July 28, 2021 US coronavirus news

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson looks on during a game in Indianapolis on November 8, 2020.

The Baltimore Ravens opened training camp on Wednesday without starting quarterback Lamar Jackson, after the former league MVP tested positive for Covid-19.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh confirmed Jackson and running back Gus Edwards tested positive for Covid-19 after the team’s practice, “We had Gus Edwards for Covid and Lamar Jackson tested positive for [Covid-19]. Those two guys will be put in the protocol, and that’s really the extent that we can comment on those two guys at this time.”

Per NFL health and safety protocols, vaccinated players who test positive and remain asymptomatic are eligible to return after testing negative twice in a 24-hour span. Unvaccinated players are required to quarantine for 10 days and then test negative in order to return. 

It is unclear if Jackson is vaccinated. In June, Jackson was asked about his vaccination status saying, “Just like everyone in society, it’s their decision, keeping that to themselves, but I feel we do a great job here of taking the vaccine, staying away from Covid, following the right preparation and stuff like that, staying away from the outside to the people that are attracting it.” 

CNN has inquired about Jackson’s vaccination status.

Last November, the Ravens struggled to manage a coronavirus outbreak within the team - at one point placing over 20 players on the team’s Reserve/Covid-19 list.

On Wednesday, the NFL disclosed their latest update on player vaccination percentages. The league says 86.9% of players are vaccinated overall (at least one shot) with 18 clubs with over 90% vaccinated.

Reps. Lauren Boebert, left, and Chip Roy are pictured on their way to a meeting in the US Capitol Visitor Center on May 14, 2021.

Several Republicans in the House, including Minority Whip Steve Scalise are openly blasting a new mandate that members in the House must mask up again due to the increase in Covid-19 cases arising from the much more transmissible Delta variant. 

GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert threw a mask back at a floor staffer when she was offered one while trying to walk onto the floor maskless, according to a witness account relayed to CNN. Her office later released a statement saying: “Rep. Boebert refuses to comply with Speaker Pelosi’s anti-science, totalitarian mask mandate. When offered a mask, she returned it with a quick slide across the table.”

Boebert then sat on the House floor without wearing a mask, the only member on the floor not to be wearing one.

GOP Rep. Chip Roy, later entered the floor maskless, and called for the House to adjourn. Fellow Freedom Caucus members, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Andy Biggs and Boebert then stood up and yelled AYE also all not wearing masks, but Democrats opposed.

Roy and Boebert’s actions come one day after the House reinstated its mask mandate.

Members found not wearing a mask are subject to a $500 fine, per House rules. The House’s mandate follows the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new recommendation Tuesday that all Americans should mask up indoors, regardless of vaccination status, in areas with “high” or “substantial” Covid-19 transmission. 

GOP Rep. Chip Roy joined Rep. Lauren Boebert in refusing to wear a mask on the House floor Wednesday, calling the newly reinstated rules “patently absurd.”

When asked if he has any intentions of masking up in the Capitol, Roy told CNN “we’ll see.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also walked onto the floor this morning without a mask. CNN asked her if she was going to wear one. She said: “Do you see a mask on my face? I think that’s the answer to your question. And I’m suing Nancy Pelosi for violating the 27th amendment.”

Separately, Scalise responded on Twitter to the latest change in mask guidance, writing, “This isn’t about science—it’s about government control.”

“First they told us don’t wear a mask. Then they told us wear a mask. Then wear two masks. Then get the vaccine and you don’t have to wear a mask. Now they tell us never mind, wear a mask. This isn’t about science—it’s about government control,” Scalise wrote on Twitter.

Scientists argue best practices and mandates will continue to evolve as the science and the virus evolves. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is ordering all patient-facing healthcare workers in state hospitals to get vaccinated with no testing option. He made the announcement while speaking at a virtual meeting for The Association for a Better New York.

“We need dramatic action to get control of this situation,” Cuomo said. “We want to make sure that those healthcare workers are vaccinated. Period.”

Cuomo also said that the state is conducting a full review of the new CDC guidance suggesting masks indoors for everyone, included those who are vaccinated, in areas with substantial Covid cases. 

Cuomo added that New York will follow President Biden’s planned announcement that all federal workers be vaccinated or get tested. New York state workers fill need to do the same, effective Labor Day, which is Sept. 6.

