WP Perspectives – 11/15/21

Posted on by krislandrum
diversity hands

Focus on Facts

  • Nearly a million young children in the U.S. have gotten vaccinated in the past week, the White House said. New York Times, 11/0 9/21
  • The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) has added vaccination data for children ages 5-11 to the Vaccine Demographics Dashboard. The dashboard, updated daily, also gives total vaccinations and percentages for people ages 5-17, 5-plus, 18-plus and 65-plus.
  • The rate of transmission for all localities (Henry, Patrick and Franklin counties and the City of Martinsville) in the West Piedmont Health District remains High.

● Reduced population immunity due to lack of flu virus activity since March 2020 could result in an early and possibly severe flu season. ● Influenza (flu) and COVID-19 are both contagious respiratory illnesses, but they are caused by different viruses. ● It is possible to be infected with both a flu virus and the virus that causes COVID-19 at the same time. ● Because some symptoms of flu and COVID-19 are similar, people may need to be tested to tell what virus is causing their illness.

Find a flu vaccine by calling your local health department for an appointment or visit your nearest pharmacy.

  • Long COVID is still a mystery, and a great deal of study is being directed at it. There are many unknowns about who will be affected, their symptoms, and how long is “long?” The best way to avoid Long COVID is to not get it in the first place, and the best protection is to vaccinate.
  • If you are absolutely not going to get the COVID vaccine to protect yourself and others during the holidays, please do the right and moral thing to keep others safe and wear your mask, distance yourself and take extra hygiene measures.

News You Can Use

Mythbuster: ■ Getting vaccinated for COVID-19 does not interfere with future fertility in girls or boys. ■ There's a lot of misinformation about this, so it's understandable to have concerns. ■ Professional medical organizations serving people of reproductive age emphasize that there is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccination causes a loss of fertility. These organizations also recommend COVID-19 vaccination for people who may consider getting pregnant in the future. ■ Similarly, there is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine affects puberty or development. ■ Evidence does show, however, that being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 is associated with a decrease in male fertility and male sexual function.

COVID-cabulary

Epidemic vs Pandemic

  • An epidemic is  “an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly and affects many individuals at the same time.” An epidemic is a situation in which a disease is actively spreading.
  • A pandemic results from an epidemic that has grown past geographic boundaries. It is a type of epidemic. It occurs over a wide geographic area and impacts “an exceptionally high proportion of the population”—likely a whole country or the entire world.

Just for Fun

What date was COVID-19 declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO)?
Answer correctly to win a 2022 Wellness Wall Calendar from West Piedmont Health District and STEP, Inc.! Email your answer to: kris.landrum@vdh.virginia.gov

Answer to last week’s quiz: “Vax” is the Word of the Year for 2021 according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Congrats to K. Millner for getting the right answer!

The Epi-Center

Epidemiology is the science at center of public health.

Vaccines.
*As of 11/14/2021, there have been 39,098 average daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered each day. *

In the West Piedmont Health District, fully vaccinated people 5 years old and up total (as of 11/14/2021):

Franklin County - 25,270 or 47.2%      Henry County - 22,890 or 47.2%      Martinsville - 6,609 or 56.8%      Patrick County - 6,679 or 39.6%

Locality

Franklin County
Henry County
Martinsville
Patrick County

Cases

6,182
6,725
2,134
2,162

Hospitalizations

262
448
182
135

Deaths

107
165
89
56
cumulative total as of 11/12/21

DATA, DATA

UVA Projections

Models can help us understand the potential course of COVD-19, but may not completely reflect what actually happens. Vaccines, new variants, seasons, human behavior, and public policy can all affect COVID-19 spread in ways that are difficult to predict. To provide some insight, the team at UVA has created several scenarios for what could happen over the next few months. Shown here is how the virus might spread in the West Piedmont Health District under current conditions, a holiday surge, and surge control.

Current CourseCurrent Course

Holiday SurgeHoliday Surge