GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- The county is averaging more than 300 new cases of COVID-19 during the last seven days and public health officials are adding pop-up clinics next week to provide additional opportunities to vaccinate.
From January to October, unvaccinated state residents accounted for 93.1 percent of coronavirus cases, 90.7 percent of hospitalizations, and 90.5 percent of deaths, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
From Nov. 27 until Friday, Dec. 3, the county reported more than 2,100 new COVID cases, including 507 on Dec. 2, the second-highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic, according to the countys COVID dashboard.
Kayleigh Blaney, deputy health officer for the county, said Friday that cases in children are accounting for 25 to 32 percent of total infections daily.
Anyone 5 years or older is eligible for vaccination from the Health Department at its clinics, for which no appointment is needed.
Booster shots are available for those 18 and older who received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine at least six months ago. Individuals 18 or older who received the Janssen vaccine are eligible for a booster dose at least two months after receiving their primary dose.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending a booster shot for those individuals 18 and older who were previously vaccinated.
In addition to three standing clinics, pop-up vaccination clinics are planned for next week.
Turnout has varied from clinic to clinic, Blaney said in a statement to MLive-The Flint Journal Friday.
Nearly 500 individuals -- about one-half of whom were children, were vaccinated at each of two clinics held in Grand Blanc, she said, while turnout was less than 100 at other pop-up locations.
Here are the Health Department clinics planned for next week:
Read more:
Genesee Valley Center reopens after water line repairs
Service to honor the life of the late Dale E. Kildee planned for Dec. 12 in Flint
Genesee County board chairman to resign, candidate to replace him emerges
In Galiwin'ku, a remote Aboriginal community in north-east Arnhem Land, for most of the pandemic COVID-19 has been very far away.
There havebeen no recorded community COVID-19 cases in the whole of East Arnhem land in the Northern Territory.
Like many COVID-free pockets of Australia, the vaccine rollout there was initially slow, hampered by misinformation and hesitancy.
But a dedicated team of local Aboriginal health workers worked hard to fix it and did.
Only accessible by air or boat, the island community of Galiwin'ku is 520 kilometres away from Darwin and home to about 2,000 people.
"The wrong stories people had about the vaccine were making them scared," Miwatj Health worker Brando Yambalpalsaid.
In recent weeks and months, vaccination rates have turned aroundin Galiwin'kuand the overall Miwatj health region.
The Aboriginal-controlled health service delivers healthcare and vaccines to more than 6,000 people across East Arnhem land through its seven remote clinics in communities including Milingimbi, Galiwin'ku and Yirrkala.
The rates are now encouragingly high the overall Miwatj region has now hit 81 per cent first dose, outpacing the Indigenous vaccination rate nationally,which is at 74 per cent first dose for those over 16.
Across Australia, COVID outbreaks have triggered localised spikes in vaccination rates.
More recently in the Northern Territory, Binjari and neighbouring Rockhole, which initially had very low vaccine coverage, reached 100 per cent first dose rate during the most recent COVID cluster.
A serious scare and extensive surge resources were needed to achieve that but as the East Arnhem communities show, it is possible to achieve very good results without COVID circulating in the community.
For Mr Yambalpal, the key to getting people to get the jab is information in language.
"Yolngu people understand their language," he said.
Yolngu Matha is the language spoken on Galiwin'ku and by thousands of people in Arnhem Land.
Mr Yambalpalsaid it still takes time for people to make their decision but speaking to local residents in Yolngu Matha has been the crucial way to help them understand.
Galiwin'ku has now hit 70 per cent first dose, with more than 1,000 doses delivered in the last five weeks.
In Yirrkala, about 140 kilometres south-east of Elcho Island on the mainland, Miwatj Strong Women Worker Sally Maymuru also found that speaking to people in language was a big help.
"I just talk straight to their face and tell them, 'Look, you have to get this vaccine, for your health and to protect community and family here'," she said.
"I just told them straight in my language, you know."
In Galiwin'ku, the Miwatj vaccine teams have been spending a lot of their time driving between housesin a four-wheel drive that's been called the Vaxy Taxi tospeak with families who are hesitant or still deciding about the vaccine.
In Yirrkala, Ms Maymuru said visiting people at home on different occasions worked well.
"I'm really proud because I came up to like 20 people in a house, and they don't even want it," she said.
She said she went back to the same house a few days later, at around the same time that there were new COVID cases found in Katherine, which is about 570 kilometres south-west of Yirrkala.
"And now, all of these people have been coming in and ringing up."
Yirrkala has a first dose rate of 93 per cent while 81 per cent of the community is fully vaccinated.
Data from Miwatj Health shows more vaccine doses were actually delivered in Yirrkala before the onset of the recent Katherine-Robinson River cluster, but clinic manager Linda Harrison said outbreaks elsewhere in the NT often had an impact on those more hesitant.
