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World

Dolphins use healing properties of coral, study suggests

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They were choosy about which type of corals they rubbed against, noticed wildlife biologist Angela Ziltener, a guest researcher at the University of Zurich who spent the next 13 years trying to unravel the perplexing behavior.

The results of her extensive research on the community of 360 dolphins were published on Thursday.

By observing the dolphins and studying the properties of the coral, Ziltener and her colleagues discovered that the dolphins appear to use the reef as a medicine chest: Bioactive compounds in mucus released by two different types of coral and a sea sponge likely help the dolphins protect their skin.

It’s the first time this type of behavior has been witnessed in cetaceans — the scientific order of marine mammals that includes dolphins, whales and porpoises — the study said. However, some birds, mammals, insects and reptiles have previously been observed using plant parts or other substances to combat pathogens or parasites.

Building trust

It took Ziltener years of scuba diving with the local dolphin population to earn their trust. “You have to be kind of adopted by the dolphins. It took time to actually see all their secrets,” she said.

The dolphins only rubbed against a gorgonian coral known as Rumphella aggregata, the leather coral Sarcophyton sp., and the sea sponge Ircinia sp., Ziltener observed. What’s more, they used the organisms in different ways.

With the leather corals and sponges — which are more compact and harder in texture than the soft gorgonian coral branches — the dolphins tended to push an isolated body part in and twist it around, the study found. In contrast, they slid their entire bodies into the gorgonian coral several times, rubbing multiple body parts at once.

The dolphin behavior of rubbing against the gorgonian coral, dubbed gorgoning, and Ziltener’s research were first revealed in 2017 in the BBC documentary “Blue Planet II” and a number of other nature documentaries. However, this is the first time a detailed study of the behavior has been published in a scientific journal.

When in groups, the dolphins often lined up and took turns rubbing against the gorgonian coral. Interacting with the leather coral didn’t appear to be a group activity.

With leather coral, a dolphin would sometimes uproot it from the ground and carry it in its mouth for a few minutes, swinging it around — an action that caused the compounds to leak out of the coral and spread around the dolphin’s head, staining it yellow and green.

Coral samples

Because the reef is protected, the team obtained permission to take small samples — just a centimeter — of the corals and sea sponge used by the dolphins. The study analysis found that these organisms contained 17 bioactive compounds, with different properties, such as antibacterial, antioxidative or hormonal attributes, said coauthor Gertrud Morlock, an analytical chemist and professor of food science at Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany.

The three different organisms showed similar, and some different, effects, Morlock said.

“In common was that all three had a wealth of antibacterial and antimicrobial activities. And what was special for the leather corral, for example, it contained estrogen-like compounds while not the other two.”

“We were surprised to find that there were so many (compounds),” she said. “We think (the dolphins) very clearly select these substrates, and we have proven they have bioactive compounds and when they rub on this (the coral), their skin is in direct contact with these molecules.”

Skin treatment

The purpose of the behavior is likely to regulate and protect the skin’s microbiome — a bit like how humans might use a skin cream, Morlock explained. She said that the research team didn’t have definitive proof that the dolphins were using the coral as a form of medicine, although dolphins do regularly suffer from fungal infections and skin rashes.

Not every dolphin in the pod rubs against coral. Young calves under 1 year old just watch, Ziltener said. This led the researchers to believe the behavior is learned rather than innate.

“Initially, this behavior could have arisen as a result of a drive or instinct, or just merely by chance. Perhaps, a dolphin with irritated skin rubbed along a random coral that released skin-healing chemicals. The relieved dolphin remembered the behaviors and repeated them, then taught those behaviors to others, as in the case of the Australian bottlenose sponge-wearing population,” said Diana Barrett, a lecturer in the department of biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, who was not involved in the research.

“This ability to remember the behaviors and their resultant effects, and then repeat those behaviors to treat future skin problems adds (to) the wealth of evidence that dolphins are intelligent,” she said.

Dolphins have long been viewed as highly intelligent animals that are able to communicate and use tools, such as shells, to help them hunt. Ziltener said it’s possible that other marine animals might use corals in this way, but it’s difficult to observe underwater animals systemically.

Ziltener said the dolphins often wake from naps to perform the coral rubbing behavior.

“It’s almost like they are showering, cleaning themselves before they go to sleep or get up for the day,” she said.

