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Alaska once had the highest vaccination rate. Now it’s in a COVID-19 crisis.

September 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) — In January, Alaska had the highest per capita coronavirus vaccination rate in the nation. Now, hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, and the state’s largest hospital is rationing care.

Vaccine hesitancy and the delta variant have pushed the state’s fragile and limited hospital system to the breaking point.

Providence Alaska Medical Center, the state’s largest hospital, released a letter to the public Tuesday saying that more than 30% of its patients have COVID-19 and the hospital is rationing treatment.

“While we are doing our utmost, we are no longer able to provide the standard of care to each and every patient who needs our help,” wrote Chief of Staff Kristen Solana Walkinshaw on behalf of the hospital’s Medical Executive Committee. “The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapists.”

Of Alaska’s 120 ICU beds, 106 were filled as of Thursday — leaving only 14 beds available statewide.

Alaska had a strong initial vaccine rollout, delivering doses to remote areas of the state by helicopters, planes, dog sleds and ferries, with additional support from the Indian Health Service and state tribal health system to vaccinate Alaska Natives. Due to the challenges posed by the state’s vast size, it received vaccine allocations monthly as opposed to weekly, giving it the ability to plan ahead and deliver many doses early on.

But, as in the rest of the country, vaccination rates slowly began dropping off over the summer, stagnating with 56.7% of Alaskans fully vaccinated as of Thursday, according to the state’s coronavirus dashboard.

“In terms of why things went stagnant, it does seem like hesitancy is the main factor behind that,” said Jared Kosin, CEO and president of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association. “It’s not an access issue. The vaccine’s widely available in Alaska anywhere.”

Gov. Mike Dunleavy ended Alaska’s COVID-19 emergency declaration in the spring, and both the state legislature and Dunleavy’s administration have yet to reinstate one even at the pleading of hospitals and doctors.

In a spring mayoral race, Anchorage voters elected Dave Bronson, who has repeatedly said his administration will not enact citywide mask or vaccine mandates.

Bronson reiterated that commitment on Tuesday after an assembly meeting where hospital workers begged for action.

Cases in Alaska have been sharply increasing since August, and the state shattered its new daily case record with 1,068 infections reported Wednesday. As a result, hospitalizations have skyrocketed, reaching all time highs.

And health care experts warn this is only the beginning of a surge that could last weeks.

“It has brought us to the breaking point, and to be totally direct, in many respects we are broken,” said Kosin. “The situation is extremely bleak.”

Alaska runs on a “hub-and-spoke model” of health care, according to Kosin. “If you’re in a more rural area, you’re going to go to clinics, rural hospitals,” he told ABC News. “The idea is, as you need a higher level of care or (have) more needs, you will transfer in, ultimately, to our biggest hub, which is Anchorage.”

Anchorage, the state’s most populous city, is home to the state’s three largest hospitals — some of which offer the only advanced neurological and cardiovascular care in the state. While many people live in rural and geographically isolated areas, those communities still rely on the specialty medical care that can only be found in the city.

As city hospitals have reached capacity and Anchorage residents are forced to remain in their cars or emergency room waiting areas until they can receive care, health care institutions must refuse transfer patients from rural communities, leaving them without what can be lifesaving treatment, Solana Walkinshaw said.

The nearest next option are hospitals in the contiguous U.S. like Seattle, Washington — an over three-hour flight away. Seattle is also experiencing an influx of COVID-19 patients and is trying to help by taking patients from neighboring states like Idaho, which is coping with its most serious surge in cases since the beginning of the pandemic. That leaves very limited options.

Because city hospitals are inundated with COVID-19 cases, they are struggling to provide routine care and emergency services to patients who do not have the virus.

As of Tuesday night, Providence Alaska Medical Center had only a single available bed with 10 admitted patients in need of one, along with patients in the emergency room also waiting for an opening, Solana Walkinshaw said. Three of those patients needed an ICU bed, but the hospital had none available.

