July 13 coronavirus news

Former US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams called on politicians, including President Biden and former President Trump, to “put the politics away” and encourage Covid-19 vaccination.

“I’m calling on President Biden to stop blaming everything that happened in the pandemic on Trump, and I’m calling on President Trump and all Republicans to do everything they can to get people vaccinated,” Adams told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday. “On both sides, we need to put the politics away.”

Adams said he believes addressing people’s questions and concerns about the vaccine could have more of an impact on vaccine uptake. 

“We’ve got to do our part and make sure we don’t demonize people, that we speak to their mistrust, that we show them that we care and then they’ll care what we know,” added Adams, who was surgeon general under Trump.

“I would like to see President Trump and everyone else out there who’s in a position to influence people encourage those individuals to get vaccinated.”

The US Food and Drug Administration authorized another batch of Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine ingredients on Tuesday from the troubled Emergent BioSolutions facility in Baltimore.

This is the fifth batch produced by the facility to be authorized, the FDA said in a statement, but did not say how many vaccines the newly authorized batch would account for.

The manufacturing facility has not yet received full FDA authorization to produce Johnson & Johnson doses. After a mix-up earlier this year that involved ingredients for Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine and AstraZeneca’s vaccine, production was stopped and AstraZeneca moved its contract work elsewhere. Ingredients that could have made up to 15 million vaccine doses were spoiled by contamination. 

The FDA has been giving extra scrutiny to batches produced at the facility, which are shipped to other facilities to be put into vials and finished.

“Today the agency authorized the use, under the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, of an additional batch of vaccine drug substance manufactured at the Emergent facility,” the FDA said.

“The FDA has concluded that these batches are suitable for use. While the FDA is not yet ready to include the Emergent BioSolutions plant in the Janssen EUA as an authorized manufacturing facility, the agency continues to work through issues there with Janssen and Emergent BioSolutions management.”

The FDA not only approves and authorizes new drugs or vaccines, but also authorizes the facilities where they are produced.

The Department of Homeland Security is administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as part of an effort to scale up vaccinations at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, ICE told CNN in a statement. 

Over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, ICE detention facilities have wrestled with a growing number of positive cases, totaling more than 19,879 confirmed cases and nine deaths. 

Last month, three whistleblowers urged the Biden administration to do more to vaccinate immigrants in ICE detention, claiming that DHS had not implemented a comprehensive plan to address the spread of Covid-19 in immigration detention facilities and criticized guidance putting the onus on detention facilities to contact their states’ vaccine resources, such as state or county departments of health, to obtain vaccines.

But now, DHS has received an initial allocation of 10,000 vaccine doses and a nationwide distribution is underway, according to ICE. The doses make up an initial allocation and will be replenished on a rolling basis. 

In a statement, an ICE spokesperson said DHS “remains committed to a public health guided, evidence-based approach to vaccine education that ensures those in our care and custody can make an informed choice during this global pandemic.” 

There are more than 27,600 immigrants in ICE custody, as of July 9.

A group of seven national epidemiology and infection prevention organizations recommended that hospitals and healthcare facilities make Covid-19 vaccination a condition of employment in a statement released Tuesday.

The consensus statement from the groups, which includes the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, “recommends that Covid-19 vaccination should be a condition of employment for all healthcare personnel.”

They note that an exemption from the policy would apply to people who have medical contraindications to all Covid-19 vaccines available in the US. Other exemptions as specified by federal or state law would also apply. 

The statement, published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, also supports the vaccination of non-employees at healthcare facilities, such as students, contract workers and volunteers.

The recommendation is based on several points, the statement said. These include the high efficacy of the authorized vaccines at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 as well as hospitalizations and deaths; several advantages that vaccination offers to patient and employee safety; the fact that the authorized vaccines appear to retain good effectiveness against currently circulating variants; and that prior experience and current information suggest that without Covid-19 vaccination being a condition of employment, sufficient vaccination rates are unlikely to be achieved.

“The Covid-19 vaccines in use in the United States have been shown to be safe and effective,” Dr. David Weber, lead author of the statement and a member of the SHEA Board of Trustees, said in a SHEA news release. “By requiring vaccination as a condition of employment we raise levels of vaccination for healthcare personnel, improve protection of our patients, and aid in reaching community protection. As healthcare personnel, we’re committed to these goals.”

