The new federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention s recommendations that came out Thursday about who needs to continue wearing a mask and who doesn t bring up a lot of questions.
Under the recommendations, fully vaccinated people folks who are two weeks past receiving both doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or two weeks after receiving the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine no longer need to wear a mask except in very crowded spaces, such as airplanes, airports, homeless shelters or jails; or where federal, state or local rules apply; or when following a business s own rules.
Fully vaccinated people also no longer have to physically distance except in those places.
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was given emergency use authorization by the FDA on Monday for the 12-15 age group and recommended for this age group by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday.
The Pfizer vaccine already had been given emergency use authorization for people 16 and older. Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, also known as Janssen vaccines, have emergency use authorization for ages 18 and up.
Parents and guardians can now start planning for their 12- to 15-year-olds to be vaccinated.
Here are some of the local places offering the Pfizer vaccine:
By Wednesday night, vaccine appointments were available for 12 and older at some local CVS, Walgreens, H-E-B, Walmart and Randall s locations.
Baylor Scott & White hospitals in Round Rock, Temple and Waco have been contributing to real-world studies reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that show a significant difference in people who have received a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus and people who have not.
The first study began as a flu study to test the effectiveness of that vaccine each year and has continued during the coronavirus pandemic to be a flu study as well as a COVID-19 study, once the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines began to be in use.
A new CDC report took data collected from this study from 24 hospitals (including the Round Rock, Temple and Waco hospitals) in 14 states, and looked at people ages 65 and older who came into the hospitals with flu- or COVID-19-like symptoms.
Researchers at the University of Texas Dell Medical School have been trying to answer the question: How do you get more access to health care and social service resources for people experiencing homelessness in Austin?
One of Dell Medical School s previous studies of people experiencing homelessness found that one-third of people entering the health and human services system in Austin did not have a basic identity document.
Dr. Tim Mercer, director of the global health program in the medical school s population health department, works as an internal medicine doctor at CommUnityCare with the homeless population. It s a major issue. . I wouldn t have realized it if I was not there on the front lines, he said.