Between 80-85% of COVID-19 patients at the hospital are unvaccinated and the same is true of the COVID-19 patients who die, according to Providence Alaska Medical Center spokesperson Mikal Canfield.

The hospital began rationing care Saturday, leaving health care workers to decide which patients get care and which ones have to wait. The staff is demoralized, Solana Walkinshaw said, with some breaking down in tears, sad and frustrated over the situation they find themselves in.

“People are struggling, working as hard as they can and having to make these decisions is probably some of the hardest things people have done in their careers,” she said.

While rural Alaska has experienced a stark increase in coronavirus cases, with some communities seeing the worst outbreaks on record, rural health providers are not being hit as hard with COVID-19 patients, Kosin said.

That’s due to the smaller populations outside of the city, the fact that the COVID-19 patients in the most serious condition are sent to Anchorage and because some of the villages have very high vaccination rates.

The bigger problem for rural institutions is that they are being tasked with caring for non-COVID-19 patients they would typically transfer to Anchorage.

At Tuesday’s city assembly meeting, a group of health care workers from hospitals across Anchorage pleaded for residents to wear masks and get vaccinated.

Leslie Gonsette, an internal medicine hospitalist at Providence Alaska Medical Center, came to testify at the meeting during her hospital shift. One of her patients, who does not have COVID-19 and is vaccinated, was in critical condition and in need of an ICU bed, she said.

“I called my colleagues in the ICU, and I explained, ‘My patient is going to probably die. I need an ICU bed,'” she said. “And the answer I got was, ‘We are doing our best. We do not have a bed.'”

Bronson’s office released a statement after the meeting.

“My administration has been clear since the beginning that we will not mandate masks or vaccines,” it said. “If someone wants to wear a mask or get a vaccination that’s their personal choice. But we will not violate the privacy and independent health care decisions of our citizens in the process.”

Alaska’s health care providers, however, are left worrying about the kinds of choices they will be left with.

“Rationing care will take on a whole new meaning than it does today,” Kosin said. “I think it’s going to lead to the types of decisions you can’t imagine a person having to make.”

Jonas Brothers release groovy new single “Who’s In Your Head”

September 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The Jonas Brothers are out with a brand-new single, which asks the question “Who’s In Your Head”?

The mysterious single finds the brothers learning that the love of their life has cheated on them, leading them to agonize over their doomed romance. It boils down a the point where the three can’t even look at their significant others without thinking of the mysterious third person who tarnished their relationship.

“I wanna know/ Who’s in your head/ Stealin’ your heart while I’m still bleeding/ Who’s in your bed/ Wrapped in your arms while I ain’t sleepin,” the brothers harmonize.

And while the trio reminisce about what made them fall in love with their partner in the first place — from their “like magic” moves to getting “lost in your halo” — they also begin to wonder if those attributes were red flags in disguise.

“Who’s In Your Head” is available for purchase and streaming on demand now. A music video is forthcoming.

The Jonas Brothers are currently on their road with Kelsea Ballerini as part of their Remember This Tour. They’re set to play in Nashville, Tennessee, tonight.

How COVID-19 hybrid immunity could be a potential pandemic game-changer

September 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — With the FDA gearing up to decide if all Americans need booster shots, some researchers are pointing to preliminary data suggesting that mixing different vaccines could offer an even stronger immune boost.

For now, data is too sparse to support a mix-and-match strategy, experts say. But scientists are learning more about just how strong the immune response can be for someone who has previously been infected with COVID-19 then gets the vaccine — a phenomenon called “hybrid immunity.”

“The best thing we can hope for is that three vaccine doses will emulate the super immune response, found among those previously infected with the virus,” said Dr. Paul Goepfert, an infectious disease physician and director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic. “This [type of immunity] will protect against variants in the future.”

With the nation still slogging through the pandemic and contending with the delta variant’s threat of breakthrough infections, “super immunity” becomes an appealing concept.

In one review recently published in Science, people with that hybrid immunity see an immediate and “striking” improvement in protection — up to a 100-fold increase in their antibody response as compared to what they built up after their COVID-19 infection — Dr. Shane Crotty, review author and virologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, said.

