(NEW YORK) — The dangerous wildfires erupting across large portions of the Western U.S. are bringing major health risks to the residents.
The Dixie Fire near the Feather River Canyon in Northern California is now the second-largest fire in state history after it sparked last month. Whether you live in California, Oregon or Montana, here are some tips from doctors:
Dr. Zab Mosenifar, a lung specialist at Cedars-Sinai medical director of the Women’s Guild Lung Institute, says those in immediate danger are the residents within 25 miles of a fire.
Small particles in the air can travel hundreds of miles, and depending on the winds, particles can float for up to two weeks after a fire has been extinguished, Mosenifar warned.
Those especially in danger are children, the elderly and people with chronic respiratory problems, Mosenifar said.
“Breathing in smoke, spot and particulate matter in high concentration and/or for prolonged periods of time can result in short or long term lung damage,” said ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton.
“People who smoke, vape or have asthma are at higher risk for problems,” Ashton said.
“I recommend that anyone in the area wear an N95 particulate mask if possible,” she added.
Ashton urges residents with persistent coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing or chest tightness to seek medical attention and to wear goggles for eye protection.
“If your eyes are hurting or vision is impaired, seek medical attention immediately and do not rub your eyes as this could cause more damage,” she said.
Mosenifar recommends that residents use an air filter in their home or set their air conditioner to recirculate the air.
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Risking financial consequences from the state of Florida, the superintendent of Leon County Schools refused Monday to allow parents to opt their children out of the district-wide mask mandate.
The decision directly defies an emergency rule issued Friday by the Florida Department of Health, which mandates that school districts requiring masks for students let parents opt out without providing a reason.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an executive order issued on July 30, gave the state education commissioner the green light to deny money to districts that don’t comply with rules to protect “parents’ rights … to make health care decisions for their minor children.”
Some of Florida’s largest school districts, seemingly spooked by the threat of losing money, are allowing parents to opt their children out of mask mandates .
Superintendent Rocky Hanna, however, is forcing the state’s hand.
He cited the need to keep students safe, as Florida reports increased numbers of infections of COVID-19 and hospital admissions in children.
The state has the highest number of confirmed pediatric hospitalizations from the virus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.
“If something happened and things went sideways for us this week and next week as we started school, and heaven forbid we lost a child to this virus, I can’t just simply blame the governor of the state. I can’t,” Hanna said.
He added, “If there’s an out and I didn’t take the out, and I didn’t do what was best for the children here in Tallahassee and Leon County, that’s on me.”
Parents in Leon County can submit a physician-signed form citing a medical need for their child to forgo a mask at school. They can also transfer their child to another school district via the Hope Scholarship, a program designed to protect bullied students which now, thanks to a new state rule, shields students from “COVID-19 harassment,” like mask mandates.
DeSantis’ office implied in a statement following Hannah’s announcement that any funding consequences would not affect students.
Instead, according to DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw, “The State Board of Education could move to withhold the salary of the district superintendent or school board members, as a narrowly tailored means to address the decision-makers who led to the violation of law.”
On Monday, Alachua County, home to Gainesville, confirmed that the district will also deny parents the chance to opt their children out of mask mandates without a medical reason.
“We want the same thing the governor wants. We want kids in their classrooms,” Jackie Johnson, the county’s communications director, told ABC News.
“The issue is we’ve got such a dramatic increase in the number of employees testing positive or having to be quarantined because of COVID. We certainly run the risk, if that trend isn’t reversed, of not having enough people to run our school safely,” she continued.
In a statement issued last week, Carlee Simon, the superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, said two employees of the district had died of the virus within days of each other.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 delta variant continues to raise new concerns for Americans, parents can follow a set of five principles to help make going back to school safer for their children.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, joined Good Morning America Monday to share his five-point strategy:
1. Vaccinate everyone who is eligible and who will be around children in schools
“Those kids who can’t get vaccinated, the way you protect them is making sure everyone around them is vaccinated,” Jha said.