“We’re working with our unions to implement this quickly and fairly, but we want to get it done by labor day and I encourage all local governments to do the same,” Cuomo said.  

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration said the US isn’t doing a good job of measuring how much spread is happening in the country and there is probably a lot more than is being picked up. 

The US is not doing a lot of testing, he said, and much of the testing done is at home and not being reported. Many people who are getting infected now or experiencing mild symptoms are not seeking out tests.

“Generally speaking, the people who are presenting for testing are either people who are getting very sick, or people who are developing telltale symptoms of Covid like loss of taste or smell,” he said. “So, we’re picking up probably a very small fraction of the overall infections.”  

At the height of the epidemic in winter, 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 infections were probably diagnosed; last summer, probably 1 in 10 were being diagnosed, Gottlieb said: “I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re only turning over one in ten infections right now, maybe less than that.” 

“If you start to impute that and you factor in how many people remain unvaccinated and vulnerable to this infection, it’s about maybe 80 million Americans that are unvaccinated and remain vulnerable to infection,” he said. “Probably a lot of them have now been infected with this Delta wave, we probably have a lot more infection in the states with vaccination rates are low than what we’re picking up.” 

The biggest part of the problem, he said, is that there aren’t solid numbers saying this is true. 

“CDC has a retrospective mindset in terms of how they operate, they really don’t have a prospective mindset. They don’t do real-time forecasting, and they don’t collect all the data that’s necessary to make real-time decision making,” Gottlieb said.

In a response to CNN on Wednesday, CDC did not address whether cost was a factor in how it’s tracking breakthrough cases. It noted that in early May, CDC transitioned to focus on breakthrough cases in patients who were hospitalized or die. 

“This shift will help maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance,” CDC’s Jasmine Reed said in an email, adding, “State and local health departments continue to report breakthrough cases to CDC to identify and investigate patterns or trends among hospitalized or fatal vaccine breakthrough cases.”

Kenya is set to receive 2,460,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses through bilateral donations from the US and European countries, according to the Ministry of Health. 

Kagwe said the vaccine doses will start arriving in the country at the beginning of next week in a boost to the ongoing vaccination campaign. The current drive has seen 1,692,793 of the 1,733,100 AstraZeneca doses received in the country administered.

Kenya’s Ministry of Health added in a tweet that the COVAX initiative has also allocated Kenya 407,040 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 271,440 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Those doses are in addition to the government-procured 13 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, whose delivery will start next month.

In preparation for the arrival of the Pfizer vaccines, which require ultra-cold storage at -70 degrees, the cabinet secretary said, “Kenya will be receiving 15 ultra-cold chain freezers from the UPS Foundation valued at 15 million shillings ($138,100) within the next two weeks.” These will be delivered to the main vaccine store in Kitengela, along with nine of the regional stores across the country allowing a shelf-life of six months.

The Kenya Ministry of Health said it “will work with county governments to conduct outreach services aimed at increasing demand for vaccine services among priority populations and hard to reach areas.”

The department said the latest initiative remains in line with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s plan to have 10 million people vaccinated by Christmas this year, with the entire adult population of 26 million to be done by end of next year in an effort to reach herd immunity.

The statement comes as the White House National Security Council’s Senior Director for Africa Dana Banks announced the US will be sending more than 5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to South Africa, and just over 4 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Nigeria.

General Motors and Ford tell CNN that they have reinstated mask mandates at some of their US facilities.  

General Motors spokesperson Dan Flores said they reinstated mandatory mask wearing at their Wentzville, Missouri, assembly plant, “based on a recommendation from GM’s Medical team review of positive cases in the community, absentee rate, local infection rates, etc.” The mandate went into effect prior to the new CDC guidance was announced on Tuesday afternoon.

Ford spokesperson Daniel Barbossa told CNN that they would be requiring face masks for all employees and visitors in their facilities in Missouri and Florida.  

Barbossa also said that the company is requiring that employees be fully vaccinated for Covid-19, “prior to any international business travel due to the potential of increased exposure to COVID-19.”

Both companies say they are strongly encouraging all employees get vaccinated against Covid-19.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city’s health officials are reviewing the new CDC guidance on indoor masking and will have more to say on it in the upcoming days. 

“We are accessing the new information from the CDC right now, we got it less than 24 hours ago. It is complicated information, so our health team is reviewing it and we’ll have more to say on it in the next few days,” de Blasio said during an ongoing press conference Wednesday. 

