A third shot of the Moderna vaccine boosts protection across age groups, notably in older adults, the company says. Juana Miyer/Long Visual Press/Universal Imag hide caption
A third shot of the Moderna vaccine boosts protection across age groups, notably in older adults, the company says.
A third dose of the Moderna vaccine given six months after the initial two doses significantly boosts immunity, according to data the company submitted to the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday.
The data comes from 344 volunteers who got an additional dose of the vaccine as part of a clinical study. Antibodies had waned six months after vaccination, the company said, but the third shot boosted antibodies to an even higher point than was seen after the initial shots, even though the booster was just half the original dose. The increased protection was "achieved across age groups, notably in older adults (ages 65 and above)," the company said.
Moderna made the announcement in a press release, but the research has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Pfizer-BioNTech has also asked for authorization for a booster dose of its vaccine. The FDA has scheduled a meeting for September 17th to discuss the need for boosters for the general population.
The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have already recommended a third dose of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for some immunocompromised people.
Meanwhile, health officials are already preparing to roll out COVID-19 boosters, according to a plan announced by the white House on August 18th. The plan calls for all adults who received a two-dose vaccine to be eligible for an additional jab eight months from when they got their second shot.
But that decision isn't actually final yet. The FDA and the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) first need to OK the move.
Johnson & Johnson issued a press release on August 25th with preliminary results of a small study suggesting a second shot of its vaccine could rapidly increase antibody levels in recipients. A separate booster recommendation for J&J is expected soon, health officials say.
But as poorer countries lag way behind on vaccine distribution, the World Health Organization has called for a moratorium on booster shots and urged richer countries to do everything they can to help the rest of the world get vaccinated.
The European Medicines Agency said Thursday that there is no urgent need for COVID-19 booster shots for fully vaccinated people and suggested instead the emphasis should remain on primary vaccination and getting shots into the arms of the one out of three adults in the European Union who are still not inoculated.
The news, made in a statement, offers the latest stance from a regulator on the issue, which has stirred controversy among public health experts in the U.S. after President Joe Biden said last month that Americans would start getting boosters from Sept. 20. That sparked concerns that the White House was getting ahead of the science and data on vaccine boosters.
For more on the booster debate: COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are more complicated than they appear. Heres why.
The EMAs statement aligns with the World Health Organizations view on boosters: namely, that none should be offered by developed countries while the rest of the world is still hampered by a shortage of supply after wealthier countries laid claim to most of the earliest available shots.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for a moratorium on boosters on Aug. 4 to ensure poorer countries get access to first doses.The agency has said there is still not sufficient data to show that boosters are needed by people who have had both shots of a two-dose vaccine in reining in the spread of the virus.
Dont miss: WHO warns of possible 236,000 new COVID-19 deaths in Europe by December, and Fauci says U.S. could see another 100,000
The WHO has pushed to get vaccines to 10% of the populations of all countries by September, arguing that as major swaths of a population are unvaccinated, variants may emerge, with the risk that one might prove fully vaccine-resistant.
On Wednesday, the WHO said it had identified a new variant of interestcalled B.1.621, and assigned the Greek letter mu. For now, further studies are needed to evaluate its ability to resist the vaccines that have been authorized or approved for use around the world.
Dont miss: WHO identifies new coronavirus variant of interest and experts urge caution on boosters
A number of countries are already giving boosters to some of their vaccinated populations, including Israel, Germany and France. The U.K. has pledged to give them to people with severely weakened immune systems who are at high risk of severe illness, but it has not yet decided on the remaining population. Those shots are considered to be third shots and part of primary vaccination.
The EMAs statement makes clear that it would also classify shots for the immunocompromised as part of primary vaccination.
Evidence on vaccine effectiveness and duration of protection shows that all vaccines authorized in the EU/EEA are currently highly protective against COVID-19-related hospitalization, severe disease and death, said the EMA statement.
Moderna Inc. MRNA, +1.98%, meanwhile, submitted its booster data to the FDA late Wednesday. BioNTech BNTX, -1.19% and Pfizer PFE, +1.74% said last week thatthey had submitted datafor their booster shot to the FDA. That data examined antibody levels in adults who got a third dose between four and eight months after initial vaccination.
There was promising news in a study published on Wednesday in the medical journal the Lancet, which found that the risk of so-called long COVID drops nearly in half after a person receives two doses of a vaccine.
Researchers found that the odds of having symptoms for 28 days or more after post-vaccination infection were approximately halved by having two vaccine doses.
