June 3 coronavirus news

The US is seeing a decline in daily Covid-19 vaccinations because most who want and can access the vaccine, have already gotten it, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden said Thursday.

“We’re making a lot of progress, but frankly, we’re entering kind of the slog-phase of the vaccination campaign, where the people who are most eager to have it and most able to get it, have gotten it,” Frieden told CNN.

More context: The seven-day average of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered has fallen below 1 million doses per day for the first time since January, according to CDC data published Thursday. 

Frieden noted that the US must now focus on improving access and education around the Covid-19 vaccine.

“Now we need to continue to make it easier to get, and to address people’s concerns,” he said, adding that the vaccine is “astonishingly effective and very, very safe.”

A coalition of realtor groups asked the Supreme Court Thursday night to block the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s order that prohibits landlords nationwide from evicting tenants who fail to pay rent amid the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The current moratorium is set to expire on June 30. 

A district court ruled against the CDC holding that the moratorium was unlawful, but then put its ruling on hold pending appeal. The DC Circuit declined to lift the stay. 

The realtors group asked the justices to step in —on an emergency basis-arguing that “Congress never gave the CDC the staggering amount of power it now claims.”

They argue that the moratorium has resulted in “over 13 billion in unpaid rent per month.”

People who have had a coronavirus infection once are protected from a second infection for at least nine months and possibly longer, a new study suggests.  

Long-term care facility residents who tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies had an 85% reduced risk of reinfection, and staff had a 60% lower risk, according to the study published on Thursday in the journal Lancet Healthy Longevity.

A team at University College London and other UK-based institutions analyzed data on 682 residents and 1,429 staff members from long-term care facilities in England between October and February. Some of the residents and staff were thought to have had Covid-19 in the past because they tested positive for antibodies in blood samples collected between June and November. 

Among residents who tested negative for antibodies, the researchers found that 93 out of 456 — or 20% — later tested positive for Covid-19 infections during the study. But just 2% of residents who tested positive for antibodies later tested positive for Covid-19. 

Among staff members who tested negative for antibodies, the researchers found 11% later acquired Covid-19 infections during the study. Among staff who tested positive for antibodies, only 2% did. 

“… the risk of PCR-positive SARS-CoV-2 infection was substantially lower in residents and staff who were positive for SARS-CoV-2- specific antibodies at baseline,” the researchers wrote in their study. SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

“Our findings suggest that previous infection reduced the risk of reinfection by approximately 85% in residents and 60% in staff members. We identified only 14 cases of possible reinfection, mainly affecting staff, and although almost all of these individuals reported symptoms, none required hospital treatment,” they wrote. “These findings suggests that previous SARS-CoV-2 infection provides a high degree of protection against a second infection and is broadly consistent with findings from longitudinal studies in hospital staff.”

“It’s really good news that natural infection protects against reinfection in this time period. The risk of being infected twice appears to be very low,” Dr. Maria Krutikov of the University College London Institute of Health Informatics said in a statement. 

More research is needed to determine whether similar findings would emerge among a larger group of people from other regions of the world.

New Jersey passed a bill Thursday to end the public health emergency initiated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Ending New Jersey’s COVID-19 Public Health Emergency is one of the most significant steps we have taken in our recovery efforts to date. With our state’s public health metrics continuing to trend decisively in the right direction, we are confident that now is the right time to take this action,” the state’s Democratic leadership – Gov. Phil Murphy, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, and Senate President Stephen Sweeney – said in a news release Thursday. 

The bill is expected to be signed into law Friday, the same day final limits on group gatherings across the state are lifted.

A group of more than 30 Democratic members of the House of Representatives have signed onto a letter to the White House encouraging the Biden administration to do even more to help distribute vaccines across the world.

The letter comes right after President Biden announced a plan to immediately share 25 million Covid-19 vaccines with countries around the world, with a broader goal of sharing up to 80 million vaccine doses by the end of June. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state and the chair of the Progressive Caucus is the leading author of the letter and is joined by several of her fellow progressive members like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ritchie Torres of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, Danny Davis and Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and Ro Khanna of California.

