CHARLESTON, WV Gov. Jim Justice and members of the West Virginia COVID-19 pandemic response leadership team held another news briefing today to update the public on the states latest pandemic response and vaccine distribution efforts. OVER 6,400 WEST VIRGINIANS GET FIRST DOSE WITHIN PAST MONTHDuring Fridays briefing, Gov. Justice and West Virginia Joint Interagency Task Force on Director Jim Hoyer announced that 6,481 West Virginians opted to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine just within the past month.
These people took time to get educated on the value of the vaccine and they went out and got it, Hoyer said. Its a big reason why the Governor continues to press his efforts to educate people.
Its never too late to make a decision that could save your life, Gov. Justice said. Out of these thousands of people, who knows how many lives we might save. It could be one. It could be 60. But what we do know is that every life is worth saving.
Second booster shots have now been authorized by the FDA and recommended by the CDCfor those ages 50 and over who are also at least four months removed from their first booster dose, as well as certain younger immunocompromised individuals ages 12 and older.
All West Virginians who qualify can immediately get this dose anywhere vaccines are available.
The states newCOVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculatorhas been updated to determine whether people are eligible for a second booster dose.
Read more about vaccines at Vaccinate.wv.govand atCDC.gov.
COVID-19 Dashboard | Coronavirus.wv.gov
An updatedbreakdown of the West Virginia County Alert Map is as follows:Red (0)|Orange (0)|Gold (0)|Yellow (7)|Green (48)
The main threat will be possible isolated flash flooding due to heavy downpours or steady rain, with storms forecast for much of the state today and throughout the weekend.
The Governors declaration directs the State Emergency Operations Center and its partner agencies to prepare to respond ahead of this significant rainfall event, posturing personnel and resources to mobilize a response to any emergency that may develop.
We expect there to be the possibility of flooding in some areas, so I urge everyone to be really, really careful, Gov. Justice said.
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In January, Gov. Justice announced that Nucor would be investing $2.7 billion into this state-of-the-art sheet steel mill making it the largest in West Virginia history, as well as the largest single investment Nucor has ever made.
This incredible facility is going to bring an unbelievable amount of jobs and goodness to our state, so Im excited that we were able to get this process done quickly, Gov. Justice said. We dont have to be like every other state in the country where it takes forever and a day to get anything done. We get stuff done in West Virginia and we do it right.
I thank all those at Nucor for working with our DEP, and I thank our DEP for working diligently and thoroughly to get this done.
The interchange would serve the new Morgantown Industrial Park and other businesses and homes in the Harmony Grove area of Monongalia County, just south of Westover.
I really believe we can get this done. It will only make things better, Gov. Justice said. We know that Morgantown is growing like crazy and it is the perfect area for us to build more and more opportunities, so Im fully supportive of this project.
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Veloxint expects to create 200-300 new jobs over the next four years at its new location. Positions will include research engineers, laboratory technicians, metallurgists, and machinists.
This company is doing so many high-tech things, its off the chart, and its all happening in West Virginia, Gov. Justice said. It sounds like a Silicon Valley project, but its happening in West Virginia, because companies like Veloxint are seeing how business friendly we are and how we are the diamond in the rough that everybody missed.
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West Virginia University at Parkersburg (WVUP) and Chemours developed the new incumbent worker training program to provide associate degrees for hourly employees at the Wood County site of Chemours. The initiative will provide the opportunity for workers to earn a degree in four industry-driven areas: Production Technician, Area Maintenance Technician, Electrical and Instrumentation Maintenance Technician, and Lab Technician.
The program curriculum is inclusive of and responsive to employer-identified needs and real-life workplace scenarios. Program participants will complete courses each semester while working full-time. Participants will receive a pay increase upon successfully completing the program.
I thank companies like Chemours who are willing to step up and do more goodness for the communities where they operate, Gov. Justice said. This program is going to make their workers better-trained. Its a great partnership for all involved.
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Upgrades at Pipestem include nearly $4.4 million in renovations to the parks two lodges, cabin upgrades, and more than $3.6 million in infrastructure improvements to the parks tram, wastewater treatment plant, and campground waterline.