The study also found almost all symptoms were less common in vaccinated people, that more people in the vaccinated than in the unvaccinated groups were completely asymptomatic and that COVID-19 was less severe (both in terms of the number of symptoms in the first week of infection and the need for hospitalization) in participants after their first or second vaccine doses compared with unvaccinated participants.
The study was based on 1.2 million people who used a COVID symptoms app in the U.K.
In the U.S., the vaccine program, which has gained some traction in recent weeks as more employers mandate vaccination for workers returning to offices and schools return to session, continued to edge up. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions tracker is showing that 174.6 million people are now fully vaccinated, equal to 52.6% of the overall population. That means they have had two shots of Pfizer and German partner BioNTechs vaccine or of the one developed by Moderna, or one shot of Johnson & Johnsons JNJ, +0.68% single-dose vaccine.
Among U.S. adults 18 and older, 63.6% are fully inoculated and 74.4% have received at least one dose.
But cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to climb to their highest levels since winter as the delta variant shows no sign of slowing its spread. A New York Times tracker is showing that hospitalizations remain above 100,000 a day on average and average daily deaths are at 1,418.
Since the start of August, the number of daily deaths has more than quadrupled and most are among unvaccinated people.
See: Joe Rogan says he has COVID-19, took kitchen sink approach to treatment including ivermectin
Elsewhere, Bulgaria is tightening restrictions to combat the spread of the virus and will close restaurants and bars at 10 p.m. from Sept. 7 and host indoor sports without spectators, the Guardian reported. Bulgaria has the lowest vaccination rate in the EU, according to Reuters, at just 16.7% of its population, and the highest mortality rate, losing some 18,950 people to COVID since the start of the outbreak.
India recorded 47,092 new COVID cases on Thursday, to mark the biggest one-day tally in two months, India Today.com reported. The last time cases were higher than this was 63 days ago, on July 1, when India reported 48,786 cases. On Wednesday, 41,965 COVID-19 cases were recorded.
Hawaii is struggling to transport tanks of oxygen from the mainland as it grapples with a surge of COVID cases, the New York Times reported. Medical officials are asking Hawaiians to postpone elective surgeries as intensive-care-unit beds are being used for COVID patients. The seven-day hospitalization average peaked at 427 on Monday, driven by the delta variant and a relatively low vaccination rate.
See now: EU recommends restrictions on Americans amid rise in COVID. Read this before you travel to Europe
The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness climbed above 218.6 million on Thursday, while the death toll rose to 4.54 million, according todata aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. leads the world with a total of 39.4 million cases and 642,096 deaths.
India has the second highest death toll after the U.S. at 439,529 and is third by cases at 32.9 million, the Johns Hopkins data shows.
Brazil has second highest death toll at 581,150 and has had 20.8 million cases.
In Europe, Russia has recorded 181,560 deaths, followed by the U.K. with 133,066.
China,where the virus was first discovered late in 2019,has had 107,102 confirmed cases and 4,848 deaths, according to its official numbers, which are widely held to be massively underreported.
'Trying to catch every case': Are cheap home COVID-19 tests the delta antidote? USA TODAY
Inmates do a deep cleaning in a cell pod to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the San Diego County Jail in April 2020. A new study says crowded jails may have contributed to millions of COVID-19 cases across the United States. Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images hide caption
Inmates do a deep cleaning in a cell pod to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the San Diego County Jail in April 2020. A new study says crowded jails may have contributed to millions of COVID-19 cases across the United States.
If the U.S. had done more to reduce its incarceration rate, it could have prevented millions of COVID-19 cases.
That's the conclusion of researchers who conducted what they say is the first study to link mass incarceration rates to pandemic vulnerability. Many of those preventable cases, they add, occurred in communities of color.
The U.S. jail and prison system acts as an epidemic engine, according to the study from researchers at Northwestern University and the World Bank.
That engine is driven by a massive number of people who, despite some counties' efforts to trim jail populations, have been cycling between cramped detention facilities and their home communities.
After analyzing data from 1,605 counties, the researchers linked an 80% reduction in the U.S. jail population to a 2% drop in the growth rate of daily COVID-19 cases.
Such a substantial drop in the incarceration level could have been achieved by instituting alternatives to jail for nonviolent offenses, according to the researchers Dr. Eric Reinhart of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Daniel Chen of the Toulouse School of Economics and the World Bank.
That 2% reduction is a conservative estimate, but it still represents a dramatic potential shift, Reinhart told NPR.
When compounded daily, Reinhart said in a Northwestern news release about the study, "even just a 2% reduction in daily case growth rates in the U.S. from the beginning of the pandemic until now would translate to the prevention of millions of cases."
Tens of thousands of deaths could also have been prevented, he said.
A red tag on a cell door signifies an active COVID-19 case for its inhabitants. The first medically vulnerable inmates in Minnesota were vaccinated at Faribault Prison in January. Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune/Getty Images hide caption
A red tag on a cell door signifies an active COVID-19 case for its inhabitants. The first medically vulnerable inmates in Minnesota were vaccinated at Faribault Prison in January.
The U.S. has long had the world's highest incarceration rate among industrialized countries reporting such statistics. During the pandemic, it has also reported more COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other country despite having less than 5% of the global population.
The new research, published Thursday in the journal JAMA Network Open, suggests those circumstances are directly related.
On average, U.S jails currently host some 650,000 detainees every day, according to Reinhart. The dynamic also includes more than 220,000 full-time jail staff, who commute back and forth from their homes each day, the study said.
Many of those detainees are held in custody for only short periods of time as they either await trial or serve short sentences. The U.S. jail population has a 55% weekly turnover rate, according to the study.
"This jail churn effectively produces epidemic machines that seed outbreaks both in and beyond jails, undermining public safety for the entire country," Reinhart said.
Citing crowded conditions and poor health care in jails and prisons, a summary of the study from Northwestern said the U.S. facilities "have effectively become infectious disease incubators," putting the country at a higher epidemiological risk.
The link between prisons and public health is one of the reasons Black and Hispanic communities have been disproportionately harmed by the coronavirus, the study's authors said.
The spread of the coronavirus between jails and communities "likely accounts for a substantial proportion of the racial disparities we have seen in COVID-19 cases across the U.S.," Reinhart said.
"Ultimately, this also harms all U.S. residents regardless of race, class or partisan affiliations, as disregarding the health of marginalized people inevitably causes harm albeit unevenly to everyone else in a society, too," he added.
The benefits of cutting the jail population would be magnified, Reinhart and Chen wrote, in counties with high proportions of Black residents as well as in urban areas with above-average population density.
The study's findings are based on data from jails that reduced their populations at rates from 20% to 50% during the pandemic in response to health risks from COVID-19.
The researchers sought to predict what the results would look like if the U.S. dropped its jail population by 80%, which would bring the country closer to the average rates seen in peer nations.
The study relied on data gathered at the county level from January 2020 to November, representing 72% of the U.S. population.
12.04pm EDT 12:04
Jessica Glenza
An unvaccinated teacher in a California elementary school infected half her students and 26 people in total when she contracted the Covid-19 Delta variant, researchers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found.
The researchers said the teacher attended school for two days despite displaying symptoms of Covid-19, and read aloud to her class without a mask during that time. Infections corresponded to the classrooms seating chart, with the students sitting closest to the teacher the most likely to be infected.
11.54am EDT 11:54
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 156,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.As of 9am today, there had been a further 32,406 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the Government said.
11.51am EDT 11:51
Government data up to August 27 shows that of the 90,466,529 Covid jabs given in the UK, 47,958,928 were first doses, a rise of 43,160 on the previous day. Around 42,507,601 were second doses, an increase of 128,248.
11.48am EDT 11:48
The Government has said a further 133 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of today, bringing the UK total to 132,376, reports PA.
11.11am EDT 11:11
Thats it from me, Lonie Chao-Fong, for today. Heres a quick roundup of whats been happening so far:
Updated at 11.16am EDT
10.53am EDT 10:53
Tennis fans aged 12 or over will be required to show proof of Covid vaccination in order to attend the US Open, tournament officials have confirmed.
The tournament did not originally require any proof of vaccination or a recent negative test for fans to enter. Attendees were also not required to wear a mask.
Stricter protocols were only introduced after tournament officials came under pressure from New Yorks mayor, Bill de Blasio, and other city leaders.
On Friday evening, the tournament announced on Twitter that proof of at least one vaccine shot would now be required for entrance to the grounds for all fans aged 12 and older. Masks will not be required.
Updated at 11.13am EDT
10.40am EDT 10:40
As September approaches, employers are increasingly asking workers to come in, with many offices adopting hybrid systems after months of working from home prompting mixed emotions. Commuting can be both expensive and polluting. UK workers pay more of their salary in commuting costs than their EU counterparts, and before the pandemic, two-thirds of people travelled to work by car. Despite the costs, which also include time, some value the commute for separating their home and work lives.
Seven people speak about how their commutes and their perspectives on travelling to work have changed since the onset of the pandemic.