"Each time there's been a bit of a lockdown, there's been a bit of a surge in people coming and asking for the vaccines definitely," Ms Harrison said.
Other strategies that helped in Galiwin'ku included partnering with community programs like at the local school andfooty trainings and running community meetings with doctors.
In Yirrkala, local organisations like the Art Centre and the local council also donated money for store vouchers for people who had their vaccine, which Yirrkala clinic manager Linda Harrison said was a help.
Extra government support in Galiwin'ku, like additional vaccinators from the Royal Flying Doctors Service, helped immunisations continue alongside normal primary health care.
But at the same time, Ms Harrison said having staff known to the community is a big plus.
"The community have had people going out that they know and trust, you know, telling them about COVID, telling them about the importance of getting the vaccines," Ms Harrison said.
"I think that's one of the big things."
The Northern Territory's worst COVID-19 outbreak to date has led to a surge in vaccinations, but authorities say the uptake in Katherine remains stubbornly slow.
Galiwin'ku Aboriginal Health Practitioner Wanamula Gondarra said the turnaround in attitudes towards the vaccine, driven by the promotion work of her and her colleagues, has been a total relief.
"It's amazing what's been happening."
"Our people are really wanting to get the vaccine now, and it's what we've been waiting for, working for months," she said.
But she said there is still more work to be done, to make sure everyone comes back for their second doseand to convince those people who still haven't decided.
"They don't have to accept us, but the work and education is still going forward to them," Wanamula Gondarra said.
"We don't give up."
Loading form...
With the confirmation of the brand new Omicron COVID-19 variant in the United States and with new cases of the disease projected to spread over the December holiday season Americans are queueing up for additional doses of their vaccines.
Officials at the World Health Organization classified Omicron, the latest variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that leads to a COVID-19 diagnosis, as a "variant of concern" just a few days after it was first reported by scientists; the announcement coincides with expanded eligibility for third dose and booster shots for all Americans who have received their first initial vaccines at least two months (for Johnson & Johnson recipients) or six months (Pfizer, Moderna) prior.
Because COVID-19 vaccines were just developed this year, messaging earlier in the pandemic was unclear on how long the immunity earned from a vaccine would last. Leading health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have since clarified that booster vaccines (or additional doses for immunocompromised individuals) are necessary to replenish your body's protection against COVID-19 infection as immunity wanes over time; and since we're still in the thick of the global pandemic, expanding eligibility to all Americans for a booster dose ensures most will keep an optimal amount of antibodies during the winter season into the new year.
How long exactly does it take for a booster dose to impact our immune system? If you've already been vaccinated, especially with a two-dose mRNA vaccine series made in part by teams at Pfizer or Moderna, you may recall hearing that you weren't "fully" vaccinated until two weeks out from your last shot.
The logic and subsequent timeline may not be exactly the same for those who are receiving additional doses this month, which is good news for those who are seeking protection against viral variants, including Omicron.
Data suggests that the immune response to an additional COVID-19 vaccine dose is different than when your body is first introduced to the vaccine and experts are breaking down what that means for you below.
Put simply: It all depends on whether this is your initial COVID-19 vaccine, or if you've already received a full vaccination series prior (or at least one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine). During your first vaccine, your body's immune system becomes active and builds antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 within two weeks of your first shot. Federal guidance indicates that people are "fully" vaccinated with mRNA immunity about 2 weeks after your second dose and two weeks after the single Johnson & Johnson shot.
This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
But as we know, high immunity can't last forever, and scientists have spent the bulk of this year determining how effective COVID-19 vaccines are in real-time. "Detectable antibodies peak around two to three months after full immunization, and then begin to wane thereafter," explains Shruti Gohil, M.D., University of California Irvine Health's associate director of epidemiology and infection prevention as well a professor at the UCI School of Medicine
Dr. Gohil cites current research that suggests the majority of people experience waning levels of COVID-19 antibodies around 6 months after vaccination. It's not that one won't have any protection against COVID-19 at this point, she stresses, but "having fewer circulating antibodies means there will be a delay in your immune response to COVID infection compared to when antibodies are circulating in greater numbers."
Additional doses of the vaccine, then, will "revive your circulating antibody population sufficient to reduce your risk of infection," Dr. Gohil adds.
There isn't as much established research or federal health guidance in understanding when immunity has reached its peak after a booster COVID-19 vaccine, but experts are aware that the process likely occurs faster for most based on their knowledge of how vaccines work in the first place. After all, your immune system has been previously introduced to the vaccine by the time you receive a booster shot.
A pre-print study of research conducted in Israel, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, indicated that immunity may be heightened within just one week of a booster shot. And the effectiveness of the booster is likely doubled in the second week. "We found that seven to 13 days after the booster shot, there is a 4868% reduction in the odds of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection," the Maccabi Healthcare Services researchers shared.
Dr. Gohil indicates that most healthcare providers in the U.S. have been sharing similar figures with their patients.
