“The only thing we know for sure … 160,000 cases a day is not where we want to be,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, to Anderson Cooper of CNN. “Unfortunately, this is where we are now.”
In mid-June, before the increase in cases motivated by the more transmissible Delta variant, the United States reached a seven-day average of about 11,000 new cases a day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital Vaccine Education Center, said Biden’s announcement was an important step and that he “put his finger on the right about what the problem is now. even in this country “.
And some experts pushed further.
“I loved the speech; I wish it had gone further. I wanted the president to restrict travel this holiday season to vaccinated people,” CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner said.
However, many Republican governors – some in states with high hospitalizations and low vaccination rates – condemned the strategy. Some even said they would challenge the lawsuit.
“To be clear: the vaccine is the best tool we have to fight the pandemic, but heavy mandates are the wrong approach,” Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said in a tweet Thursday.
But even with vaccination and mitigation measures, the end of the game may not be complete eradication, said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University School of Public Health.
“Basically, it will end the day we reach the sufficient level of immunity of the population, that the virus becomes essentially a nuisance and ceases to be a threat,” Jha said on Thursday.
How the US faces the virus
Changes to the Covid-19 response begin Friday, when the maximum fine for failing to meet the federal requirement to wear a mask when traveling will double to a range of $ 500 to $ 3,000, from $ 250 to $ 1,500.
He said the treatments “have been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization by up to 70% for unvaccinated people.”
Also Thursday, the New York Police Department confirmed Thursday that any employee who is not vaccinated or provided evidence of a recent negative Covid test will not be allowed to work and will not be charged any salary.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio also previously announced that any new hiring will need to be fully vaccinated for any New York City agency.
The fact that workers choose between vaccination or weekly testing will likely increase vaccination, Jeff Zients, Covid-19 White House response coordinator, said Thursday. “It’s not advisable for most to get tested once a week,” he added.
Expected data on childhood vaccines in the autumn
The vaccination effort is largely aimed at adults in the United States, but with the start of school across the country, many experts and parents are concerned about how children will be protected from the virus.
Fauci said in a New York Times interview published Thursday that children are less likely to have severe symptoms of Covid-19, but are no less likely than adults to become infected.
“So now we see more children in the hospital because the Delta variant is more easily transmitted between everyone, adults and children,” Fauci said.
Throughout Florida’s 15 largest school districts, at least 34,085 students and 6,347 employees have tested positive for Covid-19 during the 2021-22 school year, according to a CNN analysis.
In Kentucky, 39 of the state’s 171 public school districts have had to close at some point during the 2021-22 school year due to an increase in cases, quarantines and / or staff shortages, said Joshua Shoutla, a spokesman for the Kentucky School Board Association. CNN in a statement Thursday morning.
Currently, children under the age of 12 cannot be vaccinated.
But those over the age of 12 can get vaccines against Pfizer under an emergency use permit. According to a CNN analysis of the latest CDC data, about 43% of all 12- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. are fully vaccinated.
Data on Moderna’s vaccine for younger age groups will likely be ready in late October or early November, following data from Pfizer that is expected by the end of September, Fauci said in New York Times.
After presenting the data, Fauci said it is “very likely” that companies will apply for an emergency use permit.
CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas, Virginia Langmaid, Greg Wallace, Nikki Carvajal, Laura Ly, Jacqueline Howard, Mallory Simon, Rachel Clarke, and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.