Coronavirus Watch: Vaccine effectiveness declines over time, studies say

Protection provided by COVID-19 vaccines declines over time, but protection against the most severe effects of the disease — including hospitalization and death — remains strong, according to three studies published Wednesday by the CDC.

"Recent data makes clear that protection against mild and moderate disease has decreased over time," U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said during a Wednesday briefing. "This is likely due to both waning immunity and the strength of the widespread delta variant." Read more here.

It's Thursday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news you need to know.

• President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden will get their COVID-19 booster shots when they're available, according to in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America. Biden received his first vaccine dose in December.
• Biden's administration won't seek to reinstate enhanced weekly $300 unemployment benefits set to expire on Sept. 6 and is instead urging states and cities that want to continue the extra payments to use their share of COVID-19 rescue funds.
• Biden said he is directing the Department of Education to "take additional steps to protect our children," setting up a federal intervention against governors blocking school mask mandates around the country. 
• Nursing home personnel will have to be vaccinated for the facilities to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding, Biden announced Wednesday.
• Toddlers and babies are more likely than teens to transmit COVID-19 to other members of the household, a study published Monday suggests.
• The pace of U.S. COVID-19 deaths is rapidly increasing. In the first 18 days of August, the U.S. had already reported 10,991 deaths – more than in either all of June or all of July, a Paste BN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.

Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 37 million COVID-19 cases and 623,400 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 208.8 million cases and more than 4.3 million deaths. About 60% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 51% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Among U.S. adults, 72% have received at least one shot, and about 62% are fully vaccinated.

Tracking the pandemic: See the numbers in your area here. See where cases are rising here. See vaccination rates here. And here, compare vaccinations rates worldwide and see which countries are using which vaccines.

– Grace Hauck, Paste BN breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck