Our world is ever-changing during this pandemic. People have gotten vaccinated against COVID-19, we have seen surges in deaths and positive cases, and now COVID booster shots. From all of this, we have so much more information at our disposal to better educate ourselves to make a decision that helps get us back to our normal lives. I spoke with Dr. Jeff Elder, the director of Emergency Management at LCMC Healthcare about what he’s seen when it comes to COVID mitigation and the plethora of data that continues to be collected on COVID-19.
What can we attribute not having another COVID surge to since Louisiana hasn’t had overwhelming gains in vaccinations?
A large population is protected because they’re vaccinated. You're five times less likely to catch COVID if you're vaccinated, and you're 11 times less likely to end up in the hospital if you're vaccinated. Unfortunately, a large number of people have had the Delta variant. They do have some immunity but we don't know how long that'll last and that's why we ask people to still get vaccinated, even after having COVID… there’s good data that shows that the vaccine is really effective and it’s even more effective than previously being ill with COVID. Also, the governor's office and mayor's office really did the right thing when it comes to masking. Just showing proof of vaccination or a negative test, really keeps some of the people who may be positive from being around others or from spreading COVID to others. I think all of those measures have really helped us get to where we are today.
How do we explain why each individual parish has taken a different approach or implemented mitigation techniques?
The coronavirus isn't going to go away. All of these mitigation techniques are things that we're going to have to look at as we see the ebb and flow of what’s in the community. There may be times where we see more coronavirus and have to have stricter mandates and there may be times when we can relax some of these rules. I think that's what we're going to see probably for the foreseeable future… we saw in early 2020, and this year in August that if we get a big surge, we overwhelm our hospitals and we can't do some of the other things for non-COVID patients. These mitigation techniques are in place to protect you, those around you and each other.
Does it appear politics has created an argument between natural immunity and vaccine immunity? Why can’t we all just educate ourselves to gain a better understanding of this pandemic?
There's too much loud talking out there that really just becomes more of a political debate than an actual scientific debate. The science of the vaccine is good, they work really well and are extremely safe. We have more and more data every day that shows how safe they are…
It's about the science and the science will change over time, which is consistent with what we do in medicine. We make decisions based on the best information that we have at the time.
Remember, this is not just about the individual, it's about a public health emergency that impacts everyone. We have to use science alone to really guide how we deal with the coronavirus.
