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Hmm these kind of stories are becoming more numerous recently - which makes me wonder just how "rare" breakthrough cases are with the Delta variant. The "company line" from everything that I read is that the vaccines do a good job of preventing "serious illness". Still with this Delta variant being relatively new there's more to learn about it. IMO just as a precaution it wouldn't be a bad idea to wear a mask indoors even if you've been vaccinated.
8 fully vaccinated healthcare workers who went to a Vegas pool party got COVID-19 with mild symptoms — and at least 7 caught the Delta variant, a report said
At least 11 healthcare workers, eight of whom were fully vaccinated, tested positive for COVID-19 after attending a pool party in Las Vegas in on June 7, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, citing emails from the local health district.
At least 10 of the 11 people caught the highly infectious Delta coronavirus variant, according to the emails from the Southern Nevada Health District obtained by the Brown Institute for Media Innovation and shared with the newspaper.
Todd Sklamberg, the CEO of Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where the people worked, told the Review-Journal that the source of the outbreak was "an off-site private party" on June 7.
Sklamberg said the workers had symptoms similar to allergies or the common cold and chose to get tested. They self-isolated, and they didn't spread the virus to anyone else, a preliminary investigation requested by the health district found, the Review-Journal report said.
Eight of the 11 workers were fully vaccinated, two had received one dose of a vaccine, and one was unvaccinated, the Review-Journal reported, citing the emails.
It wasn't clear from the report which COVID-19 vaccines the workers had received.
As the number of COVID-19 cases across the U.S. increases, only two states have not reported a rise in infection rates, while the five states with the biggest jump have lower vaccination rates.
According to data from John Hopkins University, the average number of confirmed infections a day increased from 11,300 on June 23 to 23,600 on Monday. The only two states that haven't reported an increase over the past two weeks are Maine and South Dakota.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 55.6 percent of all Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and the five states with the biggest two-week jump in the number of cases per capita had vaccination rates below the national average: Missouri at 45.9 percent; Arkansas at 43 percent; Nevada at 50.9 percent; Louisiana at 39.2 percent; and Utah at 49.5 percent.
The rise in infections has been attributed to the fast-spreading Delta variant, slow vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings.
Masks will be optional in Sarasota County schools this fall, following a unanimous vote Tuesday by the Sarasota County School Board.
The vote during a packed board meeting creates an official policy that students, staff and visitors to campuses are allowed to wear masks if they wish, but they are not mandatory.
The policy makes it clear that masks are optional for everyone, regardless of vaccination status.
Several parents and community members attended the meeting, speaking out in favor of lifting the mask policy.
The most recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control states that anyone age 2 or older who has not been vaccinated should still wear a mask, and many parents urged the board to not allow the agency's latest recommendation to dissuade them from making masks optional.
Don't want to be an alarmist - but IMO it was not a wise decision to make masks optional in Sarasota County schools. There's still much to learn about how the Delta variant effects children - but obviously they're not immune to it. If we didn't have Delta and if the test positivity ratio was much lower then I could understand making masks optional.
Mississippi Official Urges Caution as 10 Children Put on Life Support With Delta Variant
Ten of the 12 children who were in intensive care units at Mississippi hospitals Tuesday morning for treatment of COVID-19 were on ventilators, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH).
Thomas Dobbs, the MSDH's state health officer, warned about the gravity of the COVID-19 Delta Variant surge within Mississippi in a tweet that acknowledged several children were on life support.
"Delta Surge - be careful," Dobbs' tweet said. "Now with 12 children in ICU with 10 on the ventilator (life support)."
Dobbs emphasized the trend of unvaccinated individuals falling ill in a tweet on Monday. "Pretty much ALL cases in MS are Delta Variant right now," he wrote. "Vast majority of cases/hospitalizations/deaths UNVACCINATED."
Dobbs issued another warning about the Delta Variant with a note about individuals who have died after contracting the virus despite being vaccinated, adding, "7% of deaths in vaccinated worrisome—we are allowing too much circulating Delta to reach our most vulnerable."
Children will likely pay the price for adults in the US not getting vaccinated at high enough rates to slow or stop the spread of Covid-19, which has been surging in most states, a vaccine expert said.
If vaccination rates among adults and kids 12 and older keep lagging amid increased spread of the Delta variant, the youngest members of the population will be most affected, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccinologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
"Transmission will continue to accelerate ... and the ones who will also pay the price, in addition to the unvaccinated adolescents, are the little kids who depend on the adults and adolescents to get vaccinated in order to slow or halt transmission," he said.
