Ex-CDC Chief Frieden: COVID vaccines won’t drive cases down for months, but may decrease death rates

Former Center for Disease Control (CDC) Director Dr. Tom Frieden told “CAVUTO Live” on Saturday it’s critical Americans “double down” on coronavirus protection protocols as cases, infection rates, hospitalizations, and deaths are still “astronomically high.”

The CDC has updated their guidance Thursday on the coronavirus vaccine administration stating that the first and second approved doses can be given up to six weeks apart. The agency published the changes amid a shortage in vaccine supply.

Frieden provided insight into the updated coronavirus guidelines and warned Americans may be “over the danger level” if not careful.

EX-CDC CHIEF DR. TOM FRIEDEN: This is the most complicated vaccination program in United States’ history and the two-dose series makes it even more complex and what the C.D.C. is saying is basically, get the two doses as scheduled. 21 days for Pfizer, 28 days for Moderna, but if there’s an extreme problem, it’s okay if it has to be delayed for a couple of weeks or in certain circumstances, if you have to get the other vaccine, but really, better to get it as directed, but better to get any vaccine, than no vaccine.

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The bottom line here Neil is that we need to get vaccines out of freezers and into arms, but vaccination is not going to drive case rates down for many months. It may drive death rates down, especially if we can vaccinate more people in nursing homes and people over the age of 65. Those are the individuals who account for, in the case of nursing homes, about 40% of deaths over 65, 80% of deaths…so if we can get that group vaccinated sooner, death rates should start coming down before the case rates start coming down.

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If we all work together, we could over the summer get a high vaccination rate and if everything goes well by the fall, lead to a newer normal. The wild card here, Neil, is the variant because they are more and more concerning.