Experts are also discovering these hybrid antibodies appear to be more versatile and recognize more variants, including those as distant as the original SARS virus, Crotty said.

One yet to be peer reviewed study of previously COVID-19 positive patients who were then vaccinated at least six months later found participants were able to fight off both variants of concern tested: delta, the most infectious, and beta, the most lethal.

“With prior infection, their antibodies are able to recognize numerous variants, but with the addition of the vaccine, they are able to generate a large number to have a stronger effect against the virus,” Crotty said.

Like an exercise regimen that pairs weight lifting with cardio, Crotty explained that these individuals benefit from the combination of quantity and varied quality of the immune response they build. And that could indicate promising signs for boosters.

Scientists are seeking to replicate that strong protection, but without people having to contract COVID-19, as it’s universally agreed that infection is not an optimal immunization course.

Instead, they’re hoping booster doses of vaccines could convey a similar effect.

But timing is key when it comes to additional doses, whichever vaccine is given. Researchers say that exact right interval when immune response has matured — but before protection begins to wane — is the ideal target.

“Our immune system is built to have repeated exposures to the same antigen,” which will “substantially” enhance immune protection, Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said.

Experts are still gleaning what exactly is the benefit of this enhanced immunity, though it’s not novel to coronavirus.

Flu vaccines, for example, are “boosted” for children receiving them, while adults receive one dose, yearly.

“This is because of hybrid immunity. Adults have already been exposed to influenza and have primed their immune response,” Goepfert said.

“What we have seen is that waiting six months does mount a better immune response later,” he added. “It seems that our immune system likes to rest and develop antibodies, and then mount a stronger response when it sees the same pathogen again later on.”

There is not enough data yet to say if the mix-and-match approach of priming one vaccine and boosting with another is going to offer better or more durable protection. But while the jury remains out, experts are hopeful.

“The mix-and-match approach in vaccine administration has been studied for decades, but unfortunately not for COVID,” Barouch said. “while larger studies are underway, it is best to stay with the same vaccine for the booster, if approved.”

Louisiana residents frustrated by FEMA aid process weeks after Hurricane Ida

September 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — When President Joe Biden visited Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, he promised a key form of federal aid to those dealing with the lingering effects of the storm, but weeks after landfall getting that financial help has been easier said than done.

The money would go straight into survivors’ bank accounts “so that they can deal immediately with emergencies,” Biden said Sept. 3.

Ida roared ashore near Port Fourchon as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 29, wiping out homes and flooding entire neighborhoods. At least 26 people died in Louisiana.

But access to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s critical needs assistance program, designed to provide $500 checks for individuals with lifesaving needs, has been difficult in many of the affected areas.

FEMA defines critical needs as “life-saving and life-sustaining items including, but not limited to: water, food, first aid, prescriptions, infant formula, diapers, consumable medical supplies, durable medical equipment, personal hygiene items and fuel for transportation.”

But weeks after the storm, getting access to those items is still a challenge, and has left some residents who say they have urgent needs confused about why they have not received the federal aid mentioned by Biden.

Melinda Bernard, 34, is among the Ida survivors who has not received the $500 deposit, despite requesting it.

Her family stayed at their home in Houma, Louisiana, when Ida hit as they couldn’t find safe lodging to accommodate them and their pets. They were without power for 15 days, she said.

“Everything was booked. We refused to leave our animals so we stayed home,” she said.

Bernard said she wasn’t anticipating the burden of Ida’s lasting effects, and in an effort to be honest, marked “no” on the FEMA application when asked if she was in immediate need. But as power outages lingered, Bernard was forced to run her generator to power her home, especially because her son, who has asthma, sometimes needs a nebulizer, particularly in hot weather.

Costs added up. Her generator failed and she was forced to replace it.

“Due to the difficulty of finding available gas, we chose to ration the fuel we had,” she said.

In a phone call to a FEMA disaster assistance hotline, a representative told her she couldn’t amend her application, and that she should visit a local food bank for assistance.

