Healthcare

ADAM SHAPIRO: Emily, we're going to turn our attention back to kids going back to school, but also COVID-19 and protecting kids, teachers, school staff. Let's bring into the stream two important folk. We've got Pinar Keskinocak, the William W. George Chair and Professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, and our own Reggie Wade, who is a former teacher and now a journalist with us at Yahoo Finance.

Following the White House administration's announcement to start booster COVID-19 vaccinations for American adults next month, experts weighed in on the evidence for choosing an 8-month cut-off, how breakthrough infections figure in, and why calling one mRNA vaccine better than the other could be misleading.

The coronavirus is spreading quickly again, and it’s ready to infect those who have little defense against it — children who are too young to receive the vaccine.

“We don’t know what’s in a shot?” George Perry said, “We don’t know what’s in a hot dog either.”

Over the next week, colleges and universities will welcome students back to campus for what many hope to be a normal semester of classes, activities, sports, and socializing. Over 730 are mandating COVID-19 vaccination for their students, including the University of Pennsylvania, Villanova, and Drexel, with some extending the requirement to faculty and staff. The hope is that vaccination will significantly reduce infection risk on campus and keep everyone safe.

New York’s back-to-school season has rapidly descended into a chaotic scramble to finalize COVID-19 precautions under a dark cloud of uncertainty cast by the delta variant surge.

With the Delta variant now dominant across the nation, hospitals are seeing more young and middle age people seeking medical care.  What is driving this phenomenon? 

This August, school will begin for millions of students across the U.S. — on Aug.10 in Atlanta, Aug.16 in Los Angeles and Aug. 23 in Raleigh and Houston. The rise we have seen in cases of COVID-19 from the Delta variant is scary, resulting in hospitals that are overfull in Missouri, Arkansas and many small towns around the country. Unfortunately, it will get worse if school boards and health departments do not take actions now to protect their communities. New research from me and my students at North Carolina State University reflect this.

The delta variant of COVID-19 is spreading at an extremely rapid rate. It is now the dominant strain in the United States – and the world – and the number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise. Outbreaks are among the highest in places with low vaccination rates.

New evidence about the Delta variant’s ability to infect and spread even among those who are fully vaccinated has been particularly alarming for parents of young children who are still not eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine.