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CLEVELAND, Ohio – With the delta variant of the coronavirus spreading in Ohio, the chief medical officer on Wednesday issued a stern warning that anyone who has not received a COVID-19 vaccine will almost certainly develop an infection.
The delta variant accounted for over 36% of all infections that were sequenced in Ohio during a two-week period ending July 3, said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, chief medical officer for the Department of Health. from Ohio. It accounted for less than 1% of infections just a month earlier.
The trend is expected to continue, as health experts have determined that the delta variant is more transmissible than earlier strains of the virus. This means that anyone who has not received a COVID-19 vaccine is very likely to develop an infection at some point, Vanderhoff told reporters during a virtual press briefing.
“It’s really just a matter of time,” said Vanderhoff. “That’s when, not if, an unvaccinated individual develops COVID-19. “
Vanderhoff offered the brutal assessment at a time when only 48.5% of the people of Ohio have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and only 45.5% have been fully immunized.
This means that more than half of the state’s residents are still very likely to contract the virus. This includes everyone under the age of 12, an age group not yet approved for vaccines. About 57% of eligible people have been vaccinated.
The press conference also came a day after Ohio reported 744 new coronavirus infections and just before Wednesday’s report of 785 more cases, the state’s highest totals in nearly two months. Vanderhoff said the recent increase was largely due to the delta variant.
It’s clear that the spread of the delta variant dramatically increases the risk for Ohio residents who haven’t received a vaccine, said Dr Amy Edwards, pediatric infectious disease specialist at Rainbow Babies & Teaching Hospital. Children’s Hospital, which also participated in the media. Report.
“There is no doubt about it. Now that the delta variant is here, [the unvaccinated] will get sick with COVID, ”Edwards said.
Pediatricians say children should get vaccinated
As delta variants spread and more adults are vaccinated, children and adolescents account for a higher percentage of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, Vanderhoff said. From October to December 2020, people under the age of 20 accounted for 12% of Ohio cases and 2% of hospitalizations. From May to June 2021, they represented 20% of infections and 5% of hospitalizations.
Children at least 12 years old can be vaccinated, doctors who spoke at the press conference acknowledged that many parents remain hesitant. Some worry about the extremely rare but serious side effects that have been associated with vaccines. One of these is myocarditis or pericarditis, rare types of inflammation of the heart that have been reported mainly in adolescents and young adults after a second dose.
However, data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that only 12.6 doses out of 1 million Pfizer and Moderna vaccines administered in the United States have been associated with heart inflammation. And the majority of cases have been mild.
“They determined that although there appears to be a very low risk of myocarditis after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine, the benefits of these vaccines far outweigh the risks,” Vanderhoff said.
Dr Patty Manning-Courtney, chief of staff at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, said during the briefing that the majority of vaccine side effects seen in children are mild and far less severe than COVID-19 itself.
On the other hand, children who contract COVID-19 can develop very serious complications such as multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a rare but serious complication that causes the immune system to speed up and attack other organs. Edwards said almost all children with MIS-C need to be treated in an intensive care unit, and many need ventilators.
“The risks of the vaccine are far outweighed by the risks of MIS-C, that’s for sure,” Edwards said.
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