Bipartisan urgency in COVID-19 vaccination distribution might need to be revisited

Distrust of the government, especially when the political party you support is not in the White House or the Congressional electoral majority, is an oft-referenced factor in the debate over COVID-19 vaccinations and state government or private-sector mandates on employee vaccinations. Thus far, the vaccination mandate issue has been dealt with at the state level. However, at the federal level, I will note that urgency in distributing COVID-19 Coronavirus vaccines to the American public seems to have been a bipartisan undertaking.

While stumbling somewhat in his initial response to COVID-19’s early 2020 arrival in the U.S., in a televised appearance on December 8, 2020, President Trump announced a COVID-19 vaccination Executive Order bannered as “Operation Warp Speed”.

“In a few minutes I’ll sign an Executive Order to ensure that the United States government prioritizes the getting out of the vaccine to American citizens,” Trump said, adding that, “While we begin to swiftly deploy the vaccine, we’ll continue to expand the availability of ground-breaking therapies … and we have millions of doses coming in”.

And so the torch of urgency in COVID-19 Coronavirus vaccination distribution was passed to the Biden Administration, which took the public health efforts that had gone before and continued to run with them. Leading us where? – Perhaps running in argumentative circles based on political leanings and flawed interpretations of the medical and public health data at play in what is defined worldwide as a viral pandemic with a fatal outcome rate somewhere in the 1.5% to 2.5% range of reported cases (compared to .02% to .04% for traditional flues).

As of August 8, 2021, as schools were about to reopen that translates into over 4.2-million reported deaths worldwide (2.1% of cases); 626,843 in the U.S. (1.7%); 11,558 in Virginia (1.6%); and 62 in Warren County-Front Royal (1.9%). With a large portion of this community refusing to be vaccinated and objecting to mask mandates in public schools, as indicated at the August 4 Warren County School Board meeting and the July 26 Front Royal Town Council meeting, one might want to consider a sobering statistic this reporter first found on the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership website citing CDC and Associated Press reports that unvaccinated people are accounting for 98% to 99% of reported COVID-19 deaths.

“According to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the vaccine is so effective that ‘nearly every death, especially among adults, due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable.’ She called such deaths ‘particularly tragic’,” in the story titled: “Staggering COVID-19 Statistic: 98% to 99% of Americans Dying are Unvaccinated”, adding, “As of July 22, 339.8 million vaccine doses have been administered – 56.4% of the total U.S. population, have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 48.8% of having been fully vaccinated.”

Perhaps ironically, as of late July, Warren County’s vaccination rate was reported at the same 38% mark that the state of Georgia’s was cited as in the above-referenced report, both nearly 12% below the current national average of 49.7%. As of August 6, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) reported Warren County’s vaccination rate holding at 38.1%.

With Warren County’s vaccination rate holding at 38.1%, this August 6 Virginia Department of Health (VDH) graphic shows 13 new county cases the previous day, a number sure to drive up Warren County’s then 11 case, 7-day rolling average of reported new cases. According to county emergency services, the county’s 7-day average has climbed to 31.1 ‘and rising’ as of August 10. VDH Graphic

“New COVID-19 cases are surging where vaccination rates are low,” the Georgia Universities Medical Partnership site noted. And in his August 9 update, Warren County Emergency Services Coordinator Rick Farrall reported the county’s 7-day average new cases reported at “30 and rising” in the middle of the “Moderate” category (10-49 cases) while the statewide 7-day average was ranked “Moderate” at 19.1 cases. On Tuesday, August 10, according to the Virginia Department of Health website, Warren County recorded 16 new cases and one death the previous day (2 within the past week), raising the county totals to 3,309 cases, 63 deaths, with 129 hospitalizations.

The August 6 VDH Dashboard update (https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/covid-19-data-insights/covid-19-cases-by-vaccination-status/) demonstrates that 98.5% of COVID-19 cases in the Northwestern District (including Warren County) are in persons not fully vaccinated, that 97% of persons hospitalized for COVID-19 complications are not fully vaccinated and that 98.9% of those dying of COVID-19 are not fully vaccinated. As reported above, Warren County’s death rate per case is slightly higher at 1.9% than the state mortality rate of 1.6%.

Regarding the non-vaccinated COVID death rate percentage of 98% to 99%, the Georgia Universities Medical Partnership site noted: “Experts are hoping this staggering number of one-sided fatalities will be the wake-up call for more Americans to get vaccinated.” Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership Campus Dean Dr. Shelley Nuss added, “The best way to protect ourselves and others is to get vaccinated by one of the currently available vaccines. I strongly advise everyone to consider getting a vaccine and to discuss this with their health care provider. Cases are rising throughout the United States, in large part due to the particularly virulent Delta strain.”

VDH graphics illustrating the astonishing statistical difference in COVID cases, hospitalizations and fatalities between vaccinated and unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people: above statewide and below in the Northwest District in which Warren County lies. Yes, those numbers vary between high-90’s for unvaccinated and less than 1% for fully vaccinated individuals. VDH graphics

But what about widespread online reports regarding deaths associated with COVID-19 vaccines? Closer to home, we talked to Dr. Cee Ann Davis, current Director of Winchester-based Blue Ridge Community Health, a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Public Health at VCU. “There have actually been very few deaths confirmed directly attributed to vaccines,” she told Royal Examiner. “We are looking for deaths, not due to other causes, not those that would have occurred anyway and coincidentally occurred in a person who was vaccinated the same year. Adverse event reports can be filed by anyone and are filed without discriminating between those two situations – hence the misinterpreted numbers in the thousands” before any cause and effect is established.

Dr. Davis pointed to one example regarding the Johnson & Johnson vaccine cited from the CDC’s “adverse event” report page cited in a recent letter to the editor https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html

“The site reports that of over 13 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, 39 cases of Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome have been confirmed. Not all died, and the deaths associated with this were a few days after the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That adds up to less than 39 directly attributable deaths.”

Of fears related to employer vaccine mandates and legal protections, Dr. Davis observed, “I think many people may be reassured to learn that Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) rulings, starting with Jacobson v Massachusetts in 1905 – upheld since more than 64 times by SCOTUS – forbids physically forcible vaccination and requires health exemptions. No one may be injected against their will. Virginia also respects religious exemptions, she noted.

As to a religious concern over the use of aborted fetal tissue in COVID vaccines, a search of the CDC website indicated that what is termed “fetal line” tissue has been used in the development and testing of several COVID vaccines; however, no fetal tissue of any kind is actually in a COVID vaccine. Fetal line tissue is explained as lab-grown tissue, often utilizing as a point of origin aborted fetal tissue from the 1970s and ’80s as the source. Sweden was cited as a specific source dating back nearly a half-century. So, the fetal line tissue utilized in the development or testing of some COVID vaccines is decades, generations of lab development away from actual aborted fetus cells. Whether that allays some people’s religious concerns is up to them.

“Hospital and medical system employees are already required to be immunized against measles, influenza, etc.,” Dr. Davis pointed out, concluding, “We are now in a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and cases are rising locally and nationally due in large part to the virulent Delta strain. The best available protection is full vaccination for all who are medically able to receive a vaccine.”

Medical and public health professionals are speaking, cases and hospitalizations are rising and people are still dying, 98% to 99% of them unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated. – But how many out there are listening as they make decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities?