- Monday, the Departmentof Veterans Affairs
became the latest federal agency
to require vaccination specifically
for its 115,000 healthcare workers.
The American Medical Association,
and 56 other leadingmedical organizations,
now calling for mandatory vaccinations
for workers at all healthcare settings,
including nursing homes nationwide.
- Now that is the healthcare industry
where they are verymuch on the front lines.
- [Lorie] California soonrequiring vaccination
or negative weekly COVID tests
for state and healthcare workers.
New York city also mandating vaccination
or tests for municipal workers,
including teachers and healthcare workers.
And urging privateemployers to require shots.
- It's quite clear, the Deltavariant has changed the game.
We need to move to stronger measures.
- [Lorie] In the meantime,
Florida's Governor says ordinarypeople should not be forced
or mocked into taking the vaccine.
- They have different reasonsfor why they don't take it,
and I think that the more they're hectored
by government officialsor some of these folks,
that is not gonna get them to yes,
I can tell you that right now.
- [Lorie] Los Angeles,St. Louis, Savannah,
and other areas, imposingmask mandates indoors,
even for the vaccinated.
Right now that goes against CDC guidance
stating only the unvaccinatedshould wear masks inside,
but the agency may soon change that
to include the vaccinated as well.
- It is scary,
especially when thenumbers are getting worse,
and so I definitely do think
wearing masks would be a good thing.
- [Lorie] The Delta variantinto which makes up 83%
of COVID cases in America
is much more contagiousthan other strains,
largely because people infected with it
carry up to a thousand times more virus.
That means people who have noimmunity are most vulnerable.
In fact, health officials say 99%
of US hospitalizations anddeaths are unvaccinated.
- I'm worried that it'sgonna get much, much worse.
Right now we're generatingabout 50,000 Americans
getting infected.
That number could easily double or triple.
- Many Americans respondingto the Delta danger,
nearly 800,000, got theirshot over the weekend,
a big jump over previous ones.
Pat right now about halfof the total US population
and nearly 70% of alladults have been vaccinated.
And health experts say, inaddition to getting a vaccine,
a person can also achieve natural immunity
if they already had the virus Pat.
- Lorie how long does immunityfrom the vaccines last
if people will need booster shots?
- Well, people are alreadygetting booster shots in Israel,
their third Pfizer shot,and Pfizer has asked the FDA
to recommend people getthird shots of their vaccine,
and there are two reasons.
Number one, the antibodies appear to wane
after seven months, they sort of fade away
after about seven months.
And this is particularly concerning
for people who got theirshot seven months ago.
Remember those were thepeople who were most at risk,
the frontline health workersand nursing home residents.
And another reason boostershots might be necessary
is because of the Delta variant.
We know Pat that a lot ofpeople who are fully vaccinated
are getting COVID-19 becauseof this Delta variant,
the good news is, rightnow it does not appear
they're needing to be hospitalized,
and they aren't dying,but they are getting sick.
They are having to stay home and miss work
and suffer through COVID-19,
and these are vaccinated workers because,
before these vaccines worked great
against the various variants that we saw,
but not this Delta one, thisDelta one is breaking through.
- Lorie what's the reasoningbehind really saying
mask mandates for peoplewho've already been vaccinated?
- Well, again, two fold, two main reasons,
and the main one is becausethese mask mandates,
where if you're unvaccinated,
you don't have to wear a mask indoors,
but if you are vaccinated,you can go without it,
this is the being doneon the honor system.
So for example, I haven't worn a mask
inside anywhere sincethe beginning of May,
because I was fully vaccinated.
So I go into the grocery store anywhere,
and I'm not wearing a mask
and people just assumethat I've been vaccinated,
but I'm sure that thereare a lot of people
who just don't wanna wear a mask
and they haven't been vaccinated
and it's kind of a free for all,
and so that's kind of the reason.
So if everybody's wearing a mask,
we know that nobody is being dishonest
about their vaccination status.
And then another reason Pat
is something that I just mentioned,
and that is that even vaccinated people
can get sick from COVID-19
and because the viral load is so high,
can theoretically transmitit to other people.
This has been studied a little bit,
it needs to be studied a little bit more,
but the risk is that even vaccinated
can get the virus and spread it.
- Laurie, thank you for your insights.
- Sure thanks for-