Updated at 11.11am EDT
10.23am EDT 10:23
Government scientific advisers have warned universities about hosting freshers weeks next month, saying they could lead to very large spikes in coronavirus cases.
Universities across the country are planning to hold in-person events for first-year students next month for the first time since 2019.
Professor Susan Michie, director of the centre for behaviour change at University College London, as well as a member of the governments Covid-19 behavioural science team and part of the Independent Sage group of scientists, said that even if freshers events were held outdoors, there would still be a high risk associated with them.
She said:
Freshers fair week will have the potential for being a superspreader event, and however much universities pay attention to making it as safe as possible, its the behaviour of people that wont be known.
Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London and a member of the Sage immunology taskforce, echoed Michies predictions. He said that despite the vaccine rollout, the UK was in a way, way worse situation than we were last August heading into autumn as schools and universities prepared to go back.
He said:
So if I imagine vast numbers of kids getting together in halls of residence and in freshers week parties, I think how can one not predict that will lead to very large spikes in numbers?
Read the full report here:
Updated at 10.45am EDT
10.10am EDT 10:10
Heres some more detail on the story that Japan is investigating the death of two men who received jabs from batches of Modernas Covid-19 vaccine that were suspended from use due to contamination.
Agence France-Presse reports:
The men aged 30 and 38 died earlier this month after getting their second Moderna doses from one of three manufacturing lots suspended by the government on Thursday after several vials were found to be contaminated, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said the cause of death was still being investigated and currently, causal relations with the vaccinations are unknown.
Both men contracted fever after receiving their vaccinations and neither had underlying health conditions or allergic history, the ministry said.
Updated at 10.35am EDT
9.51am EDT 09:51
The Italian island region of Sicily will soon be placed under coronavirus restrictions the first time in two months that such measures have been reimposed on a regional level.
Italys health minister, Roberto Speranza, announced he had signed a new ordinance bringing Sicily under yellow zone restrictions, meaning people must wear a mask indoors and outdoors and restaurant diners will be limited to groups of four. The rule change is expected to take effect from Monday.
Since the start of summer, all regions in Italy had been classed at the lowest risk level white, but the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant has sparked concern. Sicily currently has the highest number of people in hospital and in intensive care.
Updated at 10.46am EDT
9.27am EDT 09:27
Sudan has received a shipment of 218,400 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine as a donation from France, the health ministry and Unicef said.
The vaccines were delivered through the UN-backed Covax facility. In March, Sudan received an initial 820,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through Covax and Unicef.
Sudan received 606,700 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines as a donation from the US earlier in August, Reuters reports. The country has also received a number of doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.
In a statement, Unicef said:
The vaccinations come at a critical time as the infection numbers are climbing while the country is preparing to re-open schools after three years of numerous interruptions.
As of Thursday, Sudan, with a population of 42 million, has officially recorded 37,699 infections and 2,831 deaths since the start of the pandemic. However, this is widely believed to reflect only a fraction of the actual numbers.
A study published late last year by scientists from Imperial College Londons Covid-19 response team in Sudan found that only about 2% of Covid deaths in the capital, Khartoum, had been reported.
Updated at 9.56am EDT
9.07am EDT 09:07
Megan, a 30-year-old from rural Nebraska in the US, feels torn. She hasnt been vaccinated against Covid-19, but if left to her own devices, things would be different. She worries about what would happen if she caught the virus and passed it on to her toddler daughter, whose history of health complications includes hospitalisation for lung problems.
Megan feels a responsibility to protect her child. But she also doesnt want to keep secrets from her husband who, along with his mother, is adamantly against the vaccine for political reasons.
As she figures out how to protect herself and her daughter without inciting major family conflict, Megan admits that her husbands reliance on conspiracy theories he learns from like-minded friends or social media posts has made it difficult to trust him. Especially now.
Had we been dating during the pandemic, this may have been a dealbreaker, she says.
Though the percentage of Americans who have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine is slowly climbing amid the rise of the Delta variant, some have firmly made up their minds not to get the shot. Reasons for refusing the vaccine may vary, but one common byproduct has become clear: seriously strained relationships with loved ones on the other side of the heated moral and ideological debate.
Read the full report here:
Updated at 9.56am EDT
8.48am EDT 08:48
The US government confirmed the worlds first case of coronavirus in deer on Friday, adding to the list of animals known to have tested positive for the disease.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported infections of Sars-CoV-2 in wild white-tailed deer in the state of Ohio, according to a statement on Friday.
A USDA spokesperson told Reuters:
We do not know how the deer were exposed to Sars-CoV-2. Its possible they were exposed through people, the environment, other deer, or another animal species.
The USDA has previously reported coronavirus in animals including dogs, cats, tigers, lions, snow leopards, otters, gorillas and mink.
Updated at 9.55am EDT
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London A study conducted in the U.K. offers some of the first large-scale, real-world data on how well vaccination protects people against catching a "breakthrough" COVID-19 infection, and how well it protects breakthrough patients from becoming seriously ill. The results are encouraging.
The peer-reviewed study published Wednesday inThe Lancet medical journal will help policy makers and epidemiologists fill in a significant gap in the understanding of the true efficacy of three of the major vaccines being used worldwide.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, doesn't have good data on how many people catch COVID-19 after being vaccinated, as it decided in the spring to track only serious, symptomatic breakthrough cases. The British study, on the other hand, used mass-testing data to determine how many breakthrough cases there actually are and how sick those people get.
The vaccines were never intended to prevent infections completely, but to reduce the rates of infection within a population and, most importantly, to reduce the severity of illness in people who do catch it. The study found that people who contracted the coronavirus despite being fully vaccinated were almost twice as likely to have no symptoms at all, compared to the wider population.
Crucially, the odds of a fully-vaccinated person who does catch COIVD-19 ending up hospitalized with severe symptoms were reduced by more than two-thirds compared to an unvaccinated coronavirus patient. The survey also found that the risk of breakthrough patients suffering from long-COVID, with symptoms lasting more than a month, were cut in half by full vaccination.
It's the latest dataset to offer convincing evidence that the vaccines work as intended.
Researchers from King's College, London, and Harvard in the U.S. carried out the study using self-reported data from more than a million people in the U.K. who had received either the Moderna, Pfizer or AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines. The research showed that the risk of severe disease or hospitalization was significantly reduced after a first vaccine dose, but that protection against serious illness and against catching a breakthrough infection to begin with increased with the full dosage.
The data, gathered from December 8, 2020, through July 4, 2021, show that of more than 1.2 million adults who received a first dose, fewer than 0.5% reported contracting breakthrough infections two weeks or more after getting the jab. Among those who got both shots, fewer than 0.2% experienced a breakthrough infection a week or more after getting their second shot.
"Among those who did experience a breakthrough infection, the odds of that infection being asymptomatic increased by 63% after one vaccine dose and by 94% after the second dose," the study's authors wrote in The Lancet.
"We are at a critical point in the pandemic as we see cases rising worldwide due to the delta variant. Breakthrough infections are expected and don't diminish the fact that these vaccines are doing exactly what they were designed to do save lives and prevent serious illness," said study co-lead author Dr. Claire Steves of King's College. "Other research has shown a mortality rate as high as 27% for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. We can greatly reduce that number by keeping people out of the hospital in the first place through vaccination. Our findings highlight the crucial role vaccines play in larger efforts to prevent COVID-19 infections, which should still include other personal protective measures such as mask-wearing, frequent testing, and social distancing."
The data also show that the risk of breakthrough infection is higher for people living in lower-income areas, likely due, the authors said, to closer living quarters and lower overall vaccination rates in these communities. These risks were "most significantly associated with a post-vaccination infection after receiving the first vaccine dose and before receiving a second dose," according to The Lancet.
As has been found consistently since the coronavirus first emerged, age and underlying conditions, including heart, lung and kidney disease, all seriously increase the risk of severe COVID-19 infection, including in those who have been vaccinated.
"The increased risks of breakthrough infections for frail, older adults especially those living in care homes or who require frequent visits to health care facilities and for other people living in deprived conditions reflect what we've seen throughout the pandemic. These groups are at a greater risk of exposure and are therefore more vulnerable to infection," study co-author Dr. Rose Penfold, also of King's College, said in The Lancet. "Health policies designed to prevent infections, including policies around timing between the first and second dose and potential booster shots, should prioritize these groups."
While the data used for the study did not discern between infections with the Delta variant and other strains of the coronavirus, the vast majority of U.K. cases have been Delta infections since at least early June, and it started spreading rapidly in March. In the U.S., Delta became the dominant strain in July and it now makes up nearly all new cases.
Vaccination rates in Oregon are steadily trending upward, as the effort to vaccinate residents against COVID-19 increasingly turns to hyper-local community efforts.
The Oregon Health Authority said the state is now averaging 8,771 vaccinations per day -- nearly double the number from six weeks ago.
