Page 5 - Healthcare News August 2021

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AUGUST 2021 WWW.HEALTHCARENEWS.COM 5
Dr. Robert Roose says some states with low vaccination rates are facing more severe COVID spikes than what they saw in 2020 — but it doesn’t have to be this way.
“But we’ve done this before,” she was quick to add. “We do expect a little bit of uptick — and, based on what we see, we’re prepared to reopen our command center if need be. We know how to do that if we have to — though we’re hoping we don’t. We’re on standby, keeping our ear to the ground, watching, sort of wait and see.”
Roose noted that the summer’s Delta surge has caused the numbers of CO- VID hospital patients to increase, although more modestly in Massachusetts than in other states, “and that’s clearly and significantly related to different vaccination rates among different populations.”
“Significantly, the Delta variant is more infectious and can lead to more severe infections among those unvaccinated. Those numbers are really bearing themselves out when you look at trends across the country.”
Indeed, while the Delta variant is responsible for 83% of new COVID-19 cases nationwide, 97% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinat- ed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since January, the Mass. Department of Public Health has recorded more than 12,600 COVID-19 infections and 496 hospitalizations among those fully vaccinated in the state to date, and a total of 124 deaths — roughly 1 in every 35,000 people who have been vaccinated.
Investigators who developed the COVID-19 Simulator (www.covid19sim. org) — which models the trajectory of COVID in the U.S. at the state and national levels — have applied the tool to analyze potential scenarios in which the Delta variant becomes dominant in every state. Their recently published analysis suggests that the combination of Delta’s high transmissibility, low vaccination coverage in several regions, and more relaxed attitudes toward social distancing will likely lead to a surge in COVID-related deaths in at least 40 states.
“Significantly, the Delta variant is more infectious and can lead to more severe infections among those unvaccinated,” Roose said. “Those numbers are really bearing themselves out when you look at trends across the coun- try. Here in Massachusetts, with relatively higher vaccination rates, we’re somewhat protected from those dramatic increases. That’s a testament to the community accepting vaccination — not just the importance of it, but the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.”
Please see COVID, page 7