�������ýҕ�l

The spread of Delta and rising reports of breakthrough infections raise questions about whether the vaccinated might need a “booster” dose. For Americans who received the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines, that may mean a third shot. For people who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, that could mean a second dose of the same vaccine or even an mRNA shot instead. (Celine Gounder, John P. Moore and Carlos del Rio, 8/9)

Last year, during lockdown, I read “The Great Influenza” by John M. Barry. My father’s mother died in the 1918 epidemic, leaving my father a three-year-old half-orphan and changing his life forever. I found the book oddly comforting. Pandemics, it taught me, have beginnings, middles and ends. The 1918 event took millions of lives and went after the young and strong. But even without vaccines or modern medicine, it ultimately went away. (Celia Viggo Wexler, 8/8)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is coming in for criticism over its most recent change of guidance on masks in the fight against Covid-19. Some of these complaints are justified, some unfair. The main thing is to keep the focus on what matters most — getting people vaccinated as quickly as possible. Confusion over the CDC guidance risks becoming a distraction from that overriding priority. (8/7)

On any given day, you can find me at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, smiling and laughing with my team members on the outside. But inside, I feel empty. I’m exhausted. All nurses are exhausted. Since this fourth surge hit Houston, we have felt anger, fear, trauma and despair. We are defeated and burnt out. I have cried every day for a week. What makes this wave especially traumatic is that we were so close to seeing an end to this pandemic — or at the very least, getting COVID-19 under community control. Just last month, around Independence Day, our inpatient numbers were down to the lowest they had been since the pandemic began. The CDC had recently relaxed its recommendations for fully vaccinated individuals, and we were enjoying hugs, public outings and unmasked dinners in restaurants again — among so many of the other simple joys we had lost these past 18 months. (Jennifer Steenburg, 8/8)

When the COVID-19 pandemic first emerged in early 2020, medical experts and journalists were flummoxed by the low rates of infection and death throughout the African continent. Despite sub-par public health systems, dense metropolitan areas and extreme poverty, experts highlighted many reasons why COVID cases remained low in Africa. Some explanations included the continent's younger demographics, experience with epidemics like Ebola and the gift of time in delaying the spread of the virus to the continent. (Themba Mzingwane, 8/7)

Vaccines are not readily available in many countries. Yet when a limited supply does arrive, people are not always interested. On March 25, South Sudan received 132,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX program, the global effort to provide vaccines to poorer countries. They were free to all comers. But there was no rush to get the vaccines. As of August 3, only 56,989 vaccine doses have been administered in country of approximately 12 million people. (Edward Kenyi, 8/7)

A commendable cascade commenced when Mayo Clinic and Sanford Health recently announced new COVID-19 vaccine requirements for employees. Other hospitals and clinics serving Minnesota followed suit. Over the past week, M Health Fairview, Allina Health, HealthPartners and Children's Minnesota, as well as northern Minnesota's Essentia Health and St. Luke's, moved to put in place similar workforce requirements. (8/7)