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| Tuesday, March 9, 2021
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
U.S. NEWS
fectively they might prevent
infection and transmission,
but growing evidence suggests
that vaccinated people are less
likely to get infected and po-
tentially less likely to spread
the virus, the CDC said.
“Anyone who is fully vacci-
nated, regardless of their un-
derlying risk, can feel more
confidence that they can avoid
severe illness from Covid-19,”
said Ajay Sethi, an infectious-
disease epidemiologist at the
University of Wisconsin-Madi-
son. But, he said, “We have to
recognize that some people
can pick up the virus and
transmit to others.”
A person is considered fully
vaccinated two weeks after re-
ceiving the second dose of the
two-shot vaccines made by
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE as
well as by Moderna Inc., or two
weeks after getting the single
dose of the Johnson & Johnson
vaccine, according to the CDC.
Vaccinated individuals don’t
need to quarantine or receive a
Covid-19 test after being ex-
posed to the virus if they don’t
have any symptoms, the CDC
said. However, the CDC said
that people living together in
nonmedical facilities such as
prisons should continue to
quarantine and get tested fol-
lowing exposure to Covid-19,
even after getting vaccinated.
Vaccinated employees at such
virus is ramping up.
Public-health officials say
people should remain cautious
as vaccines continue to roll
out, as Covid-19 cases and
hospitalizations remain at
high levels and more transmis-
sible variants potentially com-
plicate the pandemic’s trajec-
tory. President Biden said last
week that the U.S. would have
enough vaccines for all Ameri-
can adults by the end of May.
More
than
92
million
Covid-19 shots have been ad-
ministered across the U.S., ac-
cording to CDC data. More
than 18% of the U.S. popula-
tion has received at least one
dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, ac-
cording to CDC data, and just
over 9% of the population has
gotten two shots.
The seven-day average of
daily doses administered has
risen to 2.2 million, according
to a Wall Street Journal analy-
sis of CDC data.
The president has urged
people to wear masks and
maintain
social-distancing
guidelines, while some cities
and states such as Texas have
recently said they would
loosen such restrictions. Mr.
Biden, a Democrat, plans to
deliver his first prime-time
address Thursday to mark the
one-year anniversary of initial
nationwide shutdowns stem-
ming from the pandemic.
In its guidance, the CDC
said people who are fully vac-
cinated can visit with unvacci-
nated members of a single
household without wearing
masks or maintaining social
distancing as long as everyone
in that household is at low risk
for severe cases of Covid-19.
If the unvaccinated people
come from multiple house-
holds, the CDC said, everyone
should take precautions such as
meeting
outside,
wearing
masks and maintaining at least
six feet of distance. The agency
said all people should avoid
bigger gatherings for now.
Continued from Page One
CDC Issues
Post-Shot
Guidance
commission spokesman said
there was precedent for a sin-
gle commissioner providing
quorum to conduct business.
Soon after blackouts started,
the commission, whose mem-
bers are appointed by Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott, ordered en-
ergy prices to go to the maxi-
mum level of $9,000 per mega-
watt-hour. This was intended
to spur generators to produce
electricity but ended up being
financially
devastating
for
many market participants, in-
cluding generators, wind farms,
retail power providers and mu-
nicipal electric companies.
The market monitor, Poto-
mac Economics, said the util-
ity commission and the grid
operator should have stopped
the pricing order a few min-
utes before midnight on Feb.
17, rather than letting it run
through Feb. 19.
Mr. Patrick said the utility
commission and the Electric
Reliability Council of Texas, the
state’s grid operator, have 30
days from the end of the black-
outs to correct pricing errors.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Ab-
bott said the governor “con-
tinues working collaboratively
with the Legislature to find
meaningful and lasting solu-
tions to the impacts of the re-
cent natural disaster.”
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
called on the state’s grid oper-
ator and regulator to reverse
$16 billion in electric over-
charges that an independent
market monitor said resulted
from last month’s blackouts.
The push by Texas’ second-
most-powerful state elected
official comes after the chair-
man of the Public Utility Com-
mission of Texas said he
wasn’t inclined to go back and
reprice electricity markets,
comparing that challenge to
unscrambling eggs.
“Correcting this $16 billion
error will require an adjust-
ment, but it is the right thing
to do,” said Mr. Patrick, a Re-
publican. “It will ultimately
benefit consumers.”
An independent market mon-
itor who reports to the utility
commission said in a report last
week that Texas kept wholesale
prices artificially high for more
than 30 hours longer than nec-
essary, creating at least $16 bil-
lion in overcharges.
On Monday, one of the
three commissioners resigned
without explanation, the sec-
ond one to do so since the
blackouts. That leaves only
one sitting commissioner, Ar-
thur C. D’Andrea. A utility
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