The Garner Memorial Surge continued over the weekend, judging by hospital numbers on COVID-19 patients.
The hospital count today, the first since Friday:
Current hospitalizations: 787 (on Friday it was 681)
Total Beds: 8,817
Total Beds Available: 1,878
Total ICU Beds: 1,172
Total ICU Beds Available: 51
Total Vents: 1,066
Total Vents Available: 700
Total Covid patients in ICU: 291 (it was 240 on Friday)
Total Covid patients on vents: 124 (on Friday it was 119)
Heres a summary of the change in numbers over the three-day weekend, with daily reports to follow sometime this afternoon.
New cases: 2,552 over three days, or an average of more than 800 a day, but Sundays and Mondays are typically low-count days.
Active cases: 10,505, up 755 from Friday.
Deaths: 6,007, an increase of 15 since Friday.
Vaccinations: 15,750, or about 5,000 per day.
Get a shot. Wear a mask. Keep your distance. Or keep doing what youve been doing.
Lots of notice today that the American association of pediatricians says all school-age children should wear masks. Thank Trent Garner and them for a government that the health-conscious may NOT be protected from those who wont follow science.
UPDATE: here are the daily changes.
CNN
With Covid-19 cases rising in all 50 states, health officials say its clear that unvaccinated people are both driving the increase in cases and are most at risk.
This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during Fridays White House Covid-19 briefing.
We are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination coverage because unvaccinated people are at risk, Walensky said. Meantime, communities that are fully vaccinated are generally faring well.
According to White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients, just four states made up 40% of Covid-19 cases in the past week, with one in five cases occurring in Florida alone.
CNN
Florida authorities are mobilizing vaccination efforts in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases.
But cases are rising in all 50 states and Washington, DC, with the average of new cases at least 10% higher than a week ago and 38 states are seeing at least a 50% increase, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.
The US recorded an average of 26,448 new cases per day over the last week up 67% from the week before and case rates are highest in states with lower vaccination rates: Among those states that have fully vaccinated less than half its residents, the average Covid-19 case rate was 11 new cases per 100,000 people last week, compared to 4 per 100,000 among states that have fully vaccinated more than half its residents.
Many experts have attributed the rise to slowing vaccination rates with just 48.4% of the US population fully vaccinated, per CDC data.
Our biggest concern is that we are going to continue to see preventable cases, hospitalizations and, sadly, deaths among the unvaccinated, Walensky said.
The danger is fueled by the growing prevalence of the Delta variant, first identified in India. Pointing to an extraordinary surge of the variant worldwide, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the Delta variant now has more than 50% dominance in the US. In some areas, its greater than 70%, he said, calling this sobering news.
The bottom line is we are dealing with a formidable opponent in the Delta variant, Fauci said, adding people who are not vaccinated face extreme vulnerability.
In Arkansas, where only 35.1% of the population is fully vaccinated, the Delta variant has had a big impact, Chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Cam Patterson said, adding hospitals are full right now and cases are doubling every 10 days. And emergency response services in the state say there are receiving a record number of calls due to the rise in the virus, according to CNN affiliate KATV.
The good news is that if you are fully vaccinated, you are protected against severe Covid, hospitalization and death, Walensky said Friday, and are even protected against the known variants, including the Delta variant.
If you are not vaccinated, she added, you remain at risk.
Liz Sanders/Bloomberg/Getty Images
A patient arrives at the Jordan Valley Community Health Center in Springfield, Missouri, on July 12, 2021
In response to climbing case numbers, some jurisdictions are opting to reinstate mask guidelines.
In California, Los Angeles County the nations largest county with a population of 10 million people has responded to a surge in cases and hospitalizations by reinstating a mask mandate beginning Saturday. Health officials in the San Francisco Bay Area are similarly recommending people wear face coverings in indoor public places, regardless of vaccination status.
The Southern Nevada Health District, which serves Las Vegas, is also recommending masks for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, saying masks have been proven effective in preventing the spread of the coronavirus. But vaccinations remain the most important and effective step people can take to protect themselves and others from Coivd-19, the health district said.
