(LOS ANGELES) — With the delta variant surging in the United States, doctors are urging everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated — including the more than 30 million people who have already had COVID-19.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, getting vaccinated after recovering from infection leads to even stronger protection compared to infection alone. Meanwhile, studies show currently authorized vaccines are likely to offer protection for at least eight months, and likely longer, but much less is known about how long you’ll be protected from reinfection after recovering from COVID-19.
Despite these recommendations, some high-profile political figures have insisted that prior infection is enough, and there’s no need to get a COVID-19 vaccine for those who have already recovered.
Most notably, in June, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) falsely tweeted that vaccination did not provide additional benefit after COVID-19 infection.
Understandably, some Americans, having now recovered from COVID-19, are left conflicted with the mixed messaging and are unsure what to do next.
“For those who have had COVID and are wondering whether or not to get vaccinated, I would absolutely encourage them to do so now to protect themselves and others,” said Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious disease physician at South Shore Health and an ABC News Medical contributor.
While the benefits of vaccination after infection are well-documented, there are still many Americans who have neither been vaccinated nor infected, and they also have a choice to make.
Not only is getting a vaccine far safer than being infected with the COVID-19 virus, but studies also show that vaccine-induced immunity may be superior to post-infection immunity. In fact, a recent study published in Science Translational Medicine demonstrated that antibodies induced by the vaccine may better combat a wider range of new viral variants when compared to antibodies induced by infection.
“This is particularly important, as now we are seeing an increase in cases due to the delta variant,” Wildes said.
Experts agree that getting vaccinated after recovering from infection is safe — and the best way to protect yourself from COVID-19.
However, there are some important instructions the CDC has released for specific groups. Patients who received monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma should wait for 90 days before vaccination. Children who were diagnosed with multisystem inflammatory syndrome should also wait for 90 days after the date of diagnosis.
As the delta variant becomes rampant in unvaccinated communities, and more and more Americans find themselves at a crossroads after infection, experts say it’s crucial for everyone to consider vaccination — even those who were previously infected.
Priscilla Hanudel, M.D., is an emergency medicine physician in Los Angeles and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
(EL PASO, Texas) — Abigail and Dominic Miramontez are thrilled to bring their son Austin home after 136 days in the NICU at an El Paso hospital.
Abigail Miramontez was 24 weeks pregnant and throwing a birthday party for her father when she felt was described as a “push” while making her dad’s cake. She quickly realized she needed to go to the hospital and found out when she got there that she was in labor.
“It was very scary,” Abigail Miramontez said. “I felt like it wasn’t real until he was born.”
Austin was born at just 2 pounds and 2 ounces. The couple was told their son would need to stay into the NICU at least until his original birth date to make sure he was healthy enough to go home with them.
At 2 weeks old, Austin had to undergo a procedure on his small intestines. From there, he was nursed to health by NICU doctors and nurses who Abigail Miramontez said she grew close to over the months of Austin’s stay.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Abigail Miramontez and Dominic Miramontez were not allowed to see their son in the NICU together — only one person could enter the room at a time. Abigail Miramontez said she drove to visit her son every day, while Dominic Miramontez, who is a truck driver, would come every chance he could when he was not working.
On July 13, 2021, the parents were finally able to take their son home after spending 136 in the NICU. Austin left the NICU weighing 9 pounds and 9 ounces.
“I was excited,” Miramontez said. “It’s actually been so much fun just having him here and being able to dress him up. When he was in the NICU, they wouldn’t even let us put clothes on him because of COVID.”
Miramontez said they’ve been able to introduce Austin to their family members safely and from a distance and that she’s excited that her son is finally home.
(PHILADELPHIA) — A Philadelphia father of two is speaking out about the ongoing risk of COVID-19 for children after his son and daughter tested positive for the virus.
Adam Joseph, a meteorologist for ABC station WPVI, said his 6-year-old son Jacob and 5-year-old daughter Hannah tested positive for COVID-19 after having contact with a relative who was not vaccinated against the virus.
Joseph said the relative tested negative for COVID-19 prior to the visit with his family, but later tested positive for the virus.
In addition to his children, their nanny also contracted COVID-19, according to Joseph.
He and his husband, Karl, are both vaccinated and have so far both tested negative for COVID-19.
“We kind of feel like we failed as parents, to a degree, after protecting our children for nearly a year-and-a-half from this, and were doing so well,” Joseph said in a Facebook video.
