COVID-19 Update: Half the US Population is Fully Vaxxed; and More

Here are some of the latest headlines related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic for the week ending on 8/6/2021.

Half the US Population is Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19

Half the US population is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the White House Data Director Dr. Cyrus Shahpar. According to the latest data available from the CDC dashboard, per a CNN report, an average of 699,261 doses have been administered each day over the past seven days, and an average of 464,778 people initiated vaccination each day over the past seven days.

Biden Says Unvaccinated Americans are “Taking a Needless Toll” on the US

President Joe Biden said that unvaccinated Americans are having a needless impact on the country. “Cases are going to go up before they come back down. It’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated. And it’s … taking a needless toll on our country,” Biden said. “Today, about 400 people will die because of the Delta variant in this country. A tragedy because virtually all of these deaths were preventable if people had gotten vaccinated,” he added.

One Dose on Pfizer’s Vaccine May Suffice For Previously Infected People

New data show that people previously infected with COVID-19 may have sufficient immunity following just one dose of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine. “We observed higher SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels in previously infected individuals after 1 dose of BNT162b2 compared with infection-naive individuals after 2 doses,” the study authors wrote.

CDC Says that Vaccines Prevent Severe COVID, Not Transmission

Fully vaccinated people who experience COVID-19 breakthrough infection can spread the disease, said US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. “Our vaccines are working exceptionally well,” Walensky told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “They continue to work well for Delta, with regard to severe illness and death – they prevent it. But what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission.”