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Health

Blood pressure climbed during coronavirus pandemic, especially among women, study suggests

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The study, published Monday in the journal Circulation, included data on 464,585 employees and their spouses or partners from several different companies who participated in employer-sponsored wellness programs by Quest Diagnostics each year.

As part of the programs, workers and their partners from all 50 states and the District of Columbia had their blood pressure measured for three years in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Dr. Luke Laffin, co-director of the Center for Blood Pressure Disorders at Cleveland Clinic, and his colleagues at Cleveland Clinic and Quest Diagnostics examined those blood pressure readings.

The researchers found that the blood pressure readings appeared to be significantly higher during the pandemic in April through December of 2020 compared with in 2019, with increases ranging on average from 1.1 to 2.5 millimeters of mercury or mmHg for systolic blood pressure and 0.14 to 0.53 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure.

Blood pressure is measured in units of mmHg, which consists of two numbers — the upper or systolic reading and the lower or diastolic reading.

While systolic and diastolic blood pressure increases were seen for both men and women and across age groups, the researchers found larger increases among women.

“We did see more pronounced increases in blood pressure in women. Now, we don’t know the exact reason for that. However, we do know and there’s data to suggest that the pandemic has tended to place more of an outsized burden on women, particularly women that work, and this is an employer-sponsored wellness program,” Laffin said.

The study found that weight gain was not the apparent reason for climbing blood pressure levels during the pandemic — even though making poor diet choices during the pandemic could have played a role, among other factors.

“Blood pressure control is pretty multifactorial. It probably does have to do with what we’re eating, amongst other things,” Laffin told CNN.

“Too much sodium or drinking more alcohol — that’s been well documented during the pandemic, and we know that increases blood pressure,” Laffin said. “And then we know blood pressure is also affected by things like sleep, taking your medicine, all that plays a role.”

Laffin added that while acute stress can raise blood pressure, the ongoing pandemic has been more so associated with long-term chronic stress.

“We do know that in settings of chronic stress, really the changes in blood pressure are probably driven by some of the lifestyle choices we make when we’re stressed,” Laffin said. “So, we choose to have that nachos and beer, rather than make that healthy choice of a salad, or we don’t get as much sleep, or we choose not to go to the gym, we choose not to take our medicine. That’s probably how stress actually manifests predominantly with respect to increased blood pressure.”

High blood pressure increases the risk for heart disease and stroke, two leading causes of death for US adults, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers noted in their study that an increase of 2 mmHg in systolic blood pressure is associated with significant increases in death from stroke and heart disease among middle-aged adults. The rise in systolic blood pressure among US adults in the study “could signal a forthcoming increase in incident cardiovascular disease mortality,” the researchers wrote.

Overall, “during the pandemic, public health measures like vaccination and masks are clearly important, but probably equally important during a pandemic is not neglecting chronic risk factors for cardiovascular disease or chronic medical conditions,” Laffin added. “So, make sure that you’re doing healthy lifestyle things — seeing your medical provider regularly, taking your medicine, if you’re taking high blood pressure medicines, all very important.”

Even before the pressures of the pandemic, a global study published in The Lancet in August found that the number of people ages 30 to 79 with high blood pressure doubled from 1990 to 2019, and more than half of them are not being treated for it.
According to the Mayo Clinic, there are 10 ways to control high blood pressure:
  1. Lose weight.
  2. Exercise regularly.
  3. Eat a healthy diet.
  4. Reduce sodium in your diet.
  5. Limit how much alcohol you drink.
  6. Quit smoking.
  7. Cut back on caffeine.
  8. Reduce your stress.
  9. Monitor your blood pressure at home and with your doctor.
  10. Get the support you need from loved ones.

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Science

World’s most dangerous bird raised by humans 18,000 years ago, study suggests

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Territorial, aggressive and often compared to a dinosaur in looks, the bird is a surprising candidate for domestication.

However, a new study of more than 1,000 fossilized eggshell fragments, excavated from two rock shelters used by hunter-gatherers in New Guinea, has suggested early humans may have collected the eggs of the large flightless bird before they hatched and then raised the chicks to adulthood. New Guinea is a large island north of Australia. The eastern half of the island is Papua New Guinea, while the western half forms part of Indonesia.

“This behavior that we are seeing is coming thousands of years before domestication of the chicken,” said lead study author Kristina Douglass, an assistant professor of anthropology and African studies at Penn State University.

“And this is not some small fowl, it is a huge, ornery, flightless bird that can eviscerate you,” she said in a news statement.