2. Upgrade ventilation in schools
“We’ve got a lot to do to improve the air quality in schools,” he said of ventilation and filtration.
3. Test in schools
“We should be testing every unvaccinated person on a regular basis in schools,” Jha said about extensive access to testing.
4. Wear masks
5. Avoid super-crowded events
Jha suggested avoiding assembly halls and concerts.
As for the latest surge hitting the U.S., Jha said he expects “that until we put in mitigation measures and get more people vaccinated, we’re going to be struggling with the delta variant for a while.”
(NEW YORK) — Amid mask mandates and social distancing of a global pandemic, Barry’s, a boutique fitness club, says it’s disrupting the industry by giving consumers access to their product in ways that didn’t exist just one year ago.
But what it took to get there was a road wrought with challenge, uncertainty and innovation.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Barry’s, like so many fitness clubs, took a massive economic hit and had no digital offerings or infrastructure in place.
Priding themselves as “the best workout in the world,” Barry’s says it created opportunity in the height of COVID-19 lockdowns worldwide by remaining committed to keeping connections to their community alive and thriving. When it became clear global shutdowns would not be brief, the company immediately launched workouts live on Instagram, then formal at-home classes on video conferencing apps, like Zoom.
As 2020 wore on, the company eventually launched 19 outdoor studios that occupied spaces like parking garages, rooftops and empty, undeveloped land, converting those spaces into their infamous “Red Rooms” across the country.
Reopening their physical brick-and-mortar clubs would prove to have its own set of challenges when it became time.
Developing new operating and safety protocols and augmenting them to meet local government mandates has been an incredibly labor intensive process over the past 16 months, Barry’s told Good Morning America.
“We updated our HVAC system, introduced the use of EPA-registered cleaning supplies and at one point, social distancing in class and added five-minute breaks in between rounds to allow for extra cleaning and mask mandates.”
Now, as the world slowly begins to reopen, despite the lingering threat of COVID-19 and its emerging variants, Barry’s seems to have found footing in developing hybrid models of their business by blending versions of all their pandemic-era products into an omni-channel of offerings, including the newly unveiled “Barry’s X,” which includes live as well as on-demand classes.
According to Barry’s: “Barry’s X” is the first community-driven digital fitness product that seamlessly integrates key touch points of an in-person studio experience into a digital setting. Not only are you checked in by a moderator (who organizes the class and provides the same attention as the front desk), you’re also able to participate in a many-to-many experience which provides their fitness community with the opportunity to see and be seen.
“‘Barry’s X'” was created to provide people with the opportunity to experience the best workout in the world, taught by the best instructors, alongside an incredible global community – no matter where you are,” Barry’s CEO Joey Gonzalez told GMA exclusively.
The company says users will be able to turn their camera on during a live class, allowing the instructor to correct their form in real time, allowing them to see others in the class and be seen themselves. This will allow for an immersive digital experience that will allow instructors to help and correct form during a class, the brand touts, while also being able to check in with friends who are also taking the same class together.
“The camera-on feature allows you to be seen, as well as see old friends, new faces,” Gonzalez said. “And since it’s Barry’s, you can expect to see some famous ones as well.”
Another feature: Users will also be able to connect with their friends by sending friend requests and view their schedules and stats. Friends will also be able to invite each other to a class.
Gonzalez told GMA that they do expect a rise in hybridization as we continue to emerge from the pandemic.
“A number of boutique fitness studios across the country closed permanently during COVID, which means those respective workout communities have been displaced and will be looking for a new studio. As far as digital workouts, the landscape has never been more crowded,” Gonzalez said.
(NEW YORK) — Life may be about to get tougher for the unvaccinated — and it’s not only because of their significantly increased risk of getting COVID-19 and becoming very sick.
A rising chorus of states, cities and private sector titans have implemented new vaccine requirements for their employees and patrons. It marks a new, less negotiable phase in the fight against the coronavirus, after months of cajoling and material goodies leading the vaccination campaign.