According to Jayapal, she and members of the caucus have been pressing the White House to get aggressive in distributing vaccines around the world as the situation became dire in countries like India, South Africa and Brazil. Jayapal said she is regular contact with White House chief of staff Ron Klain and she was very glad to see the initial announcement, but said much more needs to be done.

“This is urgent, I mean, people need them right now. And so that is a good first step,” Jayapal, whose parents live in India and both got Covid, said in an interview with CNN. “Our letter, however, calls for — and I’ve spoken to the White House about all of these things — but it calls for much more.”

In addition to the initial vaccine distribution the lawmakers are pushing the White House to do the following:

Read the letter here.

The seven-day average of newly administered doses of Covid-19 vaccine has fallen below 1 million doses per day for the first time since January, according to data published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There were about 808,000 new doses administered since Wednesday, bringing the total number of doses administered up to nearly 298 million. That’s about 81% of the more than 368 million total doses delivered.

More data: Overall, more than 169 million people – more than 51% of the US population – have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, and about 136.6 million people – about 41% of the population – is fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.

Among adults 18 and older, 63% have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, and 52% are fully vaccinated.

Over the past week, an average of about 482,000 people initiated vaccination each day, including an average of more than 75,000 children between the ages 12 and 15 each day.

To note: Data published by the CDC may be delayed, and doses may not have been administered on the date reported.

A total of 5,274 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed across the United Kingdom on Thursday, Public Health England (PHE) announced, marking the highest daily total since March 26. 

A further 18 fatalities within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were also recorded Thursday, bringing the total national death toll to 127,812. 

“We are seeing some increases in case rates once again, particularly in younger age groups who are not yet being vaccinated and are having regular testing,” Dr. Mike Gent, incident director for the Covid-19 response at PHE, said Thursday. “This is to be expected as the country opens up and people start to socialize more together. But it provides a stark reminder that we must all follow hands, face, space, fresh air and importantly get vaccinated when it’s offered.”

The UK Department of Health and Social Care said that “half of all adults in the UK have now had both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.”

White House senior Covid adviser Jeff Zients outlined a three-pronged approach from the Biden administration to sharing more vaccines globally, expanding upon the Thursday announcement that the US will be scaling up its global vaccine sharing efforts.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan offered some details on how the first 25 million doses, which will include Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Moderna, will be allocated and where.

The US will be prioritizing “helping our neighbors,” Sullivan said, and working through the third-party COVAX coalition, which is funded by donations from governments, multilateral institutions and foundations.

The aim, Sullivan said, is to end the pandemic globally, save lives, and thwart variants, and, he said, “most important, this is just the right thing to do.”

The US will be sharing at least 75% of the first vaccines with COVAX, Sullivan said, which “will maximize the number of vaccines available equitably for all countries and will facilitate sharing with those most at risk.” The remaining 25% will be used for “immediate needs” and will be helping with surges around the world “in a flexible way.”

Sullivan said these first doses will be shared with a “wide range of countries within Latin America and the Caribbean, South and Southeast Asia, and across Africa in coordination with the African Union.” There will be prioritization for “our neighbors here in our hemisphere, including countries like Guatemala, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, and many others.” It will also respect “existing regional networks for vaccine sharing.”

Additionally, there will be doses allocated to Canada and Mexico, as well as US allies like South Korea. Sullivan added that there will be prioritization for countries with “urgent present crises, like the West Bank and Gaza, Ukraine, Kosovo, Iraq, Haiti, and others.”

He noted that the US “will not use its vaccines to secure favors from other countries.”

Sullivan also said that there will be an effort to organize vaccine sharing among the G7 countries and teased additional announcements next week when the leaders meet in the United Kingdom.

Read more here about the US plan to share vaccines globally.

The Biden administration on Thursday announced a plan to share the first 25 million Covid-19 vaccine doses with the rest of the world and an overall framework of distributing at least 80 million doses by the end of June.

At least 75% of these donated vaccines will be shared with the COVAX global vaccination program, and 25% will be shared directly with countries in need, the White House said.