Public health officials suspect that a so-far unspecified number of those increased inoculations in Oregon are due to residents seeking out third shots the federal government authorized the third shot of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines for some people with weakened immune systems on Aug. 13 and at least one million have been administered across the country since then. The health authority plans to start separately reporting the number of third shots next week.
But even so, state officials believe a significant portion of Oregons increasing vaccination numbers is due to unvaccinated residents getting vaccinated for the first time.
Vaccination rates increased at a far faster pace in many of the counties that have been hardest hit this summer. While the seven-day rolling average in the state has nearly doubled since mid-July, the average has come close to or more than tripled in Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, Harney, Malheur and Tillamook counties. In tiny, 7,000-resident Wallowa County, five times the number of people are getting vaccinated now compared to six weeks ago 16 people per day on average, compared to just three in mid-July.
A bump in vaccine rates is welcome news as the delta variant of the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in Oregon. On Thursday, the Oregon Health Authority reported 2,449 coronavirus cases and 27 deaths, with 1,131 hospitalizations, a 47-patient decline since Wednesday and a possible sign Oregon might be nearing its peak. Some forecasts predict that high point will come in the next few days or few weeks.
Most Oregonians getting sick with COVID-19 illness now are unvaccinated, and this is entirely preventable, Oregon Health Authority spokesman Rudy Owens said. Statewide, OHAs vaccination planning focuses on achieving equity, maintaining vaccination services in a wide range of accessible settings, answering questions about the decision to be vaccinated, and ensuring we have supply available, where it is needed.
The Oregon Health Authority is organizing 57 vaccination events across the state in September and October, Owens said, and will be going door-to-door to answer questions about the vaccines.
This effort recognizes that personal conversations can be an effective strategy to share information with people who are hesitant, he said.
The state hasnt planned any events in Douglas County this fall, despite the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in southern Oregon that overwhelmed area hospitals.
On Thursday, Douglas County reported 146 new COVID-19 cases, as well as an additional 681 people vaccinated last week. State figures show 51% of adults in the county are now at least partially vaccinated, following a steady increase in vaccinations following the surge in cases.
Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer, the countys public health, attributed the rise in vaccination rates to a variety of factors, including the increase in cases that filled local hospitals, the widespread availability of vaccines and the recent FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine.
People are worried, he said. As people see more deaths and see more deaths around town, I think that really hits close to home. And then seeing the hospital so crowded really hits close to home.
But Dannenhoffer also attributed the new vaccinations to a concerted effort in Douglas County to bring vaccines and expert medical information into underserved or vaccine-resistant communities just one of many such efforts occurring in Oregon this summer.
Kevin Alejandrez, community navigator for Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos Del Noroeste, said the Woodburn-based organization has been helping farmworkers and working-class families of Latin American descent get vaccinated by helping dispel fears and misinformation, then pointing people to local vaccine clinics.
It really depends on the people, we try to meet them where theyre at, Alejandrez said. We dont try to pressure anybody or force anything on anybody, we just try to have conversation with them.
Unlike many conservative-leaning white communities, where vaccine resistance is often a form of political expression, some in local Latin American communities remain unvaccinated due to pre-existing societal barriers that have only been exacerbated by the pandemic, Alejandrez said. Many people struggle to take time off work, and some face language barriers. Those who are undocumented may fear showing up at any government-run clinic, he said.
Meanwhile, the wildfires and heat waves this summer are forcing farm workers and families into tighter living conditions as they seek shelter, aiding in the spread of the virus.
Its important to recognize how all of this affects farm workers and more vulnerable, marginalized communities in general, Alejandrez said. All these things affect one another.
The same issues are playing out in the many different communities served by the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, a Portland organization that supports Asians and Pacific Islanders of various ethnic backgrounds across the state.
Duncan Hwang, interim co-executive director of the organization, said language barriers, time off work, transportation issues and misinformation all hamper efforts to vaccinate the diverse Pacific Islander and Asian communities in Oregon though both ethnic groups lead Oregons statewide vaccination effort, with vaccination rates of 89% and 69% respectively in adults, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
If you look at the general aggregated data, it appears our community is doing quite well, Hwang said, though he acknowledged there is still much work to be done.
Hwang said face masks are not typically a contentious issue in local Asian-American communities, where those from countries like China and Japan are accustomed to masking up in public when they are sick. The bigger concern has been the rise in hate crimes targeting Asian people during the pandemic, which has increased fears about using public transportation, going into public places and sending kids back to schools, he said.
I think theres just a general sense of unease and not (being) sure whats going on, and also not sure what the fall is going to look like, Hwang said.
