By Jondi Gumz
On Thursday, as Omicron levels drop, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed guidance for Covid-19.
According to a statement from Greta Massetti, PhD, MPH, “This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives.”
The guidance eliminates the “test-to-stay” protocol — testing for students exposed to the coronavirus but not fully vaccinated that allowed them to continue in-person learning, as they tested negative and showed no symptoms.
“Handling exposures would involve masking rather than a quarantine,” Massetti said.
The change is in recognition that an estimated 95% of Americans 16 and older have some immunity, either from vaccination or infection, according to the CDC.
The announcement comes in the wake of wastewater data in Santa Cruz County showing Covid-19 Omicron levels plunging since July 26.
The number of active cases in Santa Cruz County has dropped from 2,197 to 1,665 in the last month as students head back to school.
Inspire Diagnostics offers Covid-19 tests in a Cabrillo College parking lot.
Pajaro Valley Unified begins classes on Aug. 15. Masks and vaccination are recommended, not required.
“We are excited to see our student back in the classroom,” said Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah in a message to the community.
His office has distributed 97,000 state-provided antigen kits to school districts for home use.
Last year, the State of California said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration must give full approval of vaccines before rulemaking to require the Covid-19 vaccine. That has not happened; vaccines have been made available with the FDA granting emergency use authorization.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff ruled against the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Covid-19 student vaccine mandate in July, saying only the state — not a school board — can require students to be vaccinated to attend in-person school.
The very contagious variant BA.5 and waning immunity from vaccines boosted cases this summer. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported BA.5 comprised 9.4% of cases on June 4 and 81.9% as of July 23.
Locally, a Covid outbreak in the cast of “Candide” presented by Cabrillo Stage in Aptos resulted in cancellation of the final weekend of performances. The Box Office is reaching out to ticketholders to process refunds.
BA.5 drove “reinfections,” people vaccinated and boosted getting Covid for a second or even a third time as the coronavirus evolves.
With the U.S. averaging about 300 deaths a day, compared to 3,000 last winter, there is no evidence this subvariant causes more serious illness.
Santa Cruz County and most counties of the nation are rated red for high transmission by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its COVID tracking map.
In Santa Cruz County, no deaths were reported in the past two weeks. The last six deaths were people who were vaccinated, according to the county dashboard, all 65 or older with medical conditions.
On Friday, the state reported 23 people hospitalized positive for Covid in Santa Cruz County, and none are in intensive care.
With 60,000+ county cases, natural immunity may be a factor.
Cases
Santa Cruz County cases are on a rollercoaster, 1,705 on June 13, then 2,000 on June 27, and 1,871 on June 30, then 2,040 on July 11 and now 1,665.
Cases jumped after Father’s Day and Fourth of July but the high of 199 on July 5 and again July 18 is low compared to 1,312 on Jan. 20.
Santa Cruz County updates the numbers on Mondays and Thursdays.
California reports 79.9% of the population have had at least one shot.
On the CDC Covid tracker, Santa Cruz County reports 91.8% of residents age 5 and up have at least one shot and 83.6% fully vaccinated.
Fully vaccinated means having two shots (Pfizer or Moderna) or one Johnson & Johnson shot. All were developed for the initial Wuhan Covid-19 strain, which is no longer circulating.
Deliveries are expected in “early fall” of new booster shots targeting Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 as requested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Biden administration has a $3.2 billion deal to buy 105 million doses of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for adults and children for fall.
California hospitalizations from Omicron peaked in January, then plummeted, rose and now are declining.
The state reports 4,000 people hospitalized and the Department of Public Health explains about half are due to Covid, with the other half coming to the hospital for another reason and testing positive.
The state reports test positivity, 23% in January, fell to 1.7% before rising to 16.1% then falling to 12.9% while hospitalizations — 20,000 in January — dropped to 950 before rising.
Football Coach Claim
Nick Rolovich, the football coach fired by Washington State University for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine, is claiming wrongful termination and seeking $25 million from the university, according to the Seattle Times.
Rolovich, who is Catholic, was denied a religious exemption after the governor mandated state employees get the vaccine.
There’s a 60-day waiting period between when a claim is filed and when a lawsuit can be filed.
At the time of his firing, Rolovich was paid $3.2 million per year and had three seasons left on his contract. The athletic director said he was fired for “just cause.”
In July, Dr. Douglas McKenzie, a plastic surgeon in Santa Barbara County, and Physicians for Informed Consent, sued William Prasifka, executive director of the Medical Board of California, challenging attempts to sanction physicians who disagree with the government’s Covid-19 edicts.
At a school board meeting in August 2021 via Zoom, McKenzie said, “We are not going to get to Zero Covid ever. We can’t make it disappear with a vaccine, especially one that may improve symptoms, but as we are seeing won’t stop reinfection or transmission.”
The Medical Board opened an investigation in December 2021, then closed it after the lawsuit was filed. McKenzie contends his comments are protected by the First Amendment.
Assembly Bill 2098 was proposed to make it a disciplinable offense for a physician to publicly challenge public health Covid edict. McKenzie contends that would violate the First Amendment. The bill was first amended to apply only to doctor-patient communications, then shelved after a hearing Aug. 1.
Feds for Medical Freedom, which represents federal employees and contractors, is awaiting appellate review in New Orleans of President Biden’s Sept. 9, 2021 order requiring 3.5 million federal employees to be vaccinated for Covid-19.