Only a quarter of children ages 12-15 are fully vaccinated – less than any other eligible age group, according to data published Tuesday from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s the latest CDC data on vaccination efforts in the United States:

The Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) announced on Tuesday that 10% of the Brazilian athletes that will participate at the Tokyo Olympic Games decided not to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

According to COB Sports Director Jorge Bichara at a news conference, 75% of the 301 Brazilian athletes who will represent Brazil at the Tokyo Olympics are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. About 90% of Brazilian athletes received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to figures presented by the committee in the conference.

Vaccination is not mandatory to participate in the event.

“As the International Olympic Committee outlined that (the vaccination) was not mandatory, it was also not presented as mandatory for athletes. We had athletes who chose not to be vaccinated, but we will preserve the names because it is a personal matter. We have our convictions, we understand how important it is (to get vaccinated), but we respect the positions of each individual,” Bichara said.

Brazilian athletes from nine sports teams are already at the Olympic Village in Tokyo.

After over 40 days without any states on its travel advisory, the city of Chicago has added Missouri and Arkansas back to the list.

Due to an increase in Covid-19 cases in those states, unvaccinated people traveling from Missouri or Arkansas “are advised to obtain a negative Covid-19 test result no more than 72 hours prior to arrival in Chicago or quarantine for a 10-day period upon arrival,” according to the city’s travel advisory.

There were no states on the travel advisory on June 1, the first time since July 2020, the city said in its news release.

Polio survivor and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has made it no secret that he wants Americans to get vaccinated no matter their political party, talking about it most every time speaks publicly when he’s in Kentucky.

CNN asked him if there is more Republicans need to do and what he has been doing back home.

“It is discouraging that so many people remain unvaccinated. I am a big fan of vaccinations. I had a personal experience with that in my own life and it is pretty clear from all the evidence that if you get the disease, you are much more likely to survive it if you get vaccinated,” McConnell said.

“I think we just have to keep preaching that and try to get people to understand the importance of it and for whatever audience I may have, I am going to keep talking about it,” he said. 

Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, opened its sixth Covid-19 unit to help care for patients over the weekend, according to spokesperson Sonya Kullman. 

On Sunday, the Missouri hospital reported 137 patients with Covid-19.

“For context, the high in the last surge was 113 on Dec. 28, 2020,” Kullman said in an email to CNN.

Nearly eight out of 10 (78%) people in Japan say the Olympics should not go ahead as scheduled, putting the host nation near the bottom of a list of 28 countries polled about their enthusiasm for the rescheduled 2020 Games. 

Only South Korea came behind Japan on the question, with 14% of respondents in South Korea saying the Games should go ahead, and 86% saying they should not. 

Those are among the key findings of an Ipsos Mori survey released Tuesday.

More than half of people (57%) across the 28 countries say the event should not go ahead, while over four out of 10 (43%) say it should. 

Majorities in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Poland, Italy, India and the United States said the Summer Games should go ahead even if the Covid-19 pandemic is not over. 

Majorities in the other 21 countries in the survey, including China, Australia, Germany, Mexico, Brazil and Canada said they should not. 

Ipsos interviewed 19,510 adults online between May 21 and June 4, 2021 for the survey. 

Sen. Mitt Romney, Republican from Utah, responded to the audience at Conservative Political Action Conference over the weekend cheering about the country falling short of the Covid-19 vaccine goal, calling it “grossly unfortunate.”

He said there’s a “huge human cost to have made vaccinations political.”

“After all President Trump and his supporters take credit for developing the vaccine,” added Romney. “Why the heck won’t they take advantage of the vaccine that they received plaudits for having developed it?”

Asked about Majority Whip Dick Durbin’s criticism of Fox News hosts for their anti-vaccine messages and whether he’s concerned about it as well, Romney said: “Politicizing vaccinations is moronic”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet on July 22, according to the CDC’s website. 

The meeting will cover “the latest information on vaccine safety, including GBS, and updated clinical considerations for Covid-19 vaccines,” CDC told CNN in an email.

The US Food and Drug Administration updated the label for Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine Monday, saying there may be an increased risk of a rare neurological condition called Guillain-Barré Syndrome, or GBS, among people who have been recently vaccinated.

About 70% of the US military has received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said during an off-camera briefing with reporters. 

“That’s encouraging, but there’s more work to be done,” Kirby added. “We continue to be in the mode of encouraging troops to get vaccinated to the maximum degree.”

Kirby said the Defense Department is “watching the Delta variant closely,” but there have been no policy changes at the Department as a result of the variant’s spread so far.

At least seven states are restricting public schools from requiring vaccination or proof of vaccination for students, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Montana, Oklahoma and Utah.