As part of the first round of 25 million doses being distributed, 19 million will be shared through COVAX, which is an initiative led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, along with the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

Here’s a breakdown of where the doses will be distributed:

The other 6 million doses from the first round of 25 million will be sent to Mexico, Canada, South Korea, West Bank and Gaza, Ukraine, Kosovo, Haiti, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Yemen, and will be used to vaccinate United Nations frontline workers.

Read more about the US plan here.

The coronavirus variant first identified in India is now believed to be the dominant coronavirus variant in the UK, Public Health England (PHE) said Thursday.

“Although there is some regional variation, PHE experts now believe that Delta (VOC-21APR-02) has overtaken Alpha (VOC-20DEC-01) as the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant in the UK,” PHE said in a statement, using the World Health Organization new labeling system for key coronavirus variants, which assigns letters of the Greek alphabet instead of where the variant was first detected. The PHE statement refers to the India variant as Delta and the UK variant as Alpha.

“Public Health England’s weekly COVID-19 variant cases data shows that cases of the Delta (VOC-21APR-02) variant in the UK have risen by 5,472 since last week to 12,431,” the statement added. 

According to PHE, early evidence suggests that “there may be an increased risk of hospitalization” associated with the variant in comparison to the variant first identified in the UK — however the statement cautions that more data is needed to support early findings. 

At least 278 people with the variant were hospitalized across the UK this week and 94 people were admitted overnight – an increase from the 201 people with the variant who were in the hospital last week, including 43 hospital admissions, PHE outlined. 

“The majority of these had not been vaccinated,” PHE highlighted. 

Dr. Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), has urged the British people to adhere to government guidance to reduce the spread of the virus. 

“With this variant now dominant across the UK, it remains vital that we continue to exercise caution, particularly while we learn more about transmission and health impacts,” Harries said. 

“If you are eligible and have not already done so, please come forward to be vaccinated and make sure you get your second jab. It will save lives,” she added. 

Kroger Health, the health care division of The Kroger Co, announced Thursday that it is launching a $5 million giveaway to motivate more people to get the Covid-19 vaccine and support the Biden administration’s goal of administering at least one shot to 70% of the US adult population by July 4, according to a company news release.

“Between June 3, 2021 and July 10, 2021, Kroger Health is giving away $5 million, reflecting a $1 million winner each week for five weeks, as well as 50 “groceries for a year,” ten each week for five weeks, each valued at $13,000 (which is the equivalent of $250 a week for 52 weeks),” the release said.

The giveaway begins today, and winners will be selected weekly.

The city of Chicago will fully reopen on June 11, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a tweetThursday.

“Because you’ve masked up, socially distanced and got vaccinated we’re now moving to Phase 5 on Friday, June 11 in alignment with the state,” the mayor tweeted. “This means Chicago is scheduled to fully reopen.”

Lightfoot tweeted Wednesday that Chicago had a 2% positivity rate, the lowest rate the city has had since March 2020.

Olympic rugby player Naya Tapper said she’s been briefed on how Team USA will implement “very strict” measures to prevent spread of Covid-19 at the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo.

“We’re being kept in very strict regimens in terms of a lot of testing to make sure that we’re all safe, being in very strict quarantine measures and also doing a lot of contact tracing in order to make sure that we’re all safe when we go there. Also, just being there, we will be in our bubble, won’t have any contact with residents, which will be very important in keeping everybody safe, and also just trying to encourage everybody to get vaccinated,” Tapper told CNN’s Kate Bolduan. 

The Games, which were postponed last year, are scheduled to start on July 23. A spike in Covid-19 cases in Japan, plus a slower-than-expected vaccine rollout, have prompted experts and the public to voice concerns about holding the Games next month.

Tapper also said she was a bit hesitant at first to get a Covid-19 vaccine, but she changed her mind and is now fully vaccinated.

“I didn’t want to take any chances with possibly contracting the disease and not being able to play in the Olympics, which is one of my big dreams. So I decided to do whatever was necessary to prevent that and control what I can control in that situation,” she said.

Watch:

The Department of Education is launching a new initiative to encourage US colleges and universities to vaccinate all students, faculty and staff against Covid-19.

