American coronavirus: there is no doubt about the effectiveness of vaccines, according to the expert, as the FDA weighs a possible booster shot

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There is widespread agreement that vaccines are primarily intended to reduce hospitalizations and deaths, proving that they work well, CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen said.

“What not everyone would agree on is the second thing, which I think, that the point of vaccination is to reduce the level of infection as well,” Wen said.

This is the issue now being discussed by officials and health experts, just as the average number of new daily cases has skyrocketed over the past two months.

President Joe Biden and many experts say there is a good reason for a third dose of booster. And three reports released Wednesday support the argument that people may need a booster dose of Pfizer’s Covf-19 vaccine over time, and suggest those boosters would be safe.

The reports are part of a batch of data that will be discussed by FDA vaccine advisors as it considers a request from Pfizer to approve a third dose of booster for most people six months after getting the first two doses of vaccine.

But right now there is no unanimity. On Monday, a group of international vaccine experts, including some from the FDA and the World Health Organization, wrote in the Lancet that current evidence does not appear to support the need for booster injections in the public in this moment.

There is also fear that a focus on promoters will distract the mission of getting a larger proportion of the public to get their initial doses.

Only about 54% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, according to experts who are the best form of protection against the virus.

Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Wednesday that there is still no clear answer as to whether vaccine promoters are needed, but there is “a mountain” of data that experts should consider first. of making a decision.

Friday’s discussion will be public, he added, so people can see the data coming into the decision.

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Local health departments plan to be ready to release booster doses next week if given the green light by the FDA, but many still have questions, Lori Tremmel Freeman, executive director of the CNN, told CNN. National Association of County and City Health Officials. Wednesday.

“What is the interval for drivers? Is it less than eight months at the moment? What is the age limit? Will there be priority groupings?” Freeman said. “We don’t want to be unprepared. We don’t want to seem uncoordinated to the drivers.”

A nurse fills a syringe with a dose of Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on the Reading Area Community College campus in Reading, Pennsylvania, on September 14, 2021.

Asleep in tragedy

As the pandemic continues to bill – Covid-19 has killed more than 666,000 people and infected 41.5 million in the United States since January 2020 – the public is beginning to fall asleep with the tragedy, the former commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Wednesday.

“We’re a little complacent about a very excessive amount of deaths and illnesses,” he said during an appearance at the SALT coverage fund conference in Manhattan.

In his wake, a family says a Covid-19 death of a mother could have been prevented if more people had been vaccinated.
The United States marked another heavy milestone on Wednesday: 1 in 500 Americans has died from Covid-19.

It’s a number that can be difficult to process, Wen said.

“Imagine that 1 in 500 Americans would have died in a war because of a foreign adversary in the last year and a half. How would we process that information now? What would we do differently?” she asked. “Wouldn’t we do everything we could to end the war, end suffering and death?

“Meanwhile, we’re not doing everything we can with vaccines and masks. It’s really unconscious.”

The growing number of cases among young people is also alarming for experts. During the first nine months of 2021, Covid-19 infections in children and adolescents in the Americas (including the United States and Canada) reached more than 1.9 million, according to Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization Wednesday.

That is, more than 400,000 more than last year, before Covid-19 vaccines became available to young people over 12 years of age.

In the U.S., cases are likely to increase now that schools have reopened in the Northeast, Gottlieb said.

“This will work,” Gottlieb said, noting school outbreaks in other regions affected by the Delta variant. “Schools will also become sources of diffusion in the Northeast.”

However, Gottlieb, who is on Pfizer’s board, does not expect the northeast to be affected nearly as hard as the south, mainly due to previous infections and high vaccination rates.

Most Americans support Covid-19 restrictions

Other strategies that officials have promoted to increase protection against viruses are vaccine mandates and mask requirements.

Last week, Biden announced a plan to combat the pandemic, which included forcing companies with more than 100 employees to demand that their workforce be vaccinated or tested regularly.

Many states and jobs had already introduced similar measures.

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Los Angeles is expected to expand vaccination requirements with the implementation of a new health order that will require vaccine verification for indoor bars, wineries and nightclubs and recommend the same for indoor restaurants, the health director announced Wednesday county public, Barbara Ferrer.

There is support for vaccination requirements against Covid-19, but only in certain settings, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.

Approximately 61% of adults say they should request a vaccination test to travel by plane, 57% say they should go to public schools or universities and 56% say they should go to events sports.

When it comes to restaurants, Americans are divided, and 50% say a test should be requested for people to eat inside.

For stores and businesses, 54% oppose a vaccination requirement.

And most Americans believe the public health benefits of the restrictions due to Covid-19 are worth the economic and living costs, according to the report.

CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas, Virginia Langmaid, Jacqueline Howard, Matt Egan and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.

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