All five boroughs in New York City are indicated as areas of high or substantial risk of Covid-19 spread and would fall under the CDC guidelines for indoor masking.

The Department of Homeland Security is requiring all federal employees, contractors, and visitors to wear a mask inside all DHS workspaces and federal buildings as of Wednesday, according to a memo sent to the workforce.

Masks are mandated across the United States, regardless of vaccination status or level of Covid-19 transmission in the local area. 

The memo, sent late Tuesday night from DHS Deputy Under Secretary for Management Randolph “Tex” Alles, urges employees to get vaccinated and get tested for Covid-19 if they experience symptoms. 

Alles told employees and contractors to “continue to physically distance” and follow workplace protection guidance.

The memo was shared with the workforce several hours after the department announced Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will work virtually this week after exposure to a DHS employee who tested positive for Covid-19, according to a department spokesperson.

“The Secretary has no symptoms and has tested negative twice. Official DHS contact tracing is underway,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Marsha Espinosa said in a statement Tuesday.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell listens during a news conference with reporters at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on July 27, 2021.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell will be airing a 60-second ad in the coming days on more than 100 radio stations in Kentucky, according to McConnell’s spokesperson. 

The decision comes as the Delta variant surges across the country, leading to a new mask guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. McConnell is a polio survivor and has been a strong supporter of Covid-19 vaccinations throughout the pandemic.

According to a source familiar with the news, the ad will reference McConnell’s personal experience with Polio. The ad, first reported by Reuters, will be paid for using re-election funds.

“This is not complicated. 97% of people hospitalized for COVID are not vaccinated. If you haven’t been vaccinated, do the right thing for you — for your family — and get vaccinated right now,” McConnell will say, according to a script of the ad. 

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and health officials say they “strongly recommend” that vaccinated and unvaccinated residents “where masks in indoor settings when there is increased risk,” following the new CDC guidance, according to a statement from the governor’s office Wednesday. 

This includes crowded indoor settings, indoor settings involving activities with close contact with other possibly unvaccinated persons, or where an individual is immunocompromised or at an increased risk for severe disease.

“Our metrics are trending in the wrong direction, and new data suggests the Delta variant is more transmissible even among vaccinated individuals, which is why we are making this strong recommendation,” the governor and Health commissioner Judy Persichilli said in a joint statement.

They also encouraged every resident to get vaccinated.

The State Department is now requiring masks indoors for everyone in their domestic and overseas buildings regardless of vaccination status, two State Department officials told CNN. 

CNN has reached out to the State Department for comment.

For context: The House of Representatives’ attending physician also sent out new guidance on Wednesday requiring “well-fitted, medical grade” masks be warn in all interior spaces in the House.

President Joe Biden will announce on Thursday a requirement that all federal employees and contractors be vaccinated against Covid-19, or be required to submit to regular testing and mitigation requirements, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Lisa Pompei and Jean-Elizabeth Shockley lead a swing dance class at the Champlain Club in Burlington, Vermont, on June 20, 2021.

In Vermont, 83.6% of people 12 and over have received at least one shot of the coronavirus vaccine, according to health officials.

Throughout the state, hospital Covid-19 units are mostly empty. Bars and restaurants are hopping again. Even in remote rural towns, diners, country stores and campgrounds are filling up.

In comparison to Vermont’s 83.6% of one-dose vaccinations, only 66.5% of US citizens have received one dose of the vaccine, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Similarly, more than 67% of Vermont’s roughly 624,000 residents have been fully vaccinated, compared with about 49% for the US overall.

Vermont also has the “lowest number of deaths on the continental US,” according to state health commissioner Dr. Mark Levine. The total: 259 Covid-19 deaths.

The state has maintained one of the country’s lowest infection rates as well, currently at 1.7% for a seven-day average, according to the health department’s Covid-19 dashboard.

In June and July, the state has had four Covid-19 deaths. Even in the face of the Delta variant, there are six Covid-19 patients hospitalized in the entire state.

Vermont’s success in vaccinating its residents is attributed to various factors, including the accessibility of vaccine sites, overall trust in the political leadership and science, an aging, mostly white and liberal populace, and a generally health conscious population with a strong sense of civic responsibility.

Vermont’s state of emergency ended at midnight on June 14, the day that vaccination rates reached 80% of the population over 12 years of age.

“Why? Because it’s safe to do so,” Gov. Phil Scott said.