The plan, called the “Covid-19 College Challenge,” is aimed to help progress the overall number of Americans vaccinated to the Biden administration’s goal of “70% of the U.S. adult population receiving at least one vaccine shot by July 4th,” according to a statement sent out Thursday.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the challenge is a good way to keep everyone on college campuses safe.

“I encourage every college and university to take this pledge and get creative in becoming Vaccine Champion Colleges. We must all work together to beat this pandemic and put the focus back on students’ educational careers that will put them on the path to success,” Cardona said.

Colleges that wish to take part in the pledge can do so by engaging the campus community and letting them know they are eligible for the vaccine, identifying efforts and providing resources about the vaccine, and by providing access to getting the vaccine on campus or at sites nearby.

More than 400 colleges and universities have already announced that they will require all students to be vaccinated before returning to campus in the fall, according to CNN’s latest count.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the United States will “ultimately” have the authority to decide which countries receive the first 25 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines that the Biden administration will share with the world.

Sullivan added that the US is working off a list of countries from the COVAX global vaccination program and that the US has made selections “against that list in coordination with them, so that we will retain the say in terms of where they go.”

“But ultimately the United States will have the authority to say those doses are going here opposed to there. But that will be done in very close consultation and partnership with COVAX,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan added it will be done in concert with COVAX’s logistics and delivery to “ensure that these doses actually translate into shots in arms.”

At least 75% of the US donated vaccines will be shared with the COVAX global vaccination program, and 25% will be shared directly with countries in need, the White House said.

Ahead of her trip to the Northern Triangle of Central America, Vice President Kamala Harris has called the leaders of Guatemala and Mexico, as well as the Prime Minister of India and Chair of the Caribbean Community, this morning in separate phone calls to inform them of the US global Covid-19 allocation strategy.

“In four separate calls, the Vice President notified each of the leaders that the Biden-Harris Administration will begin sharing the first 25 million doses of COVID vaccines to their respective countries and others, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s framework for sharing at least 80 million vaccines globally by the end of June,” per a statement from chief spokesperson Symone Sanders.

At least 75% of these donated vaccines will be shared with the COVAX global vaccination program, and 25% will be shared directly with countries in need, the White House said on Thursday. 

“The Vice President reiterated that the Administration’s efforts are focused on achieving broad global coverage, responding to surges and other urgent situations and public health needs, and helping as many countries as possible who requested vaccines. The four leaders thanked the Vice President, and they agreed to continue working together to address COVID-19 and advance our mutual interests around the world,” the statement continued.

New York City officials will park mobile vaccine buses outside popular nightlife destinations in the city in an effort to get younger New Yorkers vaccinated, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.

“We’re going to go where young New Yorkers are,” de Blasio said, adding that mobile vaccine buses have already been to nightlife areas in Bushwick, Astoria, the Lower East Side and Inwood. 

The program, nicknamed “Shots and Shots,” will focus on downtown Brooklyn and the West Village this Thursday and Friday night, de Blasio said.

The Mayor’s son, Dante, will also be on hand to encourage young adults to get vaccinated. Additionally, the mayor said some individual businesses will also offer their own concurrent incentives, such as offering a “shot for a shot.”

De Blasio added that everyone should “drink responsibly, of course.” 

“We’re sending one of our best agents, outreach ambassador Dante de Blasio,” de Blasio said. “Dante claims he’s going to use his DJ skills to attract Zillennials to come over and get vaccinated.” 

New York City is also continuing its efforts to get children ages 12 to 17 vaccinated as well. In addition to in-school vaccinations beginning in the Bronx on Friday, the city will soon be hosting “Youth Vax Block Parties” in various neighborhoods to reach more 12- to 17-year-olds by hosting community events with pediatricians to answer questions and offer information to parents and kids. 

So far, 8,373,820 vaccine doses have been administered in New York City, de Blasio said.

The Biden administration announced a framework to share at least 80 million Covid-19 vaccine doses with the rest of the world by the end of June, including a more specific plan for the first 25 million doses. 

