All our recent progress with Covid-19 could be wiped out by variants, CDC director says. 'Please stay strong'
(CNN)The US is at risk of losing all its recent gains in the battle against Covid-19 as highly contagious variants take advantage of Americans getting lax with safety measures.
"Please
hear me clearly: At this level of cases with variants spreading, we
stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained," said
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
After weeks of tumbling case numbers, new infections are on the rise again -- about 2% more this past week compared to the previous week, Walensky said Monday.
"Similarly, the most recent seven-day average of deaths has also increased more than 2% ... to nearly 2,000 deaths per day."
Walensky also called out states that were easing up on Covid-19 safety mandates.
"I
am really worried about reports that more states are rolling back the
exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from
Covid-19," she said.
"Please
stay strong in your conviction. Continue wearing your well-fitting mask
and taking the other public health prevention actions that we know
work," Walensky added.
"Ultimately, vaccination is what will bring us out of this pandemic. To get there, we need to vaccinate many more people."
A 3rd vaccine will help with mass vaccination
The good news this week: Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine will start being administered.
"There's a kind of new urgency to it," said Dr. Eric Rubin, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
"Because
there are new viral variants coming out right now, with some chance
that some of them could eventually become somewhat resistant to the
protection provided by vaccines, it's really important to get it out
there fast."
About
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.
"Those J&J doses will be delivered as early as this Tuesday morning."
As a one-dose vaccine, "people do not have to return for a second dose to be protected," Walensky said.
"In
addition, this vaccine does not need to be kept in a freezer and can be
stored at refrigerated temperatures. So it is easy to transport and
store and allows for expanded availability in most community settings
and mobile sites as supply scales up."
The
other two vaccines being distributed -- one from Pfizer-BioNTech and
one from Moderna -- both have efficacy rates of about 95%, with even
greater protection against severe forms of disease.
The
Johnson & Johnson vaccine has shown a 72% efficacy rate against
mild to severe/critical disease among US trial participants. It's more
effective against severe forms of disease, with about 85% protection.
Health
experts say Americans should not be deterred by J&J's slightly
lower numbers. Its vaccine was tested later than the other two vaccines,
when infections were already surging and new variant strains were
spreading more widely.
The J&J vaccine was also tested in South Africa when the troubling B.1.351 strain was dominant there, but it still gave strong protection against severe illness.
Don't be too picky about which 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 all three vaccines being
distributed in the US are highly effective against severe Covid-19.
And if that's the only vaccine available in your area, you should go ahead and get it once you're able to, CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen said Monday.
"Think
about the other vaccines that we get. If we go in to get the flu
vaccine, I don't think anyone is asking the brand of the flu vaccine
(or) what company manufactures it."
Besides, "in the immediate future, people are not going to be getting a choice when supply is a limiting factor," she said.
"Right
now, the key is to get immunity of some kind. Get whatever vaccine is
first available to you. You can always get another vaccine or booster
shot later on when supply is not the issue."
New variants keep spreading
March
will be a very important chapter in this pandemic. The CDC has
predicted the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the UK
will become the dominant strain in the US this month.
More than 2,460 infections involving variant strains
have been reported, according the CDC data. The vast majority of those
cases -- at least 2,400 -- are of the highly contagious B.1.1.7 strain.
Those
counts are probably much lower than the actual number of people
infected by variants. The numbers represent only those variant cases
found through genomic sequencing, the CDC has said.
The US has lagged behind dozens of other countries in the proportion of cases tested for variants, but the CDC said it's working to scale up those efforts.
Can vaccines fend off the new variants?
Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are trying to make sure their vaccines get ahead of 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 said at the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices (ACIP) meeting on Monday.
She also said two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine protect people better than just one dose.
"Five
studies have shown that postponing the second mRNA dose may leave some
people less protected against the SARS-Cov-2 variants," Scobie told the
ACIP meeting.
The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines are mRNA vaccines.
"All
of the studies showed improved neutralization of B.1.1.7 and B.1.351
after the second vaccine dose," she said. "In a few studies, people who
had recovered from Covid-19 and received one vaccine dose 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're encouraged and we're confident in the current vaccine that we
have, you've always got to be preparing for the future and frankly for
the unknown," Gorsky said.
Last
week, Moderna said it has designed a booster shot to help stave off the
B.1.351 strain, which has worried scientists because it has a mutation that might affect the efficacy of vaccines.
That
shot would serve as a booster for people who have already been
vaccinated and as a primary vaccine for people who haven't had
coronavirus and have not yet been vaccinated.
Moderna
is also testing a third, lower dose of its current vaccine in trial
participants to see if that would protect against troubling variants.
Pfizer
and BioNTech said last week that they've started testing how well a
third dose of their authorized vaccine stacks up against new variants.
On
Monday, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said it will take another six to eight
weeks to get real-world data that shows how effective the
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is against the B.1.351 variant.
Many more need vaccine before herd immunity
While news of third Covid-19 vaccine is worth celebrating, the US is still a long way off from herd immunity. That's when enough people are protected against a virus that it cannot spread through the population.
About
15.3% of the US population has received at least one shot of their
two-dose Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, according to CDC data available Monday.
About 7.7% of Americans have been fully vaccinated with both doses.
Vaccines will be tested in children
Now that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has proven 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
J&J's vaccine arm, Janssen.
"We
will conduct several immunogenicity and safety studies in children from
17 years of age down to neonates," Douoguih told a CDC advisory
committee Sunday.
"The
study in adolescents, we hope, will open next week. We are also
anticipating a study in pregnant women in the second and third
trimesters toward the end of March, early April," Douoguih said.
Johnson & Johnson also plans to begin study in immunocompromised people in the third quarter of this year, Douoguih said.
The FDA's emergency use authorization for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is currently for use in adults 18 and older.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been authorized for people 16 and older, and the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine has been authorized for people 18 and older.
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