Moreover, hospitals in Vermont have not been swamped with patients. Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans, a community hospital about 28 miles northeast of Burlington, treated its last Covid-19 patient in early May, according to chief medical officer Dr. John Minadeo.

However, in states such as Florida, Texas and Missouri — which share low vaccination rates accounted for 40% of all cases nationwide — hospitals are filling up with Covid-19 patients again, this time with younger patients than before.

Read more about daily life in America’s most vaccinated state here.

CNN’s Alyssa Kraus contributed to this post.

Pfizer anticipates applying for emergency use authorization of a third dose of its coronavirus vaccine as soon as next month, Dr. Mikael Dolsten, who leads worldwide research, development and medical for Pfizer, said during a company earnings call on Wednesday morning.

“We are in ongoing discussions with regulatory agencies regarding a potential third-dose booster of the current vaccine and, assuming positive results, anticipate an emergency use authorization submission as early as August,” Dolsten said.

In order for third doses to be administered to people in the United States, the emergency use authorization that the US Food and Drug Administration issued for the vaccine would either need to be amended or, if the vaccine were FDA approved, a third dose could be given off label.

“Pending regulatory approval, we also plan to start an immunogenicity and safety study in August to evaluate an updated version of our vaccine specifically designed to target the Delta variant,” Dolsten said.

He mentioned how the Delta variant is the “most transmissible” yet seen and now represents about 83% of sequenced Covid-19 cases in the United States.

A sign about mask requirements is on a storefront in Los Angeles on July 19, 2021.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said on NPR’s Morning Edition Wednesday that Covid-19 vaccines don’t make people impervious to infection, but asking vaccinated people to again wear masks may not provide much “bang for our buck” to reduce transmission.

Given how transmissible the Delta variant is, there are probably people who are becoming mildly or asymptomatically infected even when vaccinated, he said. 

“I think at this point, where we are with this Delta wave, which is probably closer to the end than the beginning, and the fact that probably a very small percentage of the transmission is occurring among vaccinated people, I don’t know how prudent this and practical it is,” Gottlieb said of the new CDC guidance. 

The bottom line, he said, is that people who are vaccinated shouldn’t assume that they are completely protected, so if they’re around high-risk people, they should be mindful, and potentially wear a mask, and “certainly” get tested if they think they have Covid-19 symptoms. 

“I think in terms of telling everyone whose been vaccinated that they need to now start wearing a mask again, I think that’s going to be very little bang for our buck in terms of trying to reduce transmission right now in the context of this wave of infection,” he said. 

A health care worker prepares Moderna Covid-19 vaccines in Immokalee, Florida, on May 20, 2021.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN’s John Berman on New Day Wednesday that health passes for the fully vaccinated, such as those used in parts of Europe, “may very well be a path forward.”

“I think some communities are doing that and that may very well be the path forward,” Walensky said.

In a message to students and staff, Duke University leadership announced that due to the increase in Covid-19 cases in North Carolina, they would be issuing an indoor mask mandate to all people regardless of vaccination status.

The university will be requiring masks to be worn indoors in all its facilities, except for on-campus residence halls.

“Masks will not be required in on-campus residence halls where there is a significantly lower risk of exposure for high-risk individuals,” the message said.

Duke said the mask mandate was being instituted because officials “have seen a steady rise in the number of cases on campus among unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals.”

England will allow fully vaccinated travelers from the US and the EU to avoid quarantine from Aug. 2, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced Wednesday.

The changes will apply to fully vaccinated people with a US Food and Drug Administration) or European Medicines Agency vaccine, Shapps said, adding that travelers will “still need to do the usual pre-departure test before arrival and take a PCR test on day 2 of returning to the England.”

“We’re also able to confirm the restart of international cruises and flexible testing programmes to help key workers and drive our economic recovery,” Shapps also said.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on July 28, 2021.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the CDC can push for vaccination in schools, but it can’t mandate it – that will have to be a local decision.

“We can provide this advice, but we can’t mandate it at the federal level,” she told CNN’s John Berman on New Day Wednesday. “Those are all jurisdictional discussions and jurisdictional mandates. We are hoping that our advice will lead to more and more jurisdictions leaning in to get more people vaccinated.” 

There are very few places in the country right now where enough people are vaccinated for children to not have to wear masks in school. 

