Biden Announces Purchase of 200 Million Vaccine Doses 0:54
(CNN) -
Although there is a growing sense that normality is close after the covid-19 pandemic, experts continue to push for more vaccinations, especially as new research details the long-term consequences for who are diagnosed with the virus.
In what the authors say is the largest study to date of the long-term impact of coronavirus, researchers at the University of Washington in St. Louis found that people who had COVID-19 appear to face a much higher risk. of death and need more medical attention in the six months after their diagnosis, even if they had a milder form of the disease.
"We have to think about the growing health crisis that this is going to provoke in the coming years," Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, told Anderson Cooper on Thursday.
The United States has made progress in vaccinating its population, but tens of millions of Americans have yet to start getting vaccinated, and experts say the US needs much higher levels of vaccination to control the virus.
Also, younger people - many of whom recently became eligible for the vaccine - are less likely to say they have been or will be vaccinated, compared to older people, according to a recent survey.
Questions from the audience on coronavirus: Can I take a pain reliever before or after receiving the vaccine?
USA, faced with the challenge of vaccinating the undecided 0:38
But the University of Washington study shows what many experts have said for much of the past year: You don't want this virus, Gupta said.
advertising
Between one and six months after getting sick, patients who had COVID-19 had a 60% higher risk of death than those patients who never had the disease.
Patients who had COVID-19 were also 20% more likely to need more medical care during the six months after their diagnosis, as well as more medication.
Unfortunately, long-term COVID-19 treatment options are limited, Dr. Leana Wen told Cooper.
But the good news is that, in addition to preventing infections, vaccines can reduce long-lasting symptoms, he added.
Gupta said there is still a lot that experts are learning about the virus, its treatment, and its implications for the future.
Variants of covid-19 are still controlled by vaccines
A threat to controlling the pandemic is the spread of more transmissible variants, but studies have found that vaccines continue to work to control them.
A pair of coronavirus variants first seen in California appear to replicate better in the noses of infected people, something that could explain their rapid spread, researchers reported Thursday.
But blood tests of people who had received the Pfizer or Moderna doses indicate that although the variants are slightly less susceptible to their effects, vaccines still protect people from them.
Examination of nasal swabs showed that there was twice as much virus in samples taken from people infected with the variants compared to people infected with the older strains of the virus.
This is an indication that the B.1.427 / B.1.429 strains replicate better and also explains why they would be more contagious.
But they are not as transmissible as the B.1.1.7 variant that was first observed in the United Kingdom and is now the most common in the United States, the team reported in the journal Cell.
According to the study, researchers should closely monitor the variants, as blood tests showed that the B.1.427 / B.1.429 variants can partly evade the immune response.
"The early identification and monitoring of the variant could have guided the contact tracing efforts of public health authorities to curb its spread, as well as allowing a more timely investigation of its possible importance," they noted.
The State Department will include 80% of the countries of the world in its list of 'Do not travel' to align with the CDC
Dr. Huerta: Variants of covid-19 put vaccines at risk 3:59
Pregnant women with covid-19 have a significantly higher risk of death
Other research has also shown that pregnant women with COVID-19 have a significantly higher risk of adverse consequences and death compared to pregnant women without COVID-19, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics on Thursday.
The researchers say their findings should alert pregnant women and doctors to strictly follow preventive measures for the pandemic.
They found that women with COVID-19 were more likely to experience negative outcomes, such as death, preterm delivery and pre-eclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication marked by hypertension.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), noted that the risk of maternal mortality among women with COVID-19 was 22 times higher than among those without the coronavirus.
"These deaths were concentrated in institutions in less developed regions, implying that when comprehensive intensive care services are not available, COVID-19 in pregnancy can be fatal," the researchers wrote.
Experts noted that women with COVID-19 who were already at high risk for pre-eclampsia due to pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, were nearly four times more likely to develop pre-eclampsia.
They found that fever and shortness of breath were associated with an increased risk of complications for mothers and newborns.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has long claimed that pregnant women are at increased risk of serious illness from COVID-19 and at increased risk of adverse outcomes, such as childbirth. premature.
Covid-19 increases risks in pregnant women and their babies, study finds
Covid-19 increases risk of death in pregnant women 1:14
What will be the future of Johnson & Johnson vaccines?
Meanwhile, the CDC APIS Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is meeting this Friday to discuss how to move forward with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after it was suspended to investigate a possible link to serious blood clots.
And Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday that he would not be surprised if the committee decided to resume vaccinations as Europe did.
“I do not want to anticipate the recommendation of the CDC, but the European Medicines Agency - which asks the same question about the use of the J&J product in Europe - has made the determination to allow it to be administered, because they consider that the risk of covid-19 far outweighs the very rare occurrence of this serious adverse event, ”Fauci commented in an interview with KCBS Radio San Francisco.
"They are letting the vaccine hit the market with a warning to people about what to expect, what the risk is," he added.
The two-dose mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna are made using a different technology than J & J's single-dose covid-19 vaccine and have not been linked to rare cases of blood clots.
Fauci said the decision by the CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to pause use of the vaccine should reassure the public.
"If they pause for such a rare event, you can be convinced that they take security very, very seriously," Fauci said.
"If any degree of doubt is related to an ongoing concern about safety, just look at the system, which is very sensible in using surveillance to look for adverse events."
- CNN's Jen Christensen, Maggie Fox, Lauren Mascarenhas and Christina Maxouris contributed to this article.
Coronavirus Vaccine
