COVID instances have been rising all summer season throughout Santa Barbara County, the place a water polo recreation between Carpinteria Excessive and the Dons in August was postponed as a result of virus infecting quite a lot of Santa Barbara gamers. This Tuesday, the newest mRNA COVID vaccines have been authorized by the Facilities for Illness Management (CDC). They won’t have prevented the water polo outbreak, however they’re broadly advisable to cut back the severity of the illness, which continues to be extremely contagious.
Three and a half years after the pandemic started, “95 p.c of our inhabitants has some safety towards COVID,” mentioned Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons. “And that safety is coming from vaccines, from an an infection we had, and maybe from an an infection we didn’t know we had.” She noticed that at Cottage Hospital, the place Dr. Fitzgibbons leads the infectious illnesses division, they’ve had far fewer sufferers than at any earlier time in the course of the pandemic.
As of September 2, the hospitals throughout the county had 11 COVID sufferers, with no deaths occurring over the previous week. In complete, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 814 individuals in Santa Barbara County. wastewater, which might present the quantity of virus locally, a plateau was occurring in Santa Barbara earlier this month, a decline in Goleta, and a rise in Lompoc. For the county as an entire, the extent of illness is “low,” in accordance with the CDC.
[Click to enlarge] Santa Barbara County wastewater can present the quantity of virus locally | Credit score: Courtesy
Dr. Fitzgibbons was anticipating the CDC’s announcement this Tuesday concerning the brand new Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which have been advisable for everybody ages 6 months and older. Whereas the vaccines have been developed for Omicron offshoot referred to as XBB.1.5, the key subvariant circulating now could be EG.5, with one other referred to as Pirola, or BA.2.86, receiving a lot consideration for the variety of mutations on its spike protein, although its variety of instances may be very low.
“The variants which might be round proper now are intently associated to the one focused, and we’re nonetheless going to get nice safety from the brand new vaccine,” Dr. Fitzgibbons mentioned. “The information seems actually good.”
As for the precautions towards COVID from the pre-vaccine days, akin to masks and avoiding crowds indoors, Dr. Fitzgibbons mentioned that they nonetheless held true, although it was far more as much as the person to determine their very own stage of threat based mostly on their immune system.
Importantly, the endorsement from the CDC means the vaccine will proceed to be lined by Medicare and medical insurance carriers and be obtainable from public well being businesses. The earliest shipments are anticipated later this week. An up to date model of the extra historically produced vaccine Novavax continues to be into account by the Meals and Drug Administration. —Jean Yamamura
