Overnight Health Care: CDC officially recommends COVID-19 vaccine for anyone who is pregnant | Pressure builds for full FDA approval | Dems call for pandemic funding

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Today: The CDC officially recommended pregnant people get vaccinated against COVID-19. California became the first state to require proof of vaccination for teachers, and pressure builds for full FDA approval of vaccines. 

We’ll start with the CDC:

CDC officially recommends COVID-19 vaccine for anyone who is pregnant

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday officially recommended that people who are pregnant be vaccinated against COVID-19, updating and strengthening previous guidance due to new evidence.

“COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all people aged 12 years and older, including people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now, or might become pregnant in the future,” CDC said.

The agency’s previous guidance said pregnant people were “eligible” and merely suggested a conversation with their health care provider.

According to the CDC, evidence about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy has been growing, and the benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine outweigh any known or potential risks of vaccination during pregnancy.

“The vaccines are safe and effective, and it has never been more urgent to increase vaccinations as we face the highly transmissible Delta variant and see severe outcomes from COVID-19 among unvaccinated pregnant people,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said.

Read more here. 

Something that could bring more mandates and help with hesitancy? Full FDA approval of vaccines

Pressure is building for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fully approve the COVID-19 vaccine, a step that could lead to more mandates and help address hesitancy.

The latest mandate came Monday, when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced he would move to make the vaccine mandatory for troops by mid-September but would act “immediately” if it received full approval before then. 

Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, added to the chorus on Sunday, when he expressed hope that the approval would move quickly. 

“I hope, I don’t predict, but I hope that it will be within the next few weeks,” Fauci said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I hope it’s within the month of August.”

Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said full approval could be an “opportunity for a restart on vaccine messaging” if President Biden, health officials and governors take advantage. 

The move could give “new cover” to businesses to feel comfortable about mandates for their employees, and requiring proof of vaccination for customers, he said. 

Polling from Kaiser at the end of June found that 31 percent of unvaccinated people said full approval would make them more likely to get the shots, higher than the percentage who said the same for a chance to win a million dollars or a mobile clinic coming to their neighborhood. 

Read more here. 

California moving ahead with a mandate for teachers

California on Wednesday became the first state to require all teachers and staff in every school district be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing.

Under the new requirement, all staff – teachers, custodial staff, bus drivers and anyone else who works in schools – will need to submit proof of vaccination or submit to weekly testing, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said at a news conference at an elementary school in Oakland.  

The order comes as California, like the rest of the country, has seen a rise in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations this summer as the delta variant took hold.

“We think this is a sustainable way of keeping schools open,” Newsom said. “And to address the No. 1 anxiety that parents like myself have – I have four young children – and that is knowing that the schools are doing everything in their power to keep their kids healthy.”

Newsom noted the state was one of the first to mandate masks for all teacher and students. Until the announcement Wednesday, he had left the decision of vaccines up to individual districts. 

Read more here. 

20 Democrats urge leaders to fully fund pandemic preparedness in new package

A group of 20 Democratic lawmakers is calling on their leadership to fully fund pandemic preparedness efforts in a coming $3.5 trillion package, amid concern about cutbacks. 

The letter to leadership was led by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and was signed by lawmakers including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). 

“Without this critical funding, if another pandemic hit us tomorrow, we could be as ill-prepared as we were for COVID-19,” the letter states.

At issue is $30 billion that President Biden proposed to prepare for future pandemics as part of his American Jobs Plan. But Democrats in Congress are considering cutting that funding down to as little as $5 billion as they seek to fit a slew of priorities into a $3.5 trillion window for their coming package. 

Backers, including many public health experts, are warning that it is incredibly short-sighted to cut back on pandemic preparedness funding in the middle of a pandemic. 

Read more here.

Poll: Majority of parents against school vaccine mandates, support mask requirements

Most parents oppose COVID-19 vaccination mandates at schools, but a majority back requirements for unvaccinated students and staff to wear masks at schools, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll.

The KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor released Wednesday determined that 58 percent of parents of 12- to 17-year-old children who are eligible for the COVID-19 shot are against schools requiring these vaccinations for in-person learning. 

Fifty-four percent of parents of school-age children still disapproved of a vaccine mandate even if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offered full approval for the vaccines. So far, the agency has granted emergency use authorizations for the three vaccines to be administered only during the public health emergency.

But 63 percent of parents of all school-age children said schools should mandate masks for unvaccinated students and staff in the building. 

The poll comes amid the ongoing debate on the safest way to return to in-person learning after the pandemic required children across the country to attend classes remotely. 

Read more here.

What we’re reading

Millions of coronavirus vaccine doses around the world face expiration (Washington Post)

 WHO calls for world leaders and pharmaceutical chiefs to end ‘disgraceful’ global vaccine inequality (CNN)

Hospitals Face A Shortage Of Nurses As COVID Cases Soar (NPR)  

State by state

 Almost 900 state employees took $100 coronavirus vaccine incentive in Ohio (Cleveland.com)

Overwhelmed by COVID-19: A day inside a Louisiana hospital (Associated Press) 

Texas now has the fewest ICU beds available it’s had during the entire COVID-19 pandemic (Austin American-Statesman)