Sober October, Dry January and Dry July: For one quarter of a year, these campaigns provide a motivation for people to come together and challenge themselves to go without alcohol.

It isn't a surprise to Annie Grace that these periods to reduce alcohol consumption are becoming more popular. The author of "This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol" said she is seeing more and more people evaluate the relationship that alcohol plays in their lives.

How much is too much? The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention classifies moderate drinking as two drinks or less in a day for men and one drink or less for women. But two-thirds of adult drinkers report drinking more than those levels at least once a month, according to the CDC.

And the pandemic didn't help. A December 2020 study found that 60% of respondents increased drinking over the year and more than a third said they engaged in binge drinking, which is defined as five or more drinks on an occasion for men and four for women.

Studies show that alcohol isn't good for healthy living. There is no safe amount when it comes to heart health, according to the World Heart Federation. And even moderate drinking reserved for the weekend can have social, emotional and psychological impacts, according to a 2022 study.

Sober October could be a step to cutting out alcohol entirely, but it doesn't have to be, said biological psychologist Aaron White, senior scientific adviser to the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Whatever your level of drinking, a monthlong sobriety challenge could help you be more mindful about your drinking, White added.

Who benefits?

You may think you might not need a break from drinking because you don't have signs of substance abuse disorder: your drinking causing serious impairment, health problems, disability or issues meeting responsibilities.

But problematic drinking is a spectrum -- not just a binary between addicted and fine, Grace said. You may drink a little but not feel good about why or how you drink. You may drink a lot but feel doing so functions well in your life.

Even people who don't drink heavily may find themselves with less control over when and how much they drink than they would like, Grace said.

She was one of those people. Grace didn't feel she needed treatment programs, but she found that reducing her drinking was a struggle, which to her was a sign that something needed to change.

Taking on a sobriety challenge doesn't mean you have to quit forever, but it can help you be more thoughtful in your decisions around drinking rather than doing it because it's what you usually do, White said.

"It gives somebody a chance to cultivate alternatives," he added.

How does it help?

Even in just a month, there is evidence that reduced alcohol consumption can be good for your physical health.

"Most people who drink excessively have fatty livers," White said. "Even taking a break for a month is enough to just bring your liver enzymes down and for your liver to look healthier."

Some people may find with less or no alcohol they sleep better and make better food choices for themselves, White said.

And for emotional health, a short-term challenge can point out feelings and routines that could be improved, Grace added.

Many of the people she works with -- even moderate drinkers -- describe their relationship with alcohol as something they are not in full control of, she said.

She encourages people who are using a sobriety challenge to take note of when they feel the urge to drink and what purpose it serves. Does it make you feel part of a community to share a drink at a party? Is that glass of wine after a long day a reliable sense of comfort?

Maybe the drink is an easy way -- but not the best -- to get those needs met, Grace said. Taking note and trying to find those things without a drink could open you up to new ways of fulfilling those feelings, White added.

How to be successful

There are a couple of stumbling blocks to plan for during a sober month, Grace said.

One is overcoming the desire to drink, and experts had different approaches to solve that problem.

Reducing drinking can have a similar effect as dieting -- the more you tell yourself you can't have it, the more you want it, said Natalie Mokari, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Charlotte, North Carolina.

She recommends starting with one less drink than you would usually have at each occasion or breaking a daily habit by limiting drinking to certain days. You can also have a sparkling water in between drinks or make weaker cocktails than usual to reduce your alcohol consumption, she said.

White said it is important not to feel shame if you end up drinking during your sobriety challenge. Don't throw out the whole experience by beating yourself up over a glass of wine, he added.

Grace recommended leading with curiosity and information. Learning more about the psychology and biology of alcohol really helped reduce her desire to drink, she said, and approaching her urges with curiosity rather than judgment allowed her to learn more about the role alcohol played in her life.

There is also social pressure to drink. How do you not drink when everyone else is? Especially if friends get uncomfortable when they don't see you with the beer you always have?

The first thing is to remember that people may make you feel bad because they are uncomfortable about their own relationship with drinking, Grace said.

It often helps to have a nonalcoholic drink in your hand at social events, White said, so the offer to have a drink doesn't even come up.

Don't binge on Nov. 1

If you are hoping to curb your habits or boost your health, it is important not to see crossing the finish line as the time to overindulge, Mokari said.

Dramatically reducing your consumption over that time can lower your tolerance, and what was enough for a buzz today could result in a much higher level of intoxication than you expect 30 days later, White said.

You may also be undoing the changes in habit you have been building over the course of the month by going back even harder once it's over, Grace added.

"In our society, even saying 'I want to take a break' is super brave," she said. "If you don't change how you feel about it but white-knuckle it the whole month, it becomes like this forbidden fruit syndrome."

It's cute when your sleeping puppy does it. It's not so cute when you are having a serious conversation with a friend post-feast and you just can't stop.

It's the hiccups.

Along with "COVID-19," "vaccinations" and "helping one another," "hiccups" appeared as one of the most searched terms on Google for 2021. That may come as a surprise. Everyone gets them — why all the questions?

For all the medical and scientific advancements humanity has made over the years, there is still a lot we don't know about hiccups. The irony of that struck Dr. Ali Seifi, a neuro intensivist, while checking up on a patient who was recovering from surgery for brain trauma. The patient had been gulping down water to cure the case of hiccups that had come on in his hospital room.

"He turned to me and said, 'Doctor, this is the 21st century. You guys have treatments for cancer, for strokes, for heart attacks, but not such a simple thing as hiccups?'" said Seifi, director of the Neuro-ICU and an associate professor in the department of neurosurgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Seifi has developed a simple tool called HiccAway — a plastic straw-like tube that increases pressure to lower the diaphragm when you drink — that he said is effective for stopping hiccups in most circumstances. But there is still much the public and the medical community don't understand about the common occurrence, he added.

What are hiccups?

To understand hiccups, you have to know about the diaphragm, the major muscle that controls breathing, which sits just below the lungs and near the stomach. When you breathe in, the diaphragm contracts and your chest expands.

Hiccups are sudden spasms of that muscle, Seifi said, and they send a message to your brain to close a flap in your throat again and again — hence the "hic" sound.

The "up" comes from the release of the pressure when the flap opens up, said Dr. Mark Fox, a professor of gastroenterology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

What causes hiccups?

The answer to the question of what causes them is perhaps disappointing: We often don't know.

They can be sparked by many everyday things, including spicy food, alcohol, carbonated beverages, eating too fast, eating a large meal or acid reflux, Seifi said.

Take spicy food, for example: It can irritate the stomach chemically, and — since the stomach is so close to the diaphragm — that can stimulate the muscle to spasm, which alerts the brain to hiccup, Seifi said.

The irritation impacts the nerves that connect the brain to the gut, Fox said.

And the purpose of the hiccup? There is really only educated guesses there, too, Seifi said. Some scientists theorize that there was a point in evolution where life moved from water to land, and those organisms needed something to prevent water from going into their lungs, he added.

Who gets hiccups?

Everyone gets them, Seifi said.

Children, teens, adults and dogs get hiccups. There is even a belief in the scientific community that all mammals get them, Seifi said.

They are more common in younger humans, said Fox. In fact, hiccups can be extremely common in babies in the womb — which is interesting, because they aren't using their lungs yet, Fox said.

"The reason that I think most people think the hiccups occur (in the uterus) is that it is actually training the respiratory muscles in the womb ... because you do need to breathe just as soon as you're born. By repeatedly contracting and relaxing the diaphragm and the (other) breathing muscles, it trains the baby," Fox said.