The updates are truly spectacular, Gov. Justice said. Some of the views from the rooms in the renovated lodge are beyond all comparison.
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These upgrades represent a small portion of $151 million in improvement projects that have been completed or started at every state park and forest in West Virginia since Gov. Justice took office.
Weve invested in our parks and weve already gotten a return on our investment multiple times over because our parks are slammed with people that want to see what West Virginia has to offer,, Gov. Justice said. And not only that, but many of those people are spending their dollars here or even deciding to move here. The ripple effects are off the charts because we are changing our image.
A longitudinal study among a Polish sample has uncovered a consistent, bidirectional relationship between prosociality and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Toward the end of the study period, conspiracy mentality and right-wing authoritarianism emerged as negative predictors of willingness to receive the vaccine. The findings were published in the journalPersonality and Individual Differences.
Although COVID-19 vaccines have now been administered to billions of people around the world, a significant portion of the population remains wary of their safety and effectiveness. As COVID-19 variants continue to emerge, scientists say this distrust of vaccines presents a serious public health problem.
Study authors Tomasz Oleksy and team opted to conduct a longitudinal study to explore predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Contrary to most previous studies, the analysis would allow researchers to explore causality by observing how different variables change across different time points. The study focused on Polish individuals, a population with particularly low confidence in vaccines.
The COVID-19 pandemic has required various preventive measures, ranging from individual efforts, such as maintaining social distance and wearing masks, to complex collective policies, such as lockdowns, said Oleksy. While many of these measures are proven to be effective in slowing down the spread of the disease, increasing COVID-19 vaccination coverage remains the most effective way to achieve control of the pandemic. However, anti-vaccine movements are growing worldwide and considered one of the greatest threats to public health.
We were interested in testing what were social predictors of vaccine hesitancy (e.g. lack of prosocial motivation, authoritarianism and conspiracy thinking). Knowing what predicts anti-vaccine attitudes we can plan interventions that may help increase willingness to vaccinate.
A representative sample of 1,130 Polish people completed an initial online survey roughly two months after the first COVID-19 case in Poland, between May 4 and 7, 2020. Participants were then invited to retake the survey at three additional time points: between June 4 and 17, 2020, between July 7 and 17, 2020, and between December 3 and 22, 2020. Notably, COVID-19 vaccines were not yet available during the study period, although the Polish government was beginning to create a vaccination plan during the final time point.
The surveys assessed willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine with the question, If there was a possibility to get vaccinated against the coronavirus now, would you do it?. There was also a measure of prosociality, which included items related to the pandemic like, I have helped those around me to deal with the difficulties and obstacles associated with the pandemic. Conspiracy mentality and right-wing authoritarianism were also assessed.
The researchers used an approach called a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to see how changes in a persons typical level of one variable would predict future changes in other variables. The analysis revealed a consistent, positive within-subject association between prosociality and willingness to get vaccinated at every wave.
For the first three waves, this association was bidirectional, meaning that increases in a persons level of prosociality were followed by increases in their willingness to be vaccinated and vice versa. At the fourth wave, the relationship was only significant in one direction willingness to receive the vaccine positively predicted prosociality.
From the third to the fourth wave, right-wing authoritarianism negatively predicted willingness to get the vaccine. This may reflect the relation between right-wing authoritarianism a construct that involves submission to authority and the endorsement of traditional values and conservatism, which is linked to vaccine skepticism. Also from the third to fourth wave, conspiracy mentality negatively predicted willingness to get vaccinated. This may reflect the growing circulation of conspiracy theories at this time.
In general, willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine decreased over time. The researchers suggested that fears about the vaccine may have increased as the prospect of getting vaccinated became more real. People may have also grown fearful and uncertain due to the speed with which the vaccines were developed and the increasing amount of misinformation online.
As the COVID-19 virus continues to mutate, scientists say encouraging people to take booster doses will be important. Eliciting prosocial motivation to vaccinate can be vital in overcoming vaccine hesitancy, Oleksy told PsyPost. Appealing to prosocial motivations can also more efficiently combat vaccine hesitancy than appealing to social norms or authorities as our research shows that there was no evidence of a direct relationship between submission to authorities and vaccination intention.