"Boosting should result in antibody production within days of the booster vaccine, but peak levels still occur around the two-week mark, similar to initial vaccines," she tells Good Housekeeping. "Why? The speed of the antibody production is determined by the same mechanisms the cells are using the same 'machinery' with the same turnaround time as they did the first time around."
Ultimately, you should rest easy knowing that your body's immune response kicks in almost immediately after a booster dose. But expect to enjoy a higher level of protection around two weeks after your latest dose.
Anyone over the age of 18 is now eligible for a booster COVID-19 vaccine, as long as it's been two months for Johnson & Johnson recipients or six months for those who signed up for any two-dose mRNA vaccine. So far, according to official CDC data, around 15% of those who are now eligible for this vaccine have received a booster.
Federal health officials have also approved mixing and matching of various manufactured COVID-19 vaccines. Most healthcare professionals recommend sticking with the same type of shot you received on your first vaccination, unless you received a Johnson & Johnson single-dose shot. You should consult your primary healthcare provider if you have questions about which vaccine you should receive as a booster, as some research has indicated that Moderna boosters may provide some form of enhanced protection, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
But if you only have access to one kind of shot Pfizer or Moderna alone you shouldn't delay a booster altogether, as they're necessary to keep safe during the coming weeks and months, when transmission risk is expected to skyrocket.
When it comes to earlier strains of COVID-19, including Beta, Lambda, even Delta, federal health officials say a booster vaccine can help keep you as protected as possible from becoming sick this winter. It's especially crucial as flu season is also predicted to impact many Americans, and immune systems can easily be overwhelmed with two infections at once.
As far as Omicron goes, researchers still have a lot to learn about this version of the virus. Dr. Gohil adds that it's too early to say whether current vaccines can provide perfect protection against this variant, but that everyone in the scientific medical community believes that additional antibodies always equate to better protection overall.
"Although Omicron is very different from the original variant to which the vaccines were made, and we expect efficacy to be lower for this variant, we would still expect some amount of cross-reactive antibodies that could potentially afford protection," she explains.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io
Cameron Sheppard, 13, left, sits with his brother, Benjamin Square, 8, for moral support after Square received his first dose of the BioNTech, Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at the Stay Well Baton Rouge Community Health Fair Saturday morning, December 4, 2021, at Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La.
The coronavirus pandemic that has so far killed more than 5 million people worldwide is far from over and the next one could be even more lethal, the creator of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has said.
As fears grow over the threat posed by the highly mutated Omicron variant, detected in more than 30 countries, Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert cautioned that while it was increasingly obvious that this pandemic is not done with us, the next one could be worse.
The message came as ministers were told by one of their scientific advisers that the new variant was spreading pretty rapidly in the UK, and travel rules starting on Tuesday would be too late to prevent a potential wave of infections. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Sunday night reported 86 new Omicron cases, taking the total identified so far to 246.
Delivering the 44th Richard Dimbleby lecture, due to be broadcast on the BBC on Monday, Gilbert said that despite the destructive nature of a two-year pandemic that had already infected more than 265 million people, the next one might be more contagious and claim even more lives.
This will not be the last time a virus threatens our lives and our livelihoods, she said. The truth is, the next one could be worse. It could be more contagious, or more lethal, or both.
Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford whose team developed the Covid vaccine now used in 170 countries, said the scientific advances made and knowledge gained in research fighting against the coronavirus must not be lost.
We cannot allow a situation where we have gone through all we have gone through, and then find that the enormous economic losses we have sustained mean that there is still no funding for pandemic preparedness, she said. Just as we invest in armed forces and intelligence and diplomacy to defend against wars, we must invest in people, research, manufacturing and institutions to defend against pandemics.
Gilbert said the new variant contained mutations already known to increase transmissibility of the virus and that antibodies induced by vaccination or previous infections might be less effective at preventing infection with Omicron. But she also said reduced protection against infection does not necessarily mean reduced protection against severe disease and death. Gilbert added: Until we know more, we should be cautious, and take steps to slow down the spread of this new variant.
From Tuesday, all passengers arriving in the UK will be required to show proof of a negative PCR or lateral flow test taken no earlier than 48 hours before departure. Nigeria will also be added to the travel red list on Monday.
But Prof Mark Woolhouse, of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), said the new travel rules were too late to make a material difference. He told BBC Ones The Andrew Marr Show: I think that may be a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
If Omicron is here in the UK, and it certainly is, if theres community transmission in the UK, and it certainly looks that way, then its that community transmission that will drive a next wave. The cases that are being imported are important, we want to detect those and isolate any positive cases we find, as we would for any case anywhere. But I think its too late to make a material difference to the course of the Omicron wave if were going to have one.
Though the emergence of the new variant has caused alarm worldwide, Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, told CNN thus far it does not look like theres a great degree of severity to it but he added that it was too early to draw definitive conclusions and more study was needed.