The researchers said that while a cassowary can be aggressive (a man in Florida was killed by one in 2019), it “imprints” easily — it becomes attached to the first thing it sees after hatching. This means it’s easy to maintain and raise up to adult size.

Today, the cassowary is New Guinea’s largest vertebrate, and its feathers and bones are prized materials for making bodily adornments and ceremonial wear. The bird’s meat is considered a delicacy in New Guinea.

There are three species of cassowary, and they are native to parts of northern Queensland, Australia, and New Guinea. Douglass thought our ancient ancestors most likely reared the smallest species, the dwarf cassowary, that weighs around 20 kilograms (44 pounds).

The fossilized eggshells were carbon-dated as part of the study, and their ages ranged from 18,000 to 6,000 years old.

Humans are believed to have first domesticated chickens no earlier than 9,500 years ago.

Not for snacking

To reach their conclusions, the researchers first studied the eggshells of living birds, including turkeys, emus and ostriches.

The insides of the eggshells change as the developing chicks get calcium from the eggshell. Using high-resolution 3D images and inspecting the inside of the eggs, the researchers were able to build a model of what the eggs looked like during different stages of incubation.

The scientists tested their model on modern emu and ostrich eggs before applying it to the fossilized eggshell fragments found in New Guinea. The team found that most of the eggshells found at the sites were all near maturity.

“What we found was that a large majority of the eggshells were harvested during late stages,” Douglass said. “The eggshells look very late; the pattern is not random.”

These late-stage eggshells indicate people living at these two rock shelter sites were harvesting eggs when the cassowary embryos had fully formed limbs, beaks, claws and feathers, the study said.

But were humans purposefully collecting these eggs to allow them to hatch or collecting the eggs to eat? It’s possible they were doing both, Douglass said.

Consuming eggs with fully formed embryos is considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, but Douglass said the research team’s analysis suggested people were hatching the chicks.

“We also looked at burning on the eggshells,” Douglass said in the news release. “There are enough samples of late stage eggshells that do not show burning that we can say they were hatching and not eating them.”

Big bird as valuable resource

Less mature eggshells showed more signs of burning — suggesting that when cassowary eggs were consumed they were cooked and eaten when their contents were primarily liquid.

“In the highlands today people raise cassowary chicks to adulthood, in order to collect feathers, and consume or trade the birds. It is possible cassowaries were also highly valued in the past, since they are among the largest vertebrate animals on New Guinea. Raising cassowaries from chicks would provide a readily available source of feathers and meat for an animal that is otherwise challenging to hunt in the wild as an adult,” she explained via email.

However, there is still much the researchers don’t know.

To successfully hatch and raise cassowary chicks, people would need to know where the nests were, know when the eggs were laid and remove them from the nest just before hatching. This is no easy feat as birds don’t nest at the same sites each year. Once a female lays the eggs, male birds take over nest duty and don’t leave for 50 days while incubating the eggs.

“People may have hunted the male and then collected the eggs. Because males don’t leave the nest unattended they also don’t feed much during the incubation period making them more vulnerable to predators,” she said.

The research was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PNAS on Monday.

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Health

People who eat more dairy fat have lower risk of heart disease, study suggests

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An international team of scientists studied the dairy fat consumption of 4,150 60-year-olds in Sweden — a country with one of the world’s highest levels of dairy production and consumption — by measuring blood levels of a particular fatty acid that is mostly found in dairy foods. Experts then followed the cohort for an average of 16 years to observe how many had heart attacks, strokes and other serious circulatory events, and how many of them died.

After statistically adjusting for other known cardiovascular disease risk factors including age, income, lifestyle, dietary habits and other diseases, researchers found that those with high levels of the fatty acid — indicative of a high intake of dairy fats — had the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as no increased risk of death from all causes.

The team then confirmed these findings in other populations after combining the Swedish results with 17 other studies involving a total of almost 43,000 people from the US, Denmark and the UK.

“While the findings may be partly influenced by factors other than dairy fat, our study does not suggest any harm of dairy fat per se,” Matti Marklund, senior researcher at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney and joint senior author of the paper, said in a statement.

“We found those with the highest levels actually had the lowest risk of CVD (cardiovascular disease). These relationships are highly interesting, but we need further studies to better understand the full health impact of dairy fats and dairy foods,” he said.