Children under the age of 12 are currently not eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was authorized for use in children ages 12 to 15 in May by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The two other COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are currently available only for people 18 years and older in the U.S.
Joseph’s warning to parents about protecting young children from people who are not vaccinated comes as top health officials warn that COVID-19 has become a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” in the U.S.
In addition to data showing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are predominantly among unvaccinated people, the more transmissible delta variant is driving up COVID-19 cases.
In light of the delta variant, health experts are pushing back on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in May that fully vaccinated Americans can go without masks.
The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday called for schools to enforce universal masking mandates because so many children won’t be protected by fall and schools have no way of verifying COVID vaccine status yet.
People who are not vaccinated, including children between the ages of 2 and 11, should continue to wear face masks in indoor public places and practice social distancing and hand washing, according to the CDC.
Joseph’s children experienced symptoms including a fever, chills and coughing, but are now improving. The children’s nanny and relative are experiencing additional COVID-19 complications, according to Joseph.
“Please, if you are not vaccinated, do not go around children who are under 12, they are so vulnerable right now,” Joseph said on Facebook. “They do not have a choice to get the vaccine at this point.”
“We need to protect our children, and make sure they stay healthy because this delta variant is affecting kids. This new delta variant is affecting vaccinated people as well,” he said. “It’s everyone’s choice, we’re all adults, whether we want to get vaccinated or not. I’m not here to push that. I’m just asking you, begging you, if you’re not vaccinated, to wear a mask wherever you go in public, even though it’s not mandatory.”
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Health experts, including an influential group of pediatricians, are pushing back on federal guidance that vaccinated Americans can go without masks, warning that the honor system has failed to keep many people safe in the face of the delta variant.
The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday called for schools to enforce universal masking mandates because so many kids won’t be protected by fall and schools have no way of verifying COVID vaccine status yet.
“AAP recommends universal masking because a significant portion of the student population is not yet eligible for vaccines, and masking is proven to reduce transmission of the virus and to protect those who are not vaccinated,” the AAP wrote in a statement. “Many schools will not have a system to monitor vaccine status of students, teachers and staff, and some communities overall have low vaccination uptake where the virus may be circulating more prominently.”
People who are fully vaccinated – a term used to describe a person two weeks after their last shot – are still considered safe from serious illness or death, even if they are exposed to the delta variant. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 99.5 percent of hospitalizations are people who weren’t immunized.
Because vaccinated people are considered to be safe, the CDC has said immunized adults and teens can go without a mask, including inside schools.
The public health agency has noted, however, that local officials should still decide to enforce mask mandates if COVID cases climb and vaccination numbers are low. And the CDC notes that schools can still embrace universal masking if they can’t verify vaccinations or have large numbers of students too young to qualify.
But it’s this approach – allowing states and local communities to decide and essentially putting Americans on the honor system – that’s in question after COVID cases have risen in all 50 states.
Dr. Jerome Adams, who was Surgeon General under President Donald Trump, said he made a mistake early on in the pandemic urging people not to mask up because he feared a shortage of masks for health care workers. Adams said he’s afraid the CDC is making another mistake now by not putting more pressure on everyone to wear a mask.
“Instead of vax it OR mask it, the emerging data suggests CDC should be advising to vax it AND mask it in areas with cases and positivity- until we see numbers going back down again,” Adams tweeted.
“CDC was well intended, but the message was misinterpreted, premature, & wrong. Let’s fix it,” he added.
Instead of vax it OR mask it, the emerging data suggests CDC should be advising to vax it AND mask it in areas with ⬆️ cases and positivity- until we see numbers going back down again.
CDC was well intended, but the message was misinterpreted, premature, & wrong. Let’s fix it.
The Biden administration though is in a tough spot. The CDC had been under extraordinary pressure earlier this year to show skeptical Americans the benefits of vaccination, including being able to go without a mask and not having to quarantine after being exposed.
And so far, number studies have shown that all three vaccines – Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna – protect people against all known variants. The vaccines also are shown to provide more durable protection than a natural infection.
Also, any federal mandate for vaccines or masks would no doubt trigger a swift backlash among conservatives.
Responding to the former Surgeon General calling on CDC to bring back masks, conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted: “No. No. No. Hell no.”
For his part, President Joe Biden on Friday suggested he wasn’t worried about the science of the vaccinations and masks, only the people who were choosing to ignore it.
“Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated,” said Biden.
(NEW YORK) — Local officials have the right to reimplement mitigation strategies to stop the spread of COVID-19 amid a surge in cases fueled by the delta variant, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Sunday.
“Unfortunately we’re seeing rises, particularly among the unvaccinated in many parts of the country now,” Murthy told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
Approximately 97% of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. are among the unvaccinated and at least 58% of current reported cases were directly linked to the delta variant. At the end of May, the variant was estimated to account for just over 3% of new cases.
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has for the last two months said that vaccinated individuals can enter public, indoor spaces without a mask. Amid a surge in cases, Los Angeles County reinstated its indoor mask mandate in all public places for all individuals, regardless of vaccination status and at least 10 additional counties in California, including the city of Berkeley, have highly recommended all residents wear masks indoors again.
“In areas where there are low numbers of vaccinated people, where cases are rising, it’s very reasonable for counties to take more mitigation measures, like the mask rules coming out of LA,” Murthy continued. “And I anticipate that will happen in other parts of the country — and that’s not contradictory to the guidance the CDC issued.”
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda L. Solis told Raddatz in a separate interview on “This Week,” that the new mask mandate was not punishment for the vaccinated, but prevention.
“We still have 4 million people out of 10 million that haven’t been vaccinated — and many of them are young people,” Solis told Raddatz. “And we’re seeing that this transmission is so highly contagious that it will cost more in the long run.”
Murthy reinforced his support for LA County’s decision as an acceptable mitigation approach based on data on the ground. The county reported over 1,000 new COVID-19 cases daily this past week.
“We saw this during the last year of the pandemic, that we have large numbers of people gathering in indoor spaces that is the right setup for COVID-19 to spread,” Murthy said, adding that the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention will provide surge response teams to assist regions experiencing high coronavirus cases.
Raddatz asked Murthy about the World Health Organization’s warning that the delta variant and three additional variants of concern could prolong the pandemic and possibly lead to the emergence of deadlier strains of COVID-19.
“If we don’t get this under control now, what do you anticipate the fall looking like?” Raddatz asked.
“I am deeply concerned,” Murthy responded. “We’ve made so much progress over this past year, but what I worry about are those that we still have — millions of people in our country who are not vaccinated.”
“We have to still protect our children under 12 who don’t have a vaccine available to them.” Murthy added. “Our kids depend on the people around them being protected, being vaccinated in order to shield them from the virus. And that’s why, again, it’s so important for us to get vaccinated.”
“We have to still protect our children under 12 who don’t have a vaccine available to them.” Murthy added. “Our kids depend on the people around them being protected, being vaccinated in order to shield them from the virus. And that’s why, again, it’s so important for us to get vaccinated.”
(NEW YORK) — Local officials have the right to reimplement mitigation strategies to stop the spread of COVID-19 amid a surge in cases fueled by the delta variant, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Sunday.
“Unfortunately we’re seeing rises, particularly among the unvaccinated in many parts of the country now,” Murthy told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
Approximately 97% of new cases in the U.S. are among the unvaccinated and at least 58% of those cases were directly linked to the delta variant. At the end of May, the variant was estimated to account for just over 3% of new cases.
“In areas where there are low numbers of vaccinated people, where cases are rising, it’s very reasonable for counties to take more mitigation measures, like the mask rules coming out of LA,” Murthy continued. “And I anticipate that will happen in other parts of the country — and that’s not contradictory to the guidance the CDC issued.”
Los Angeles County reinstated an indoor mask mandate in all public places for all individuals, regardless of vaccination status and at least 10 additional counties in California, including the city of Berkeley, have fully reinstated mask mandates or highly recommended all residents wear masks indoors again.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis told Raddatz in a separate interview on “This Week,” that the new mask mandate was not punishment for the vaccinated, but prevention.
“We still have 4 million people out of 10 million that haven’t been vaccinated — and many of them are young people,” Solis told Raddatz. “And we’re seeing that this transmission is so highly contagious that it will cost more in the long run.”
Murthy reinforced his support for LA County’s decision as an acceptable mitigation approach based on data on the ground. The county reported over 1,000 new COVID-19 cases daily this past week.
“We saw this during the last year of the pandemic, that we have large numbers of people gathering in indoor spaces that is the right setup for COVID-19 to spread,” Murthy said, adding that the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention will provide surge response teams to assist regions experiencing high coronavirus cases.
