particularly for students and even more so for younger students. let me explain. we ve been talking about this idea for some time. it s now official from the cdc. but they re specifically saying for all students, elementary school students, they can maintain just three feet apart when mask use is universal regardless of what is happening with community transmission. that s for elementary school students. so that s going to be a big deal. but they also say, kate, that for middle school and high school students, they should still maintain at least six feet apart if the community tr transmission in their community is high. so making a difference between older and younger students. for all elementary schools, regardless where you live in the country, guidance is now going to be three feet. but if you happen to live in a community where community transmission is high still, at about 41% roughly of counties in the united states do have high transmission, if you live in one of those
About the transmissionability of it. is this a situation where if we re looking at the rise of the b.a. 2 variant overseas, should we be going to get off label booster shots? what is your sense of this? no. not certainly not off label. and here s why. the fourth shot again, israeli data, hopefully pfizer and moderna and the data they submitted to the fda will have some of the unkpelg information you re asking for. but right now we know the third shot really does protect us against hospitalization and death. the question is how many months after that third shot people like me and many others are well into the six months after the third shot. how many months after that shird shot do we need if so a fourth one but, no, really the majority of americans are still well within that 6 to 9 months period since the booster. let me put a plug in. only 40% of eligible adults got the boosters. we need to do a lot more work in
But that potential for increased transmissionability, in particular, if it s able to be more fit to spread and able to displace delta, that would be the problem. how much would we be watching what the pharmaceutical companies say about how their drugs, their vaccines, react to this new strain? i think it s going to be very important for them to test both the nutrons that work and that pfizer came up with to see if they act with the new strain. important to see whether neutralizing antibodies generated by the current vaccines inactivate this virus. because if they do not, then we need to tweak the vaccine, so they better target the new variant. up where you are in new england, at least massachusetts, they re seeing a big spike in covid cases. are the hospitals there feeling that impact? well, fortunately, not. now, there s definitely been a
Chain as not being gain of function. let me finish. so you take an animal virus and increase the transmissionability to humans. senator paul, you don t know what you re talking about quite frankly. i want to say that officially. you do not know what you re talking about. after that exchange, i don t know if you saw, he said we re not learning anything with that. but i wonder if you would go a step further. is that the kind of thing that perpetuates the mistrust that keeps people from getting vaccinated? i think there is a combination of all kinds of disinformation, misinformation. i just go on record here thanking dr. fauci for his efforts and for telling the truth. we have to understand in this country there are three groups of people. vaccine affirmative.
Russians are still hesitant to get the sputnik vaccine. translator: we re afraid of getting sick. that we did not get vaccinated because we re also afraid of that. reporter: a w.h.o. said moscow is one of several places where the delta variant is thriving. with so many people across the world still unvaccinated, there s plenty of opportunity for it to circulate even more. the delta variant is well on the way to becoming the dominant variant globally because of its significantly increased transmissionability. reporter: one w.h.o. official said africa is particularly vulnerable because of a lack of vaccines. delta variant has been detected in at least 14 countries on the continent. even countries that have had success with their vaccination programs have been inundated with new cases. more than 46% of the population in the uk is fully vaccinated but covid-19 infections are