CoViD-19 Report … 7 Nov 2021

Topic: Can we control the continual spread of CoViD-19

Thomas Britt, MD, MPH, ACSM-CEP
Health Policy Institute

Breaking News … Children and CoViD-19 in the United States

This past week, the CDC voted unanimously to support the Pfizer BioNTech Vaccination for the
28 million children between 11 to 5 years which previously received an EUA from the FDA
•  Vaccinations began Wednesday, 3 Nov 2021
•  Vaccination Sites
      o Pediatrician or Family Physician, Children Hosp., School(s) and or Pharmacy(s)
•  Now that vaccinating this group is available, public health officials suspect the following
approximate levels of childhood participation:
      o One-third will definitely get the vaccine
      o One-third will wait-and-see
      o One-third definitely will not allow vaccination of their child
•  Unfortunately … the hesitancy and outright refusal are not firmly-based in science. Available
data reveals that, as the vaccination rates increases … the rates of hospitalization and deaths are
decreasing. In Illinois the fully vaccination rate of 12 and older is 70%; those with 1 dose is 76%

Breaking News … Mandates

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed vaccine policies for Employers with 100 or more Employees
  •  Compliance Deadline … 4 Jan 2022
  •  Select policies:
       o Unvaccinated employees must test negative on a weekly basis
       o Companies must pay employees for time to get vaccination
       o Companies must ensure that all unvaccinated employees are masked
  •  As of 6 Nov 2021, it has been reported that a federal judge has issued a Stay on implementation
     of this sweeping mandate.
     Stay tuned for legal resolution as you may surmise … Mandates Work!

The Nation and Select States with their Cases, Deaths and or Vaccinations

As of 4 Nov 2021 … there were 46.3 million cases in the U.S. and unfortunately the U.S. has
surpassed > 751,000 deaths since the pandemic started … please note, these CoViD-19 deaths
are more than the individual annual deaths from Heart Disease and Cancer
      o Texas …… 4.2 million cases and 71 thousand deaths
      o Florida …. 3.6 million cases and 59 thousand deaths
      o Illinois ….. 1.7 million cases and 28.8 thousand deaths
      o Arkansas has had 8.4 thousand deaths. 1.4 million are Fully Vaccinated (FV)
      (estimated 2021 population is 3 million … therefore less than 50% FV)

Importance of Vaccinations

•  The number of Fully Vaccinated persons in the U.S. is 193 million or 59% of the population
•  In order to achieve Herd Immunity (HI), we need to achieve a percentage >70 – 90%.
HI in-effect creates a hostile internal and community environment, that does not support
continual growth and expansion of CoViD-19. We can control this pandemic … with prevention,
afforded to us via the Safe; Effective; Available; readily Accessible and FREE Vaccines.
Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Please get vaccinated at your
earliest convenience … thereby protecting Yourself, Family and your Community.