Delta variant is so contagious those unprotected are likely to get it, Trump administration FDA chief says

The Delta variant is also sending younger and previously healthy people to hospitals – the vast majority of whom have not been vaccinated, according to doctors in several states with flare-ups.

“This year’s virus is not last year’s virus,” said Dr. Catherine O’Neal, an infectious disease specialist at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“It attacks our 40s. It attacks our parents and our young grandparents. And it attracts our children,” O’Neal said. She said her Covid-19 unit now had more patients in their 20s who were previously in good health.

“You need to get the vaccine,” O’Neal said. “That’s the only way to end it. Masks and mitigation, they’re not going to take it. It’ll be the vaccination.”

As of February, 97% of cases and deaths linked to Covid-19 in Louisiana have been in people not fully vaccinated, Governor John Bel Edwards said on Friday.

“Even if you have a breakthrough infection – which, again, occurs in a very small minority of people – it’s likely a mild or asymptomatic infection,” the US Surgeon General told CNN on Sunday. United, Dr. Vivek Murthy.

Many Americans have not been vaccinated due to misinformation, which “takes away our freedom and power to make (educated) decisions for us and our families,” the surgeon general said.

In Los Angeles County, the rate of new cases of Covid-19 has increased 300% since July 4, the county health department said. Hospitalizations related to Covid-19 have more than doubled compared to the previous month.

‘She was in the best shape of her life’, then died of Covid-19

Rachel Maginn Rosser recently lost her 63-year-old mother to Covid-19. Rosser, a nurse, said she believed her mother would still be alive if she had been vaccinated.

“She was in the best shape of her life. She trained five times a week with a personal trainer,” Rossner said on Saturday. “She loved going out and having fun. She was a social butterfly. And she got sick, and it was just a slow decline from there.”

Kim Maginn has had a sore throat and fever for about a week, said daughter Rosser, who lives in Arkansas. Maginn was ‘shocked’ when she went to the doctor last month and found it was not strep, but Covid-19.

“I had to stay outside her room and call her on her cell phone to talk to her,” she said. “She looked really small in bed. It was difficult for her to speak because she was having trouble breathing.”

Rosser said her mother had not been vaccinated because she believed that since she had not already been infected, she was not going to get sick.

She said she begged her mother to get the vaccine.

“I tried several different tactics. I laid out all the facts for her. I tried to plead with her emotional side of ‘What would we do without you? Could you imagine our life without you? “” said Rosser.

“Part of me wishes I had tried harder. But she was really stubborn. She was stubborn, but she wasn’t stupid. I think I could have finally convinced her, but she got sick and she. had Covid. And so there was no more time to try to convince her. ”

Rosser said she hopes sharing her family’s story will help encourage others who are reluctant to get vaccinated.

“This virus… does not discriminate. It doesn’t matter if you are old or young, or whether you are healthy or not. Once you contract it, it can be devastating for your family,” Rosser said. .

She encouraged people to “keep talking to their loved ones and try to convince them because I wouldn’t want anyone else to have to go through this.”

Coronavirus has spread among children in camps

There have been numerous cases of Covid-19 outbreaks in summer camps.

In Utah, officials are investigating cases of Covid-19 at more than a dozen children’s summer camps, said Aislynn Tolman-Hill, spokesperson for the Utah County Department of Health.

“We hear and know that there are MANY cases where symptomatic campers are sent home but not tested,” Tolman-Hill told CNN in an email.

“This is obviously a huge concern. If we are not made aware of these situations, we cannot trace the contacts and notify the exposed people.”

Local health records in Utah County have shown that less than 30% of children ages 12 to 18 are fully immunized. State law prohibits the Utah County Department of Health from requiring camps to follow coronavirus rules or procedures, Tolman-Hill said.

“All we can do is educate and defend,” she said.

In North Carolina, three out-of-state campers at Camp Daniel Boone Scout Camp in Haywood County have tested positive for the coronavirus, local health officials said.

The camp canceled its remaining sessions and notified health officials when the trio tested positive on July 14, according to a statement from the Daniel Boone Council, Boy Scouts of America. The camp also informed everyone who attended the camp during this time of their potential exposure.

The camp was following its “COVID-19 mitigation plan,” which was approved by county health officials, the statement said. Mitigation measures included a pre-event medical screening checklist, daily temperature checks, social distancing, a mask requirement for indoor and group environments, and hand washing and disinfection stations. throughout the camp.

“These events highlight that Covid-19 is still prevalent in our community,” said Sarah Henderson, Haywood County Public Health Director.

“It’s not gone, and it’s not over. We continue to see a slight increase in positive cases as people congregate in large groups and remain unvaccinated.”