CDC's mask guidance angers parents heading into new school year: 'Stop the insanity' - Fox News

With U.S. health officials recommending that children mask up in school this fall, parents and policy makers across the nation have been plunged anew into a debate over whether face coverings should be optional or a mandate.

The delta variant of the coronavirus now threatens to upend normal instruction for a third consecutive school year. Some states have indicated they will probably heed the federal government’s guidance and require masks. Others will leave the decision up to parents.

The controversy is unfolding at a time when many Americans are at their wits’ end with pandemic restrictions and others fear their children will be put at risk by those who don’t take the virus seriously enough. In a handful of Republican-led states, lawmakers made it illegal for schools to require masks.

In Connecticut, anti-mask rallies have happened outside Gov. Ned Lamont’s official residence in Hartford, and lawn signs and bumper stickers call on him to "unmask our kids." The Democrat has said that he’s likely to follow the latest advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

TEACHER SLAMS ‘DEMORALIZING’ NEW CDC MASK GUIDANCE FOR SCHOOLS: ‘KIDS NEED TO GET BACK TO NORMAL’

The CDC on Tuesday recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors at schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status. The agency cited the risk of spread of the highly contagious delta variant, even among vaccinated people.

Alima Bryant, 33, a mother of four who organizes anti-mask parents in Branford, Connecticut, said she’s not a conspiracy theorist, but she believes scientists have overstated the dangers of COVID-19, especially for children. She said she will take her children out of school rather than subject them to wearing masks, which she believes are more likely to make them ill than the virus.

"Especially with little kids, I can imagine how often they’re touching dirty things, then touching the mask," she said. "Also, in kindergarten, you have to learn social cues, and even with speech and everything, it’s so important to not be wearing a mask."

But parents such as Ryan Zuimmerman, of Lenexa, Kansas, fear that approach will prolong the pandemic.

In Johnson County, Kansas, the state’s most populous county, five districts recommend but do not require masks. A sixth district has not yet decided.

Zimmerman, speaking at a recent meeting of country commissioners, said that if masks are only recommended and not required, "95% of kids won’t be wearing them."

"This isn’t about comfort or control or obedience or your rights. It is not conspiracy or child abuse. It is about doing unto others as you want them to do unto you," he said.

"I ask you this: If it was your kid who was high risk, what if you had to send that kid you had spent your whole life protecting to school in this environment?"

CDC HIT BY LIBERAL MEDIA OUTLETS FOR ‘CONFUSING MESSAGE’ ON WEARING MASKS

Another public meeting, this one in Broward County, Florida, had to be postponed for a day this week after roughly two dozen mask opponents waged screaming matches with school board members and burned masks outside the building.

When the discussion resumed Wednesday, it was limited to 10 public speakers, and all but one spoke vehemently against masks, saying their personal rights were being eroded.

Vivian Hug, a Navy veteran, brought her twins with her as she addressed board members, saying she was tired of the "fear mongering" and giving up "freedoms in the name of safety."

"Please stop the insanity. You have already done damage to these kids having to wear masks," she said before putting her daughter up to the microphone, where the little girl complained that masks make it hard for her to breathe and give her headaches.

But Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the Delaware Division of Public Health, said there is no credible evidence masks are unsafe for children. She said the science is clear that face coverings have prevented the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

"If we want to have kids in school this fall, and as many kids as we possibly can get into school, masks are a key component," she said.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS DEMAND INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS UNIONS 'INFLUENCE' ON CDC'S SCHOOL REOPENING GUIDANCE

Amid the debate, there is also a push to get more older kids vaccinated. President Joe Biden has asked schools to host vaccine clinics for those 12 and older, and states are also beginning to discuss whether to mandate that school employees either be vaccinated or undergo frequent testing for the coronavirus.

"To me that seems very reasonable," said Dr. Joseph Kanter, the state health officer of the Louisiana Department of Health. "You achieve the goal of providing a safe environment. You maintain some choice in there. And clearly most people are going to look at that and say it make sense for them to get vaccinated, given that context."

The push to vaccinate children varies by country. Half of 12- to 17-year-olds in Estonia’s second-largest city of Tartu have received their first vaccine shot, and local health officials are working to push the number to 70% before the school year begins. Countries such as Denmark and France also are actively encouraging vaccination of children, while others such Sweden and the United Kingdom have yet to begin mass vaccinations for those under 18.

The Pfizer shot is currently the only U.S. vaccine authorized for children 12 years and up. Moderna expects the Food and Drug Administration to rule soon on its application for children in the same age group.

Moderna said Monday that it expects to have enough data to apply for FDA authorization for younger children by late this year or early 2022. Pfizer has said it expects to apply in September for children ages 5 through 11.

But some parents, such as Bryant, say they will not get their children vaccinated, even after the kids are eligible, until they know more about potential side effects. Bryant said she knows people who have had severe reactions and others who believe it has affected their menstrual cycles.

Kanter urges families to vaccinate all eligible children. He said the argument that they rarely get severely ill from COVID-19 is becoming outdated.

"As an absolute number, we are seeing younger individuals and kids get sicker in higher numbers and get more severe numbers with delta than they have before," he said.