But the study, like all research, includes some caveats. Our study was limited to only one country, it is worth comparing these results with reports from other countries even though the pandemic situation in most European countries was, to some extent, similar, Oleksy said. And actual behavior, not only declarative opinions should be measured in future studies.
The study, Barriers and facilitators of willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19: Role of prosociality, authoritarianism and conspiracy mentality. A four-wave longitudinal study, was authored by Tomasz Oleksy, Anna Wnuk, Magorzata Gambin, Agnieszka y, Kamilla Bargiel-Matusiewicz, and Ewa Pisula.
Online articles shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media claim the global outbreak of severe hepatitis in children is linked to Covid-19 vaccines, citing an April 2022 study as evidence. But health authorities and independent experts dismissed the idea that the shots are to blame, saying most of those affected were too young to be vaccinated and that the study refers to the case of an adult with a different type of hepatitis.
"New Study confirming COVID Vaccine causes Severe Autoimmune-Hepatitis is published days after W.H.O issued Global Alert about new Severe Hepatitis among Children," says the headline of an April 28, 2022 article from The Expose, a website with a history of circulating inaccurate health information.
The story cites a case study of a 52-year-old male who developed autoimmune hepatitis following Covid-19 infection and vaccination, then says: "The findings come just days after the World Health Organization issued a 'global alert' about a new form of severe hepatitis affecting children."
Screenshot of an online article taken on May 5, 2022
A severe hepatitis strain of unknown origin has been identified in nearly 230 children in 20 countries, including three in Indonesia who died from the condition.
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a notice on the topic April 23, which dismissed the hypothesis that the illness could be a side effect from Covid-19 vaccines because "the vast majority of affected children did not receive Covid-19 vaccination."
The organization told AFP: "There is nothing to suggest a link."
UK health authorities also alerted the public to an increase in hepatitis cases in children, describing a "sudden onset" that had been identified since January 2022.
A Public Health England spokesperson said: "There is no link to the coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine. None of the currently confirmed cases in under-10-year-olds in the UK is known to have been vaccinated."
Story continues
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a health advisory "to notify clinicians and public health authorities about a cluster of children identified with hepatitis and adenovirus infection."
Nine young children from Alabama affected by hepatitis all tested positive for a common pathogen called adenovirus 41, a study from the health agency released on April 29 said.
"At this time, we believe adenovirus may be the cause for these reported cases, but other potential environmental and situational factors are still being investigated," the CDC said in a statement accompanying the study.
Regarding claims that the cases are connected to Covid-19 vaccination, CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said: "The ages for the cases ranged from 11 months to five years and 9 months, most of which are not eligible for a Covid-19 vaccination."
Everyone five years of age and older is currently eligible to get a Covid-19 vaccine in the United States.
A similar claim appeared on The Gateway Pundit, another website that has repeatedly spread inaccurate information.
"Madrid's Deputy Minister for Public Health Claims Cases of Hepatitis on Young Kids are 'Related to Covid-19 Vaccine'" says the headline of the April 27 article on the site.
Screenshot of an online article taken on May 5, 2022
A Spanish health agency spokesperson clarified that Deputy Minister Antonio Zapatero had actually said the opposite, and referred to a media report that said Covid-19 vaccines had been ruled out as a cause for the pediatric hepatitis cases.
Sara Hassan, a pediatric transplant hepatologist with Mayo Clinic Children's Center, said the illness in young children being flagged by health agencies is different from the one described in the study used as evidence for the claim.
"This study was performed on an adult trying to link Covid-19 vaccines and autoimmune hepatitis, which is a distinct separate entity" from the hepatitis impacting children, she said.
Rima Fawaz, medical director of pediatric hepatology at Yale University School of Medicine, said the acute severe hepatitis reported in children is thought to be infectious, while autoimmune hepatitis -- experienced by the man in the study -- is not.
Autoimmune hepatitis is "an immune dysregulation, where your body has an abnormal response and you attack your liver," and is treated by suppressing the immune system, she explained.
By contrast, the sick children are presenting with infectious symptoms such as fever, and receive different treatment, Fawaz said.