As of 9am on Sunday there were another 43,992 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK. A further 54 people died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus.
The president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said the NHS would be in a difficult position if the Omicron variant were to trigger a surge in hospital admissions. Dr Katherine Henderson said hospitals were already struggling to cope. It is pretty spectacularly bad now, it will get worse and if the new variant becomes a thing in terms of numbers and translates into hospitals admissions we are going to be in a very, very difficult position.
The government is expected to announce the chair of its long-awaited Covid public inquiry within the next fortnight, having pledged to bereaved families that a chair would be in place by Christmas. MPs have called for the inquiry to investigate the effect that rule-breaking by public figures had on public compliance.
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has made his strongest intervention to date to criticise those resisting taking the vaccine, after the Guardian reported that unvaccinated patients are dominating ICU beds.
The Labour leader, who will receive his booster jab on Monday, said those who are unvaccinated should consider the impact of their decision, think again, and get vaccinated.
It is frustrating and worrying that medics are seeing too many hospital beds and NHS resources are taken by those that have chosen not to get the vaccine, he said.
He also said the government needed to radically boost efforts to get third jabs into arms. New analysis by Labour reveals the total number of booster vaccinations currently being administered remains significantly below the number of jabs that were being delivered at the same point in the first vaccine rollout earlier this year.
During the initial vaccine rollout, the number of vaccinations peaked at 602,265 a day on average. In contrast, the current total number of vaccines now being delivered a day on average is 435,542, over a quarter less than in March.
Separately, millions of people are being urged to get a flu jab by Friday to maximise protection over Christmas, as figures reveal more than half of all those who are pregnant or have underlying health conditions have still not been vaccinated. The UKHSA is encouraging eligible people to have the vaccine by 10 December to allow it take full effect before the festive season.
Two years ago Wednesday, the first case of a mysterious new respiratory disease was discovered in Wuhan, China. Now, the Omicron variant has deepened concerns about just how much longer the coronavirus pandemic will last.
The big picture: More than 5 million people have died since that first case. Most people on earth have lived through some form of lockdown. 54% of the global population has had at least one vaccination, though the shots have been distributed unevenly.
Here's a look at the world's pandemic journey over the past two years:
Several dozen cases of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus have been identified in the United States, a number that is likely to rise, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Sunday on ABCs This Week.
Genetic sequencing is required to determine which variant an infected patient has. In recent months the United States has greatly expanded sequencing efforts, but the process takes time. The C.D.C., for instance, typically takes about 10 days to yield results. According to Dr. Walensky, about 14 percent of all positive P.C.R. tests in the United States are being sequenced.
The variant has a cluster of mutations that have raised alarm around the world, but at this early stage, there are still more questions about it than answers, health officials said on Sunday.
What we dont yet know is how transmissible it will be, how well our vaccines will work, whether it will lead to more severe disease, Dr. Walensky said.
American officials are in frequent communication with experts in South Africa where the variant is now widespread, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nations leading infectious disease doctor, said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union.
How quickly Omicron will spread in the United States, where the highly contagious Delta variant now accounts for 99.9 percent of all cases, remains unknown, Dr. Fauci said. Whats going to happen when you have those two competing with each other? he said, adding that, we have really got to be careful in assessing how severe Omicron might end up being.
A new report from South Africa has fueled hopes that the variant may not cause serious disease, though it remains far too early to conclude that, experts say. The report focuses primarily on 42 patients in a hospital in Gauteng province, the center of the nations Omicron outbreak.
Although the researchers were not able to confirm that all the cases were caused by Omicron, the majority of patients with the virus did not require supplemental oxygen, the report says, and many were not hospitalized for Covid-19 itself. Instead they tested positive for the virus after being admitted for other reasons.
This is a picture that has not been seen in previous waves, wrote Dr. Fareed Abdullah, who directs the Office of AIDS and TB Research at the South African Medical Research Council and is the author of the new report.
But the findings come with major caveats, including the fact the patients were younger than during previous waves, and thus less likely to have severe disease. The data also accounts for just the first two weeks of the outbreak hospitalizations and deaths are often a lagging indicator and could rise in the coming weeks.
Omicrons rapid spread still poses risks, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organizations technical lead for coronavirus response, said on Sunday on CBSs Face the Nation.
Even if we have a large number of cases that are mild, some of those individuals will need hospitalizations, they will need to go into I.C.U., and some people will die, she said. And so more cases can mean more hospitalizations, and more hospitalizations could mean more deaths.
She also urged governments to take swift action by increasing vaccination and encouraging mask wearing, distancing and ventilation to tamp down the spread of Omicron and Delta.
The Biden administration recently announced plans to expand its booster campaign and increase access to rapid tests. On Monday, the United States will begin requiring all incoming air travelers to show proof of a negative test taken the day before departure, regardless of their vaccination status or citizenship.