But as humans get older, there is no clear pattern to who gets hiccups more often.

"That's the million-dollar question," Seifi said. "Nobody knows why some people get more hiccups."

It could have to do with the variance in human bodies, he added. One person might have a diaphragm more attached to their stomach than another, and therefore their stomach irritation is more likely to result in hiccups.

How do we treat hiccups?

Often when someone starts to hiccup, a debate begins among everyone nearby over which home remedy is the true cure.

They all are a little right, Seifi said.

Whether it's holding your breath, drinking cups of water quickly and in succession, drinking upside down, or getting scared, Seifi said there is actually good science behind the old wives' tales passed down through the generations.

The ones that involve breathing or drinking include long contractions of the diaphragm, and getting scared or surprised can impact the nerves that are associated with hiccups, Seifi said.

"They didn't know what they were doing, but in fact they were targeting these muscles," he said of the originators of the home remedies.

There are cases where prolonged hiccups lasting more than two days can be a symptom of another problem, and in those cases, Fox recommended people see their doctor. But for your more typical situations, sticking to your tried-and-true cure may be your best bet, he said.

CINCINNATI —

As many kids return from holiday break next week, there's a renewed focus on COVID-19 in schools.

Health experts said it's important children get vaccinated and they also encourage testing after all those family gatherings.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital will host a vaccination event at Union Terminal on Wednesday to help get kids protected for the new year.

"The next two weeks is really going to be watched very carefully and it's going to be sad because we are going to see a great increase in cases," public health expert, Dr. O'dell Owens, said.

Following the Christmas celebrations and New Year's toasts, Owens said people should be on guard for COVID-19.

He said that includes kids headed back to class.

"We have a history on every holiday that we've seen a surge, so this is not going to be any different. Especially with omicron being spread much more easily than the delta," he said.

There are many districts that make use of a Test to Stay, Mask to Stay or Test to Play program aimed to keep healthy students in class or activities instead of quarantined due to an exposure.

A Cincinnati Public Schools spokeswoman told WLWT that the health department will test students who may be symptomatic as long as the parents give the OK.

They also said there is a weekly, voluntary K-12 screening available to all CPS elementary students with parent consent.

Owens anticipates there could be a surge of testing needs to match an even bigger rise in COVID-19 cases.

"I think it's going to be tough. I think what you're seeing around the country is a lack of the test kits, you know, you have these long, long lines in all the major cities of people getting the regular tests," he said.

That's why he encourages parents to mask up their kids, teach them good hand hygiene and consider the shots as classes resume.

"There is a war against this virus and the best way to fight this war is to be vaccinated fully. That means getting your two vaccinations and your booster and be open to the fact that you might need a booster next year," Owens said.

The Cincinnati Children's Hospital vaccination clinic takes place on Wednesday at the Cincinnati Museum Center's Union Terminal.

It runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Appointments are not needed.

Officials said admission to the Museum Center is free to those who are vaccinated and parking is free.

As the new COVID-19 omicron variant spurs global travel bans, experts say concerns over its impact should prompt millions of unvaccinated Americans to get their shots — and for those who are eligible, to get their boosters.

"I would hope that within the next week or two weeks, so many of those people will take advantage of the vaccine," Dr. William Schaffner, a professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told CNN on Friday. "That will help us in the immediate term. And I would anticipate that, as bad as Omicron might be, our vaccine still will be partially effective."

Dr. Anthony Fauci echoed that, pointing to vaccinations and boosters as effective mitigation tools.

"I'm saying this absolutely clearly, that if ever there was a reason for unvaccinated people to get vaccinated and for those who have been vaccinated when your time comes up to go and get a booster shot," Fauci told NBC News on Friday.

"The booster shots give you a very, very important edge," he said, noting that boosters increase the level of antibodies that protect against the virus.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 196 million Americans, or 59% of the U.S. population, was fully vaccinated as of Friday. An additional 37.5 million have received booster shots, the data shows.

On Friday, the U.S. moved to restrict travel from eight mostly southern African countries starting Monday as the World Health Organization deemed omicron, first detected in South Africa, a variant of concern. Travel into the U.S. will be restricted for those entering from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa.

Omicron has raised concerns for health officials because there's a possibility it could be more contagious than the original novel coronavirus strain, the WHO said, and it also has a significant number of mutations.

After a pandemic that has lasted nearly two years, experts and global leaders are anxious about the impact of the omicron variant, and many nations have issued travel bans. Besides South Africa, the newly identified variant has been detected in Botswana, Hong Kong and Belgium.

Two cases of the variant have also been detected in the U.K., Secretary of State for Health Sajid Javid said Saturday, prompting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to announce a series of "targeted" measures to combat the variant.

There have been no indications so far that the variant has made its way into the U.S., Fauci told CNN Friday. On Saturday morning, however, he told NBC he "would not be surprised" if the variant was already in the U.S., saying, "it almost invariably is going to go all over."

The U.S. variant surveillance system has reliably detected new variants in the past, the CDC said.

"We expect omicron to be identified quickly, if it emerges in the U.S.," the agency said in a statement.

Vaccine makers are working to determine effectiveness against omicron

Meanwhile, vaccine makers have disclosed they are taking action to address the emergence of a new variant.

Moderna is working quickly to test the ability of its vaccine to neutralize omicron, the company said Friday, and data is expected in the coming weeks.

The strain includes mutations "seen in the Delta variant that are believed to increase transmissibility and mutations seen in the Beta and Delta variants that are believed to promote immune escape," Moderna said in a news release.

"The combination of mutations represents a significant potential risk to accelerate the waning of natural and vaccine-induced immunity."

If its current vaccine and booster are insufficient against the variant, Moderna explained that one possible solution is boosting people with a larger dose, which the company is testing.

The company is also evaluating two multivalent booster candidates to see if they provide better protection against omicron — both of which include some of the viral mutations present in the variant. Moderna said it is also testing an omicron-specific booster.

"For several days, we have been moving as fast as possible to execute our strategy to address this variant," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in the news release.

Scientists at BioNTech, the German company that partnered with Pfizer to make its COVID-19 vaccine, are also investigating the impact of the variant on their shot, with data expected within the upcoming weeks.

A Johnson & Johnson spokesperson told CNN in a statement the company was also testing the effectiveness of its vaccine against omicron.

COVID-19 travel restrictions aren't all that effective, experts say

The Biden administration's decision to curtail travel from eight countries is a precautionary measure as the U.S. government learns more about the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

But some experts say travel restrictions aren't as effective as they may seem.

"Travel bans are modestly effective. They can obviously influence travel directly from that country to the United States," said Schaffner, the doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

"But obviously U.S. citizens will be permitted to come back. They could bring the virus. And people could go from the country of interest, South Africa for example, and go to other countries that are not on the travel ban, and enter, if you will, by the side door. So travel bans are somewhat effective, but let's not expect a miracle," he said.

U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and noncitizens who are the spouses of citizens or permanent residents are exempted from the new restrictions.

Dr. Megan Ranney, a professor of emergency medicine and Associate Dean of Public Health at Brown University, said universal vaccination requirements for all air travel would be more effective.

"Or having quarantines when people arrive in the U.S. from other countries. Neither of those are particularly politically palatable right now, but they would make a much bigger difference in the spread of this variant," Ranney told CNN on Friday.

While all hands are on deck to combat the novel coronavirus, there is another virus that experts are keeping their eyes on – the EEE virus, commonly known as the "Triple E."

