By Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P]
After the Delta variant has become the leading strain in the United States, accounting for more than 85 percent of sequenced COVID-19 cases, "the only way to overcome this terrible virus is to increase vaccination rates," said Dr. Monica Gandhi.
Professor of Medicine and Associate Chair of the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) detailed in a news briefing by Ethnic Media Services that while there are European countries where vaccination rates are high, there are also nations such as India, which is very slow.
In that sense, he explained that the U.S. is in the middle, as areas such as Vermont, Virginia or the Bay Area show the highest vaccination rates, in Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Nevada, it has been observed that the number of hospitalizations for the disease has risen.
The only way to overcome COVID-19 is to increase vaccination rates.
She said there are six strategies to increase vaccination rates:
Community-based messaging. This type of messaging, she said, has been the success of immunization campaigns in towns like San Francisco. Having an African-American mayor talk about the importance of immunization is extremely important.
2.- Bring vaccines closer to the population through pharmacies, consultations with their trusted doctors, in their workplaces and giving workers free time to do so.
3.- Free transportation to vaccination sites.
4.- Helping mothers and fathers to access free childcare while they go for immunization.
5.- Vaccination "Passports". According to Dr. Gandhi, these would serve as an incentive to encourage vaccination, where people who are not immunized would not be able to access certain enclosed spaces.
6. Mandates. This last point, he said, is particularly controversial, because although each person is responsible for his or her health, "this is a public health issue.
In that regard, he recalled that in 1905 the U.S. suffered a smallpox epidemic where 30 percent of people eligible for the smallpox vaccine did not get it. So there was a case called Jacobson v. Massachusetts that was brought before the Supreme Court.
The ruling put the common good above personal interests, mandating that all state residents be required to be vaccinated or pay fines if they did not want to be immunized.
He noted that cities such as San Francisco and New York have required public employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or to repeatedly test negative for the virus.
Every mandate, he stressed, has its exceptions, which possibly go in terms of immunity in the past, for religious reasons, or for medical reasons where the vaccine is contraindicated.
However, he pointed out that not having high vaccination rates in the country will only lead to the prolongation of the pandemic.
Vaccines, from segregation to inclusion
"Vaccines are effective, and it looks like our best chance to stop the pandemic, said pediatrician Tiffany Johnson of the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), noting that COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on low-income communities and communities of color.
"There are many barriers that exist in accessing health care, and those same barriers exist in accessing the vaccine," she said.
A couple of examples of this, he said, are problems with Internet access, as some populations cannot access reliable and credible information about the vaccine, or even schedule appointments to get vaccinated.
Also, he said, there are transportation problems, because even if you have a vaccination clinic five miles away, if you don't have a bus card, that distance is a long way to walk, especially if the temperature and weather are extreme.
In addition, he explained that workers are often not allowed to miss vaccinations or are docked time, which many of them cannot afford, let alone given days to recover if they have reactions.
He added that there is mistrust on the part of communities of color toward the country's health care system.
"Whenever we talk about vaccines and underserved communities, it's always important to talk about mistrust, because health care in America was built on a foundation of racism and beyond the history of experimentation on black and brown bodies, we also have to be accountable for the ways in which we cause harm to communities of color to this day with health care disparities."
In light of this, he said that governments must work on trust with all communities, especially those of color.
"We need to earn that trust and build that trust, and it's not going to happen overnight. So we have to recognize the ways in which we fall short and we have to actively work on building trust in these communities."
While he said he is not in favor of "COVID-19 passports," he explained that he is in favor of the FDA fully approving the vaccine, and once it is approved, then discussing mandates for inoculation.
"We need to create a two-tiered system where there are groups in certain communities that don't have access to the benefits, and then there is society at large. I think we have to work on education and community empowerment, taking into account all the barriers that exist to getting vaccines," she said.
Vaccines for overcoming COVID-19, from the individual to the collective
"The fundamental problem is that vaccines are given at the individual level and individuals tend to see an individual benefit as the main driver. Vaccines work through immunity at the individual level, but on a large scale they essentially work through mathematics at the population level. So all vaccines will help anyone who gets them," Dr. Ben Neuman, chief of Virology at the Texas A&M University Global Health Research Complex, said at the time.
He explained that while there are several studies on vaccines and their effectiveness against the virus and its different variants, all agree that they are safe and work.
In addition, he said, the studies showed that the COVID-19 vaccines show a "huge 78 percent to 95 percent reduction in the likelihood of death after being administered.
Vaccinated people are 80 to 90 percent less likely to transmit the virus, and 80 to 90 percent less likely to become infected with the virus.
"Overall, it seems like the vaccines work pretty well and are protective in a lot of ways ... at the population level, 80 to 90 percent vaccine effectiveness is an absolute godsend," he said.
Are we experiencing a new wave of COVID? The answer is yes
Dr. Dali Fan, a clinical professor of health sciences at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), said the reason for that statement is multifactorial -- the Delta variant "definitely played a role, but the changes are social behavior, social policies and lack of vaccination in the underage group.
"The major vaccines are quite effective against COVID. The mRNA vaccines are 80 percent effective against infection and 95 percent effective against hospitalization. DNA vaccines are 60 percent effective against infection and 90 percent effective against hospitalization."
In the case of the Delta variant, recent data from the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the mRNA vaccine is about 80 percent effective, while in DNAs it is about 67 percent effective against coronavirus hospitalization.
So is a booster vaccine the first-line solution for the Delta variant? The answer is no, he said. "Vaccinating everyone is the right answer. So what are booster doses? Booster vaccines are given after the primary series and are necessary to boost immunity after the initial immune response."
"Remember that vaccines don't kill. The virus does it directly. Vaccines trigger your immune system to kill viruses," he reminded.
Dr. Fan noted that a booster is not yet necessary, but some populations may be the exceptions, such as residents of long-term care facilities, adults over 65 years of age, health care professionals, and the immunocompromised.
He added that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that fully vaccinated Americans do not need a booster shot at this time. "There is simply not enough evidence that the Delta variant is progressing in fully vaccinated people," he said.
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