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US coronavirus: ‘This is starting to look really ominous in the South,’ expert says, as US is among nations with highest rate of new cases

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In the month of August, the US has so far reported more than 1.5 million new cases of Covid-19, more than three times the numbers for Iran and India — which now hold second and third place, JHU data shows. And the seven-day average has topped more than 135,000 cases, well ahead of other nations.

On a state-by-state comparison, Louisiana has the highest rate of new cases per capita, followed by Florida.

“That’s how badly things have gotten out of hand. There is a screaming level of transmission across the southern states right now. And now we’re starting to see this happening among younger age groups,” Hotez said.

Florida on Friday broke its own record high in Covid-19 cases over the past week, reporting 151,415 new cases — the most infections recorded during a seven-day period since the pandemic upended lives across the globe.

The surge has been fueled by the more transmissible Delta variant, overwhelming hospitals across the country.

In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards said hospitalizations hit a pandemic record high of at least 2,907 patients, up by six people from a day earlier.

“They’re not just the highest that they’ve ever been. They’re almost a third higher than at any other point in this pandemic. Our hospitals are struggling. Staff remains the limiting factor on capacity. Our staff at our hospitals, nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists and physician’s assistants, you name it, they’re maxed out,” the governor said Friday.

Edwards said state hospital leaders are worried about the surges.

“I will tell you that I’ve never heard them express more concern, more alarm, or anxiety than they did this week, because we are rapidly approaching the breaking point,” Edwards added.

And in Alabama, there is an alarming uptick of infants as well as teenagers hospitalized with Covid-19, according to Dr. David Kimberlin, the director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

“We’re seeing a lot of children who are very, very sick admitted to our hospital. We have almost twice as many right now as we did at the previous worst part of this pandemic, which was probably in January,” Kimberlin told CNN’s Erin Burnett Friday.

“These children are coming in fighting for breath, fighting for the ability to basically get through this devastating illness, many of them are on ventilators, maybe a quarter or so on ventilators or heart-lung bypass machines,” he said.

He added that as children return to classrooms, “it’s critically important that everyone in schools masks, whether you’re vaccinated or not.”

“I think the most efficient way to do that is to have a mandate, to have a requirement … that everybody needs to do so. And it saddens me that we seem to be fighting about the way we go about doing it. We all ought to — and I want to believe that we do — have our own children’s best interest at heart. We got to do this for them.”

State and local officials spar over mask and vaccine mandates

But masking children in schools has become increasingly polarizing, especially in states where vaccination rates are lagging and Covid-19 infections as well as hospitalizations continue to increase.

Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas have issued executive orders that ban mask mandates in their states. DeSantis, however, went a step further and threatened to withhold the salaries of superintendents and school board members who disregard his order.

On Friday, the Texas Court of Appeals ruled against Abbott, upholding that mask mandates may remain in Bexar and Dallas counties. Abbott had requested the appeals court to stay rulings from two lower courts that decided mask mandates in those counties can be effective, despite the governor’s executive order banning mask mandates.

In Arizona, education groups are suing the state for banning public schools from imposing mask and vaccine mandates.

The Arizona School Boards Association, the Arizona Education Association and other advocacy groups filed the lawsuit Thursday, arguing that the new laws favor private schools over public districts because they don’t apply to public schools.

“Students in Arizona’s public and charter schools will be less safe in their educational environment than students in private schools,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn the bans on mandates. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Attorney General Mark Brnovich did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

“This legislative session was unprecedented. The legislature enacted substantive laws in budget reconciliation bills without notice to the public and on subjects that are completely unrelated to one another,” plaintiffs’ attorney Roopali H. Desai said in a written statement provided to CNN.

3rd dose for immunocompromised is not a “booster” shot, expert says

Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized an additional third dose to be administered to people with compromised immune systems.

And on Friday, vaccine advisers to the CDC voted unanimously to recommend the additional dose for some immunocompromised people. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky quickly endorsed the vote, which means people can begin getting third doses right away.

On Friday, Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said it’s important not to confuse that third dose with a “booster” shot.

“These are really about finishing a primary series. Think about childhood immunizations. We have vaccines for which we need three of four doses. What we found here is that the immune-compromised often didn’t mount an adequate response at all. So we’re still trying to build that. That is different than a booster dose where someone did respond and in fact over time that wanes,” Osterholm told CNN. “I think it was a great decision.”

At a meeting of CDC vaccine advisers, Dr. Heather Scobie said a disproportionate number of vaccine breakthroughs are among immunocompromised people. Almost one-third — 32% — of vaccinated breakthrough cases are among that group, she said.

While immune-compromised people make up about 2.7% of the adult population — about 7 million people — they’re more vulnerable to infection, said Dr. Amanda Cohn, the executive secretary of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

She said vaccine effectiveness is about 59% to 72% in immunocompromised people, compared to 90% to 94% overall.