Echoing Walenskys comments, Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccinologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said this was also a pandemic of the partially vaccinated.
If these trends continue anyone who is unvaccinated or possibly even just gotten a single dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine theres a good likelihood theyre going to get infected, Hotez said.
Health officials recommend that people who get their first dose of a vaccine get their second dose three or four weeks later, depending on whether they received the vaccine by Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna. Johnson & Johnsons vaccine requires just a single dose.
But falling behind schedule shouldnt stop people from getting their second dose, Walensky said Friday.
If you are beyond that window, I want to reiterate: There is no bad time to get your second shot, Walensky said Friday.
Both vaccines exceed 90% effectiveness against severe disease, hospitalization and deaths in real-world studies, she said. But those who are only partially vaccinated still face a risk of illness.
Do it for yourself, your family and for your community, Walensky said. And please, do it for your young children who right now cant get vaccinated themselves.
Meanwhile, key reasons for the hesitancy around Covid-19 vaccines are mistrust and misinformation, according to a CNN analysis of data from the US Census Bureaus Household Pulse Survey.
Nearly half of people who said they will definitely or probably not get a Covid-19 vaccine cited mistrust in the vaccines as a reason for not getting vaccinated, according to the latest data, published Wednesday and based on survey responses from June 23 to July 5. Thats an increase from about a month ago, when 46% of people who said they did not plan to be vaccinated gave the same reason.
Millions of people dont have access to accurate information right now, because on social media platforms and other tech platforms were seeing the rampant spread of misinformation, and its costing people their lives, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNNs Jake Tapper.
Much of that information frequently comes out of people with good intent, he added, saying that they think they are spreading helpful information, but that often misinformation spreads more quickly than accurate information.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra agreed, telling CNNs Poppy Harlow, People are being told things that arent true, and theyre becoming more hesitant.
But fortunately, there are people who are seeing the facts, he said. Theyre seeing a loved one, unfortunately, get hospitalized, maybe die. And theyre changing their minds.
One of the best ways to combat the misinformation, Murthy said, is to have conversations with your friends and family.
Its about peers talking to peers, Murthy said during a Stanford University panel event on Thursday. Remember, all of these conversations first start with listening so try to understand where somebody is coming from, why they may be worried. It may not always be what you think.
Some businesses and hospitals have already required their employees to be vaccinated, and now some universities are implementing requirements as well.
Rhode Island has become the first state where all public and private colleges and universities require their students to be fully vaccinated before returning to campus this fall, Governor Dan McKee announced this week.
Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, Rhode Islands director of health, said in a news release vaccinations are key to having a successful academic year, and the Delta variant was circulating in parts of the country where many of our students live.
The University of California, the nations largest public university system, plans to mandate all students, faculty and staff be fully vaccinated before returning to campuses in the fall. Those who are not exempt from receiving the vaccine will be barred from in-person classes, activities and housing, UC officials announced Thursday.
The Association of American Medical Colleges Friday also urged its member institutions to require vaccinations for employees to protect patients and health care personnel. President Dr. David Sorkin acknowledged the sensitive nature of the recommendation, saying AAMC understood such requirements would be subject to state laws.
Such mandates for employees could become easier for private companies as the vaccine approval process move further along. Each vaccine available in the US has been authorized for emergency use. But the companies are still working toward full US Food and Drug Administration approval.
Pfizer and BioNTech said Friday their application for full approval of their vaccine was granted priority review by the FDA, and an FDA official told CNN a decision on full approval is likely to come within two months.
Full approval will clear up any legal questions that private employers may have, former US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday. Employers, schools and universities, she said, should get more serious about telling people that choosing to not get vaccinated could mean losing access to places that could put others at risk.
I think that its time to say to those folks, Its fine if you dont choose to get vaccinated, (but) you may not come to work.
