'You are at a great risk': Expert says unvaccinated people shouldn't go into a bar or restaurant
Less than half of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 바카라 게임 웹사이트 and with cases on the rise, experts are urging a return to precautions reminiscent of the earlier days of the pandemic.
"What I would say bluntly is: If you are not vaccinated right now in the United States, you should not go into a bar, you should probably not eat at a restaurant. You are at great risk of becoming infected," CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, said.
In 48 states, the rate of new COVID-19 cases in the past week jumped by at least 10% compared to the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. In 34 of those states, the rate of new cases increased by more than 50%.
And hospitals are filling up with COVID-19 patients again, except now, patients are younger than before, said doctors in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Missouri.
Despite many officials' encouragement and experts warning that the best protection from the virus comes from vaccinations, only 49.1% of the U.S. population is vaccinated, according to data from the
If a large swath of people remains resistant to vaccination, Reiner said, the U.S. is left with two options to control the spread: shut down businesses 바카라 게임 웹사이트 which few people want to do 바카라 게임 웹사이트 or return to masks.
"The only way to get the unvaccinated to mask up is to mask everyone up," Reiner said.
While masking, like vaccination, could come from the mandate of state leaders, Vanderbilt University Medical Center Professor of Infectious Diseases Dr. William Schaffner said he anticipates more success if the push to return to precautions comes from local officials and trusted community leaders.
And for those who say vaccination is a personal choice, Schaffner said, they are half-right.
"This is a little like driving on the red light. Yes, that's your decision, puts you in danger, but endangers others also," Schaffner said.
Delta variant increases calls for precautions
Part of the urgency to control spread and implement precautions is due to the prevalence of the Delta variant, which is believed to be more transmissible than other strains of the virus.
"At the beginning of the pandemic, the CDC said that a close contact was somebody that you're indoors with unmasked for 15 minutes or more," Dr. Celine Gounder, who served on President Joe Biden's transition COVID-19 advisory board, said in an interview with STAT published Friday. "The equivalent of that with the Delta variant is not 15 minutes, it's one second."
That means people might need to do more than one thing to protect themselves from the more transmissible variant, said Gounder, an infectious diseases specialist at NYU's Grossman School of Medicine.
In addition to vaccination, "Some of the other layers that we should consider would be masking indoors when you're outside of your household bubble, optimizing ventilation in the home 바카라 게임 웹사이트 just opening your window works really well," she said.
People should think in terms of how much virus there is in the air, plus how long they might be in contact with that virus-laden air.
"So if you're indoors, there's not a lot of air dilution unless you're opening up windows and doing that sort of thing. When you're outdoors, it's almost infinitely diluted. And so outdoors, your risk is really low," Gounder said.
As the Delta variant spreads, rates of infections and hospitalizations are on the rise.
In California, San Diego County and Los Angeles County both reported their, and hospitalizations in LA County have more than doubled in two weeks. On Sunday, Los Angeles County officials said hospitalizations surpassed 700 for the first time since March.
In Florida, state health data shows new case positivity nearly doubled in two weeks, from 7.8% the week of July 2 to 15.1%.
A total of 870 hospitalized patients were reported Sunday in Alabama, according to the state's public health. Hospitalizations there have been steadily rising since early July: On July 4 there were just 213 hospitalized patients reported.
And Louisiana now has the highest increase in cases per capita in the U.S., state officials said Friday.
"We know that more than 80% of these are the Delta variant 바카라 게임 웹사이트 that is what's causing this surge," Gov. John Bel Edwards said.
"And what's enabling the surge is a very low percentage of people who have been vaccinated."
As experts push for vaccine mandates, one governor says he won't do it
Vaccination rates would likely go up, Reiner and Schaffner said, if employers and schools required vaccines.
Former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the same, but added that it likely won't happen until the vaccines gain full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"If you want to get a bunch of people vaccinated really quickly, get these vaccines licensed," Adams told CBS Sunday. "And then you'll see the military make it mandatory, you'll see businesses make it mandatory."
Each vaccine available in the United States has been authorized by the FDA for emergency use, but they have yet to be fully approved.
And the lack of full-fledged approval is contributing to vaccine hesitancy, Adams said.
Asked Sunday if vaccine mandates should be on the table, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeffrey Zients told CNN that municipal governments and businesses should consider any strategy that would make it safe to enter their location, whether that's requiring vaccines or negative COVID-19 tests.
But he wants the FDA to take its time to thoroughly review the applications for approval, so the public knows the agency wasn't "bowing to political pressure."
Zients is hopeful some approval will come sometime in August or September. President Biden last week said full approval could come before the end of August.
Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have started their applications for full FDA approval, while Johnson & Johnson has said it intends to file for licensure.
In Arkansas, where vaccination rates are particularly low, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he will not mandate vaccines.
Arkansas reported 11,748 new cases and 56 new deaths this past week with a positivity rating of 19.32% according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. About 36% of Arkansas residents are fully vaccinated, the site reported.
Hutchinson said requiring inoculation could "cause a greater reaction of negativity toward the government, and then imposition on freedom."