In Mississippi, seven children are in intensive care with Covid-19, and two are on ventilators, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs tweeted Tuesday evening. Many more adolescents could be hospitalized, Hotez said, adding that up to 30% of children infected will develop long-haul Covid-19.
Scientists also are now learning about neurological consequences to long-haul Covid-19, Hotez said. Some studies have shown impacts on the brain of people who have been infected with the virus. One study in April found 34% of Covid-19 survivors received a diagnosis for a neurological or psychological condition within six months of their infection.
"What you're doing is your condemning a whole generation of adolescents to neurologic injury totally unnecessarily," Hotez said. "It's just absolutely heartbreaking and beyond frustrating for vaccine scientists like myself to see this happen."
The highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 continues to spread at a rapid rate.
Doctors in Northeast Florida are reporting massive spikes in COVID-19 cases.
Dr. Saman Soleymani, president and CEO of Avecina Medical, says all three locations in Jacksonville are seeing record numbers of patients and testing them like they were at the height of the pandemic.
”Over the last ten days, we are seeing some of the highest volume of COVID-positive patients even compared to the peak of last year,” Soleymani said.
Soleymani says Avecina consistently saw around 100 to 130 patients a day in 2020, with about 12 percent of them testing positive for COVID-19. Now, he says, Avecina is seeing 150 to 160 patients a day, and of them, more than a quarter are testing positive.
Northeast Florida reflects that trend.
The CDC’s COVID data tracker puts almost the entire state of Florida under a “high transmission level” status. That includes all Action News Jax’s local counties.
Gottlieb thinks we'll see a peak for the current wave at the end of September. When I think we're near a peak I'll post my own opinion and explain why. Overall I have a pretty good track record of predicting the peaks and valleys. I don't really see anything right now that suggests we're near a peak yet.
Former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb warns of a Delta-driven virus peak at the end of September
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head at the Food and Drug Administration, warned Wednesday that a Delta variant-fueled pandemic peak could hit the US in September.
Gottlieb told Squawk Box that modeling showed the highly infectious Delta variant would "move its way through the country over the course of August and September maybe into October."
"We expect the peak to be sometime near the end of September," he said.
I wonder how much this will effect the overall vaccination rates for the younger college age adults. The article says we should notice an increase of vaccinations for this age group within the next month.
Then again there seems to be several "outs" for students that don't want to take the vaccine - such as a note from a doctor or religious beliefs. There also won't really be proof of vaccination required - for most universities it's more or less just an "honor system".
So bottom line those students that want the vaccine will take it while others will find a way out. Also it might not make much difference here in Florida where there's a law against mandatory vaccine passports - although IMO it's unclear how the Florida law will apply to universities. The article said a poll showed that 60% of the public favored mandatory vaccines for college students - but I'm not sure how that equates with the percentage of actual college students that want the vaccine.
'I shouldn't be forced': Colleges face pushback over Covid vaccination mandates
Hundreds of colleges and universities across the nation are requiring students to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before returning to campuses in the fall, but the mandates may be difficult to enforce fully.
Some schools such as Princeton University are requiring students to be fully vaccinated by Aug. 1, but it's still unclear how others will manage vaccination and mask mandates — or what alternatives to on-campus learning may be offered to students who aren't inoculated against Covid-19.
A number of colleges contacted by NBC News declined to comment, pointing to their websites for requirements.
Most universities won’t require students to submit a copy of an official vaccination card as proof, which could make the policies difficult to enforce, said public health expert Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which is tracking the issue, 578 college campuses currently require students to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before returning for the fall semester. The American College Health Association advises all colleges and universities to implement vaccination mandates for students and staff, but the logistics are proving to be complicated.
For example, a lawsuit brought by eight Indiana University students is awaiting a ruling on whether the school's vaccination mandate is legal under state laws that prohibit vaccine passports. In response to an opinion published by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita in May, the university dropped its proof of vaccination requirement and only requires nonexempt students to indicate whether or not they have been vaccinated. And Boston College’s refusal to grant a religious exemption for students at the Catholic school has angered some students and parents who are requesting a change in policy.
Last edited by wondermint2; 07-15-2021 at 08:02 AM..
Americans 12 and older can get a Covid-19 vaccine, but younger children are still waiting.
With many schools across the United States now just weeks from reopening for the fall semester, pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna are still doing clinical trials to see how coronavirus vaccines work in children under 12 -- if they're safe and what the right dose should be.
Meanwhile, all but four states are seeing an increasing trend in cases, with doctors describing patients who are younger and sicker than what they saw in the winter.
The surge in cases has many parents of children under 12 asking when their little and not-so-little ones can get the vaccine. The answer is that it's going to be months, if not longer. It's not as simple as administering available adult doses to younger people.