Young people themselves have been wrestling with misinformation and vaccine hesitancy among parents and peers.

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Angelica Granados, 16, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, finally got permission from her mother to take a COVID-19 vaccine last month. She worried about a potential allergic reaction.

"I’ve always wanted to take it," Granados said, describing the shot as a choice between going "back to normal living" or risking infection.

Her mother, Erica Gonzales, stood by as she got the injection and waited with her during an extended 30-minute observation period.

"I didn’t want her to take it, but I mean, that’s her choice. It’s her body. She knows it best," Gonzales said.

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Dad dies from COVID — 'I should have gotten the damn vaccine’ - New York Daily News

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CDC confirms leaked data about delta variant - WIS10

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - A leaked report from the CDC in the form of a slideshow contains data about the Delta variant that health experts say is concerning.

CDC data shows that vaccinated individuals can still contract the Delta variant and spread the virus to others, even if the vaccinated individual is asymptomatic.

“They can still acquire it and even if they don’t develop symptoms or illness because they’re protected by their vaccine, the risk is that they have the virus in their body and they’re able to spread it out to those around them,” said DHEC Medical Consultant, Dr. Jonathan Knoche.

Data suggests that unvaccinated individuals may also contract more severe disease. Children under 12 years of age are considered an at-risk group because they are not yet able to get vaccinated.

Physicians are concerned about the variant because the data shows it is more contagious. One person with a previous strain of COVID, such as the Alpha variant, could infect an average of one to three people. Doctors say that’s the same rate of infection as the common cold.

One person with the Delta variant, however, can infect eight or nine people, on average. That’s the same infection rate as chicken pox.

Doctors say the best way to avoid severe infection, hospitalization, and death is to get vaccinated. Infectious Disease Expert at Prisma Health, Dr. Helmut Albrecht, says only unvaccinated individuals are showing severe disease in his clinic. He says the best way to prevent severe disease is to get vaccinated.

“We want your immune system, when you encounter the real virus we want that to be trained, and we want to train it safely, and the training is called vaccinating,” said Albrecht.

The CDC’s preliminary data explains why the department updated mask recommendations stating that everyone should wear a mask indoors in public situations, regardless of vaccination status.

Copyright 2021 WIS. All rights reserved.

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Less than 0.001% of fully vaccinated Americans died after a Covid-19 breakthrough case, CDC data shows - CNN

The data highlights what leading health experts across the country have highlighted for months: Covid-19 vaccines are very effective at preventing serious illness and death from Covid-19 and are the country's best shot at slowing the pandemic down and avoiding further suffering.

The CDC reported 6,587 Covid-19 breakthrough cases as of July 26, including 6,239 hospitalizations and 1,263 deaths.

At that time, more than 163 million people in the United States were fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Most of the breakthrough cases -- about 74% -- occurred among adults 65 or older.

Since May, the CDC has focused on investigating only hospitalized or fatal Covid-19 cases among people who have been fully vaccinated. The agency says the data relies on "passive and voluntary reporting" and are a "snapshot" to "help identify patterns and look for signals among vaccine breakthrough cases."

"To date, no unexpected patterns have been identified in the case demographics or vaccine characteristics among people with reported vaccine breakthrough infections," according to the CDC.

The agency shared a study this week that showed the Delta variant produced similar amounts of virus in vaccinated and unvaccinated people if they get infected. Experts continue to say that vaccination makes it less likely you'll catch Covid-19 in the first place. But for those who do, the findings suggest they could have a similar tendency to spread it as unvaccinated people.

That study also convinced CDC leaders to update the agency's mask guidance on Tuesday, recommending that fully vaccinated people also wear masks indoors when in areas with "substantial" and "high" Covid-19 transmission to prevent further spread of the Delta variant. Guidance for unvaccinated people remains to continue masking until they are fully vaccinated.

Pace of vaccinations is going up

But experts say those vaccinated, while they may be able to transmit the virus, remain very well protected against getting seriously ill. Amid the latest surge of Covid-19 cases nationwide fueled by the Delta variant, local leaders across the US are reporting that the majority of new infections and hospitalizations are among unvaccinated people.

The Delta variant is now so contagious, one former health official recently warned that people who are not protected -- either through vaccination or previous infection -- will likely get it.

Amid concerns over the rising cases and the dangerous strain, the country has seen a steady rise in the pace of vaccinations in the past three weeks -- and an even sharper increase in states that had been lagging the most, according to a CNN analysis of CDC data.

The seven-day average of new doses administered in the US is now 652,084, up 26% from three weeks ago.

The difference is even more striking in several southern states: Alabama's seven-day average of new doses administered is more than double what it was three weeks ago. The state has the lowest rate of its total population fully vaccinated in the US, at roughly 34%.

Arkansas, with just 36% of its population fully vaccinated, has also seen its average daily rate of doses administered double in the last three weeks.

Louisiana, which had by far the most new Covid-19 cases per capita last week and has only fully vaccinated 37% of its population, saw daily vaccination rates rise 111% compared to three weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Missouri, which has been among the hardest-hit states in the latest Covid-19 surge, now has a daily average of new vaccinations 87% higher than three weeks ago.

Roughly 57.5% of the US population has received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose and about 49.5% is fully vaccinated, CDC data shows.