The decision to block schools from requiring the coronavirus vaccine is “flat out disheartening,” according to Dr. Chris T. Pernell, a public health physician and fellow at the American College of Preventative Medicine.

“We need to be practicing sound and rational public health recommendations and guidelines. To flat out prohibit Covid-19 vaccination is not in anyone’s best interest,” Pernell told CNN. “When states make that move, they get in the way of good and effective public health.”

In addition to coronavirus vaccines, many states are debating the necessity for masks in schools. However, Pernell said masks should be worn in schools, calling the coronavirus epidemic “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

“I’m masked every day when I go inside of that hospital. If you’re in a long-term care facility, you will be masked. If you’re on mass transit, you will be masked. If you’re at a jail or a prison, you will be masked,” Pernell said. “So for me, I don’t think we should create a different or another set of circumstances for schools where you have high traffic areas, where you cannot verify and confirm vaccination.”

Pernell told CNN the Delta variant is a concern due to high transmission rates and an increase in hospitalizations. Thus, masks and vaccines can prevent the variant from spreading in schools.

Without vaccinations, Pernell said vaccinated populations would not be “resuming some semblance of normality.”

“This is why our message needs to remain clear. We are not out of the woods. Vigilance needs to still be our main and primary goal,” Pernell said.

Pop star and actress Olivia Rodrigo, singer of hits “Drivers License” and “Good 4 U” is heading to the White House Wednesday to do her part to increase vaccination outreach to young people.

Rodrigo, 18, will be meeting with President Joe Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, a White House official said. 

She will “record videos about the importance of young people getting vaccinated, including answering important questions young people have about getting vaccinated,” the official said, which comes as the administration continues to make a push to get more Americans vaccinated amid rising cases and slowing vaccinations.

The videos, per the White House official, will be featured on Rodrigo’s channels and the White House social pages. Rodrigo has more than 28 million followers across her channels, the official noted.

At least seven states are restricting public schools from requiring Covid-19 vaccinations or proof of vaccination for students ranging from pre-K to university, according to a CNN analysis.

These states include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Montana, Oklahoma and Utah. However, some states still expect students to receive other recommended childhood vaccinations, such as those against measles, whooping cough, polio and chickenpox.

Here’s a breakdown of each state’s approach:

Read more about the laws prohibiting vaccines in schools here.

Nearly 1.3 million French people have made an appointment for a Covid-19 vaccine shot since President Emmanuel Macron’s address to the nation last night, France’s main medical appointment site, Doctolib, tweeted Tuesday.

The vaccine booking website initially crashed after Macron called on citizens to sign up for their Covid-19 shots and announced either proof of full vaccination, a negative PCR test result in the past 48 hours or proof of a recent recovery from the virus would be needed to enter restaurants, malls and bars and for travel on long train journeys and planes starting in August.

Macron also announced that vaccination would be mandatory for health workers starting Sept. 15 and hinted at the possibility of making the shot mandatory for everyone if the epidemic worsens.

Around 926,000 French citizens made appointments for their first dose on Monday, in a record sign-up, Doctolib, tweeted on Tuesday morning. In a further update, the site said around another 350,000 French people made their vaccination appointments since midnight on Doctolib, meaning nearly 1.3 million French people in total made an appointment since Macron’s address Monday night.

The website also said a record of 20,000 bookings were made every minute.

Doctolib’s CEO Stanislas Niox-Chateau said the 1.3 million bookings were a “record mobilization”. 

Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the Tennessee vaccine official who was fired Monday after an argument about vaccinating children against Covid-19, told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on New Day Tuesday that her real concern is that the Tennessee Department of Health leadership has told its workers it can no longer do vaccine outreach of any kind.

“This is a job that I absolutely love. It’s work that I love, the people that I work with, the on-the-ground people in the Tennessee Department of Health are amazing and they have worked themselves to exhaustion to try to help people in Tennessee,” said Fiscus, who has said she is one of 25 state and territorial immunization program directors to leave their positions during the pandemic. “But our leadership has been toxic to work under and morale within the department is poor. There are state workers all over the state who fear for their jobs because they want to do the right thing and the administration is much more interested in politics.” 

“What really concerns me,” Fiscus continued, “is that in order to appease the legislators that were upset about this memo, our leadership of the Department of Health has instructed the Department of Health to no longer do outreach around immunizations for children of any kind.” 

This includes outreach around infant immunizations, flu vaccine outreach in schools, back-to-school immunizations, HPV vaccination and not being allowed to message National Immunization Awareness Month in August, Fiscus said.

