Decision seen near on covid boosters
Delta changes game, says NIH chief
WASHINGTON — Warning of tough days ahead with surging covid-19 infections, the director of the National Institutes of Health said Sunday the U.S. could decide in the next couple weeks whether to offer coronavirus booster shots to Americans this fall.
Among the first to receive them could be health care workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans.
“There is a concern that the vaccine may start to wane in its effectiveness,” Dr. Francis Collins said. “And delta is a nasty one for us to try to deal with. The combination of those two means we may need boosters, maybe beginning first with health care providers, as well as people
in nursing homes, and then gradually moving forward” with others, such as older Americans who were among the first to get vaccinations after they became available late last year.
He said because the delta variant only started hitting the U.S. hard in July, the “next couple of weeks” of case data will help the U.S. make a decision.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Biden administration’s chief medical adviser, said the U.S. will be “absolutely prepared” to distribute a third shot of the coronavirus vaccine quickly to a wider population if needed.
He gave no timeline but said health officials are evaluating various groups “on a daily and weekly basis.”
“If it turns out as the data come in, we see we do need to give an additional dose to people in nursing homes, actually, or people who are elderly, we will be absolutely prepared to do that very quickly,” Fauci said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday.
The issue of extra, or booster, shots has become more pressing, amid questions about “breakthrough” infections among the fully vaccinated, particularly with the more contagious delta variant now prevalent in the U.S., and whether the shots’ efficacy declines over time. Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved a third shot for people with compromised immune systems to better protect them.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that, with 100 million doses stockpiled, the Biden administration has begun drawing up plans to offer booster shots to some Americans as early as this fall.
Collins said no decision had been made “because right now the data we have from the U.S. says people who are vaccinated are fully protected, even against delta.”
But U.S. health officials made clear Sunday they are preparing for the possibility that the time for boosters may come sooner than later.
Federal health officials have been monitoring the situation in other countries such as Israel, where preliminary studies suggest the vaccine’s protection against serious illness dropped among those vaccinated in January.
Israel has been offering a coronavirus booster to people over 60 who were already vaccinated more than five months ago.
Moderna President Stephen Hoge said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that seeing some “breakthrough” infections emerge among the vaccinated within six months has been surprising, even if most symptoms so far have not been life-threatening. “I think that suggests we are going to need booster vaccines to get through the winter,” he said.
‘SITTING DUCKS’
Collins also pleaded again for unvaccinated people to get their shots, calling them “sitting ducks” for a delta variant that is ravaging the country and showing little sign of letting up.
Hospitalizations are increasing in every age group. Between Aug. 5-11, the average number of daily hospital admissions was roughly 20%-30% higher, for all age groups, than during the previous week.
But the trend is particularly notable among children and younger adults. From Aug. 5-11, 263 children were admitted to hospitals every day, on average, compared with 217 in early January, the last peak.
Among Americans younger than 50, average daily hospital admissions have hit a pandemic high, according to the latest data from the CDC.
But among adults age 50 and older, who are at the highest risk for severe disease but the most likely to be vaccinated, new hospital admissions remain below previous pandemic peaks. Among Americans who are 70 or older, hospital admissions are 65% lower than they were in early January, according to the CDC.
“This is going very steeply upward with no signs of having peaked out,” Collins said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“We’re seeing a lot of people get seriously ill,” Fauci said. “The hospitalizations are on the brink of actually overrunning the hospitals, particularly intensive care units.”
While the U.S. currently is seeing an average of about 129,000 new infections a day — a 700% increase from the beginning of July — that number could jump in the next couple weeks to 200,000, a level not seen since among the pandemic’s worst days in January and February, Collins said.
Both he and Fauci stressed that the best way to stem the virus is for the unvaccinated to get their shots.
Currently, about 60% of the U.S. population has gotten at least one dose and nearly 51% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Areas with low vaccination rates have been particularly hit hard with infections, such as Louisiana, Texas, Florida and Mississippi.
The rapidly escalating surge in infections across the U.S. has caused a shortage of intensive care-unit beds, nurses and other front-line staff in virus hot spots that can no longer keep up with the flood of unvaccinated patients. Health officials also warn that more children who are not yet eligible for vaccines could get infected, though it’s not clear whether the delta variant leads to more severe illness among them.
MUCH STILL TO LEARN
It is not yet clear whether delta causes more severe disease than other variants. Several studies — in Canada, Scotland and Singapore — have suggested that it might, though the research is preliminary. Some doctors on the front lines have reported that the variant seems to be making young adults “sicker, quicker.”
“That’s heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in that space again,” Collins said of rising U.S. infections overall. “But here we are with the delta variant, which is so contagious, and this heartbreaking situation where 90 million people are still unvaccinated who are sitting ducks for this virus, and that’s the mess we’re in. We’re in a world of hurt.”
The variant is driving a surge in new infections, especially in areas and among populations in which vaccination rates are low. More than 95% of hospitalized covid-19 patients are unvaccinated, health officials have said.
“All of this is entirely predictable and yet, on the other hand, entirely preventable,” Fauci said. “We’ve got to get people vaccinated.”
Fauci said as more people get their shots, in many places everyone — both the vaccinated and unvaccinated — will have to do their part with “mitigation,” such as mask-wearing.
Both Fauci and Collins also said that while masks had become controversial, they were a key public health tool that could help slow the spread of the virus.
“This mask that I’m holding has somehow become a symbol that it never should have been,” Collins said. “This is basically just a lifesaving medical device, and somehow it’s now being seen as an invasion of your personal liberty.”
“We’ve just got to realize that we’re dealing with a public health crisis,” Fauci said. “The more you get infections, the more spread you get, the greater opportunity the virus has to continue to evolve and mutate.”