Lead author Kathy Trieu, a researcher at the George Institute, said consumption of some dairy foods, especially fermented products, had previously been associated with benefits for the heart.

Dairy products are rich in nutrients

“Increasing evidence suggests that the health impact of dairy foods may be more dependent on the type — such as cheese, yoghurt, milk, and butter — rather than the fat content, which has raised doubts if avoidance of dairy fats overall is beneficial for cardiovascular health,” she said in the statement.

“Our study suggests that cutting down on dairy fat or avoiding dairy altogether might not be the best choice for heart health,” she added.

“It is important to remember that although dairy foods can be rich in saturated fat, they are also rich in many other nutrients and can be a part of a healthy diet. However, other fats like those found in seafood, nuts, and non-tropical vegetable oils can have greater health benefits than dairy fats,” Trieu said.

Brian Power, lecturer at the Department of Health and Nutritional Sciences at Ireland’s Institute of Technology Sligo, said the study encourages us to “rethink what we think we know about food and disease.”

“Dairy products do not need to be avoided,” Power, who was not involved in the study, told CNN in an email. “This is largely lost in its translation when communicating what we know about healthy eating.”

Data suggest correlation rather than causal link

Alice Lichtenstein, director and senior scientist at Tufts University’s Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory, told CNN that her biggest concern was that the study results could be interpreted to suggest that all full-fat dairy products will reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, adding: “the bulk of the data do not support consuming full fat dairy products to reduce CVD risk.”

She said the study data showed that the group with the highest biomarker of dairy intake also had, among other things, a significantly lower BMI, were more physically active, had a lower smoking rate, lower rates of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, a higher level of education, higher intakes of vegetables, fruit and fish, and lower intake of processed meat — hence, a higher diet quality — all factors associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

“They were controlled for in the statistical analyses, however, residual confounding cannot be ruled out. The data reported are for associations, however, associations cannot establish causality,” she told CNN in an email, adding that it was also noteworthy that the authors could not identify what type of dairy products their cohort consumed.

The research was published in the journal PLOS Medicine.

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World

Cannabis may have originated in northwest China, study suggests

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Researchers found the Cannabis sativa species — the “much beloved and maligned plant” widely used as a recreational drug — likely emerged from the region by Neolithic times (10,000-3,000 BC), according to a news release from the journal Science Advances, where the study was published.

Cannabis was one of the first plants domesticated by humans, and has a long history of being used in textiles, food, and oilseed as hemp, the study said. But this history has been difficult to research, due to modern legal restrictions around the plant’s use and accessibility.

To trace the origins of cannabis, a team led by researchers in Switzerland and China compiled 110 whole genomes, covering a spectrum of different wild-growing feral plants, domesticated varieties and modern hybrids of hemp and psychoactive forms of the plant, commonly known as marijuana, with higher levels of the compound Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Their genomic analysis separated the samples into four major groups, including basal cannabis, which is found in China and the United States. The analysis suggested that early domesticated ancestors of hemp and marijuana — two of the other major groups — diverged from basal cannabis about 12,000 years ago — indicating the species may already have been domesticated by then.

This coincides with the dating of ancient artifacts including pottery from southern China, Taiwan, and Japan from the same period, the study added.

“Our genome-wide analyses corroborate the existing archaeobotanical, archaeological, and historical record, and provide a detailed picture of the domestication of Cannabis and its consequences on the genetic makeup of the species,” said the study.

Modern Chinese landraces — cultivated plants that have been altered through agriculture — and feral cannabis plants are now the closest descendents of the ancestors of hemp and marijuana, the study said. Meanwhile, the pure wild ancestors of Cannabis sativa have likely gone extinct.

After its domestication in the Neolithic period, the plant slowly spread across Europe and the Middle East in the Bronze Age, archaeological evidence shows. The first record of Cannabis sativa appeared in India about 3,000 years ago, when the species was likely introduced from China along with other crops, said the study.

Cannabis then traveled to Africa in the 13th century, spread to Latin America in the 16th century, and arrived in North America at the beginning of the 20th century.

The study sheds some light on the longstanding mystery of where and when varieties of cannabis with higher levels of psychoactive compounds were recognized and used by humans.

Although they have been cultivated for centuries, early varieties and wild populations had low levels of THC and other compounds with psychoactive properties.

Many historians had placed the origins of cannabis smoking on the ancient Central Asian steppes, but these arguments relied solely on a passage from a single text from the late first millennium BC, written by the Greek historian Herodotus.

