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Normalcy appears to be beyond the reach of the country with the recent surge in Covid-19 cases fueled by the Delta variant, a highly contagious strain of Covid-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Delta variant caused 80 to 87% of all Covid-19 cases in the United States during the last two weeks of July. This had the most impact on states with low immunization counts.
Louisiana, where only 37.3% of residents are fully vaccinated, is the fifth least vaccinated state, but currently leads the country in a rash of new cases after infection rates began to climb in early July.
Daily records continue to rise and the state reported more than 6,000 new cases on Friday. According to a recent update of Baton Rouge General Hospital obtained by Steve Caparotta of WAFB, 47% of patients infected with Covid-19 treated by the hospital are in intensive care and only 15 of these patients had been vaccinated. The hospital said workers over the weekend are “in the midst of their toughest fight against this virus.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards reinstated the inside hiding mandate on Monday in response to the worsening crisis. “It has become extremely clear that our current recommendations alone are not strong enough to deal with the fourth wave of Covid in Louisiana,” Edwards told reporters after the mandate was announced.
At a press conference on Friday, Edwards made a grim assessment: “Things are worse today than they were on Monday. Sadly, the eyes of the nation are on Louisiana at this time. “
Despite being less than a week old, the mask’s tenure has already been the subject of backlash, most notably at a St. Tammany Parish School Board meeting on Thursday. A parent falsely claimed their child would be prevented from learning due to masks cutting off oxygen to the brain. The conspiracy theory was debunked last year by Reuters and other media.
With the school year quickly approaching, the safety of children in Louisiana is a major concern. There is no approved vaccine for children under 12, and only 15 percent of people ages 12 to 17 are vaccinated in Louisiana, making young people vulnerable. According to Dr Trey Dunbar, president of Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, more than 50% of children infected with Covid-19 are in intensive care.
Prior to the state-wide masking mandate in place, the Louisiana Council of Elementary and Secondary Education chose to leave masking decisions to individual schools and only the New Brunswick school district. Orleans required the wearing of a mask indoors. The statewide mandate means more children will be safe, but it is up to schools to enforce it.
Besides the mask’s mandate, schools have the freedom to build their own set of safety rules and precautions, resulting in a disparity in the way Covid-19 is handled in the education sector. According to the Jefferson Parish Guide to School Districts, schools largely enforce face-to-face learning from Kindergarten to Grade 12, with the exception of high school students who want the flexibility and extra time that the classroom allows. virtual school.
This is great for high school students who want to stay home, but from a safety standpoint the decision is confusing. While high school students are eligible for the vaccine and would therefore be safer in an in-person classroom, elementary school children are still vulnerable. The guide also states, “Schools should anticipate and expect some students / staff to contract COVID-19 during the school year given the levels of COVID-19 in our communities. This is of concern from a public health perspective, as preventative measures, such as greater access to e-learning, could reduce the risk of exposure that counseling insinuates is almost inevitable with online education. class.
Making masks mandatory is a productive step, but since the Delta variant is highly transmissible, it is not enough. Increasing the number of people vaccinated in the state is the best way forward, but in a state where conspiracy theory is more valuable than public health policy to some, that’s easier said than done. . Misinformation about the contents of the vaccine has caused some people to refuse the vaccine. In Shreveport, a recent city council meeting heated up when a woman began to protest the vaccine, saying unvaccinated Americans would be unfairly monitored and those vaccinated could be used in experiments.
Both are false claims, but the damage from this type of rhetoric can contribute to low vaccination rates. According to a study by Donelson Forsyth, a professor at the University of Richmond, resistance to vaccination and compulsory masks is concentrated in certain geographic areas due to what is called “group thinking”. Decisions made by a group and followed en masse prevent individuals from logically analyzing information and considering other alternatives, which may explain why some states have remained Covid-19 hotspots.
It is also important to have an overview of the wave of Covid-19 cases in Louisiana. Researchers at Georgetown University identified the largest groups of unvaccinated people in the United States and found that most of those areas were experiencing an increase in cases and examples of mutating the virus, posing a risk for the general population. Near the top of this list: Shreveport, Louisiana. “These vulnerable clusters put the entire United States – and to some extent, the world – in danger of returning to 2020, as areas with high transmission can become fertile grounds for Covid-19 variants that could continue to escape. to Covid-19 vaccines, ”wrote CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonifield.
While parts of Louisiana pose a risk to the rest of the country, residents of the state are also threatened by tourists arriving on vacation. There are currently no travel restrictions in Louisiana, and Americans from any Covid-19 hotspot nationwide can enter the state at will. This is of particular concern because of Louisiana’s proximity to states like Texas and Mississippi. Amarillo, Texas has one of the largest unvaccinated groups in the country, while Mississippi’s partial vaccination rate is 38.64%, the lowest in the country.
Another new concern, although less prevalent now, is the Lambda variant which recently infected people in Louisiana. The first cases of the Lambda variant were detected in Houston, so health officials believe the virus variant has spread across the Texas-Louisiana border.
Despite the fact that the CDC has warned of non-essential travel for people who are not fully vaccinated, and despite the ever-increasing virus variants, tourism in Louisiana is in full swing. The tourism industry typically provides more than 230,000 jobs for Louisianans and generates more than $ 1 billion in tax revenue for the state. Prior to the surge in cases from the Delta variant, the tourism industry was approaching pre-pandemic proportions, which Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser is unwilling to let go. “We will come back to the regular ones [tourism] rates sooner than we thought if we can get through this latest wave without a blow to the tourism industry, ”Nungesser told the Louisiana Radio Network in late July.
Nungesser is just one of a group of politicians in Louisiana who have contracted Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, including Representative Clay Higgins, who last month contracted Covid-19 for the second time.
MP-elect Luke Letlow, who organized many maskless campaign events ahead of his election, ultimately died of complications from Covid-19 weeks before taking office in December of last year. He was the first congressman to die from the virus. His widow, Julie Letlow was elected to her husband’s seat in a special election in March; she gave an interview to CBS News this week to urge her constituents to get vaccinated.
“My prayer is that no one loses their life because of this virus anymore. It’s a horrible way to leave this world. Letlow said. “We have the answer, let’s use it. “
Public health officials would agree with Julie Letlow. The most effective way to overcome this wave is to increase vaccination rates. There was an effort to encourage people to do so. In fact, the federal government allocated $ 2.3 million in lottery money as an incentive. The Louisians have already started earning prizes, while the $ 1 million grand prize has yet to be awarded.
That effort has paid off, as Louisiana has seen a 3% increase in vaccination rates since June. But as major cities across the state brace for the plethora of upcoming fall festivals – including JazzFest in New Orleans and Festivals Acadiens in Lafayette – amid growing cases of Covid-19, there are a feeling of déjà vu looming. As the pandemic began to spread to the United States in March 2020, Mardi Gras was in full swing and the high concentration of people with no security measures imposed led to a death rate that was at one point highest in the world. world. Like the rest of the country, Louisiana is trying to balance public health advice with a desire for a normal life, so the outcome of its current spike in cases is still unclear.
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