The latest on the Covid-19 pandemic in the US

Hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved in the US and across the world if the American government had acted differently in the early days of the pandemic, Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, said.

“Hundreds of thousands of lives in the United States and around the world would be saved, people would still be alive today if our government had listened to the science, had been honest and truthful with Americans from the beginning, had told Americans the real risk of this virus and put tools and information and clear messaging out to help people save their lives and protect themselves from getting this virus,” Bright said. 

Bright led BARDA between 2016 to 2020. The office is a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services that has been central to the response to the coronavirus outbreak. Bright is now president of the Rockefeller Foundation. 

Bright was removed from his role as head of BARDA in April 2020. He filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that he was removed from his post in retaliation for opposing the use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19. 

He also said that it’s important to listen to other whistleblowers who come forward.

“We need to strengthen them, listen to them. They are speaking truth to power, regardless of who’s in office. They know the truth, they are our eyes and our ears, and they can help us be better and respond more effectively and end this pandemic sooner," he said.

Higher prices have been the pandemic recovery’s collateral damage. Even though Washington insists higher inflation may just be temporary, America’s prices keep rising — albeit at a slightly slower pace.

In July, the pace of consumer price inflation slowed some, but it still remained elevated, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.

Stripping out more volatile food and energy items, consumer prices rose 4.3% in the 12 months ended in July, slightly below June’s rise. Overall, prices rose 5.4% over the period, flat compared with June.

For the month alone, adjusted for seasonal swings, prices rose 0.5% on the whole and 0.3% stripping out food and energy items, representing a slowdown on both fronts. Price increases for shelter, food, energy and new cars were the major contributors to the index’s jump.

But the pace of the gains slowed, and the major driver of that was the price index for used cars, which was nearly unchanged.

This came as a surprise, given that used vehicle prices have soared in the past year as people were willing to pay a premium for mobility and new cars were in short supply amid a chip shortage. Over the past 12 months, the used car index is still up nearly 42%, a gain matched only by prices for gasoline.

In other transportation news, the price index for airline fares also fell after rising sharply in past months as the reopening accelerated.

In a letter to President Biden, 175 public health experts urged the White House to scale up US manufacturing of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021 in order to meet the greater global need. 

The letter emphasizes that the Delta variant is resulting in surges in Africa, Latin America and Asia where vaccine availability is limited.

Specifically, signers urged the administration to “commit to establishing 8 billion doses per year of mRNA vaccine capacity within six months using existing federal resources,” and “develop and implement training and technology transfer for the development and manufacture of mRNA and other vaccines in hubs around the world.”

They also would like the US to “begin immediate export of vaccine doses,” distributing at least 10 million doses a week.

The letter, dated Tuesday, was sent to White House chief of staff Ron Klain, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients.

The 175 experts who endorsed the letter include scientists from top public health and medical schools as well and other global civil society leaders.

Signers include Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives; Dr. Paul Farmer, cofounder and chief strategist for Partners in Health; Dr. Linda Fried, the dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and Dr. Carlos Del Rio, executive associate dean of Emory School of Medicine and Grady Health System.

While vaccinations in the US are rising, the Covid-19 transmission rate in most states remains high. CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta joined CNN’s “New Day” to answer questions about vaccines, the Delta variant and more. 

Q: Is there any research to show the effect of the Delta variant on vaccinated elderly people in nursing homes or adult living facilities?

A: “We've got to really pay attention to nursing homes. What's happening in nursing homes will give an indication of what's happening in the rest of the country,” Gupta said. 

Eighty-two percent of nursing home residents are fully vaccinated, according to data, Gupta said, while only 59% of nursing home staff members are fully vaccinated. 

Between the week ending June 27 and the week ending July 25, the number of weekly Covid-19 cases in the US grew about 4.4 times, according to Johns Hopkins data. But in that same timeframe, cases among nursing home residents and staff grew about 3.6 times. However, in the seven states in which less than half of nursing home staff are vaccinated, weekly cases were 5.2 times higher when compared over the same four-week period.

Q: What should be the message from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health to counties with both high vaccination rate and high Covid transmission rate?

A: In San Diego, California, for example, 69% of the population has at least one vaccine dose, and the vast majority of new Covid-19 cases is happening among unvaccinated individuals. 

“The message, at least for the next few weeks, until the viral transmission rates come down, if you live in a place with high transmission, wear masks indoors,” Gupta said. 

Q: Why should someone who has already had Covid-19 get vaccinated? Doesn't he or she already have antibodies?

A: People who’ve had Covid-19 do have antibodies and T-cells, Gupta said, but vaccines offer long-lasting and broader protection. 

“There's even been throughout history examples where people who are naturally infected had even stronger immunity than what a vaccine could provide. That's not the case here, and that's just because we have the data now,” Gupta said. 

“We didn't know this for certain at the beginning but these vaccines are really good. There's more variants coming. What they're finding is the vaccines are more durable, lasting longer and … offering broader protection against the variants as well,” he said. 

Q: I'm fully vaccinated but I was exposed to somebody who got Covid. What should I do? And do I have to quarantine? 

A: Quarantining is not necessary if you’ve been vaccinated, Gupta said, but it’s a good idea to get tested. 

If you have symptoms, isolate from others and consider wearing a mask if around small children. 

Covid-19 cases are growing more slowly among nursing home residents and staff than they are in the United States overall, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

But in states where less than half of nursing home staff is vaccinated, new cases are multiplying much faster than they are in the US overall. 

Nationally, nursing staff – and residents, especially — have higher vaccination rates than the general US population. About 82% of nursing home residents and 59% of nursing home staff are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to CMS data. In the US overall, about 50% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Over four weeks – between the week ending June 27 and the week ending July 25 – the number of weekly Covid-19 cases in the US grew about 4.4 times, according to JHU data. But in that same timeframe, cases among nursing home residents and staff grew about 3.6 times.

However, in the seven states in which less than half of nursing home staff are vaccinated, weekly cases were 5.2 times higher when compared over the same four-week period.

Mississippi had the largest increase, with more than 18 times more cases reported in the week ending on July 25 than in the week ending on June 27.

Weekly case growth in the other states where less than half of the staff is vaccinated against Covid-19 is:

Meanwhile, in states that have vaccinated a larger share of staff than average (more than 59%), cases reported in the last week of July were only two times higher than cases reported in the last week of June.

The data available does not yet show a need for Covid-19 booster doses in the US, and the focus should be more on initial vaccinations than booster doses, Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, said Tuesday

Offit said while San Francisco has moved forward on offering an additional dose to those who got a single Johnson & Johnson vaccine, “I don't see any evidence that you need to do that.” 

“This discussion of boosters is just a little off the point. The problem is going to be is not boosting people who've already been vaccinated the problem in this country is that the people who haven't been vaccinated, that's where we need to focus our efforts, all our efforts, I feel.”

Offit also spoke briefly about the upcoming meeting of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, of which he is a member. The committee is set to meet to discuss booster doses in the immunocompromised. 

Offit said Friday’s discussion will likely conclude that immunocompromised people are the ones dependent on the “herd” of vaccinated people. 

“I mean, the worst thing an anti-vaccine person says, is they say, ‘What do you care what I do? You're vaccinated.’ which makes two incorrect assumptions. One, the vaccines are 100% effective, which is true of no vaccine, and two, that everybody can get vaccinated when they can’t.”