“I can imagine a situation where a school system might have all of their teachers documented and vaccinated, all of their children in a high school documented as vaccinated and very little disease in the community,” she said. “Right now, we don’t have a lot of situations that are like that, but I could imagine a situation like that, and boy, do I hope we get there.”   

“If we have more and more people vaccinated, we will win in this race and the virus will be less transmitting and we will be able to lift some of these things,” she added.

In its largest bilateral vaccine donation to date, the United States government announced on Monday that it would donate 5.7 million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to South Africa – with the first tranche of vaccines to arrive in Johannesburg over the weekend. 

The donations are part of the Biden-Harris pledge to donate 500 million vaccine doses globally, the statement read. 

South Africa has been one of the worst hit countries in Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic and is emerging from a dramatic third wave of the virus driven by the more transmissible Delta variant. On Sunday, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa eased some restrictions that had been in place for a several weeks to combat the rise in infections. 

The South African government had been criticized for its slow rollout of vaccines, but in recent days the vaccine drive has accelerated substantially. From Sept. 1 anyone over the age of 18 will be eligible for a jab. 

Earlier this month, two provinces in South Africa were hit by widespread looting and unrest that slowed vaccination efforts temporarily. 

“South Africans know they can count on the United States, as a friend and partner, to support their efforts to fight the pandemic and get their economy back on track,” said Haskell in the statement. 

A third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine can “strongly” boost protection against the Delta variant – beyond the protection afforded by the standard two doses, suggests new data released by Pfizer on Wednesday.

The data posted online, which are expected to be discussed in a company earnings call on Wednesday morning, suggest that antibody levels against the Delta variant in people ages 18 to 55 who receive a third dose of vaccine are greater than five-fold following a second dose.

Among people ages 65 to 85, the Pfizer data suggest that antibody levels against the Delta variant after receiving a third dose of vaccine are greater than 11-fold following a second dose.

The data also show that antibody levels are much higher after a third dose than a second dose against the original coronavirus variant and the Beta variant, first identified in South Africa.

A Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine vial is pictured at a mobile clinic in Los Angeles on July 9, 2021.

Pfizer said in its quarterly earnings news release on Wednesday that it expects Covid-19 vaccine safety and immune data that could support emergency use authorization for children ages 5 to 11 by the end of September, and later for younger children.

The announcement appears to shift the company’s previously stated timeline around vaccines for younger children; the company had previously said it expected to seek emergency use authorization for its vaccine for children ages 2 to 11 in September.

The New York Times reported this week that Pfizer would expand vaccine trials in younger children after the US Food and Drug Administration found the trials were too small to detect rare side effects. Pfizer told CNN at the time it did not have an update on details for its trial in children; vaccine maker Moderna confirmed it would expand the size of its Covid-19 vaccine trial in younger children, and did not expect to seek emergency use authorization for the vaccine for children until later this early or early next year. 

Students work in a classroom at an elementary school in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 17, 2021.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN’s John Berman on New Day Wednesday that masking is the safest way to get children back in schools. 

Children younger than 12 aren’t eligible to be vaccinated yet, and just 30% of 12- to 17-year-olds are vaccinated, Walensky said.

“The majority of people in our schools right now will be unvaccinated, just by virtue of the numbers,” she said. “And we felt it was really important to lean in and try and have our children back to school in the safest way possible, and that would mean masking.” 

Walensky also pointed out that although there is no evidence to suggest Delta is making children sicker, “it’s really important for people to understand that this is not a benign disease in kids compared to other diseases that our kids see.” 

The US Capitol in Washington, DC, on July 25, 2021.

The House of Representatives’ attending physician sent out new guidance requiring “well-fitted, medical grade” masks be warn in all interior spaces in the House in light of yesterday’s new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mask guidance and as the Delta variant is rising.

Here’s a portion of a memo:

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN’s John Berman on New Day Wednesday that CDC’s mask guidance change was prompted by science only days old that showed vaccinated people with breakthrough Delta infections can pass the virus to others. More information will be published in the coming days, she said.

Walensky first emphasized that the vaccines are working exactly as it was thought that they would with the Delta variant by preventing hospitalization and death, adding that “we should be getting vaccinated to prevent severe disease in ourselves and to protect ourselves from the Delta variant and from getting severe Covid.” 

“That was the new science that prompted the guidance,” she said. “And, you know, it weighed heavily. I know this is not a message America wants to hear.”