It stands for eastern equine encephalitis.

You may have heard of the virus last year when we started seeing more cases outside of Gulf Coast states, where the virus is normally seen.

"Triple E" can cause inflammation in the brain, which can be deadly.

In 2018, the United States only had six cases of "Triple E." In 2019, that number rose to 38, an alarming number considering about a third of people who become infected are expected to die.

With coronavirus at top of mind this summer, experts are concerned people may not take the right precautions for "Triple E."

“You hear all about coronavirus, having to wear a mask,” said Dr. Brittany Campbell, an entomologist with the National Pest Management Association. “We've been doing social distancing for months now, with a little bit of movement. So, I can understand that everyone is a little bit exhausted from being concerned about their health all of the time. But at this time, I really encourage people to remain diligent.”

This can be done by making a habit of dumping out any standing water in your yard and also protecting yourself by wearing repellent.

And when it comes to how rampant "Triple E" will be this mosquito season, experts aren't exactly sure. It really depends on the temperature, climate and rain specific to each region.

Massachusetts saw a large outbreak last year. The state is now looking at a bill that would have the public health department reduce the mosquito population, as a precaution.

While most people seek safety during danger, Ebonique Johnson actually hurries to the frontlines.

“I’m running towards it because that’s where I’m needed the most,” said Johnson, a nursing student at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Set to graduate in December, she’s looking to land a job at an ICU.

“I want to be where I’m needed,” Johnson said. “I want to help the COVID patients.”

That help could come sooner or later depending on where she gets a job.

Some states are waiving certain regulations and allowing nursing students to enter the workforce more easily. Other states, however, have prevented nursing students from working with COVID-19 patients altogether.

“We can’t hit the pause button with what’s going on, nurses are needed now more than ever,” said Dr. Regena Spratling, associate dean for GSU’s school of nursing.

She says coronavirus concerns have limited student access to hospitals for hands-on clinical training and that more courses are now being taught online.

“We’re really focusing on what they would be doing within the health care system as far as taking care of patients,” Spratling said.

Despite changes, GSU is seeing more people looking to join its nursing program.

For GSU nursing student Phillip Parnell, this pandemic is personal.

“One of my older relatives recently passed away with the virus,” he said.

The army veteran is now making his second career his first priority.

“When it hits home, it’s a different level of intensity,” Parnell said.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the health care industry needs more than 200,000 new nurses each year through 2026 just to replace retiring nurses.

“Although we never thought we would see a pandemic in our lifetime, it’s here,” Johnson said.

GSU students are happy to be leading the next generation of nurses while also fighting COVID-19 on the frontlines.

“We answer the call to be there for people,” Johnson said. “It’s our time to show up.”

A pill that could potentially treat COVID-19 is a "game-changer," but experts are emphasizing that it's not an alternative to vaccinations — which remain the most effective path to ending the coronavirus pandemic if enough people get their shots.

Yet, the average number of people getting vaccinated — at 270,531 per day— is the lowest it's been since Aug. 15, according to Friday's data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A little over 65% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated, the data shows.

At the same time, the U.S. hit a grim milestone Friday by surpassing 700,000 deaths from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University's data. The U.S. tops the world for COVID-19 deaths, followed by Brazil with nearly 600,000 fatalities, according to the data.

The news from Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics on Friday that they created an antiviral pill that can reduce COVID-19 hospitalization and death by 50% was hailed by health experts, although they cautioned it wasn't a replacement for vaccinations.

"This can be used in conjunction with the vaccine. And it's not an alternative to vaccination. We still have to try to get more people vaccinated," Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, told CNN on Friday.

Gottlieb acknowledged that the antiviral medicine could be effective for those who choose not to get vaccinated as well as those who catch the virus while fully vaccinated.

"This is the most impactful result that I remember seeing of an orally available drug in the treatment of a respiratory pathogen, perhaps ever," Gottlieb told CNN. "I think getting an oral pill that can inhibit viral replication — that can inhibit this virus — is going to be a real game-changer."

Merck said Friday it will seek FDA emergency use authorization for its molnupiravir medication "as soon as possible." If permitted, it would become the first oral medicine that fights viral infection for COVID-19.

"If approved, I think the right way to think about this is this is a potential additional tool in our toolbox to protect people from the worst outcomes of COVID," White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said Friday.

Zients echoed Gottlieb's stance on vaccination, underscoring inoculation remains "far and away our best tool against COVID-19" because the shots can prevent people from getting infected in the first place.

"And we want to prevent infections, not just wait to treat them once they happen," Zients said.

Meanwhile, Louisiana reported Friday that a child at or under the age of four died from COVID-19. It was the state's 17th pediatric death from the virus.

"We owe it to ourselves, our children and everyone around us to take advantage of the best protection we have, and that is the vaccine and wearing a mask," Louisiana State Health Officer Dr. Joseph Kanter said.

Th delta variant of the coronavirus has made child infections much more common than during the onset of the pandemic.

More booster talks to come

Americans who received the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines can expect to hear next steps for booster shots this month.

The FDA will meet with its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on Oct. 14 and 15 to discuss those boosters for those vaccines, which have only been authorized for emergency use in those 18 and older. The committee will also consider data on "mix and match" use of boosters, the agency said Friday.

Only Pfizer's COVID-19 two-dose vaccine has been fully approved by the FDA for people 12 and older. Pfizer's booster shot is authorized for emergency use in people 65 and older, people at high risk of severe disease and people whose jobs put them at risk of infection.

More than 4.03 million people have received an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine — or booster — since Aug. 13.

The FDA vaccine committee is also slated to discuss Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 on Oct. 26. Pfizer has started submitting data about this age group to the agency but has not yet formally requested emergency use authorization.

The committee of independent advisers typically discusses and makes recommendations to the FDA on vaccine authorizations and approvals. Then, the agency makes the final decision.

Vaccine mandates continue coming into play

As federal health officials consider booster shots, vaccine mandates are being implemented more widely — and some are not happy with the move.

On Friday, American Airlines told its U.S. workers that they must follow the Biden administration's requirement to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The airline noted that its business with the federal government means it will be covered under the mandate but fell short of saying when the requirement takes effect.

Religious and disability-related exemptions will be available, but there will be no "provision of a regular testing alternative," the airline said.

"While we are still working through the details of the federal requirements, it is clear that team members who choose to remain unvaccinated will not be able to work at American Airlines," according to a memo CNN obtained from the airline management sent to employees.

Meanwhile, Ochsner Health in Louisiana said it will charge employees enrolled in their upcoming 2022 health care benefits a fee for spouses and domestic partners who are not vaccinated against COVID-19.

"This is not a mandate as non-employed spouses and domestic partners can choose to select a health plan outside of Ochsner Health offerings. As with our employee vaccination policy, spouses and domestic partners with medical and religious objections will be able to file exemption requests," Ochsner Health President and CEO Warner Thomas said in a statement this week.

Related video above: Dr. Fauci says vaccines may bring normality by end of 2021

Dr. Ashish Jha started 2020 thousands of miles from home, taking a sabbatical in Europe from his academic post at Harvard. Then the coronavirus pandemic arrived in the U.S.

Jha, an expert on pandemic preparedness, returned to Massachusetts, and his blunt talk on the unfolding disaster was soon hard to miss on national news and social media.

Jha estimates his office fielded more than 100 media requests a day at its peak. He went from a few hundred Twitter followers pre-pandemic to more than 130,000 by December.

