, joined the MJH Life Sciences team in November 2020. He graduated from William Paterson University with a degree in liberal studies, and concentrations in history and psychology. He enjoys film, reading, and pretending he is a good cook. Follow him on Twitter 

On Friday, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

 documenting COVID-19 breakthrough infections that were associated with large public gatherings in Barnstable County, Massachusetts.

 during July that were linked with multiple summer events.

During this time, vaccination coverage among eligible residents of the state was at 69%, one of the highest rates in the country.

Among the 469 documented cases, 346 (74%) occurred in fully vaccinated individuals. Genomic sequencing of specimens from 133 of those cases demonstrated that 119 (89%) of them were found to be the Delta variant.

Symptomatic cases were seen in 274 (79%) of the vaccinated individuals and 4 ended up needing to be hospitalized.

The study also found that vaccinated individuals carried as much virus in their noses as those who are unvaccinated.

These findings show just how highly transmissible the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus really is. The CDC stated that it is crucial to understand the determinants of transmission in order to develop prevention strategies.

The data reported in the study is what led to the CDC recently reversing course and again recommending that vaccinated individuals begin wearing masks in areas where there is a high transmission rate of COVID-19.

“This finding is concerning and was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC’s updated mask recommendation,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC said in a statement. “The masking recommendation was updated to ensure the vaccinated public would not unknowingly transmit virus to others, including their unvaccinated or immunocompromised loved ones.”

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The study found that ¾ of the cases occurred in fully vaccinated individuals.

CDC Report Shows Significant Breakthrough Cases in Massachusetts

A recent study conducted by investigators from the CUNY Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health, in collaboration with the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, has found that over half of US parents said they may not vaccinate their children who are 12 years of age or younger.

Results from the study were published in the journal 

“Preventing COVID-19 in children is of critical importance not only for the individual health benefits but also because it will contribute to stopping the spread of infections in communities and households,” the authors wrote. “High coverage of COVID-19 vaccination among children will help stop transmission and will allow for safe return to normal activities, including fully opening schools.”

For the study, the team of investigators conducted an online, community-based survey among 2,074 parents in the United States and 1,119 in New York City who had children under the age of 12 years old.

The study was conducted between March and April of 2021 and asked parents if they would vaccinate their child for 

 once approved for their age group, and if not, why they didn’t want their child to receive the vaccine.

Findings from the study showed that only 49% of the study participants said that they planned on vaccinating their children under 12, while 26% said they were unsure and 25% said they will not vaccinate their child when the vaccines are approved for them.

Additionally, the study found that parents who did not have a college education and made less than $25,000 a year were most likely to be vaccine hesitant. It was also seen that Asian parents were the mostly likely to say that they will vaccinate their children.

“The results of our survey, suggesting that as many as half of U.S. parents do not want to vaccinate their children for Covid-19, are concerning, but we can use this information while we await pediatric vaccine approval to work on improving future uptake,” Chloe Teasdale, lead investigator on the study said. “We should start now to develop and deliver information campaigns to help parents understand the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, as well as the real dangers to children from Covid-19 infection.”

Reasons given for not vaccinating were safety issues and low risk for infection.

Over Half of Parents May not Vaccinate Children for COVID-19

Recently, over 50 major healthcare organizations 

 that called for all healthcare employers, from hospitals to long-term care facilities, to require a COVID-19 vaccine for their employees.

The authors and signatories of that statement cited their reasoning as the protection and safety of not only the healthcare workers themselves, but that of their patients and residents as well.

The healthcare sector, the authors stated, should be a leader when it comes to being vaccinated against 

However, by the end of May, 1 in 4 healthcare employees still didn’t receive a shot, proving there is still a considerable amount of hesitancy in that population.

When it comes to information about vaccines, there is hardly a more knowledge group of individuals than pharmacists. Not only do they know about the medicine itself, but they must be familiar with the entire approval process that a therapy goes through.

So, what role do they play in vaccine advocacy?

Anna Legreid Dopp, Pharm. D, senior director of clinical guidelines and quality improvement at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, discussed this topic in a recent interview with 

“As a trusted voice in the community, pharmacists are one of the most accessible healthcare providers,” Dopp said. “They can manage care concerns, they can triage care concerns and having those one on one conversations knowing that the pharmacists understand it, I think they should be leveraged to have those crucial conversations.”

In the interview, Dr. Dopp also discusses the varying reasons why there is still vaccine hesitancy in the healthcare worker population and how pharmacists can use their voice to be champions of vaccination.

