Two years into COVID-19 pandemic, state still determined to reach the unvaccinated KOMO News
Massie, who also said he is not vaccinated, is a fierce critic of White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, and has been among the loudest voices in Congress against vaccine and mask mandates.
"I have tested positive for SARS-CoV2. (Home test, confirmed by lab PCR.) I had cold/allergy symptoms for 1 day, and seem to be over it," he tweeted.
"I will not be voting, meeting in person, or making public appearances until next week," he continued. "I am not vaccinated or boosted."
He also suggested his case is mild because he's been previously infected by Covid-19.
"I can't guarantee, but I suspect my symptoms have been very mild due to prior infection 2 years ago. Also, perhaps this was omicron?" he said on Twitter.
Massie also tweeted last week he and his staff would not order from restaurants following Washington, DC's newly implemented vaccine mandate at public establishments.
"On Wednesday, I tested positive for COVID-19. I am vaccinated, boosted, experiencing mild symptoms and remain in good spirits," the Arizona Democrat said in the statement. "My staff and I will follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance on testing and quarantine procedures including notifying those who may have been in close contact."
This story and headline have been updated with additional details.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) As the COVID-19 pandemic approaches its second year in South Dakota, one Sanford doctor said many people in the public havent seen the bad effects of the virus.
In a news conference held jointly by Avera Medical Group and Sanford Health, two longtime doctors spoke about health care systems needing help from the public.
Dr. Mike Wilde, Sanfords Vice President Medical Officer, shared a story about a recent shift he worked in the Sanford hospital.
It made me realize how little people probably see of COVID in the hospital, Wilde said. We see it every day and we see it in some very bad ways. It dawned on me that not a lot of people have seen this because weve been limiting visitation throughout the pandemic.
On Wednesday, Sanford announced changes to its visitor policy again. Each adult patient can have up to two visitors per day and they may not rotate throughout the day.
Wilde said some people in the hospital with COVID-19 are people who have otherwise been very healthy.
Its very dramatic and these folks are very ill, Wilde said. Its very impressive how ill people can get with this.
The news conference was held on the same day that South Dakota reported its highest number of active COVID-19 cases (34,086) along with a record high 7-day positivity rate of 40.9%. In Lincoln and Minnehaha Counties, there are 12,286 active cases and 157 hospitalizations of county residents.
Dr. David Basel, Averas Vice President of Clinical Quality, said Avera has seen its COVID-19 hospitalization numbers double in the month of January. Basel said Jan. 1, Avera had just under 100 patients with COVID-19, but that number is more than 200 as of noon Thursday.
Basel highlighted COVID-19s spread rate tracked by Avera is about 1.6, which is the highest number theyve seen throughout the pandemic.
We are making harder and harder choices every day, Basel said. Those choices get harder every day as those numbers go up.
Basel said every time a patient is discharged or way too often dies, a discussion happens about which person is the next sickest to fill an empty bed.
We need the publics help, Basel said. We need their help in several ways.
Basel called for people who have been vaccinated to get the booster shot. He said people who have been vaccinated but not boosted only have 30% protection against the Omicron variant.
You really need that booster to bump you back up to 70-80% effectiveness, Basel said. We have plenty of vaccine supply. If you want a booster, well figure out a way to get it to you.
The South Dakota Department of Health reported 27 new Omicron sequenced results and four new Delta variant sequenced results.
Wilde said unselfish actions of getting vaccinated and boosted will help hospital capacity and health care workers the most.
We continue to need your help, Wilde said. In the hospital, we see those who are greatly affected by COVID-19.
It was only Avera and Sanford doctors and media relations staff along journalists at Thursdays news conference. In many previous news conferences, people with the South Dakota Department of Health or City of Sioux Falls have also attended.
Both Basel and Wilde said Avera and Sanford continue to receive plenty of help and support from local and state governments.
Basel said the DOH has been very helpful with trying to increase COVID-19 testing access. Basel said relationships between the health systems throughout South Dakota and with public health departments have never been tighter.
Theres no secrets amongst us when it comes to dealing with the pandemic, Wilde said.
During a news conference with reporters in Pierre on Thursday, Lt. Governor Larry Rhoden was asked about the COVID-19 situation in the state.
Rhoden answered saying state officials are concerned, but added the state monitors COVID hospital beds and ICU beds.
Were in relatively good shape in that regard, said Rhoden, adding officials will continue to monitor the situation closely.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) While the vaccine and booster may not prevent you from getting COVID-19, it can greatly lower the chances of you getting sick or even you getting someone else sick.