"For me, the purpose of doing this was to fill a void and make sure people received credible scientific information," said Jha, who recently became dean of Brown University's School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island. "I thought it would go for a week or two, but the demand never really let up."

In another time, experts like Jha would have enjoyed the quiet esteem, respect and relative obscurity afforded by academia. But for better or worse, the coronavirus pandemic thrust virologists, epidemiologists and other normally low-profile scientists into the pop culture crucible.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force, has been the unquestionable rock star among them. But a cadre of other scientists also rose to prominence over this past year. Many developed loyal social media followings and became regulars on the cable news circuit.

For Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a Seattle-based virologist affiliated with Georgetown University in Washington, her newfound notoriety hit home in July when she got into a Twitter debate with billionaire Elon Musk.

Rasmussen, who was then at Columbia University, criticized the Tesla CEO's tweets questioning data on the spread of the virus. Musk, to her surprise, chimed in, challenging her to produce evidence supporting her arguments.

Rasmussen tweeted back a series of graphs and other scientific data, which Musk dismissed as "cherry-picked." Twitter users following along slammed Musk for attempting to "mansplain" the pandemic to a virologist.

Rasmussen, who has seen her Twitter followers explode from around 300 pre-pandemic to more than 180,000, said she'd like to avoid unnecessary Twitter beefs, which also included testy exchanges with "Dilbert" comic strip creator Scott Adams and his fans over the pandemic in recent months.

But as the pandemic has worn on, she has become frustrated with the persistent misinformation from influential leaders and celebrities like Musk and Adams, and her strongly worded tweets show it.

"It's exhausting," Rasmussen said. "The same arguments keep coming back. It's like battling a hydra. Every time you cut one head off, another one grows back in place."

Laurel Bristow, an infectious disease researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, suggests it's an indictment of academia that misinformation and conspiracy theories thrive and that parts of American society remain deeply skeptical of true scientific work.

"Experts in these fields have ignored the importance of communication and bringing information to people in a way that is understandable and relatable for so long," Bristow said. "You have to put a face to something for people to be able to trust it."

Bristow, 32, whose Instagram username is kinggutterbaby, has gained more than 300,000 followers posting videos answering people's questions and concerns about COVID-19.

She credits her online popularity to her unfussy approach. She shoots her short videos speaking directly at the camera while sitting in her kitchen.

It also helps, Bristow said, that her Instagram feed is filled with pictures of her posing with cuddly animals, riding motorcycles and other things from her daily life.

"Having people see me as a whole person helps remind them scientists are people with families too, and that the best interest of people is really at the heart of what we're doing," she said.

Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiology professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, said she has sought interviews with conservative media outlets as a way to combat fear and misinformation, especially with the nationwide vaccine rollout underway.

"There's such a divide in society. I'd really like to reach the other side and make a difference," said Iwasaki, who was already a notable advocate of women in science and tech fields before the pandemic but has seen her Twitter following swell to more than 90,000 this year.

Like other female scientists, she said that she has encountered frequent misogyny and "mansplaining," but that it has only made her more determined to continue speaking up.

"I have this platform, and I'm going to use it," said Iwasaki. "My priority is to get out the correct information, not respond to toxic comments."

Jha, meanwhile, admitted he wasn't prepared for the level of racial animus his pandemic commentary has generated — a complaint shared by other scientists of color.

A native of India who has lived in the U.S. since the 1980s, he said much of it is of the "go back to your country" variety that he simply shrugs off.

But a gut check moment came in November, when Jha began receiving death threats after testifying before Congress and strongly rejecting assertions made by Trump and others that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine could also protect people against COVID-19.

Jha said the threats were concerning enough that he notified local police, who sent patrols past his family's Boston-area home as a precaution.

Now, as 2021 dawns, he said he is looking forward to being less in the public glare.

When President-elect Joe Biden takes office, Jha said, he expects federal government authorities will take their rightful role as the public face of the nation's pandemic response, after being diminished and undermined at critical times this year.

"That's who the American public needs to be hearing from more," he said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and experts like Fauci at other federal agencies. "I'm a poor substitute for what's needed."

Likely the biggest immediate challenge of the Biden administration is improving the vaccine rollout. His new COVID-19 team has said it aims to administer 100 million shots for 50 million Americans in the first 100 days of office. It’s a plan some are still challenging

“I invoke the Mike Tyson principal. Everyone has a plan until they are punched in the mouth and it feels like we're being punched in the mouth. The rollout has been extraordinarily slow and sluggish,” said an expert during a debate with the Journal of the America Medical Association (JAMA).

Vaccine experts debated with JAMA about the possible benefits and consequences of getting all the doses available into more Americans, resulting in a delay of the second dose.

The concern wasn't necessarily how protected people would be if they delayed getting the second dose by a few weeks. In trials, both vaccines produced higher immunity responses after the first dose than the flu shot overall. The concern was more around the mixed messaging and Americans’ perception.

“What worries me is that there are people who are going to hear this and say, you know, ‘I’m 80-90% effective. That’s not that much different than 95%. I got my dose, I’m good. I hadn’t suffered with that first dose, why bother getting the second dose?’ That worries me,” said an expert.

“That they see this as yet another curve ball and like you told me masks didn't work, then you told me they did, then you told me I needed to clean my mail and now you're telling me I don’t, and I’m just so confused I’m just not going to get vaccinated,” said an expert.

There are also concerns the system for determining who is next to get the vaccine is too complex, actually creating more opportunities for inequity.

“Who is going to be able to figure their way around the system? Who is going to game it or who is going to have the resource and the wherewithal to get to the front of the line? It’s going to be the well-to-do, it’s going to be the privileged. Exhibit a is the tax code,” said an expert.

One proposed idea is that after nursing homes and health care workers, we move to an age system, where we start with 75 and up, 65 and up, 55 and up. And then possibly a lottery after that based on the last number of your birthdate.

That takes the burden of requiring proof of preexisting conditions and essential worker status off those giving vaccines, so they can speed up administering them.

Health experts are reinforcing the point that full vaccination remains highly effective against severe illness and death caused by COVID-19 as federal regulators consider the possibility of authorizing a third dose in the upcoming weeks.

"What's the goal of this vaccine? The stated goal by (Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky) and others is to prevent serious infection, and all the data today, published by the CDC, presented by the CDC, is it's done exactly that," Dr. Paul Offit, a top vaccine expert and U.S. Food and Drug Administration adviser said Friday.

"There's been no evidence of clear erosion of protection against serious disease," he said.

The conversation around vaccines has fluctuated because health experts are learning new information about the coronavirus and its variants.

But amid the debate, experts are consistent in noting the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.

"Remember, even the current doses of vaccines still protect you so well from hospitalization and death. We are not back in early 2020 or even early 2021 for those of us that have not received boosters yet. We are still protected against the worst effects of this virus," Dr. Megan Ranney, professor of emergency medicine at Brown University, told CNN on Friday.

A CNN analysis of CDC data from last month suggests that more than 99.99% of fully vaccinated people have not had a breakthrough case of COVID-19 resulting in hospitalization or death.

And it's because of such a high degree of protection that Offit emphasized that America can make significant headway against the pandemic by simply vaccinating the unvaccinated.

He added that the federal government's messaging on booster shots has been confusing and frustrating.

"It's confusing to people. I've had a number of calls and emails from people saying, 'Wait, so I'm not fully protected anymore?'" Offit said.

"I think the message that should come out right now is if you received two doses of mRNA vaccines, you have a very high chance of not having serious infection, and that that has lasted up until the present moment, that you should consider yourself protected against serious illness."

