The Delta variant has led to a surge in coronavirus cases. At the beginning of July, there were about 13,000 new cases a day nationally. That has quadrupled to more than 57,000 daily cases. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the COVID surge led to almost 69,000 new cases and 387 deaths yesterday.
The Washington Post has even more dire stats. It reported on July 29, 2021, that the seven-day daily average was 66,373 COVID cases. On Tuesday of this week we hit over 104,000 reported cases. The last time we saw numbers like that was February. The curve is going up at an alarming rate.
Hotspots and the COVID Surge:
There are a growing number of hotspots in states such as South Dakota, Louisiana, Nevada, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas and Florida. Arkansas and Missouri have also seen hospitalizations increase dramatically because of the COVID surge.
A cluster of cases in Provincetown, Massachusetts adds up to almost 900 people who have been confirmed infected since the July 4th holiday. Officials estimate that roughly 74% of these cases were in people who were fully vaccinated against COVID.
Vaccination and the Delta Variant:
A lot of people appear to believe that vaccination against COVID-19 will protect them from getting infected. That was certainly the message we were getting this past spring. But that was before the Delta variant took over.
There is growing evidence that people who have been fully vaccinated can still catch COVID. We spoke with a prominent researcher this week. He and his wife were vaccinated in April.
Two weeks ago they traveled to a medical conference a few hours away from their home. They were very careful and wore masks as much as possible. Both caught COVID-19. Although they were not hospitalized, they were very sick. The fatigue and exhaustion were daunting. They are slowly recovering, but it hit them a lot harder than they anticipated, given that they were completely vaccinated.
The Israeli Stats on the COVID Surge:
The CDC has not been tracking COVID cases in non-hospitalized patients. We suspect that the COVID surge could be greater than people think. That’s because Israel has also experienced a scary COVID surge. Remember that Israel has had the best record for vaccinating its population super fast.
The New York Times reports (July 28, 2021) that:
“Analyzing the government’s national health statistics, researchers estimated that the Pfizer shot was just 39 percent effective against preventing infection in the country in late June and early July, compared with 95 percent from January to early April. In both time periods, however, the shot was more than 90 percent effective in preventing severe disease.”
Israel will begin offering a booster shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to people over 60 starting this coming Sunday. Public health officials there hope it will stop the spread of COVID.
Everyone agrees that the vaccine is keeping people out of the hospital. It is also preventing a lot of deaths. But there are some really important questions that need answering:
- Can vaccinated people catch COVID and spread it without even knowing they are doing so? In other words, could vaccinated patients be like Typhoid Mary? You may remember that she was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever during the early 20th century.
- If fully vaccinated people catch COVID, can they still develop long-COVID complications if their initial symptoms are not that bad?
We suspect the answer to the last question is yes. That’s because of an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (July 28, 2021).
The authors described breakthrough infections among 39 fully vaccinated health care workers:
“Among the 39 workers who tested positive for Covid-19, most had few symptoms, yet 19% had long Covid-19 symptoms (>6 weeks).”
The symptoms included fatigue, headaches, loss of taste and smell and muscle pain. Remember, these were health workers who were fully vaccinated and still caught the coronavirus.
Masks to Stop the COVID Surge?
Due to the rapid rise in COVID cases, the CDC is now encouraging people in hotspots to wear masks if they will encounter others indoors. This applies even to fully vaccinated people. That’s presumably because they can become infected with the Delta variant and pass it along to those who are not yet protected. We also worry that many fully vaccinated people could catch a mild case of COVID-19 and then become long haulers with debilitating fatigue and other symptoms.
There is a lot of pushback from the public about mask wearing. This is not something Americans are comfortable with. For some it is an act of rebellion. They insist that there is no COVID surge. They also maintain that the whole thing is a hoax and that most of the 611,000 deaths since January 2020 are from causes other than the coronavirus.
We will not get sucked into any more debates about deaths from COVID. Anyone who is interested can read our recent review of the dramatic drop in US life expectancy at this link.
COVID Deaths Remain Highly Divisive!
Life expectancy dropped dramatically in 2021. It’s down by a startling year and a half! Many people do NOT believe reports of COVID deaths.
Which Masks to Fight the COVID Surge?
Dr. Scott Gottlieb was the FDA commissioner during the first two years of the Trump administration. He is a Republican and has been a resident fellow at the conservative think tank, the American Enterprises Institute (AEI).
Dr. Gottlieb believes that masking indoors could make a difference in helping control the Delta variant COVID surge. But he emphasizes that the protection people should be wearing needs to be more effective than simple cloth or surgical masks. Such masks often leave gaps around the edges that permit virus particles to get into air currents.
According to Dr. Gottlieb:
“…the quality of the mask does matter. So if you can get your hands on a KN95 mask or an N95 mask, that’s going to afford you a lot more protection.”
Because people have so much more of the Delta variant in their noses, they are spreading more particles into the air. An effective face mask has elastic that goes behind the head rather than around the ears. It has to be a snug fit to actually prevent air leakage in or out. And it has to be worn over the nose, not under it.
Final Words:
We know that you are fed up with the coronavirus. You want to get on with your life without thinking about a COVID surge or wearing a mask. We look forward to the day when we can all put this damn virus in the rearview mirror. But that day has not yet arrived.
Dr. Gottlieb predicts that we will be past the worst of the Delta variant COVID surge in a couple of weeks.
He told CNBC (Yahoo News, July 29, 2021):
“‘In the United Kingdom … cases are clearly coming down at this point,’ Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, told CNBC on Monday. ‘If the U.K. is turning the corner, it’s a pretty good indication that maybe we’re further into this than we think, and maybe we’re two or three weeks away from starting to see our own plateau here in the United States.'”
We surely hope Dr. Gottlieb is right. Until we know for sure, though, we think vaccinated people need to be cautious and wear effective N95 masks when they are around others indoors.
If you know someone who might benefit from this article, please send them a link. We’re not sure our icons are working at the top of the page, so if you wish to share this post, please copy the URL [https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/covid-surge-is-creating-chaos-n95-masks-needed] and send them an email with the link. Thanks for supporting our work.
