Following Dr. Anthony Fauci's support of mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for teachers, Dr. Gregory Poland who studies the immunogenetics of vaccine response in adults and children at Mayo Clinic is saying all adults should get vaccinated.
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Poland, speaking with Paul Douglas on the WCCO Morning News, says vaccines will continue to play a major factor in slowing down the Delta variant, and variants that are certain to follow.
“Let me follow the science here and go one better,” said Poland. “Better in terms of the public health. I would like to see every single adult vaccinated who does not have a contraindication to getting the vaccine. That followed by children. That’s our way out of our kind of code red situation we’re in with this virus. That’s the way we’ll control this virus and move back to more normal lives.”
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Serious questions are being raised about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against the highly contagious Delta variant. A recent study that Mayo Clinic was involved in found the Moderna vaccine was 76% effective against infection, and Pfizer was only 42% effective. It's unclear whether the results signify a reduction in effectiveness over time, a reduced effectiveness against Delta, or a combination of both.
There has been no data so far that has found either vaccine's protection against severe disease and death is significantly less against Delta, and the study notes that there doesn't appear to be much of a difference in complications stemming from breakthrough infections based on which vaccine someone received.
Dr. Poland says the study is not concerning to him yet, but it does show the need to take proper precautions moving forward.
“With these worse variants, and they seem to be getting worse each time a new one arises, we have to be very, very careful with masking and decreasing transmission,” Dr. Poland said. “A key point, you've got astounding effectiveness against death, hospitalization and severe disease.”
There are two topics that are continuing to come up with the variants starting to take hold across the U.S., vaccines for children and potential booster shots. Poland says both are going to be important.
“It's really key that we get vaccines to kids, particularly with these variants that are much more infectious than the previous original strain,” Poland tells WCCO. “Best guess as to when kids under the age of 12 will be able to get vaccines is probably late fall, early winter time. In terms of the need for boosters, I think perhaps yet this week we will see a recommendation for people who are immunocompromised to get a booster dose. I think it's a little too early for the rest of us. We need more data as time goes on to see whether we need a booster particularly focused on this new Delta and other variants that are coming.”
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