CNNs Gregory Lemos, Carma Hassan, Naomi Thomas, Lauren Mascarenhas, Jacqueline Howard, Deidre McPhillips, Virginia Langmaid and Sarah Braner contributed to this report.
More than 110,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been destroyed in Georgia since December 2020, when vaccines were first administered in the state, Georgia health officials said.
Georgia Department of Health spokesperson Nancy Nydam told CNN that 110,079 doses were destroyed because they were not being used.
There are various reason for vaccines to go unused, according to Nydam, including doses not being needed after being prepared, parent or child refusal, damaged vials, syringe leaks and apparent contamination.
Vaccines using mRNA, as the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines do, have a short life once they are prepared. Once the Pfizer vaccine is mixed for administering, it will only last for six hours. Health care providers are advised to discard remaining vaccine after that time.
According to data from Georgia Department of Health, destroyed doses included thousands from all three approved manufacturers, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson.
"With more than 8.5 million doses going into arms, that is a very small percentage (1.4%) that go unused," Nydam said.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate/allowance for vaccine wastage is 5%, so Georgia is well below that percentage, Nydam said.
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In March, when demand for vaccine was much higher around the country than it is now, CDC records showed that less than 1% of the 155 million doses reported adminsitered by March 29, were reported as wastage by 35 states, 17 pharmacies and three other federal agencies through March 29.
The vaccination rate in Georgia continues to lag behind much of the country. According to the state's data, 39% of residents were fully vaccinated, while 44% had had at least one dose as of Monday morning.
According to CDC data, 48.6% of the US population is fully vaccinated, and 56.1% have had at least one dose of vaccine.
"Georgia continues to follow best practices for using every dose of vaccine possible, however, as supply now exceeds demand, we also will not miss the opportunity to vaccinate someone when they are ready to be vaccinated," Nydam told CNN.
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By consulting scientific research and news articles, Stacker compiled a list of 25 animal evolution questions and answers to explain some evolutionary mysteries, from why giraffes have such long necks to how ants can carry 50 times their body weight. Read on to find out how evolution has led Click for more.
While the COVID-19 vaccines currently available in the U.S. have been proved to be safe and effective, recent reports of rare adverse events, or side effects, have raised concerns. On July 12, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration approved an update to the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine fact sheet to include an increased risk of the rare nerve condition Guillain-Barr syndrome. This follows previous reports linking the J&J vaccine with a rare blood clot.
While reports like these can be scary, theyre a sign that the vaccine safety reporting system is working. They also highlight how the relative risks of rare side effects like these need to be put into context.
As a pharmacist who has been managing operations for the University of Virginia Health Systems COVID-19 vaccine program for the past seven months, Ive seen how uncertainty and fear over potential side effects can drive vaccine hesitancy. Understanding how information about adverse events is collected and what it means for vaccine safety may help people make informed decisions about their health.
The FDA enforces rigorous testing and approval processes that manufacturers must follow before a new vaccine can be made available to the public. Regardless of whether a vaccine is approved through the typical FDA approval process or an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), the steps required to test a new drug for safety and effectiveness are the same. An EUA can get a vaccine to the public more quickly by streamlining the regulatory process, but no shortcuts are taken. Every step is taken to ensure the vaccine is both safe and effective.
Vaccine clinical trials occur in four sequential phases. In the first three phases, study investigators are the ones who identify, quantify and document safety issues. Phase 1 typically introduces the vaccine to fewer than 100 people over several months under controlled conditions. Typically, the majority of potential adverse events are identified in this stage.
After the FDA reviews phase 1 data and deems the vaccine safe enough to be studied further, the vaccine moves on to phases 2 and 3, where it will be given to larger numbers of people over longer periods of time. Here, investigators determine optimal dosage and screen for rare side effects.
If phase 2 and 3 data meets FDA approval standards, the vaccine will then move on to phase 4 and become available to the public. The vaccine is observed over much larger populations and extended periods of time, and manufacturers are required to regularly check and report potential safety concerns to the FDA.
