U.S. President Joe Biden will announce new steps to slow the spread of Covid-19 before the U.N. General Assembly meets, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Sept. 12.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said on Aug. 29 he supports Covid-19 vaccine mandates for children attending schools as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus continues to fuel a surge in cases in the nation.
The number of children hospitalized with Covid-19 in the United States hit a record high of more than 1,900 on Aug. 14, as hospitals across the South were stretched to capacity fighting outbreaks caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce that the regulatory agency is authorizing the use of a booster shot for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in some immunocompromised patients.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stood by federal guidance that those fully vaccinated against Covid-19 no longer needed to wear masks, while blaming social media companies for fueling vaccine misinformation.
Health agencies and vaccine and immunology experts have pushed back against Pfizer and BioNTech’s assertions that a Covid-19 booster shot is necessary.
A U.S. health advisory panel on April 14 is set to review six reported cases of rare blood clots in women who received Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine one day after federal regulators paused the use of the shot to assess the issue.
An open question is how long the current Covid-19 vaccines will offer protection against the virus. Will they provide lifelong protection like some vaccines, such as polio, or seasonal, like influenza?
Top U.S. infectious disease official Anthony Fauci on Feb. 23 told CNN that he expects the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to soon relax some Covid-19 recommendations aimed at curbing its spread for people who have been vaccinated.
Deaths from Covid-19 in the United States fell for a third straight week during the week ended Feb. 21, as cases and hospitalizations showed steep drops.
