(CNN) – Health experts say data to date have shown that Covid-19 vaccines prevent the symptoms of the virus, but a new study suggests that the Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines may also prevent infections.
A team from the Mayo Clinic Health System looked at more than 31,000 people in four states who received at least one dose of one of the vaccines – and found that the vaccines were more than 80% effective in preventing infection for 36 days after the first dose.
The efficacy of the vaccine was 75% 15 days after the first dose, and it appears to be 83% after a total of 36 days. But the number rose to nearly 89% when researchers examined only people who received two doses, according to the study, which has not yet been judged by peers.
While the trials that Moderna and Pfizer used to obtain the Food and Drug Administration authorization for their vaccines looked at symptomatic infection, the Mayo researchers said they were symptomatically and asymptomatically infected.
After severe winter weather recently cut off the transportation of vaccines and caused the postponement of vaccines in parts of the country, U.S. officials say states should be prepared to make up this week.
The US had a backlog of about 6 million doses that could not be shipped due to the bad weather this week.
“We’re going to ship this week’s doses and next week’s doses” from Saturday, Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser to the White House Covid-19 response team, told CNN on Friday.
“(Governors and states) will have to be ready. They will have to (facilitate) more appointments. They will have to extend their hours,” Slavitt said.
Public health experts have called for faster vaccinations before more transmissible variants get the chance to spread, for fear they could stem recent declines in daily new infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
The CDC said a seemingly more transmissible variant first identified in the UK could be in the US next month.
‘That’s why we’re telling people not to stop wearing masks, and not to stop avoiding indoor social gatherings, because we do not really know what’s going to happen to this variant – and we’ve seen what happens. “We were not taking Covid seriously enough last winter,” Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency medicine physician at Rhode Island’s Brown University, told CNN on Saturday.
The rate of daily Covid-19 vaccinations has slowed somewhat over the past snow week. The CDC data averaged about 1.59 million shots per day over the past week, compared to 1.65 million per day the previous week.
As of Friday morning, more than 41.97 million people in the U.S. had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, and 17.03 million, according to CDC data, received two doses.
Too risky to give single doses, says Fauci
According to experts, one way to protect more people quickly is to prioritize the administration of the first doses of the vaccine.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, pleaded on Friday that U.S. officials should consider postponing the second dose.
“That would really be a problem, because if we can do it, we can quickly vaccinate a lot more people at high risk … Everyone needs a second dose, but I think we can do it on.” a way that is still safe and gets a lot more people protected, ”Jha told Poppy Harlow of CNN.
But Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Friday that a single-dose plan would be too risky.
Fauci said he is concerned that if a large number of people get a single shot and have less than optimal immune responses, they could be exposed to the virus and begin incubating viral mutations. In theory, new variants could emerge, he said.
“We will stick to the scientifically proven efficacy and optimal response of a prime followed by a boost with the mRNA vaccines,” Fauci said at an information session in the White House.
Jha, in turn, said he agrees that everyone needs a second dose. ‘I think the question is, we’re now waiting four weeks between the first and second dose. What if we go six weeks or eight weeks or ten weeks – not much longer than that. ‘
The school could reopen, regardless of the spread of the virus, says CDC director
CDC director, dr. Rochelle Walensky, said on Friday that schools, provided the right precautions, may open, no matter how many viruses spread in the community.
As of Tuesday, CNN analysis indicated that about 90% of children live in so-called red zones led by the CDC, meaning the virus has a high level of community spread. But even in such circumstances, schools can safely reopen if they take precautions, Walensky said at an information session in the White House.
The CDC said schools can reopen if they make sure they reduce the risk of spread with universal mask use, measures to keep children and staff away from each other, regular cleaning and disinfection, testing and contact detection.
The CDC director gave the assurance when Fauci announced that by the beginning of the fall, the U.S. should have information on the safety of vaccines for children in high school.
Companies have just started testing with younger age groups, but they have tested their vaccines on 12- to 17-year-olds, Fauci said at an information session in the White House. Safety data for younger children will probably only be available early next year, he said.
Vaccine scarcity is not an excuse for inequalities, says Fauci
Vaccination studies and distribution have shed light on inequalities in the medical field.
People of color have been underrepresented in U.S.-based vaccine trials over the past decade, according to a new study released Friday by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Harvard, Emory and other institutions.
The study found that white people made up the majority, or 78%, of trial participants between June 2011 and June 2020.
The study, published in the JAMA Network Open, comes as the country struggles with a pandemic that has an exorbitant impact on people of color. Healthcare leaders are working to combat the mistrust of blacks and browns against the vaccine, saying the shot is key to preventing further devastation in their communities.
But the reluctance should not be an excuse for officials to explain away racial differences in vaccination, Fauci said Friday.
“It’s that we really need to expand ourselves in the community to gain access to minority populations they do not have,” Fauci said in an interview with MSNBC.