By Roger Straw, September 21, 2021
Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County Health Officer
Fairfield Daily Republic reporter Todd Hansen receives regular updates directly from Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County Health Officer. The information shared goes well beyond what is reported on the County’s COVID dashboard.
In yesterday’s Daily Republic report, Matyas offered some details on the 6 newest COVID deaths and indicated that his count of the death toll from our recent surge is 31.
There were three women, all 70 or older, and three men, two 65 or older and one between 50 and 65. All lived at home and all had significant underlying health issues, Matyas said.
Two were vaccinated, taking that number during the surge to eight, Matyas reported.
Four of the six individuals were infected by family members; two apparently contracted the virus at parties, Matyas said.
So add 2 new deaths of vaccinated persons to a previous Matyas report of 6 who were vaccinated and died during this surge. It strikes me as somewhat alarming that over a quarter (8) of the 31 recent surge deaths were vaccinated individuals.
Today’s 2 new vaccinated deaths reportedly had “significant underlying health issues.” We are left to wonder about the previous 6 vaccinated deaths, as no further information was offered to indicate whether they had underlying health issues.
We are also left to wonder what were these underlying health issues, and how severe were they? How sick do you have to be for COVID to overcome your vaccine protection and kill you?
Finally, in his comments, I hear Dr. Matyas continuing to justify his theory that community transmission is not public transmission. He says the 4 of the deaths were caused via infections “by family members.” Interesting that Dr. Matyas doesn’t go on to describe where and how the family members caught the virus before bringing it home to these poor folks. They had to get it somewhere. Was there contact tracing? Does Matyas know how the infectors were infected?
And Matyas adds, “two apparently contracted the virus at parties.” Well, same question: where did the party-goers catch the virus before bringing it to the party? Surely not in any indoors commercial spaces, right? Surely not at work, where our county doesn’t require masks or vaccinations, right? Commerce first, public health and safety not so much.
Sorry for the snippy rhetorical questions. We know Bela’s oft-repeated unscientific answers. Aaargh…
Covering 20 acres beneath the Washington Monument, the somber memorial leaves space for us to grieve.
As of this week, one in 500 Americans have died of COVID-19. Any day now, the United States will pass 675,000 deaths—a grim tally that equals the country’s toll from the 1918 flu pandemic, still the deadliest worldwide outbreak in modern times.
The sheer number of flags—more than 670,000—forces passersby to pause. Visitors are able to leave tributes to lost loved ones, like this picture taped to a flag. The flags will remain on the mall from September 17 through October 3.
Beneath the Washington Monument hundreds of thousands of small white flags flutter in the hot breeze. Landscape workers and volunteers walk among them, stooping to plant the flags 10 inches apart until they fill 20 acres of the National Mall. Each flag represents an American life lost to COVID-19.
“One of those lives is my little brother, John,” says Jeneffer Estampador Haynes, who has come to Washington, D.C., from her home in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to volunteer at this memorial art installation called In America: Remember. “He was only 30.”
Born with Down Syndrome, John Estampador “was a big kid who gave the best hugs,” says Haynes. When Estampador, who was affectionately called John John, went into the hospital on January 15 with low oxygen levels from COVID-19, his parents, with whom he lived, also tested positive. They weren’t allowed to visit him, but Haynes was—once a day for 30 minutes. She watched him through the glass door to his room, but she wasn’t permitted inside to hold his hand, to let him know she was there. After 13 days in the hospital, John John died alone on January 28, 2021.
Haynes wants people to know her brother wasn’t just a number.
Numbers have been inescapable during the coronavirus pandemic—case counts, vaccination rates, the death toll. As of this week, one in 500 Americans have died of COVID-19. Any day now, the United States will pass 675,000 deaths—a grim tally that equals the country’s toll from the 1918 flu pandemic, still the deadliest worldwide outbreak in modern times.
The scale of this devastation is hard to comprehend. But artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, who created the installation, believes she has found a way to convey the extent of the loss—and to create a space where the nation can collectively grieve. “We all understand that we’ve gone through a national tragedy, but it has rolled out so slowly,” she says. “There’ve been no moments of pause.”
Firstenberg hopes to create such moments at the installation, which will be on the mall from September 17 through October 3. The sheer number of flags—more than 670,000 installed by volunteers and 150 employees of Ruppert Landscape over the course of three very long days—forced passersby to slow their steps even before the exhibit officially opens today. Tourists, office workers, dog walkers ask what the flags are for; when volunteers tell them, their faces light up with comprehension and then settle into sorrow.
Firstenberg, who has served as a hospice volunteer for 25 years, conceived of this installation in the summer of 2020 when she saw a newspaper headline refer to the death toll as a statistic. “So many lives were being devalued,” she says, especially those of the elderly and people of color.
