CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky talks concerning the COVID-19 variant throughout a press name Friday.
Federal well being officers are involved concerning the incidence of the brand new coronavirus pressure whereas the variety of COVID-19 circumstances and deaths stays terribly excessive within the U.S., in line with Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That is the sixth day of over 4,000 deaths, she stated, throughout a press name on Friday.
The variant that was first detected in South Africa has been present in 29 states.
“We needs to be treating each case as a variant proper now,” Walensky stated.
Viruses mutate in methods which might be advantageous to the virus, she stated.
Whereas it is believed the present vaccines are efficient towards the brand new pressure, it is unknown how efficient they’re.
VACCINES
The present Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are 94 to 95% efficient, stated Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Illnesses and chief medical advisor to the president.
Two different vaccine candidates on the horizon by Novavax and Johnson & Johnson are much less efficient.
The Johnson & Johnson outcomes are very encouraging, Fauci stated. It has a 72% efficacy price in the USA, which isn’t beneath the cutoff for some type of efficacy.
It additionally has the benefit of being a single shot vaccine. The Fashionable and Pfizer vaccines require two pictures.
Additionally, it wants solely to be stored at fridge temperatures for storage, somewhat than at freezer temperature or colder.
And lastly, Johnson & Johnson could make billions, somewhat than hundreds of thousands, of doses.
Due to the variants and the medical penalties in addition to the continued evolution of mutants, the motivation is to vaccine many individuals rapidly, he stated.
DISTRIBUTION
At the moment, on a seven-day common, the USA is vaccinating 1.2 million folks per day.
“We view this quantity as a base to construct from in coming days, weeks, months,” stated Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to the White Home COVID-19 Response Group.
The U.S. has delivered a complete of 48 million doses and 26 million have been administered.
The challenges are to extend the availability of the vaccine and pace up the time it takes to manage them rapidly and equitably, Slavitt stated.
Slavitt gave a shout-out to seven states which have administered vaccines to a minimum of 10% of their inhabitants: Alaska, West Virginia, New Mexico, Connecticut, North Dakota, South Dakota and Oklahoma.
The Federal Emergency Administration Company has elevated its assist for vaccination websites by means of $1 billion in funding to have over 200 FEMA employees members on the bottom to manage the vaccine, Slavitt stated. Extra vaccinators within the discipline, together with retired physicians and nurses who’ve been enlisted to ship the vaccine.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Electronic mail the author: susan.morse@himssmedia.com