At least 75% of these donated vaccines will be shared with the COVAX global vaccination program, and 25% will be shared directly with countries in need, the White House said on Thursday. 

“At least 75 percent of these doses—nearly 19 million—will be shared through COVAX, including approximately 6 million doses for Latin America and the Caribbean, approximately 7 million for South and Southeast Asia, and approximately 5 million for Africa, working in coordination with the African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The remaining doses, just over 6 million, will be shared directly with countries experiencing surges, those in crisis, and other partners and neighbors, including Canada, Mexico, India, and the Republic of Korea,” President Biden said in a statement.

“We are sharing these doses not to secure favors or extract concessions. We are sharing these vaccines to save lives and to lead the world in bringing an end to the pandemic, with the power of our example and with our values,” Biden said.

After a decline in pregnancies following the coronavirus shutdown in 2020, the US could see a baby boom this summer, according to research published in JAMA Network Open on Thursday.

Researchers with the University of Michigan used electronic health records from all pregnancies at the University of Michigan Hospital from 2017 to the present. They used the records to document pregnancies and births through the pandemic and model prospective births through October 2021.

Though pregnancies steadily increased from 2017 to 2020, the team recorded a 14% decline after the coronavirus lockdown began in Michigan on March 15, 2020. Their modeling shows an expected surge of births this summer.

The researchers say their findings suggest a link between the societal changes associated with the pandemic, like lockdowns, and reproductive choices.

By modeling the potential changes in birth rates before they happen, the researchers say their findings can help people prepare for and respond to the potential consequences.

“Changing birth rates in other societal crises have been linked retrospectively to changes in economic conditions, morbidity and mortality rates among reproductive age populations, and other destabilizing societal conditions,” the team wrote.

New York City reported a Covid-19 positivity rate of 0.81% on Thursday – reaching a new record for the lowest positivity rate the city has seen since it began recording that statistic, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. 

The previous record was a positivity rate of 0.83%, reported on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

The mayor also shared some other milestones the city has reached since January:

On Thursday, at least 221 new Covid-19 cases and 63 new hospitalizations were reported, for a hospitalization rate of 0.52 people per 100,000, city statistics show.

The idea that the coronavirus was deliberately released from a lab is “quite far-fetched,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s John Berman on New Day Thursday morning.

Among thousands of Fauci’s emails that have been published online, in one exchange between him and Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, Collins writes that the “conspiracy theory” of a lab leak origin has gained momentum — but much of that email had been redacted. 

Fauci told Berman that he does not remember what was in the body of that email from Collins, sent last April.

“They only took about 10,000 emails from me,” Fauci said with a smile. “Give me a break.”

Fauci added, however, that he still thinks the idea of a deliberate lab leak is “quite far-fetched.”

“The idea I think is quite far-fetched that the Chinese deliberately engineered something so that they could kill themselves as well as other people,” Fauci said. “I think that’s a bit far out, John.”

Contact tracing efforts largely failed last summer during the Covid-19 pandemic, a new study of 14 US health departments says.

Researchers looked at 74,185 cases recorded at health departments in 11 states and one tribal nation between June and October 2020. They calculated that about 66% of those potentially exposed to the coronavirus were not notified, according to the research published Thursday in the journal JAMA Network Open.

The authors estimated that this pool of nearly 75,000 cases should have generated 218,389 contacts rather than the 74,389 contacts that public health workers were actually able to collect from those infected.

Public health workers interviewed 43,931 of those people who tested positive, or 59%, and received named contacts from 33% of the cases studied. 

Health departments were able to contact 71% of the named contacts, or a mean of 0.7 contacts per person infected. From there, just 0.5 contacts were monitored, according to the study.

“In general, health departments reporting large case counts during the assessment conducted smaller proportions of case interviews and case notifications,” according to the study.

One bright spot, however, was that contact tracing was associated with greater rates of positive testing than in the general population, meaning that when it did occur, it likely did help map how the virus was spreading in a community.

“Testing named contacts was a high-yield activity for case finding,” the authors wrote, suggesting that the results should be used to help prioritize how public health resources are allocated during future disease outbreaks.

