His remarks also revealed the concern about Americans who aren’t rushing to get immunized. “Go get vaccinated,” he pleaded from the podium as administration health officials fret that the country won’t be able to achieve widespread immunity if too many people decide not to get a shot. “They’re available now,” he added.
“If one looks at the COVAX system and its intention, it’s supposed to help the global south and the poorest of the poor countries. To vaccinate only 3% — it is destined to fail,” he said.
YOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED.
Q. Could the Covid-19 vaccines affect my fertility?
There’s no evidence that people have lost any fertility because of the Covid-19 vaccines. The rumor apparently started with the myth that the coronavirus spike protein, which is mimicked when you get a vaccine, also mimics the protein on the surface of placental cells, Offit said.
“So the false notion was that when you’re making an immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, you also were inadvertently making a response to a placental protein — which would then make you less likely to be fertile,” Offit said.
WHAT’S IMPORTANT TODAY
India’s Covid-19 crisis is a problem for the world
Experts warn the more the virus spreads, the more chances it has to mutate and create variants that could eventually resist current vaccines, threatening to undermine other countries’ progress in containing the pandemic. This is compounded by India having insufficient vaccines for its population, with no fast and simple way to make more.
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines greatly reduce hospitalizations for elderly
The study also found that the vaccines were 64% effective among those older adults who only received one dose of vaccine so far. These findings are consistent with the vaccines’ clinical trial results, which showed an efficacy of about 94% to 95%, researchers from the CDC and several other institutions noted.
One in four Covid-19 deaths last week was in the Americas, says regional health body
New coronavirus variants are helping drive the surge in infections across the region, while slow vaccination rollouts — due in part to lack of availability — pose additional setbacks for several countries in the Americas. The robust US vaccination campaign has been an exception.
ON OUR RADAR
- Two YouTubers are facing deportation from Bali after they made a prank video that depicted one of them breaking local mask laws.
- The economic fallout of the pandemic has been disastrous for women, who lost $800 billion in income last year, according to Oxfam International. That’s more than the combined GDP of 98 countries.
- Los Angeles County, the first county in the US to have recorded more than 1 million coronavirus cases, is set to enter its least restrictive reopening phase as early as next week.
- Turkey is beginning its national three-week lockdown on Thursday in the midst of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as the health minister warns the country will experience difficulties in securing vaccines over the next two months.
- Germany’s intelligence service said Wednesday it would put some members of an anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine movement, known as “Querdenker,” under surveillance as concerns grow over its ties to far-right extremists.
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TODAY’S PODCAST
“I just want to be remembered as I really took really good care of my patients.” — Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Health Services