Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends a handful of vaccinations for 11- and 12-year-olds, along with catch-up and booster inoculations for teens over 15.

But gaps remain, and the COVID-19 pandemic may have slowed progress toward closing them.

Datashow a substantial decrease in the number of vaccine doses given to children and adolescents since the pandemic began.

The agency recommends adolescents receive TDap vaccines against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough, along with inoculations against meningococcal diseases and the cancer-causing human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Prior to the pandemic, HPV coverage was up, and TDap shots held steady, although vaccination rates were lower among teens living outside metro areas.

Not so for rural teens below the poverty line, possibly thanks to the Vaccines for Children program, which provides vaccinations to teens who are Medicaid-eligible, uninsured or American Indian or Alaska Native.

Understanding the socioeconomic and geographical factors behind the disparities will require further research.

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CDC: Gaps In Non-COVID-19 Vaccinations Worsened By Pandemic - KJZZ

COVID-19 vaccines help our bodies develop immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19 without us having to get the illness. Different types of vaccines work in different ways to offer protection, but with all types of vaccines, the body is left with a supply of memory defensive white blood cells that will remember how to fight that virus in the future.

Currently, three authorized COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed in the United States.It is important to note that these vaccines do not contain the live virus.

Learn more about them here:

The CDC does not recommend one vaccine over another. The best COVID-19 vaccine is the first one that is available to you.

If you are fully vaccinated, the CDC has stated the following:

Fully vaccinated people can:

For now, fully vaccinated people should continue to:

For more information about the COVID-19 vaccine, please read Jackson Health Systems Frequently Asked Questions in English, Spanish and Creole.

For Frequently Asked Questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, please click here.

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COVID-19 Testing & Vaccine Information - Miami - City of Miami

As flu season approaches and more people are vaccinated against COVID-19, some people might be concerned about getting vaccinated against different viruses too close together.

Dr. Christelle Ilboudo with MU Health Care said although the original studies said different vaccines should be spaced out by two weeks, that is no longer the case.

"The original studies that were done they asked people to not get other vaccines in a two week window period for the reason of knowing what side effects were related directly to the COVID-19 vaccine," Ilboudo said.

As millions of people have received the COVID-19 vaccine, nothing indicates that getting vaccines closer together will do any harm.

Ilboudo says the COVID-19 vaccine should still be prioritized over others because of the recent surge in the delta variant. As flu season is on the horizon, she says people should be looking to get their flu shot by early October.

"If they're due for the second COVID vaccine or if they haven't yet gotten vaccinated, they can absolutely do both at the same time," Ilboudo said.

Ilboudo said during the pandemic last school year, a lot of kids fell behind with other vaccinations like the flu or shingles, so they must get caught up as they head back to classes this year.

The Columbia/Boone County Health Department released a statement saying that after Sept. 15, it will not regularly host COVID-19 vaccination clinics as it has been done in the past several months. The department will announce any pop-up COVID-19 vaccination opportunities as they occur, but community members are encouraged to get thevaccinefrom other vaccinators.

Scott Clardy with the department said the change has everything to do with the flu season coming up and the efforts for flu shots will begin around the first of October.

"We go to schools throughout Boone County. We go to all the public schools and eight private schools and do flu shot clinics there for students," Clardy said. "Once we get those scheduled, which is one of the things we're working on now, then we'll probably go ahead and schedule some more outreach COVID vaccine clinics."

According to the health department website, anyone six months and older can get the flu shot. Just like the COVID-19 vaccine, ittakes about two weeks after receiving the fluvaccine to develop the bodys protection to fight the illness.

Side effects are expected with any vaccine; as Ilboudo says, the intention is to boost your immune system, to give something for the system to remember so that next time you face the infection you are trying to prevent, your body is primed to know what to do already.

Ilboudo says flu shots and COVID-19 vaccines are widely available at similar locations, including health agencies and many pharmacies. She encourages talking with your primary doctor just in case you do have special circumstances.

Check back for more on this developing story or watch ABC 17 News at 10 p.m.

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Doctor says it is safe to get the COVID-19 vaccine at the same time as other shots - News-Press Now

COVID-19 booster shots aren't yet authorized by the CDC for the general public, but Dr. Anthony Fauci said a program could roll out across the country in two weeks.