On Sunday, officials also defended the governments ban on travelers from eight countries in southern Africa. The ban has been criticized for being both unhelpful and overly punitive.
That ban was done at a time when we were really in the dark, Dr. Fauci said, noting that it was intended to buy officials time to gather more information about Omicron. But now that more information is coming in from around the world, officials are frequently re-evaluating the ban, he said.
Hopefully, we will be able to lift that ban within a quite reasonable period of time, he said, adding that we all feel very badly about the hardship that it put on southern Africa.
But officials dismissed the possibility of domestic travel restrictions, noting that they would be impractical. That would be extremely onerous for people who are trying to get around the country for things like holidays, Dr. Francis S. Collins, the National Institutes of Health director, said on NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday. And I dont know how much wed gain by it.
A Norwegian Cruise Line ship with at least 10 passengers and crew members infected with COVID-19 has docked in New Orleans
ByThe Associated Press
December 5, 2021, 8:04 PM
3 min read
NEW ORLEANS -- A Norwegian Cruise Line ship with at least 10 passengers and crew members infected with COVID-19 docked Sunday in New Orleans, where health officials said they were trying to disembark people without worsening the spread of the coronavirus illness.
Local news outlets in New Orleans confirmed the Norwegian Breakaway had arrived in the city. The ship departed New Orleans on Nov. 28. The Louisiana Department of Health said in a late Saturday news release that over the past week, the ship made stops in Belize, Honduras and Mexico.
Norwegian Cruise Line issued a statement that confirmed a handful of COVID-19 cases among guests and crew. The company said all of the identified cases involved people without symptoms of the illness.
Norwegian said it requires all passengers and crew members to have been vaccinated against the coronavirus prior to departure.
We are testing all individuals on Norwegian Breakaway prior to disembarkation, as well as providing post-exposure and quarantine public health guidance by the (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the company's statement said. Any guests who have tested positive for COVID-19 will travel by personal vehicle to their personal residence or self-isolate in accommodations provided by the company.
The state health department which is working with the cruise line and state and local officials to contain the outbreak said at least 10 people on the ship tested positive for COVID-19. More than 3,200 people were on board the ship, officials said.
Some disembarking passengers told WVUE-TV in New Orleans that they were notified about the positive cases on the ship, while others said they had no idea about the outbreak until being asked about it by a reporter.
We didnt hear of this until we kind of heard you talking a second ago, said Don Canole, a passenger from North Carolina. It would have been nice to have known. We would have taken maybe a few more precautions.
Passengers said they were tested for COVID-19 exposure on Saturday before disembarking Sunday. The cruise line also gave passengers take-home rapid tests as they left the ship, according to WVUE.
The company said no changes to scheduled future sailings on the Norwegian Breakaway are currently planned, and the ship was scheduled to depart again Sunday evening.
Cruise ships were an early source of outbreaks last year at the start of the coronavirus pandemic as some ships were rejected at ports and passengers were forced into quarantine. The CDC issued a no-sail order in March 2020, prompting a standstill that ended last June as cruise ships began to leave U.S. ports with new health and safety requirements.
People protest a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal workers on Oct. 28 in New York City. Polling, vaccination and mortality data all suggest that Republicans are the biggest group of unvaccinated Americans and are suffering the worst consequences as a result. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images hide caption
People protest a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal workers on Oct. 28 in New York City. Polling, vaccination and mortality data all suggest that Republicans are the biggest group of unvaccinated Americans and are suffering the worst consequences as a result.
Since May 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that went for now-President Biden. That's according to a new analysis by NPR that examines how political polarization and misinformation are driving a significant share of the deaths in the pandemic.
NPR looked at deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which vaccinations widely became available. People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.7 times the death rates of those that went for Biden. Counties with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher COVID-19 mortality rates.
In October, the reddest tenth of the country saw death rates that were six times higher than the bluest tenth, according to Charles Gaba, an independent health care analyst who's been tracking partisanship trends during the pandemic and helped to review NPR's methodology. Those numbers have dropped slightly in recent weeks, Gaba says: "It's back down to around 5.5 times higher."
The trend was robust, even when controlling for age, which is the primary demographic risk of COVID-19 mortality. The data also reveal a major contributing factor to the death rate difference: The higher the vote share for Trump, the lower the vaccination rate.
The analysis only looked at the geographic location of COVID-19 deaths. The exact political views of each person taken by the disease remains unknowable. But the strength of the association, combined with polling information about vaccination, strongly suggests that Republicans are being disproportionately affected.
Recent polling data that show Republicans are now the largest group of unvaccinated individuals in the United States, more than any other single demographic group. Polling also shows that mistrust in official sources of information and exposure to misinformation, about both COVID-19 and the vaccines, run high among Republicans.
