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Mississippi public health officials are urging some vaccinated residents to resume wearing masks and avoiding large crowds as the more contagious COVID-19 Delta variant spreads across the state.
“We’re kind of in a tough spot right now. We are seeing a rather unpleasant increase in the Delta variant. We are witnessing a clear increase in cases and hospitalizations. Deaths will follow for sure, ”Mississippi state health official Dr. Thomas Dobbs said in a live chat from the Mississippi State Medical Association on Friday.
“It’s the same model we’ve seen over and over again. I don’t know why we keep adding one and a set and we are amazed when we get the result of two.
“But the real thing is we have a lot more vulnerability than we should,” Dobbs added. “We are well under-vaccinated as a state. We have a large pool of unimmunized people who are a great breeding ground for the Delta variant, and it’s going to kill people. And it’s already killing people.
Since last week, the MSDH has reported a 50% increase in new cases of COVID-19, the seven-day average rising from 212 a week ago to 319 today. The number of Mississippians hospitalized also increased 65% between July 4 and Sunday July 11. The largest increase occurred among patients admitted to intensive care, with hospitals reporting a 155% increase in one week, from 33 intensive care patients a week ago to 84 today. The number of patients on ventilators has more than doubled.
“Our low vaccination rate puts everyone at risk,… We are seeing many epidemics at mass gatherings: camps, schools, denominations, funerals, social gatherings,” Dobbs tweeted on Friday.
Later that day, he released the following recommendations through the MSDH citing “the rapid increase in Delta variant cases and outbreaks combined with the low overall vaccination rate in the state”:
- All Mississippi residents 65 years of age or older should avoid all mass gatherings indoors, whether or not they are vaccinated
- All Mississippi residents with underlying chronic health conditions should avoid all mass gatherings indoors
- All Mississippians aged 12 or older should receive the COVID-19 vaccine
- All unvaccinated people should wear a mask when indoors in public places
Lambda variant could be deadlier than Delta
Earlier this month, the chief scientist of the White House coronavirus task force Dr David Kessler told Mississippi Free Press reporter Nick Judin that the Delta variant “appears to be more heritable” than the previous forms and “also has an impact on young people in a way that the previous variants do not.” Public health officials in 30 countries, not yet including the United States, have also detected another variant, the Lambda variant, which they say could be deadlier than Delta’s.
On Sunday, Dobbs tweeted that the state had a “delta surge in action,” urging Mississippians who had received their first Pfizer or Moderna vaccines but not the second to complete their vaccination completely. “We know that one dose is not enough for Delta.”
Long before the arrival of the Delta variant, clinical trials found that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were, respectively, approximately 95% and 94% effective in preventing COVID-19 infection several weeks after receiving both. doses, while the Johnson & Johnson single injection vaccine was approximately 66% effective.
Even among the groundbreaking cases, however, trials found that each vaccine prevented most of them from becoming severe, including the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said was 85% effective in prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death.
Studies: an effective vaccine to prevent the death of variants
With the Delta variant now the dominant strain, several studies have shown that current vaccines may now be somewhat less effective in preventing symptomatic infections, but remain very effective in preventing death and serious illness. Over the past month, unvaccinated Mississippians accounted for 94% of all COVID-19 cases and more than 93% of all deaths. But vaccinated Mississippians accounted for 12% of all hospitalizations during the same period.
“Almost ALL cases of MS are currently a Delta variant.… 12% of (hospitalizations) in vaccinees is worrisome – we are allowing too many circulating Delta to reach our most vulnerable,” Dr. Dobbs tweeted afterwards. midday.
Yet among all vaccinated Mississippians, only 1% have been infected with COVID-19 since their vaccination, MSDH reports. Pfizer announced last week that it will seek emergency clearance from the FDA for a third recall which better protects against the Delta variant.
During the July 9 discussion with the Mississippi State Medical Association, Dr. Mark Horne, the organization’s outgoing president, said he spoke earlier in the morning with three patients who were over elderly or had co-morbidities that put them at a higher risk of serious infections from vaccinated COVID-19.
“They just shook their heads and said, ‘I’m not going to take it,'” said Horne.
“Why?” Dobbs asked.
“Because they just didn’t believe it,” Horne said, citing misinformation on social media and possibly the cable news. “They thought the vaccine was riskier than COVID because of what they are read and heard.
The public health officer’s exasperation was palpable.
“It is killing us,” Dobbs said.
COVID-19 vaccines are free and widely available. For more information on the vaccine, visit the MSDH website. To find vaccine locations near you, visit vaccines.gov. The Mississippi Department of Transportation offers free trips to vaccination sites for Mississippians.
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