Hospitalizations, especially in the ICU, are the highest they’ve been in 2021 per new data released by the Minnesota Department of Health on Wednesday.
Health officials continue to be concerned with the spread of the Delta variant of COVID and even children, largely unaffected by the virus in 2020, are now dealing with not just illness but deaths.
Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, joined WCCO’s Chad Hartman Wednesday and says that this is clearly a different virus than we saw most of last year. Osterholm says almost all of the cases we are now seeing are preventable however.
“Well, you know, I think the challenge for me has been that in the early days of the pandemic, we didn't really have any other option but to deal with what we were dealing with,” Osterholm begins. “Since we had no vaccines, we had less understanding medically of how to handle it. What's really the challenge for me now is watching all these people die or become seriously ill. At least in taking up health care resources, when in fact there's a vaccine that could have prevented that. The reason that they're in that hospital in that situation is one that basically they had a lot to do with it themselves.”
As the school year has begun across Minnesota and the U.S., there has been a sharp rise in pediatric cases, mostly because there is no vaccine for those under 12 years of age. Osterholm said that is particularly difficult.
“I think what is even more tragic for me that has really been hard in the last two weeks in particular is our young kids can't be protected,” says Dr. Osterholm. “We don't have vaccines for them yet. They will be coming soon, but they're not here yet. The only way we can protect them is by making sure that we ourselves are not infected and then having contact with our kids, our grandkids, whatever. That's the challenge.”
Osterholm adds that the deaths in children, while not widespread, have increased significantly since August. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, child COVID-19 cases declined in early summer, but they have "increased exponentially" recently, with more than a five-fold increase in the past month.
“If you look in the past year, September 10th, 2022, to September 9th, 2021, there are 355 deaths in kids (ages) zero to 17 reported in this country,” Osterholm explains. “Which doesn't seem that much relative to say a bad influenza year. But what's happening right now with Delta is 82, or 23%, of these have occurred just in the last three and a half weeks. 82 of these kids have died. That's what's hard because they don't have the luxury of having a vaccine right now and I think that speaks more than anything to what we in society are doing with regard to this pandemic.”
Hartman questioned why, with vaccines widely available, the FDA or CDC hasn’t recommended vaccines to children under 12 yet. Osterholm says it is largely a question of trust from the public with more research still being done.
“This is a tightrope to walk because you do not want to, in any way shape or form, actually do or give a perception of shortcuts being taken with the vaccine safety and the dosing for kids,” says Osterholm. “One of the things that's holding up the final approval is they've actually had the companies go back and double the number of kids enrolled in their studies to understand the safety and dosing issues, which has slowed things down. In the meantime we've got these kids who are critically ill and I just pointed out some who are dying. So it's a really difficult balancing act to get it done as quickly as possible so that we can save lives. But at the same time to have a vaccine, people will take.”
Osterholm also added that it is worrisome that many children over 12 have not yet been vaccinated.
“You know I still am challenged by the fact that almost half the kids in the United States 12 years of age and older who could be vaccinated right now are not,” says Osterholm. “So it's not even just having the vaccine. How much trust does the public have in these vaccines so that they will get them and it's a combination of those two. We can't get a vaccine too soon. I mean, if we had it this afternoon that would be great for kids. But I also recognize we've got to be able to assure the public that there are no shortcuts taken. These are safe and effective vaccines.”
Osterholm also talked about some new studies, a couple of which just were released on Tuesday this week, that after six to eight weeks you start to see a “waning protection” from COVID vaccines. Not just milder illness but also more severe illness especially in older individuals.
“We see that if you give a third dose you can really, really have an impact on these additional, more severe illnesses that I think are only going to happen more often over time, and that's not a surprise. That's not a surprise. So this is not a booster dose. You and I have talked about this, this is not a booster dose. This is the 3rd dose of a three prime vaccine which we should have considered all along.”
Dr. Gregory Poland, talking to Jason DeRusha on the Paul and Jordana Show on WCCO said he is unsure about booster shots too. The CDC is expected to examine the need for boosters by the end of this week.
"As physicians and scientists in this field, is it safe, What are we going to get out of this?" Poland said. "I don't think we're going to see a rushed decision Friday. To me, there is not the evidence base, yet, to embark on a second national immunization program and give everyone another dose."
Are we looking a future of yearly vaccine shots for COVID? Osterholm isn’t sure, but he says the research that goes into that decision will take some time.
“I know we’re monitor it closely,” Osterholm says. “I think it's surely possibly we could go quite some time. I can't say it's going to be like Tetanus where you do once every 10 years. But I also don't think it's actually going to be like influenza where we do it every year. But the beauty of this is it will be very open and transparent. Everyone will know what we're measuring. People will know when the immunity starts to wane a bit. It's not unlike any other vaccine that we work with. Except I can tell you right now, 98% of the people dying in our hospitals are unvaccinated people. Had they been vaccinated, they would not be, largely, in that hospital dying from this virus.”
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