HOUSTON You or someone you know might be considering a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

An estimated one million Americans have already received a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine but booster shots are not yet authorized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the general public.

Dr. George Delclos, a professor of epidemiology at UTHealth School of Public Health, said the earliest a Food and Drug Administration committee and the CDC could authorize a booster shot is Sept. 20.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said a COVID-19 booster shot program could roll out across the country in two weeks. Americans would be eligible to receive a third shot eight months after they received their second dose.

Right now, the CDC recommends that only people with compromised immune systems get a third dose.

If you give a booster dose too soon it may not have the intended beneficial effect. So the timing is important, Delclos said.

With the highly contagious COVID-19 delta variant driving up hospitalizations in parts of the country, some might think a booster will protect them from contracting the virus. Delclos said thats not true.

The main goal is preventing severe COVID, which we define as the need for hospitalization or dying from it, Delclos said. These are very good vaccines.

Delclos said the hospitalization rate of severe illness for fully vaccinated individuals is very low especially when compared to unvaccinated Americans.

That is a phenomenal achievement, but we can do better. And we just need to be patient and plot ahead and keep going, he said.

Excerpt from:

COVID-19 booster shots are coming, but doctors say you don't need one right now - KHOU.com

The jump in cases has translated into overcrowded hospitals and a rise in infections among children -- of particular concern as many students return to their classrooms. And experts fear that a holiday weekend could make matters worse.

Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky advised unvaccinated Americans not to travel for the holiday and reminded vaccinated people that the high rate of virus transmission meant that it could be risky for them to travel as well.

One big difference between this year and last is the more transmissible Delta variant. Another is that Americans over 12-years-old can get highly effective Covid-19 vaccines, which experts say is the best defense against the virus.

But only 53% of the total US population is fully vaccinated, and just 62% of eligible Americans are, leaving tens of millions very vulnerable.

"Here's the important thing: everyone that I'm hospitalizing is not vaccinated. We are, by and large across the country, not needing to hospitalize people that have gotten both doses of the vaccine," Professor of Emergency Medicine and Associate Dean of Public Health and Brown University Dr. Megan Ranney said. "This is a disease of the unvaccinated right now."

"The takeaway for everyone is get your shots and certainly wear a mask for that added layer of protection if you're in public indoor spaces right now," Ranney said.

Many students head back to school without school nurses

Experts have encouraged adults to get vaccinated in order to protect young children returning to school.

"The way you protect children who, because of their age, cannot get vaccinated yet is to surround the children -- be it friends, family, school teachers, personnel in the school -- surround the children with vaccinated people," director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN on Sunday.

The situation is made even more concerning as an estimated quarter of schools to which students are returning don't have a school nurse at all. The CDC recommends that schools have one full-time nurse for every 750 students.

Based on the latest data from a national school nurse workforce study, published in the Journal of School Nursing in 2018, approximately 39% of schools employ full-time nurses and about 35% employ part-time school nurses, while 25% do not employ school nurses. Experts emphasize that the nation has had a shortage of school nurses for years, but the pandemic now sheds light on just how dire the shortage has become.

Schools in the rural regions appear to be "significantly more likely" than schools in urban areas to report having no nurse at all, according to the study published in the Journal of School Nursing in 2018. In that study, 23.5% of rural schools report having no nurse compared with 10.3% of urban schools.

"Funding is a key issue. There is an inconsistent mishmash of state and local funding that puts small rural school districts with inadequate tax bases at a disadvantage," Laura Searcy, a pediatric nurse practitioner who is a past president of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and a fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, told CNN.

"And those areas also are likely to have a shortage of primary care pediatric health care providers as well."

West Virginia governor frustrated at booster pace

Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration is set to meet September 17 to discuss Covid-19 booster shots. Last month, the White House said people who got the two mRNA vaccines -- the two-shot vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna -- may receive boosters starting September 20.

In West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice said Monday that he is eager for the boosters to begin.

"If we could just get the go-ahead from our government to absolutely start administering these booster shots, we would be all over that and we'll be doing that immediately," Justice said. "We're ready to go."

Justice accused the federal government of holding up West Virginia from leading in its Covid response.

"We've got people that are well beyond six months that are 60 and older that need the booster shot. And we can't give it to them because we're being held up by, you know, the nation and on the federal level right now," Justice said.

