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In light of the high number of new infections in the U.S., a senior public health official has warned of a “failure” in his country.
“We should never have gotten to this point,” National Institutes of Health (NIH) research agency head Francis Collins told ABC on Sunday. U.S. President Joe Biden’s medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, warned of the emergence of a new variant of the virus.
Earlier, 118,000 new cases of infection were registered within 24 hours, the most since February. The absolute peak in registered new infections was recorded in the U.S. on Jan. 8, 2021, with more than 251,000 new cases per day.
The highly contagious delta variant of the virus is currently spreading rapidly in the USA. It caused the number of deaths to rise 89 percent in the past two weeks, while declining worldwide. Already, the U.S. has the highest Corona death toll in the world: More than 616,000 people have died after infection since the pandemic began.
Stubborn vaccination skepticism
Increasingly, children and young people are also becoming seriously ill from the corona virus. Fear of the delta variant has caused vaccination rates to grow, yet millions of U.S. citizens, especially in conservative parts of the country, continue to refuse to be vaccinated.
“Had we been more successful in getting everyone vaccinated, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” Collins said. “Now we’re paying a terrible price.” He warned that the virus will continue to spread unless the millions of children who are currently unvaccinated and will soon return from summer vacation are required to wear masks to school. There is currently no vaccination recommendation for children under the age of twelve in the United States.
If the Delta variant cannot be brought under control, this favors the emergence of a new variant that “could be more problematic than Delta,” health expert Fauci warned on NBC.
Risk factor children
The CDC health agency also recommended on Sunday, citing the risk of infection even by asymptomatic children, that all children over the age of two should wear masks in indoor public spaces – and thus explicitly in schools. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona echoed that advice on the CBS network.
Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, had previously prohibited all school districts from mandating mandatory masks – even though his state has been hit particularly hard by the recent Corona wave. However, some school districts have already announced their intention to defy DeSantis’ order.
Florida’s hospitals are currently struggling with a rapidly growing number of patients. “Our children’s hospitals are completely overloaded,” Aileen Marty, an infectious disease expert at Florida International University, told CNN.
That the debates over vaccinations and masks are being politicized drew harsh criticism from Collins. Wearing masks and getting vaccinated is not an infringement on civil liberties, nor is it a political message, he told ABC. Rather, the measures protected against a “deadly virus” and saved lives.
Many vaccination skeptics point out that vaccines against the coronavirus have only emergency approval in the U.S. so far. However, according to Presidential Advisor Fauci, the key vaccines could soon receive final approval. “I hope that will be the case before the end of August,” the virologist told NBC.
— source: kurier.at/picture:pixabay.com
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