Story at a glance
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday that vaccines have made adult COVID-19 deaths “entirely preventable.”
- “This new virus forced too many of our families to accept death as an outcome for too many of our loved ones, but now this should not be the case,” Walensky added.
- Walensky’s comments follow warnings from health experts regarding potential outbreaks caused by the coronavirus variant first discovered in India.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday that vaccines have made adult COVID-19 deaths “entirely preventable.”
“This new virus forced too many of our families to accept death as an outcome for too many of our loved ones, but now this should not be the case,” Walensky added.
The White House announced earlier Tuesday that 70 percent of adults 30 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine but that the U.S. will miss President Biden’s goal to partially vaccinate 70 percent of Americans by July 4.
Walensky’s comments follow warnings from health experts regarding potential outbreaks caused by the Delta variant first discovered in India, which was designated as a “variant of concern” by the CDC.
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Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said last week that the Delta variant accounts for roughly 10 percent of all new COVID-19 cases in the U.S., with the number “doubling every two weeks.”
“So it’s probably going to become the dominant strain here in the United States,” Gottlieb added. “That doesn’t mean that we’re going to see a sharp uptick in infections, but it does mean that this is going to take over.”
Gottlieb told CBS on Sunday that spikes in cases due to the Delta variant in numerous states, including Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Missouri, appear to correspond with a particular region’s vaccination rate.
“That’s based entirely on how much population-wide immunity you have, based on vaccination,” Gottlieb said.
President Biden cautioned Americans last week not to take the Delta variant lightly.
“People getting seriously ill and being hospitalized due to COVID-19 are those who have not been fully vaccinated,” Biden said. “[The Delta variant] is a variant that is more easily transmissible, potentially deadlier, and particularly dangerous for young people.”
CDC data shows that more than 65 percent of eligible U.S. adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Approximately 45 percent of the total population has been fully vaccinated.
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