Vaccination hesitation in Broward County contributes to COVID outbreak, officials say

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – The queues were long again on Monday at the Mills Pond Park drive-thru coronavirus test site in Fort Lauderdale.

A mother who was standing in line with her son said she and her husband would not get any of the available COVID vaccines without approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration. She recalls that all those who are not vaccinated are not avid anti-vaccines.

Amid a public health emergency, the FDA cleared the emergency use of the two-dose vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, in December and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine in February. FDA approval is pending. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey shows that 3 in 10 unvaccinated adults said they would be more likely to get the vaccine with full FDA approval.

“My husband has COVID,” she said. “He tested positive on the fourth … until it’s approved, approved, I don’t want to mess with that.”

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Broward County Town Hall officials said Monday they were concerned that amid the higher transmissibility of the Delta variant, time is of the essence. They believe reluctance to be vaccinated is also behind the further increase in cases, and they are calling on the public to do their part to get vaccinated and tested.

“This escalation of the pandemic is going to force people to do the right thing,” said Florida Senator Perry E. Thurston Jr.

About 1.2 million people received the vaccine in Broward County from March 1, 2020 to August 5, according to the Florida Department of Health. It is not known if any of these were linked to vaccine tourism or if residents received the vaccine in other counties. Regardless of variables, the data indicates that approximately 72% of Broward County residents are vaccinated.

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There is a lot that scientists have tried to figure out about COVID since it was first identified in late 2019, in Wuhan, China. Researchers are still trying to determine with certainty whether lasting population-level immunity to COVID is possible. And if so, they also need to know what proportion of the population needs to be vaccinated to start inducing it.

The global consensus in the medical community is that vaccines save lives. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday released a study showing that unvaccinated people who have had COVID are more than twice as likely to be re-infected with the virus than people who were fully vaccinated afterwards. have contracted the virus.

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The CDC was also tracking vaccine discovery cases and concluded that even though people vaccinated are infected with the Delta variant, the vaccine still protects people against severe symptoms. Florida Representative Chip LaMarca, a Republican seeking re-election in District 93, said the hospitalization data was clear.

“People need to get vaccinated… 95% to 97% of people who come to hospitals have not been vaccinated,” LaMarca said.

Broward added 12,590 new cases of coronavirus from July 30 to August 5. Florida recorded 175 new deaths from COVID in the week of July 30 to August 5. That brought the state’s official toll to 39,695, including 3,079 deaths in Broward, according to FDOH.

Broward County Mayor Steven Geller said he was concerned about Broward County public school students returning to classrooms on August 18 in this environment.

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“Just in July, just at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, 240 cases went to the pediatric emergency room,” Geller said.

There are at least 60 sites offering free coronavirus testing in Broward County and at least six of these are drive-thru locations that do not require an appointment. There are also 11 sites offering free walk-in vaccines.

These retailers also provide free vaccines to Broward:

Learn more about COVID

Symptoms may appear two to 14 days after exposure to the coronavirus and these include fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, aches or pains, headache. head, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion, runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea. The list of emergency warning signs that would require urgent medical attention include difficulty breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion, inability to wake up or stay awake, and skin, blue lips or nails.

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Learn more about vaccines

Doctors agree on the safety and effectiveness of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines because the benefits far outweigh the risks for most patients. In July, a long list of professional associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians, expressed support for the immunization mandates.

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna: These are being investigated for use in children aged 5 to 11. Possible side effects include chills, headache, pain, fatigue and / or redness and swelling at the injection site. On rare occasions, the vaccine has appeared to trigger anaphylaxis, a serious reaction that can be treated with epinephrine. Therefore, people with a history of severe allergies should be monitored for 30 minutes after the injection. The FDA warns that there is a “probable association” with reported cases of heart inflammation in young adults, and in most cases it improves on its own without medical intervention.

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Johnson & Johnson: Possible side effects include fatigue, fever, headache, pain at the injection site, or myalgia (pain in a muscle or group of muscles), which usually go away within a day or two. The FDA cautions that there have been rare cases of the neurological disorder, Guillain-Barré syndrome, reported in a small number of vaccinees and a rare, but potentially serious, blood clotting disorder that has developed. produced in a small number of subjects.

Source: Yale Medicine

Afternoon report

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