Uruguay already vaccinated against covid under 18 years 3:28
Editor's Note:
Dr. David Holtgrave is Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Albany and Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York. His three-decade career in public health includes senior positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Emory University, and Johns Hopkins University, and he served on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV / AIDS during the administration of President Obama. The opinions expressed in this comment are yours. See more opinion articles.
(CNN) -
As variants of the new coronavirus spread in the United States, public health policies and program responses have been largely consistent: vaccinate as soon as possible, wear a mask, and maintain physical detachment.
But as vaccinations have increased, there has been a collective relaxation of the use of masks and the distancing that were once indispensable public health measures.
Although this may seem like an intuitive first step towards post-vaccination 'normalcy', we must be aware of the delta variant (B.1.617.2), which was the first to devastate India, and which still poses a significant international health threat.
Notably, this variant appears to be extremely transmissible, and the first dose of a two-vaccine regimen is much less effective than the first dose against other variants. Data from a UK study cited by the Biden administration found that after one dose of Pfizer's covid-19 vaccine, immunity against the delta variant was much lower than against the alpha variant (variant B.1.1. 7 first observed in the UK). This study indicated that the Pfizer vaccine was 33% effective against symptomatic delta variant disease after one dose. Fortunately, two weeks after applying the second dose of a two-dose Pfizer regimen, the efficacy rises to approximately 88%. (For comparison,two doses of this vaccine offer approximately 93% protection against the alpha variant). This observation influenced the United Kingdom to intensify its vaccination campaign and encourage citizens to receive their second doses.
According to a White House press conference, the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 now represents more than 6% of sequenced cases in the United States. The question now is how to contain it. Given that this variant appears to have higher transmissibility and that vaccines have relatively poor efficacy after one dose, but strong efficacy after two doses, it poses special challenges and I propose some adjustments to address them.
First, national policy objectives should no longer focus on the percentage of people who have received at least one dose of the vaccine, but on the percentage of people who are fully vaccinated. This may seem like a subtle difference, but it is key when assessing the level of immunity against the delta variant. Therefore, President Biden's national goal of 70% of adults receiving at least one dose of vaccine by July 4 should be rethought as a percentage of people who are fully vaccinated by that date. Ideally, 70% of adults would be fully vaccinated by July 4, but that is a huge advance over the current 53% of fully vaccinated adults.Perhaps 60% of fully vaccinated adults by July 4 could be a feasible interim target.
advertising
Biden's administration faces an uphill battle to meet its vaccination goal by July 4
Second, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance for fully vaccinated people on the use of masks and safety precautions focuses on the "fully vaccinated" versus "unvaccinated" people. (You probably remember the popular CDC infographic illustrating safety practices for fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people.) This tends to leave the role of partially vaccinated people somewhat uncertain. Since the delta variant makes the second dose of the vaccine an urgent matter, I propose that the CDC review their infographic to compare "fully vaccinated" with "partially vaccinated and unvaccinated."Although the CDC defines "fully vaccinated" in part of the text on its website, it would be wise to emphasize that partially vaccinated people should follow the same precautions as unvaccinated people.
Third, given the transmissibility of the delta variant, there should be an expanded and urgent campaign to encourage the use of masks and physical distancing between partially vaccinated and unvaccinated people, while promoting vaccination of those who have not yet received it. They have received. Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, recently said that states with low vaccination rates are "easy targets" for the next COVID-19 outbreak. You are right, and I would add that this is true not only for states, but also for smaller geographic areas with low vaccination rates. The threat of spread of the delta variant justifies taking serious precautions to avoid more extreme closure measures within a few weeks.
Wearing a mask and maintaining physical detachment is important even with vaccination, study suggests
Fourth, we must not characterize safety precautions, such as the use of masks, as practices from which we must free ourselves.
Recently, the CDC stated that fully vaccinated people are so well protected against COVID-19 that they no longer need the use of masks and physical distancing.
But populations such as immunosuppressed people, children who cannot yet be vaccinated, and partially or unvaccinated people should continue to wear masks.
And if delta or other emerging variants begin to pose greater challenges for even some fully vaccinated people, then perhaps they too can wear masks temporarily.
As a public health tool, masks remain highly valuable. Mathematical models published by the CDC and other recently published studies have indicated that the use of masks and physical distancing as a social complement to vaccination are key to limiting potential covid-19 spikes in the future. Therefore, we must not characterize these very important tools as a burden that is going to be lifted from our shoulders, but we must use them wisely when necessary.
The United States is making progress in reducing cases, hospitalizations and deaths, thanks in large part to the excellent vaccines that we are fortunate to have in excess (especially when so many people around the world desperately need vaccine supplies), but we must maintain this work as there are still more than 300 COVID-19-related deaths in the US a day, according to CDC data.
The 'two-way pandemic', the EU vaccine passports and Project S;
here's what to know about covid-19 this week
In addition, unfortunately, access to the vaccine is disproportionate among communities and the percentage of the black and Hispanic population vaccinated remains lower than that of other communities.
For all these reasons, we must urgently reorient our political, programmatic and communication efforts to address the new challenges now posed by the delta variant of the snow coronavirus before it spreads further.
There is no time to lose.
Covid-19 variant coronavirus
