Meanwhile, our current crisis continues apace. Mainly because there remains almost 40% of the population either unable to get vaccinated (kids mostly) or unwilling. Something had to be done:
Just a day after President Biden issued broad mandates aimed at encouraging American workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, federal health officials released new data showing that unvaccinated Americans are 11 times as likely as vaccinated people to die of Covid-19.
Three large studies, published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also highlighted the effectiveness of the shots at preventing infection and hospitalizations with the virus.
The research underscored a deep conviction among scientists that vaccine hesitancy and refusal have prolonged the pandemic. The administration’s new plan should stem the flood of infections and return the country to some semblance of normalcy in the long term, several experts said in interviews.
“It’s going to fundamentally shift the arc of the current surge,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University School of Public Health. “It’s exactly what’s needed at this moment.”
The new data also may help bolster confidence in the nation’s vaccines, which has eroded amid unexpected reports of breakthrough infections.
One of the studies looked at more than 600,000 virus infections in 13 states, representing about one quarter of the U.S. population, between April and July. The researchers concluded that Americans who were not fully vaccinated were far more susceptible to infections, illness and death from the virus.
Even after the Delta variant became dominant in the United States over the summer, the vaccines’ protections remained strong: Compared with vaccinated adults, those who were not fully vaccinated were 4.5 times as likely to become infected, 10 times as likely to be hospitalized and 11 times as likely to die of Covid.
The cumulative data have made it clear that the nation cannot hope to end the pandemic with some 37 percent of Americans not having received a single dose of Covid vaccine, researchers said. Cases and hospitalizations are only expected to rise as Americans move indoors into homes, schools and offices in the fall.
Apparently, trying to stop this interferes with some people’s freedom to die and take others with them. But the rest of us would like to live and go back to some semblance of normal life. Sorry.
FYI:
Much of the misery could be prevented, the new C.D.C. research found. An analysis of 32,867 patient visits in nine states found that even as the Delta variant predominated, the vaccines had an overall effectiveness rate of 86 percent at preventing hospitalizations, though they were less protective for adults aged 75 and over.
Moderna vaccines had the highest efficacy rate, at 95 percent, compared with 80 percent for Pfizer-BioNTech and 60 percent for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The shots’ effectiveness at preventing infection declined somewhat, from 91 percent to 78 percent, as the variant spread. The Moderna vaccine had an effectiveness rate of 92 percent against infection, compared with 77 percent for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot and 65 percent for Johnson & Johnson.
We got Moderna in my household. I’m glad we did…