What You Need to Know About the Coronavirus

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted official approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine for people 16 and older, making it the first approved vaccine in the fight against COVID-19. For the last eight months, the vaccine was being administered under emergency use authorization and will continue to be available under this designation for people ages 12 to 15 and for certain immunocompromised individuals seeking a third shot. Pfizer’s vaccine will now be marketed as Comirnaty. 

Health experts are hopeful that official approval will sway millions of unvaccinated Americans to get the vaccine, especially as COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths driven by the highly contagious delta variant are surging throughout the U.S. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that about 30 percent of unvaccinated people said they would be more likely to get the vaccine if it was fully approved; many of those holding out cited safety concerns without the FDA's official endorsement.

Moderna has announced that it has completed its submission to the FDA for full approval of its COVID-19 vaccine for people age 18 and older, and has requested priority review.

Third COVID vaccine dose gets green light for some immunocompromised individuals. People whose immune systems are moderately or severely compromised are now allowed to get a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccine. There isn’t yet enough data to evaluate whether an additional dose of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine is warranted for this limited population, health officials say. The news impacts the less than 3 percent of American adults whose immune systems are weakened from such conditions as a solid organ transplant or other maladies that have an equally crippling effect on the immune system. These individuals may not have had an adequate immune response from two vaccine doses, and additional doses could help boost protection.

Pfizer - BioNTech announced they have begun submitting data for full FDA approval of a third dose of their vaccine.

Vaccine boosters for all could begin Sept. 20. 
Americans who have received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines should plan to get a third dose eight months after their second shot, health officials said at an Aug. 18 briefing. Based on the late December 2020 start of the vaccinations, that means people would start becoming eligible for these extra shots about Sept. 20 — beginning with the health care workers, residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities and older Americans who got the first COVID-19 vaccinations. And because people did not start getting the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine until March 2021, the data isn’t yet available to determine whether a booster is warranted for that product, officials said, although they anticipate one will be recommended. 

COVID cases and hospitalizations continue to climb in U.S. 
The seven-day moving average of daily new cases is nearly 94 percent higher compared to the peak observed last summer on July 20, 2020, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And hospitals in six states are reporting their highest levels of new COVID-19 admissions since the start of the pandemic, the agency reported on Aug. 20. Black Americans are bearing the biggest burden when it comes to hospitalizations in the U.S.: The rate of hospitalizations for non-Hispanic Black people has increased faster and risen higher than other groups, the CDC reports. The delta variant is largely behind the latest surge in disease; it is responsible for about 99 percent of new COVID-19 cases. 

List of Coronavirus-Related Restrictions in Every State.   
For more than a year, governors across the country have issued orders and recommendations to their residents on the status of schools, businesses and public services in response to the coronavirus pandemic. As of July 1, most states had lifted the COVID-19 safety measures they had put in place. Now, as the delta variant spreads, cities and communities are reinstating mask mandates.   If you are traveling this summer, you will need to know what the restrictions are in that locality. Check out our nationwide list here:  https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-2020/coronavirus-state-restrictions.html