DURAN: FDA approval hasn’t boosted vaccine rates

2,006 new COVID cases announced in LA County yesterday along with 49 unnecessary and preventable deaths.   Positivity rate unchanged at 1.87%.   Hospitalizations drop again. 

• LA County Cases 1,423,620 (up from 1,421,616)
• LA County Deaths 25,514 (up from 25,465)
• LA Positivity Rate 1.87% (unchanged at 1.87%)
• LA Hospitalizations 1433 (down from 1463) 

NO BOOST IN VACCINATION SHOTS AFTER FULL APPROVAL

When the FDA gave full approval of the Pfizer vaccines – officials hoped there would be a boost in shots.   Didn’t happen.  No bump up here in CA or anywhere else in the Nation.  Some are just defiantly refusing to get a shot.   Others have adopted a “wait and see” attitude hoping that Delta will pass them by.  Unlikely.    More remorse and regrets ahead for thousands of unvaccinated people.  

IS THE DELTA VARIANT MORE SEVERE THAN EARLIER VERSIONS OF THE VIRUS?

The New York Times has an excellent analysis on this question today.   Here’s the bottom line:

For children and vaccinated adults without other major health problems – there are a lot of reassuring signs.  COVID appears to present less risk than some other daily activities.   Among Americans under the age of 17, less than 500 have died from COVID since the pandemic began.   Many more, a few thousand annually, die in vehicle crashes.  “Risk is low enough to live life, high enough to be careful”.

For people who do have a health condition that increases their risk — like severe obesity, a recent organ transplant or an active case of cancer — the calculation is different.   Delta does represent a threat to vulnerable people.  

The hardest call is for vaccinated people over the age of 65 who are generally healthy.   Delta’s severity does not appear to be fundamentally different for them either.  But their hospitalization rate has risen more rapidly in recent weeks than the other groups.   So seniors who are vaccinated should choose to err on the side of caution until we better understand Delta.

And what about the one quarter of Americans who are unvaccinated?   Fear COVID.   Delta is going to find you.  

THE ANTI VAXX MOVEMENT

538 has an interesting history on the anti vaxx movement.  The modern anti vaxx people in America are often seen as stereotypical left wing, coastal, white, wealthy Moms – the “crunchy granola” types.  In recent years, outbreaks of preventable diseases have been occuring in liberal places like Marin County, CA and Boulder, CO.    Conservative communities of Orthodox Jews have also seen spikes in cases since there are some in that community who reject vaccines.  

Vaccine rejection has always been a place where left meets right politically according to the article.   But in recent Gallup polls taken in 2015 and 2019,  the largest spike in the adoption of anti vaccine views are among Republicans and Independents who lean right.  

In a 2013 YouGov poll, 11% of Democrats, 14% of Independents and 9% of Republicans said they believed vaccines caused autism.   Four years later in 2017 YouGov poll, 19% of Democrats, 31% of Independents and 39% of Republicans said it was definitely or probably true that vaccines caused autism.  

It now seems that political ideology is driving the vaccine hesitancy for Republicans.   And not just on COVID – but all vaccines.   How this political party’s distrust of government since the days of Ronald Reagan morphed into anti science and reason on everything from climate change to COVID – is a threat to the nation’s health and well being.   

It becomes even more imperative in future elections to make sure that the GOP does not control the Congress.   We have seen what they do with abortion rights and voting rights in places like Texas.  We have watched failed policies on COVID in places like Florida.     This Nation was born out of the Renaissance which demanded Enlightenment and Reason.   And rejected the teachings of the churches in power during that day.   It now appears that we are morphing into a Nation that has to fight America’s Taliban taking roost in one political party.

Cheerful? Eh?   89 degrees and sunny in LA Today.   I am going to let the sunshine and ocean breeze touch my face today…… One Day at A Time……