The new incentives aren’t financial. They draw motivation from immediate and tangible fears: of losing time to go get tested, losing a job, losing money or missing out on social events, as well as the ever more apparent pain of the pandemic hitting home through loss of life and loved ones. More than 97% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the country are unvaccinated, according to the White House COVID-19 Task Force.
Now, after months of vaccine rates tapering off, vaccination rates are heading back up with the recent surge of serious illness. On Thursday alone, the U.S. saw its highest vaccination numbers in over a month — 585,000 new vaccinations in a single day, the White House COVID-19 data director announced. Some of the most dramatic upticks in recent vaccinations have been in states with the highest surges in new cases and hospitalizations and some of the lowest vaccination rates.
“Watching more people dying in the ICU, kids getting sick? Yes, that motivates,” said Dr. Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics and the founding head of New York University School of Medicine’s medical ethics division. “Free beer, fishing license, free marijuana, college tuition didn’t move many people to get vaccinated.”
Unvaccinated Americans must now weigh their own personal risk-benefit ratio: Take the vaccine or face restrictions.
“The carrots do not work much,” Caplan said. “Now, we’re seeing more pressure coming from the other side.”
That pressure is coming in the form of federal, state and local vaccine requirements.
Requirements that government employees get vaccinated or face regular testing, social distancing and masks were accompanied by a slew of major companies like Google, Facebook, Tyson Foods and Disney, which is the parent company of ABC News, now requiring the vaccine for their employees.
“I think we’ve taken significant steps to make it difficult to come back to work, or more difficult to come back to work, if you’re not vaccinated,” White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said.
The Biden administration has made clear there will be no federal mandate; but its recent lean-in to vaccine requirements marks a shift in tone, going from removing barriers to getting the vaccine to making it harder to move about “normal” life for those who choose not to get it.
“There’s a bit of a hassle factor that plays into whether or not people are willing to get an exemption,” Julie Morita, executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told ABC. “And if it’s too difficult or more challenging, people might opt just to get vaccinated.”
As the NFL season gets into gear, the league informed clubs that it would not extend the season to accommodate a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players that leads to a game cancellation, the NFL Network reported, a stark turn from the season prior, when the league flexed the schedule to avoid missed games amid outbreaks. Additionally, players on both teams would forfeit pay for the lost contest, and the team responsible for the cancellation brought on by unvaccinated players would cover the financial losses and face potential disciplinary action.
Caplan suggests framing vaccination as the more appealing choice; opting out will make life harder.
New York is the first city in the country that will require proof of at least one dose of vaccination for some of the main modes of basic leisure — dining out inside, indoor entertainment and working out at the gym. All state employees will be required to get vaccinated or get tested weekly beginning Labor Day.
Major privately run hospitals in New York will impose a similar vaccine requirement. In internal emails obtained by ABC News, New York Presbyterian and Mount Sinai both notified staff that beginning in September, workers must show proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing. State-run, patient-facing hospital workers will have no testing option.
“Please note that compliance — either by vaccination or exemption — will be required for your continued employment,” New York Presbyterian’s hospital president and vice president said in a letter to staff. “We want all of our team members to continue working with us, but we have to balance that with the imperative to protect our patients, employees and communities.”
The move earned protest from the largest health care union in the U.S. Members of the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East said they shouldn’t have to be vaccinated to keep their jobs — especially if it risks losing front-line health workers at a time they’re most needed. That mirrored some national unions’ concerns about protecting individual freedoms — and not forcing their workers to pay for government-enforced testing.
Experts note there’s a fine line between requirements being “part of what’s going to nudge more people to get vaccinated,” as Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told ABC’s Start Here podcast, and pushing them away.
A full federal mandate might make hesitant and unvaccinated Americans “dig in their heels” further, Morita said.
“Generally, with mandates of any kind, you want to do everything else possible before you mandate something,” she said. “But when the vaccine is free, it’s accessible, and you’re still struggling, then mandates make sense. But you really want to give people the chance to do it on their own.”