She concluded that evidence does not support the idea that the pediatric hepatitis case spike is connected to Covid-19 vaccines. "To say this is related to Covid vaccination doesn't make any sense," Fawaz said.
Infectious diseases expert John Swartzberg agreed, saying that the outbreak of hepatitis among children and the one case of autoimmune hepatitis found in a man who was vaccinated against Covid-19 are "completely unrelated" and "have nothing to do with each other."
Swartzberg, an emeritus professor at UC Berkeley School of Public Health, said that the case of autoimmune hepatitis following Covid-19 vaccination reported in the study should "absolutely not" deter people from getting the shots.
"The risks of getting Covid... far, far, exceed the risks of getting the vaccine based upon any of the complications we've seen for the vaccine," he said.
AFP has debunked hundreds of other examples of inaccurate information about Covid-19 here.
International travel with no restrictions: A country-by-country guide to where you can travel with no COVID-19 test required
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ELECTRONIC VACCINATION DATA SYSTEM (EVDS) DATA PROTECTION & PRIVACY POLICY
Privacy Policy
This is the Privacy Policy of the Electronic Vaccination Data System portal developed by the National Department of Health. In this document, we, our, or us refer to National Department of Health (NDOH).
1.1. The National Department of Health has developed an Electronic Vaccine Data System (EVDS) to support the COVID-19 Vaccination roll out in South Africa.
1.2. The EVDS will be used to capture COVID-19 vaccination events digitally and provide data to NDOH data analytics platform to monitor and report on.
1.3. This Privacy Policy explains the extent to which we collect information when you use the
EVDS. It also explains:
1.3.1 How your information is used;
1.3.2 Who your information is shared with;
1.3.3 How your data is kept securely; and
1.3.4 The extent to which any personal information is transferred or stored.
1.4. Personal data or personal information means all information relating to an identified or identifiable person.
1.5 Processing means any operation with personal data, irrespective of the means applied and the procedure, and in particular the collection, storage, use, revision, disclosure, archiving, or destruction of data.
1.6 The processing of personal data is managed in line with the provisions and safeguards set out in the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (Act No. 4 of 2013).
2. Responsible Party
2.1 The controller responsible for the data processing described herein is the:
National Department of Health (NDOH)222 Thabo Sehume StreetCBDPretoriaSouth Africa0001
2.2 The EVDS is under the direct control of the National Department of Health. The EVDS is available to administrative staff and Vaccinators (HCWs) registered on the system. The system can be accessed via web browsers using suitable and compatible devices. The system also includes capabilities for vaccinees to enrol (express an interest to be vaccinated) on EVDS.
2.3 Where the NDOH engages third parties to assist with developing and supporting the EVDS platform, they have signed commercial and confidentiality agreements, undertaking contractually to comply with all requirements of Regulation 8 of the Regulations Issued in Terms of Section 27(2) of the Disaster Management Act, 2002 as well as the provisions of the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. The NDOH monitors their compliance with these legal requirements. For the purpose of developing data collection tools and user applications for EVDS NDOH have engaged Mezzanine Ware (Pty) and The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
3.1 The EVDS does not collect any special personal information about you as a vaccinee. For this purpose, Special personal information relates to:
3.1.1 the data about your race or ethnicity;
3.1.2 religious or philosophical beliefs;
3.1.3 sex life;
3.1.4 political opinions or trade union membership;
3.1.5 information about your health and biometric data; and
3.1.6 information about criminal convictions and offences.
3.2 The following information of the vaccinee will be collected and processed by the EVDS:
3.2.1 personal information (names and Identity Number) as contained in your Identity document. This is to verify and confirm your eligibility as a COVID-19 vaccine beneficiary per the priority phases as defined in the COVID-19 National Vaccination Plan;
3.2.2 the medical aid details, residential address, email address, phone numbers (including mobile numbers in order to send messages and appointment messages for the second dose of the vaccine);
3.2.3 employment details, professional category and registration as part of the priority group eligibility verification; and
3.2.4 patient information in relation to your health status including underlying conditions that you may have as a vaccine in line with the vaccination protocols.