In 2019, the excavation of a 2,500-year-old tomb in western China revealed the earliest clear evidence of humans using cannabis for its psychoactive properties. Wooden fragments and burnt stones from pots in the tomb showed the chemical signature of cannabis, specifically that with a high amount of THC — suggesting the plant may have been used during burial ceremonies.

However, it was unlikely that cannabis was smoked in the same way it is today. More likely, it would have been burnt like incense in an enclosed space to release vapors.

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Business

US coronavirus: Covid-19 vaccines may prevent infection and not just symptoms, study suggests

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A team at the Mayo Clinic health system looked at more than 31,000 people across four states who had received at least one dose of either vaccine — and found their vaccines were upwards of 80% effective in preventing infection 36 days after the first dose.

Vaccine efficacy was 75% 15 days after the first dose, and appeared 89% effective from 36 days after the second dose, according to the research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

More than 59 million vaccine doses have so far been administered in the US, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said Friday that the US is unlikely to achieve herd immunity for the virus before the winter.

“We know Covid is really seasonal, so when the next winter rolls around, we need to have a much higher level of protection to stop Covid in its tracks than we are likely to achieve,” he said.

Herd immunity doesn’t take effect until 80% or more of the population has immunity, either through infection or vaccination. And the new variants may complicate the picture, Murray said. If people can be reinfected with the new variants, the pandemic may take off again.

Though officials hope to have vaccines widely distributed by the end of the summer, President Biden said Friday that issues like weather, mutating strains and manufacturing delays make it hard to nail down a timeline.

“I believe we’re on the road, I promise you. I know we’ll run into bumps. It’s not going to be easy here to the end, but we’re going to beat this. We’re going to beat this,” he said while visiting a Pfizer facility in Michigan.

Too risky to give single doses, Fauci says

One way to protect more people quickly, some experts suggest, is to prioritize administering first doses of the vaccine.

Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, advocated Friday for US officials to consider delaying the second dose.

“Would that really be a problem, because if we could do that, we could vaccinate a lot more high-risk people, quickly…Everybody needs a second dose, but I think we can do it in a way that’s still safe and get a lot more people protected,” Jha told CNN’s Poppy Harlow.

But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday that a single-dose plan would be too risky.

Fauci said he worried that if large numbers of people got a single shot and had less than optimal immune responses, they could be exposed to the virus and start incubating viral mutations. In theory, new variants could arise, he said.

“We will stick with the scientifically documented efficacy and optimal response of a prime followed by a boost with the mRNA vaccines,” Fauci told a White House briefing.

Jha, for his part, said he agreed that everybody needed a second dose, “I think the question is, right now we wait four weeks between first and second dose. What if we went six weeks or eight weeks or 10 weeks — not much longer than that.”

School can reopen no matter the virus’ spread, CDC director says

In the hopes of returning to some sense of normalcy, a priority to many families and officials has been allowing students to resume in-person learning.

And CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Friday that given the right precautions, schools may open no matter how much virus is spreading in the community.

As of Tuesday, CNN analysis indicated about 90% of children live in so-called red zones under the CDC’s guidance — meaning there is a high level of community spread of the virus. But even in those conditions, schools can safely reopen if they take precautions, Walensky told a White House briefing.

The CDC has said schools can reopen if they make sure they are mitigating the risk of spread with universal mask use, measures to keep children and staff six feet apart, frequent cleaning and disinfection and testing and contact tracing.

The CDC director’s assurances came as Fauci announced that the US should have vaccine safety data for high school-age kids by the beginning of the Fall.

Companies are just starting tests of younger age groups but have been testing their vaccines on 12- to 17-year-olds, Fauci told a White House briefing. Safety data for younger children will likely not be available until early next year, he said.

Vaccine hesitancy not an excuse for inequities

Meanwhile, vaccine trials and distribution have shed light on inequities in the medical field.

People of color have been vastly underrepresented in US-based vaccine trials for the last decade, according to a new study released Friday by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Harvard, Emory and other institutions.

The study found that White people made up the majority, or 78%, of participants in trials conducted between June 2011 and June 2020.

The study, published in the JAMA Network Open, comes as the nation grapples with a pandemic that has disproportionately impacted people of color. Health care leaders are working to combat vaccine distrust among Black and brown people, saying the shot is the key to preventing further devastating in their communities.