CNN's Matthew Hilk contributed to this report.

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‘I should have gotten the damn vaccine’: father of 5 who later died of COVID texts from hospital bed - WGHP FOX 8 Greensboro

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Column: Separate restaurants for vaccinated and not? It may come to that - Los Angeles Times

Chart: Less than 0.1% of vaccinated Americans infected with COVID-19 - Axios

Of the 164 million vaccinated Americans, less than 0.1% have been infected with the coronavirus, and 0.001% have died, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Why it matters: While "breakthrough cases" have been getting some media attention, the low numbers show that the pandemic is mostly a threat for the unvaccinated population.

• "[V]accination is the most important strategy to prevent severe illness and death," the CDC noted in a recent report.
• Leaked CDC presentation slides showed that unpublished research indicated that the Delta variant causes more severe illness in unvaccinated people and spreads as easily as chickenpox.

By the numbers: More than 99% of those vaccinated have not been infected, per the CDC.

• Only 0.004% have been hospitalized from the virus.

The big picture: More than half of the entire American population are not yet fully vaccinated, CDC data shows. Nationwide, the number of cases has been increasing since around late June.

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Bay Area scientists explain why the delta variant is 'COVID on steroids' - San Francisco Chronicle

By the time June 15 rolled around and San Francisco and the rest of California emerged from the prolonged pandemic lockdown, Peter Johnston was fully vaccinated and ready to have one of the best summers of his life.

He hit bars and clubs in the Castro every Friday and Saturday, and a few weeknights in between. He rented a house in Carmel with some friends, then took a trip up to Guerneville with another group. “It was definitely a Roaring Twenties kind of thing,” said Johnston, 29, who said he found himself relating to the celebrations that followed the end of the 1918-19 pandemic and World War I.

But the party came to an abrupt halt two weeks ago, when Johnston woke up one Monday feeling ill. He developed a bad cough, then fever and chills and body aches. He tested positive for the coronavirus a week later.

“I would definitely say I thought the pandemic was over, or at least firmly in the rearview mirror,” Johnston said from his home in the Castro, where he’s still recuperating. “I knew there was a possibility of getting COVID after being vaccinated, but I didn’t think it would happen to me.”

Evidence is growing that post-vaccination breakthrough cases like Johnston’s are not as rare as once previously thought, or perhaps hoped for. And the culprit appears to be the highly infectious delta variant that’s now dominating San Francisco and pretty much everywhere else in the United States.

To be clear: The vaccines are holding up when it comes to preventing the most dire outcomes, in particular hospitalization, intensive care requiring ventilation, and death. They’re also still very good at preventing infection. Vaccines remain the best protection against COVID-19 and are key to ending the pandemic.

Peter Johnston, who lives in San Francisco’s Castro district, became infected with the delta variant after being fully vaccinated for COVID-19. “I knew there was a possibility of getting COVID after being vaccinated, but I didn’t think it would happen to me.”

Nick Otto/Special to The Chronicle

But delta is proving to be the first variant to test the strength of the vaccines, especially when it comes to stopping transmission. And that, in turn, has led to disheartening setbacks in the public health response as cases rise faster now that at any other time in the pandemic and health officials consider new mask mandates and other measures to stop the spread of disease.

“It is COVID on steroids. In many ways this is a different virus than the virus we were dealing with earlier this year,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, in a news briefing on Friday during which he implored people who are not vaccinated to get the shots now.

Experts in vaccines and immunology say the breakthrough infections, though disappointing, are not unexpected and do not mean the COVID vaccines are failing. Indeed, studies of post-vaccination cases, and better data on why they may be happening, underscore that the vaccine-induced immune response is robust and multi-layered.

Mounting evidence suggests that delta is so easily transmissible in large part because it replicates much faster than previous variants and exposes people to a much higher viral load.

That larger viral dose may be overwhelming the first-strike antibody response in vaccinated people, who were better able to shake off earlier variants and remain symptom free. It may also mean that they are infectious and able to spread the virus to others, perhaps as easily as those who are not vaccinated — an especially discouraging finding, health experts said.

But antibodies aren’t the only tool of the immune system to fend off the coronavirus. And so far it appears that the next-level response — namely the T cells and B cells that wipe out virus that’s able to evade antibodies — is doing its job well and preventing severe illness.

“The vaccines have maintained full protection against severe and critical illness, even with delta,” said Dr. Catherine Blish, an infectious disease expert at Stanford. “Most of these (post-vaccination) cases we’re seeing are mild or sometimes moderate illness, and that means the vaccine is giving people a head start in clearing the virus but it’s not quite enough to prevent the infection in the first place. But at least it’s keeping them out of the hospital.”

Coronavirus Pandemic

When the vaccines initially were rolled out, although health experts noted that breakthrough infections would happen, the understanding was that they would be rare, and in most cases cause asymptomatic or very mild illness. And that seemed to hold up for awhile, as vaccination rates skyrocketed in the spring and cases plummeted. At the time, two variants were dominating California, both of them more infectious than the original strain of virus — but each, it’s now believed, half as infectious as delta.