Whats different about this final phase is that the public can also contribute to safety reporting. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a national safety monitoring system run by the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While certain types of adverse events, such as injuries during vaccine administration and serious complications, are mandatory for health care providers to report, anyone can submit a report. Recent adverse events associated with the COVID-19 vaccine, including Guillain-Barr and thrombosis for Johnson & Johnson and myocarditis for Pfizer, were identified through VAERS.
A rare adverse event may take months or years to identify for a simple reason: Its rare. For some drugs that are less commonly used, new safety data takes longer to discover because a relatively small number of patients use the drug. For example, though the shingles vaccine Shingrix was approved 2017, it wasnt until March 2021 after over 3.7 million patients had gotten the shot that the FDA announced a potential increased risk of Guillain-Barr. And it still hasnt been confirmed that the Shringrix vaccine causes the nerve condition.
For cases like the COVID-19 vaccine, however, millions of people will receive the drug shortly after its released to the public, and new issues or patterns often emerge more quickly.
This can lead to two problems.
First, not every reported adverse event is directly related to the vaccine. For example, many of the tens of millions of people who have received the Pfizer vaccine have likely experienced a sunburn. People might report that they experienced a sunburn to VAERS, but the vaccine has no effect on your skins ability to protect against the sun. VAERS is very clear that it is not designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem, but is especially useful for detecting unusual or unexpected patterns of adverse event reporting. Correlation does not imply causation.
Second, a plausibly identified adverse event does not necessarily make the vaccine unsafe. According to CDC, there have been 100 preliminary reports of GuillainBarr out of 12.5 million J&J doses, or 0.008% of people who received the vaccine. Administering one vaccine to a huge sample of people can make it easier to identify a possible connection between the shot and a side effect. But that doesnt mean the risk of getting that side effect is very likely, or that it outweighs the benefit of getting vaccinated.
These risks, while real and potentially life-threatening, must be viewed in context with the much larger risk of negative outcomes from the diseases vaccines protect people from. For example, 1%-7% of patients who take cholesterol drugs called statins are likely to experience potentially harmful muscle injury. However, these drugs are still taken by millions of people because they are highly effective at preventing heart disease and stroke. And in the case of GuillainBarr, about one in 100,000 people, or 0.001%, develop this condition yearly in the U.S. from any cause. By comparison, the U.S. has had more than 33 million cases of COVID-19, and over 600,000 deaths caused by this disease.
In such extraordinary times as during a pandemic, its understandable that people may be hesitant to take on any more risk than they have to. But there are safety nets in place to monitor the COVID-19 vaccines, and they are still working as they should.
The COVID-19 vaccines are proven to be overwhelmingly safe for most people. More than 40,000 patients participated in J&Js clinical trials before the company applied for emergency use authorization, mirroring Pfizers and Modernas study sample sizes. Some 0.4% of participants in the J&J trial experienced serious adverse events unrelated to COVID-19 infection. In contrast, the trial demonstrated that people who get the vaccine are 85% less likely to get severe COVID-19 than those who remain unvaccinated.
The extremely rare side effects associated with the COVID-19 vaccines were discovered because safety reporting tools were used appropriately. Being aware of the risks of a treatment, however rare, can help people make health decisions that work best for them. However, these risks must be viewed in context. And in the case of the COVID-19 vaccines, they must be weighed against the consequences of remaining unvaccinated and letting the pandemic rage on.
[The Conversations most important coronavirus headlines, weekly in a science newsletter]
July 19, 2021 -- There are lots of unfounded fears about the COVID-19 vaccines floating around, and one of the most pervasive is the idea that these new shots aren't really vaccines, but that they will somehow change your genes or insert themselves into the DNA of your cells.
You may see people posting on social media about the vaccines being a kind of gene therapy, and they're partly right, but in the end this idea often misses some important details about how the vaccines work. They can't change your genes, and they don't stay in your body for more than a few days.
