More Signs of Normalcy As Omicron Cases Fade, By Jondi Gumz

COMMUNITY NEWS

More Signs of Normalcy As Omicron Cases Fade

By Jondi Gumz

Want to travel again? Kayak.com reports the United Kingdom, Slovenia and Denmark are open to visitors — with no Covid-19 restrictions.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams lifted the vaccine mandate for performers and professional athletes, which means Kyrie Irving, a top player for the Brooklyn Nets who was unable to play at home because he opted out of the Covid vaccination, can now play.

Santa Cruz County closed the vaccination site at Felton Community Hall March 9 after giving 2,000 vaccinations and referred residents to the newly opened Santa Cruz Community Health office in Ben Lomond. On March 27, the county closed the vaccine clinic at the old Watsonville City Hall, where 20,000 vaccinations were given.

New Covid cases from the less deadly Omicron variant peaked in January and have plummeted nationwide, in California and locally. See the federal Center for Disease Control map showing most counties green for low transmission except for the center of South Dakota and eastern Montana, where cases are high.

On March 23, vaccine-maker Moderna reported positive results — no severe cases, hospitalizations, or deaths — in two clinical trials for children under 6 — and said it would ask the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use authorization for those children, who have not been eligible for vaccines.

Cases of Covid cases decreased 43.7% for kids 6 to 23 months, and 37.5% for kids 2 to 6. At the outset, the FDA called for vaccines to cut infection by at least 50%.

A new Omicron variant called BA.2 “appears to be about 50% more transmissible than the original omicron strain BA.1, according to UC Davis Health. “Preliminary data suggests omicron BA.1 causes the same severity of disease and symptoms, but it’s affecting younger people more.”

Two Years

Two years after the pandemic began, the state Department of Public Health reports hospitalizations down from 20,000 at the peak of the Omicron surge in January to 1,600, and test positivity, 23% in January, now 1.4%.

Santa Cruz County has 6 hospitalizations, including 2 in intensive care, 546 active cases, down from 10,000 at the peak, and three more deaths, bringing the total to 259. The dashboard is updated on Monday and Thursday. Underlying conditions were a factor in 19 of the 20 most recent local deaths during the peak of the highly contagious and thought-to-be-mild Omicron variant.

The latest deaths were people 65 and older, two with underlying conditions. The county website lists vaccination status in death as “yes” or “no.”

The most COVID fatalities in the county occurred in January 2021, when vaccines were not available and 22 people died in one week.

For the two-year anniversary, Dignity Health Dominican Hospital recognized frontline workers for their dedication by lighting up the front of the hospital blue.

“These past two years have been difficult for all of us, especially the families and loved ones of those we have lost,” said Dr. Gail Newel, Santa Cruz County health officer. “I want to thank everyone who made sacrifices — everyone who wore a mask to protect themselves and others, employees and employers who kept everyone as safe as possible, parents and students who navigated distance learning — to get us through these last two years.”

County Public Health reported: • 335,958 PCR tests • 122,890+ antigen tests distributed • 535,746 doses of vaccine given • 998,295 masks distributed • 61 pop-up vaccination clinics • 30,000 + calls answered by the county’s

Covid-19 call center. • 668 vaccinations to homebound individuals

On March 15, registered nurses at Sutter Health picketed at 15 facilities including the Santa Cruz VNA, frustrated that contract negotiations since June led to “little to no movement on key issues.”

Issues include “safe staffing,” investing in personal protective equipment and plans to prevent violence in the hospitals, the last two mandated by the state.

Sutter spokeswoman Emma Dugas said, “We remain focused on reaching a shared resolution.”

County supervisors have chosen five members for the board of the Pajaro Valley Health Care District Project, the local consortium awarded the bid to buy Watsonville Community Hospital, which has 620 employees, and shares the treatment of Covid-19 patients with Dominican Hospital.

To donate to the consortium, see https://www.pvhdp.org/

Soquel Schools

Test positivity for the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, which reports testing for public schools, is 1.11 percent, lower than the state.

The state’s guidance to schools and childcare facilities: After March 11, masks are not required but are strongly recommended.

“All community members have a right to make different choices with regard to recommended masking, and it is imperative that we respect personal choice and treat each other with respect and kindness,” posted Dr. Faris Sabbah, Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools.

Soquel schools report 8 active student cases and zero staff cases in March, the lowest in the Omicron surge.

New Brighton Middle School has 3 student cases. Main Street Elementary and Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary each have 2 student cases. Soquel Elementary has 1 student case.

Young Children

Parents anxious to have shots for their younger children under 5 have been waiting for Pfizer and BioNTech to gather more data on whether a third dose is effective.

Pfizer initially applied for emergency use authorization for young children for two doses.

Mary Holland, president and general counsel of Children’s Health Defense, contends there is no COVID emergency for children under 5 years old.

Children have a 99.995% recovery rate, and a body of medical literature indicates that “almost zero” healthy children under 5 have died from COVID, according to Holland, who cited studies in Germany, England and Wales.

Myocarditis

In a 2022 report in the Journal of American Medical Association online, Dr. Matthew Oster of the CDC reported the government’s VAERS database received 1,991 reports of myocarditis after one dose of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine and 1,626 met the CDC’s definition for probable or confirmed myocarditis.

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart, which can lead to clots, a stroke or heart attack.

Oster’s conclusion: “The risk of myocarditis after receiving mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines was increased across multiple age and sex strata and was highest after the second vaccination dose in adolescent males and young men. This risk should be considered.”

Fourth Shot?

On March 13, the chief executive of Pfizer, which made one of the vaccines, said fully vaccinated people will need a fourth shot this year.

In an interview on “Face the Nation,” on CBS, Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said a fourth dose — a second booster — is necessary.

“The protection that you are getting from the third, it is good enough, actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths,” he said. “It’s not that good against infections, but doesn’t last very long.”

Fully vaccinated means having two shots (Pfizer or Moderna) or one Johnson & Johnson shot. All were developed for the initial Covid-19 coronavirus.

For Omicron, a booster shot is needed. Booster shots are 90 percent effective against preventing Omicron hospitalizations, according to the federal Centers of Disease Control.

Public health officials say the scientific consensus is that Covid vaccines are safe, but some are skeptical about relying on science from drug-makers, which saw profits rise in 2021. They point to the U.S. government database, https://vaers. hhs.gov/, where health care providers are to report adverse events after a vaccine.

The reporting site was created after Congress passed a law in 1986 protecting vaccine manufacturers from civil personal injury lawsuits and wrongful death lawsuits resulting from vaccine injuries.

After Covid arrived, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar invoked the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, a 2005 law that allows the HHS secretary to provide legal protection to companies making or distributing critical medical supplies such as vaccines unless there’s “willful misconduct” by the company, according to a report by CNBC.

“COVID Update” page 9