In the delta phase of the pandemic, breakthrough infections remain uncommon, but they’re hardly rare. UCSF has reported 140 coronavirus cases among its staff of 35,000 since mid June — and 80% of those infections were among full vaccinated people. Similar scenarios have played out across the country, including at a homeless shelter in Santa Rosa.

Friday’s report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focused on 469 cases associated with gatherings in one Massachusetts county; about three-quarters of the cases were in fully vaccinated people, and 79% of them had symptomatic illness. Especially concerning to health experts: The viral load was about the same between those who were vaccinated and those who were not, suggesting they may be equally able to spread the virus to others.

That report, along with other evidence worldwide, prompted the CDC to recommend even vaccinated people start wearing masks again.

“This does not bode well for the concept of herd immunity in the face of delta,” said Nadia Roan, an investigator at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, about the CDC report. She said it’s possible that the vaccinated people may be carrying “dead” virus that isn’t able to infect others — which wouldn’t necessarily be apparent in the type of testing the CDC did. “Nonetheless, these data are concerning,” she said.

Scientists are still figuring out how much more infectious delta is, and why. Dr. Charles Chiu, who runs the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center, said delta has several mutations that were already associated with increased infectiousness and resistance to vaccines — including the L452R mutation found in the so-called California variant that Chiu discovered in January.

“It’s like a super L452R because of the way it’s developed,” Chiu said. “It’s probably the combination of these mutations that’s conferring all these advantages on delta.”

Its primary advantages seems to be a fast replication cycle — how quickly it can take over cells and establish an infection — and the high viral payload it delivers on exposure. People are infectious over a longer period of time with delta than with other variants, and they have much more virus in their nose and the rest of their upper respiratory tract.

A preprint paper published last week by scientists at Helix — a San Carlos genomic sequencing company that has done coronavirus testing across the U.S. — found evidence that the viral load with delta may be three times higher than with alpha. Another study out of China found a thousand-fold increase in viral load with delta compared to the original strain of the coronavirus.

“The threefold difference in our data, that’s probably big enough that even if you are fully vaccinated, if you get infected you’re maybe not getting seriously ill, but you might still be transmitting to someone else,” said William Lee, vice president for science at Helix.

The COVID vaccines induce a large antibody response — in fact, far more than what’s needed to fend off infection from the original coronavirus strain and most of the variants. But antibodies wane, often within a few months of vaccination. Studies out of Israel have shown a drop in vaccine efficacy within six to ten months, though some experts question that data.

The delta variant is probably able to overcome the antibody response to some degree. That’s why even vaccinated people may get infected and have mild to moderate illness. But vaccines also induce a cellular response, which takes longer to rally than antibodies but is more powerful. That response is probably what keeps the infection from spreading beyond the upper respiratory tract and into the lungs in vaccinated people.

“The vaccine, even if it can’t prevent every cell from getting infected, it can prevent the virus from getting deep and causing disease,” Blish said.

Johnston, who’s been battling symptoms of COVID for nearly two weeks, said this is the worst he’s felt since a bout of pneumonia when he was 13. But “I’m extremely grateful I had the vaccine, because I figure if I hadn’t, I’d be in the hospital right now,” he said.

“Overall I’m a very healthy person. I wasn’t really expecting to have a rough time with COVID were I to get it,” Johnston said. Two fully vaccinated friends he was with on the night he thinks he became infected also tested positive, but their symptoms were much milder, he said.

Johnston was so eager to get vaccinated that he drove four hours to Tulare County for his first shot in April, back when demand still far exceeded supply. Getting sick, even with a fairly troublesome illness, has made him more pro-vaccination.

“I’ve had some frustration, some anger, especially over the not great uptake of vaccinations,” he said. “Vaccination is for the public good. Most of the benefit flows to other people and not yourself. But I guess In order to get people vaccinated, you basically have to mandate it.”

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Catherine Ho and Danielle Echeverria contributed to this report.

Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday

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For parents of unvaccinated kids, growing Delta variant threat brings alarm and questions - Yahoo News

Registered nurse Julie Anne Buenaventura prepares doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the Pico-Union Project, multifaith center, on July 23. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

New evidence about the Delta variant’s ability to infect and spread even among those who are fully vaccinated has been particularly alarming for parents of young children who are still not eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Many parents who thought their children faced limited risks of getting the coronavirus are now reassessing their stance. Health experts said parents should be extra careful with the highly contagious variant, which is causing infection spikes in Los Angeles County and many other parts of the country.

But several also stressed that it's important to keep the risks in context, adding that children could still go back to school with proper precautions.

Dr. Katherine Williamson, a pediatrician in Orange County, said she has seen an increase in coronavirus cases among young patients in recent weeks, as well as an uptick in parents who are vaccinating eligible children — both of which she attributed to the rise of the Delta variant.

“Parents should be making sure that they’re doing everything they can to keep their kids safe when they have an unvaccinated child in their family," Williamson said.

Yet the risk of severe illness remains low for those who are vaccinated against COVID-19, and the rate of infections, hospitalizations and deaths are much higher for those without the shots.

With the right guidelines and increased vaccinations among those who are eligible, Williamson said, it is still possible to keep young people protected.

“Kids are only as safe as who they are around,” she said.