A Sept. 14 tweet from FEMA read, in part, “if you are not eligible, this program does not have an appeal process.”

When asked to confirm whether an application marked ineligible can be appealed, FEMA Public Affairs Director Jaclyn Rothenberg said she stood by the agency’s tweet.

Rothenberg said there had been more than 640,000 applications in Louisiana in connection with Ida, and 65% had received critical needs assistance funding.

“Most people are getting the funds they apply for,” she said.

In the Louisiana parish of Tangipahoa, parish President Robby Miller said he applied for the $500 promoted by Biden in the wake of Ida, like many others there. He said on Sept. 15 that he still hadn’t received it, and wasn’t alone.

“I’ve only heard of a handful that have gotten it,” he said.

Miller added that the process of applying for the various forms of aid offered by FEMA confounded him and other parish residents.

“I would say that the messaging and the communication of what is actually available to our citizens, when it will be available, has been rather confusing,” he said.

Danielle Craig, 45, lives in Hammond, on the border of Tangipahoa and Livingston parishes, and was among those displaced by Ida. She and her husband fled their home for nearly two weeks. She said the damage to her community was “unlike anything I have ever seen.”

The widespread destruction in Hammond included roofs ripped from buildings and downed trees lining the streets.

Craig’s husband is diabetic, and needed refrigeration for his insulin, so they stayed with friends for nearly two weeks — wherever they could find electricity.

Water leaked into their damaged home, then black mold began to line the walls and ceilings.

Craig said she tried to apply online for aid from FEMA, but couldn’t confirm her address in its system. When she called, she said a representative told her their home would need to be inspected first. Nobody has showed up, Craig said.

And while she was told she’d receive the $500 promised by Biden, the money hasn’t appeared. After hours on hold, a FEMA representative told her to be patient.

FEMA officials have committed to an equitable process in terms of the allocation of federal aid, and have encouraged applicants who were not offered critical needs assistance to explore other options, including individual assistance.

Rothenberg said FEMA is “improving access to disaster assistance for underserved communities,” including by expanding the criteria for applicants to show they have expenses related to their homes.

Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., announced Sept. 10 that FEMA had granted a 10-day extension to the original deadline to apply for assistance after, his spokesperson said, constituents reported difficulty accessing aid due to long hold times on FEMA phone lines. The new deadline to apply for Critical Needs Assistance is Sept. 22.

But despite the extension, some, like Craig, are still waiting for aid they say they urgently need.

“You can only be so patient after weeks of damage and nobody’s done anything,” she said.

These vaccine mandates are already in place to attend school in the US

September 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — By early next year, all eligible students attending a Los Angeles public school will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The school district is the largest in the country to mandate the shot — which joins a list of other vaccines already required to attend school that protect against highly contagious diseases.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have vaccine requirements for children to attend school and child care facilities, including laws around allowable exemptions.

Massachusetts became the first state to enact a school vaccination requirement in the 1850s for the smallpox vaccine — the first immunization developed against a contagious disease — according to a publication by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other states followed suit, and by the 1980-1981 school year, all states had vaccination requirements for students entering the classroom, the CDC said.

Children in close proximity with poor ventilation and hygiene practices can lead to “transmission events,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

“This is why vaccine mandates in schools have been super important,” Brownstein said. “They create a safe environment where you can recognize that you will not have transmission of a wide range of infectious diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough.”

The mandates have been “very successful” in preventing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, he said.

Thanks to vaccination efforts, many highly contagious diseases that were once common, such as measles, mumps, whooping cough (aka pertussis) and chickenpox, are now rare, while polio and smallpox have been eradicated in the U.S. Routine child vaccination is estimated to prevent 936,000 premature deaths and 419 million illnesses in American children born between 1994 and 2018, according to the CDC.

Vaccine mandates for child care and schools vary by state. All require vaccines that protect against polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles and rubella, according to the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), a vaccine education and advocacy organization. Nearly all states require vaccines that protect against mumps, chickenpox, hepatitis B and pneumococcal disease.