Raddatz asked Murthy about the World Health Organization’s warning that the delta variant and three additional variants of concern could prolong the pandemic and possibly lead to the emergence of deadlier strains of COVID-19.
“If we don’t get this under control now, what do you anticipate the fall looking like?” Raddatz asked.
“I am deeply concerned,” Murthy responded. “We’ve made so much progress over this past year, but what I worry about are those that we still have — millions of people in our country who are not vaccinated.”
“We have to still protect our children under 12 who don’t have a vaccine available to them.” Murthy added. “Our kids depend on the people around them being protected, being vaccinated in order to shield them from the virus. And that’s why, again, it’s so important for us to get vaccinated.”
Raddatz also asked Murthy about his warning about COVID-19 misinformation online and what else social media companies like Facebook need to do to stop it.
“I’ve been deeply concerned about the flow of misinformation across technology platforms and throughout society over the last many months,” Murthy responded.
“I’ve called for greater transparency in terms of the data that they have to share with independent researchers so we can get a better sense of how much misinformation is flowing on these sites and what strategies are working to address them,” he added.
“I also ask people across our country to stop and verify your sources, before you post stories online,” Murthy concluded.
(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda L. Solis said Sunday that restoring the mask mandate there is “not punishment, but prevention” as the county responds to the alarming spike in cases of the highly transmissible delta variant.
“We’re up to almost 1,900 cases and over 460 individuals that are now in our ICU unit. This is very disturbing,” Solis told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “As responsible elected officials, we have to do something, and in this case, the county has the ability to do that through our health order, through our health officer.”
The county reinstated the mask mandate over the weekend, nearly a month after California Gov. Gavin Newsom waived many of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions. Though roughly 52% of LA County residents have been vaccinated, it applies to all county residents regardless of vaccination status.
“We’re seeing that this transmission is so highly contagious that it will cost more in the long run if we have to see our hospitals being impacted, our ICU units, as well as our health care workers,” Solis said Sunday.
Raddatz asked Solis about the possibility the move might disincentivize vaccines.
“A recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that once vaccine-hesitant people saw that vaccinated people could go out in the community, it was an incentive, and those easing of restrictions helped the hesitant people go out and get the shot. Are you worried that they won’t do that now?” Raddatz asked.
“No, in fact, just yesterday we held an event out in a park and we saw many adults coming in with their children. And I think, because of the heightened information regarding the delta variant, that more people are more concerned,” Solis replied.
Solis said that the county is promoting programs aimed at “lessening the hardships” to receive a vaccine and to ease vaccine hesitancy.
“We are going with groups on the ground to parks, to swimming pools, to swap meets — anywhere you can think of where we are encouraging people to get vaccinated,” Solis said.
“I just want to caution people that we still have many youngsters under the age of 12, who are not eligible to get vaccinated. So we, as responsible adults, should be taking a proactive approach and making sure that we mask up and that we also get vaccinated as soon as possible,” Solis also told Raddatz.
Solis added that she believes more California counties will introduce similar mask mandates in the near future.
“I think that other counties and other jurisdictions are going to also follow suit in the coming days and let these numbers go in the different direction, but right now they continue to rise,” she said.
Raddatz asked about enforcement.
“Enforcement is always an issue, but the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department released a statement saying they will not enforce mask-wearing, arguing the order contradicts CDC guidelines,” Raddatz said. “So how do you plan on enforcing this mask mandate?”
“Our public health department is typically the individuals that go out and do inspections, so I don’t see where the sheriff really has to come in and weigh in on the manner that he might have thought,” Solis said.
“I’m not concerned about that. I think the public, overall, is smart enough to understand what is being said and how to protect themselves,” she added.
(NEW YORK) — As Americans start packing bars and live venues once again in the age of mass COVID-19 vaccination — with many abandoning masks and social distancing measures — a concerning reality check is taking place.
Health officials and front-line workers, particularly in pockets of the country with relatively low vaccination rates, are again warning the public that they are seeing an influx of unvaccinated patients who are becoming severely ill.
“This is the absolute worst that I’ve ever seen it,” Emily McMichael, a nurse at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, told ABC News.
Nationally, more than 17,000 patients are currently receiving care around the country, the highest number in over a month, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The average number of new COVID-19 hospital admissions has also increased dramatically — to nearly 2,800 admissions a day — up by 35.8% in the last week.
