You don’t need these articles to tell you it won’t hurt to mask up a little longer if you have been following the science on COVID. Too bad those who have not will churlishly continue to scream their constitutional rights are being violated.
CDC says vaccinated people should return to wearing masks indoors in some public areas
The Washington Post (7/27, A1, Abutaleb, Achenbach, Diamond, Taylor) reports, “Vaccinated people may be able to spread the coronavirus and should resume wearing masks under certain circumstances, the nation’s top public health official said Tuesday in a gloomy acknowledgment that the mutated [Delta] variant has reversed the promising trend lines of spring.” According to the Post, “The agency advised that people who live in high-transmission communities wear masks in indoor public spaces, even if they’ve been vaccinated.” Additionally, it “recommended that vaccinated people with vulnerable household members, including young children and those who are immunocompromised, wear masks indoors in public spaces.”
The New York Times (7/27, A1, Mandavilli) reports that CDC officials also “called for universal masking for teachers, staff, students and visitors in schools, regardless of vaccination status and community transmission of the virus.”
CDC suggests vaccinated individuals infected with Delta coronavirus variant carry high viral loads
The Washington Post (7/29, Ellerbeck, Cunningham) reports, “CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said earlier this week that she has” unpublished “research indicating vaccinated people infected with” the Delta coronavirus variant “are carrying high viral loads – a new phenomenon, compared with how the original version of the virus behaved.” A CDC spokeswoman “acknowledged there are studies forthcoming but didn’t clarify when they might be released.”
According to the New York Times (7/29, Mandavilli), some of the research – which the CDC is expected to make public Friday – “may be related in part to an outbreak in Provincetown, Mass., where Fourth of July festivities have led to 882 cases as of Thursday. Nearly three-quarters of those people were fully vaccinated.” In addition, the agency “has tracked data from the [COVID-19] Sports and Society Workgroup, a coalition of professional sports leagues that is testing more than 10,000 people at least daily and sequencing all infections.”
State, health officials warning COVID-19 pandemic far from over amid Delta variant spread
CNN (7/25, Caldwell) reports state and health authorities “continue to warn the public that the pandemic is far from over despite summertime reopenings and optimism” as the Delta coronavirus variant continues to spread across the country. Every state reported more COVID-19 infections “in the week ending Friday than the week prior, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, with the gravity of the situation evident from coast to coast.”
Health officials reportedly now expect that older, vulnerable individuals will need COVID-19 booster shots
The New York Times (7/23, LaFraniere) reported senior Administration health authorities “now say they expect that people who are 65 and older or who have compromised immune systems will most likely need a third shot from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, two vaccines based on the same technology that have been used to inoculate the vast majority of Americans thus far.” This represents “a sharp shift from just a few weeks ago, when the administration said it thought there was not enough evidence to back boosters yet.” A key CDC official on Thursday “said the agency is exploring options to give patients with compromised immune systems third doses even before regulators broaden the emergency use authorization for coronavirus vaccines, a step that could come soon for the Pfizer vaccine.”