But plenty of people have distorted the way the vaccines work into something that could sound sinister. For example, in January, the Weston A. Price Foundation, a group that discourages vaccination, hosted a podcast where David Martin, PhD, described by FactCheck.org as a "financial analyst and self-help entrepreneur," called the vaccines gene therapy.
"a vaccine is supposed to trigger immunity. It's not supposed to trigger you to make a toxin," Martin said. "It's not a vaccination."
Except that these shots are vaccines, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and they don't cause you to make a toxin.
So where did this idea get started?
"Like many rumors, there's sort of an element of truth," says Beth Thielen, MD, PhD, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
But the truth is that the vaccines involve sound science that sounds complicated to most people not educated in the field.
The vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna use tiny oily envelopes called lipid nanoparticles to slip a single strand of genetic material called messenger RNA (mRNA) into our cells.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is slightly different. It uses double-stranded DNA inserted into a common, but inert virus called an adenovirus. This DNA also contains the instructions for building the spike protein. Once inside the cell, these instructions are read and translated into mRNA.
These bits of mRNA go into the jellied liquid called cytoplasm that makes up the body of our cells.
"Where they join about 200,000 other pieces of messenger RNA that are also sitting in every cell's cytoplasm, because our cells make proteins and enzymes all the time," says Paul Offit, MD, director of the vaccine education center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The mRNA chains are basically work orders that spell out the instructions for making the spike proteins that stud the outside of the coronavirus that cases COVID-19. The virus uses its spikes to dock onto our cells and infect them.
It's one of the viruses' most recognizable features. Our cells read this mRNA and use them to assemble the spikes. The spikes migrate to the outside of our cells where they are recognized and remembered by our immune system.
These spikes, by themselves, are not dangerous. They can't make anyone sick. They are essentially mug shots that help the body recognize and fight off the real perpetrator when it comes along.
The mRNA chains from the vaccines only last for a couple of days before they break down and the pieces are swept away by the body's normal waste disposal system.
Messenger RNA is genetic material, so in that sense, the vaccines are genetically based therapy.
But the FDA classifies them as vaccines, not gene therapy.
"I think people hear that and they think 'Oh my God, You're going to alter my DNA," Offit says. "That's not possible."
For the vaccines to alter a person's genes, Offit explains, the mRNA instructions would have to enter the cell's control center, the nucleus. The nucleus is walled off from the rest of the cell by its own membrane. To get past that membrane, the mRNA would have to have an enzyme called a nuclear access signal, Offit says, "which it doesn't have."
Even if it could get into the nucleus, the single strand of mRNA would have to be translated back into a double stranded DNA.
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can do this. It uses an enzyme like reverse transcriptase to insert itself into our chromosomes. The mRNA in the vaccines lacks this enzyme, so it can't turn back into DNA.
The DNA adenovirus used in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine does enter the nucleus of our cells, but it never integrates into our chromosomes.
Even after those two steps, there's a third firewall between the vaccines and our genes: Another enzyme, called an integrase, would be needed to stitch the new DNA into the DNA of our cells. That's also not in the vaccines.
"So the chances are zero that that can happen," Offit says.
One way to think about mRNA is to imagine if a friend wanted to make a delicious salad that you have the recipe for, Thielen says.
"You'd go to your cookbook, you'd copy the recipe on a note card and give it to them," she says. They can make the salad, but they don't have the cookbook, the original cookbook. You didn't change the cookbook, you just gave them a Post-it note or something that's temporary and that's meant to be," she says.
It's true that these are some of the first vaccines to work this way, but the technology was years in the making. The science was given a final push by billions in funding that was made available through Operation Warp Speed.
The vaccines have now been given to millions of people. They are some of the most effective in the world at preventing severe outcomes from COVID infections. So far, they are holding up well against all the viral variants.
While very rare side effects have been linked to the vaccines, so far, the FDA has determined that the benefit from taking one far outweighs these rare risks for most people.
"I've been astonished, actually,at how well it seems to be working. And so, I think it is very exciting from a vaccine development standpoint that we have new tools in our armamentarium to make new vaccines," Thielen says.