4.1. Vaccination and enrolment on the EVDS is voluntary.
4.2. Vaccinees are provided an opportunity to enrol on the EVDS system.
4.3. To do so, vaccinees must provide personal, contact and medical aid details.
4.4. Enrolment is not a guarantee of vaccination.
4.5. Eligibility of the vaccinee is then determined by the NDOH based on priority population groups over a period of time.
4.6. Eligible vaccinees are then provided with notification and instructions on how and where to receive the vaccination.
4.7. A vaccinee must presents himself/herself at a Facility Vaccine Registration Desk within a Vaccination Site. In this regard, he/she must produce an identity document (e.g. ID Book or Passport) in order to register, confirm details and schedule an appointment in the EVDS.
4.8. During vaccination, all vaccination information of the vaccinee will be captured in the EVDS including the dose received, batch number, manufacturer.
4.9. The EVDS will send an SMS to the vaccinee for an appointment for the second dose. During the second dose, the vaccinator confirms the vaccine details in the EVDS to ensure that an appropriate dose and vaccine is given to the correct vaccinee.
5. Information we process with your consent
Your personal data as well as your patient information data is processed with your informed consent.
6. Data transfer
Anonymised data will be transferred to the NDOH database for reporting. No personal data will be transferred from the EVDS, without the required legislative provisions to do so.
7. What security measures are in place to protect my data?
8. Rights of all EVDS users
8.1. In the event of alleged infringements of any data protection legislation in force in the Republic at the time of the alleged infringement, you can contact the competent data protection supervisory authority or take legal action in accordance with that data protection legislation.
8.2. The ability to exercise your rights requires that you provide clear evidence of your identity (e.g. a copy of your identity documents). To assert your rights you can contact the NDOH at the address given in clause 2.
9. Other documents governing privacy and data protection
This Privacy Policy is not necessarily exhaustive. Specific matters may be governed by other data protection statements, similar documents, or terms and conditions of use. Where that is so, a link to any such documents will be made available to the user in the application.
We are working with countries to assure the continuity of learning for all, especially disadvantaged children and youth who tend to be the hardest hit by school closures, said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. While temporary school closures as a result of health and other crises are not new unfortunately, the global scale and speed of the current educational disruption is unparalleled and, if prolonged, could threaten the right to education.
UNESCO will convene an emergency meeting of education ministers on 10 March to share responses and strategies to maintain the continuity of learning and assure inclusion and equity.
As of 4 March, 22 countries in three different continents have announced or implemented school closures. Just two weeks ago, China was the only country mandating closures.
Since then, thirteen countries have shut schools nationwide, impacting 290.5 million children and youth who would normally attend pre-primary to upper-secondary classes. A further nine countries have implemented localized school closures to prevent or contain COVID-19. Should these countries also order nationwide school closures, it would prevent an additional 180 million children and youth from attending school.
In response, UNESCO is supporting the implementation of large-scale distance learning programmes and recommending open educational applications and platforms that schools and teachers can use to reach learners remotely. The organization is sharing best practices to leverage inexpensive mobile technologies for teaching and learning purposes to mitigate educational disruption.
School closures, even when temporary, are problematic for numerous reasons. Foremost is a reduction in instructional time, which impacts learning achievement. When schools close, educational performance suffers. Disrupting schooling also leads to other harder to measure losses, including inconveniences to families and decreased economic productivity as parents struggle to balance work obligations with childcare. The closures also compound educational inequities: economically advantaged families tend to have higher levels of education and more resources to fill learning gaps and provide enrichment activities to children who cannot attend school.
UNESCO is working urgently to respond to COVID-19, a major health crisis that now concerns the entire planet. The organization will continue monitoring the size, scale and geographic spread of school closures, and stands ready to support countries as they adopt appropriate inclusive measures.
***
For more information and country by country data:https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-emergencies/coronavir...For more information on Education in Emergencies:https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-emergencies
Fauci: COVID-19 global pandemic not over
The seven-day average of new cases per day is around 47K, down from a peak of more than 800K in January. Dr. Fauci says the pandemic is still not over.
Damien Henderson, USA TODAY
The state is experiencing an uptick in new reported deaths, hospitalizations and cases as new data analysis shows that this is not just a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
The pandemics toll is no longer falling almost exclusively on those who chose not to or could not get shots, a Washington Post analysisthat was published late last month found.