Vaccines that aren’t widely required by states include ones for the flu, hepatitis A, rotavirus and HPV, according to IAC. The U.S. stopped routine vaccination for smallpox — which has been eradicated globally — in the 1970s.

“Precedents have been set that you can protect your community by requiring school vaccination requirements,” L.J Tan, chief policy and partnerships officer for IAC, told ABC News.

For the 2019-2020 school year, about 95% of children in kindergarten in the U.S. had received the DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) and varicella (chickenpox) vaccines, according to the CDC, with roughly 5% exempt from or not up to date on certain doses.

The agency has observed a decrease in vaccination rates during the pandemic, as COVID-19 has disrupted school and routine well visits for many families. There was a 14% drop in public sector vaccine ordering in 2020-2021 compared to 2019, and measles vaccine ordering decreased by over 20%, the CDC reported.

The decline in routine pediatric immunizations has been very concerning for public health experts.

“Whenever we have a decrease in coverage, that could be an opportunity for these infections to reemerge and cause outbreaks — and one of the most obvious, recent examples is measles,” Dr. Flor Munoz, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told ABC News.

In 2019, the U.S. saw its largest measles outbreak in 25 years, with 1,282 cases confirmed in 31 states, mostly among people not vaccinated against the virus, according to the CDC.

It’s especially important that children stay up-to-date on vaccines as many return to in-person learning and routine activities, Munoz said.

“All of these other diseases that are vaccine-preventable can reemerge at any time,” Munoz said. “Vaccination is the easiest way and the best way to prevent any of these potentially serious infections.”

Pediatric COVID-19 rates have reached record levels in the U.S. as students return to school. In the last two weeks, nearly half a million children have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the latest report on pediatric coronavirus cases from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is authorized for people as young as 12 and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for those ages 16 and up. The pharmaceutical company has said it plans to submit vaccine safety data on 5- to 11-year-olds to the FDA by the end of September.

Currently, no state requires the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 and older for school entry, though some are mandating it for certain state employees and many colleges are requiring it for students.

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education last week approved a mandate that students ages 12 and up be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 10, 2022, to attend class in-person. At this time, the school district said it is not requiring booster shots, which the Biden administration is planning to be made available as soon as next week for the general public at least eight months after their second dose.

Beyond Los Angeles, nearby Culver City is mandating that public school students get the vaccine this school year, and two San Francisco Bay Area districts are considering the same. More school districts may likely follow suit, creating a “domino effect,” Brownstein said, especially as younger children become eligible to get the vaccine.

“A safe vaccine that can prevent transmission, protect our kids and ensure that they can stay in in-person learning actually makes a lot of sense,” he said. “And there’s historical precedent for doing so.”

What to expect as FDA advisory panel debates Pfizer COVID booster shots

September 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Food and Drug Administration’s independent advisory committee will convene in open session Friday to review the latest data submitted by Pfizer and discuss whether a booster dose is safe enough for widespread use and whether it’s necessary and effective at improving protection levels against COVID-19.

Their vote will be non-binding — the FDA is not required to follow the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee’s (VRBPAC) recommendations — but they generally do so.

After that vote, the FDA will decide whether they will formally amend their current vaccine approval for Pfizer. Next week the matter heads to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent advisory panel (ACIP), where that panel will weigh on a more granular level who should get a booster and when? The CDC director will then formally sign off on whatever ACIP recommends.

Friday morning’s opening remarks are set to kick off at 8:30 a.m. ET, followed by introductions by the FDA, presentations from CDC representatives, a discussion about booster protection and a presentation from Pfizer executives who will make the case for why boosters are appropriate.

After a public hearing portion in the afternoon and a question-and-answer session on both Pfizer’s and the FDA’s presentations, the committee will debate the issue for roughly two hours. A vote is expected at about 4:45 p.m. ET, if they stay on schedule.

The meeting Friday comes amid a contentious debate on the timeline for boosters, with some health experts vehement that the data and timing is still premature.