Roughly 62.2% of the U.S. population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose while about 52.9% is fully vaccinated, CDC data shows. Of the 10 states with the worst COVID-19 case rates over the past week, seven of them also had among the 10 best vaccination rates, according to the agency.

Plan for booster shots is 'confusing people,' top FDA official says

The FDA is set to meet Sept. 17 to discuss COVID-19 booster shots. Last month, the White House said people who got the two mRNA vaccines — the two-shot vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna — may receive boosters starting Sept. 20.

However, on Thursday, FDA Acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said the administration still doesn't have enough safety data on booster shots.

"Why would you announce this? Well, we need to have a plan and the plan would involve the vaccination of very large numbers of people in the United States with a booster dose," Woodcock told Dr. John Whyte of WebMD during a virtual interview published online Thursday.

"We have to make a plan somewhat before we have all the data and I think that, John, is what's confusing people," Woodcock said.

"The trends that we're seeing in resistance to the virus in fully immunized people lend us to believe that at some point we're going to cross that threshold and we're going to see hospitalizations and more serious disease and when that happens, we want to be ready," Woodcock told Whyte.

To be sure, White House officials announced that the booster rollout would be subject to the green light from the FDA and sign-off from the CDC. Woodcock said on Thursday that data already shows some waning immunity among vaccinated people.

On Friday, officials told CNN there have been conversations within the Biden administration about scaling back the booster plan due to concerns the FDA might only be prepared to recommend boosters for people who had the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Currently, the agency doesn't have enough data on Moderna to make that recommendation, an official told CNN.

Pfizer/BioNTech applied for a booster shot FDA approval last month, and Moderna said it applied Wednesday.

Florida sees decline in Covid-19 cases

Meanwhile, there was some good news from Florida, which broke its own record for new COVID-19 cases multiple times last month. Over the past week, there was a decline in cases, according to data published Friday by the state health department.

The state averaged about 18,463 daily new cases last week, equivalent to 588.1 new cases per 100,000 people each day between Aug. 27 and Sept. 2. That is a drop from the prior week, when the average of daily new cases was 21,678.

Florida has fully vaccinated slightly more than half of its population, according to CDC data.

Meanwhile, the mask mandate feud between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and public school districts continues. DeSantis has been sparring with school officials for weeks because he banned mask mandates in schools, but some implemented them anyway.

Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran sent individual letters to nine districts demanding the districts "document how your district is complying with Florida Department of Health emergency rule" as part of a non-compliance investigation. He also threatened to withhold state funds if districts did not fully comply with DeSantis' order to include a parent opt-out in school mask mandate policies.

CNN has confirmed all nine districts have now responded to Corcoran's Aug. 27 letter.

They argued they are in compliance with Florida law and consider the mandate a necessity for health and safety. Some of the districts also mentioned last week's ruling by a Florida judge that indicated DeSantis does not have the authority to make a blanket ban on mask mandates. DeSantis on Thursday filed a notice to appeal the judge's ruling.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – As the Derek Chauvin trial gets underway in the death of George Floyd, American studies experts and the mother of Philando Castile are reflecting on the societal impacts these types of court cases can have.

Five years ago, Philando was pulled over by police in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. The officer said his brake lights were out, but after Philando notified the officer he had a firearm on him, the situation quickly escalated and Philando was fatally shot.

“That man walked out of that courtroom with the evidence that clearly showed him murder my son to the extent he stuck the gun in the car to make sure he shot my son in his heart,” Philando’s mother, Valerie Castile said.

At the end of the trial, the officer was acquitted of all charges.

“In my mind, I was like, you have just given these people free reign to kill,” Ms. Castile said.

Ms. Castile says police brutality will not end if, in her words, officers get away with it.

“If you’re not held accountable, you’re like ‘oohwee, I got away with that. Imma do it again and again and again. And that’s what’s been happening,’” Ms. Castile said.

George Floyd also died in the Twin Cities. A little more than nine months later, the first of four officers at the scene of his death will face his fate in court.

What happened to Floyd -- even though it got so much international attention -- is not new. So, what has come out of trials like these from the past? Do we see societal change?

“Yeah, that’s the hard part. This will be a test,” Dr. August Nimtz said.

Dr. August Nimtz is a political science professor at the University of Minnesota. He has been a professor at the university since 1971. He studies the comparison of race, class and ethnicity in the United States. He says he’s witnessed a lot of change in his lifetime.

“In the 1960s, the anti-police brutality marches were almost exclusively African American,” Dr. Nimtz said.

What he saw in the streets in the weeks following Floyd’s death were marches with multi-racial populations, including large groups of Caucasians. He says that has never happened in the history of anti-police brutality protests.

“It’s a big breakthrough in my opinion,” Dr. Nimtz said.

Outrage over the continuous deaths of innocent people has fueled the Black Lives Matter movement. Dr. Duchess Harris is an expert in the movement and a professor of American studies at Macalester College.

“Only 25% of white American supported Black Lives Matter after the killing of Philando Castile," Dr. Harris said. "That number has catapulted since George Floyd to the point that actually United States Senator Mitt Romney was wearing a Black Lives Matter face mask at a protest.”

No matter what happens during the trials, Dr. Harris says people need to pay attention.

“I want people to be engaged. I think that it’s troubling to me right now that citizens are not engaged in what is happening around the nation,” Dr. Harris said./

Depending on the outcome, Dr. Nimtz believes people will once again take to the streets.

“There will be a lot of outrage. That’s why the ruling authorities have put up all of the barricades,” Dr. Nimtz said.

In Philando’s case, Ms. Castile says there was no justice for her son. She’s anxious to see what will happen in George Floyd’s case.

If the officers are convicted instead of being acquitted, Ms. Castile said, “I would just simply say I can see progress. Thank you, Jesus, thank you Lord.”

She is pleading for justice and hoping for change.

“You had eight minutes to change your mind, and you didn’t. You put your hands in your pocket and adjusted your weight. He did that. And you have to be a damn fool if you don’t think that man is guilty. You have to be a fool,” Ms. Castile said.

At least 21 states have recorded at least a 10% rise in daily average positive cases of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data Thursday, demonstrating that the fight against the pandemic is far from over.

In Michigan, hospitals are increasingly overwhelmed and reaching full capacities in part due to the influx of new coronavirus cases. State and local officials across the country are attempting to avoid a similar situation and are pushing to increase vaccination levels among adults, which shows continuing signs of improvement.

More than 30% of U.S. adults have been fully vaccinated, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a CNN analysis has some states being able to vaccinate all willing adults by June.

However, between varying rates of vaccine hesitancy and the pace of vaccinations, the timeline for vaccinating all willing adults varies greatly among states — a growing concern because, for some locations, a new surge may have arrived.

"We have knocked down this virus already three times, but we have to knock it down a fourth time," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday, as the state's infection numbers have increased again.

In order to prevent a new surge as well as the spread of COVID-19 variants that may be more infectious, health experts continue to recommend mask-wearing, social distancing, and above all else, vaccination.

"The vaccines have saved thousands of lives already," Emory University executive associate dean of medicine Dr. Carlos del Rio told CNN. "We've seen mortality in the U.S. decline despite cases going up, and that's because we're vaccinating people."

Dr. Kawsar Talaat, an infectious disease physician and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CNN on Thursday that while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data has shown that vaccines cannot fully prevent all COVID-19 infections, such "breakout" cases are rare. Widespread vaccination means that less virus is circulating and there is less opportunity for exposure.