"An unvaccinated person is three times as likely to lean Republican as they are to lean Democrat," says Liz Hamel, vice president of public opinion and survey research at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy think tank that tracks attitudes toward vaccination. Political affiliation is now the strongest indicator of whether someone is vaccinated, she says: "If I wanted to guess if somebody was vaccinated or not and I could only know one thing about them, I would probably ask what their party affiliation is."
It was not always this way. Earlier in the pandemic, many different groups expressed hesitancy toward getting vaccinated. African Americans, younger Americans and rural Americans all had significant portions of their demographic that resisted vaccination. But over time, the vaccination rates in those demographics have risen, while the rate of Republican vaccination against COVID-19 has flatlined at just 59%, according to the latest numbers from Kaiser. By comparison, 91% of Democrats are vaccinated.
Being unvaccinated increases the risk of death from COVID-19 dramatically, according to the CDC. The vast majority of deaths since May, around 150,000, have occurred among the unvaccinated, says Peter Hotez, dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
While vaccine hesitancy exists in many different groups, Hotez suspects that the deaths are "overwhelmingly" concentrated in more politically conservative communities. "How does this make sense at any level?" he asks.
The consequences for individuals are real. Mark Valentine still remembers when his brother called him to tell him he had contracted coronavirus. Valentine is a trial consultant in North Carolina. His brother Phil, 61, was a well-known conservative talk show host in Nashville, Tenn., who often expressed skepticism about vaccination.
Conservative talk radio host Phil Valentine (right), pictured with his brother, Mark (second from left). Phil had been skeptical about COVID and the COVID vaccines, sometimes mocking them on his talk show. Earlier this year, he contracted the virus and died. Courtesy of Mark Valentine hide caption
Conservative talk radio host Phil Valentine (right), pictured with his brother, Mark (second from left). Phil had been skeptical about COVID and the COVID vaccines, sometimes mocking them on his talk show. Earlier this year, he contracted the virus and died.
Neither brother was vaccinated, and neither one was particularly worried about Phil's positive result. His brother said he was trying several alternative therapies commonly promoted in conservative circles. "He said, 'I've got the ivermectin, I started it this morning, and I don't think it's going to be a big deal,' " Mark Valentine recalls. "And frankly I didn't think about it anymore."
But a week later, Mark said he got a call from his brother's wife saying that the two were going to the hospital. "Before I knew it, he was in there and I couldn't get to him, couldn't talk to him," Valentine recalls. "His situation took a nosedive like you can't believe."
Phil Valentine died in August about five weeks after he announced he had tested positive for COVID-19.
Misinformation appears to be a major factor in the lagging vaccination rates. The Kaiser Family Foundation's polling shows Republicans are far more likely to believe false statements about COVID-19 and vaccines. A full 94% of Republicans think one or more false statements about COVID-19 and vaccines might be true, and 46% believe four or more statements might be true. By contrast, only 14% of Democrats believe four or more false statements about the disease.
Belief in multiple false statements highly correlates with vaccination status, Hamel says. "If you believe that the vaccines can damage your fertility, that they contain a microchip and that the government is inflating the number of COVID-19 deaths, you're going to think really differently about whether to get vaccinated."
Perhaps the most pernicious pieces of misinformation have to do with the perceived severity of COVID-19 itself. The most widely believed false statement was: "The government is exaggerating the number of COVID-19 deaths."
Hamel says that underestimating the severity of COVID-19 appears to be a major reason why Republicans in particular have fallen behind in vaccination: "We've seen lower levels of personal worry among Republicans who remain unvaccinated," she says. "That's a real contrast with what we saw in communities of color, where there was a high level of worry about getting sick."
Complacency around the risks of contracting COVID-19 certainly seemed to be a major reason why the Valentine brothers avoided vaccination. While not conspiracy theorists, they were staunch Trump supporters. The arrival of coronavirus just ahead of the presidential election of 2020 seemed like "the most fortuitous pandemic in the history of the world" for the Democratic Party, recalls Mark.
Despite the media coverage, Phil Valentine didn't believe COVID-19 was serious as long as you were healthy: "He said, 'The likelihood of me getting it is low. In the unlikely event that I do get it, the likelihood that I will survive it is 99-plus %,' " Mark Valentine recalls.
Vaccine researcher Peter Hotez is deeply troubled by the current state of affairs. A winter surge in COVID-19 cases is brewing, and the newly discovered omicron variant has the potential to make things far worse.
He thinks the elements of the Republican Party that are endorsing anti-vaccine ideas need to take a big step back. "I'm not trying to change Republican thinking or far-right thinking," he says. "I'm trying to say: 'The anti-science doesn't belong; it doesn't fit. ... Just stop it and save lives.' ''
Before his illness, Phil Valentine had sometimes promoted unproven alternative therapies and taken a mocking tone toward vaccination. As his situation deteriorated, Mark says the talk show host realized he needed to encourage his listeners to get vaccinated. Phil told his brother, "'My fear is that because I didn't get it, other folks may not get it," Mark Valentine recalls. The family put out a statement in support of vaccination, and Mark went on to his brother's talk show to encourage listeners to take the shot.