“That is the travesty, that is where the people of Tennessee have been sold out for politics, and that is frankly why I am here,” she said. “Because of my 24 colleagues who have also endured this and other issues along the course of dealing with this pandemic. And someone needs to speak out about it and so I guess that will be me.” 

CNN has reached out to the Tennessee health department for comment. The department previously said it could not comment on personnel matters.

Asked what this would mean, Fiscus said that there are already school districts that are below standard immunization rates and counties in the state that are “prime sites” for outbreaks of highly infectious diseases such as measles.

“We’ve been told that we can’t even go remind those parents that they need to bring their children in to get vaccinated. So if folks think that Covid-19 is highly transmissible, measles outbreaks are nine times more transmissible than Covid-19. And this is what we’re trying to prevent. We’re trying to prevent diseases that can be prevented. And, you know, at this point, there is no reason for anyone to die from Covid-19 or any other vaccine preventable disease,” she said. 

As Covid-19 cases rise due to the highly contagious Delta variant, Europe is racing to vaccinate its citizens and some EU member states are debating whether to make vaccinations compulsory.

France: French President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday that healthcare workers, workers in care homes and people working in contact with fragile people will have to be vaccinated by Sept. 15.

Macron also suggested that his country might have to look at making Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for all if the epidemiological situation deteriorates.

Greece: Greece has also ordered mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers and announced restrictions for unvaccinated citizens as Covid infections rise, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced Monday.

Starting immediately, vaccinations for nursing home staff in Greece will be mandatory and those who refuse will be suspended from work from August 16th onwards. From Sep. 1, compulsory vaccination will also apply to healthcare workers in both public and private sectors

Italy: Italian PM Mario Draghi signed a decree in April allowing health care workers’ employers to suspend them without pay or move them to a position that doesn’t include contact with the public until the end of 2021 if they refuse to get mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations. 

About 2,500 medical workers in Italy are suing regional health care authorities to challenge the government requirement that they be vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to remain in their positions, a lawyer acting for them told CNN on July 6.

Germany: Germany, on the other hand, is not planning to make vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday during a news conference.

“We have no intention of going down this road,” Merkel said during a news conference, adding that “there will be no compulsory vaccination.” 

Merkel went on to say that she believes many more people still want to get vaccinated and that it’s up to the authorities now to make both information and vaccines more accessible.

As of Tuesday, more than half of all adults in the EU are now fully vaccinated, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Tuesday 

“To keep safe from variants and avoid a new wave of infections, it’s important to get vaccinated. Enough doses have been delivered to vaccinate 70% of adults in the EU. Let’s do it,” von der Leyen said. 

On June 23, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control warned that the Delta variant of the coronavirus is on track to make up 90% of new cases of Covid-19 in the European Union by the end of August.

The US Food and Drug Administration updated the label on Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine Monday to warn of the possible increased risk of a rare neurological complication known as Guillain-Barré syndrome.

While the FDA said it had not established the vaccine could cause the syndrome, it noted an increase in reports of the sometimes paralyzing condition.

“Today, the FDA is announcing revisions to the vaccine recipient and vaccination provider fact sheets for the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) COVID-19 Vaccine to include information pertaining to an observed increased risk of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) following vaccination,” it said in a statement sent to CNN.

“Reports of adverse events following use of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine under emergency use authorization suggest an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome during the 42 days following vaccination,” the updated label reads

“Although the available evidence suggests an association between the Janssen vaccine and increased risk of GBS, it is insufficient to establish a causal relationship. No similar signal has been identified with the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines,” the label adds.

The FDA said 100 preliminary reports of Guillain-Barré syndrome had been filed with the US government’s Vaccine Adverse Reporting System, out of 12.8 million Janssen vaccines given.

“Guillain Barré syndrome (a neurological disorder in which the body’s immune system damages nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis) has occurred in some people who have received the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine,” the FDA says in the label update for patients and caregivers.

“In most of these people, symptoms began within 42 days following receipt of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine. The chance of having this occur is very low,” it adds.

People should seek medical attention if they notice symptoms such as weakness or tingling in the arms and legs, especially if it spreads, after receiving a vaccine, the FDA said.

Other telltale symptoms include difficulty walking, speaking, chewing or swallowing; double vision; and bowel or bladder control problems.

The FDA said 95 of the 100 reports of GBS involved people who needed hospitalization, and one person died.

“Each year in the United States, an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people develop GBS. Most people fully recover from the disorder,” the agency added.

“GBS has also been observed at an increased rate associated with certain vaccines, including certain seasonal influenza vaccines and a vaccine to prevent shingles.

