US deaths top 620K; August cases surpass July total
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided Friday that people with severely weakened immune systems should be able to receive a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
The move came after the Food and Drug Administration decided late Thursday to allow extra shots for the less than 3% of Americans who are severely immunocompromised, but left it to the CDC to define exactly who should get the additional doses.
The CDC’s advisory committee on vaccines spent four hours Friday considering evidence on the safety and effectiveness of extra shots for specific groups of people whose immune systems do not work well, either because of disease or medication.
They voted unanimously to offer a third shot to a very narrow band of people: the 2.7 million Americans with the weakest immune systems, who were unlikely to get adequate protection from their initial shots.
“This official CDC recommendation – which follows FDA’s decision to amend the emergency use authorizations of the vaccines – is an important step in ensuring everyone, including those most vulnerable to COVID-19, can get as much protection as possible from COVID-19 vaccination,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.
The severely immunocompromised are often left unprotected by the two-dose regimen. Roughly 40-44% of people hospitalized with severe COVID-19 infections after vaccination are immunocompromised, the CDC said.
Meanwhile, a federal judge on Friday allowed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s evictions moratorium to remain in place.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich said she thinks the moratorium is illegal but said her “hands are tied” by a ruling allowing the eviction ban to stand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Alabama landlords challenging the moratorium are likely to appeal.
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced a moratorium on evictions in counties with substantial or high transmission of COVID-19 after a previous ban on evictions enacted under former President Donald Trump and extended by Biden expired.
Also in the news:
►Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday issued a limited state of emergency aimed at giving medical providers flexibility on staffing and capacity decisions and easier shipment of emergency equipment and supplies, an order that came the same day the state tied a record low for available intensive care unit beds.
►Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is deploying up to 1,500 National Guard troops to support healthcare workers amid a surge of COVID-19 cases. The first wave will go out next Friday and serve as material and equipment runners in the most stricken hospitals.
►Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban on mandatory school masks faces an early test Friday as a judge scheduled a hearing on a lawsuit brought by parents from a half-dozen Florida counties urging that limits on mandatory masking in schools be lifted as students return to class in many Florida counties.
►The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teacher’s union, said it supported policies that would require all teachers to get vaccinated or submit to regular testing, as cases among children rise around…
Read More: US deaths top 620K; August cases surpass July total