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“As I said before, the continued relaxation of prevention measures while cases are still high and worrisome variants are spreading rapidly throughout the United States is a serious threat to the progress we have made as a nation,” Walensky said during a White Informational meeting in the house on Monday.
“Increasingly, states are seeing a growing proportion of their Covid-19 cases attributed to variants,” Walensky said. He said two recently identified variants, B.1427 and B.1429, are estimated to account for 52% of cases in California, 41% in Nevada and 25% in Arizona.
The B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the UK, is estimated to be responsible for 9% of cases in New Jersey and 8% in Florida, Walensky said.
“We must act now, and I am concerned that if we do not take the right action now, we will have another preventable increase, just as we are seeing in Europe right now and just as we are increasing vaccination so aggressively.”
He said the Biden administration is encouraging governors, as well as the private sector, to maintain or reimpose restrictions on the coronavirus.
“We are looking at this data, we are communicating with individual states, trying to encourage them. We are having weekly calls from governors. We are reaching out to states, territories to encourage them to look at their case data, to look at what is happening with variants and do whatever you can to try to slow down the relaxation, “Walensky said.
Air travel hits a pandemic-era record
The TSA says it screened 1,543,115 people at airports across the country on Sunday, a pandemic-era record that surpassed a record set just two days earlier.
“What we’re doing is essentially spreading variant B.1.1.7 across the country,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN on Sunday.
That’s because the number of previous infections and now vaccines in the US have begun to form “enough backing” to prevent another spike, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Sunday. Medications (FDA), to CBS “Face the Nation”. .
“I think what you could see is a plateau for a period of time before we continue a downward decline, largely because B.1.1.7 is becoming more prevalent, largely because we are going back too fast, with regarding taking off our masks and lifting mitigation, “he said.
Others say that it is difficult to predict what will happen.
“It’s very difficult to say,” Hotez told CNN. “We’re in a race, that’s what it comes down to. We’ve given a single dose (of the Covid-19 vaccine) to about a quarter of the US population … and it could be either way right now. .
“That’s why it’s really important for governors to stay the course and implement masks and social distancing.”
Spring break worries officials
Mayor Dan Gelber noted that the curfew means not only that people cannot be on the streets, but also that bars and restaurants must close as well.
“I wish people at least masked themselves,” ER Dr. Megan Ranney told CNN on Sunday, referring to the spring break crowd. “I guess very few of those young adults have been vaccinated and seeing them gathering in that crowd, even outside, makes me afraid that they are going to bring that B.1.1.7 variant back to its home state and spread it.” . “
Vaccine hesitancy is ‘worrisome,’ says governor
More than 44 million, about 13.3% of the population, have been fully vaccinated, the data shows.
On Monday, the Biden administration announced the creation of the 22nd federally run Community Immunization Center at Central Washington State Fair Park in Yakima County, Washington.
However, challenges remain in achieving herd immunity, such as vaccinations and political divisions. A recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS shows that while 92% of Democrats say they have received a dose of the vaccine or plan to receive one, that drops to 50% among Republicans.
When asked why he believed there was skepticism among Republicans, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson told CNN he thought it was a “natural resistance to the government and its skepticism.”
“The hesitation is worrisome not only here, but throughout the country, and I hope that as a country we will reach 50% of the vaccination rate of the population. But we will have more difficulties to go from 50% to 70%. And it’s about overcoming skepticism, it’s about education … but also about trust, ”he said.
New facts about the AstraZeneca vaccine
The vaccine was 79% effective against symptomatic diseases and 100% effective against serious illness and hospitalization in a new US-based clinical trial, the company said Monday.
Findings from the new phase 3 trial, which included more than 32,000 participants, could boost confidence in the vaccine, which was originally developed by the University of Oxford.
The trial showed that the vaccine was well tolerated and did not identify any safety concerns, the company said. An independent committee “found no increased risk of thrombosis or events characterized by thrombosis among the 21,583 participants who received at least one dose of the vaccine,” according to AstraZeneca.
The new data comes from a phase 3 clinical trial conducted in the US, Chile, and Peru. AstraZeneca says it plans to submit the findings to a scientific journal for peer review.
Some people gained weight while sheltering in place.
A group of study participants gained on average more than 1.5 pounds per month during Covid-19 shelter-in-place claims in March and April, according to a research letter published Monday in JAMA Network Open.
From March 19 to April 6, 2020, 45 of the 50 US state governments issued shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
A research team examined nearly 7,500 weight measurements from 269 participants between February 1 and June 1, 2020. Participants were part of the Health eHeart Study and their weight measurements came from smart scales connected by Bluetooth.
“On average, they gained about 0.6 pounds every 10 days or 1.8 pounds per month during shelter-in-place requests,” said Dr. Gregory Marcus, one of the authors of the research and a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University. from California, San Francisco, he told CNN.
CNN’s Ralph Ellis, Laura Ly, Shawn Nottingham, Naomi Thomas, Betsy Klein, Chuck Johnston, Niamh Kennedy, Carma Hassan, Deanna Hackney, and Lauren Mascarenhas contributed to this report.
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