But there's still more to learn.
"I think we need to do dedicated studies of this platform to really understand how long the protection lasts and how well does it adapt to other vaccine targets like RSV. I think that remains to be seen," Thielen says.
Medscape Medical News
Bit by bit, people who are eligible for vaccination against SARS-COV-2, the coronavirus causing COVID-19, are getting vaccinated in the U.S. So far, there has been little data regarding safety of coronavirus vaccination for pregnant and lactating individuals since they were not included in the phase III clinical trials for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines. But slowly, more data is coming out regarding safety.
In a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, researchers tested the human milk from seven individuals for signs of mRNA vaccines that the participants received. The milk was collected between December 2020 and February 2021 and mean age of participants was 37.8 years old. The researchers collected samples before vaccination and at intervals up to 48 hours following vaccination.
The team analyzed the different components, the supernatant and the fat, of human milk separately. Out of the 13 post vaccination samples, they didnt find any signs of vaccines. We didn't detect the vaccine associated mRNA in any of the milk samples tested, says lead author Yarden Golan, who is a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in a press release. These findings provide an experimental evidence regarding the safety of the use of mRNA-based vaccines during lactation.
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The scientists think this suggests it is safe for individuals who are feeding infants with human milk to get vaccinated. The results strengthen current recommendations that the mRNA vaccines are safe in lactation, and that lactating individuals who receive the COVID vaccine should not stop breastfeeding, says physician and corresponding author Stephanie L. Gaw, who is assistant professor of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at UCSF, in the press release. Although, it should be noted that the sample size of the study was small with only seven participants. Future studies could also look at longer time periods post vaccination.
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With COVID-19 vaccines now available to all American adults, the vaccine landscape has changed since anticipation for vaccine rollout began in January. But according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundations COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor project, opinions about the COVID-19 vaccine mostly have not. Still, the report found shifts both toward and away from vaccination that offer insight into how Americans are thinking about this public health priority.
The report, released last week, is based on two interviews with a group of 878 American adults. The group was first interviewed on vaccine intentions in January, and then again in June about whether they ultimately got vaccinated, allowing the researchers to figure out who had stuck with their original intentions and who had changed their mind.
In January, nearly half of the people surveyed had either already been vaccinated or wanted to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Since then, 92% of those surveyed received at least one dose by June most even got it months earlier. Recent vaccinations tend to be among those who were initially taking a wait-and-see approach. Over half of them have now also gotten at least one dose.
That fits with what Maya Bass, a family medicine physician and assistant professor at Drexel College of Medicine and Tower Health, has seen. A couple of my patients wanted to see others get it first, Bass said. Now that were six months out, many of them are starting to set up appointments to get it done.
Meanwhile, 23% of survey respondents said in January that they would either get the vaccine only if required to do so for work, school, or other activities or not at all. Vaccination rates have remained low in this group: About a quarter of them reported receiving a dose of the vaccine when interviewed in June, and 67% were still not planning on getting vaccinated.
For those who changed their minds and rolled up their sleeves, the people around them were the main motivation. Some saw family and friends get vaccinated safely, while others realized they would need to get vaccinated to spend time with high-risk loved ones. Two-thirds of vaccinated Americans reported trying to convince more hesitant people around them, and their efforts paid off: 36% of adults who ultimately got vaccinated even though they were originally hesitant were convinced by others.
Delana Wardlaw, a family medicine physician at Temple Physicians at Nicetown who conducts outreach with her sister through Twin Sister Docs, said it is important to note that physicians are still among the most trusted sources of vaccine information. The poll found doctors convinced 11% of those who were swayed to get vaccinated. Bass has persuaded some of her patients to get vaccinated, although it has taken time to slowly chip away at the anxieties that they have.
But there are still holdouts. Some people have problems trusting the information that I give them, despite trusting me with all their other care, Bass said.