On Sunday, Fauci predicted that Moderna may be rolling out its booster dose later than Pfizer.

With the potential timing discrepancy, researchers are looking into whether different types of Covid-19 vaccines can be mixed and matched.

"We're lining up Pfizer against Pfizer, Pfizer for Moderna, and vice versa," Fauci told Weijia Jiang on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "Hopefully, within a reasonable period of time, measured in a couple of weeks, we will have that data."

At this point, it is OK for healthy vaccinated Americans to wait and see what the CDC and FDA have to say before going and getting a booster dose, CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen said. The most important thing at this time is to get the unvaccinated their first two doses, she added.

CNN's Deidre McPhillips, Jacqueline Howard and Hannah Sarisohn contributed to this report.

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This Labor Day saw 300% more new Covid-19 cases on average than last year - CNN

LONGVIEW The number of COVID-19 vaccinations given in the state and Cowlitz County appears to be rising very slightly over the last couple weeks, after dropping in the spring and remaining flat since July, according to state Department of Health data.

As of Friday, 51.7% of Cowlitz County residents had initiated vaccination, and 46.5% were fully vaccinated. Statewide, 60.9% of residents had initiated vaccination, and 55.2% were fully vaccinated.

Many unvaccinated people have misconceptions about the vaccines safety, said Dr. Steve Krager, county deputy health officer.

During the Cowlitz County commissioner meeting Tuesday, many people speaking in favor of a resolution stating the board wont require COVID-19 vaccines for some employees commented that data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) showed an increase in injuries, medical problems and deaths caused by the COVID vaccines.

Krager said the vaccines are safe and effective, and many people are misinterpreting the VAERS data.

The national system is run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to detect possible safety problems in vaccines. VAERS is not designed to detect if a vaccine caused a specific event, but it can help identify unusual or unexpected patterns requiring a closer look, according to its website.

Anyone can report a health problem that happens after vaccination to the site.

Healthcare providers are required to report serious events, regardless of causality, including: death, a life-threatening event, hospitalization, persistent or significant incapacity, congenital anomaly or birth defect, or serious medical event.

Just because a problem is reported does not mean that the vaccine caused or contributed to it, Krager said.

According to a July county health department report, VAERS data must be interpreted with limitations in mind, including that reports may contain biased, incomplete, inaccurate, unverifiable information; individual adverse events may be reported repeatedly; an event occurring after vaccination is not necessarily caused by the vaccine.

VAERS data is absolutely being misinterpreted and misused. Its frustrating to see, Krager said. People taking every report and assuming causality with the vaccine is not how VAERS is meant to be used.

A perfect example of how VAERS is supposed to be used is when it caught the link between an increased risk of rare blood clots with low platelets and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Krager said. Vaccine use was paused when the problem was investigated, and officials determined the vaccine is still worth getting because risk of death from COVID is so much higher, he said.

Krager said health officials are not seeing increases in deaths linked to the COVID-19 vaccines.

Another misunderstanding of COVID-19 data is that the vaccine caused the delta variant and that vaccinated people are primarily spreading it, Krager said.

The delta variant, known as B.1.617.2, was first identified in India in October 2020 before vaccines were available, according to the CDC. The more contagious strain began spreading in the United States this spring and is now the most predominant variant in the country.

The COVID-19 vaccines dont shed the virus, according to the CDC. Preliminary evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people who are infected can spread it to others. Vaccination helps prevent severe illness and death.

Theres a clear correlation between lower vaccination rates and higher case rates, Krager said.

As of Wednesday, San Juan County had the lowest two-week case rate in the state, at about 150 new cases per 100,000 people. The county had the highest vaccination rate in Washington as of Monday, with 77.2% of residents initiating vaccination and 71.4% fully vaccinated.

The same trend is seen nationwide, Krager said, with less-vaccinated states seeing higher case numbers.

Most cases are being driven by unvaccinated people, he said. Its not that vaccinated people are not getting sick, but theyre not a primary driver. Thats even more true with hospitalizations and deaths.

About 80-85% of cases are in unvaccinated people, Krager said. The vaccines provide more protection against severe illness, hospitalization and death, he said.

