Coronavirus in the US: You don’t need to change your vacation plans due to Omicron if you’ve been vaccinated, Fauci said. But don’t wait to get a booster

news7g12/02/2021

2 4 minutes read

Coronavirus in the US: You don't need to change your vacation plans due to Omicron if you've been vaccinated, Fauci said. But don't wait to get a booster

With the Delta variant still spreading – and travel expected to increase this month – Vaccination is key to enjoy the year-end festivals safely.

“Just like I said and I’ll say it again, if you have immunizations, enjoy the holidays with your family in a family setting,” said director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. , Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a CNN Global Town Hall on Wednesday.

But it is clear that vaccination has been effective against coronavirus variants, including the Delta variant that is still raging in hotspots across the US. And Fauci said their success against Delta can also be seen with Omicron.

“That’s where we hope we’ll see with the Omicron variant, that if you get your level high enough, it spills out and gets cross protection against that variant,” Fauci said and added that it remains unclear whether people will need a Covid-19 booster shot every year or more often.

Some Americans may ask if they should wait to get their hands on a Covid-19 booster depending on what scientists learn about the Omicron variant, but Fauci says don’t wait.

“Get that extra boost now,” says Fauci. “The level of antibodies that go up and up after a booster is a lot higher than the peak you get after the second dose of the two-dose vaccine.”

As officials prepare for Omicron, US hospitals are still battling severe Delta variant infections

First confirmed case in US of variant Omicron has been determined in California on Wednesday. Fauci said the person is fully vaccinated and is experiencing “mild symptoms, which are improving at this time.”

However, the Delta variant remains at the top of the minds of health officials because it accounts for practically all new infection. Nearly 58,000 Americans are hospitalized because of Covid-19, based on data from the US Health and Human Services.

Dr Richard Besser, former acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday that he hopes so-called “Covid-19 fatigue” won’t stop everyone vaccinated person.

“Even if the Omicron strain doesn’t get worse, we’re losing almost a thousand people a day from the Delta variant, and that in itself is a reason for people to boost their health,” Besser said. Besser said.

A person is tested for Covid-19 inside the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport on December 1, 2021

Travel concerns remain

With Omicron discovered in In at least 25 countries and territories, officials are working to find those infected and warn those at high risk of severe symptoms to avoid travel.

In the US, the Biden administration announced restrictions last week against visitors, excluding US citizens and lawful permanent residents, entering the United States from eight South African countries. Omicron variants were first identified by South African scientists.

Biden extends shipping mask authorization through March

Under the previous CDC order that airlines must collect contact information from passengers prior to their arrival to notify them of possible exposure to Covid-19, the agency plans to provide the names of those on flights from southern Africa to state public health departments and local, a health official confirmed. Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines told CNN Wednesday that they are complying with the directive.

Dr Fauci told a White House briefing on Wednesday that the travel ban was “temporary” and needed to slow the emergence of the variant, rather than the highly unlikely task of stopping it. completely.

“No one feels – I certainly don’t – that the travel ban will prevent infected people from coming to the United States,” Fauci said. “But we need a little more time to be able to prepare, to understand what is happening.”

The World Health Organization on Tuesday said people who are not fully vaccinated or have no evidence of previous infection, as well as those over 60 years of age or have comorbidities such as heart disease or cancer. or diabetes should “delay travel to areas with community transmission” due to the Omicron variant.

Protracted pandemic effects detected

With more than 780,000 Americans dead from Covid-19 and hospitals still stretched to capacity In some parts of the country, two recent studies have further demonstrated the harmful effects of the virus on survivors.

People who have experienced a severe case of Covid-19 – those requiring hospitalization – are about 2.5 times more likely to die within a year of being diagnosed than people without Covid- 19, based on a study published Wednesday in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, and were nearly two times more likely to die than those with mild or moderate cases.

The study from researchers at the University of Florida found no significant difference in the risk of death between patients with mild or moderate Covid-19 and those without Covid-19, suggesting that preventing Severe Covid-19 infections are the most effective way to avoid deaths.

The study determined that only about 20% of “deaths” in Covid-19 patients were from respiratory or cardiovascular causes.

“As these deaths were not from a direct cause of Covid-19 mortality among these patients who recovered from the initial Covid-19 wave, this data suggests that biological insults from Covid-19 and physiological stress from Covid-19 are significant,” the researchers wrote. The unidentified medical records of nearly 14,000 patients in 2020 were used in their study.

Another analysis, from the United Network for Organ Sharing, found that one in 10 lung transplants in the US in 2021 will have a patient with Covid-19-related lung damage.

In the last five months of 2020, only about 2% – for every 50 cases – received a lung transplant for a Covid-19 patient, the data showed.

CNN’s Jen Christensen, Maggie Fox, Deidre McPhillips, Jacqueline Howard, Virginia Langmaid, Kaitlan Collins, Pete Muntean and Greg Wallace contributed to this report.

Source link