According to the New York Times COVID Data Tracker, Benton County added 159 cases of COVID-19 to its case count, bringing the pandemic-wide case total for the county to 4,540. This is a slight decrease in case reports compared to the week before, and similarly, hospitalizations in the county due to the virus have fallen 5% over the last two weeks. The average weekly case reports are still similar to rates seen this past winter.
Statewide, Oregon reported just over 16,500 new cases this past week, which is also a small decrease in cases compared to the week before — which was over 17,700. The Oregon Health Authority reported a slight increase in COVID-19 related deaths however, which brings the state’s death total to over 3,500 since the start of the pandemic. The U.S. reported over 832,100 cases in the past week, and over 1,000 deaths each day due to the virus. That brings the nation’s reported case total to over 42 million. Last week, the Delta variant made up over 99% of sequenced tests received from COVID-positive patients throughout the country.
Oregon’s Plan for Booster Shots
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration announced it will recommend a third or booster shot of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine to people aged 65 or older or to those with underlying health conditions. Following this announcement, the OHA released a statement on Friday that Oregon still has multiple steps to take before recommending a third round of the vaccine to its citizens.
In the statement, the OHA cited waiting on the CDC to make a decision on booster shots before allowing the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup to consider recommending boosters throughout the west coast, and Nevada. This group is not expected to meet until later this week.
The decision by the FDA was met with varying reactions, as some communities are anxious to increase their immunity against the virus. Most health officials, however, are saying it is unnecessary and that recommending a third shot to the general adult public could actually undermine the vaccine’s efficacy. Because healthy, fully vaccinated adults under the age of 65 still carry high amounts of antibodies, health officials worry about over distribution issues as well as weakening the public’s perception of the vaccine if boosters are recommended before they are truly necessary.
Pfizer Seeking Emergency Use for Middle-School Children
On Monday, Pfzier declared their vaccine is safe for children aged 5 through 11. The pharmaceutical company conducted research on children from this age range and found that just one-third the amount of vaccine typically provided to adults is needed to promote the same response. Middle-school-aged children were found to have similar or higher levels of antibodies in their system after being fully vaccinated, with doses administered three weeks apart.
While Pfizer has yet to share all of its data or have the study peer-reviewed, tens of thousands of children were hospitalized with COVID-19 last month. Potential lasting negative effects from the virus are still poorly understood, especially among this age group.
The FDA is still considering Pfizer’s emergency use authorization request for this age group. So far, the makers of the Modera and J&J vaccines have yet to complete testing or request use of their vaccines on children under the age of 12, and the Pfizer vaccine remains the only one available to teenagers.
A Tragic Milestone in Pandemic History
A dark milestone was reached on Monday — the number of Americans who have died due to COVID-19 has officially surpassed the number of people in the U.S. believed to have died during the influenza pandemic of 1918. It was estimated that approximately 675,000 Americans died during the 1918 pandemic. By the end of yesterday, just under 675,500 U.S. citizens were reported to have died from the COVID-19 virus.
Many differences exist between the current pandemic and that of the H1N1 virus in 1918. Firstly, though it is known as the influenza outbreak of 1918, that pandemic lasted roughly two years. We have yet to reach the two-year mark of widely circulating COVID-19 in the U.S. Second, because tracking and technology in the early 1900’s were not nearly as developed as they are today, the statistics we have from the 1918 influenza outbreak are simply estimates. Historians and health officials believe these estimates may be much smaller than the true number of people infected with and killed by the H1N1 virus in 1918.
There are numerous other differences when comparing the two pandemics; however, surpassing the national death toll from what had previously been considered the worst pandemic in modern history is still a tragedy.
This is a weekly column updating the residents of Benton County on local, national, and international news on the pandemic. If you would like to make suggestions of topics to cover related to the virus, please email any resources or thoughts to covidupdate@corvallisadvocate.com.
By: Lauren Zatkos
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