Its why medical experts are calling this a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Data from the states Department of Public Health show that two thirds of patients hospitalized for the virus are unvaccinated. However, getting the booster shot can be useful in other ways as well.
According to a Johns Hopkins Public Health Professor, if you get a breakthrough COVID-19 case but you have the booster shot, your symptoms should be less intense and you should be out for a shorter period of time. Another key factor is youll be less like to pass the virus onto others, even people living in the same house.
There are vaccine clinics that offer boosters, a number of them are walk-ins including at the site at the Springfield Technology Park that opened this week. You must register in advance.
New data released Wednesday showed that both vaccination and prior infection offered strong protection against infection and hospitalization from Covid-19 during the Delta wave and that case and hospitalization rates were actually lower among people who had recovered from Covid-19 than among those who had been vaccinated.
The data, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and health agencies in California and New York, are sure to inflame arguments from those who insist they dont need to be vaccinated if they can show theyve recovered from Covid-19. But the data contain many caveats that health officials stressed pointed to the value of vaccination, even on top of prior infection.
For one, the new report was based on data only through November, before the U.S. booster campaign really took off. It also looked at data during the Delta wave and does not account for the surging Omicron variant.
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And while research has shown that infection can train the immune system to guard against the coronavirus in different ways than vaccination, Covid-19 also has killed more than 850,000 people in this country, sickened often severely millions more, and caused untold cases of long Covid. Serious side effects from the Covid-19 vaccines are extremely rare.
We know that vaccination remains the safest strategy for protecting against Covid-19, Benjamin Silk, a CDC epidemiologist, told reporters Wednesday.
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The data also confirmed something weve known for a long time: Those who werent vaccinated and also hadnt been previously infected were far more likely to be infected and hospitalized than either group.
The new report examined Covid-19 trends among adults in New York and California from May 30 to Nov. 20, 2021.
In early October, after Delta became dominant, infection rates among vaccinated people who hadnt had Covid were 6.2-fold lower than among unvaccinated people who hadnt had Covid-19 in California, and 4.5-fold lower in New York. People who previously had Covid-19 but had not been vaccinated had 29-fold (California) and 14.7-fold (New York) lower case rates. Vaccinated people who had also had Covid-19 had the lowest rates, with a 32.5-fold (California) and 19.8-fold (New York) lower infection rate than people who had no protection.
Hospitalization rates in California followed a similar pattern, the report says. (There were no hospitalization data from New York.) In October, hospitalization rates for people whod been vaccinated but hadnt had Covid were 19.8-fold lower than among those who hadnt had Covid-19 or been vaccinated. The rates were 55.3-fold lower among unvaccinated people whod had Covid-19, and 57.5-fold lower among people whod been vaccinated and had Covid-19.
Erica Pan, Californias state epidemiologist, said hospitalizations among those who were vaccinated were mostly among older people.
Incidences among people whod been vaccinated were highest among people who received the Johnson & Johnson shot, followed by the Pfizer-BioNTech and then the Moderna shots, the report said.
Infection-derived protection was higher after the Delta variant became predominant, a time when vaccine-induced immunity for many persons declined because of immune evasion and immunologic waning, the report states. Immune evasion refers to how, as the virus evolved, it started to erode the protection elicited by vaccination or an infection from an earlier form of the virus; this happened to some degree with the Delta variant, and to a much larger extent with the Omicron variant.
The new CDC report notes that the analyzed data are from the period before most people had received additional shots. It was only in mid-October, for example, that the government authorized booster shots for people who had received the J&J vaccine, recommending that people get them two months after the original jab of the one-dose shot. Boosters werent given the green light for all adults until November.
Boosters not only ramp up the levels of protection that can wane over time after the primary series, studies have shown, but can also deepen the immune response in a way that allows people to better respond to different variants.
The report also notes that the data might not be as relevant during the Omicron period.
Studies have shown that while prior infection seems to generally protect otherwise healthy people from severe disease in the face of Omicron, it does not offer much of a shield against infection. For vaccinated people, boosters restore some of the protection thats been lost in the face of Omicron, but studies have also shown that some of the most powerful protection is generated when people whove had Covid are also vaccinated.
The new study underscores that both infection and vaccination offer protection, said Eli Rosenberg of New York State Department of Health. But, he added, having Covid the first time carries with it significant risks.
North Carolina health officials have made equity in COVID-19 response a pandemic focus, but the rise of omicron has gone hand in hand with reemerging disparities.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. As North Carolina continues to see record-setting COVID-19 numbers,health officials warn that some groups are making up bigger shares of those cases than others.
After closing the gap in some respects, health leaders report seeing disproportionate cases and hospitalizations in Black and Hispanic North Carolinians once again.