“Immunocompromised people are more likely to get severely ill from Covid-19. They are at higher risk for prolonged SARS-CoV-2 infection and shedding and viral evolution during the infection and treatment, particularly amongst hospitalized patients,” Cohn said.

CNN’s Virginia Langmaid, Rebekah Riess, Deanna Hackney, Andy Rose contributed to this report.

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Health

US coronavirus: Delta variant is ‘Covid-19 on steroids,’ expert says, with cases increasing in nearly half of US states

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The rapid spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus has only ratcheted up the pressure.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that the variant, first identified in India, has accounted for more than half of all new Covid-19 infections in the country.
“We should think about the Delta variant as the 2020 version of Covid-19 on steroids,” Andy Slavitt, a former senior adviser to Joe Biden’s Covid Response Team, told CNN on Wednesday. “It’s twice as infectious. Fortunately, unlike 2020, we actually have a tool that stops the Delta variant in its tracks: It’s called vaccine.”

For fully vaccinated people, the variant “presents very little threat to you, very unlikely that you’re gonna get sick,” he explained.

Slavitt and other experts have said full approval for vaccines from the US Food and Drug Administration could encourage more people to get vaccinated. The current vaccines distributed in the US are authorized for emergency use only. On Tuesday, Slavitt said full approval for the Pfizer vaccine could come as early as this month.

As of Wednesday, less than half of the US population is fully vaccinated.

In a grim reminder of the scale of the pandemic, data from Johns Hopkins University on Wednesday showed that more than 4 million people around the world have died of Covid-19.

In total, three countries account for more than a third of all global deaths. The US, which has the highest number of fatalities at 606,000, accounts for 15% of the global total, followed by Brazil and India.

Fears about more variants if people don’t get vaccinated

But the Delta variant is not the only one worrying health experts.

“I will tell you right now you want to look at who’s getting sick, whether from the Delta variant or any other variant: It’s people who haven’t been vaccinated,” Dr. Megan Ranney told CNN on Wednesday.

“I don’t want it to come to this, but I am hopeful that these surges will drive more people in those states with low vaccination rates to finally go out and get their shot.”

Ranney, who is an emergency physician at Rhode Island Hospital and an associate professor at Brown University, added that vaccinated people don’t have much to worry about, but she offered an unsettling insight on the current surge of cases.

“What worries me more are the variants yet to come, and every time this virus is passed from one person to another, it has a chance to mutate. And it’s only a matter of time until we have a variant against which the vaccines no longer protect us,” she explained.

Some experts have begun asking whether it may be time to start testing vaccinated people to ensure the Delta variant does not evade the effects of vaccines.

Current federal guidelines say fully vaccinated people can refrain from routine testing. Studies and experts have also said the vaccines are still highly protective.

“I think now we should revisit this policy with the Delta variant and determine if the current recommendations hold up,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, wrote in an email to CNN on Wednesday.

The CDC is only reporting data on “breakthrough” infections that cause severe disease. That could mean scientists and health officials will not know how many vaccinated people have mild or asymptomatic infections — and it will be very difficult to track whether a new variant such as Delta is causing more vaccine failure.

Local efforts to vaccinate continue

In a move to get more shots into arms, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said the state will provide $1 million in college scholarships beginning July 12 for people between 12 and 17 who get vaccinated.

“I cannot imagine a better incentive than a college education,” said Dr. Jay Perman, the chancellor of Maryland’s university system.

Two scholarships will be awarded every week for eight weeks through Labor Day, Hogan said, when four winners will be picked. Hogan said the winners will receive a Maryland 529 prepaid college trust contract, which locks in today’s tuition rates for the future, or a Maryland 529 College investment plan.

The incentive is an effort by the state’s Department of Health and the Department of Higher Education.

More than half of Marylanders between the ages of 12 and 17 are fully vaccinated, state health data shows.

The announcement comes as the state said in a tweet all Covid-19 deaths in Maryland last month occurred in unvaccinated people

Additionally, 95% of new Covid-19 cases in the state — as well as 93% of new hospitalizations — occurred in people who were unvaccinated, according to Michael Ricci, communications director for the governor.

CNN’s Deidre McPhillips, Jacqueline Howard, Keri Enriquez, Virginia Langmaid and Hannah Sarisohn contributed to this report.



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Health

Coronavirus US: It’s time to rethink ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to mask guidance, expert says, as Delta variant is spotted in every US state

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“Part of the problem is that the CDC is trying to use a one-size-fits-all recommendation for the country rather than being a bit more surgical in identifying hot spot areas where transmission is accelerating,” Dr. Peter Hotez told CNN’s Jake Tapper Wednesday.