The advent of more local mandates looms on the imminent horizon as soon as the vaccine is fully FDA-approved, which could come as soon as early September, a senior White House official familiar with the FDA approval process told ABC News.
Dr. Anthony Fauci called that moment a “game-changer,” one that will possibly provide more legal cover for companies to implement vaccine imperatives.
“‘My body, my choice’ is not an ethic for a plague,” Caplan said. “The ethics of plague are, ‘my body, vaccinated’ — more choices for everybody.”
(New York) — With the hyper-transmissible delta variant driving a new COVID-19 surge, many families are wondering if it’s safe to send young children back to school for in-person learning.
Once again, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that adults and children wear masks in schools. Meanwhile, a COVID-19 vaccine isn’t likely to be available for children under 12 before the end of the year.
But Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez says that with the right precautions in place, children will benefit from in-person learning this year.
“I understand it is nerve-racking,” Bracho-Sanchez, a primary care pediatrician and assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Irving medical center explained in a conversation with ABC News on Instagram Live.
“Let’s trust the science. Let’s take a deep breath.”
Experts agree that the best step adults can take to keep kids safe is to get vaccinated themselves. Children are less likely to become infected with the virus if all the adults around them are immune, creating an invisible ring of protection.
Is delta more dangerous for children?
Data is still emerging on the new delta variant. For example, it’s still not clear if the variant causes more severe illness in adults and children, though the National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins recently told CNN the data is “tipping” that way.
But the real danger of delta is that it’s highly contagious and now surging in communities with low vaccination rates. The CDC now recommends that everyone in school settings — vaccinated or unvaccinated — wear a mask to slow transmission.
“I know it is frustrating, but it really, truly does make sense and we should be doing it,” Bracho-Sanchez said.
How can parents help kids prepare for in-person learning?
Bracho-Sanchez says children will benefit from in-person learning, but parents should be empowered to advocate with their school district to ensure the learning environment is as safe as possible.
At home, parents can help children transition by asking them about how they’re feeling about going back to a classroom.
“You know, I’ve seen kids who have seen too much and have been through too much in the past year and a half,” said Bracho-Sanchez. “Some have witnessed family members passing away … and we’re now going to ask them to make a transition and to perform at a level that they haven’t really been supported to perform at once the school year starts again.”
Bracho-Sanchez said she reminds her patients to go back to the basics: Get the school year off on the right foot by ensuring children are getting outdoor time, nutritious food and plenty of sleep.
“Once we’ve implemented all of those basics, we can also start having conversations about how kids are feeling about going back to school,” she said. “All it takes is creating this space and asking those questions.”
Should I consider holding my child back to catch up after last year?
Some schools might recommend certain children be held back a grade to make up for last year. But according to Bracho-Sanchez, this decision shouldn’t be taken lightly.
“We know we have studies … we have data … that show that kids who have been held back a grade actually are at higher risk of dropping out in the future,” she said.
Parents and teachers should help students achieve while staying in their own grade, she said, and parents are encouraged to reach out to their pediatrician if a school recommends holding a child back.
“I think there’s a lot the parents can do,” she said. “Now is the time to come together as a community.”
(WASHINGTON) — With the delta variant surging, some businesses have begun announcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employees with some exceptions on religious and medical grounds.
The announcements have led to relief for some and strong opposition and protests for others as well as a handful of states introducing legislation to block them.
While there may be opposition to those policies, ultimately the mandates — which also come as efforts stagnate to reach the remaining unvaccinated Americans — are on solid legal ground, public health experts contend.
In the last two weeks, private companies big and small, such as Google, the NFL and Disney (the parent company of ABC News) and many public offices, have announced that vaccines are mandatory for staff before they return to offices in the fall.
In addition, the federal government and some states are issuing testing mandates for any of their public employees who aren’t vaccinated.
In a few localities, such as New York City, proof of vaccination is required for indoor activities such as movies and restaurants — actions that take a harder line to incentivize vaccination.