During the omicron variant surge, the vaccinated made up 42% of deaths in January and February, compared with 23% of the dead in September, the peak of the delta wave, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Data still shows that the unvaccinated are more likely to suffer severe illness or death compared to the vaccinated, but it is clear that vaccinated people made up a significant portion of recent COVID deaths.
"Its still absolutely more dangerous to be unvaccinated than vaccinated,"Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California at Irvine who studies COVID-19 mortality, said to thePost.
"A pandemic of and by the unvaccinated is not correct. People still need to take care in terms of prevention and action if they became symptomatic," he added.
The vast majority of vaccinated deaths are among people who did not get a booster shot, according to state data provided to the Post. Health officials say this is all the more reason to get a booster dose.
Nationwide data also shows that the majority of COVID deaths are among elderly citizens.Nearly two-thirds of the people who died during the omicron surge were 75 and older, according to a Post analysis, compared with a third during the delta wave.
The U.S. is set to pass 1 million COVID-19 deaths in the coming days, according to Johns Hopkins University. The state Department of Health Services reported 12,919 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Wisconsin, and another 1,545 are probable.
Accordingto the state DHS,36 confirmed deaths occurred this week, an increase of 25 deaths from the previous week.
Hospitalizations continued to increase throughout the week as well. Roughly 257 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19, up 133 patients from a month ago, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
Similarly to what's been seen around the country, COVID-19 cases are also increasing, although seven-day averages are still lower than last fall.
Track COVID and the vaccine in Wisconsin: See the latest data on cases, deaths and administered doses
State and private labs regularly do further tests on a portion of positive COVID-19 samples to find the prevalence of different variants of the virus. The numbers below are just a fraction of the total number of variant cases.
Omicronvariant was identified in 100% of tests sequenced during the week starting April 3.
Contact Drake Bentley at (414) 391-5647 orDBentley1@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DrakeBentleyMJS.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
The Carnival Spirit, which sailed through the Panama Canal, departed Miami on April 17 and arrived in Seattle on May 3, according to a statement from the cruise line. The ship holds 2,124 guests and 930 crew members, Carnival said.
The ship's color status helps the CDC determine the scope of investigation, the agency said.
Carnival Spirit is one of 62 cruise ships currently sailing at orange status, the CDC said in a statement to CNN.
Both the cruise line and CDC said there were no severe outcomes or serious health issues among those who tested positive, and Carnival said most guests were asymptomatic.
"Our health and safety protocols exceed CDC guidelines and were closely followed including vaccination requirements and pre-cruise testing of all guests.Our crew are also vaccinated and wear masks," Carnival said in a statement to CNN.
"Our protocols are designed to flex up as needed and additional measures were implemented during the voyage," the statement added."In addition, all guests who were scheduled to continue on with the ship's next cruise to Alaska were tested and any guests and their traveling companions who tested positive were disembarked."
The ship departed Seattle for Alaska later on May 3, according to Carnival's statement.
The CDC is working with the cruise line as well as state and local health agencies to "enact existing Covid-19 agreements and protocols," the statement added.
Passengers say cruise ship was "overwhelmed"
Some passengers who were on board the Carnival Spirit alleged that crew members mishandled the Covid-19 outbreak on the ship.
Darren Siefertson, who is from Las Vegas, Nevada, told CNN he boarded the ship on April 17 from Miami and was informed by April 26 that there was a Covid-19 outbreak on the ship.
After testing positive, Siefertson said he was promised to be moved to an isolation cabin but ended up being forced to stay in the same room as his roommate.
Siefertson said when he called the medical center for an update, the center had already closed before its scheduled closing time, and no one was picking up the phone.
When Siefertson's cabin mate went to guest services to ask what they should do, he was told there were no more isolation cabins available, and he would have to stay in the same room as Siefertson.
Ship guests also complained that room service took "hours to get food to those who were in quarantine," Siefertson said.
"There were times we ordered our food at 1 p.m. and it didn't show up until 7 p.m.," Walter Babij, who was on the cruise with his wife, told CNN. Both Babij and his wife tested positive for Covid-19 while aboard the ship and quarantined in an isolation cabin.
