Coronavirus vaccine and Delta variant updates for 9-21-2021

<p>This is Vaccine 411, the latest coronavirus vaccine information for September 21st, 2021.</p><p><br></p><p>It is now official, at least according to the numbers from Johns Hopkins, COVID-19 has now killed as many Americans as the 1918-19 Spanish flu. 675,000 Americans died during the 1918 pandemic, in waves that played out over about two years. But back then there were no vaccines. It wasn’t until the 30s researchers even understood influenza was caused by a virus and not a bacterium.</p><p><br></p><p>Finally, some much needed good news for travel and tourism. The U.S. said it will allow foreigners to fly into the country this fall if they have vaccination proof and a negative COVID-19 test. That replaces a hodgepodge of rules that kept out non-citizens from countries that frankly, are doing better than the U.S. in containing outbreaks.</p><p><br></p><p>The school mask fight may soon switch to a vaccine for kids fight. Pfizer said its vaccine works for children 5 to 11 and it will seek U.S. authorization for this age group soon. For elementary school-aged kids, Pfizer tested a much lower dose — a third of the amount that’s in each shot given now. But after the second dose, the kids developed coronavirus-fighting antibody levels equal to that of teens and young adults getting regular-strength shots. Pfizer says the kid dosage also proved safe.</p><p><br></p><p>Someone just got COVID in American Samoa. That’s newsworthy because, it was their very first case. And even then it was a traveler from Hawaii. Believe it or not there are still countries and territories, mostly islands, that have yet to experience one case of COVID, including the Cook Islands, Saint Helena, the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Tuvalu, and the Pitcairn Islands. Mostly the kinds of places where Survivor is filmed.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>No special treatment for the president of Brazil. He’s against vaccinations and would not get vaccinated before attending this week's UN General Assembly in New York. Therefore, he was not allow