Two top FDA officials who are leaving the agency later this year publicly waded into the debate on Monday, splitting from the agency and arguing in a scientific journal that it was too soon to give booster shots to the general public since the vaccines still offer strong protection against serious disease.

Both are scheduled to attend Friday’s discussion. One of them, the director of the agency’s office of vaccines research and review, is supposed to give an overarching introduction of the topic for the FDA in the beginning of the day.

Also joining Friday’s meeting is the head of Israel’s public health services, Dr. Sharon Alroy Preis, who is set to present data on booster protection against COVID infection and severe disease.

In a review of Pfizer’s data, also released Wednesday, the FDA appeared to be noncommittal on the necessity for boosters. The agency pointed out that Pfizer’s efficacy data could be hampered by the limitations of studying boosters in real-world situations, which can introduce complicating factors.

“There are many potentially relevant studies, but FDA has not independently reviewed or verified the underlying data or their conclusions,” the agency wrote in its briefing.

Naming no one — but nodding to those lingering concerns — Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla penned an open letter on Thursday making the case for booster shots.

“This week we are approaching another pivotal moment in our ongoing fight against the virus,” Bourla writes of Friday’s FDA advisory committee. “Since the start of this pandemic, Pfizer and BioNTech have pledged to follow the science and keep people informed about our progress to help bring an end to this global health crisis. We have stayed true to our commitment of full transparency without selectively cherry-picking data.”

Confused about boosters? Here are some answers

September 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — On Friday, an advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration will weigh in on a debate that has been broiling since the Biden administration announced last month that the country would begin to roll out booster shots against COVID-19.

This panel, which is independent of the FDA and the Biden administration, will look at the data recently submitted by Pfizer on booster shots and make a recommendation. The FDA will then decide whether they will formally amend their current vaccine approval for Pfizer, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has its own advisory committee, will review the information and make a decision.

But the back-and-forth leading up to this process, and the president’s involvement in an otherwise non-political decision, has left many Americans confused about who really needs boosters and when.

Do I need a booster shot, and if so, when?

Unfortunately, there’s no clear answer to this question yet. But it will come sometime in the next week, as the FDA and CDC’s advisory committees discuss the available data.

For now, the one thing to know is that the vast majority of vaccinated people are still well-protected by their vaccines.

“If you have a good immune system, I would certainly not go out and get a booster before anything is recommended. I feel strongly that we have to go by the scientific consensus, which really hasn’t been played out yet,” said Dr. Paul Goepfert, director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic at the University of Alabama.

The latest CDC data found that over 90% of people hospitalized with COVID are still unvaccinated.

And while breakthrough infections happen, particularly as protection against mild infection wanes, the vaccines continue to protect Americans from ending up in the hospital with COVID, as well as vastly reducing their likelihood of death.

The only group that’s potentially at more risk of a serious breakthrough infection are older people who got their vaccines early on in the rollout. Recent studies by the CDC showed that protection against hospitalization for people over 65 has decreased to around 76-80%.

“At the end of the day, the purpose of the vaccines is to prevent hospitalizations and deaths, and they’re doing that very effectively still,” said Dr. Carlos Del Rio, executive associate dean of Emory University School of Medicine.

“Maybe a little less effective for people over the age of 60 or with comorbidities, but still, if you look around the hospitals, the people hospitalized today are people who haven’t received the vaccine.”

Additional vaccine doses, although not quite a booster, have already been approved by the CDC for the roughly 7 million immunocompromised Americans who didn’t have an optimal response to the first round of mRNA vaccines. Nearly 2 million Americans have gotten an additional shot since the FDA and CDC approved them in August for that subset of people.

The CDC officially recommended a third dose of an mRNA vaccine for immunocompromised Americans in August, allowing the approximately 7 million Americans who didn’t get an optimal immune response to their initial vaccine doses of Pfizer or Moderna to gain more protection.

There’s been a lot of debate as the process plays out. What’s the controversy?

When the Biden administration announced that it would roll out a booster shot program beginning Sept. 20, the White House’s COVID response team said it was to get ahead of the virus.