And the distribution is fairly widespread: over a dozen states have seen significant increases in the number of patients coming into their hospitals in need of care, including Arkansas, which has seen a 76.4% increase in hospital admissions over the last two weeks, and Florida, with a nearly 90% increase.
Experts say the outlook for the country is mixed — while there won’t likely be a nationwide wave like spring 2020 or last winter, there is the possibility of regional surges in unvaccinated areas. And that spread can pose some dangers to the vaccinated population, specifically those who are vulnerable and in the possible creation of new variants that can mitigate or evade vaccines.
‘Nasty’ delta variant
Although there are still significantly fewer patients receiving care than the peak in January, when 125,000 patients were hospitalized, experts warn the uptick is concerning, particularly as the delta variant continues to spread rapidly across the U.S.
The highly infectious COVID-19 strain, which the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci called “nasty,” is now estimated to account for more than 57% of new cases nationwide. At the end of May, the variant was estimated to account for just over 3% of new cases.
Although it is still unknown whether the delta variant is more deadly than other variants, experts say it is more dangerous, given how quickly it spreads between people, thus, causing a greater number of infections, and therefore more illnesses and deaths overall.
This rapid spread has caused cases to increase in nearly every state in the country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, with the national case average doubling in the last three weeks.
However, given the variation in vaccination levels from state to state and even community to community, its effects have varied widely.
“The impact of the more transmissible delta variant will not be felt in a uniform way across the country. Major pockets of unvaccinated people will continue to be the main hosts that will allow this virus to circulate,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., the chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“While vaccines will likely prevent a major national wave, tens of millions of Americans with no prior immunity still remain susceptible to the delta variant,” he added.
Communities with fewer vaccinations see significantly higher case rates
A new ABC analysis has found that over the past week, states that have fully vaccinated less than 50% of their total population have reported a weekly average coronavirus case rate that is three times higher than in states that have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents.
States that have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents reported an average of 15.1 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over the last week, compared to an average of 45.1 cases per 100,000 people in states that have vaccinated less than half of their residents.
The 14 states with the highest case rates all have fully vaccinated less than half their total population, and 10 out of the 11 states with the lowest case rates have fully vaccinated more than half of their total population, with the exception being South Dakota.
“In unvaccinated communities where you have increased mobility and reduced mask use and social distancing, we will continue to witness surges and unfortunately unnecessary hospitalizations and deaths,” Brownstein said.
With nearly 90% of Americans 65 years and older vaccinated with at least one dose, young Americans appear to be driving this recent increase. According to CDC data, 18- to 24-year-olds currently have the nation’s highest new case rate, with only 41.6% of the age group fully vaccinated.
The widespread national impact
For now, experts say they do not foresee a nationwide surge.
“It’s likely that COVID-19 is now moving into a phase where it’s a regional problem and not a systemic problem for the country, because of the differential in vaccinations. Fully vaccinated areas are going to see a very blunted impact of delta,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security, concurred, telling ABC News that “a surge in Missouri probably doesn’t mean much for states with high vaccination rates in terms of hospitalizations.”
However, large regional surges in areas of low vaccination could spark major problems for states with fewer health care resources, making the focus on hospital capacity urgent, the experts said.
But surges in under-vaccinated areas can pose a broader nationwide risk for those who are fully vaccinated but remain vulnerable.
“Uncontrolled transmission and population mobility means additional breakthrough infections in vulnerable populations, regardless of whether they happen to be in a state that has good vaccination coverage,” Brownstein said.
This is why some local health departments are again considering reinstating restrictions, in the hope of containing infections. On Tuesday, the Chicago Department of Public Health announced that unvaccinated travelers from Arkansas and Missouri, which have both recently experienced significant COVID-19 resurgences, will have to either quarantine for 10 days or present a negative COVID-19 test result.
In Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest, officials on Thursday reinstated a mandatory indoor mask mandate — regardless of vaccination status.
Brownstein also stressed the critical importance of containing the virus, because “unmitigated transmission further increases the probability that a variant with vaccine-evading properties might emerge.”
Although Rasmussen believes that it is unlikely that we will see the emergence of a variant that will fully evade vaccines, it is possible a new variant could reduce effectiveness enough to be problematic. In such a case, she said, boosters would become necessary.
