Delta variant is forcing officials to rethink Covid-19 measures, even for the vaccinated
In Los Angeles County, the pace of Delta’s spread has prompted officials to reinstate mask guidance for public indoor spaces — regardless of vaccination status.
The new, voluntary mask guidance is needed until health officials can “better understand how and to who the Delta variant is spreading,” the county’s department of public health said.
And Moderna’s vaccine was found in lab experiments to work against new variants such as the Delta strain, the company said Tuesday. Researchers used serum samples from eight participants taken a week after they received their second dose of vaccine.
Many states have not reinstated mask mandates for the upcoming school year, including New Jersey — where masks will not be required “unless the district decides to make it protocol,” Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday.
But that could change if the situation gets worse, he said.
How to help kids go back to school in-person, safely
For parents of children ages 12 and up, the time to vaccinate them for school is now, said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health.
“My message is really clear: You should get your kids vaccinated,” he told CNN on Monday.
“I have two teenagers, both of whom have gotten vaccinated. The safety profile on these vaccines are really quite extraordinary, and they’re much, much safer than getting Covid.”
Symptoms can include shortness of breath, chest pain or the feeling of a fast heartbeat. “Patients can usually return to their normal daily activities after their symptoms improve,” the agency says.
“The known and potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks, including the possible risk of myocarditis or pericarditis,” the CDC says.
“CDC continues to recommend COVID-19 vaccination for everyone 12 years of age and older.”
“People in their late teens and even early 20s are being hospitalized and needing the use of ventilators,” said Katie Towns, acting director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.
The risk-benefit analysis between getting Covid-19 vs. getting vaccinated is a “no-brainer,” Jha said.
“Getting Covid itself is so much worse,” he said.
With some schools starting in early August, parents of children ages 12 and older would need to get their adolescents vaccinated soon to be protected before the school year.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is the only one authorized for children 12 and up. It requires two doses, spaced three weeks apart, and the vaccine doesn’t fully kick in until two weeks after the second dose.
So it’ll take five weeks from the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be fully vaccinated.
Some vaccines offer years of protection, study shows
A new study suggests the two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine should keep an immune response up for years — unlike vaccines for the flu that need a yearly booster.
The human body produces antibodies to attack and neutralize an invader such as a virus, but antibodies typically die off over time. To ensure a long-term response, the body needs to be able to make more antibodies that can specifically respond to certain viruses via B-cells.
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found people who got both doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine had little factories called germinal centers that make B-cells that should specifically recognize the novel coronavirus, meaning there’s a possibility for long-lasting protection, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
Covid-19 — not the vaccine — can be dangerous for pregnant women
And pregnant woman are at much greater risk of complications from Covid-19 than the Covid-19 vaccines, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“Tens and tens and tens of thousands of people” have received the vaccine while pregnant and before getting pregnant, Fauci said Monday.
And unlike the vaccines, Covid-19 can be especially dangerous during pregnancy, Fauci said.
“The mother can have an adverse pregnancy event, as can the fetus” with Covid-19, he said.
“The best thing one can do to protect yourself is to actually get vaccinated.”
CNN’s Jacqueline Howard, Alexandra Meeks, Christina Bowllan, Naomi Thomas, Maggie Fox, Elizabeth Cohen, Lauren Mascarenhas and Stella Chan contributed to this report.