Though the Delta variant was already known to be more transmissible than the original coronavirus, a new report on an outbreak involving 469 people in Massachusetts found that 74% of infections were among people who were fully vaccinated. And a confidential report produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pulled together other vexing signs that the variant spreads more easily among fully vaccinated people than previously thought.

Children younger than 12 are not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, and those ages 12 to 17 are still lagging when it comes to obtaining the shots.

The rise of the Delta variant has spurred a rash of changes in recent weeks, from new testing and vaccination requirements for federal, city and state employees to the revival of previously abandoned mask guidelines.

West Hollywood resident Jonathan Strauss has two children ages 5 and 2, and said he is “very OK with indoor mask requirements coming back.”

The family recently encountered a vaccinated, unmasked man at an ice cream shop who told them he had no idea that there’s no vaccine available yet for children younger than 12.

“My top thing to reinforce to others is that there are still many members of our community who cannot be vaccinated either because of age or health reasons, and that they can theoretically be infected by vaccinated people,” said Strauss, 41.

Despite the risk, he and his wife are hoping that rising case counts in L.A. County won’t preclude schools from opening in the fall — so long as the schools remain diligent about masking, testing and other safety procedures.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced that all students and employees will be required to take weekly coronavirus tests, whether they are vaccinated or not.

Many health experts said moving forward with school reopening plans still makes sense.

“Children need to be in school,” said Julie Swann, a health systems engineer at North Carolina State University. “Those of us who have experienced last year, we know it."

Swann recently published a report that found that without masking in schools, an additional 70% of children could be infected with the coronavirus within three months. Her research also shows that even if masking is required in all schools, she still expects 40% of elementary school students to be infected within three months.

Even with that knowledge, she said, schools should reopen for the 2021-22 school year, with additional mitigation strategies in place.

"Schools and counties and states can also increase testing of their population and the community which will also help slow the disease spread," she said.

As the Delta variant spreads, public health officials are continuing to keep a close eye on vaccination numbers, which remain woefully low among young people.

“It’s crystal clear that vaccination rates among younger people across the board in L.A. County are much lower than they are for older people, and with more opportunities for intermingling,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a news briefing Thursday.

The largest gap remains not only among young people but also among some young people of color.

Only 24% of Black people and 33% of Latino people ages 12 to 15 had received at least one shot, according to data Ferrer presented, compared with 50% of white people and 76% of Asian people in that age group.

In total, about 50% of teens in L.A. County ages 12 to 17 have received at least one dose of the vaccine, Ferrer said, compared with about 70% of county residents overall.

There are signs that the coronavirus surge is stabilizing, Ferrer said, noting that the testing positivity rate is starting to level off. But the 5.17% positivity rate is still far higher than it was June 15, when it was below 1%.

"We still have close to 4 million residents across the county not yet vaccinated," Ferrer said. "This risk of increased spread from this variant within our county remains high."

Not every parent is eager to send their kids back to school.

Deborah Poppink, 57, of Mar Vista, said one of her kids prefers learning at home, while the other is looking forward to returning to theater class but unsure of how it will work with masks.

Poppink, who previously worked as an LAUSD teacher, is also frustrated with the district's new weekly testing mandate, which she said is essentially asking vaccinated families to carry the weight of the unvaccinated.

“If everyone was vaccinated [there] would be no need for weekly tests,” she said. She also noted that there is still a lack of guidance around when and where testing will be done, and how school-related activities like carpool rides, sports teams and parents visiting campuses will fit in.

“This is a public health crisis and I imagine it’s going to get worse rather than better,” she said. “Kids are not going to keep their masks on all day long. Even in regular times, kids like to sneak to the bathroom to vape or just do what kids do.”

Her daughter, Delilah, 16, said she is less concerned for herself than for fellow students who haven’t been vaccinated.

“There’s no way to know who’s been vaccinated,” she said, “so we have no way to protect the unvaccinated kids.”

Pediatricians remain concerned about the spread of the Delta variant, with Williamson noting that parents should avoid socializing with unvaccinated people, including family members, "because then they can bring that virus home to their children."

Dr. Gregory Poland, an immunologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said continuing outbreaks are probably inevitable.

With unvaccinated kids preparing to once again huddle in classrooms and on buses, a surge in infections linked to school reopenings "can't not happen," he said.

But most experts also agreed that a “safe and sane” approach to COVID-19 protocols — along with more adults doing their part to get vaccinated — should at least eliminate some of the risk.

“If you weigh the risks and the benefits ... I think it’s worth sending kids to school as long as there are mitigation measures in place,” said Dr. Eric Ball, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Orange County Primary Care Network.

Like Williamson, Ball has seen an uptick in coronavirus-positive patients in recent weeks, with the vast majority of infections among unvaccinated teenagers and children who are too young to be vaccinated. The cases are presenting in different ways, he said, from young children with cold-like symptoms to older kids who are getting "pretty sick."

Feelings of fear and sadness that he experienced last year have given away to frustration, he said, since adults could have done more to prevent the current surge.

He also said that most of the teachers and adults in schools should be vaccinated, and that nearly every student in middle and high school now has the opportunity to get a shot.

"So that really should be our push at this point," Ball said. "To make sure we vaccinate as many people as possible to protect the kids who are too young to be vaccinated."

