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COURT HOUSE – Ninety-year-old British grandmother Margaret Keenan Dec. 8 received the first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. The general availability of a vaccine is probably months away, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Cape May County Health Department daily reports, from Dec. 1-7, showed 347 new cases of COVID-19. The number of active cases, standing at 514, declined by nine.
This was due to the large number of individuals removed from the active rolls and off quarantine. That phenomenon is true to form for a virus that leaves 80% or more of its infected hosts with no or only minor-to-moderate illness.
The week’s fatalities due to complications of COVID-19 were reported at 11. That is almost 10% of the total county coronavirus–related deaths since the first April 4. For that percentage of people vulnerable to complications, the virus can be dangerous.
The county daily reports show that seven of the 11 fatalities this week resulted from a new assault by the virus on long-term care facilities. Here, most of those infected recover and go off quarantine, but the death rate is also higher than in the general population.
As of Dec. 7, Cape Regional Medical Center reported 24 COVID-19 patients, six of whom were in the intensive care unit (ICU). One week earlier, Dec. 1, the numbers were 16 patients, with nine in the ICU.
Across the county, school districts have been struggling to continue in-person instruction, while coping with increasing numbers of students and staff impacted by a need to quarantine after potential exposure.
State figures show that the virus’s in-school transmission has been kept at reasonably low levels, but high community spread outside schools impacts the schedules schools can maintain.
County releases recently emphasized that daily reported numbers are from test samples collected over several days, which was always true.
National, state and local reports show trends, not one-day snapshots of the virus. The point in the county numbers is that the virus is spreading in the community.
As hundreds of individuals move off quarantine, recovered or having suffered no significant effects, the virus is finding new hosts, some of whom will get severely sick.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Dec. 8 was scheduled to release briefing documents regarding its vaccine testing. A panel of medical experts is expected to meet and present its views with respect to the test results. The panel will also address questions from the briefing document.
This activity has two goals: To aid in the decision to give a vaccine emergency use authorization, and to begin the marketing effort aimed at selling the American public on getting vaccinated.
Although the public has waited anxiously for a vaccine’s availability, the Pew Research Center this week released polling that suggests that about 60% of Americans will or probably will get the vaccine. That number is an improvement over similar results in late September, but it leaves 21% saying they probably would not, and 18% saying they definitely would not get the vaccine.
If the FDA gives emergency use authorization, New Jersey expects to receive its first doses of the vaccine before the end of the year.
First in line will be health care workers in high-risk positions. The details of the distribution of vaccines to the states are fluid.
For now, health officials urge continued adherence to protocols for social distancing, facial coverings, and handwashing, along with regular sanitation of regularly touched surfaces.
People also benefit from the fact that the medical community has a much better sense of how to treat COVID-19 than it did in the first months of the disease.
The public is reminded daily that vigilance is needed, especially as another round of holidays approaches.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcerhald.com.