North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services reports that at the beginning of December, case rates in the Black community were below those of whites. However, by Dec. 26, those case rates were not only higher again, but they were also double that of white residents.
NCDHHS also states the Hispanic population is seeing 57% higher case rates than the non-Hispanic population.
Health officials said those higher case rates are translating into higher hospitalization rates. According to NCDHHS, in the first 17 days of the new year, Black residents had the highest hospitalization rates in the state, followed by American Indians.
The state's new Health and Human Services Secretary said the reemerging trends underscore the need to distribute pandemic tools equitably.
Vaccines, boosters and masks are the best tools that we have to prevent severe illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19, Kody H. Kinsley, NCDHHS Secretary, said. Equity has been embedded in our pandemic response from the beginning, and we continue to focus on delivering life-saving tools to historically marginalized populations during this surge.
As of Thursday, NCDHHS data showed Black and American Indian residents have the lowest full vaccination rates (two shots of an mRNA vaccine or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine) -- 45% of Black North Carolinians are fully vaccinated, while 28% of American Indians in North Carolina are fully vaccinated.
Fifty percentof North Carolina's white population is fully vaccinated, and 69% of the state's Asian or Pacific Islander population is fully vaccinated.
Covac Global changes their COVID-19 evacuation membership policy amid growing demand for repatriation
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Dec. 7 started as a typical, ideal workday for Omar Lopez. He got up at 3:30 in the morning to shower. He nudged awake his wife, Stephanie Ramirez. He checked on their sleeping 12-year-old daughter, Ahtziri. He then left home and drove five minutes away to the family business, Spigas Bakery.
The Mexican panadera had earned a loyal following almost from the moment the small space debuted in 2011. Disneyland-area hotels and restaurants signed up for wholesale accounts; police officers and construction workers would be waiting every morning when Stephanie showed up at 5 a.m. Everyone clamored for Omars creations: silky flan, flaky chicken empanadas, powdery pan dulce and a small menu of Mexican breakfast staples like chilaquiles and memelas.
Stephanie the quiet one ran the register; Omar the wisecracker chatted up customers between rounds of baking, which he did for 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Spigas was the culmination of a promise the two Mexican immigrants had made to each other 25 years earlier, when they met at another panaderia in Santa Ana: Lets open one on our own, and lets get our American Dream.
That dream had nearly derailed over the last two years.
Stephanie Ramirez cleans seats inside Spigas.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
The pandemic erased Spigas corporate accounts and the life savings of Omar and Stephanie. Regulars couldnt afford to buy even coffee anymore. Revenue was already down 60% when Omar, Stephanie, and Ahtziri contracted COVID-19 in November 2020 and had to shut down Spigas until they recovered. When it reopened a few weeks later, only Stephanie returned: Omar was in the hospital, intubated and near death.
Spigas turned into a ghost of its former self Stephanie was terrified of serving anyone at first, because I thought everyone had COVID. When Omar finally returned to work last June, he was 60 pounds lighter and looked like a grandfather, she said.
Display cases, once groaning with goodies, were now nearly empty. All the employees had left. Omar needed help to do tasks that were once as simple to him as blinking, like taking trays out of ovens or using a rolling pin for more than a few minutes.
But there was never any question of shutting down permanently. Baking is like therapy for Omar, Stephanie said.
He and his wife had weathered a double gauntlet of COVID-19 devastation that has slammed Latinos. The group has been overrepresented in COVID cases and deaths in California since the start of the pandemic currently, they make up about 39% of the states population but 49% of cases and 45.2% of deaths. A survey by the Pew Research Center showed that 60% of Latino households nationwide have seen pay cuts or lost jobs since the pandemic began, compared with 44% of the overall U.S. population.
Stephanie Ramirez sits in a booth at Spigas.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Through sheer ganas willpower Omar and Stephanie brought back their bakery to a sense of normalcy. Debts were paid down; clients returned. Omar bought cornhusks by the bagsful for tamales to prepare for the holidays.
In fact, the 42-year-old initially thought that the lights he saw from a distance, as he approached Spigas on that Dec. 7 day, were a new Christmas display in the shopping plaza Spigas calls home.
They came from firetrucks that blocked off the parking lot.
Omar got out of his car and approached the commander, whom he recognized as a regular. The back of Spigas had burned. When Stephanie showed up soon after, her husband remained inconsolable.
We were starting to get back up, Omar told me. We spoke over the phone last week because he couldnt meet me at their bakery. Though it was almost a month and a half since the fire, smoke still permeated its walls and made it hard for Omar to breathe. Besides, he admitted, he couldnt stay there for more than a couple of minutes if he went because he would break down in tears.