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Cowlitz County health official addresses COVID-19 vaccine misinformation - The Columbian

"What's the goal of this vaccine? The stated goal by (CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky) and others is to prevent serious infection, and all the data today, published by the CDC, presented by the CDC, is it's done exactly that," Dr. Paul Offit, a top vaccine expert and US Food and Drug Administration adviser said Friday.

"There's been no evidence of clear erosion of protection against serious disease," he said.

The conversation around vaccines has fluctuated because health experts are learning new information about the coronavirus and its variants.

But amid the debate, experts are consistent in noting the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccines.

"Remember, even the current doses of vaccines still protect you so well from hospitalization and death. We are not back in early 2020 or even early 2021 for those of us that have not received boosters yet. We are still protected against the worst effects of this virus," Dr. Megan Ranney, professor of emergency medicine at Brown University, told CNN on Friday.

And it's because of such a high degree of protection that Offit emphasized that America can make significant headway against the pandemic by simply vaccinating the unvaccinated.

He added that the federal government's messaging on booster shots has been confusing and frustrating.

"It's confusing to people. I've had a number of calls and emails from people saying, 'Wait, so I'm not fully protected anymore?'" Offit said.

"I think the message that should come out right now is if you received two doses of mRNA vaccines, you have a very high chance of not having serious infection, and that that has lasted up until the present moment, that you should consider yourself protected against serious illness."

Plan for booster shots is 'confusing people,' top FDA official says

However, on Thursday, FDA Acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said the administration still doesn't have enough safety data on booster shots.

"Why would you announce this? Well, we need to have a plan and the plan would involve the vaccination of very large numbers of people in the United States with a booster dose," Woodcock told Dr. John Whyte of WebMD during a virtual interview published online Thursday.

"We have to make a plan somewhat before we have all the data and I think that, John, is what's confusing people," Woodcock said.

"The trends that we're seeing in resistance to the virus in fully immunized people lend us to believe that at some point we're going to cross that threshold and we're going to see hospitalizations and more serious disease and when that happens, we want to be ready," Woodcock told Whyte.

On Friday, officials told CNN there have been conversations within the Biden administration about scaling back the booster plan due to concerns the FDA might only be prepared to recommend boosters for people who had the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Currently, the agency doesn't have enough data on Moderna to make that recommendation, an official told CNN.

Pfizer/BioNTech applied for a booster shot FDA approval last month, and Moderna said it applied Wednesday.

Florida sees decline in Covid-19 cases

Meanwhile, there was some good news from Florida, which broke its own record for new Covid-19 cases multiple times last month. Over the past week, there was a decline in cases, according to data published Friday by the state health department.

The state averaged about 18,463 daily new cases last week, equivalent to 588.1 new cases per 100,000 people each day between August 27 and September 2. That is a drop from the prior week, when the average of daily new cases was 21,678.

Florida has fully vaccinated slightly more than half of its population, according to CDC data.

Meanwhile, the mask mandate feud between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and public school districts continues. DeSantis has been sparring with school officials for weeks because he banned mask mandates in schools, but some implemented them anyway.

Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran sent individual letters to nine districts demanding the districts "document how your district is complying with Florida Department of Health emergency rule" as part of a non-compliance investigation. He also threatened to withhold state funds if districts did not fully comply with DeSantis' order to include a parent opt-out in school mask mandate policies.

CNN has confirmed all nine districts have now responded to Corcoran's August 27 letter.

CNN's Naomi Thomas, John Bonifield, Sanjay Gupta, Jacqueline Howard, Lauren Mascarenhas, Leyla Santiago and Sara Weisfeldt contributed to this report.

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Already vaccinated against Covid-19? Experts say you're protected, even without a booster shot - CNN

The Food and Drug Administration gave its full approval to Pfizers coronavirus vaccine for people 16 and older at the end of August. Within days vaccine doses in Illinois spiked from about 26 thousand Aug. 25, to more than 122 thousand doses administered Aug. 26, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

But some folks are still hesitant to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Dr. Evelyn Figueroa, vice president of UI Health Medical Staff, says she hears some of these concerns firsthand.

The first thing that people talk about is that the vaccine is too new and that it needs more time to be tested in spite of it making it through all three phases of FDA trials, Figueroa said. But its actually been vigorously tested. Its been tested more than any other vaccine, upward of 10 times more than common vaccines.

