Epigraph:
Every human life is precious and sacred and saving one is like saving the whole of humanity. (Al Quran 5:32/33)
Source: CNBC
By Kevin Stankiewicz; @KEVIN_STANK
- Covid vaccinations are not the only reason U.S. coronavirus cases keep falling, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday.
- Other factors include warming weather, cautious behavior and the fact that a portion of unvaccinated Americans have been previously infected, according to the former FDA chief.
- “I think we’re going to have a very quiet summer with respect to coronavirus spread and then have to contend with it again as we head into the winter,” Gottlieb said.
More Americans are vaccinated against Covid everyday, but that’s not the only reason coronavirus cases in the U.S. keep falling, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday.
In an interview on “Closing Bell,” the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner said additional factors contributing to declining infection levels include warming weather and the fact that a portion of the unvaccinated population has already been infected with Covid.
Gottlieb’s comments Friday came as the country’s seven-day average of daily new coronavirus infections fell below 30,000 for the first time in almost a year; in late March, that figure was around 66,000.
The case decline has coincided with an expansion of vaccine availability. As of Friday, nearly 50% of the U.S. population has received at least one Covid vaccine dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In late March, that number was slightly less than 30%.
However, the percentage of Americans who have some immunity against coronavirus is higher than the vaccination rates, Gottlieb said, estimating that at least one-third of the population has been infected. The U.S. has had around 33 million total confirmed Covid cases, but Gottlieb has repeatedly said the official tally is an undercount.
“We don’t have data on this, but my guess would be that the infection level among the unvaccinated population is probably higher because a lot of people probably aren’t getting the vaccine because they knew they were previously infected,” Gottlieb said.
Covid-19 cases and deaths in the U.S. continue to plunge, despite the slowed pace of vaccinations. The U.S. recorded almost 28,600 new cases on Friday, with the seven-day average roughly half the level of a month ago, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-21/oregon-offers-1-million-u-s-enlists-dating-apps-virus-update?srnd=premium
Yahoo Finance
An alarming number of Americans are unvaccinated despite wanting a jab
Adriana Belmonte
Adriana Belmonte·Senior Editor
Sat, May 22, 2021, 11:03 AM
Though the number of vaccinated Americans continues to rise, there is still a significant amount of the population that has yet to receive their COVID-19 shots.
And while some have no plans of getting vaccinated for various personal or political reasons, others would like to but are having trouble obtaining or making time for a vaccination appointment.
“Hesitancy makes a better story because you’ve got controversy,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently told New York Times. “But there’s a bigger problem of access than there is of hesitancy.”
According to a recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), one-third of unvaccinated Hispanic/Latino adults want to be vaccinated soon as possible but currently unable to do so.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-are-unvaccinated-despite-willing-150350059.html