Times staff writer Melissa Healy contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Daily deaths rise nearly 300% to 891 and number of new cases doubles to 190k - Daily Mail

Daily COVID-19 deaths appear to rise nearly 300% - but true figures are actually significantly lower as data dump from Florida and Delaware skews Johns Hopkins tally

• Deaths trebled from 321 on Thursday to 891 on Friday raising fears that the more highly contagious Delta variant is now translating into spiraling fatalities nationwide
• Florida only reports its COVID-19 figures once a week on a Friday, so all 409 deaths were added in a lump sum 
• Delaware also sent total deaths skyrocketing, as officials added 130 deaths Friday following a state review 
• These deaths were between mid-May 2020 and late June 2021 with zero deaths recorded in the last 24 hours 
• Michigan also reported 23 deaths, up from zero Thursday, as it posts COVID-19 data just twice a week 
• Taking out these three anomalies, daily deaths instead climbed 2.5 percent from 321 Thursday to 329  
• The number of new cases also rose to 190,000 on Friday, compared to 78,170 on Thursday 
• On Friday, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he believed  up to 1 million Americans were infected 

By Harriet Alexander For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

Published: 07:01 BST, 31 July 2021 | Updated: 17:58 BST, 31 July 2021

The daily death toll from COVID-19 appeared to rise nearly 300 per cent in 24 hours Friday - but the true figures were actually significantly lower as a data dump from Florida and Delaware skewed Johns Hopkins University's tally.  

The figure trebled from 321 on Thursday to 891 on Friday raising fears that the more highly contagious Delta variant is now translating into spiraling fatalities nationwide.  

Florida made up almost half of the daily tally, with 409 of the deaths recorded coming from the Sunshine State. 

The state only reports its COVID-19 figures once a week on a Friday, meaning all deaths over the last seven days are added to the total in one lump sum and that the real daily change in the last 24 hours remains unknown.  

Delaware also played a major part in sending the figures skyrocketing, as officials announced 130 new deaths Friday.

However, these deaths occurred between mid-May 2020 and late June this year with officials adding them Friday following a state review of death certificates.

In fact, the state recorded zero COVID-19 deaths within the last 24 hours with just two fatalities recorded over the last week. 

Michigan also contributed to Friday's confusion, reporting 23 deaths compared to zero the previous day. In a similar sense to Florida, the state only posts its COVID-19 data twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays, distorting the tally.    

The number of new COVID-19 cases on Friday rose to 194,608. On Thursday, 78,170 new infections were recorded

The number of new deaths in a 24-hour period rose to 891 on Friday. On Thursday, 321 deaths were recorded but this tally appears to have been skewed by huge data dumps from Florida and Delaware

While the differences in reporting practices across states, makes it difficult to give a precise change in daily death toll nationwide, this reveals are far less frightening picture than first thought.  

Following the removal of these three anomalies, daily deaths instead climbed 2.5 percent from 321 Thursday to 329.  

This more closely correlates what experts have said about the new surge in COVID-19 cases - that deaths are not rising at the same rate and have remained relatively flat thanks to the vaccine rollout. 

COVID-19 cases have been rising nationwide due to the spread of the more highly contagious Delta variant.  

The number of new cases also rose to 190,000 on Friday, compared to 78,170 on Thursday.

Dr Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner, said on Friday he believes there is a significant under-reporting of COVID-19 cases at present. He said the daily caseload could be one million - four times that of the January peak

At the pandemic's peak, 300,000 new COVID-19 cases were recorded on January 2, and the highest number of deaths was recorded on January 12, with 4,460 people dying. 

The country has now reported 34,945,468 cases of COVID-19, and 613,013 deaths, according to the John Hopkins University. Fifty per cent of the country is fully vaccinated.

The current seven-day average of new daily coronavirus cases in the U.S. is roughly 67,000, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data - an increase of 53 per cent compared to a week ago. 

The highest seven-day day average of new COVID cases recorded in the U.S. was roughly 251,000 on January 8. 

Case counts had dropped off dramatically in the spring as the country's vaccination campaign picked up speed. 

Dr Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday said  he believes that up to 1 million Americans could soon be infected with COVID-19 every day  - four times that of the January peak. 

He told CNBC he believes the coronavirus is significantly more widespread in the U.S. than official case counts reflect.

'I wouldn't be surprised if, on the whole, we're infecting up to a million people a day right now, and we're just picking up maybe a 10th of that or less than a 10th of that,' he said. 

Gottlieb's assessment would mean that the Delta variant is infecting four times as many people as during the peak of the previous surge, in January.  

'What it reflects is a reality where you have a highly transmissible variant that's widely spread across the U.S. right now that's spreading mostly in a population that's either vaccinated and developing mild symptoms or no symptoms at all; or spreading in a younger population that's also less likely to develop symptoms because they're younger, healthier,' said Gottlieb.

'Most of the spread and most of the people who are showing up in the hospital are younger people. If that's where the infection is occurring, then there must be a lot more infection underneath the small numerator that's showing up in the hospital.'

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis declared Friday that there will not be any new COVID-19 restrictions as the state health department reported a 50% jump in coronavirus cases this week.