The subject is tricky given that the vaccines are not fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said vaccines will not be federally mandated and public health officials have largely been trying to incentivize inoculation rather than making it compulsory given the hesitancy in the population.
Dr. Howard Koh, a former assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told ABC News that there will be more organizations that follow suit given the rise in coronavirus cases among the unvaccinated, and they have solid arguments for the policies.
“Businesses want to go forward and they know that their status quo isn’t working,” he told ABC News.
Here’s what to know:
Long-standing legal precedent
States have over a century of legal precedent for mandating vaccines, according to Koh, who currently serves as a professor of the practice of public health Leadership at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
The courts have not determined if the federal government can issue a vaccine mandate, however, the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1905 case Jacobson v. Massachusetts gave state governments the power to issue such a mandate.
The 7-2 decision ruled that Massachusetts’s smallpox vaccine mandate was constitutional stating, “it is for the legislature, and not for the courts, to determine in the first instance whether vaccination is or is not the best mode for the prevention of smallpox and the protection of the public health.”
All states and the District of Columbia have mandated vaccines for ailments such as measles, rubella and polio, for school-age children, although requirements differ by state. There are also a range of exceptions, most commonly medical and religious reasons.
As of June, 44 states and Washington, D.C., grant religious exemptions for people who have religious objections to immunizations, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks the state regulations. Fifteen states that allow philosophical exemptions for children whose parents object to immunizations because of personal, moral or other beliefs, the NCSL found.
The situation is largely different for adults, for whom vaccines are generally not required for employment or in other forums. However, in certain states, such as New York, there is a requirement for health care workers, for instance.
Koh added things get tricky when it comes to a federal mandate.
“The president, from what I can tell, can not announce a federal mandate. No federal vaccination mandate has ever been tested in court,” he said.
More leeway for private businesses
There is some legal uncertainty around the current batch of COVID-19 vaccines because they are being administered under an emergency use authorization from the FDA, Koh said. Opponents to vaccine mandates have argued states or businesses cannot enforce mandates unless the inoculations have received full approval.
But a ruling by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel last month, ruled that Section 564 of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act doesn’t prohibit private businesses from mandating vaccines. States and local municipalities, however, still have the power to prohibit a vaccine mandate within their own offices.
Koh noted that the Justice Department’s ruling has given private and public businesses the legal backing to order their own mandates.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently issued an executive order Tuesday that required vaccination for certain indoor activities, such as the gym, movie theaters and concerts.
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told ABC News’ podcast “Start Here” that similar requirements will be popping up.
“I think it’s not only reasonable, but I think it’s part of what’s going to, I think, nudge more people to get vaccinated while making it even safer for those who are vaccinated to be able to get back to their way of life, which is what we all want,” he told ABC News.
Once the vaccines get full approval, there will be more push from all sectors to mandate the vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday. Pfizer’s approval could come as early as September.
“You’re not going to see a central mandate coming from the federal government, but you’re going to see more universities, colleges, places of business who, once they get the cover of an officially approved vaccine, they’re going to start mandating vaccines,” Fauci said.
There have been some signs that governors would change their rules once the vaccines get the full approval. During a virtual town hall Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told residents he would do just that.
“It would be my expectation that once full authorization or sometimes it’s called licensure is granted, then that vaccine will be added to the list, and then it will work just like the current mumps, measles, rubella, and other vaccines,” he said.
Attempts to block mandates
When it comes to local public government offices, rules for vaccine mandates differ and in a handful of states, mandates on the COVID-19 vaccines have been banned outright until full approval.
As of Aug. 4, six states have enacted legislation in the last year that would block state and municipal offices from mandating a COVID-19 vaccine among staff members. Those six states and another six also have laws that prevent schools from issuing mandates.
Only one state, Montana, has banned private businesses from issuing a vaccine mandate.
Some of the states with bans, such as Alabama, North Dakota and Arkansas, have lagged behind the rest of the country when it comes to vaccinations and seen a jump in cases, according to the CDC. Alabama’s seven-day average of new cases has jumped from nearly 200 at the beginning of July to over 2,500 this week, CDC data shows.
During a news conference Tuesday, President Biden urged governors to lift restrictions on businesses and schools so they could increase vaccination numbers.
“I say to these governors, please help. But if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way,” he said.
Another way: Testing mandates
Koh noted that the vaccine order that Biden borrowed from New York and other states that required unvaccinated public employees to get tested weekly.
Koh and other experts contend the rule from the president and other leaders would ensure that workspaces would have fewer outbreaks and give those unvaccinated workers a bigger push to get their shots.
It also gives the states firmer legal standing because the testing mandate doesn’t lead to a termination or penalty for the unvaccinated employee, they noted.
“The goal is to make vaccine the norm and the goal is to make vaccine the healthy choice,” Koh said.
Ultimately, Koh said the biggest motivator for vaccine mandates will be from the private businesses. Their efforts will force the public sector to enact stricter measures, he argued.
“Our country has been trying to tame this pandemic for 18 months and counting. The other [vaccination] measures until now have not been completely successful in getting us through this,” Koh said.
This report was featured in the Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, episode of “Start Here,” ABC News’ daily news podcast.
(WASHINGTON) — Virginia residents Travis and Kellie Campbell were unvaccinated when they both contracted COVID-19 in late July. Since then, Travis Campbell has been hospitalized for 12 days and spoke to ABC News from his hospital bed at the Bristol Regional Medical Center Hospital in Tennessee.
“When you feel like you have to fight for your life, you don’t realize that you’re fighting for every single breath all day long,” said Travis Campbell.
“If I have a day or two left, I don’t want to waste my time,” he said. “I want to help as many people as I can, to let them see the real truth, that [the delta variant] is real, and it’s only getting stronger and faster.”
The highly contagious delta variant now accounts for 93% of all sequenced COVID-19 cases in the U.S., compared to late May when it only accounted for 3%, according to data released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kellie Campbell, who was previously hospitalized with the virus, said the family was not against the vaccine, but hadn’t prioritized getting it.
“We just put it in the back of our mind and we kept saying, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow, we’ll do it tomorrow.’ We have a very hectic life and it’s no excuse but that’s our excuse,” said Kellie Campbell.
According to the Virginia Department of Health, hospitals in Virginia reported that 99% of those infected, hospitalized or who died in the past six months were not fully vaccinated.
“We thought it wasn’t an urgent matter to get the vaccine and I was wrong,” said Travis Campbell.
As of Tuesday, vaccination rates have reportedly risen in all 50 states, according to an ABC News analysis of CDC data from the last three weeks.
Travis Campbell said he regrets not getting vaccinated and is now encouraging his loved ones to do so before it is too late.
“I would rather be covered and protected and if something does happen and I have to worry about repercussions of the vaccine versus being buried in seven days,” he said. “I beg you, please see your doctor and make an evaluated decision and protect your family or prepare yourself for your next life.”
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — If the U.S. does not get control over community spread of the delta COVID variant, the nation will continue to see more variants that evade the protection of the vaccines, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House.
“That will happen, George, if we don’t get good control over the community spread which is the reason why I and my colleagues keep saying and over again, it is very important to get as many people vaccinated as we possibly can,” Fauci told “GMA” anchor George Stephanopoulos Thursday.
“People who say, ‘I don’t want to get vaccinated because it’s me and I’ll worry about me, I’m not having any impact on anybody else,’ that’s just not the case,” Fauci said.
When the virus spreads through the unvaccinated population, as it is doing rapidly now in many states with low vaccination rates, it can mutate regardless of whether the person gets mild symptoms, or even no symptoms at all.
“And when you give it ample opportunity to mutate, you may sooner or later get another variant, and it is possible that that variant might be in some respects worse than the already very difficult variant we’re dealing with now, which is a major reason why you want to completely suppress the circulation of the virus in the community,” Fauci said.