Among the people who remained unwilling to get vaccinated or would only do so if required, side effects were the main deterrent. Nearly one-quarter of those with no plans to get the shot expressed concern about side effects, though experts say most people dont get anything worse than mild flu-like symptoms that quickly resolve. Social media, however, has been awash in more severe claims that the data dont bear out. This was also a major reason why roughly one in 10 people who initially wanted to get vaccinated later changed their minds.
Vaccine hesitancy doesnt have to be a negative term, Wardlaw said. It simply means that patients have questions or issues that they need to have addressed before they can make an informed decision. Wardlaw talks with patients about anticipated side effects and makes it clear that they are normal and treatable.
Bass also noted that some people cant take time off from work if they have side effects, and she recommends that these patients get their vaccine before a day off so that they can rest. Side effects generally last no more than 24 hours, experts say.
Comments from survey respondents reveal more of their anxieties about safety. When people with no plans to get vaccinated were asked what would convince them, one person replied, Time and proof that it is working and has no lasting negative effects on the body. Others asked for full FDA approval (though this is expected soon after the agency completes its lengthy process, the vaccines still are being distributed under emergency authorization) and a 100% guarantee of safety.
Bass said its hard for physicians to compete with online misinformation. Even if I see a patient once a month, Im just there for 15 minutes compared to the hours they spend on the internet. Some people who reported being more hesitant in June said they dont trust regulatory agencies or vaccine incentives and that the vaccine is too new.
One person said they would get vaccinated if [COVID-19] became a huge problem again. With case counts ticking upward nationwide, Wardlaw has already seen the delta variant changing minds.
At my practice, I have noticed those who still have concerns about moving forward with the vaccine, Wardlaw said. With the delta variant, I have seen a turn of the tide in those patients.
Not everyone who wants a vaccine has received one. The KFF report found that 3% of people who wanted to get vaccinated as soon as possible in January still feel the same way but havent been vaccinated. Access-related obstacles have decreased substantially since earlier in the year, Wardlaw said, but there are still some patients who dont know where to get the vaccine.
Bass sees the report as a helpful guide for doctors to understand the bigger picture of patients concerns about the vaccine.
It was reassuring that my patients are asking questions that were similar to patients that they talked to, Bass said. It now gives me a bit of an outline for my spiel.
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WPRI) A Southeastern New England hospital system recently announced it would be mandating COVID-19 vaccines for all staff, but only once at least one is fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
12 News obtained a July 14 letter to Southcoast Health employees from President & CEO Keith Hovan, which states, COVID-19 vaccination will be required for employees, providers and staff once the FDA, as anticipated, has granted full approval of at least one of the vaccines.
NEW: I just obtained a letter sent from @SouthcoastHlths President & CEO to employees last week, stating COVID-19 vaccination will be required for employees, providers and staff once the FDA, as anticipated, has granted full approval of at least one of the vaccines. @wpri12 pic.twitter.com/fxHMu3SII6
Hovan stated more details will be forthcoming, and while a booster shot may become a future requirement, it is not currently under discussion.
In an email to 12 News, Southcoast Health spokesperson Shawn Badgley said the vaccine mandate would apply to all employees,which includescontract workers, volunteers, medical and other clinical staff with facility privileges, temps, students and on-site preceptors, et al., unless granted an exception for medical and/or religious reasons.
Badgley said there is a similar policy in place for the flu vaccine.
Any possible repercussions for not getting vaccinated have yet to be determined, and are part of an ongoing discussion, according to Badgley.
Our program is meant to protect our patients, workforce, and community rather than be punitive, Badgley said.
Badgley also said a deadline to receive a COVID-19 vaccination has yet to be determined, but would depend on several factors, including full FDA approval, vaccine supply, and staffing considerations.
In theletterto employees Hovan said the decision is one that has made after much deliberation and discussion.
As we look ahead, the timing of this vaccination requirement will likely coincide with the return of many more of our remote workers to their Southcoast offices, making immunity even more important. This process is under way already and will be completed in September, Hovan stated.
According to Badgley, a vast majority of the Southcoast Health workforce has already been vaccinated.