About 80% of UI Healths patients are Latinx or African American. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, about 14.2% of the people getting vaccinated are Hispanic or Latino. The Census Bureau shows that 17.5% of the population is estimated to be Hispanic.

People that come to the doctor are more likely to be willing to share the discussion and the decision with me, Figueroa said. There is a lag in Illinois and I do see that in the clinic. However, and fortunately, I can only count on one hand the amount of Latinx folks that Ive had in clinic that havent taken the vaccine.

Claudia Reyes, a former nurse who lives with Lou Gehrigs disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS. Reyes has been hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine because of the effects it may have. But shes also had trouble getting to a site.

I was more concerned with how it would affect me having ALS and with breathing altogether since (COVID) is a respiratory thing. Since I am disabled, I dont really go out a lot, Reyes said. Now at this point, its more of me just being taken to get it.

Reyes believes accessibility is a barrier for those who have challenges getting around.

Some people do have family that are able to take them, but a lot have family that works so its a difficult situation, Reyes said.

She believes a lack of useful information has kept people from getting the COVID-19 vaccine. And she says that it needs to come from the people they trust.

A lot of it is misinformation that they get, Reyes said. A lot of times doctors just tell you, You should get the vaccine, but they dont give you a reason why. They dont explain what the consequences are or that you might feel sick. If youre going to get a better crowd to do things its going to stem from people they know, like the churches if theyre involved there.

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How Health Care Workers are Handling Concerns Around COVID-19 Vaccine - WTTW News

To bring the pandemic under control, almost everyone needs to come to see getting vaccinated as the unquestioned, right thing to do for themselves and for others. What business leaders decide about Covid-19 vaccine mandates will go a long way toward fostering the social norms that can either mitigate or exacerbate this pandemic. When a company mandates Covid-19 vaccinations, the normative information they provide is that these vaccinations are safe and effective and that getting vaccinated is widely accepted and done. As more companies mandate vaccines, over time this becomes the shared understanding, and getting vaccinated becomes the default choice for employees and customers. Conversely, when companies dont mandate vaccination, it delegitimizes the Covid-19 vaccines by suggesting that the science is unsettled and that waiting to get vaccinated is prudent. By establishing and diffusing social norms that uphold science, company vaccine mandates can help get the pandemic under control.

Now that the FDA has fully approved Pfizers Covid-19 vaccine and President Biden has urged companies to require vaccination, many leaders will grapple with what to do. In making their decisions, theres a larger societal calculation they should consider: the role their organization can play in either normalizing or delegitimizing getting vaccinated.

Vaccine hesitancy is a growing social problem. In 2019, the WHO declared it a top-10 threat to global health, with clear economic implications. In response to this rising threat, what business leaders decide about Covid-19 vaccine mandates will go a long way toward fostering the social norms that can either mitigate or exacerbate this pandemic.

This power that leaders have is missing from the debate about vaccine mandates. Both proponents and opponents seem stuck on the legalistic view that mandates compel people to get vaccinated. But this ignores the potent symbolic value that mandates provide, especially in times of intense societal flux.

We face a novel disease, and were armed with a new vaccine created using a novel approach. With Covid-19 surging around the world and new variants emerging, we also face unprecedented uncertainty. This combination of novelty and uncertainty means that societal understandings of what we are or should be doing are up for grabs. Therefore, the faster we firmly establish social norms that uphold public health (e.g., getting vaccinated), the faster they become taken-for-granted ways to behave, and the faster we bring the pandemic under control.

Heres how company vaccine mandates can play a forceful norm-setting role in this social process.

The social problem we face is what social scientists call social mobilization. Social mobilization involves getting large numbers of people to perform a behavior that is only beneficial when done by the vast majority of people. Recycling is a quintessential example. If just one person recycles, their efforts are negligible. But if millions of people recycle, there are tremendous environmental benefits. The same logic holds for vaccination the real benefit occurs only when the overwhelming majority of the population is vaccinated. To address a range of social problems, the task is to get a significant number of people to engage in certain behaviors.

Research shows that social norms play a critical role in social mobilization. This is because social norms contain normative information about what people are or ought to be doing. When people see certain behaviors (e.g., getting vaccinated) as commonplace, they then believe there is widespread agreement that the behavior is the good or right thing to do and are more likely to act in accordance with the social norm.