More than 70% of the adult U.S. population has received at least one dose of a vaccine and 60.7% of the adult U.S. population is fully vaccinated. Of all eligible Americans, meaning everyone over the age of 12, 67.9% have had at least one dose and 58.3% are fully vaccinated. But in some U.S. states, the vaccination rate is well below the national average.
Nationwide, there are still about 93 million eligible Americans who have not gotten vaccinated.
Fauci warned in an interview with McClatchy on Wednesday that he thinks the virus’s spread could increase to the point that the U.S. is reporting 100,000 to 200,000 new cases a day if more people don’t mask up and get vaccinated.
The delta variant, the most transmissible variant to take hold in the U.S. so far, accounted for 93% of U.S. cases during the last two weeks of July, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. In areas of the Midwest, it made up 98% of cases.
“The thing that’s important is that the delta variant that we’re dealing with is so capable of pushing out other variants, that we’re not expecting that to take over. Having said that, we follow it very closely,” Fauci said.
Since the onset of the initial delta variant, there has been a swift increase in cases among children who aren’t yet vaccinated, which experts chalk up to the faster spread of the virus.
Of the 58,000 people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 throughout the country, 18 to 49-year-olds account for 41%, according to CDC data. Pediatric hospitalizations are 3.5 times higher than they were a month ago, and the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that cases for kids under 17 nearly doubled over the last two weeks of July, from 39,000 a week to 72,000.
Some countries have published data showing that the delta variant also makes children more sick than past variants, even though children have had a very low risk of hospitalization or death throughout the pandemic. U.S. officials caution that the data is not strong enough to draw a firm conclusion.
While it’s “unquestionable” that the delta variant is more transmissible, it’s “less clear” whether or not it “actually makes individuals more seriously ill,” Fauci said.
NIH Director Francis Collins said in a CNN interview on Tuesday that the data coming in from other countries is “tipping in the direction” of showing higher risk to children, but it’s still not conclusive.
“I don’t want to overstate the confidence that we have about whether delta is more dangerous to children. The balance has not been fully settled there but it’s tipping in that direction,” Collins said.
But he also said that more children are being hospitalized because they’re part of the unvaccinated population, which is far more likely to get the virus as compared to older adults who have a much higher vaccination rate. Ninety precent of adults age 65 and older have had at least one shot of the vaccine, according to CDC data.
“So now we see perhaps in this spectrum of illness more emphasis on younger people, including kids,” Collins said.
(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is expected to announce his recommendation to President Joe Biden that COVID-19 vaccines be made mandatory for troops, officials told ABC News Wednesday evening.
A senior official said the announcement will come “soon,” while a separate U.S. official said an announcement is expected by the end of this week.
The president last week directed the Department of Defense to look into how and when vaccines could be mandated for service members. Austin’s recommendation in response to that request is expected to be in favor of vaccine requirements, but for Austin to implement such a policy, he’ll need a written waiver from Biden.
Because COVID-19 vaccines are available to the military under the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization (EUA), the shot has so far been strictly voluntary.
According to the Pentagon’s latest statistics, at least 70% of military personnel have received at least one dose, compared to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s reporting that 58% of the total U.S. population has received at least one dose.
Pentagon officials have publicly said they would consider requiring COVID-19 vaccinations, as is done with more than a dozen other vaccines, after the FDA fully approves the vaccines.
“I believe that when it’s formally approved, which we expect pretty soon, we probably will go to that, and then that question will kind of be moot,” Vice Adm. John Nowell told a sailor in a town hall question-and-answer video posted to Facebook last month.
It’s reasonable that the FDA will fully approve the Pfizer vaccine by early September, a senior White House official familiar with the FDA approval process told ABC News Tuesday night.
However, while the two-shot Pfizer vaccine is considered suitable for most troops, the single-dose Johnson & Johnson is preferred in some cases, such as for those who are deploying overseas or aboard ships. A waiver from Biden would mean the DOD wouldn’t have to wait for all of the vaccines under EUA to be fully approved before being able to require them, which would afford the Pentagon more options.