A conversation with Anna Legreid Dopp, Pharm. D.

What Role Do Pharmacists Have in Vaccine Advocacy?

. Prior to joining MJH Life Sciences in 2020, he has covered a variety of fields and markets including diabetes, oncology, ophthalmology, IT, travel, and local news. You can email him at 

Earlier this week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided new recommendations for people to begin wearing masks again—depending on where people lived—and even in those fully vaccinated.

 specifically asked vaccinated people to wear masks again when indoors in public settings in parts of the US with “substantial” to “high” transmission. The CDC has created a 

 on its site to help the public determine the level of transmission in the county they live in.

The CDC also reversed its recommendations on mask wearing in schools, stating that all teachers, administrators, staff, students, and visitors should wear a mask indoors regardless of vaccination status.

"In recent days I have seen new scientific data from recent outbreak investigations showing that that Delta variant behaves uniquely differently from past strains of the virus that cause Covid-19," CDC Director, Rochelle Walensky, MD, said. "This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendations."

This recommendation has led to confusion and possibly a bit of a shrug from the public especially in people who are vaccinated, not understanding what the “new science” was.

The belief had been that people who are vaccinated are protected and not in danger to themselves or others, and at least initially when the CDC mask guidance was lifted back in May, collectively we thought we had turned a corner for the better. 

 this week, Walensky said new research showed that vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant carry tremendous amounts of the virus in the nose and throat.

This is a departure from the previous variants where it was believed that vaccinated people would not transmit the virus. Suddenly, this has become something everyone, not just the unvaccinated, are having to confront.

The CDC is expected to release the data today about the new variant, and outbreaks among the vaccinated. However, as this information has not been published, it has led to not fully understanding why the sudden change on masks again.

If communication is key to helping the public and the medical community understanding where the new guidance comes from, then a transparent accounting with the data being shared to decipher why the new recommendations.

With new mask guidance comes questions and confusion, especially with the new strain of COVID-19 and those who have been vaccinated.  

Even for Fully Vaccinated, Masks are Back and Delta Variant Appears the Culprit 

Jonna Lorenz is a freelance journalist with more than 20 years of experience. Her background is in business and health care news, including reporting, editing and research for newspapers and websites.

Incorporating a clinical decision support (CDS) strategy was associated with significantly higher odds of hospitalized children receiving the influenza vaccine, a recent study found.

The quality improvement study, published in 

, examined 17740 hospitalizations at 3 hospitals in a tertiary pediatric health system. The patients, who were hospitalized during 3 influenza seasons between 2018 and 2020, were divided among intervention groups and concurrent controls and historical controls.

“Clinical decision support (CDS) in the electronic health record (EHR) that integrates with clinicians' workflow can significantly improve use of evidence-based practices such as providing influenza vaccine to eligible hospitalized children,” Evan Orenstein, MD, pediatric hospitalist and chief medical information officer, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University, told 

. “Many QI are limited to pre/post designs (i.e. what was the vaccination rate before and after the intervention). These approaches are susceptible to inappropriate conclusions from secular trends -- for example we know the vaccination rate naturally falls the later we get in the flu season. Step-wise implementations that provide both historical and concurrent controls are practical and improve the scientific rigor of QI interventions.”

The study examined a CDS intervention that included placing a default influenza vaccine order into admission order sets for eligible patients, a nursing script to offer the vaccine using a presumptive strategy, and education for clinicians including links to references.

“Small changes in CDS design can have a large impact on behavior,” Orenstein said. “For example, adding links to references justifying influenza vaccine for immunocompromised children or for those on steroids changed how physicians behaved during usability testing. Similarly, providing nursing flexibility by placing the influenza vaccine order in admission order sets instead of at the time of discharge made it easier to get the vaccine in despite a busy hospitalization. Finally, we were surprised that the vaccination rate among our concurrent controls (hospitalizations during the same season where we intervened but who were not exposed to our CDS intervention) was significantly higher than our historical controls (hospitalization in the prior flu season). We suspect this may have been due to the fact that physicians were seeing influenza vaccine orders in their workflow more often for the intervention group and were therefore reminded about the vaccine more often.”

Among the study participants, the average age was 8 years, 52% were boys, 50% were Black, 43% were White, and 64% had public insurance. The study authors noted that hospitalized children are at higher risk for morbidity and mortality related to influenza, but vaccine coverage is lower than the national average for this group.

