AnonymousBy Dr. Henning Ansorg, M.D., FACP, Health Officer County of Santa Barbara, Department of Public Health
The Delta Variant, the latest virus strain of COVID-19 is of great concern as cases are increasing locally in Santa Barbara County, throughout California and across the U.S. As of the end of July, Santa Barbara County is in the midst of another surge of COVID-19 with daily new cases increasing to over 15 per 100,000 residents and a positivity rate of 7.2%. The vast majority of these cases are attributed to the Delta variant and, 18–29-year-olds make up the majority of these cases. Also, more COVID-19 cases are now being detected in the southern part of the county which is in contrast from earlier in the pandemic when the majority of new infections occurred in north county.
Here’s what we are learning about the Delta variant and what you need to know to stay safe:
Delta variant is highly contagious especially for the unvaccinated!
The Delta variant accounted for more than 85% of new cases in California and nationally. The new strain of the virus is much more contagious and more easily transmitted. Unvaccinated persons are at greatest risk of infection and illness.
Delta variant symptoms
The symptoms of the Delta variant appear to be the same as the original version of COVID-19. However, physicians are seeing people getting sicker quicker, especially younger people. Recent research found that the Delta variant multiplies more rapidly and leads to much higher viral loads in infected persons compared to the old virus.
Vaccinated people are impacted by the Delta variant
While fully vaccinated persons are well protected from serious illness, they are at risk of getting infected and spreading the virus albeit at a much lower rate compared to unvaccinated people. Currently about 1 in 7 new cases of COVID occurs in a vaccinated person. Usually vaccinated persons will have only mild flu like symptoms. If you experience even mild cold like symptoms, you should get tested as soon as possible an isolate until the results are clear.
Delta variant is affecting unvaccinated people more
Most patients hospitalized locally are people who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine. Nationally, 97% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, as of July 22. In California and across the U.S., data shows that areas with lower vaccination rates tend to have higher COVID-19 hospitalization rates.
If vaccinated people can get Delta, is the vaccine worth it?
Absolutely! The vaccine prevents infection with Delta by 82%. The vaccine prevents serious illness and hospitalization by about 90% and death from COVID by nearly 100%. It is not too late to get vaccinated which is by far the best protection from COVID.
Learn how to schedule your COVID-19 vaccine https://publichealthsbc.org/.
Should I wear a mask even if I am fully vaccinated?
Yes, effective Friday, August 6, 2021, in Santa Barbara County, everyone 2 years of age and older is required to wear a mask in all indoor public settings and shared work places regardless of their vaccination status. The masking mandate is a temporary public health intervention necessary as long as we are seeing such a rapid increase in new cases.
Be safe Santa Barbara County! Mask in public places and encourage your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers to get vaccinated.
I’ll filter through lies and misinformation to make my own determinations about what is right and what is wrong any day. I’m shocked that people are actually advocating for the implementation of mass censorship. If you think that’s a good idea, talk to someone who has lived in a country like China that maintains strict regulation of speech to protect against the spread of harmful and misleading information.
CHIP – calm down, not talking about “mass censorship,” but we need to stop the spread of dangerous misinformation. People are dying because of it. What do you suggest?
Remember, if a private platform has a rule against posting misinformation (or anything really), it is perfectly within its rights to remove that language. Not censorship.
Florida had 2,065 adults and 47 children admitted to hospitals yesterday followed by Texas in a close 2nd with 1,318 adults and 40 children. I’m sure it has nothing to do with both state Governors declaring mask mandates illegal.
Sac, I agree that private entities are entitled to do as they wish. However, Facebook, google, and the like have blurred the lines between public and private. Now, the biden administration is actively working with Facebook to censor misinformation. Keep in mind, it was not long ago that Facebook, major media organizations, and the government were working together to suppress and suggestion the covid originated in the wuhan coronavirus laboratory. I don’t like the spread of false information either, but government-industry collaboration for censorship will make things much worse than our traditional free speech approach.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/16/white-house-says-facebook-needs-to-do-more-to-fight-vaccine-misinformation.html
Chip says don’t make vaccination about politics – but then he jumps right in talking about Biden. “Mass Censorship” ?
Slow your roll pal, cry me a river.
More likely to do with the low rate of vaccination and the governor’s morbid vaccine denialism.
Sbgal- the virus carries on and mutates because that’s what viruses do. The worlds actual top experts all agree it’s here to stay. So yes get vaccinated, but your post doesn’t actually jive with the reality that we are all facing. While some on the far right bury their heads in the sand, some on the far left are also wildly ignoring reality by thinking Covid is about to be “ended”.
Baby – it might be time to update your reading/thinking. As per CNN today:
For now, senior intelligence officials still say that they are genuinely split between the two prevailing theories on the pandemic’s origins, or some combination of both scenarios. CNN reported last month that senior Biden administration officials overseeing the 90-day review now believe the theory that the virus accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan is at least as credible as the possibility that it emerged naturally in the wild — a dramatic shift from a year ago, when Democrats publicly downplayed the so-called lab leak theory.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/08/05/politics/covid-origins-genetic-data-wuhan-lab/index.html
Your car breaks down = Go to a mechanic
Your phone or computer breaks down = Go to a computer tech
Your toilet backs up = Go to a plumber
Your house foundation needs fixing = Go to a contractor
Your huge wedding needs planning = Go to a wedding planner
You want to build a bridge over a river = Go to an engineer
You wanna protect your health = Go to politicians and facebook and eschew doctors
Am I missing something here?
Florida and Texas account for about a third of new cases across the country. Texas recorded more than 15,000 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, its highest one-day total in six months, according to state data. Meanwhile, the Florida Hospital Association reported more than 17,000 new COVID-19 cases in the state and 11,515 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of Wednesday, with 86% of inpatient ICU beds in use.
But it’s not just Florida and Texas that are seeing a rapid rise in cases fueled by the Delta Variant. States including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma and South Carolina have seen confirmed COVID-19 cases jump more than 100% in the past two weeks.
GENERALTREE – weird. I wonder what all those states have in common?
Location/seasonality. Just like last year, our turn is coming.
Per the FL hospitals, about half of the covid hospitalizations are people admitted for something other than covid, then received a positive pcr test.
Sadly, children are being admitted to hospitals in these areas in alarming numbers. The Delta variant is acting differently than what we had seen last year.
VOR making a claim that covid hospitalizations aren’t from COVID and providing zero data. Typical = info copied and pasted from far right echo chambers on the dark web.
California has been the leader or “hot spot” at one time or another too. I would be careful passing judgement on how other states are handling Covid. This is going to last for many years, and it is far too early to claim California is better than other states. Also, the effectiveness of the vaccine has diminished considerably with the delta variant, and dr. Fauci has already warned new mutations could be even more vaccine resistant. They have already identified “delta plus” and “lambda” strains. Many people still seem to think we can put a stop to covid by vaccinating everyone in the USA, but this is simply not the case. Covid is mutating worldwide. Vaccine resistant strains like delta and potentially lambda originated outside the US. Even if we achieved 100% vaccination here with the existing vaccines, that would not prevent a vaccine resistant mutation from developing among the vast majority of the world’s population that lives outside our borders. https://www.axios.com/fauci-delta-variant-covid-d1c0d550-6624-417d-bde6-33c8f56deaba.html
Florida’s largest hospital systems are expanding their coronavirus units, limiting visitors and fearing staffing shortages as they deal with the statewide surge that is breaking records set last year for both cases and hospitalizations.
Hospitalizations have grown tenfold statewide in just over a month as the more contagious delta variant spreads, with more than 95% of COVID-19 patients unvaccinated, officials said.
“It’s an overwhelming demand in the hospitals right now,” said Mary Mayhew, president of the Florida Hospital Association. “Now we’re dealing with a relatively new variant mutation. The dramatic increase is so different than last summer” when the previous records were set.
VOICE – it has nothing to do with the low rate of vaccinated individuals?
CHIP ” I would be careful passing judgement on how other states are handling Covid. ” Not sure I saw anyone pass judgement. More a notice of just how serious the surge is. Those dying from COVID now are overwhelmingly the unvaccinated.
Why is it that in this case, the County Department of Public Health , does not mention the actual
Mortality Rate of the Delta Variant infections? I read something recently that said the mortality rate of this variant is Less than 1%… IS This the case? If so, why are we making such a big deal out of this?
Seniors, first responders, teachers and around 70% of US Citizens have had at least 1 shot. The rest can just get sick and move on?
IS the goal of not discussing the actual mortality rate, to scare more people into getting the vaccination? If so, I am all for it, but I believe that they should always practice full and fair disclosure.
Yeti – The Covid mortality rate has been, and continues to be, around 1/2 of 1%…with the being much higher for people over 70 and much much lower for those under 50. That hasn’t changed…
Yeti – which counties in the US are currently publishing the mortality rate of the Delta Variant infections? We’ll wait.
The vast majority of those who are now getting Covid are POC, so it makes no sense to me why some of you appear to be gloating and giddy that they are getting sick and dying. Are you so political that you cannot see straight? What happened to you people and why are you are consumed with hate and unhappiness? Get vaccinated people!!!
Babycakes – where did you see anyone getting political on this thread so far? Or getting Giddy?
I haven’t seen anywhere listed by county. CDC has posted it for quite some time… but haven’t seen it (officially) broken down by county.
ANDREA – Yes! We need to silence the lies that are killing people. There are people who are so brainwashed with “the truth,” they won’t even listen to their doctors or their families pleading them to get vaxxed. How many have died from the lies spread by politicians and other conspiracy theorists? It’s almost criminal. A lot of Americans are simple and extremely gullible. They don’t deserve to die and it breaks my heart to think of that.
The vax before intubation story has also been on the national news. What more do people need?
BABYCAKES – what are you talking about? Who’s “gloating and giddy” about people dying? You’re really grasping at straws here.
1% of 30% of 340M people is 1,020,000 people! Plus many more people will have long term side effects from being sick, affecting their lives greatly. The cost of all of this in $ and medical staff stress will be very high.
Are you really saying that a MILLION deaths and millions more long haulers is okay with you?
NYC Aug 21 Big Concert in Central Park sponsored by CNN.
NY has a large outbreak.
Why would they hold a large super spreader event?
Hypocrites?