Nine months after the start of the vaccination campaign and five months after free access to COVID-19 vaccines offered to all adults, the pandemic is on the rise again in the United States, supported by a rapid proliferation of the Delta variant and by the rejection of vaccines and health measures in several states, particularly those with a high Republican concentration.
A distressing situation for the guardians of public health, who are witnessing, almost powerless to an increase, however preventable, according to them, in cases of infection, hospitalizations and death, the levels of which are now approaching the peaks of last winter .
“It is a deeply frustrating portrait for all health professionals”, summarizes in an interview with To have to Suzanne Judd, professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama, one of the states most affected by this new wave that the White House seeks to contain and lessen as the fall season and next winter approach. . “Most deaths occur in unvaccinated people. And it is to be hoped that the personal bond which unfortunately develops between these new victims of COVID and their unvaccinated relatives is a sufficient factor to reverse this deleterious trend towards resistance to vaccination campaigns. “
At the last count, Thursday, the number of hospitalizations of patients affected by the coronavirus was close to 94,000 nationwide, up from around 12,000 at the start of the summer. The average daily infections for the past seven days rose to 151,361 cases and deaths in 1973, a 26% growth from a week ago. These are the highest levels recorded nationwide since January and March respectively.
Hospital refusals
This new post-summer wave is fueled in large part by states like Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, South Carolina, Idaho, Arkansas, Georgia or Louisiana, where the number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants has been rising steadily since the middle of August.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden called the explosion of cases a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” during a meeting with business leaders. “It’s nothing more than that, now,” he hammered, while promoting his plan to increase vaccination coverage in the country, “the key to controlling the pandemic and giving back. strength to the economy, ”he said.
“The situation is very serious,” says epidemiologist Mark Ebell, who lives in Georgia, where this native of Montreal teaches at the University of Georgia. The low vaccination rate, much more than the decrease in immunity from the vaccine over time, largely explains this resumption of the pandemic. Barely 54% of adults aged 18 and over are fully immunized in this southern state, as much as the national average, but far less than the 78% in Vermont, Massachusetts or Connecticut, which sits at the top of the charts. .
Faced with the Delta variant, a vaccine coverage of 90% and more of the population is now necessary to thwart the exponential transmission of the virus.
“In our county, the two hospitals are currently refusing ambulances because there are no more beds available,” said Mr. Ebell. Beds in intensive care units are at maximum capacity in Texas, but also in Tennessee, which has become the state where the largest number of new cases are recorded every day.
It is a deeply frustrating picture for all health professionals.
In Arizona on Tuesday, 117 people died from COVID-19 in just one day, the highest since last February, when vaccination was not yet accessible to all.
Political inclinations
These states have stood out in recent months for the strong political opposition that has been heard against health measures, such as wearing a mask in public spaces, aimed at limiting the spread of the virus and the number of deaths.
Thursday, in a joint letter, the Republican attorneys general of 24 states added a layer by qualifying as “disastrous”, “counterproductive” and “threat to individual freedoms” the mandatory vaccination policy imposed by the House- White last week for government employees, government contractors and private companies with 100 or more people. The measure affects 80 million Americans. These prosecutors are jointly threatening to take Washington to court to obstruct this obligation.
On July 30, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order banning the requirement for students to wear masks in his state’s schools. He also threatened this week with sanctions on public administrations in Florida and companies that decide to make vaccination mandatory for their employees.
A posture denounced by Joe Biden, who on Thursday qualified this ideological resistance to the principles laid down by public health scientists as “the worst kind of policy”, since the White House. “The governors of Florida and Texas are doing everything they can to undermine the life protection measures that I have adopted. “
This week, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services recalled that unvaccinated people are 15.4 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those fully immune to the disease.
In this context, compulsory vaccination measures in workplaces and schools should be supported rather than combated, believes Suzanne Judd, while advocating other actions, such as “increasing insurance premiums for children. unvaccinated ”. More than 65 million Americans are still reluctant to receive a first dose, 18 months after the start of the pandemic. “If their income is affected by their decision, they could probably change their mind. “
“So much could have been avoided if former President Trump had made it clear and unambiguous in December 2020 that vaccines work, that they are safe and that all of his supporters should get one,” Mr. Ebell also believes. , like others, had not considered the turn that the next fall is taking in his country. All we can do now is hope that we will quickly learn from our mistakes, and above all understand that “freedom” is not the only or the most important civic virtue. “
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