Fact: Most people in the US are not fully vaccinated against COVID.
The COVID virus doesn't give us a break that 15% of the country is not eligible for the vaccines yet. Makes our job that much harder to reach herd immunity.
delta doesn't also seem to give a break for those who had one dose only.
Many countries are overcoming these hurdles.
It's doable. And we have no excuses since we have the best vaccine supply and the best resources.
If the CDC is changing guidance on masks, you know they are concerned. Take heed and protect your friends and family by getting vaccinated. Follow the guidance on masks.
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The lack of FDA approval for mRNA COVID vaccines is preventing doctors like me from telling immunocompromised patients what we really think they should do with regards to a boosters.
I get asked every day.
Ditto with J&J single dose recipients. Especially elderly and immunocompromised living in high incidence areas.
With approval, doctors have liberty of recommending off label treatments. Under EUA we are all unsure what we can legally do and what we cannot.
At least a clarification on that question would help.
No! I wouldn't blame the unvaccinated. I would blame the pundits and politicians spreading misinformation on TV and social media even though they themselves are likely vaccinated. google.com/amp/s/www.poli…
I would blame continued mixed messages. I would blame lack of approval of the vaccines which keep sending a message that somehow some mysterious thing is preventing FDA from concluding that the vaccines are safe and effective— that's the standard they are supposed to adjudicate.
Misinformation and mixed messaging are the culprits.
The drop in cases and deaths occurred following start of vaccinations as been reversed in the UK by the delta variant.
Hospitalizations are on the rise in many states the US, and it appears almost all are unvaccinated. Deaths will like rise here as well. Please get vaccinated.
We shouldn't make patients feel guilty that they are breaking the law to protect their health. Yet that's what we are doing
1) Medicare Modernization Act asks government to look the other way & use enforcement discretion to not prosecute patients importing drugs for personal use
2) Now similarly I'm seeing a lot of tweets where patients are made to feel they have to lie in order to get a COVID vaccine booster that their own doctors think they need because for example they are immunosuppressed and don't seem to have had an immune response.
The Medicare Modernization Act even went to the extent of saying that it should be made clear what is OK and what is not, so patients know whether they will run into trouble if they for example bought insulin from Canada.
For months I have been advocating for CDC and FDA to issue guidance on second doses for the millions of people who got the single dose J&J vaccine.
Now we have more data. I urge them to act. The delta variant doesn't respect one dose. nytimes.com/2021/07/20/hea…
One dose of Pfizer and Astra Zeneca didn't cut it. There was nothing special about J&J that would have allowed it to be uniquely effective. We knew this months ago.
One dose is not enough. One dose is not = fully vaccinated.
Short term protection which is what was studied in the randomized trials was good. So was it after one dose of Astra Zeneca.
But immunology 101 is that a second exposure to same antigen allows more class switching and more effective and durable response.