He also headed to his local Walmart to get vaccinated. "The guy comes out; he said, 'Do you have any questions or concerns?' " Mark Valentine recalls. "I said, 'Hell yeah, I've got both, but do it anyway.' "
Methodology
Vaccination rate data are the rate of vaccination among all people 18 years of age or older, as of Nov. 30. They are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 residents are calculated by dividing the deaths from COVID-19 in a county since May 1 by the county's population. County population data come from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 decennial census. May 1 was chosen as the start date of our analysis because that is roughly the time when vaccines became universally available to adults ages 18 and older. COVID-19 death data is collected by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University and is current as of Nov. 30.
2020 election result data are from MIT Election Data and Science Lab.
Alaska does not report election results by county-equivalent area, so it is excluded from the analysis. Nebraska is excluded from the analysis because does not report county-level COVID-19 statistics. Hawaii is excluded because it does not report county-level vaccine data. Some counties that have reported no COVID-19 deaths since May 1 may have stopped reporting. These counties generally have very small populations and have a negligible impact on the weighted averages. Erring on the side of caution, we include all data unless it is known that they are in error.
All averages are weighted by county population. The overall average represents the average of the 3,011 counties included in the analysis.
Emily Gurley, Professor of the Practice and Emily Pond, Research Data Analyst, both of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health helped review our methodology.
NPR's Huo Jingnan contributed to this story.
Find an updated count of COVID-19 cases in California and by county on our tracker here.
Omicron hasnt reached Sacramento, but it will, county public officer says
California confirms second omicron case in Los Angeles
Unvaccinated Nevada state workers will be charged an insurance premium
Latest studies suggest previous COVID-19 infection may not fend off omicron variant
Status of COVID-19 vaccine mandate is still up in the air
12:10 p.m.: Convention business in downtown Sacramento has been down but will likely increase in early 2022
As 2021 comes to a close at the end of this month, many organizations are evaluating how the pandemic has affected their bottom lines.
Despite a string of large-scale events since June, including Fridays California International Marathon, in looking at how downtown may fare going into 2022, theres one significant wild card: a possible lack of state office workers, says Mike Testa, president and CEO of Visit Sacramento.
Theres a huge population of California State employees that were working in downtown every day and so many of them are working at home, Testa said. If that continues, theres great concern of the impact that will have on businesses, because its tens of thousands of people on a daily basis who just arent in Sacramento.
Testa says compared with 2019, convention business is a bit down, but several large events scheduled for early 2022 are signaling a likely increase in attendance.
11:48 a.m.: Omicron hasnt reached Sacramento, but it will, county public officer says
The omicron variant of COVID-19 thats sweeping through several South African and European countries has made its way to California, with cases popping up in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
While Sacramento has not seen any cases of the new variant, county public health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye says its still a variant of concern. She said that it's difficult to predict when the variant may spread to Sacramento, but with people traveling for the holidays, its only a matter of time.
We know its going to happen at some point, Kasirye said. So we just need to continue to be vigilant and do the things that we know will protect everyone, like getting vaccinated, getting tested and wearing masks.
As of now, very little is known about omicron. Its not clear how fast it spreads or how severe symptoms can be.
And of course that means we also need to look at, for people that are vaccinated, what is the level of protection, Kasirye said. Our hope is that our vaccines will hold up, and the people that are vaccinated will continue to be protected.
Kasirye said that it's difficult to predict when the variant may spread to Sacramento. But when it does, she says her department will be able to detect it much sooner than they have in the past, thanks to tools the countys lab just received.
In order to identify the variant, you have to do the genome sequencing, Kasirye said. So being able to do it in-house increases our capacity to be able to continue the surveillance.
Prior to getting access to the sequencing tools, Kasirye says the county was sending specimens to the states lab, which delayed identifying new cases of variants. As of now, she says delta is still the dominant variant in Sacramento.
9:27 a.m.: California confirms second omicron case in Los Angeles
California recently reported its second confirmed case of the omicron variant in Los Angeles County.
According to the Associated Press, the countys public health department said a county resident is self-isolating after apparently contracting the infection during a trip to South Africa last month.
The U.S. recorded its first confirmed omicron case on Wednesday in a San Francisco resident who had recently traveled to South Africa and developed mild symptoms after returning on Nov. 22. The little-understood variant was first identified a week ago in South Africa, and its been spreading.
California isnt the only state with infections five other states, including New York, Minnesota, Hawaii, and Colorado, have all identified omicron variant cases.
Experts have said that this shows how quickly mutations of the virus can circumnavigate the globe with speed and ease. Just one day after the first known U.S. case was found in California, tests showed that the omicron variant had infected at least five people in New York City, plus a man from Minnesota who attended an anime convention in Manhattan in late November.