The group, which has about 6,000 members, contends the president overstepped his authority.
Young Children & Covid
As of July 20, about 544,000 children under age 5 had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which reviewed CDC data.
This is about 2.8% of the 19 million children in this age group in the U.S.
In California, 4.5% of kids under 5 have been vaccinated.
Seven countries offer vaccines to the youngest children. Eligibility starts at age 2 in Cuba and Venezuela, and age 3 in Chile and Argentina, Bahrain, Hong Kong and China.
In Santa Cruz County, parents who want their children under 5 to receive Covid-19 vaccines should contact their doctor.
The Santa Cruz County Office of Education and the county Public Health hosted two town halls for parents on the vaccine for children under 5. The recordings are at https://santacruzcoe.org/town-halls-covid-19-vaccine-for-under-5-year-olds/
Covid has claimed the lives of many elders, those 85 and older with medical conditions, but relatively few children, 442 children age 4 and under, according to the federal Centers for Control & Prevention.
More than 1 million people in the U.S. have died of Covid, so young children represent a tiny percentage of deaths.
Could it be that young children represent an untapped windfall for the drug-makers?
It all depends on whether these vaccines are added to the CDC vaccine schedule for children. See www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/child-adolescent.html
Data Analysis
The CDC was expected to analyze data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System for “safety signals” from Covid-19 vaccines.
This database, https://vaers.hhs.gov/, is where health care providers are to report adverse events after a vaccine. It was created after Congress passed a law in 1986 protecting vaccine manufacturers from civil personal injury lawsuits and wrongful death lawsuits resulting from vaccine injuries.
An early briefing document said, “The CDC will perform Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR) data mining on a weekly basis or as needed.”
This would compare the proportion of an adverse event after getting a specific vaccine vs. the same adverse event after another vaccine. A higher rate would serve as a safety signal to trigger investigation.
On June 21, Josh Guetzkow, a PhD at Hebrew University, posted the CDC response to his Freedom of Information Act request asking about this data mining.
FOIA Officer Roger Andoh’s June 16 letter said that “no PRRs were conducted by CDC. Furthermore, data mining is outside of the agency’s purview, staff suggest you inquire with FDA.”
Guetzkow called PRRs “one of the oldest, most basic and most well-established tools of pharmacovigilance.”
Test to Treat
Santa Cruz County offers “Test to Treat” sites, open to anyone regardless of insurance or documentation status. To make an appointment, visit https://lhi.care/covidtesting/.
According to the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, cases in local schools peaked at 4,407 on Jan. 27, dropped to 44 on April 1, rose to 1,025 on May 23 and dropped to 442 on June 11, and now 237.
The 14-day positivity rate, 12.25% on January, dropped to .79%, and is up to 9.63%.
The Santa Cruz County Office of Education has completed 540,700 tests with Inspire Diagnostics.
Omicron Less Deadly
The Omicron variants are less deadly than the Delta variant, which raged in 2021.
Santa Cruz County reported 43 Covid deaths after Omicron, compared to 225 as of Dec. 15, before Omicron.
One statistic is similar: 79% to 81% of those who died had medical conditions.
Why do people fear Omnicron?
They may have a medical condition (diabetes, obesity, asthma, high blood pressure).
Half of Americans do, so they are at higher risk for severe Covid illness.
So are people 85 and older.
Myocarditis
In a 2022 report in the Journal of American Medical Association online, Dr. Matthew Oster of the CDC reported the government’s VAERS database received 1,991 reports of myocarditis after one dose of mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine and 1,626 met the CDC’s definition for probable or confirmed myocarditis.
Oster’s conclusion: “The risk of myocarditis after receiving mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines was increased across multiple age and sex strata and was highest after the second vaccination dose in adolescent males and young men. This risk should be considered.”
Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart, which can lead to clots, a stroke or heart attack.
Public health officials say the scientific consensus is that Covid vaccines are safe, but some are skeptical about relying on science from drug-makers, which saw profits rise in 2021.
Analysts say Pfizer has been one of the largest winners in the last two years, doubling revenue to $81 billion in sales in 2021 due to its Covid vaccine. This year, it’s selling Paxlovid, a Covid pill that has a higher price per dose.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar invoked the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, a 2005 law allowing him to provide legal protection to companies making or distributing critical medical supplies such as vaccines unless there’s “willful misconduct” by the company. This protection lasts until 2024.
Testing
The Santa Cruz County Office of Education offers drive-though testing for students, staff and families at:
Cabrillo College, Aptos, Parking Lot K, Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Santa Cruz County Office of Education, 399 Encinal St., Santa Cruz, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
See: https://tinyurl.com/get-tested-santa-cruz.
Booster shots: https://myturn.ca.gov/
Vaccine providers: www.santacruzhealth.org/coronavirusvaccine.
Local information: www.santacruzhealth.org/coronavirus or (831) 454-4242 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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Total COVID cases: 1,665
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COVID Deaths: 268
As of Aug. 11
Age
85 and older: 117 • 75-84: 62 • 65-74: 47 • 60-64: 15 • 55-59: 4 • 45-54: 10 • 35-44: 8 • 25-34: 5
Underlying Conditions
Yes: 218 • No: 50
Vaccinated
Yes: 34 • No: 234
Race
White 155 • Latinx 90 • Asian 16 • Black 3 • Amer Indian 1 • Hawaiian 1 • Another 2
Gender
Men: 137 • Women: 131
Location
At facility for aged: 117 • Not at a facility: 151