The coronavirus vaccine is working, Biden administration officials said Thursday, and pandemic-induced deaths and hospitalizations are mostly from the Americans that remain unvaccinated, CNBC reported.
- “Virtually all COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in United States are now occurring among unvaccinated individuals,” Jeff Zients, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, said at press conference Thursday, according to CNBC.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said coronavirus cases have shot up 11% in the last week and that about 8 in 10 of those cases were caused by the delta variant, reported CNBC.
- Dr. Anthony Fauci, a Biden administration coronavirus adviser, added Thursday that a collection of international studies have shown that “the vaccines are indeed effective against it (the delta variant),” according to a 10TV video of the press conference.
Officials are worried about the delta variant
Walensky said Thursday that she was troubled by the spike of delta variant cases — which, only weeks ago, made up about half of America’s current coronavirus cases, The Associated Press reported.
French scientists who have been studying the delta variant have found that one shot of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines “barely inhibited” the dangerous delta variant, while those who had both doses had developed an immune system that could combat the mutant coronavirus, reported the AP.
- The French researchers also learned that the antibodies of people who’d already had the coronavirus “were four-fold less potent against the new mutant,” but one dose of vaccine had boosted the protection offered by their antibodies, according to the AP.
- “That supports public health recommendations that COVID-19 survivors get vaccinated rather than relying on natural immunity,” the AP reported.
Should the government know if you’ve had the coronavirus vaccine?
On Thursday morning, CNN “New Day” anchor Brianna Keilar asked Health and Human Services Secretly Xavier Becerra if an individual’s vaccination status was the government’s business. The question related to President Joe Biden’s pitch to have government officials go “door to door” to get people vaccinated.
“Brianna, perhaps we should point out that the federal government has spent trillions of dollars to keep Americans alive during this pandemic. So it is absolutely the government’s business,” the HHS secretary responded, according to a CNN video of the conversation.
- “It is taxpayers’ business if we have to continue to spend money to try to keep people from contracting COVID and helping reopen the economy,” he said.
- “Knocking on a door has never been against the law. You don’t have to answer, but we hope you do,” Becerra added, “because if you haven’t been vaccinated we can help dispel some of the rumors you've heard and hopefully get you vaccinated.”