US coronavirus: Officials call for more vaccine doses as US death toll is 400,000

US coronavirus: Officials call for more vaccine doses as US death toll is 400,000

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As the numbers climb, health experts and officials have drawn their attention to mitigating the effects of the new variant that has sounded the alarm, asking them for complicated vaccinations and preventative measures.

The number of people in the U.S. who died from the virus has risen sharply over the past year, reaching the bad 400,000 points on Tuesday. And although the rate of new cases has dropped recently, experts warn that a variant of the virus could cause cases to rise again.

“I am desperately worried over the next six to twelve weeks that we will see a situation with this pandemic, unlike what we have seen so far,” said Michael Osterholm, a coronavirus adviser to Elected President Joe Biden and director of Center for Research and Policy on Infectious Diseases at the University of Minnesota. “It’s going to happen, we’re going to see a big increase in business, the challenge is how much,” he told CNN on Tuesday.

When the election of the president, Joe Biden, took office, Osterholm said he would do everything in his power to promote the distribution. But, he said, “we can not make the vaccine work much faster than it currently is,” adding that officials will have to plan for dramatic action to keep the variant under control.

“The difference is going to be, ‘Are we going to respond now or later? ‘, Osterholm said. “Do we apply our brakes after the car has turned around the tree, or do we try to apply the brakes before leaving the intersection?”

Officials say they need more vaccinations

The requests for faster vaccination of vaccines have raised questions about doses of the vaccine that are thought to have been stored, which according to dr. Anthony Fauci, an expert in infectious diseases, is a misunderstanding.

“In the beginning, when we wanted to make sure that everyone who gets one dose would get a second dose. Because of the uncertainty in the smoothness of rolling out the doses that would be available, half of the doses would be withheld that people would be guaranteed to get their second dose, ”Fauci told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday.

Now, with more confidence in the steady distribution, the doses held back have been made available, Fauci said.

States complain that demand for the Covid-19 vaccine exceeds supply
Across the U.S., more than 10.5 million people received at least the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, of which about 1.6 million received a second dose, according to CDC data updated Friday.

But state and local officials are worried that supply will not be enough to continue the momentum.

San Francisco’s Department of Public Health has announced that supplies will be depleted by Thursday if there is no additional allocation. New York will run out on the same day, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.

“If we do not get vaccination quickly, we will have to cancel appointments,” de Blasio said.

Due to the low vaccine supply, Baptist Health South Florida has canceled all vaccination appointments for anyone who will receive a first dose from Wednesday.

Georgia is focused on vaccines with staff volunteers and the infrastructure, but there are not enough doses available in the state, said Dr. Health Minister Kathleen Toomey said.

“We get about 80,000 doses a week and that’s not much for a state with 11 million people,” she said.

Will the vaccines protect against the variant?

Experts have warned that the variant first identified in the UK does not appear to be more lethal, but that it is more easily transmissible. To date, more than 120 cases have been identified in 20 states, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Other variants were also found, including two in Brazil. Another one showed up in California, but it is not known if it contributes to redistribution there.
These coronavirus variants keep scientists awake at night
A new study, which has yet to be evaluated by peers, suggests that someone could potentially become infected with one of the new variants of the coronavirus, even if they have already had or been vaccinated with Covid-19.

But other experts are confident that the vaccines will protect against the variant.

“The effectiveness of the vaccine is so good and so high that we have a little pillow,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, incoming director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told JAMA editor – in – chief Howard Bauchner on Tuesday.

With a starting point of approximately 95% efficacy, Walensky said that even if the vaccines are slightly less effective against new variants, they will still be more effective than most vaccines.

“It’s going to work against the variant,” she said. “Will it be 95%? Maybe. Will it be 70%? Maybe. But our flu vaccines are not 75% effective every year and we still get them.”

CNN’s Christina Maxouris, Jason Hanna, Naomi Thomas, Jamiel Lynch, Kay Jones, Alexandra Meeks Elizabeth Cohen and Lauren Mascaren contributed to this report.

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