"I understand parents' concern in wanting their children to get vaccinated, but we have to make sure we're doing the best and safest thing for children," Dr. Chip Walter, a pediatrician at Duke University and an investigator for the Pfizer trials, said.
When we might be able to vaccinate children under 12
Pfizer's vaccine study is enrolling more than 4,600 children in three age groups: 5-to-11-year-olds; 2-to-5-year-olds; and babies 6 months up to age 2.
Data for children 5 to 11 could come sometime in September and depending on the findings, the company told CNN it could ask the US Food and Drug Administration to authorize emergency use of the vaccine that same month.
Data for 2-to-5-year-olds could arrive soon after. For the youngest children, Pfizer said it could potentially get data in October or November, and shortly thereafter ask the FDA to authorize emergency use.
Emergency use considerations by the FDA can take several weeks, meaning a vaccine for younger children likely won't be available until late fall or even next year.
Moderna's vaccine study is enrolling about 6,700 children ages 6 months to 11 years. It declined to provide a timeline to CNN on when it could potentially have trial data results.
"The companies have said the fall ... I'd be surprised if they can move that quickly, although I suppose it's possible," Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccinologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said.
"I can't imagine that we'd be in a position to even consider how to use these vaccines until the very end of the calendar year of 2021, going into the first quarter of 2022," said Dr. Buddy Creech, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University and one of the lead investigators for Moderna's pediatric Covid-19 vaccine. "I love that we're riding the success of how quickly we were able to get a vaccine for adults, but we've just got to be patient."
The Los Angeles County health officer has suggested that residents reconsider travel to states with the nation's worst rates of coronavirus transmission, including Nevada and Florida.
"I do want to recommend — especially if you're unvaccinated — reconsider traveling to places where the seven-day COVID-19 case rates are increasingly high, like Nevada, our neighbor, or Missouri, Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana and others," Dr. Muntu Davis said in his briefing to the county Board of Supervisors this week.
Arkansas, Missouri, Florida, Nevada and Louisiana have the nation's highest levels of new coronavirus cases per capita, with weekly rates roughly four to seven times California's. All five of those states are considered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having "high" rates of community transmission, the worst tier of the CDC's four-tier scale.
California still is considered as having "moderate" community transmission, the second-lowest tier. In California, for every 100,000 residents, 34.9 have newly tested positive over the past week; the comparable figure for Arkansas is 227.1; for Missouri, 183.8; Florida, 168.8; Nevada, 145.8; and Louisiana, 136.1.
Whether or not you believe in vaccinations, whether or not you believe in the protective value of face masks, whether or not you believe the coronavirus is a real threat to Americans’ health — you have to admit one thing: Floridians have let down their guard.
That wouldn’t be so bad, if they’d keep up with their vaccinations. But they haven’t. Nearly half of Floridians haven’t started the vaccination process. If Florida leaders want to keep the state from a brutal resurgence in infections fueled by the more virulent Delta variant of the virus, they should work to get more shots in arms.
That would be a lot easier than reinstating the most common-sense precautions against the virus. Many Floridians have wholeheartedly embraced the end of restrictions. Limits on social gatherings have essentially evaporated. In most public spaces, the number of people walking around barefaced far outnumbers those wearing face coverings. Most workplaces have allowed at least some employees back to the office, and festivals, concerts and sporting events are back. And much to the relief of tourism officials, vacationers have rediscovered Florida, sending hotel bookings and flights surging.
That’s what Florida leaders wanted: A state that COVID-19 forgot.
But those officials — foremost among them, Gov. Ron DeSantis — are playing with fire. Because one more thing should be obvious to everyone: Despite clear guidelines that require unvaccinated people to keep wearing their masks, many of the people abandoning COVID-19 precautions are most likely unvaccinated.
Start with the sheer numbers. Florida’s vaccination rate — counting everyone who has gotten at least one dose of a COVID vaccine — is hovering right around 55 percent. In many public locations it’s easy to deduce that the number of maskless people significantly outweighs those who still cover their face, and many of those nominally wearing masks don’t pull them over their nose or wear them down under their chins.
But here’s what DeSantis can do: Get back to beating the drum for vaccination. While he’s obviously not going to consider any move that makes vaccination mandatory, he’s perfectly positioned to argue that Floridians risk a lot if infections get out of control — including the lives of their fellow residents, as well their newly regained freedoms if the federal government thinks it has to get involved.
He could also steal some of the successful tactics used in other states, such as giveaways and lotteries for big prizes like trucks and cash up to $1 million.
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