Johnson & Johnson confirmed it was talking to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FDA about the issue.

“We have been in discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulators about rare cases of the neurological disorder, Guillain-Barré syndrome, that have been reported following vaccination with the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine,” the company said in a brief statement.

Even if the vaccine does raise the risk of the syndrome, it’s still better to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, the CDC stressed.

So did Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“You’re always going to find some adverse event associated with vaccination,” Fauci told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.

“When you vaccinate tens of millions of people, you will always find a rare event. You’ve got make a decision – does the benefit outweigh the unusual risk of an adverse event? Thus far with the vaccines, it’s always been decided that the benefit of the vaccine outweighs the risk of an adverse event.”

You can read more about this here.

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on New Day Tuesday that decisions around recommendations about coronavirus exposure testing are data driven – but that anyone who experiences Covid-19 symptoms should be tested, regardless of vaccination status. 

“This too is a data-driven decision,” said Murthy when asked if he thought there would be a recommendation that vaccinated people who have had exposure to Covid-19 should be tested, in light of the Delta variant. “It depends on what we see in terms of breakthrough.” 

The data that has been assessed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so far has led to the conclusion that fully vaccinated people have a low likelihood of being infected, which is why it made the recommendation that exposure testing and quarantine is not required for the fully vaccinated. 

“Again, we are constantly following the data and if there is a case where we start to see more breakthrough infections, you know, in individuals who have been fully vaccinated either based on the amount of time that has gone on by or based on other circumstances, that we’ll change the recommendations accordingly,” he said, adding that at this point the CDC is keeping its recommendations as is, meaning fully vaccinated people do not need to be tested if they are exposed but have no symptoms.

“One clarification I should make here for everyone out there is that the CDC’s guidance does very clearly say that if you have symptoms, regardless of your vaccination status, that you should get tested,” said Murthy, adding that Covid-19 symptoms often mimic the symptoms of a cold or the flu initially. 

“The reason I want to emphasize this, Brianna, is we have seen that many people are actually not getting tested around the country, even though they have symptoms, many people are thinking, ‘Oh Covid’s over, why do I really need to get tested?’ and this is particularly happening in areas, unfortunately, where the vaccination rates are low, which is exactly where we want to be testing more,” he said. “So, I just want to encourage and remind people, if you have symptoms, please, please get tested, regardless of your vaccination status.” 

After questions as to whether it would happen, the Office of the First Lady announced Tuesday that first lady Jill Biden will be traveling to Tokyo later this month for the 2021 Olympic Summer Games.

Last week, it was announced that spectators would be banned from some venues, with the White House saying it was still “assessing the feasibility” of her attendance.

But Biden is now set to travel.

“First Lady Jill Biden will travel to the Opening Ceremony of the 2021 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan. The Opening Ceremony of the 2021 Olympic Summer Games will be held on July 23, 2021. Additional information and details to come,” her office said in a statement.

With Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations increasing in communities with low vaccination rates, an expert says Americans face a choice: get vaccinated or continue dealing with the impacts of the pandemic.

“We can’t have it both ways; we can’t be both unmasked and non-socially distant and unvaccinated. That won’t work,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, said Monday.

The United States is now averaging about 23,346 new cases a day over the past seven days, a 97% increase from the week prior, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

About a third of the nation’s cases came out of five states — Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Nevada — Reiner said. All of which have fewer than 48% of their total population vaccinated, according to CDC data

Of all the deaths from the virus in June, more than 99% were among unvaccinated people, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said.

“We have to pick sides and the side is we need to be vaccinated,” Reiner said. “We have the tools to put this down – we can put it down this summer – but the way to do that is vaccination.”

To get more Americans vaccinated, officials will need to address the reasons behind some of the population’s hesitancy.

For some, it is that the vaccines have not been fully approved, which Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN is only a matter of time.

“The idea that it hasn’t been approved yet is a technicality of the way the FDA does business,” Fauci said.

And for some, political divide has inhibited vaccinations, but Reiner emphasized that with more than 600,000 Americans dead, it is the virus that should be seen as the enemy, not vaccines.

In Arkansas, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the US at 35% according to CDC data, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said he, as a Black man, was skeptical of getting a vaccine, but now wants to lead the way to ensure all residents get the shot.

“It’s serious and we should not have to allow someone to die for us to really believe the research and science. What we continue to do is go by data driven policies and research and all that we do in our administration, and this is just another way to continue to do that because, again, this saves lives,” said Scott.