This data shows a continuing a six-week surge, making the state the outbreak's epicenter and responsible for one in five new infections nationally.

The Florida Department of Health's report came just hours after DeSantis signed an executive order banning schools from requiring students to wear face masks when they return to class next month. 

His edict, which is effective immediately, also stressed that 'all parents have the right to make healthcare decisions for their minor children,' - such as whether to mask them up.  

Meanwhile, more than 110,000 new coronavirus cases were reported statewide over the past week, up from 73,000 last week and 11 times the 10,000 reported the week of June 11, six weeks ago. Case numbers are now back to where they in January, just before vaccinations became widely available.   

In the US, 50% of Americans are fully vaccinated while 57% have received their first dose

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Twitter on Friday that the highly contagious virus strain now accounted for 75 percent of new coronavirus cases in the state. 

Meanwhile, official data from New York City shows the strain is beginning to take its toll there as well, accounting for 72 percent of cases. 

The Indian 'Delta' variant is believed to be behind outbreaks in both the state and city as public health experts and local leaders urge people to get vaccinated. 

After enjoying declines for several weeks, New York has been seeing cases in increase over the past month..

The state is averaging 1,049 new cases per day, a 131 percent increase over the 454 cases per day average from two weeks ago, according to data from the CDC.

Despite the recent increases, case rates are still relatively low compared to other states, largely because of the state's high vaccination rate.

In New York, 63 percent of residents have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 57 percent are fully vaccinated.  

Cuomo is trying to push that rate higher, though.

On Wednesday, the governor announced that all state employees will either have to get vaccinated or subject themselves to regular COVID testing, starting on Labor Day.

The Delta variant now accounts for 72 percent of new cases in New York City

Cases in New York have increased by 131 percent over the past two weeks, but still remain relatively low

Both Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced vaccine or testing mandates for their employees this week

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made a similar decision earlier this week, announcing that 300,000 municipal workers in the city will either have to get vaccinated or subject themselves to regular testing in order to continue working. 

The densely populated city accounts for a majority of the state's COVID-19 cases.

As of Friday, an average of 788 new cases every day are being found in New York City, an increase from 430 two weeks ago.

The city is also lagging behind the rest of the state in its vaccine rollout, with only 59.5 percent of residents having received at least one shot of the vaccine, and 54.6 percent fully vaccinated.

Joe Biden has been strongly urging people to get vaccinated. On May 13 he celebrated the announcement that face masks were no longer necessary - something critics have seized upon

The Indian 'Delta' variant causes infections that are more contagious than the common cold, flu, smallpox and the Ebola virus, and it is as infectious as chickenpox, the CDC claimed in a new research published on Friday.  

It claims COVID-19 vaccines are still highly effective against the Delta variant at preventing serious illness and death, but detailed an outbreak in Provincetown, Cape Cod, over the July 4 weekend which saw many vaccinated people become infected. No one who was vaccinated died.

Only 6,587 - or 0.004 per cent - of the 163 million Americans who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 had suffered serious 'breakthrough' infections as of Monday. 

The report attributed 430 cases to the outbreak. The cluster jumped to 931 cases on Thursday. About 74 per cent, or 364 cases, had been fully vaccinated. At least 79 per cent reported symptoms.  

The Indian 'Delta' variant is more dangerous in several ways, Kaiser Health News claimed in a report, saying the incubation period is four days, rather than six, making people contagious sooner. 

When the pandemic began, people spread the original coronavirus to an average of two or three people. Today, people infected with delta infect six people, on average. 

It is not believed to be any more lethal, but it kills more people because it infects more. 

British scientists have questioned some of the claims made by the CDC. 

Professor David Livermore, an infectious diseases expert from the University of East Anglia, said vaccine-triggered immunity and the endless waves of COVID which nations have endured meant there were fewer susceptible people around for people to infect.

'The US, like the UK, has substantial immunity from prior infection and from vaccination,' he told MailOnline. 

'This will surely be a major drag on Delta's spread, precluding (viral spread) numbers of that magnitude.' 

And Professor Julian Tang, a virologist at Leicester University, said the theory was likely just 'speculation' because it was very difficult to track down the number of cases sparked by a single infection. 

In the United Kingdom, the Delta outbreak is showing encouraging signs of being on the wane. 

Joe Biden on Friday night told reporters that new restrictions were likely on their way to stem the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak

Delta outbreaks tend to last 10 to 12 weeks, as the virus 'burns through' susceptible populations. 

COVID hospitalizations in England have fallen for first time since third wave took off and Department of Health statistics show the average number of patients needing care also fell sharply.  

To counter the rising raise of U.S. infection, the White House is pushing for Americans to get their COVID vaccine - but has said repeatedly they won't mandate people get their shot in the arm.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday that it was being discussed - but then backtracked, and tweeted that it was not. 

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, appeared on Fox News on Friday and said that discussions were being held about a possible federal vaccine mandate. She said she could not go into details

'Yesterday, almost a million people got vaccinated, about half a million people for the first time,' President Biden said, calling it 'good news.'

Biden is requiring the more than two million employees of the federal government get vaccinated or submit to regular COVID testing. 

The White House has said vaccine requirements are up to private businesses. 

