Two-shot regimen thwarts variants

Travel from India restricted as surge continues unabated there, and Brazil's death rate is climbing at alarming rate - total deaths could catch up with USA's grim tally

The US issued a travel ban to restrict arrivals from India, as the surge in that nation keeps escalating.

Brazil now has reported over 400,000 COVI-19 deaths. Its rate of new cases and deaths has accelerated significantly since late February.

As the US vaccine supply is now plentiful and demand has dimmed somewhat, the White House says it expects that family physicians, other community locations and mobile clinics will become the most important ways for people to get COVID-19 shots in the months ahead. About 2.6 million new shots have been administered each day in the past week, down from between 3-4 million per day in March.

At Friday’s White House COVID-19 briefing, NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci answered the question about whether people really need the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines with a resounding “yes.” In addition to much stronger protection against all SARS-CoV-2 strains, he showed data showing that full vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine is highly effective against the B.1.351 (“South Africa”) variant. He also presented data showing fewer infections and deaths among people who received both doses of either mRNA vaccine than those who received only one dose.

Pfizer and BioNTech may have vaccine trial results for children over 12 in July and in babies in early Fall, a German magazine reports.