Internal COVID-19 vaccine clinics for Southcoast Health staff began in mid-December.
(NEXSTAR) President Joe Biden spent much of the last week publically blaming misinformation for the lagging vaccination rates in many American communities, and a new survey shows that some conspiracy theories enjoy widespread support in pockets of the country.
Cases of COVID-19 have tripled over the past three weeks, andhospitalizations and deaths are rising among unvaccinated people.While the rates are still sharply down from their January highs, officials are concerned by the reversing trendlines and what they consider needless illness and death. Andcases are expected to continue to risein coming weeks.
The rising numbers are being driven by large pockets of infection among the more than 90 million eligible Americans who have yet to get shots. Just four states with low vaccination rates made up 40% of new cases last week, and nearly half of them came from Florida alone.
Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, Biden said Friday.
The White House has long acknowledged that, given rampant disinformation about the vaccines and the nations partisan divides, it would have little success convincing the GOP to get on board. Instead, administration officials have amped up criticism in recent days of public officials and social media companies for spreading or not condemning vaccine misinformation spreading among the GOP.
Theyre killing people, Biden said Friday of social media companies. A day earlier, Surgeon General Vivek Murthywarned that false information about vaccines spreading on platforms such as Facebook posed a public health risk to the nation.
An Economist/YouGov poll released last week did not attempt to link false beliefs to social media use, but it did find wide confidence in a popular conspiracy theory among 1 in 5 Americans.
The Economist/YouGov asked 1,500 Americans to respond to a set of statements, including, The U.S. government is using the COVID-19 vaccine to microchip the population. Five percent of all respondents said the statement was definitely true, and 15% said it was probably true. Fewer than half of respondents 46% said it was definitely false.
The debunked theory has circulated widely in the past year, and proponents suggest implanted chips will be used at some future date to subjugate humanity. Reuters reported in late 2020 that a single video in support of the conspiracy had been viewed 27,000 times on Facebook.
The belief in the microchip conspiracy was most commonly held by lower-income voters, white non-college-educated Americans and Hispanic respondents, according to the published results. The theory was relatively evenly believed across four regions of the country: Northeast, South, Midwest and West. Some 29% of 2020 Trump voters thought the statement was either definitely or probably true. The survey recorded 0% of Biden supporters saying the statement was definitely true and 8% calling it probably true.
A smaller number of respondents 17% thought the statement Vaccines have been shown to cause autism was either definitely or probably true.
Two out of five Americans said the statements Millions of illegal votes were cast in the 2020 general election and The threat of the coronavirus was exaggerated for political reasons were probably or definitely true. More than half of respondents identified as Trump voters believed there was truth in the statements.
Many Americans remain resistant or unmotivated to get shots despite months of often creative efforts by federal and state officials and the private sector to spread information about vaccine safety and accessibility.
Surgeon General Murthy added that while the government can play an important role, this has got to be an all of the above strategy with everybody in, including schools, employers, technology companies and individuals.
Following Bidens statement, Facebook officials have rejected accusations of spreading misinformation.
We will not be distracted by accusations which arent supported by the facts, Facebook spokesman Kevin McAlister said in a statement. The fact is that more than 2 billion people have viewed authoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines on Facebook, which is more than any other place on the internet.
The new government expression of frustration comes amid near disbelief that tens of millions of Americans continue to refuse to get vaccinated, needlessly extending the pandemic and costing lives, as health officials emphasize that nearly all serious cases and deaths are now preventable.
More than 99% of COVID-19 deaths and 97% of hospitalizations are among people who have not been vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Only the most vulnerable children and those living with at-risk adults will receive Covid-19 vaccinations in the U.K., the government said Monday, ruling out a broader program due to fears over rare side effects.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be offered to 12 to 15-year-olds with severe neuro-disabilities, Downs Syndrome, immunosuppression and profound learning disabilities, as well as children aged 12 to 17 who live with an immunosuppressed person, officials said. It will also be offered to healthy 17-year-olds within three months of their 18th birthday.