And heres where mandates come in.

Mandates and laws not only have a legal function (you are required to do X) but also a symbolic function (signaling that doing X is a natural thing to do). What keeps most of us from committing crimes is not constantly thinking about the rules and the punishments we may suffer for breaking them. Rather, we automatically do things that feel normal. Take seatbelts as an example. Most of us wear them not because were afraid of being punished for violating the law, but because doing so has become natural. As sociological research has documented, laws and regulations help create social norms and shared understanding because its societal institutions governments, schools, and businesses that collectively construct the world we take for granted. In essence, through their policies, approaches, and procedures, social institutions help create a world where certain things become unquestioned.

When a company mandates Covid-19 vaccinations, the normative information they provide is that these vaccinations are safe and effective and that getting vaccinated is widely accepted and done. As more companies mandate vaccines, over time this becomes the shared understanding, and getting vaccinated becomes the default choice for employees and customers.

Conversely, when companies dont mandate vaccination, it delegitimizes the Covid-19 vaccines by suggesting that the science is unsettled and that waiting to get vaccinated is prudent. When companies like Southwest and American Airlines do not mandate vaccination, it signals an institutional lack of confidence in the vaccines. In turn, this stance fuels vaccine hesitancy among the 30% of unvaccinated adults in the U.S., thereby preventing the social mobilization needed to bring the pandemic under control. With their stance on vaccination, these companies become part of the problem.

Some leaders may be hesitant to enter the fray on vaccination, viewing it as a political issue. Yet companies have long led on important social issues, collectively constructing social norms through their policies and actions. For example, the early adoption of domestic partner benefits by corporations helped to normalize gay marriage. More recently, companies have taken stances on climate change and opposing voter suppression efforts in Georgia. In doing so, these company stances reinforce and uphold important norms like protecting the environment and supporting human rights. Indeed, the notion of apolitical management is a myth that has been widely discredited. The truth is that the politicization of our time requires leaders to take stances because failing to do so will allow anti-science and anti-democratic efforts to spread.

To bring the pandemic under control, almost everyone needs to come to see getting vaccinated as the unquestioned, right thing to do for themselves and for others. By establishing and diffusing social norms that uphold science, company vaccine mandates can help do just that.

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Why Business Leaders Need to Mandate the Covid-19 Vaccine - Harvard Business Review

One of two teachers at a Texas junior high school who died last week of COVID-19 was nervous about returning to school because of the delta variant, her sister told CNN.Natalia Chansler, a 6th-grade social studies teacher at Connally Junior High in Elm Mott, Texas, died of COVID-19 complications on Aug. 28, just days after testing positive for the virus, according to an email sent to parents by the Connally Independent School District.Chansler, 41, was not vaccinated because she had underlying health conditions and was trying to decide which vaccine would be best for her, her older sister, Annice Chansler, told CNN New Day on Friday.Video above: Fourth-grade teacher supports vaccine mandates"She was close to getting vaccinated and then of course this happened," Annice Chansler said. "And then she was really more thinking, 'Okay, when I get better I'm going to go ahead and get vaccinated.' But of course, she passed before that."Chansler was last on campus on Aug. 25, according to the district.Annice Chansler said her sister wore a mask even though there is no mask mandate in the district. Connally ISD does recommend masks for students and staff.She said her sister was nervous during the first wave of COVID-19 infections, adding, "When the variant came, she was even more nervous. But she had to work. She had no choice."Connally ISD closed every school in the district after classes on Monday in response to the deaths of Natalia Chansler and 59-year-old David A. McCormick, who taught 7th-grade social studies at the junior high.McCormick died from COVID-19 on Aug. 24 and had last been on campus on Aug. 18, which was the first day of school, according to the district.Neither teacher had been identified as having close contact with a COVID-positive person on campus and the district has no definitive evidence of how they contracted the virus, Connally ISD Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Jill Bottelberghe told CNN in an email Wednesday night.The district serves the cities of Lacy Lakeview and Waco and the communities of Elm Mott, Chalk Bluff, and Gholson.The closure would give the district a chance to deep clean and sanitize all of its facilities and hopefully give anyone exposed to the virus a chance to isolate and recover, the district said in its announcement.It also canceled all extracurricular activities, including high school football games.In-person classes are scheduled to resume on Tuesday, after the Labor Day holiday.The district said the two teachers were beloved and described their deaths as heartbreaking. District administrators brought in counselors to support students and help them cope with their loss.Bottelberghe said that as of Aug. 30, there had been 165 positive COVID-19 cases reported and that more cases were identified in testing on Wednesday.A drive-through testing session held Wednesday morning for staff, students and community members had a 26% positivity rate, according to a post on the district's Facebook page.Annice Chansler said Natalia was the youngest girl out of their 10 siblings and described her as "fun-loving" and "the best baby sister I could ever have."She said her sister was quiet but had an inviting personality."Students, parents, anyone who came across Natalia, they immediately liked her and liked her personality," she said.McLennan County, Texas, where the district is located, has had 34,951 confirmed cases and 547 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.Annice Chansler says some of her family members who were reluctant to get the shot are now getting vaccinated."They've made that move and I'm so proud of them for doing that. I hate that it took Natalia's passing for them to understand how important it is, but I'm just glad they've done it," she said.