We were getting our restaurants back, he said. The customers were starting to order again
He stayed quiet. Now? Nothing nothing.
I met Stephanie at Spigas because I wanted to see the damage for myself not just as a reporter, but also as a regular. I had enjoyed their food and smoothies nearly every Saturday morning for years, every time I picked up bagels and croissants so my wife could use them for sandwiches at her restaurant.
The bakery looked fine from a distance when I drove up. The front window still displayed a painted-on Happy Holidays and a list of daily specials. But it wasnt until I walked up that I noticed red caution tape wrapped around the handles of Spigas front door, and a heavy chain with a padlock on the other side.
I went around the building to the back, where Stephanie was waiting to show me the damage. There was a torched toilet in the restroom, where firefighters told Omar the blaze started. Water stains dirtied the walls. The booths, which I remembered always packed with people, were eerily quiet.
The smokes stench was still so bad that I could only stay inside for a couple of minutes before stepping back outside, even with my N95 mask. The fire had ruined the water, gas, and electrical lines. While the landlord has frozen rent for the foreseeable future, Stephanie estimates itll take at least $50,000 to just get to a point where they can decide on whether to continue.
And then we need to see if any of this works, she added, waving toward walk-in refrigerators now used as closets and ovens the size of a closet that cost $4,000 for just a regular tune-up.
Spigas had no fire insurance because she couldnt afford monthly payments after Omars hospital stay. They didnt win any state or federal emergency grants, and didnt qualify for pandemic loans. And the bills havent stopped, Stephanie added.
Friends have set up a GoFundMe account to help. But Omar and Stephanie are slowly preparing themselves for the possibility that Spigas may never reopen.
It makes me want to cry, said Omar. That was our future, our life of 25 years working in the United States.
To get up for 10 years every day at 4 a.m., and to see this, Stephanie said as we stood in the parking lot. Tears welled in her eyes.
Now you wake up and say, What is there to do? What do we do?
Ohio health officials on Thursday cautioned against too much optimism that Ohio has reached its peak of the current omicron variant wave.
"Thankfully we are seeing many signs of improvements in many of Ohio's hardest-hit areas," Ohio Department of Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff said. "But the reality is thatmany other parts of the state are still on the rise of this omicron tidal wave.
Ohio has seen improvements inCOVID-19 hospitalization numbers after breaking daily records multiple times earlier this month. Since a week ago, the number of Ohioans currently in the hospital with COVID-19 has been on a steady decline.
Northeast Ohio, the hardest hit, has seen the steepest declines witharound a 24% drop over the last ten days.As of Wednesday, 5,889 Ohioans were in hospitals with the virus.
More: Ohio clearing data backlog as it faces unprecedented levels of COVID-19 cases, testing
More: Omicron forces nursing homes to freeze admissions, strands more Ohioans at hospitals
Ohio health experts have predicted that the current wave of the more contagious omicron variant would slowly trend down in Ohio toward the end of January.
The situation is still dire, however, Vanderhoff said. Hospitalization and COVID-19 levels are still above the previous winter surge when vaccines were only just becoming available.Ohio is still getting north of 20,000 positive COVID-19 tests every day.
And other regions of the state are seeing increases. Southwest Ohio saw a 14% increase and western Ohio saw a 13% increasein COVID-19 ICU admissions over the prior week.
Things continue in our Dayton area to be very critical," said Roberto Colon, chief medical officer of Miami Valley Hospital."The pace of new cases hasnot yet sloweddown like we have seen in other areas…it is tremendously taxing to our staff.
More than 2,000 Ohio National Guard members are still deployed to help hospitals understaffed and overwhelmed by COVID-19. They will soon be shiftedto other areas of the state, saidMajor General John C. Harris, Jr., head of the Ohio National Guard, with 400 moving from northeast Ohio to the Dayton and Cincinnati area.
Assistance from the federal level has arrived and is coming. President Joe Biden sent 20 Air Force medical professionals to Cleveland Clinic.Details have yet to come on theFederal Emergency Management Agency sending a team to help out Summa Health in Akron.
Testing demand has decreased in northeast Ohio as the situation improves slightly. But statewide and nationwide, the demand is causing strain on supplying COVID-19 tests.
This month, Ohio ordered 1.2 million testing kits, but only a fraction hasbeen delivered, said Vanderhoff. Once shipments arrive,400,000 testing kits can be distributed with priority going to schools.
It's likely that thestate'sability to provide tests could be intermittently affected," Vanderhoffsaid.
Titus Wu is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