Officials reported another case in a Colorado woman who had recently traveled to southern Africa. The variant was also confirmed in an unvaccinated Hawaii resident with no recent travel history.
9:23 a.m.: Unvaccinated Nevada state workers will be charged an insurance premium
Nevada state workers enrolled in public employee healthcare plans will be charged up to $55 per month if they arent fully vaccinated, according to the Associated Press.
The Nevada Public Employees Benefits Program Board voted on Thursday to impose a surcharge on unvaccinated workers to offset medical costs of those who havent gotten shots. The surcharge will fund the testing that unvaccinated workers are required to undergo.
Laura Rich, the benefits programs executive officer, said Nevada would be the first in the U.S. to impose premiums on state workers who arent vaccinated. Nevada estimates roughly 5,000 state workers arent vaccinated and hopes that the policy will convince more people to get their shots.
9:20 a.m.: Latest studies suggest previous COVID-19 infection may not fend off omicron variant
South African scientists are warning that the new omicron variant may be causing more reinfections among COVID-19 survivors than earlier virus mutations, according to the Associated Press.
A research group has been tracking reinfections in South Africa, and they spotted a jump with the arrival of omicron, saying the timing suggests substantial evidence that the variant can overcome the immunity protection provided by a prior infection more than the extra-contagious delta variant.
The findings are preliminary and were posted online Thursday before scientific review. The researchers didnt say what portion of the reinfections were confirmed as omicron cases or examine how much protection against the new variant vaccines offer.
11:33 a.m.: Status of COVID-19 vaccine mandate is still up in the air
The Biden administrations COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the U.S. is on hold because of legal challenges, but employers can still require the shots, according to the Associated Press.
The regulation says businesses with 100 or more employees need to require COVID-19 vaccinations or have workers tested weekly for the virus. It was set to take effect Jan. 4, 2022, but has faced legal challenges from businesses, Republicans and others.
A federal appeals court put the rule on hold. Then all legal challenges were consolidated in another appeals court, which is taking written arguments from parties that want to join the case.
11:26 a.m.: Omicron and delta variants could spell the return of more restrictive safety measures
Governments worldwide are weighing new measures for those who may be tired of restrictions and vaccine mandates, as the delta variant pushes up cases in Europe and other parts of the world.
According to the Associated Press, different countries have been turning to varying measures to get their populations vaccinated and healthy.
For example, residents over 60 who refuse to get vaccinated will be hit with monthly fines of 100 euros ($113) a month in Greece. Potential carriers of omicron in Israel could be tracked by the nations domestic security agency.
In South Africa, restrictions include curfews and bans on alcohol sales. However, in the U.S., there is essentially no political willpower from either major party to enact any lockdowns or contact tracing. Even enforcing simple measures like mask-wearing has become a political flashpoint.
Governments are facing a thorny calculus made more difficult by the prospect of backlash, increased social divisions and the fear of being voted out of office.
10:47 a.m.: While were looking at omicron, we cant forget the delta variant, experts stress
While all eyes are on the new and little-understood omicron variant, the delta form of the coronavirus isnt finished wreaking havoc in the U. S., sending record numbers of patients to the hospital in some states, especially in the Midwest and New England.
According to the Associated Press, the U.S. recorded its first known omicron infection on Wednesday in a fully vaccinated person who had returned to California from South Africa, where the variant was identified just over a week ago.
For now, the extra-contagious delta variant accounts for practically all cases in the U.S. and continues to inflict misery at a time when many hospitals are struggling with shortages of nurses and a backlog of patients.
The fear now is that the latest variant will foist more patients and perhaps sicker ones into more hospital beds.
11:42 a.m.: Mysteries of the omicron variant could take weeks to untangle
Scientists say it could be weeks before they better understand how dangerous the omicron variant is.
According to the Associated Press, its still unknown whether the newest coronavirus variant of concern spreads faster than delta or makes people sicker.
According to the Associated Press, it also isnt clear how much protection is offered either by our vaccines or a persons immunity after recovering from another COVID-19 variant.
There are lots of guesses but little hard evidence as scientists race to find answers amid scrutiny from an anxious public. In the meantime, scientists urge people to get vaccinated and take other public health measures such as masking indoors.
11:35 a.m.: Supply chain woes hit toy-giving charities during the holiday season
As supply chain bottlenecks create shortages of many items, some charities are struggling to secure holiday gift wishes from kids in need, according to the Associated Press.
Theyre reporting they cant find enough items in stock or are facing shipping delays both in receiving and distributing the gifts.
The founder of One Simple Wish said many gift requests for gaming consoles and electronic items submitted to the charity have been out of stock. Another charity cant find enough doll styling heads, racially diverse Barbies and other things to give to kids in need.
One expert believes charities are also bound to see fewer toy donations directly from manufacturers this holiday season.
Find older coronavirus updates on our previous blog page here.
CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.