One of two teachers at a Texas junior high school who died last week of COVID-19 was nervous about returning to school because of the delta variant, her sister told CNN.

Natalia Chansler, a 6th-grade social studies teacher at Connally Junior High in Elm Mott, Texas, died of COVID-19 complications on Aug. 28, just days after testing positive for the virus, according to an email sent to parents by the Connally Independent School District.

Chansler, 41, was not vaccinated because she had underlying health conditions and was trying to decide which vaccine would be best for her, her older sister, Annice Chansler, told CNN New Day on Friday.

Video above: Fourth-grade teacher supports vaccine mandates

"She was close to getting vaccinated and then of course this happened," Annice Chansler said. "And then she was really more thinking, 'Okay, when I get better I'm going to go ahead and get vaccinated.' But of course, she passed before that."

Chansler was last on campus on Aug. 25, according to the district.

Annice Chansler said her sister wore a mask even though there is no mask mandate in the district. Connally ISD does recommend masks for students and staff.

She said her sister was nervous during the first wave of COVID-19 infections, adding, "When the variant came, she was even more nervous. But she had to work. She had no choice."

Connally ISD closed every school in the district after classes on Monday in response to the deaths of Natalia Chansler and 59-year-old David A. McCormick, who taught 7th-grade social studies at the junior high.

McCormick died from COVID-19 on Aug. 24 and had last been on campus on Aug. 18, which was the first day of school, according to the district.

Neither teacher had been identified as having close contact with a COVID-positive person on campus and the district has no definitive evidence of how they contracted the virus, Connally ISD Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Jill Bottelberghe told CNN in an email Wednesday night.

The district serves the cities of Lacy Lakeview and Waco and the communities of Elm Mott, Chalk Bluff, and Gholson.

The closure would give the district a chance to deep clean and sanitize all of its facilities and hopefully give anyone exposed to the virus a chance to isolate and recover, the district said in its announcement.

It also canceled all extracurricular activities, including high school football games.

In-person classes are scheduled to resume on Tuesday, after the Labor Day holiday.

The district said the two teachers were beloved and described their deaths as heartbreaking. District administrators brought in counselors to support students and help them cope with their loss.

Bottelberghe said that as of Aug. 30, there had been 165 positive COVID-19 cases reported and that more cases were identified in testing on Wednesday.

A drive-through testing session held Wednesday morning for staff, students and community members had a 26% positivity rate, according to a post on the district's Facebook page.

Annice Chansler said Natalia was the youngest girl out of their 10 siblings and described her as "fun-loving" and "the best baby sister I could ever have."She said her sister was quiet but had an inviting personality.

"Students, parents, anyone who came across Natalia, they immediately liked her and liked her personality," she said.

McLennan County, Texas, where the district is located, has had 34,951 confirmed cases and 547 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Annice Chansler says some of her family members who were reluctant to get the shot are now getting vaccinated.

"They've made that move and I'm so proud of them for doing that. I hate that it took Natalia's passing for them to understand how important it is, but I'm just glad they've done it," she said.

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Texas teacher on the fence about COVID-19 vaccine dies three days after testing positive - KCRA Sacramento