Vaccine Resistance May Delay Herd Immunity Goals Until End Of Year
Less than half of Americans said in December they were very likely to get the covid shots, according to a new CDC study. That is far below the 70-85% vaccination rate that scientists say is needed to control the virus.
The Daily Beast:
Biden Team Fears No COVID-19 Herd Immunity Until Thanksgiving
Top members of President Joe Biden’s COVID response team are warning internally that the U.S. may not reach herd immunity until Thanksgiving or even the start of winter—months later than originally calculated—according to two senior administration officials. In an interview with CBS News this week, Biden hinted at some of these concerns, saying it would be “very difficult” to reach herd immunity—a population-wide resistance to the virus—“much before the end of the summer” with the current daily rate of approximately 1.3 million vaccine doses. Other top officials working on the federal government’s COVID-19 response say the are uneasy about vaccine supply long term and the impact on herd immunity, and have begun to explore ways to expand U.S. manufacturing capacity, potentially through new partnerships with outside pharmaceutical firms. (Banco, 2/9)
CNBC:
Biden’s Next Fight: Anti-Vaxxers Jeopardize Plans To Protect U.S. Against Covid
As President Joe Biden works to ramp up the supply of Covid-19 vaccines in the United States, public health officials and infectious disease experts warn of another big challenge for the new administration: A significant portion of the U.S. population will likely refuse to get vaccinated. Even though clinical trial data shows Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines are safe and highly effective, just under half of adults in the U.S. surveyed in December said they were very likely to get vaccinated, according to a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 39.4% of adults surveyed in September but still below the 70% to 85% scientists say needs to be vaccinated to suppress the virus. (Lovelace Jr., 2/10)
NBC News:
Biden Admin On Track To Meet Goal Of 100M Coronavirus Shots In First 100 Days
President Joe Biden is on track to meet his goal of administering 100 million Covid-19 shots in his first 100 days in office, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeffrey Zients said Wednesday. Biden had created some confusion around his vaccination goal after he said in his second week in office that he was eyeing a more ambitious goal of 1.5 million vaccine shots a day, forcing some members of his administration to walk back the number. (Egan, 2/10)
AP:
'Overwhelm The Problem': Inside Biden’s War On COVID-19
The meetings begin each day not long after dawn. Dozens of aides report in, coffee in hand, joining by Zoom from agency headquarters, their homes or even adjacent offices. The sessions start with the latest sobering statistics meant to focus the work and offer a reminder of what’s at stake: new coronavirus cases, people in hospitals, deaths. But they also include the latest signs of progress: COVID-19 tests administered, vaccine doses shipped, shots injected. (Miller, 2/11)
The Atlantic:
What If We Never Reach Herd Immunity?
For COVID-19, the herd-immunity threshold is estimated to be between 60 and 90 percent. That’s the proportion of people who need to have immunity either from vaccination or from prior infection. In the U.S., the countdown to when enough people are vaccinated to reach herd immunity has already begun. But what if we still can’t get the logs wet enough? What if they are drying out faster than we can douse them? (Zhang, 2/9)
In updates on school reopenings —
CBS News:
Biden School Reopening Guidance Expected To Focus On COVID Mitigation, Rather Than Teacher Vaccination
The Biden administration's guidance on how schools can "safely open" will come from multiple federal agencies and departments, according to several people familiar with the plan. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to release an "operational strategy" advising that it would be safe for K-12 schools to reopen if they apply recommended "mitigation" practices, according to an email sent by an Education Department official soliciting feedback from education groups and obtained by CBS News. (Cook, 2/10)
USA Today:
Schools Reopening: White House Clarifies Goals During COVID Pandemic
As President Joe Biden works to reopen most of the nation's public schools within his first 100 days, the White House clarified its benchmarks Tuesday, giving a less ambitious goal than some parents might want to hear. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that Biden's goal is for more than 50% of schools to have "some teaching" in person "at least one day a week" – not necessarily fully reopened – by Day 100 of his presidency. "Hopefully, it's more," Psaki said. "And obviously, it is as much as is safe in each school and local district." (2/10)
