ATLANTA (CNN) – The United States is at risk of losing all of its recent gains in the battle against COVID-19, as highly contagious variants take advantage of Americans to relax with security measures.
“Please listen to me clearly: at this level of cases with spreading variants, we are completely losing ground,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. .
After weeks of falling cases, new infections are rising again, about 2 percent more last week compared to the previous week, Walensky said Monday.
“Similarly, the most recent seven-day death toll has also risen more than 2% … to nearly 2,000 deaths a day.”
Walensky also summoned states that were reducing COVID-19 security mandates.
“I am really concerned about reports indicating that more states are backtracking on the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from COVID-19,” he said.
“Please stand firm in your conviction. Keep wearing the right mask and taking other public health prevention actions that we know work,” Walensky added.
“Ultimately, vaccination is what will get us out of this pandemic. To get there, we need to vaccinate a lot more people.”
A third vaccine will help mass vaccination
The good news this week: the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine will begin to be administered.
“There’s a kind of new urgency,” said Dr. Eric Rubin, a professor at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
“Because there are new viral variants coming out right now, with some chances that some of them will end up being a bit resistant to the protection that vaccines offer, it’s very important to do it quickly.”
Some 3.9 million doses of the J&J vaccine will be distributed to states, tribes, territories, pharmacies and community health centers, a senior Biden administration official said Sunday night.
“These doses of J&J will be delivered this Tuesday morning.”
As a one-dose vaccine, “people don’t have to come back to protect a second dose,” Walensky said.
“In addition, this vaccine does not need to be stored in a freezer and can be stored at refrigerated temperatures. Therefore, it is easy to transport and store and allows for extended availability to most community settings and mobile sites as supply increases “.
The other two vaccines that are distributed, one from Pfizer-BioNTech and one from Moderna, have an approximate 95% efficacy rate, with even greater protection against severe forms of the disease.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has shown a 72% efficacy rate against serious / serious / serious diseases among participants in US trials. It is most effective against severe forms of disease, with 85% protection.
Health experts say Americans should not be deterred from the slightly lower number of J&J. Their vaccine was tested later than the other two vaccines, when infections were already growing and new variant strains were spreading more widely.
The J&J vaccine was also tested in South Africa when the troubled strain B.1.351 was dominant, but it still provided strong protection against serious disease.
Don’t be too picky about the vaccine you get
Health experts, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said they would be happy to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine if it were the only one available because the three vaccines distributed in the U.S. are highly effective against severe COVID-19.
And if this is the only vaccine available in your area, you should go ahead and get it once you can, CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen said Monday.
“Think about the other vaccines we get. If we go in to get the flu shot, I don’t think anyone is asking the brand of the flu shot (or) which company makes it.”
In addition, “in the immediate future, people will not have a choice when supply is a limiting factor,” he said.
“Right now, the key is to get immunity of some sort. Get any vaccine that’s available for the first time. You can always get another vaccine or a cold later when the supply isn’t the problem.”
New variants continue to spread
March will be a very important chapter in this pandemic. The CDC predicted that the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the UK would become the dominant strain in the US this month.
According to CDC data, more than 2,460 infections with variant strains have been reported. The vast majority of these cases (at least 2,400) are of the highly contagious strain B.1.1.7.
These counts are probably much lower than the actual number of people infected by variants. The numbers only represent those variant cases found through genomic sequencing, the CDC said.
Right now, the key is to get some kind of immunity. Get any vaccine that is available for the first time. You can always get another vaccine or a cold later when the supply is not the problem.
–Leana Wen, CNN medical analyst
The United States has lagged behind dozens of other countries in the proportion of cases tested for variants, but the CDC said they are working to increase those efforts.
Can vaccines defend themselves against new variants?
Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are trying to make sure their vaccines outperform the variants.
The B.1.351 strain first detected in South Africa has the most worrying effects on the ability of vaccines to produce an immune response, Dr. Heather Scobie told the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP) meeting. of the CDC.
He also said that two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine protect people better than a single dose.
“Five studies have shown that postponing the second dose of mRNA may leave some people less protected from SARS-Cov-2 variants,” Scobie said at the ACIP meeting.
Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines are mRNA vaccines.
“All studies showed improved neutralization of B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 after the second dose of vaccine,” he said. “In some studies, people who had recovered from COVID-19 and received a dose of vaccine had moderate protection against B.1.351.”
Johnson & Johnson is working on a booster to help its COVID-19 vaccine deal with new strains of coronavirus variants, CEO Alex Gorsky said Monday.
“While we are excited and confident in the current vaccine we have, you should always be preparing for the future and frankly for the unknown,” Gorsky said.
Last week, Moderna said it has designed a booster shot to help prevent strain B.1.351, which has worried scientists because it has a mutation that can affect the effectiveness of vaccines.
This trait would serve as a booster for people who have already been vaccinated and as a primary vaccine for people who have not had coronavirus and have not yet been vaccinated.
Modern is also testing a third lower dose of the current vaccine on trial participants to see if this would protect against worrying variants.
Pfizer and BioNTech said last week that they have begun testing the extent to which a third dose of their authorized vaccine fits the new variants.
On Monday, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said it would take six to eight weeks to get real-world data demonstrating the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against variant B.1.351.
Many more need to be vaccinated before herd immunity
While it is worth celebrating the news of the third COVID-19 vaccine, the United States is still a long way from herd immunity. That’s when there are enough people protected from a virus that can’t spread through the population.
Approximately 15.3% of the U.S. population has received at least one shot of the two-dose Modern or Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, according to CDC data available Monday.
About 7.7% of Americans have been completely vaccinated with both doses.
Vaccines will be tested in children
Now that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been shown to be safe and effective in adults, the company will begin studies with children, said Dr. Macaya Douoguih, head of clinical development and medical affairs with the J & J vaccine arm, Janssen.
“We will do various immunogenicity and safety studies in children from 17 to babies,” Douoguih told a CDC advisory committee on Sunday.
“We expect the study in adolescents to open next week. We also plan a study in pregnant women in the second and third trimesters in late March, early April,” Douoguih said.
Johnson & Johnson also plans to begin the study in immunocompromised people in the third quarter of this year, Douoguih said.
Currently, the FDA’s emergency use authorization for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is used in adults over 18 years of age.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine for people over 16 years of age and the COVID-19 Modern vaccine for people over 18 years of age have been authorized.
Both Moderna and Pfizer have begun enrolling children in COVID-19 vaccine trials.
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