Hotez, who is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, noted people in areas where vaccination rates are low and the virus is more prevalent may not want to do the same activities as people who live in areas where vaccination rates are high and the virus is more contained.

Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Wyoming have the lowest vaccination rates in the country, with less than 35% of their total population fully vaccinated, according to the most recent data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont have fully vaccinated more than 60% of their total population, the data shows.

The CDC’s current mask guidance, which says fully vaccinated people do not need to wear a mask indoors or outdoors, needs to be more specific with the Delta variant in mind, Hotez said.

“I think that’s what we need from the CDC is to be able to cut it a little finer, come up with … a force of infection map that combines those two variables: the low vaccination rates, high Delta. Those places are at great risk for lots of transmission, including some vaccinated individuals who will have breakthrough infections.”

Breakthrough infections, while rare, occur when vaccinated people contract Covid-19. A recent CDC study showed that when vaccinated people are infected, they experience milder illness than unvaccinated people.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday he doesn’t expect the CDC to make changes to its mask guidance but warned Americans must take the Delta variant seriously.

Fauci noted vaccines make Covid-19 case surges “entirely avoidable, entirely preventable.”

Experts: Children should mask up, even around fully vaccinated people

Children under 12 are another vulnerable group in the face of Covid-19 variants because federal officials have not cleared them to receive a vaccine.

Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases, told CNN Wednesday that children not yet vaccinated should still mask up, even if they’re around fully vaccinated people.

“The vast majority of new infections are occurring among unvaccinated individuals and creating a ‘pod’ of vaccinated individuals around young children, as well as continuing them to mask and distance in indoor settings and among crowded settings, will be important in keeping them safe,” Maldonado said in an email to CNN. “For these unvaccinated children, masking, distancing and avoiding large crowds is recommended.”

Maldonado noted that there is not much information available yet on how the Delta variant may affect children.

Hotez echoed Maldonado’s stance on children wearing masks.

“I would say right now, if your kids are old enough to wear masks, then they should when they’re indoors, at least until we can get our arms around this Delta variant,” said Hotez, noting that parents should take their area’s vaccination rate and variant levels into account.

“This requires parents, and really anyone, to have some situational awareness of what their region looks like, what their state looks like, what their county looks like in terms of vaccination rates and Delta variants,” he explained.

Federal health officials plan to analyze vaccine data for children younger than 12 in the upcoming fall or winter, said Dr. Peter Marks, who heads the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

“It makes sense that it’s going to take a little longer there, because there had to be dose de-escalation — lower doses used, essentially dose de-escalation — and as well as we want to see longer follow-up data to make sure that we have the kind of safety in that population,” he said during a joint Johns Hopkins University and University of Washington symposium.

More research shows vaccines work and they’re highly effective

As of Wednesday, 46.7% of the total US population is fully vaccinated, CDC data showed. In the past seven days, the US averaged 26.6 new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people.
While still lagging, vaccination coverage among young adults is improving, CDC data shows. Over the past two weeks, the 18-24 age group made up 12.6% of those becoming fully vaccinated, the CDC said.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky highlighted Wednesday the increasing number of hospitalizations among young people ages 12 to 29.

“The first thing I think is really important to recognize is hospitalizations are generally going down for Covid in this country,” Walensky said, but since May, people ages 12 to 29 have accounted for about a third of hospitalizations — a greater proportion than in the past.

“So while all hospitalizations are going down, the proportion that are attributable to our young populations are actually going up,” Walensky said.

Meanwhile, a new study is highlighting the importance of vaccines and the protection they offer.

The study examined nearly 4,000 frontline health and emergency workers shows that the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines were 91% effective in preventing infection after two doses and 81% effective after a single dose.

“If you get vaccinated, about 90% of the time you’re not going to get COVID-19,” Dr. Jeff Burgess of the University of Arizona, which participated in the study, said in a statement. “Even if you do get it, there will be less of the virus in you and your illness is likely to be much milder.”

The team, led by CDC epidemiologist Mark Thompson, studied 3,975 health care personnel, first responders, and other essential and frontline workers.

The study participants underwent weekly coronavirus testing from December 14, 2020 through April 10, 2021.

The virus was detected in 204 participants, of whom five were fully vaccinated, 11 partially vaccinated and 156 unvaccinated, the report in the New England Journal of Medicine said.

Those who were vaccinated and got infected anyway had less virus in their bodies — 40% less, researchers added. Vaccinated people were 58% less likely to have fevers. “And the duration of illness was shorter, with 2.3 fewer days spent sick in bed,” the researchers said.

Only 39 of the workers got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and their results were not included.

CNN’s Sarah Braner, Jacqueline Howard, Virginia Langmaid, Maggie Fox, Naomi Thomas, Christina Bowllan and Lauren Mascarenhas contributed to this report.

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