"That's the whole point of getting to herd immunity," Talaat said. "Because once we get to a point where enough people in the community are vaccinated, then if somebody develops COVID in that community, the people around them are protected and it's much harder for that person to spread the virus to somebody else, and therefore the transmission stops."

While more than 78% of those ages 75 and up have received at least one dose of vaccine, the percentage of those vaccinated ages 18-29 is at roughly 25%, CDC data shows. And young and relatively healthy people who have had COVID-19 before should still get a vaccine to prevent reinfection, according to research published Thursday in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

The effect of rising infection rates is being felt on a local level. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday that although more than 36% of residents have received at least one dose of vaccine, hospitalizations are increasing.

"It's a lagging indicator, so not a direction that we want to be going," DeWine said.

"We just have to keep going," DeWine said. "We know how to get out of this. You know, this is not five months ago, four months ago, we know how to get out of this, and we have the tool to get out of it. We just have to use the tool and we've got to use it every day. And that is vaccinate."

States push to get ahead of rising infections

Nationwide, states are racing to inoculate as many residents as possible.

"We know that these vaccines are really responsible primarily for the 90% reduction in deaths we've seen over the first 13 weeks of 2021," Dr. Clay Marsh, West Virginia's COVID-19 czar, said Thursday.

Aware that transportation can be a barrier for some, Rhode Island announced that free public transit trips to and from vaccination appointments will be available starting Monday.

"This is a big win for Rhode Island's vaccination efforts," Gov. Dan McKee said. "I hope that no-cost trips will enable everyone who wants to get to a vaccine clinic to get there easily."

News coming out of several states was cautiously optimistic, as Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Connecticut and Georgia all highlighted increases in vaccination numbers.

New York reported its lowest number of hospitalizations since Dec. 1 and that more than half of New York adults had received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.

Citing a 95% drop in the daily average of deaths in the state, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu announced that a mask mandate set to expire Friday will not be renewed.

"The lifting of the mandate does not diminish the importance of wearing a face mask," Sununu said, noting that numbers remain high across the state. "We ask that people continue to take steps to protect their own health, the health of their family and friends, and the health of their community."

Johnson & Johnson vaccine side effects are investigated

As vaccine distribution continues, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine remains paused.

A severe form of blood clot in the brain known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis may be linked to the vaccine, yet the occurrence rate is rare. So far, only six cases have been reported in the U.S. out of the approximately 7 million doses administered to date. One person died and another is in critical condition, an FDA official said Tuesday.

One of the six cases involved a 26-year-old Pennsylvania woman, according to the state's department of health, which recovered after receiving treatment at a hospital. The state, which is pausing J&J distribution until April 24, said that federal oversight of vaccine safety is functioning as intended.

"The safety procedures built into the vaccination process are working and should instill confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the available COVID-19 vaccines," Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said. "I urge individuals who have appointments scheduled to receive a Pfizer or Moderna vaccination to keep those appointments."

After the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration recommended a pause on Tuesday, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met Wednesday without voting on taking any further action, stating that more information is needed, and vaccine advisers to the CDC have scheduled a meeting for April 23 to determine whether additional intervention is required.

"Hopefully, we'll get a decision quite soon as to whether or not we can get back on track with this very effective vaccine," Dr. Anthony Fauci told a Congressional hearing Thursday.

In response, Johnson & Johnson decided to pause vaccinations in all of its clinical trials while the company updates "guidance for investigators and participants," according to a news release posted Tuesday afternoon.

Recipients of the vaccine who develop a severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain or shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination should contact their health care provider, the CDC and FDA said.

For those that received the J&J vaccine more than a month ago, the risk is "very low," said CDC principal deputy director Dr. Anne Schuchat during a virtual briefing on Tuesday.

CNN —

The U.S. is hitting major COVID-19 vaccination milestones, but health experts say those who are not inoculated should not rely on protection from those who are, as their infection risk hasn't gone down in response to declining cases.

"The work ahead of us is going to be really challenging because while the people who are fully vaccinated are well protected, we still have to keep on convincing individuals who are not yet vaccinated that they are not safe," CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen said. "The pandemic is not over for them."

The risk for unvaccinated people is in fact about the same as it was in the middle of the January surge, Wen said citing an analysis from the Washington Post.

Half of the adult population in the U.S. is fully vaccinated, according to data published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And for those people, the upcoming Memorial Day weekend — an event identified as a major source of spread last year — may look much like it did prior to 2020.

"Thanks to vaccines, tens of millions of Americans are able to get back to something closer to normal visiting friends and family," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at the White House coronavirus briefing Tuesday.

The CDC guidance hasn't changed for those who are unvaccinated, however, as they are still at risk for infection, Walensky said.

"If you are not vaccinated, I want to encourage you to take this holiday weekend to give yourself and your family the gift of protection by getting vaccinated," Walensky said. "We are on a good downward path, but we are not quite out of the woods yet."

While an Axios-Ipsos poll showed that only 44% of Americans socially distanced last week, down 12 percentage points from two weeks ago, Wen advised that unvaccinated people keep masking, distancing and practicing precautions.

Taking steps closer to more normal childhoods

There was also promising data Tuesday on COVID-19 infections in children.

With nearly 40,000 new cases, the U.S. saw the lowest number of weekly cases among children since early-October, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Currently, only children 12 and older are eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations. While studies are underway for safety and efficacy in younger children, a vaccine for younger children likely won't be available until late fall or early winter, Dr. Anthony Fauci said.

But given the number of vaccinated teachers and the significant decline in cases, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease told the House Appropriations committee on Tuesday that it should be safe for children of all ages to go back to in-person class in the fall.

A return to some normalcy for children is a welcome development for many, especially in light of the mental health challenges the pandemic has posed.

"People sort of shrug and say, 'Well, you know, kids are resilient,' but wait a minute, this is really an incredible unprecedented challenge to their life experience," National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins told the House Appropriations committee on Tuesday.

There are several questions new research will have to address, Collins said.

"What has it meant for them to be out of school, which is normally the place where a lot of socialization and education happens for this prolonged period. And what about this issue of being fearful of an illness that might actually affect your families, might suddenly be blamed on you if you were the one who happened to bring the illness in?" Collins said.

Lottery tickets and full scholarships for vaccinations

In the meantime, states are finding new ways to persuade residents to get vaccinated.

In Delaware, officials announced a partnership with the Delaware Lottery to twice-weekly drawings for vaccination incentives.

Delawareans aged 12 and older who were vaccinated "from May 25-June 29, and any Delawarean ages 12-17 vaccinated to date, will be entered to win $5,000 in cash and additional prizes in twice-weekly drawings conducted by the Delaware Lottery," according to a statement from Governor John Carney's office.

Other prizes include a four-day vacation, a full scholarship to a Delaware public university and tickets to events, according to the statement.

"Incentive programs are one of three key levers that are becoming widely recognized for increasing vaccine rates," said Dr. Karyl Rattay, Director of the Delaware Division of Public Health.

The Delaware plan mirrors initiatives in other states. Ohio, for example, has announced a lottery for vaccinated residents while West Virginia is offering a $100 savings bond to residents ages 16 to 35 who get the vaccines.

In Arkansas, every resident who gets vaccinated starting May 25 will be given a $20 lottery scratch-offs or a gift certificate with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission for $21 that can be redeemed for fishing license or a hunting/fishing license in the state, Gov. Asa Hutchison announced in a press conference.

