One of my acquaintances—we'll call her Sarah—recently called in a favor from a family friend she's helped many times. Sarah asked this woman, a vaccine holdout and mom of two, to get inoculated against COVID-19, not for personal safety but to protect the woman's young children. Guilt-tripping her friend, Sarah said, was her nuclear option. It worked.
As coronavirus cases spike, health officials continue to implore anyone who's eligible to get vaccinated to do so—not just to reduce their own odds of getting sick, but to protect a big group of Americans who don't yet have access to the vaccine: kids under 12. "We must protect our children," plead two pediatric pulmonologists, Drs. Lael M. Yonker and Anthony J. Fischer, in a new piece for TIME. They treat kids with chronic respiratory conditions who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, as well as previously healthy children who have been infected with the virus and are now suffering.
Yonker and Fischer hope that young kids will soon be authorized to get vaccinated, pending clinical trial results. Until then, and especially as the Delta variant whips through the U.S., it's crucial that we protect children by taking the (quite easy) steps that are already available to us, they say.
Most obviously, eligible adults need to get vaccinated. COVID-19 vaccines help protect adults from getting sick, but they also, by extension, protect those who can't, due to age or some other factor. The math is simple: Unless more adults get vaccinated, more kids will get COVID-19.
Beyond vaccination, wearing masks—and normalizing them for kids—is a must. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends universal masking in schools to protect children. Despite attention-grabbing headlines about parents' furor over mask mandates, most actually prefer a mask requirement. Kids don't seem to mind them, either. In a recent poll, Kaiser Health News asked students under 12 which classroom rules they disliked the most. Not being allowed to talk in line came in first, with 31.9% of votes, followed by waiting for a bathroom pass, at 31.2%. Only 12.5% of children responded that they disliked wearing a mask more than any other rule.
The onus is on us, as adults, to prioritize our children's health—to call in those favors from friends, to play the guilt-trip card if it helps, to offer to drive our friends to their vaccine appointment, to watch their kids during it, to ask them what's possibly more important than doing their part to keep others safe. As Yonker and Fischer write, "safety measures for children are needed now more than ever. Now is the time to ... vaccinate yourself if you are eligible, vaccinate your children as soon as allowed, wear your mask and help your children wear their masks when you are in public."
About 422.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this afternoon, of which nearly 359.6 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 51.1% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
More than 209.9 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 3 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 4.4 million people have died. On August 19, there were 660,038 new cases and 10,071 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 4 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 37.2 million coronavirus cases as of 3 a.m. E.T. today. More than 625,100 people have died. On August 19, there were 138,472 new cases and 908 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Aug. 20, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Virus-related daily deaths in the U.S. are on the rise,according to TIME's coronavirus tracker, in correlation with the recent spike in cases. Deaths dropped throughout the spring after peaking in January, but began rising again in July amid the Delta surge; the country is now reporting a seven-day rolling average of 862.4 daily deaths, the highest since April. The most significant spikes in deaths are occurring in relatively under-vaccinated southern states, including Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Three U.S. senators announced yesterday that they tested positive for COVID-19, despite being fully vaccinated: Republican Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Democrat John Hickenlooper of Colorado and independent Angus King of Maine. "While I am not feeling great, I'm definitely feeling much better than I would have without the vaccine," King said in a statement. "I am taking this diagnosis very seriously, quarantining myself at home and telling the few people I've been in contact with to get tested in order to limit any further spread."
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) will temporarily stop enforcing governor Greg Abbott's ban on mask mandates in schools. That comes after the Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling yesterday that allows school districts to require face coverings, effective immediately, according to Politico. The TEA said that it will not enforce the ban until litigations are resolved—a political setback for Abbott, who recently tested positive for the coronavirus.
After months of optimism, COVID-19 anxiety is spiking again. According to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, pandemic-related anxiety is at its highest level since winter, spurred by the Delta variant and hospitals once again reaching capacity. The poll indicates that 41% of Americans are "extremely" or "very" worried about becoming infected with the coronavirus, up from 21% in June.
Vaccination will be required for many New York City high school athletes and coaches, mayor Bill de Blasio said today. The mandate applies to high-risk sports, the New York Times reports, and affects about 20,000 students and staff. Football, volleyball, basketball and wrestling are among the affected sports, while tennis, track and gymnastics are some of those exempt.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
If you were forwarded this and want to sign up to receive it daily, click here.
Today's newsletter was written by Angela Haupt and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
沒有留言:
張貼留言