As rich nations prepare for a return to some sort of post-pandemic normalcy, aided by high vaccination rates, many poorer countries are struggling with explosive case numbers and rising Covid-19 deaths as vaccine doses are harder to come by.

Here are some of the places seeing a surge:

Brazil: Only about 10% of its population is fully vaccinated. On Wednesday, the country recorded more than 95,000 new Covid-19 infections, the second-highest figure since the pandemic began.  

As Brazil faces a third wave, protests and impeachment calls are mounting against President Jair Bolsonaro over his handling of the pandemic. Yesterday, pot-banging protests accompanied his address to the nation, where chants of “Bolsonaro genocide” could be heard in various cities as he made his speech.  

South Africa: The World Health Organization (WHO) said Covid-19 cases and deaths rose in the Africa region last week, partly due to the situation in South Africa which increased pandemic restrictions in the face of a looming third wave. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Sunday that the country has secured enough vaccine doses for the entire population, but admitted issues in the vaccine rollout.  

Vietnam: The country’s health ministry has detected a suspected new coronavirus variant which it said appears to be a hybrid of two highly transmissible strains. Vietnam has reported a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases. Almost half its 6,396 confirmed infections were reported in the past month alone, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

It is not clear if the suspected new variant is behind the sudden rise in infections. If it is, it could suggest it is more transmissible.

Coming today: President Biden has finalized his plan to distribute millions of coronavirus vaccines worldwide after months of deliberation, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans. He is expected to announce the rollout Thursday.

Touting the US contribution of $2 billion to the World Health Organization vaccination effort, COVAX, and another $2 billion pledge to be given between now and the end of 2022, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN the US will distribute the doses without strings attached.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN’s New Day Thursday, that while the Covid-19 prognosis is good for the United States, vaccinations need to continue.

“The prognosis is good, if the patient continues to do what the patient is doing, and that is continuing as a country, if you want to make that metaphor go, continue to get vaccinated,” Fauci said, adding that the declining numbers of cases are “very encouraging.”

“The one thing we want to make sure is that we don’t declare victory prematurely and feel that because things are going in the right direction that we don’t have to keep vaccinating people,” he said. “We’re on a really good track now to really crush this outbreak. And the more people we get vaccinated, the more assuredness that we’re going to have that we’re going to be able to do that.” 

Reaching President Biden’s goal of having 70% of US adults with at least one shot by July 4 is something that he wants to happen – and potentially surpass – which is why there are actions now to reach as many people as possible.

“Whatever it takes, make it extremely easy for people to get vaccinated, give incentives, do whatever you can do to get people to get vaccinated, that’s what we really need to do, John,” he said.

When asked about concerns about upticks in cases following Memorial Day and as fewer people wear masks, Fauci said that it wouldn’t be uniform throughout the country because of differing levels of vaccination. 

“If you have a very high percentage of people vaccinated, you’re not going to see a substantial blip – you may see a little bit, not anything that even resembles a surge,” he said. 

“My concern is, is in those states in which you have relatively few compared to others’ people vaccinated, when you’re below 50% of the people being vaccinated, that’s when you’re going to have a problem,” he added.

Having about 50% of adults fully vaccinated and about 62% of adults having received at least one dose across the US as a whole means “as a nation, I feel fairly certain you’re not going to see the kind of surges we’ve seen in the past,” Fauci said, but added “what I am concerned about are those states in which the level of vaccination is low, that you may continue to see higher levels of cases as we get into the summer.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN’s New Day Thursday that there is a risk of people infected with Covid-19 spreading the virus when they are on cruise ships with unvaccinated people. 

“If you are on a boat with unvaccinated people, and you have a person who is infected, we know from experience with cruise ships what can happen,” Fauci said. “You can have considerable outbreaks because you are in a closed space where people are not going to be able to get away from each other because of what you see on a cruise ship.” 

“When there’s no problem, it’s wonderful, people are enjoying it, they’re having a great time,” he continued. “But if you have a couple of infected people there, you have a risk of spreading as we have seen historically with cruise ships.” 

