5 Biggest COVID Stories Of The Week You Might Have Missed

From major vaccine waste to a reversal in shot mindset, last week had no shortage of COVID-19 insights. To help get you caught up, here’s a look at what you might have missed:

Shot Hesitancy Declines

In a significant shift, now only 14% of unvaccinated Americans say they are not at all likely to get the COVID shot, according to the latest Axio-Ipsos Coronavirus Index.

With nearly 80 million eligible people in the U.S. still unvaccinated, this is a jump forward for the country, which Axios-Ipsos attributed to the recent approval of the Pfizer vaccine by the Food and Drug Administration in late August and the increase in COVID cases due to the highly contagious Delta variant.

WHO Adds Mu As 'Variant Of Interest'

The World Health Organization has added another strain of COVID as a “variant of interest,” marking five total mutations that it is observing at this time. The Mu variant was first detected in South America has been reported in 39 countries, with over 4,500 sequence virus cases reported to the WHO.

The global organization said in its weekly pandemic bulletin that while the full rate of transmissibility of the Mu variant is unclear as well as its resistance to current vaccines, it does “indicate potential properties of immune escape.”

The WHO said more studies are required to fully understand the characteristics of the Mu variant.

CDC Begs Unvaccinated Americans To Stay Home

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning to Americans on Tuesday about traveling over Labor Day weekend, pleading with the nearly 80 million who are unvaccinated to stay home as cases of coronavirus spike amid the Delta variant spread.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a coronavirus news briefing, “Given where we are with disease transmission right now, we would say that people need to take their own risks into their own consideration as they think about traveling.”

Walensky told vaccinated Americans that it was alright to travel over the holiday weekend as long as they wore a mask.

Nearly 15M Vaccine Doses Tossed

The U.S. has thrown away at least 15 million doses of the COVID vaccine since March, according to a new report obtained by NBC News. The doses were wasted as a result of cracked vials and diluting errors, as well as because vials had more doses than people who were available to give them to, according to the report.

The new report reveals that this is almost double what has been reported by the CDC. The CDC’s report indicated that Walgreens threw away almost 2.6 million doses of the vaccine, while CVS, Walmart, and Rite Aid wasted 2.3 million, 1.6 million, and 1.1 million doses of the shot, respectively.

Fauci Says Its “Likely” You’ll Need 3 COVID Shots

It is becoming clear that Americans are going to need to get three shots of the COVID vaccine to protect against the virus. The nation’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said during Thursday's coronavirus briefing that data from two Israeli studies “supported the rationale for COVID-19 booster shots.”

Fauci cited the two studies, saying that they both showed a decline in COVID-19 infections among people that had received a third dose of the vaccine or what is being called the booster shot.

Fauci said that a third dose of the vaccine “will actually be durable, and if it is durable, then you're going to have very likely a three-dose regimen being the routine regimen.”

Roll out of the booster shots is expected the week of Sept. 20, pending authorization by the FDA. A booster shot has been authorized for immunocompromised individuals.