While some advocacy groups take their own approach, other community organizations have joined up with government agencies to boost vaccinations.
In Portland, the Coalition of African and African American Pastors was just one of the groups involved in the Soul 2 Soul drive-through vaccine clinic in the Lloyd Center Regal Cinemas parking lot last Saturday. Other sponsors included the governors office and several local health systems and counties.
Hope is a message that is best offered by people who care about you and your familys well-being, said Dr. Avery Stafford, the lead pastor at Common Ground Church, a member of the coalition.
The coalition, he said, has held more than 50 vaccination clinics over the last year in the Portland area.
These events go beyond an anonymous message of hope, Stafford said. They provide practical, accessible assistance from people who live in their community, know the history and challenges of their community, and are laser-focused on blessing the people of their community.
The Soul 2 Soul event featured incentives for those getting their first shot, including Visa gift cards, school supplies and clothes. There will also raffles for college scholarships and mystery boxes with iPads, laptops and more.
Incentives are also part of an effort to vaccinate some Native American communities. On the Oregon coast, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians is offering tribal members $200 each to get the vaccine, either at the local Siletz Community Health Clinic or elsewhere. The surge in COVID-19 cases forced the tribe to temporarily close its Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City and cancel its annual Run to the Rogue event.
In Douglas County, a small group known as the Tiger Team has taken on the job of increasing vaccinations.
The team includes former fire chief, a registered nurse, a medical assistant and two logisticians (including one who speaks Spanish) who travel to vaccine-resistant communities where they host pop-up clinics and try to convince locals to get vaccinated, said Dannenhoffer, the countys public health officer.
Their approach is simply to educate people about the risks of the coronavirus, and offer facts about the vaccine just as public health officials might educate people about the benefits of using seatbelts, quitting smoking or practicing safe sex.
Like the other community efforts in Oregon, the Tiger Team approaches vaccination hesitancy with grace, offering reliable information that is ultimately up to individuals to accept or not.
We dont shame people, we dont blame people, we try to encourage them to [get vaccinated], Dannenhoffer said. And when youre ready to do it, we want to make it as easy as possible.
- Jamie Hale; jhale@oregonian.com; 503-294-4077; @HaleJamesB
- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee
Reporter Lizzy Acker contributed to this report.
How Indianapolis Colts players are handling COVID protocols
Sports Seriously: Mackenzie Salmon caught up with Colts running back Nyheim Hines to talk about his teams reaction to the latest COVID protocols mandated by the league.
USA TODAY
INDIANAPOLIS Carson Wentz spent three days attending Zoom meetings and rehabbing his injured left foot at home.
The Indianapolis Colts quarterback also used the time to think about how to avoid another trip to the reserve/COVID-19 list.
On Thursday, Wentz returned to practice still unvaccinated but with a stronger commitment to the leagues safety protocols after he and two other starters were activated.
Ive weighed a lot of things, Ive factored in everything, he said. I know whats at stake, I know all of those things and like I said, its just where Im at, where Im at with my family. Thats why just understanding the protocol to truly try everything we can to avoid what happened this week, it is what it is. The protocols are in place. So weve got to honor them as best we can so we can avoid what happened.
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This was a big week for Wentz for all the wrong reasons.
Coach Frank Reich announced Sunday he wanted to test Wentzs foot to see if it could withstand the rigors of an NFL game. The plan was to use Wentz at all four workouts without limitations for the first time since he had a bone fragment removed Aug. 2.
Instead, team officials were forced to revise the schedule when Wentz, center Ryan Kelly and receiver Zach Pascal were deemed to be close contacts to someone who tested positive for the virus. Because league protocols require unvaccinated players to sit out vaccinated players do not if they continue to test negative a public debate ensued about Wentzs vaccination status and that of the Colts, who have one of the leagues lowest vaccination rates.
While Wentz, Kelly and Pascal were all out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the former North Dakota State star naturally became the biggest target. Wentz was criticized in the media and by fans who warmly embraced him after being traded from Philadelphia to Indy in March.
Reich even had to come to Wentzs defense Tuesday when he was asked if Wentzs aversion to take the shot demonstrated a lack of leadership.
The questions continued when Wentz returned to the field, still limited though taking most of the first-team snaps.
It felt great to finally get out there in full pads, he said. Obviously, Id hoped to get out there earlier this week.
What everyone wants to know now is whether Wentz will be the starter Sept. 12 against Seattle?
The answer might not come until next Thursday. Indy doesnt practice again until Monday and Wentz hasnt been full-go on consecutive days since late July.