Ultimately, said Adalja, “I think it has to be made very clear to people that the delta variant is a disease of the unvaccinated. The breakthrough infections that are occurring in vaccinated people are very, very rare, and not usually clinically significant.”
(NEW YORK) — Starting next week, 150 Connecticut college students will begin training to go out into communities in their state that are lagging in vaccination rates and try to combat COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among young adults.
The program comes as the nation enters a period where the delta variant is surging in some locations and officials are having difficulty convincing millions of Americans to get vaccinated — currently the best hope of averting yet another wave of COVID-19.
Officials nationwide are trying to reach unvaccinated people — in particular those between the ages of 18 and 24, who have lower rates of getting the shot when compared to older age groups and the highest rates of COVID-19 cases.
“It really is meeting people where they are, giving them the important information for them to be able to make the decision for themselves,” Janelle Chiasera, dean of the School of Health Sciences at Quinnipiac University, which is working with the state health department on the Connecticut Public Health College Corps program, told ABC News. “What we’re trying to do is to get those people who are on the fence, over that fence to get the vaccine.”
Unvaccinated adults are “significantly younger,” according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest vaccine monitor report; 29% of the unvaccinated are 18- to 29-year-olds, compared to 17% of those vaccinated, for the smallest percentage of adults vaccinated.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 41.8% of Americans ages 18 to 24 are fully vaccinated, compared to 66% of those ages 50 to 64 and 80.9% of those ages 65 to 74.
The reasons are myriad, including fear of side effects, but experts stress the need to overcome that hurdle through targeted and trusted messaging.
“The more unvaccinated people you have, the more the chances that we’re setting up this virus to be able to create another variant,” Chiasera said. “We are allowing that virus to get smarter.”
Concerns about side effects
The reasons behind the reluctance are varied and not fully known. One may be the “lingering effects” of not prioritizing younger populations during the initial vaccine rollout, Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and co-leader of CommuniVax, a national rapid research coalition focused on improving vaccine equity in Black, Hispanic/Latino and Indigenous communities, told ABC News.
A new study by University of California San Francisco researchers published in the Journal of Adolescent Health this week found that about 1 in 4 unvaccinated people between the ages of 18 and 25 said that they “probably will not” or “definitely will not” get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“There’s still that lingering perception that ‘I am young, I am strong, I can fight this thing off,'” Schoch-Spana said. “So there’s that youthful sense of invincibility that was reinforced early on when we had less vaccine available.”
Older adults and those with underlying conditions diagnosed with COVID-19 generally fared dramatically worse than those who were younger — more than 95% of deaths were in those 50 and older, according to CDC data.
Others are worried about potential side effects of the vaccine. A CDC report published last month found that one of the main reasons U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 39 were not vaccinated were due to concerns about possible side effects. The UC San Francisco study found that was a concern for more than half of respondents. Neither study specified what those concerns were.
In a survey of patients at its California sites last month, COVID-19 testing and vaccination startup Curative also found that the number one reason people hadn’t gotten vaccinated until that point was due to concerns about side effects, according to Alexandra Simon, director of vaccines for the state.
“It could mean that they’re worried that they’re gonna have to miss work, they’re worried about cab fare, or they’re just kind of worried about getting sick,” Simon told ABC News. “I think there’s a ton of misinformation floating around about side effects.”
Chiasera said she has also heard concerns about blood clots and “fertility issues in women.”
The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been associated with an extremely rare but severe blood clot disorder and, more recently, a rare neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre.
Experts and public health officials maintain that any risks from the vaccine are outweighed by the benefits. The vast majority of side effects are mild, and long-term side effects are “unlikely,” according to the CDC. Additionally, researchers have found that there’s a greater risk of developing clots from COVID-19 than from the vaccines.
Meanwhile, there is no evidence that any vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccines, affect fertility in women or men, according to the CDC.
‘No sole, single identity’
More education could help with vaccination efforts. The CDC report on vaccination in young adults found that about two-thirds of respondents who were not sure about getting vaccinated reported they didn’t have adequate information about vaccine safety or effectiveness.
“There’s a lot that we see on social media about vaccines, but not a lot that people really truly understand about them,” Chiasera said.
Through Connecticut Public Health College Corps, the trained students will attend vaccine clinics, community efforts and do other outreach over the course of four weeks and be there to answer people’s questions on topics like the availability, safety and efficacy of the vaccines and side effects, Chiasera said.