“You don’t want to find yourself behind, playing catch up,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said when announcing the plan. “Better stay ahead of it than chasing after it.”

The White House has relied heavily on Israel’s progress. Data from the country, where the vaccine process began sooner than in the U.S., shows that vaccine protection against serious disease has now begun to wane.

But quickly, career scientists pushed back on the White House’s announcement, saying there wasn’t enough U.S. data to support boosters yet — all the current evidence shows vaccines still protect most Americans against serious disease.

For experts in that camp, the focus usually narrows in on the 80 million Americans who aren’t vaccinated at all. Increasing protection across more of the country would stamp out transmission.

“We’re spending way too much time talking about boosters when we need to be spending time talking about the people that haven’t been vaccinated,” said Del Rio.

But on the other hand, studies do show that general protection against mild infection is waning, even if it’s staying strong against hospitalization.

“We need to reinforce the armor,” said Dr. Todd Ellerin, an ABC News medical contributor and the director of infectious diseases at South Shore Health in Massachusetts.

Ellerin predicted a triple threat ahead: a surge of delta infections, higher transmission during the winter months and close to half the country remaining unvaccinated.

“I think there are strong arguments for both sides and we just have to see,” Ellerin said.

The FDA’s independent advisory committee meets all day on Friday, and plans to vote in the late afternoon. For now, they’re only meeting about Pfizer, the first vaccine to submit its data.

If the FDA panel votes to move forward with boosters, the CDC’s advisory committee will meet almost a week later to nail down the details: who gets boosters and how soon.

The FDA and CDC committees are looking at Pfizer booster shots. What’s the deal with boosters for people who got J&J or Moderna?

Both Johnson & Johnson and Moderna are expected to follow Pfizer and run their data by the official FDA and CDC channels in the coming weeks in an effort to get approval for booster shots.

But both companies maintain protection is still strong against severe infection.

Moderna, in an analysis of various studies released on Wednesday, even made the case that the company’s original vaccine appears to generate the strongest protection among the three currently authorized vaccines.

Nevertheless, Moderna President Stephen Hoge told ABC News in an interview on Wednesday that “protection is not permanent” and “we’re not going to be able to defy gravity forever.”

Newly published data from Moderna’s booster shot trial showed a lower risk of breakthrough infections among people vaccinated eight months ago compared to people vaccinated 13 months ago.

Unlike Pfizer, Moderna’s third booster will be a half-dose. They say their data shows that boosting with a half-shot seems to generate more than enough immune response.

For J&J, the one-shot series chosen by about 14 million Americans, a study found that the vaccine still provided a durable immune response at least eight months later, even without a booster dose.

Another study, not yet peer reviewed, found more good news: The J&J booster dose actually boosted antibody levels higher than they were after the initial shot.

And while it will be a few weeks before there’s more concrete news on the J&J booster shots, there’s room in the timeline. Most Americans didn’t receive the J&J vaccine until late spring of 2020, since it was approved after the mRNA vaccines. That means the J&J boosters won’t be widely necessary until November at the earliest — if the FDA and CDC decide they’re needed at all.

There is not enough data yet on mixing and matching vaccines, though the CDC is actively researching it.

And for all three of the vaccines, recipients have a common question: will I need to get a booster routinely? Experts, wary of predicting anything about the unpredictable global pandemic, said it’s possible, but unlikely.

“My prediction is that as long as the COVID rates are going down, we will not need a continuous boost,” Goepfert said. That could change, however, if a new viral strain requires a newly tailored vaccine.

Are booster shots safe?

Pfizer, the only vaccine so far to have its data reviewed by the FDA, found no safety concerns among the 300 trial participants who were part of its clinical trial. Pfizer followed the participants for up to three months after getting their third shot.

Peoples’ reactions to the booster shots were not significantly different from their reactions to a second dose, FDA and Pfizer both wrote in their separate briefing documents.

