equation are also basing their argument on scientific data. They point to certain studies over the past year that have shown that natural immunity offers significant protection against reinfection. These include studies out of Cleveland Clinic and Washington University, as well as Israel.

The Israel study, however, has been the one that has received the most attention recently.

According to the 778,658-person study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, people who recovered from prior infection and remained unvaccinated were 27 times less likely to experience symptomatic reinfection from the Delta variant when compared to those who had not been infected and received two doses of the mRNA Pfizer vaccine. The study also found that a single dose of the vaccine in people with natural immunity boosted protection against the Delta variant.

In response to the Israeli study, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, said natural immunity was something that we need to sit down and discuss seriously. He added that the study didnt provide information on the durability of the protection from prior infection, and that there is a lot more that needs to be accounted for and studied further when it comes to this topic.

Other arguments that have been brought forth by opponents of the vaccine mandates is that in other countries, for example Britain and Israel, proof of prior infection is taken into account, with people being able to receive a vaccination passport for six months. In the United States, however, that is not the case.

Even though opponents have argued that vaccine mandates shouldnt be one-size-fits-all, many health experts believe that vaccinating people who have already had COVID-19 is, ultimately, the most responsible public health policy right now. Theres no doubt that natural infection does provide significant immunity for many people, but were operating in an environment of imperfect information, and in that environment the precautionary principle applies better safe than sorry, former CDC Director Tom Frieden told the British Medical Journal.

Hotez says this universal vaccination strategy is also the best approach at the moment because of the challenges that exist in testing peoples level of immunity or protection from COVID-19 on a large scale.

We do have tests to measure antibodies. In theory, you could even measure virus, neutralizing antibodies in a specialty lab, but thats not easy to do in a high-throughput way, he said. We do not have what we call a true correlate of protection. We do not have a blood test or even a series of blood tests that we can say definitively, you know, thumbs-up, thumbs-down, youre protected or not, he added.

Finally, health experts say vaccination is simply a more quantifiable, predictable and reliable way to protect the population right now, so Hotez emphasizes the importance of getting the shot, even if youve had COVID-19 before.

The bottom line is that if youre infected and recovered, youre still susceptible to reinfection, especially from this Delta variant. ... If youve not been vaccinated, get vaccinated; if youve been infected and recovered, get vaccinated, he said.

____

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Where does natural immunity stand in fight over vaccine mandates? - Yahoo News

President BidenJoe BidenTop GOP senator: 'Far-left Democrats are driving the bus and Joe Biden is just along for the ride' Political study should give Democrats a jolt Fauci says it's a 'false narrative' to think COVID-19 vaccine not needed if Merck drug approved MOREs top medical adviser, Anthony FauciAnthony FauciFauci says it's a 'false narrative' to think COVID-19 vaccine not needed if Merck drug approved Sunday shows preview: Biden amps up involvement in talks amid tug-of-war over infrastructure Fauci: Results from Merck pill to treat COVID-19 'impressive' MORE,said on Sunday that it is a false narrative to think that the COVID-19 vaccinewouldnot be needed if an antiviral COVID-19 treatment from Merckis federally approved.

This Weekco-anchor Jonathan Karl asked Fauci on ABC if theapproval ofthe antiviral treatment could make taking the COVID-19 vaccine unnecessary.

Oh, absolutely not. That's such a false narrative that someone says, Well now you have a drug. Remember, the easiest way to stay out of the hospital, and not die, is don't get infected, Fauci told Karl.

I mean this idea about We have a drug, don't get vaccinated, just doesn't make any sense,Fauci added.

Faucis comments come as the United States surpassed the grim milestone of 700,000 COVID-19 deaths.

He also said that many of those deaths could have been avoidable had they taken the COVID-19 vaccine, explaining if you look at the people who get hospitalized, and the people who die, it is overwhelmingly weighted towards the people who are unvaccinated.

"When you say 'Are some of those deaths avoidable?' They certainly are. In fact, looking forward now, most of the deaths could be avoidable if we get people vaccinated," Dr. Anthony FauciAnthony FauciFauci says it's a 'false narrative' to think COVID-19 vaccine not needed if Merck drug approved Sunday shows preview: Biden amps up involvement in talks amid tug-of-war over infrastructure Fauci: Results from Merck pill to treat COVID-19 'impressive' MORE tells @jonkarl as the U.S. surpasses 700,000 deaths from COVID-19. https://t.co/8flUwOVpbb pic.twitter.com/cjzGTnKN69

Merck said last weekthatits antiviral COVID-19 treatment, molnupiravir, was effective against COVID-19.The pharmaceutical giantsaid that inphase three trials, only 7.3 percent of those who received the medication were hospitalized for COVID-19 within 29 dayswhile 14.1 percent of those who received the placebo either ended up in the hospital or died.

Merckalso said that none of the people who received molnupiravir died during the trial, but eight people who received the placebo did.

Merck said that it would be applying for emergency authorization of the drug.

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Fauci says it's a 'false narrative' to think COVID-19 vaccine not needed if Merck drug approved | TheHill - The Hill

Children of color lack access to COVID-19 vaccines, and that's sadly 'not a surprise,' experts say  USA TODAY

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Children of color lack access to COVID-19 vaccines, and that's sadly 'not a surprise,' experts say - USA TODAY