Weekly Rounds with Infection Control Today: Vaccines for Kids, Booster Shots for Elderly, Elimination Strategy

Here are 5 highlights from ICT®’s wide-ranging coverage of the infection prevention and control world. Everything from interviews with known opinion leaders, to the news that infection preventionists and other health care professionals can use on their jobs.

COVID-19 Vaccines for Children 5–12 Might be Here By Fall

Vaccines for children 5–12 who seem to be more vulnerable to the delta variant than earlier iterations of COVID-19 might come in the fall. Good news, but vaccines alone—for all age groups—represent only one layer of mitigation, some experts argue.

COVID-19 Booster Shots Reportedly to Start at 6 Months

Officials originally said that the boosters would be available 8 months after the last dose, but they’ve changed that to 6. That should help older Americans. But what about children?

Viewpoint: Should US Adopt an Elimination Strategy Against COVID-19?

In Beijing the total cases in an outbreak were reported to be less than 10. China used over 100 million tests to eradicate what would be classified as a very small outbreak by US standards.

Vaccines Not as Effective Against Delta Variant, say CDC Data

CDC data cut to the heart of just how much protection COVID-19 vaccines offer infection preventionists (IPs) and other health care professionals on the frontlines from the delta variant.

Pediatric COVID-19 Cases Tick Up

Officials with the American Academy of Pediatrics stress that there’s no need for alarm but they do urge that more data be collected concerning children and COVID-19 infection, and they also note that there’s still no vaccine for youngsters 5–12.