Celebrity Edge is poised to be the first major cruise ship to sail from the US in over a year as Covid-19 restrictions continue to ease in the country.

The ship, part of the Celebrity Cruises line owned by Royal Caribbean Group, has been cleared to sail from Fort Lauderdale with paying passengers in June 2021.

The CDC states that for cruise lines to recommence sailing in US waters, they must either complete “trial” cruises to replicate real-world cruising conditions or comply with the CDC vaccination requirements.

CNN’s Lilit Marcus contributed reporting to this post.

If Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, knew what he knows now about Covid-19, “of course” he would have done some things differently, he told CNN’s John Berman during a New Day appearance on Thursday morning.

Among thousands of Fauci’s emails that have been published online, one includes an exchange with Sylvia Burwell, former secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. In an email sent early last year, she apparently asked Fauci whether she should wear a mask on a trip. Fauci responded at the time that he did not recommend wearing a mask since she was traveling to a low-risk location.

That exchange was on Feb. 5, 2020, before masks were widely recommended and before the coronavirus was considered a pandemic.

“A lot has transpired since then. If you had to go back and do it all over again, would you tell her something different? Do you regret that?” Berman asked Fauci.

“Let’s get real here – if you look at scientific information as it accumulates, what is going on in January and February, what you know as a fact, as data, guides what you tell people and your policies. If March, April, May occur, you accumulate a lot more information and you modify and adjust your opinion and your recommendation based on the current science and current data,” Fauci told Berman.

“So of course, if we knew back then that a substantial amount of transmission was asymptomatic people. If we knew that the data show that masks outside of a hospital setting actually do work when we didn’t know it then. If we realize all of those things back then, of course,” Fauci said. “You’re asking a question, ‘Would you do something different if you know what you know now?’ Of course people would have done that. That’s so obvious.”

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said school guidance is being revisited as more and younger people get vaccinated — and there may be a change in school mask guidance in time for fall.

“We’ve said through the school year of ‘20 to ‘21 that our school guidance was not going to change,” Walensky said on Good Morning America Thursday when asked why children still need to wear masks. “What we really are doing now is looking at the evidence in the context of so many people getting vaccinated, in the context of disease rates coming down in certain communities and really looking at the evidence now.”

“As we’re starting to get those people vaccinated, we will be revisiting this in our school guidance,” she noted.

When asked if there might be a change to mask guidance in time for school in the fall, Walensky said, “I think we will. We are looking at the evidence now and we will be coming out with that guidance, soon to come.” 

She noted that early on in vaccination efforts, when older populations got vaccinated, more disease was seen in older teens and younger people in their 20s.

Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN on Thursday morning that an email he received last year from an executive at the US-based EcoHealth Alliance has been misconstrued.

In the wake of thousands of Fauci’s emails publishing online, he has received some criticism for an email sent last April by an executive at the global nonprofit, which helped fund some research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. The email thanked Fauci for publicly stating that scientific evidence supports a natural origin for the coronavirus and not a lab release.

CNN’s John Berman read the email to Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during an appearance on New Day.

“There are some of your critics who say this shows you have too cozy of a relationship with the people behind the Wuhan lab research,” Berman said. “What do you say to that?”

“That’s nonsense,” Fauci responded. “I don’t even see how they get that from that email.”

Fauci then emphasized that the email was sent to him — so he was on the receiving end.

“I have always said, and will say today to you, John, that I still believe the most likely origin is from an animal species to a human, but I keep an absolutely open mind that if there may be other origins, there may be another reason, it could have been a lab leak,” Fauci told Berman. 

“I believe if you look historically, what happens in the animal-human interface, that in fact the more likelihood is that you’re dealing with a jump of species. But I keep an open mind all the time. And that’s the reason why I have been public that we should continue to look for the origin,” Fauci said. 

“You can misconstrue it however you want — that email was from a person to me saying ‘thank you’ for whatever it is he thought I said, and I said that I think the most likely origin is a jumping of species. I still do think it is, at the same time as I’m keeping an open mind that it might be a lab leak,” he continued.  

