Coronavirus vaccine news, updates and information for 6-29-2021

<p>This is Vaccine 411, the latest coronavirus vaccine information for June 29th, 2021.</p><p><br></p><p>The World Health Organization says get your masks back on. Even if you’re fully vaccinated, mask up and go back to social distancing. But CDC guidance is that “fully vaccinated people can resume activities without a mask or physically distancing.” Plus, experts say vaccines authorized in the U.S. remain largely effective against the Delta variant. So again, we have public health bureaucracies thoroughly confusing the public.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>The world continues to believe travel causes COVID-19 outbreaks. Hong Kong is banning all passenger flights from the U.K., which they’ve classified as high risk because of Delta variant spread. And Portugal has also put the U.K. on its red list for travel, even though Portugal itself has been reporting the highest number of daily new cases since February.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>In Germany, the share of COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant more than doubled within a week, accounting for 36% of infections. They expect it to become the dominant strain by summer. In Germany, about 35% of the population is fully vaccinated.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Experts in Australia describe their situation as the most dangerous stage of the pandemic since the earliest days. Sydney and Darwin are locked down. Perth made masks compulsory for three days and warned a lockdown could be coming. And Brisbane and Canberra have or will soon make masks compulsory.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Here’s a positive story. 45-year-old Mary McCarthy of New Zealand works in a hospital kitchen, so she was tested in October 2020. It was painful, and the discomfort lasted weeks. A few doctors told her she had a chronic sinus condition, which she believed because she’d always had pain in her nose and shortness of breath. But the pain was so bad one day she decided to go to one more emergency room where doctors found…a toy that had been stuck up her nose for 37 years. A tiddlywink to be exact.&nbs