“We’re realists in knowing that there are people — it doesn’t matter what you say, it doesn’t matter what you do — they’re not going to get their vaccine, but that is a small percent,” she said. “There’s a lot more people that are on the fence, and I think our best efforts are really on those people that are on the fence — that really truly have questions that they need answered to help make that decision.”
As much attention is being paid to reaching unvaccinated young adults, vaccination is a hyperlocal effort that can’t be generalized, Schoch-Spana said.
“One can’t expect some magic bullet to get everybody between the ages of 18 and 28 showing up in large numbers,” she said. “You really do have to think about, OK, if I want to target college-aged kids, what should I be doing? If I wanted to target Spanish-speaking youth, where do I need to go?”
“There’s no sole, single identity, so a youth-oriented vaccination campaign has to think about the different kinds of youths that are out there and to develop very specific communication approaches, outreach approaches and delivery locations to meet youth where they are,” she added.
‘Trusted influencers’ needed
It largely boils down to trust, and who the “trusted influencers” are, Schoch-Spana said.
Through its research, she said, CommuniVax has seen that in Black communities in rural Alabama, grandparents are the ones advocating for their grandchildren to get vaccinated; meanwhile, in Hispanic/Latino communities in rural Idaho, the younger generation is helping grandparents get shots.
“Different age groups have different levels of influence, according to where they are in their family and also the larger community,” she said.
In its survey of its California vaccination sites, Curative found that one reason why someone who was previously hesitant to get vaccinated ultimately did was because “someone I trust convinced me.”
A majority of patients at its California vaccination sites came based on referrals, most of which were from people who had been vaccinated at the site, Curative learned. After realizing that, they started a program dubbed “Vax Tripling,” based on the political organizing concept of vote tripling.
“It’s the idea that every person who commits to vote, you also ask them which three people they can talk to about voting,” Simon said. “So it’s kind of leveraging that trusted messenger network that happens organically.”
To further spur referrals, Curative created business cards with information about the site for patients to give to those in their community to turn “every person who chooses to get vaccinated into an ambassador for vaccination in general, in a way that is authentic to the community and real to their relationships,” Simon said.
(NEW YORK) — Half of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 developed complications associated with the virus, prompting experts to warn that long-term problems from COVID could strain the health system for years, according to new research out of the United Kingdom.
The study, published Thursday in the Lancet, analyzed hospital records from 73,197 adults in the U.K. who were hospitalized with severe COVID-19. Of those patients, 36,367 developed one or more complications during their hospitalization, including kidney problems, complex respiratory disease (such as bacterial pneumonia), acute respiratory distress syndrome, neurological problems (like seizures or stroke) and heart problems.
Overall, men and patients older than 60 were most likely to have complications, and the incidence of complications rose with age. Still, even young and previously healthy people had relatively high levels of complications. Among 19- to 29-year-olds, 27% developed complications, compared with 37% of 30- to 39-year-olds and 43% of 40- to 49-year-olds.
“This work contradicts current narratives that COVID-19 is only dangerous in people with existing comorbidities and the elderly,” Calum Semple, a professor at the University of Liverpool and coauthor of the paper, said in a statement. “Disease severity at admission is a predictor of complications even in younger adults, so prevention of complications requires a primary prevention strategy, meaning vaccination.”
The study also pointed to racial disparities in patient outcomes. White, South Asian and East Asian patients had similar rates of complications, but Black patients (58%) were more likely to develop complications than white patients (49%).
Following hospitalization, roughly a third of patients were less able to look after themselves than prior to contracting the virus, an effect that was most pronounced among men, older patients and those who’d been in critical care. Neurological complications had the biggest impact on patients’ ability to care for themselves.
“Policy makers and health-care planners should anticipate that large amounts of health and social care resources will be required to support those who survive COVID-19,” the study authors noted. “Data on long-term health difficulties posed by COVID-19 will be of great importance, particularly as a large proportion of COVID-19 survivors come from economically active age groups.”
The study had a few limitations. Since the research was conducted in the U.K., which has a different population and medical system than the United States does, the results can’t necessarily be extrapolated to the U.S. population. The study period (Jan. 17 to Aug. 4, 2020) took place toward the beginning of the pandemic and before vaccines were widely available, meaning the population skewed older. More research needs to be done to determine whether COVID-related health complications are temporary or enduring.
