Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CDC Offers Explanation On Why It Again Recommends Masks Indoors
Fox News: CDC 'Worrisome' COVID-19 Data Cited In Mask Update Included Breakthrough Cases In Massachusetts Outbreak
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released "some" of the evidence behind a reversal in guidance issued Tuesday advising fully vaccinated populations to wear masks in public indoor areas in places with high and substantial viral spread. The data, released in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, stemmed from recent outbreaks in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in which 74% of some 469 COVID-19 cases occurred in fully vaccinated individuals. Sequencing from 133 patients suggested the delta variant was behind nearly all (89%) of samples. (Rivas, 7/31)
CBS News: CDC Says "Pivotal Discovery" About Delta Variant Prompted New Mask Guidance And Urges Universal Masking In Some Places
The CDC, in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also published more details about the "pivotal discovery" that prompted federal health officials to ramp up their masking guidance earlier this week. Tests used to diagnose cases linked to the Massachusetts outbreak had similar "cycle threshold" values among both unvaccinated and fully vaccinated "breakthrough" cases, suggesting both groups could be carrying similar loads of the virus. "High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. (Tin, 7/30)
Roll Call: CDC Report Shows Vaccinated People Can Spread COVID-19
One of the most nagging questions about the COVID-19 pandemic for public health authorities, policymakers and the public was whether the vaccines stop transmission. New Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that in breakthrough cases of the highly transmissible delta variant, the answer is no. The newly released report showing that vaccinated people can still be superspreaders drove the recent decision by the CDC to once again recommend masks for vaccinated people indoors where case counts are high or substantial. (Kopp, 7/30)
The New York Times: Vaccinated People May Spread The Virus, Though Rarely, C.D.C. Reports
In yet another unexpected and unwelcome twist in the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on Friday a report strongly suggesting that fully immunized people with so-called breakthrough infections of the Delta variant can spread the virus to others just as readily as unvaccinated people. The vaccines remain powerfully effective against severe illness and death, and the agency said infections in vaccinated people were comparatively rare. But the revelation follows a series of other recent findings about the Delta variant that have upended scientists’ understanding of the coronavirus. (Mandavilli, 7/30)
CNBC: CDC Study Shows 74% Of People Infected In Massachusetts Covid Outbreak Were Fully Vaccinated
About three-fourths of people infected in a Massachusetts Covid-19 outbreak were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus with four of them ending up in the hospital, according to new data published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new data, published in the U.S. agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also found that fully vaccinated people who get infected carry as much of the virus in their nose as unvaccinated people, and could spread it to other individuals. (Lovelace Jr., 7/30)
CNN: A Covid-19 Outbreak In Provincetown Helped Motivate The CDC's Mask Guidance Change. Here's What Residents Learned And How They're Responding
The July 4 holiday is always a huge celebration in the small town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, with a long lineup of parties and festivities that usually bring in thousands of visitors from across the country to the top edge of Cape Cod. "That's what we kind of say is the official start of summer," said Christopher Roberts, who owns a puzzle and game store in Provincetown. "July 4 is just packed ... and then really from that day on, it's like that." Provincetown, home to roughly 3,000 year-round residents, was thrust into the national spotlight last week after it became the subject of a study that persuaded the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its face mask guidelines. (Maxouris, 8/2)
Bloomberg: In Provincetown, Covid Hits 14 Friends In Show Of Delta’s Might
Danny Barefoot and 23 friends traveled to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to dine, hit the beach and party, secure in the knowledge they were all fully vaccinated. Fourteen left as potential vectors. They tested positive for Covid-19 after a week-long Independence Day getaway -- none badly ill, but all shocked by how the virus ambushed them, according to interviews with four who got sick. Health investigators are scrutinizing discrete outbreaks like this one, fanned across four cottages blocks off the ocean, in hopes of demystifying the delta variant. (Goldberg and Querolo, 8/1)
