RITU JHA
Covid-19 cases are rising again in California, and a leading doctor in the state told indica News that it was now like the flu — but much more contagious — for those who are vaccinated, and like small pox for those who are not.
Several counties in California have made masks mandatory indoors regardless of vaccination status. On July 18, Los Angeles became the first California county to make masks mandatory and now Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Sonoma counties have followed suit.
Doctors think coronavirus cases will rise further.
“I think there will be a bigger peak in fall, two months from now,” Dr Dali Fan, cardiologist and health science clinical professor at the University of California, Davis, told indica News.
According to the Covid-19 data released August 2 by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), 33,407 new cases were reported between Friday, July 30, and Sunday, August 1.
For the week of July 14-20, the average case rate among unvaccinated Californians is 20.7 per 100,000 per day and the average case rate among vaccinated Californians is significantly lower at 3.5 per 100,000 per day.
The vast majority of new cases are among the unvaccinated, with 600 percent higher case rates among them than the vaccinated.
Dr Fan said the situation was better than last time the virus raged. “Still we are much better, it is going up [but] with less fatality.”
He said it was like the flu for those who are vaccinated, and like small pox for those who are not.
“But this is a very contagious virus,” he said. “The level of infection is much worse than regular flu. Flu is not that contagious. One flu patient can infect five people and one Covid-infected [person] can infect 25 people.”
Pointing to the numbers, he said: “Most of the infected people are vaccinated and are landing in the hospital but more unvaccinated people are landing in the ICU.
“I think eventfully as more people get vaccinated the curve will slowly come down,” he said.
The virus is going to be with us for the long run, he underlined.
“It is not that it will be over by end of this year or next year,” he said. “It could probably be there for the next five years or more… if compared with the Spanish flu. The difference is that during the Spanish flu, the first several peaks killed a lot more people. The second and third peaks [of Covid-19] killed more people, but we have already reached the fourth peak and will see a lot less deaths.”
A whopping 85 percent of all new cases being diagnosed in the United States are of the Delta strain of the novel coronavirus.
“In terms of other virus survival, Delta virus is stronger. People less than 50 years of age are getting more infected, and I don’t know why,” Dr Fan said.
“It could be the virus looks for the fresh blood, but that’s the fact — that higher percentage of younger people are getting infected.”
He said vaccine reluctance was of many kinds.
“Some say I trust my own natural immunity, others say I don’t go out that much and some say vaccination does not work and they think the data was fabricated by the government. And there are religious people who are saying you are changing their DNA configuration. Different people are giving different excuses,” he said.
In some California counties, schools reopen next week. There is as of now no vaccine for children under 12 years of age. Dr Fan pointed out: “It’s much harder to do clinical trials involving children. That is why in general in pediatrics there is a lot less evidence. There is very little pediatric data even in cardiology.
“Without the data to support vaccination works, it is much harder for the government to sell vaccination for below 12 years of age,” he said.
He added: “Children have fewer symptoms and it is never fatal when they get Covid but they do ‘harbor’ Covid viruses. So that is even more deadly for people who are not vaccinated.”
He said that as more people get vaccinated and the unvaccinated pool gets smaller and smaller, the virus is getting more and more contagious and deadly.
“So they (virus) all hide in children, and we cannot vaccinate children,” Dr Fan said.
“So, the hospitalization and death rate will remain low but the case numbers will surge again. The reason, there is going to be a lot less shutdowns and schools will reopen and the previous experience tells that with a lot of social interaction the case numbers will come up undoubtedly.”
ALSO SEE
https://indicanews.com/2021/08/02/us-sees-rise-in-respiratory-virus-delta-infections-among-children/