But that hesitancy should not be an excuse for officials to explain away racial disparities in vaccination, Fauci said.

“It’s that we’ve got to really extend ourselves into the community to get the access to minority populations that they don’t have,” Fauci said in an interview with MSNBC.

CNN’s Christopher Rios, Amanda Sealy, Lauren Mascarenhas, Kevin Liptak, Maggie Fox, Nicholas Neville and Nicquel Terry Ellis contributed to this report.

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Health

Younger adults are biggest spreaders of Covid-19, study suggests

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A research team at Imperial College in London used cell phone location data covering more than 10 million people and publicly available information on the spread of the virus to calculate which age groups were most responsible for the spread of the virus across most of the US.

Children accounted for very little spread, the researchers said, as did older adults. This could mean that opening schools may not contribute to spread if transmission is controlled among younger adults, they said.

“This study provides evidence that the resurgent COVID-19 epidemics in the US in 2020 have been driven by adults aged 20-49, and in particular adults aged 35-49, before and after school reopening,” the team wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.

“Unlike pandemic flu, these adults accounted after school reopening in October, 2020 for an estimated 72.2% of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the US locations considered, whereas less than 5% originated from children aged 0-9 and less than 10% from teens aged 10-19.”

And it might be the adults aged 35 to 49 who are the biggest factor in driving the pandemic, as opposed to younger adults, Oliver Ratmann of the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team and colleagues concluded.

“Prior to the implementation of COVID-19 interventions, contacts concentrated among individuals of similar age, were highest among school-aged children and teens, and also common between children/teens and their parents, and middle-aged adults and the elderly. Since the beginning of the pandemic, these contact patterns have changed substantially,” the team wrote.

“This study indicates that in locations where novel highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 lineages have not yet established, additional interventions among adults aged 20-49, such as mass vaccination with transmission-blocking vaccines, could bring resurgent COVID-19 epidemics under control and avert deaths,” they added.

They estimated that people 35 to 49 accounted for 41% of the new transmissions through mid-August, and adults 20 to 34 were responsible for another 35%. Children and teens accounted for just 6% of spread. People 50 to 64 made up 15% of transmission.

“Over time, the share of age groups among reported deaths has been remarkably constant, suggesting that young adults are unlikely to have been the primary source of resurgent epidemics since summer 2020, and that instead changes in mobility and behavior among the broader group of adults aged 20-49 underlie resurgent COVID-19 in the US in 2020,” the team wrote.

Efforts to control virus spread

The researchers said that efforts to control the spread of coronavirus — including vaccination — should probably focus on those aged 20 to 49.

But there is not yet enough vaccine to immunize everyone, and the federal government is working with state and local governments to try to vaccinate people in an orderly, fair and logical way.

Current US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance put frontline healthcare workers and frail long term care facility residents at the front of the vaccine line. The White House under both presidents Trump and Biden has suggested that states open up vaccination to anyone over 65, as this age group is considered most vulnerable to death and severe disease from Covid-19.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday that while older people are more at risk for severe disease, experts have suspected for some time that younger people are driving the spread of the virus in the US.

Fauci did not discount the idea that the US should ensure those aged 20 to 49 get vaccinated but noted that it should not come at the expense of vaccinating older people, especially those with underlying health conditions.

“You don’t want to deprive them to get the younger ones, because they’re the ones that are going to wind up in the hospital and have a higher rate of death,” Fauci told CNN’s Don Lemon. “What we don’t want to do is to neglect them.”

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University and CNN medical analyst, said that while it’s important to vaccinate older people, younger adults should not necessarily be at the back of the line.

“I’ve thought for a while now that the priority groups just aren’t working and that we have to open it up to everyone,” Reiner told CNN’s Jake Tapper Wednesday.

“Now we can set aside, perhaps, a larger percentage of the vaccines for older Americans, but I think we need to start getting the vaccine out into younger people for exactly this reason — the younger people are the people who are spreading the virus,” Reiner added.

The Moderna and Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines currently available in the US provide protection against severe disease, though it is unclear whether they prevent transmission of the virus.

Researchers have suggested that the type of protection provided by vaccines may have some role in decisions about who should get a vaccine and when.

“Ultimately, everyone has to be vaccinated,” said Reiner. “And if you end up vaccinating older people, you’ll save their lives because they’re at higher risk. And if you vaccinate younger people, you’ll save lives also because they’re spreading the virus.”

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