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The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for more employers, schools and other organizations to mandate the injections.
“If you are not vaccinated, let this be the milestone that gets you there,” California public health official Dr Tomás Aragón said after the announcement.
Experts say the highly contagious Delta variant not only presents an unprecedented threat to those who are unvaccinated, but has also provided ample evidence for the effectiveness of vaccines.
In California, unvaccinated people are more than six times more likely to contract the coronavirus than those who get the vaccine, according to state data released on Monday.
And in Los Angeles County, the state’s most populous, an unvaccinated person is up to 25 times more likely to be hospitalized with the disease.
“This is, in a sense, our proof that vaccines work,” said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, Fielding School of Public Health in Los Angeles.
Just as states with low vaccination rates were hit hard by the latest wave of coronavirus, so have counties in California where large swathes of the population remain unvaccinated.
Of the 20 counties in California with the highest proportion of residents currently hospitalized with the coronavirus, 19 have a vaccination rate below the state average of 55%, according to the New York Times coronavirus tracker. (Percentages include children under 12 who are not yet eligible for vaccines.)
Some of the most affected counties in California are Yuba (36 percent vaccinated), San Bernardino, and Butte (both 42 percent).
In contrast, counties with some of the lowest hospitalization rates include Marin (75 percent vaccinated), Santa Clara (71 percent), and Santa Cruz (64 percent).
The proliferation of the Delta variant revealed a pattern that was less clear when the virus wasn’t circulating as widely, Kim-Farley told me.
“In a situation like this where we are basically seeing Covid everywhere,” he said, it’s easier to see the strong correlation between higher vaccination rates and lower disease rates.
Still, additional factors may be at play, experts say.
A recent University of Southern California survey found that unvaccinated people were more likely than those vaccinated to go to a bar or a friend’s house, and less likely to wear a mask or avoid large gatherings.
In other words, people who choose not to be vaccinated are also likely to be less worried about Covid-19 and take fewer safety precautions, which contributes to their risk of getting sick, said Professor Emeritus Kevin Malotte. epidemiology at Cal State Long Beach.
“Lack of mask measures, lack of concern about it, lack of vaccination are all types of the syndrome, and I think that’s what we’re seeing correlated with the high rates,” he told me. Malotte.
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What we eat
Enjoy a creamy and sweet eggplant salad made with a quick dressing of yogurt and seasonings.
Where we travel
Today’s California travel tip comes from Joanne Devereaux, a reader who lives in Oakland. Joanne writes:
On a clear day, Mount Tamalpais is visible to thousands of people living in the Bay Area. At 2,500 feet above sea level, it can be seen from so many vantage points. You can hike the many trails leading to the top of Mount Tam. On a foggy summer day, it’s amazing to hike above the layers of fog to see the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, Angel Island, Alcatraz, and, if you’re lucky, the Farallon Islands. An intrepid traveler might even stay overnight at the West Point Inn, which provides a respite from a long (but well worth it) hike.
Tell us about the best places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to [email protected]. We will share more in future editions of the newsletter.
And before leaving, good news
Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga has received a grant of nearly $ 3 million to help train students in welding, a growing but neglected industry, reports LAist.
Officials from Chaffey, a community college, said the funding would be used to “support students who are the first in their families to go to college, students of color and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.”
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. – Soumya
PS here today’s mini-crosswords, and a clue: “I’m to blame for this”, in slang (3 letters).
Mariel Wamsley contributed to California Today. You can join the team at [email protected].
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