We know more about the COVID-19 vaccines and the CDC has relaxed their masking guidelines in certain situations. So you might be wondering about the risks of getting sick with COVID-19 in different situations. 

We asked the experts: What’s the risk of getting COVID-19 from working out at a gym?

Their take: The risk of contracting COVID-19 is low risk, if you’re fully vaccinated.

"If you're unvaccinated and you're around other unmasked people that are potentially not vaccinated, the risk would be much higher because you could have (a) risk of exposure to somebody that could transmit COVID-19," Katie Cary, assistant vice president of infection prevention for HCA Continental Division, told Newsy. 

"So unmasked and vaccinated, the risks are going to be far lower of a severe or even mild COVID-19 illness across the board. If you are unvaccinated and there are other unmasked unvaccinated people at the gym, you're going to be a little bit higher risk of transmitting or catching a Covid 19 infection if somebody else is unmasked and carrying COVID-19 at that time," Dr. Joesph Khabbaza, a pulmonary critical care specialist at Cleveland Clinic, said. 

"One of the risks really comes down to who else is in your life or in your household that may be at risk if you get COVID-19. And this is particularly something to consider when you are at a place like a gym where you may have a large number of people now coming in unmasked. And we know that as you breathe heavier, you dispel more droplets and potentially virus into the air. And the amount of virus in the air will really depend on how good the ventilation is and how many people are there at a given time," Dr. Kelly Cawcutt, associate medical director of infection control and epidemiology at Nebraska Medical Center, said.

This story originally reported by Lindsey Theis on Newsy.com.

For Americans vaccinated against COVID-19, daily life may look increasingly different than for those who aren't inoculated yet following Thursday's mask guidance, experts said.

"We are on the right path (for) people who are fully immunized," National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins told CNN. "You can take your mask off indoors as well as outdoors."

But he added: "We are not at the end of this story. There are still a lot of people who haven't gotten that shot."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — meaning those who have waited two weeks after their final dose — generally don't need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors.

The CDC arrived at its new guidance because of declining case rates, increasing numbers of vaccinations and growing understanding of the risk of viral spread by vaccinated people, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told CBS on Friday.

"In the last two weeks, our cases have come down by a third," she said. "We have a rapidly declining case right probably because our vaccination rate is going up.

"Over the last several weeks, we have seen emerging signs that if you were vaccinated, you're safe and protected from getting COVID-19 and you really have a very low risk of transmitting to other people and that these vaccines are really working against the variants that we have circulating here in the United States," she said.

For those who experienced no immediate impact from receiving their vaccine, "now your life is going to change," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, adding that although some businesses, like airlines, may keep mask mandates in place, venues like grocery stores, restaurants, bars and bowling alleys may soon look much more like they did pre-pandemic.

The CDC's decision may have the indirect effect of being an incentive for people who are on the fence about getting the vaccine, but it was based on the science showing how strong vaccine protection is, Fauci said.

But as a sense of normalcy resumes for those who are protected, experts warn that the risk of infection may grow for those who are not vaccinated.

"We keep thinking of this country as a vaccinated and an unvaccinated country," CNN medical analyst Sanjay Gupta said. "What it's slowly going to turn into is a vaccinated and an infected country."

And without a way to verify who is vaccinated and who is not, the guidance may inhibit the U.S. from reaching herd immunity and put those who cannot yet be vaccinated or are immuno-compromised in more danger, said CNN medical analyst Leana Wen.

"They were overly cautious and now I think they are throwing caution to the wind," Wen said of the CDC's guidelines.

People should defer to local rules on mask-wearing, Walensky told NBC on Friday.

"We really do need to understand that this country is not uniform. There are places in this country that still have higher rates of disease. There are places in this country that still have lower rates of vaccination," she said.

"People need to look into their local environment because, ultimately, we know that this virus is an opportunist, and where there are low rates of vaccination, it will emerge again," Walensky said. "We really need to make sure that we get people vaccinated, and we still continue to take precautions if people are not vaccinated."

Masks may stay on for some

Those who are not vaccinated are threatening their own health if they go out in public and forego the social-distancing and mask usage guidance, experts said.

And people who have compromised immune systems from situations like chemotherapy and organ transplants may not have a sufficient immune response to safely remove their masks in public, Wen said.

Although studies are ongoing for younger children, vaccines have only been approved for children as young as 12. So, those who are not yet old enough to get their doses still need to wear their masks indoors and around others, Fauci said.

Elementary age children likely won't be vaccinated until the end of the year, Fauci told MSNBC on Friday.

"They're called age de-escalation studies, and that is you get children at different age brackets, and you do a test to make sure that it's safe," he said. "You go from age 12 to 9. if it looks good, then you go 9 to 6; that looks good, 6 to 2; that looks good, and then 6 months to 2 years."

That timeline likely puts the youngest children at the back of the line, Fauci said.

"I think that high school kids, adolescents certainly, will be able to be vaccinated by the time we get to the fall year, but I think it's going to take to the end of the calendar year to get elementary."

U.S. retailers may still require patrons be masked, and the CDC still advises wearing one when traveling or using public transport, Walensky noted.

The choice to remove masks is a decision vaccinated people can make for themselves, and some may choose not to, Fauci said.

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with an individual who has a certain level of risk aversion, as we know the risk is extremely low of getting infected whether you're indoors or outdoors," Fauci said. "But there are those people who don't want to take that bit of a risk, and there's nothing wrong with that, and they shouldn't be criticized."

Some states jump on the changes, others hold back

How the recommendations play out may depend on how state leaders respond— and their reactions have been varied.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Friday the state will lift its mask requirement for fully vaccinated people effective Saturday at 9 a.m., according to a statement released by her office.

"The vast majority of us have trusted the scientists and experts to keep us safe during the pandemic, and it has worked. With millions of Michiganders fully vaccinated, we can now safely and confidently take the next step to get back to normal," Whitmer said.

Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, Vermont and Virginia are ending mask mandates for vaccinated people, effective Friday, May 14. Delaware will lift its mask mandate for the vaccinated on May 21.

In Virginia, all distancing and capacity restrictions will be lifted May 28, two weeks earlier than planned, Gov. Ralph Northam said Friday.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said that capacity restrictions and face mask mandates will end June 11 and "life will be almost fully back to normal."

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said he will lift the state's face mask requirements for fully vaccinated people on June 20.

Rhode Island will align its mask guidance with the CDC's starting Tuesday, Gov Dan McKee said Friday, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine directed the state's health department to conform the state's health order with the CDC's guidance.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey called the latest guidance "common sense" and said the state has "already embraced this idea," in a statement to CNN. Alabama dropped the state's mask mandate in April.

"Alabamians are getting back to living. So, Alabama, roll up your sleeves and get the vaccine!" Ivey said.

New York, Colorado and North Carolina officials will review the guidance before making any changes.

Los Angeles County has decided against following the new relaxed measures for now.

While vaccinated people don't need to wear a mask in the company of other vaccinated people in uncrowded areas, everybody is still required to wear face coverings in crowded indoor and outdoor venues, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday during a news conference.

Several weeks after world health officials declared the coronavirus a pandemic, 40-year-old Sheri McCaskill decided to apply to a master's program in public health.

The decision, McCaskill said, stemmed partly from the sudden heightened awareness about the importance of public health as the virus spread in the U.S.

"I started to see a lot more happening in the public health realm through news, media and it was everywhere, everything we were hearing," McCaskill told CNN. "I think that kind of helped me to make my decision."