Reich is optimistic.
Hes got to come back Monday and if all goes well then hell go and Wednesday and then well see, he said. The only way that would be inhibited is if he couldnt go Thursday.
The virus isnt the only thing that could put Indy at a disadvantage.
Team officials announced four-time Pro Bowl receiver T.Y. Hilton, third-string quarterback Sam Ehlinger and second-year receiver Dezmon Patmon were put on injured reserve.
Hilton had surgery on a injured disk in his neck earlier this week, a procedure general manager Chris Ballard said gave Hilton instant relief. Theyre not sure how much time hell miss but expect him back later this season.
Ehlinger sprained his right knee in the preseason finale at Detroit. Patmon is out with a foot injury.
And, as the Colts already have learned, vaccinations arent necessarily the answer, either.
Nine players have already been on the COVID-19 list, most as close contacts. Reich missed the first week of training camp and defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus missed the first two games after positive tests. Both coaches were fully vaccinated.
I know what it felt like last year to not have the main guys up there, you lose a big game against Tennessee, at home, we should have won and had the division title, unvaccinated All-Pro linebacker Darius Leonard said. Were not going to do anything stupid as hell to put our team or our teammates in jeopardy of that.
So while this weeks absence gave Wentz time to rethink his decision and what he could do better, hes yet not ready to get the shots.
This has been a fluid process for me this whole time, he said. Thats kind of where weve been as a family, weve just been monitoring everything we can, letting it play out as long as we can. This is where were at today and things could change in the next coming week, who knows?
One squirt per nostril and you're protected from COVID-19?
That's the intent ofa vaccine that's about to be tested in a clinical trial, which will run at three U.S. research sites including the Gamble Center for Vaccine Research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
What's promising about the vaccine under study is that it is expected to quickly stop COVID-19 spread from those who get the two-squirt dose.
It has the potential to stop viral infection at the very earliest stages, preventing infection of the nose and upper respiratory tract,"said Dr. Paul Spearman, director of the division of infectious diseases at Cincinnati Children's and lead investigator for clinical trials of the CVXGA1 vaccine.
That could be a turn of events for the novel coronavirus pandemic, he said, because current vaccines cannot promise the prevention of early stages of COVID-19, which get into the nose and can cause upper respiratory issues, though theyare highly effective at preventingsevere illness and death.
CyanVac LLC, of Athens, Georgia, a small pharmaceutical manufacturing company founded in 2017, developed the vaccine that's about to be tested. CVXGA1 employs a live vector virus that hasn't been used in humans so far.
This is a naturally-occurring canine respiratory virus that is not known to cause any harm in humans who have been exposed to it,"Spearman said. The vaccine has been engineered to express the COVID-19 spike glycoprotein, which is the same spike protein that's in the other vaccines, he said.
The vaccine is squirted into each nostril; thenit replicates and generates an immune response, he said.
The clinical trial at the Cincinnati Children's research center is expected to begin the week of Sept. 14, and recruitment is underway, but Spearman said could be "a little tricky."
"We are trying to recruit individuals who've had no COVID vaccine and have not been infected with COVID-19."
Adults 18 to 75 will be enrolled in the clinical trials, with the first part of the trial to include those 18-55, and the second, 56 to 75 years old, officials said. The study will go on for a year, and will require 10 visits to the research center. Any individual who takes part will be paid $975, officials said.
The Cincinnati study will include 15 to 20 participants, and, nationwide, trial coordinators are looking to test the vaccine in about 80 people. Scroll to the end of the story to find out how to enroll.
There will be no placebo in the trial, Spearman said. Those who take part will get specific instructions, but basically, the trial is expected to go on for a year. And while the participants will get a non-needle vaccine (because is intranasal) of CVXGA1, they will have to have blood drawn so that researchers can examine their immune response,including antibodies.
Spearman could not be sure when CVXGA1 could be approved for use but said it's possible that if clinical trials go well the FDA could give the OK for use by mid-2022.
In addition, Spearman is hopeful that "down the road," CVXGA1 can be used for children, who often are frightened of injections. That would also require clinical trials for children.
Thevaccine could also become a booster for those who've already been vaccinated against COVID-19, he said.
The two other testing sites are KPAR, Kentucky Pediatric and Adult Research, a center in Bardstown, Kentucky, and the University of Rochester, in Rochester, New York.
To enroll in the study go to the Cincinnati Children's vaccine research enrollment link (the preferred method); or email gambleprogram@cchmc. If you do not have online access, you may call513-636-7699.
