Vaccine advisers for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention met Thursday to discuss recommendations on new safety issues concerning the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and to review preliminary data on whether vaccine boosters will be needed in the future, especially for people with weak immune systems.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met at 11 a.m. The ACIP panel includes outside medical experts in vaccinology, immunology, pediatrics, internal medicine, nursing, virology, public health, infectious diseases and other subspecialties, according to CNN.
The panel has provided guidance throughout the pandemic on safety associated with the COVID-19 virus and vaccines.
According to the Associated Press, U.S. hospitalizations and deaths are nearly all among the unvaccinated. But COVID-19 cases nearly tripled in the U.S. over two weeks amid an onslaught of vaccine misinformation that is straining hospitals, exhausting doctors and pushing clergy into the fray.
Across the U.S., the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases rose over the past two weeks to more than 37,000 on Tuesday, up from less than 13,700 on July 6, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Just 56.2% of Americans have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.