‘Two Americas’; U.K. Opts for Boosters; Pooch’s COVID

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NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, MD, said he’s very concerned about the “two Americas” developing — one of highly vaccinated areas where COVID case counts remain suppressed, and areas of low vaccination that continually see “entirely avoidable” spikes. (CNN)

Fauci also suggested that CDC’s mask guidance for the fully vaccinated is here to stay, even with the more transmissible Delta variant. (CBS News)

Is Delta producing cases resembling very bad colds? (NBC News)

The U.K. notched over 25,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, its highest single-day number since late January; the country is planning vaccine boosters for the fall. (Reuters)

As of Thursday at 8 a.m. EDT, the unofficial U.S. COVID-19 toll reached 33,666,198 cases and 604,718 deaths, up 13,093 and 298, respectively, from this time yesterday.

Wisconsin health officials reported that 95% of the state’s COVID deaths since March are in the unvaccinated population. (ABC News)

CDC data show that 63.6% of the COVID vaccine-eligible U.S. population (12 and up) have received at least one dose, while 54.6% are fully vaccinated.

Just 3% of unvaccinated Americans are saying they plan to get a shot as soon as possible, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey found.

Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated strong efficacy in a U.K. trial, with analyses showing similar results among circulating variants. (New England Journal of Medicine)

By the way, Snowball and Santa’s Little Helper can catch COVID too. (NBC News)

FDA approved a short course of dual anti-platelet therapy (1 month) for patients at high bleeding risk after receiving one of Abbott’s Xience stents, and also OK’d the Xience Skypoint stent, the company announced.

The agency yanked emergency use authorizations for several respirators and decontamination systems as N95 supply across the U.S. has increased.

During the April 2020 lockdown, screenings for breast and cervical cancers dropped by 87% and 84%, respectively, compared with prior years, and remained low over the following months. (Preventive Medicine)

If used every 3 days, rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 are about as accurate as RT-PCR testing, a study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases suggested.

Maine’s two largest healthcare systems have opted for a wait-and-see approach to employee mandates for COVID-19 vaccination. (News Center Maine)

Two-time Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld died of multiple myeloma at age 88 on Tuesday. (USA Today)

Following the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling backing Arkansas’ right to enforce rules on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), over 100 new PBM bills have been introduced across state legislatures. (Health News Florida)

A federal judge has temporarily blocked Indiana’s “abortion reversal” law. (The Hill)

ICER bumped up its annual cost-effective price tag for aducanumab (Aduhelm), to the $3,000 to $8,400 range, which remains just slightly less than Biogen’s announced yearly price of $56,000.

Early clinical trials of an investigational malaria vaccine showed high levels of durable protection following exposure to the malaria parasite, the NIH announced.

CDC is investigating three cases of non-travel associated Burkholderia pseudomallei infection, which causes melioidosis, involving patients in Kansas, Minnesota, and Texas.