"There were also a few times we didn't get our complete orders. We would have to call several times to track down our food. We were completely dependent on them," Babij said.
Siefertson also complained that a few days after testing positive, his cabin and two other cabins near him began to reek of sewage.
"You couldn't even call to ask someone to fix the problem because no one would pick up the phone and we couldn't leave our room, so I had to stay in this room that smelled like a toilet. It was terrible," Siefertson said. "Carnival said they managed the situation, but that is so not true. They were so overwhelmed."
Both Siefertson and Babij told CNN they felt the cruise line was "overwhelmed."
"I don't think they expected that level of cases and when it got to a certain level they didn't know what to do. It was a perfect storm," Babij said.
Dr. Jerry Kruse| Special to The State Journal-Register
Like Dodgers southpaw Sandy Koufax, the wily SARS-CoV-2 keeps throwing us one curveball after another. New variants arise swiftly, and news from the worlds of epidemiology and immunology keeps us on the edge of our seats Ive worn out at least three chairs in the past two years.
But we have learned a lot through the COVID-19 pandemic. There is good evidence for the following statements: 1) This virus is here to stay.2) New COVID-19 mutations will continue to arise. 3) Significant naturally acquired immunity, vaccine-acquired immunity and hybrid immunity have developed in the U.S.4) Vaccine-acquired immunity and hybrid immunity offer substantial protection against the development of severe illness and death due to COVID-19 infections.5) The vaccines will be the major influence for policy decisions as we live with SARS-CoV-2.
Almost 60% of Americans have, at one time or another, been infected with COVID-19. How do we know that? The incidence of people infected with COVID-19 can be calculated because anti-N antibodies are produced in response to infection, but are not produced in response to COVID-19 vaccines.
Earlier column: Dr. Jerry Kruse: Treating everyone equitably takes effort, empathy
Researchers measured anti-N antibodies, and, in the CDC publication MMWR, reported a stunning rise in the percentage of Americans infected during the omicron surge last winter. For all age groups combined, the percentage of Americans infected with COVID-19 rose from 28% in September 2021 to 58% in February 2022. The breakdown by age revealed that infections have occurred in 75% of those age 0 to 17 years, 64% of those age 18 to 49, and 41% of those age 50 and above.
Many of those who had been infected had received COVID-19 vaccines either before or after the infection, thus conferring hybrid immunity. These data give us a better foundation for new pandemic policies.
Where does the pandemic stand now?New COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the U.S. In New York, the state with the highest rate of new infections, the new BA.2.12.1 omicron variant is dominant.However, while cases are rising in number, there is not yet a surge.
The rate of new infections in Illinois has more than doubled over the past five weeks. In the Springfield area, new cases rose from 6 to 27 per 100,000. Again, there has been no surge, just a gentle, though consistent, rise.
One piece of good news is from Champaign County, the county with the highest COVID activity in Illinois over the last few months.Three weeks ago, the number of new cases per 100,000 in Champaign County stood at 65.Today, that number is 50. A surge may have been averted. Vaccines plus boosters plus natural infection are seemingly keeping a damper on severe infections and death.
So, back to immunity. Infection-acquired immunity is often short lived. Hybrid immunity confers protection similar to that of vaccine-acquired immunity.
More: Dr. Jerry Kruse: Resolve to do everything you can to help yourself, others stay healthy
The efficacy of vaccinations and boosters was reported in recent issues of the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine. The following statement, made in regard to efficacy for the prevention of death and serious illness, is a summary of the data in the two articles:This means that … the absolute effectiveness of two vaccine doses is 90%, and the absolute effectiveness of two doses plus a booster is 99 to 100%.
In other words, the initial vaccine series reduced death and severe illness by about 90% for the original strain and delta variants, and boosters reduced severe illness and death due to omicron variants even further, to more than 95%.
We are rapidly learning how to live with SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it produces, COVID-19. Weve whiffed on a few curve balls. Yogi Berra said it best, Its tough to make predictions, especially about the future. Its a bit easier now, with immunity on our side.
Jerry Kruse, MD, MSPH, is dean and provost, SIU School of Medicine andCEO, SIU Medicine.