Fields focusing on health sciences have all seen a jump in interest since the pandemic's start. Medical schools reported historic high application numbers late last year. Nursing school applications also saw increases, a spokesman for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing told CNN.

But it's been the soaring interest in public health programs — which before the pandemic saw a dip in applications — that is particularly encouraging to some officials, who say the field, long underfunded and understaffed, is critical in helping tackle not just this virus, but other emergencies plaguing U.S. communities.

"Gun control is a public health intervention. Adequate housing and education are public health interventions," Cheryl Healton, dean of the NYU School of Global Public Health, told CNN. "Anti-racism activities are a public health intervention."

But even as more applicants are trickling into public health, some experts worry that won't necessarily translate to more graduates eyeing the positions that are in desperate need of officers — including in U.S. health departments.

"The work of state and local health departments is hard. It's grueling work. It's extremely rewarding work but at the same time it doesn't pay very well, it's not competitive with the private sector," said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).

"So it's good news and it's bad news," Freeman said.

"Good news that we're able to get more and more people interested in public health," she added. "Bad news that we're not able to attract them to the areas we need them — in federal, state, local, governmental public health."

What is public health?

The COVID-19 pandemic proved why preparedness and prevention are critical.

And public health is just that.

Local health officers' responsibilities can include anything from making sure people get their annual flu shots to conducting restaurant inspections, educating the public about substance abuse, healthy diets or running STD prevention campaigns.

"Public health ultimately is about the conditions that create health for people," said Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health. "They are the characteristics of where we live or work or where we play."

But most of us had little to no interaction with public health professionals before the pandemic. Since then, epidemiologists and infectious disease experts — like Dr. Anthony Fauci — have taken center stage, appearing daily on the news with insight and advice.

And that helped thrust the field into the spotlight. During last year's application cycle, public health program applications jumped by 23%, with the biggest increase coming after March 2020, said Laura Magaña, the President and CEO of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH).

In the 2021 cycle, applications have so far increased by about 39% since the same time last year.

"It is a clear effect of the pandemic," Magaña said. "Public health became really visible and people understand its importance."

The pandemic, Magaña said, in combination with a younger generation passionate about issues like social justice and climate change — both of which have been at the forefront of global conversations in the past year — likely led to the jump in applicants.

How public health can help communities

Catherine Allende, who was recently accepted into Harvard University's School of Public Health for a Masters in Epidemiology said it was the health disparities that exist in the U.S. — and watching how they were exacerbated by the pandemic — that pushed her to apply.

Racial and ethnic minority groups in the U.S. were hit hardest by the virus, reporting higher rates of hospitalization for COVID-19 and seeking emergency care more when compared to White people, recent studies showed. The findings highlighted the "need to address health inequities in our country," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said last month.

Allende, 24, has experienced those disparities first hand. Her parents, who are both from Peru, speak limited English. And language was "an unfortunate barrier to health in this country," Allende said, as the family battled her father's tuberculosis and her mother's breast cancer diagnoses.

Once she graduates from her public health program, Allende said she wants to home in on public health for vulnerable communities in the U.S.

"In all aspects of my life, I feel like it all comes down to preventing disease," she said. "But because of the pandemic, I thought this was the best moment to apply."

Local health officers will be key in helping address health disparities, Freeman said.

"Much of the work and the importance of public health on the ground is considering how to create (healthy) conditions," Freeman said. "Removing the fear of violence, kids being able to go outside and play ... having a livable wage, so you can afford food for your family... and you have access to groceries."

"That is the true work of prevention in public health," she added. "And that's what we're working toward."

A particularly important trend

With the rise in applicants to public health programs, officials report there's been an increase in applications from students of color — including Black, Hispanic and Latino Americans.

"That, for us, is just amazing," Magaña said. "What we all want is to have a workforce that represents the geographic and the demographic representation of your community."

And today, the public health workforce severely lacks representation. Less than 10% of local health departments' top executives are people of color, according to 2019 data from NACCHO.

"We have a tremendous gap in terms of diversity in these positions," Freeman said.

The impact can be devastating. For example, as the country races to vaccinate as many Americans as possible against COVID-19, that lack of diversity often meant there were no trusted messengers to reach different communities and help build vaccine confidence and address hesitancy.

"That's why it's important that ... our leadership and our health departments really truly represent the communities that they work to keep safe and healthy," Freeman said.

Allende, who works in a cancer research and treatment institution, was tasked with calling community members of color to educate them on the vaccine. She says that as a Spanish-speaking employee, she often receives feedback from residents who express relief at being able to receive that information from her on the phone, rather than from social media or other large outlets.

"Representation matters," she said.

"Our country... has had some unfortunate medical mistrust due to historical events," Allende added. "Having that representation of diverse public health professionals, I feel, will definitely make an impact on creating a healthier country."

Hope for a turning point

The surging student interest comes at a particularly challenging time for the public health field.

Local and state health officials were often under attack as the pandemic unfolded, targeted over mask orders or restrictions that aimed to curb the spread of the virus. Some, exhausted or in other cases fearful for their lives, opted to leave their posts. Others were fired.

"State and local health officers (are) trying to stem the tide of a massive epidemic in an environment in which they themselves have been politicized," NYU's Healton said.

Many are burned out.

"We have to find a way to replace the exodus that has occurred," Freeman said.

Health agencies — both public and private — remain the top employer for graduates of these programs, Magaña said. But demand from the private sector is rapidly growing — including from pharmaceutical and insurance companies, health consults and large corporations, which are now seeking more public health expertise to create new programs or applications, Magaña said.

Some experts are optimistic the newfound visibility could be a turning point for the country's long underfunded and neglected public health infrastructure and could also translate to a broader understanding of what public health is among the general population.

"What this turning point could do is greatly strengthen the system on a global scale and reduce the probability that this will happen," Healton said. "This (the pandemic) should not have happened. It could have been stopped."

In March, American Public Health Association Executive Director Georges C. Benjamin applauded the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act, which funnels several billion into sustaining and expanding the public health workforce, calling the move a "temporary sigh of relief."

"The Covid moment has shown us that, if it's shown us nothing else, that we have had a long-standing underinvestment in creating enough people for public health," said Boston University's Galea.

And that's what experts hope can change now.

Mental health experts are concerned about the lasting impact of the new coronavirus.

“We have to make sure not to just prioritize the health of the country and the financial well-being of our businesses, but we have to keep our eye on the ball for mental health,” said Dr. Jared Skillings, a psychologist the

American Psychological Association.

A new poll says about half of adults feel the pandemic is impacting their mental health. Almost one in five say it's had a major impact.

The national hotline for those feeling emotional distress has nearly nine times more calls than this time last year.

The number for the disaster distress helpline is 1-800-985-5990. You can also text “talk with us” to 66746 to speak with a crisis counselor.

Dr. Skillings says isolation, financial stress and anxiety are fueling problems.

“I think we're going to see both new cases of people never had having a mental health issue where that comes up for them now and I think we're going to see a resurgence of people who had a mental health issues come back because it’s going to bring a lot of things to the surface that are difficult,” said Dr. Skillings.

The country is already dealing with a provider shortage.

The American Psychological Association is trying to have restrictions loosened, so professionals can practice across state lines. It also wants insurance to cover telehealth and phone call care for vulnerable groups.

Dr. Skillings says staying active, eating right and getting proper rest can help mental health.

“But while we are in the middle of this, what can you change, how can you lean into something you haven't done before?” asked Dr. Skillings.

Research says telehealth is just as effective as in-person therapy.