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What Experts Want You To Know About The New Covid-19 Vaccine As Cases Continue To Surge In The US

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As Covid-19 continues its summer surge throughout the United States, new vaccines have been made available for individuals looking to get another level of protection as we enter autumn and the back-to-school season; when cases in the past few years have been known to surge. 

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are “high to very high” levels of Covid-19 in the wastewater in nearly every state, reported Politico. A recent report from the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative estimated that about 2.5% of the US population is currently infected with Covid. 

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Even with this increase in infections, the US population hasn’t been keeping up with their Covid-19 vaccinations to protect themselves from getting sick and spreading the virus further. 

“One of the challenges of today is just that people aren’t going to get vaccinated. Most people are confused. They don’t really understand what’s happening or what the risk to them is when it comes to Covid,” said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. 

Politico reported on a recent poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center that revealed more than 20% of Americans think it’s safer to get sick from Covid-19 than to get a vaccine. This percentage has increased by 10% within the past three years. 

The CDC revealed that last year, 22.5% of adults and 14.4% of children received an updated Covid-19 vaccine. The risk of hospitalization and death is not close to what it was back in 2021, however, that doesn’t mean that the public shouldn’t still view the virus as a threat. Immunocompromised individuals and the elderly are still those at the most risk should they be infected. 

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In June, the FDA and vaccine manufacturers worked to incorporate the KP.2 Covid strain into vaccine formulas, as that particular variant was the most prevalent in the beginning of the summer. 

However, the KP.3 and KP.3.1.1 subvariants of KP.2 are currently the most prevalent strains of Covid, and account for more than half of the cases in the US, said the CDC. 

Public health experts are still urging the population to get their updated vaccines due to the consistent surges of cases, as getting vaccinated before you’re exposed or infected is your best chance at avoiding the virus or having a less severe reaction to becoming infected. 

In fact, a CDC study showed that last year’s vaccine provided 54% protection against symptomatic Covid-19 infections. 

If an individual was recently sick with Covid, however, the CDC recommends waiting to get an updated dose until three months after the symptoms first appeared or from when they received their first positive test.

Crystal La Tour Rambaund manages the vaccine program at the Pima County Health Department in Arizona, and stated that the US is experiencing a “Covid fatigue,” meaning citizens aren’t as concerned about the virus and its spreading, despite the surges. 

“The population we are concerned about are the people on the fence. They are not completely anti-[vaccine], and they are not completely all about it. And for those groups of people, it’s a very small thing that could tip the scale in the direction of not being vaccinated,” she said. 

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New Covid Variants Account For 50% Of Current US Cases, According To CDC

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Covid-19 cases in the US have been on the rise this summer. The KP.3 Covid-19 variant is the current strain that is dominating the cases, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Their data also showed that another variant, known as KP.3.1.1, is also one of the most dominant strains currently. 

“The CDC’s Nowcast data tracker showed the projections of the COVID-19 variants for a two-week period starting on July 7 and ending on July 20. The KP.3 variant accounted for 32.9% of positive infections, followed by KP.3.1.1, at 17.7%. Combined, the two variants make up 50.6% of cases,” according to Ahjané Forbes for USA Today. 

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From June 23rd to July 6th, CDC data showed that the KP.3 strain accounted for 33.7% of cases, however, the strain decreased in presence by .8% while KP.3.1.1 increased by 10.9% from 6.8% between July 6th and July 20th. 

CDC Spokesperson Rosa Norman told USA Today that “the symptoms associated with KP.3 are similar to those from JN.1. These symptoms can appear between two and 14 days after exposure to the virus and can range from mild to severe.

The CDC said “you should seek medical attention if you have the following symptoms: trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion, inability to wake or stay awake, or are experiencing pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds.”

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The CDC data stated that “COVID-19 test positivity has risen 12.6% within the past week.”

On July 16, the CDC said that “COVID-19 infections are growing in 42 states, stable or uncertain in 6 states, and declining to zero.”

Data shows that “four states had the biggest increase of 5.6% in positive COVID-19 cases from July 6 to July 13, 2024.”

The CDC recommends that every US resident who’s 6 months old and older should be diligent and receive their updated 2024-2025 Covid-19 vaccination.

New Strain Covid-19

Researchers Believe New UK Covid-19 Strain Has Already Infected ‘Hundreds’ Of Americans

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Researchers studying the new UK strain of the coronavirus believe that it likely already is in the US, and has been since mid-November. It’s important to note that health officials have already determined that the new strain shows no major differences from the Covid-19 virus that we’ve been battling for the past ten months, and the vaccine will still work against this variant. The biggest issue has been that individuals who get infected with this strain are more likely to have a severe case of the virus. 

“If I had to guess, I would say it’s probably hundreds of Americans by now, it’s very possible it’s arrived multiple times in multiple places.”

Michael Worobey is the head of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona who recently spoke with the media about this new strain’s entrance into the US. Scientists in the UK have traced the new strain’s earliest known appearance to Kent, London on September 20th of this year. 

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“Imagine the amount of infected travelers leaving London — that’s been increasing exponentially,” said Trevor Bedford, associate professor in the vaccine and infectious disease division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Both Worobey and Bedford have estimated that the virus likely made its way to the US in mid-November. 

Scientists in the UK and around the world are now scouring genetic sequences of certain Covid-19 cases in the US to determine if any match up with the UK variant. So far none have been found, but that’s likely due to the fact that the US’s surveillance and tracking system is lacking when compared to other countries. Dr. Anthony Fauci recently discussed this new strain with the press in one of his daily briefings. 

“You really need to assume that it’s here already, it certainly is not the dominant strain, but I would not be surprised if it is already here and we didn’t detect it.” 

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The UK Covid-19 strain has not been identified in the US via genetic sequencing, however, of the 17 million coronavirus cases that the nation has now dealt with, only 51,000 have been sequenced, so there’s really no telling how many of those millions of cases were the UK strain. The CDC released a statement about their tracking efforts this week in response to this strain’s momentum in the UK. 

“Given the small fraction of US infections that have already been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without being detected.” 

In order to detect new variants of the virus, scientists must look at samples from infected patients and then sequence the genetics of those samples to look at the specific letter order in the genetic code. Since mid-November, when it’s believed this new strain entered the US, the UK has performed 9,000 genetic sequences while the US has only performed 300. 

Last month, however, the CDC launched a new strain surveillance program that would require states to send in at least 10 samples, two times a week, for analysis; the agency is expecting to have this program fully up and running in January.