The odds of receiving the influenza vaccine were 3.25 (95% CI, 2.94-3.59) times higher in the intervention group and 1.28 (95% CI, 1.15-1.42) times higher in concurrent controls than in historical controls, the study found. An influenza vaccine was ordered for 4199 out of 5449 (77%) hospitalizations in the intervention group and administered during 1676 (31%) hospitalizations. In the concurrent control group, an influenza vaccine was ordered during 1488 (27%) of hospitalizations and administered during 1051 (19%). In the historical control group, an influenza vaccine was ordered during 1024 (15%) hospitalizations and administered during 912 (14%).

The odds of receiving the vaccine were highest early in the influenza season, declining by 3.7% with each additional week into the season. Age also was evaluated, with adolescents ages 13 to 17 being 28% less likely to receive the vaccines than children ages 6 to 23 months.

Further research is underway to improve influenza vaccination rates among children.

“While we saw significant improvements in flu vaccination rates, even among our intervention group only 31% of eligible hospitalizations had a flu vaccine administered,” Orenstein said. “We are undergoing a thorough analysis of the reasons why flu vaccines get ordered but not administered and developed additional CDS interventions for the 2020-2021 influenza season. We will be evaluating the effectiveness of those in concert with the interventions described here.”

“We are hoping to expand the use of this CDS beyond a single institution to determine if this pattern is effective in other health systems,” he added. “We are evaluating similar strategies in different care settings—i.e. the emergency department and ambulatory specialty clinics.”

The importance of vaccination is heightened amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Investigators are studying the possible 

Efforts to improve vaccination rates and influenza vaccines are ongoing.

The National Institutes of Health recently began a 

Phase 1 human trial of a universal influenza vaccine

, FluMos-v1, which is designed to stimulate antibodies against multiple influenza virus strains.

A clinical decision support (CDS) strategy including a default influenza vaccine order for eligible patients, a nursing script using a presumptive strategy, and education for clinicians, was associated with significant improvement in vaccination rates among hospitalized children, a new study showed.

A Clinical Decision Support Strategy Boosted Influenza Vaccination Rates Among Hospitalized Children

Kevin Kunzmann is the managing editor for 

. Prior to joining parent company MJH Life Sciences in 2017, he worked as a health care and government reporter for The Pocono Record, and as a freelance writer for NJ Advance Media, The Express-Times, The Daily Journal, and more. He graduated from Rowan University with a degree in journalism in 2015. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, cooking, running his dog, and complaining about the Mets. Follow him on Twitter 

Last influenza season was notably quiet during peaking COVID-19 cases. Experts explain what may influence risk of dueling epidemics this year.

Is There Risk of Flu Outbreaks in the 2021-22 Season?

The company is planning to use its mRNA platform to develop the vaccine for malaria, which is the same successful technology it harnessed for its COVID-19 vaccine.

BioNTech to Develop a Malaria Vaccine

With its latest earnings report showing the financial impact of the vaccine, the Delta variant becoming the dominant strain in the US, and concerns of waning immunity, the company believes there is evidence for an additional booster shot. 

Pfizer Positions Itself for Booster COVID-19 Vaccine Development

A new report based on wearable technology finds it takes an average of 79 days for patients’ resting heart rates to return to normal following COVID-19 infection.

Heart Rate, Sleep Patterns Can Remain Off for Weeks After COVID-19 Infection

Commonly reported issues included delirium, encephalopathies and psychiatric complications.

Risk Factors Linked With Brain Complications in COVID-19 Patients

Public information campaigns may potentially boost rates of vaccination.

Emphasizing Health Benefits May Increase COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

As much as 2% of vaccine recipients have reported anaphylaxis following their first shot.

Second Dose of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Found Safe After Reaction to First

A recent study of sexually active young women in Africa found that initiation of HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was high at 95% and one-fifth showed high adherence at 6 months.

PrEP Initiation is High Among Women in Africa, But Adherence Is Challenging

Ken reports on medical innovations and advances in practice and edits presentations for news and professional education publications. He previously taught and mentored pharmacy and medical students, and provided and managed pharmacy care and drug information services. He regularly contributes to Contagion Live, HCP Live, Neurology Live, and Pain Medicine News.

Asymptomatic and symptomatic COVID-19 cases among health care personnel were reduced after vaccination despite surge in infected patients.

Vaccinations Protected Health Care Personnel During Surge of Patients with COVID-19

The agency is expected to make a statement later today on masking recommendations. 

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