Hear Dr. Fauci’s response to released emails:

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04:37 - Source: cnn

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that he is “cautiously optimistic” that children under age 12 will be able to get vaccinated by Thanksgiving.

“We are now doing studies that are ongoing as we’re speaking, studies that are looking at what we call age de-escalation: children from 12 to 9 and then 9 to 6 and then 6 to 2 and then 6 months to 2 years. We hope as we approach the end of this calendar year, we’ll have enough information to vaccinate children of any age,” Fauci told CNN’s John Berman.

Fauci also said he feels “fairly certain” that the US will not experience the kind of coronavirus surges that the country has seen in the past. 

“You’re not going to see a substantial blip. You may see a little, but not anything that even resembles a surge” in states that have high vaccination rates, Fauci said. 

“What I am concerned about [is] those states in which the level of vaccination is low. That you may continue to see higher levels of cases as we get into the summer. That’s what my concern is,” he said. 

Watch:

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on ABC’s Good Morning America Thursday that she expects the country will reach President Joe Biden’s goal of 70% of US adults receiving one shot of Covid-19 vaccine by July 4. 

“I certainly expect we will, I certainly hope so,” she said. “I am really looking forward to this June month of action where we canvass America, we work together, we collaborate as a nation in all walks of who we are from mayors to colleges, from businesses to athletes, really working together to reach that 70% goal.”

President Biden on Wednesday announced a “National Month of Action” and outlined additional steps his administration is taking to meet that goal. Four of the nation’s largest childcare providers will offer free childcare from now until July 4 to Americans who are getting their Covid-19 vaccine or recovering from the shot, Biden said.

Starting next week, thousands of pharmacies — including Albertsons, CVS, Rite-Aid, and Walgreens — will stay open late every Friday in June in order to allow more Americans to get vaccinated.

The month of action includes a partnership with Anheuser-Busch that could also mean free alcohol for every American 21 years of age and older

CNN’s Kate Sullivan, Kaitlan Collins and Jeremy Diamond contributed reporting to this post. 

The next phase of the Covid-19 vaccine campaign in the US will be more difficult, but “we’re not giving up,” US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Wednesday.

President Biden announced a “National Month of Action” Wednesday to try to help meet the administration’s goal of vaccinating 70% of the population by July 4.

“I believe if we do everything that you know we have laid out today, if we have a great response from the community, I think we absolutely can still hit that goal,” Murthy said.

“Because we had so much success early on, we are now getting to the part of the campaign which is tougher,” Murthy added. “We’ve got to look further, if you will – convince more people, get to the right information, increase access even further.”

After months of deliberations, President Biden has finalized his plan to distribute millions of coronavirus vaccines worldwide. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted earlier that an announcement was imminent, and according to multiple sources familiar with the plans, officials could reveal it as soon as today or potentially Friday. 

This week, officials will detail which specific countries are getting vaccines while cautioning that this is expected to be a lengthy, complicated process, according to a person familiar with the deliberations. 

For months, administration aides and federal health officials have deliberated over the best way to share additional vaccines doses. The US has come under intense pressure to help other nations, and several of Biden’s top aides have fielded requests from allies to help, including the President himself. Jeff Zients, whom Biden recently tapped to lead efforts to address the pandemic globally, has worked in close coordination with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, sources say. 

Administration officials are expected to lay out the criteria they’ve agreed on to determine which countries get doses. It remains to be seen whether the US will unilaterally decide which countries get which vaccines, or whether the international vaccine initiative known as COVAX will play a major role in deciding who gets them. It could also be a combination of both, officials say.  

One of the most complicated part of the decision-making process has centered on the enormous operational undertaking that sharing vaccines will require. Zients and Sullivan have worked with multiple federal agencies, including the Defense Department and State Department, to coordinate this, in addition to diplomatic counterparts. 

Two big factors that will matter are quality control and a country’s public health infrastructure. 

Right now, only doses of vaccines made by Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson will be distributed, an official told CNN. 

Biden said in May the US would send 60 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses to other countries by July Fourth. But, as of Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. ET, those doses have not cleared a federal safety and efficacy review conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration, another official said.