On Friday, Disney and Walmart, two of America's largest employers, announced a vaccine requirement for their employees.

The president on Friday warned Americans that new restrictions could be on their way, to curb the spread of COVID. 

While he did not specify what the new restrictions would entail, the White House on Friday said that they were not planning on reintroducing lockdowns.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the principal deputy press secretary, was asked whether there have been 'conversations in the White House or between the White House and its scientific advisors about more lockdowns, partial lockdowns or anything along those lines'.

Jean-Pierre responded: 'We have the tools in our toolbelt to fight this variant.

'We are not going to head towards a lockdown. 

'We want to make sure that we're doing everything that we can because we have the resources to make sure that doesn't happen.'    

A new CDC report detailed 469 cases of COVID-19 linked to an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts between July 3 and July 17, of which 74% were in fully vaccinated people

Only four of the vaccinated people were hospitalized, two of whom had underlying conditions, and there were no deaths. This shows vaccines are effective even against the Delta variant, which now makes up 83% of all new infections

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As Covid Cases Rise All Over U.S., Lower Vaccination Rates Point to Worse Outcomes - The New York Times

The highly contagious Delta variant is now responsible for almost all new Covid-19 cases in the United States, and cases are rising rapidly. For the first time since February, there were more than 100,000 confirmed cases on Tuesday, the same day the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that vaccinated people should resume wearing masks in public indoor spaces in communities where the virus is surging.

That updated guidance was based in part on a new internal report that cited evidence that vaccinated people experiencing breakthrough infections of the Delta variant, which remain infrequent, may be as capable of spreading the virus as infected unvaccinated people.

Several studies, including ones referenced in the C.D.C.’s presentation, have shown that vaccines remain effective against the Delta variant, particularly against hospitalization and death. That has held true in the real world: About 97 percent of those recently hospitalized by the virus were unvaccinated, the C.D.C. said. But in counties where vaccination rates are low, cases are rising fast, and deaths are also on the rise.

Where current vaccination rates are low, cases are rising more quickly...

Counties with high vaccination rates

May 1

July 29

Delta becomes dominant in the U.S. in June

10

20

30 cases per 100,000 residents

Counties with low vaccination rates

May 1

July 29

10

20

30 cases per 100,000 residents

... And deaths have increased, rather than remaining flat.

Counties with high vaccination rates

May 1

July 29

Delta becomes dominant in the U.S. in June

0.1

0.2

0.3 deaths per 100,000 residents

Counties with low vaccination rates

May 1

July 29

0.1

0.2

0.3 deaths per 100,000 residents

Source: New York Times database of reports from state and local health agencies and hospitals·Counties are considered to have high vaccination rates if at least 60 percent of the population is currently fully vaccinated. Counties with low vaccination rates are those where less 30 percent of the population is currently fully vaccinated.

The latest increase in cases has set records in some parts of the United States. Many of the places seeing more new cases than at any other point during the pandemic also have some of the country’s lowest vaccination rates.

The Branson, Mo., and Harrison, Ark., areas have both set records this month. Less than 30 percent of all residents in either place are fully vaccinated.

Cases are beginning to level off or decrease after peaks in much of the Ozarks, which had seen one of the country’s worst recent outbreaks. Now Louisiana is experiencing a surge and is seeing more new cases than at any other point during the pandemic. Daily case rates there are more than 10 times higher than the average level in June.

Where case counts are the highest of the whole pandemic

Surpassed a previous case record this month

Near a record number of cases

Counties where 30 percent

or less of the population

is fully vaccinated

Many counties that have set records

or nearly set records this month

also have low vaccination rates.

Vaccine data for Georgia

and three other states is not

shown because more than a

quarter of the data is missing.

Surpassed a previous case record this month

Near a record number of cases

Counties where 30 percent

or less of the population

is fully vaccinated

Many counties that have set records

or nearly set records this month

also have low vaccination rates.

Vaccine data for Georgia

and three other states is not

shown because more than a

quarter of the data is missing.

Surpassed a previous case record this month

Near a record number of cases

Counties where 30 percent

or less of the population

is fully vaccinated

Many counties that have

set records or nearly set

records this month also

have low vaccination rates.

Vaccine data for Georgia

and three other states is not

shown because more than a

quarter of the data is missing.

Surpassed a previous case record this month

Near a record number of cases

Counties where 30 percent

or less of the population

is fully vaccinated

Many counties that have set records

or nearly set records this month

also have low vaccination rates.

Vaccine data for Georgia

and three other states is not

shown because more than a

quarter of the data is missing.

As the United States continues to face a virus that is in its most contagious form yet, experts predict a divide will remain between vaccinated and unvaccinated communities. Hospitals in some parts of the country where vaccination rates are low are once again setting up overflow wards, while hospitals where vaccination rates are higher might see a smaller influx of patients.

In the United Kingdom, the Delta variant became the main form of the virus in May, when a large share of the population had already been vaccinated. Three months later, virus cases are on a downward trend after reaching a level almost as high as the country’s highest-ever peak in January. Deaths have not reached anywhere near previous peaks, a sign that the U.K. vaccine rollout, which prioritized residents by age, protected many of the country’s most vulnerable by the time the Delta variant fueled a surge.

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