“No deaths, vaccine-related serious adverse events, or events of myocarditis, pericarditis, anaphylaxis, appendicitis, or Bell’s palsy were reported among study participants who received the … booster dose,” the FDA wrote in a review of Pfizer’s safety data.

Moderna and J&J have not yet had their data reviewed by the FDA, but have said they found no safety concerns in their clinical trials of booster shots.

Scoreboard roundup — 9/16/21

September 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Thursday’s sports events:

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

AMERICAN LEAGUE
LA Angels 9, Chi White Sox 3
Oakland 7, Kansas City 2
Baltimore 3, NY Yankees 2
Tampa Bay 5, Detroit 2
Houston 12, Texas 1

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Cincinnati 1, Pittsburgh 0
San Diego 7, San Francisco 4
Philadelphia 17, Chi Cubs 8
Colorado at Atlanta (Postponed)

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Washington 30, NY Giants 29

WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Los Angeles 74, Atlanta 68

“Damn Strait,” Scotty McCreery’s driving the ‘Same Truck’ from ‘Idol’ — and delivering an important message

September 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

More than ten years after winning the tenth season of American Idol, Scotty McCreery arrives with his fifth studio album, driving the Same Truck he won on the popular singing competition.

The 27-year-old wrote ten of the record’s twelve tracks, including his top five hit, “You Time.” In fact, he believed he was almost done with the follow-up to 2018’s Seasons Change — and then 2020 happened.

“You know, I thought I had this album pretty much ready to go a couple of years ago,” Scotty reveals. “But then after COVID hit, suddenly [I] had a lot of extra time on my hands. So I started writing new songs and before I knew it, we’d come up with almost a whole new album.”

For Scotty, Same Truck has both a literal and a much deeper meaning.

“Can you believe I’m actually driving the same truck I won 10 years ago as part of my American Idol title?” he asks. “The truck’s name is Loretta after one of my favorites, Loretta Lynn.”

Amid divisive times, Scotty believes we’re more alike than different, i.e. we’re all in the same boat — or “Same Truck,” if you’re from North Carolina.

“[It] was one of those songs that got started by a conversation talking about how I drive the same truck…” he tells ABC Audio. “But it morphed into something a lot more important than that, just talking about how, ‘Hey, guys, we’re all on the same team here. Let’s build each other up instead of tear each other down.'”

“And it’s just a message I think we all need to hear right now,” he adds.

Same Truck is new today, and features Scotty’s nod to King George, “Damn Strait,” which he’s set to sing Tuesday on NBC’s Today show.

Jennifer Aniston says season 2 of The Morning Show will tackle cancel culture

September 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

After season one of The Morning Show ended on an incredible cliffhanger — with Alex Levy and Bradley Jackson choosing to blow up their network and expose the toxic work environment live on television — fans will finally know what happened next when season two premieres today on Apple TV+.

Star Jennifer Aniston, who plays Alex, chatted with ABC Audio about what themes the new season will tackle and how they will affect her character’s growth.

Aniston says that Alex — who spent much of the first season trying to process the sexual assault allegations against her disgraced former co-host, Steve Carell‘s Mitch Kessler — will do some real soul searching this season.

“Sitting back, taking a moment to look inward and look back at the rubble that was left behind and figuring out who you are, is it who you want to be, and how do you move forward in this new normal?,” she divulged.

The Emmy winner says Alex will continue to explore the fallout of the sex scandal and also focus on cancel culture.

“What happens to these people who, you know, commit these terrible acts? Do they just vanish and disappear? That’s it. One click and one swipe in your whole entire life that you worked for is over,” she explained. “Is there room for redemption? Is there room for forgiveness?”

While fans have yet to find that out, they will meet newcomer Julianna Margulies, who plays network news anchor Laura Peterson.

Margulies tells ABC Audio that Laura’s character is a mix of Diane Sawyer, Rachel Maddow and Christiane Amanpour.

“There’s this sort of really great mix of grit, but sophistication and incredible smarts,” she teased.

The Morning Show‘s first episode of season two is streaming now on Apple TV+.

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