She chose flags to represent the lives lost because they are already symbolic—and she could afford small flags. She selected white as a sign of purity and of the spirit—and to make it easier for people to personalize them. At the first installation of In America, held on the D.C. Armory Parade Grounds from October 23 to November 30, 2020, visitors were offered black markers to write their loved one’s name on a flag.
Firstenberg and her team plan to have 10,000 Sharpies for visitors to use at the National Mall installation. Those unable to make the trip can request on the installation’s website that a message to their loved one be written on a flag and planted for them. The flag will be photographed and its location recorded so mourners can find it on a digital map of the installation, created by Esri, a geographic information company.
“I needed to make sure that this art was accessible to every single person who lost someone,” says Firstenberg.
Transcribing the messages is heartbreaking, says volunteer Sara Brenner of Arlington, Virginia. “You’ll get several in the same family,” she says, recalling messages she wrote for a father and a grandfather who died in February 2021, and then for two other family members who died several months later. “We’re speaking for the dead, and we’re grieving for the dead.”
Mourners are encouraged to decorate the blank flags however they wish. Two days before the current installation opened, a group of doctors and nurses from Maryland’s Howard County General Hospital arrived to plant flags with red stickers they’d added to honor the more than 3,600 health care workers who have died. They managed to do 600 but they intended to return to finish the job. So did Debjeet Sarkar, the emergency room doctor who organized the group. He planned to return alone to personalize flags for the 65 patients he’s lost to COVID-19.
The interactive nature of the installation is crucial. “Throughout time, we’ve used action for mourning,” says Firstenberg, pointing out that preparing food for grieving families is still a common practice. Planting a flag and personalizing it gives people a chance to participate and “to move through mourning.”
That doesn’t mean it’s easy. One hour into her shift planting flags, Edna Boone was reeling. “I’ve already called my mother,” she said. The Washington, D.C., resident had volunteered at the first installation, after coming upon it while on a bike ride. “I just stopped,” she said. Though Boone hadn’t lost anyone in her immediate circle, she became a conduit for friends and family who wanted names added to flags, especially from her hard-hit home state of New Jersey. Every night, she’d visit the installation, which concluded with 267,000 flags, and think of each fluttering piece of fabric as a person.
The installation at the Washington Monument is so much bigger—and likely to grow. Each day, new flags will be added to reflect the previous day’s death toll. Firstenberg is not sure she’s ordered enough flags.
Unlike many families who lost loved ones to COVID, John John Estampador’s was able to hold a funeral, but they had to stand 10 feet away from his grave and socially distance from each other. “Not being able to hold my parents, who’d lost their only son, was just awful,” says Haynes. She can still hear her mother’s cries.
The flag installation provides some solace. “It shows the world that these were our loved ones,” she says. It’s shown her that even people who haven’t been directly affected by COVID-19 are mourning. “They care,” she says, “and this means a lot.”
DEATHS: Six new deaths today, 2 age 50-64 and 4 over 65 years of age. Total Solano deaths over the course of the pandemic now at 287. >>The Fairfield Daily Republic reported yesterday that Solano Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas noted a surprising 24% of recent Solano COVID deaths were vaccinated individuals. No information was given as to the age or complicating health factors of those vaccinated residents. But all 6 of today’s deaths, including 2 who were vaccinated, presented with underlying health factors. This seems a clear signal for those of us who have been vaccinated to continue to wear masks and steer clear of close aerosol contact with unknown others.
CASES: The County reported 202 new COVID cases over the weekend, 67 per day, down from last weeks average of 105 per day but still in the range of last winter’s surge.
COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen 767 new cases, NEARLY 3½ TIMES the CDC’s population-based definition of a SUBSTANTIAL rate of transmission and 1.7 TIMES the CDC’s definition of a HIGH rate of transmission!
(CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County population of 449,432, the CDC would rate us in “SUBSTANTIAL” transmission with 225 cases over the last 7 days. Double that, or 450 cases in the last 7 days would rank us in “HIGH” transmission. Reference: CDC’s “Level of SARS-CoV-2 Community Transmission”.]
ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 627 ACTIVE cases is down significantly from Friday’s 816, but still up alarmingly up from summer rates.
POSITIVE TEST RATE: Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was 7.6% today, our first dip below 8% since July 6. COMPARE: today’s California rate is 2.3%.Today’s U.S. rate is 8.7%. [Source: Johns Hopkins] Good news? Time will tell…
HOSPITALIZATIONS:
CURRENT hospitalizations were down slightly today from 85 to 81 persons, but still in the range we saw during the winter surge.
ICU Bed Availabilitytook a hit today, falling from 28% to 23%, still in the yellow danger zone. Again, we are in the worrisome range we saw during the winter surge.
Ventilator Availability went up today from 52% to 57%, still in the range of last February’s winter surge.
TOTAL hospitalizations Solano County’s TOTAL hospitalized over the course of the pandemic must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of hospitalizations by Age Group and by Race/Ethnicity. The County reported a minor adjustment on its Hospitalizations charts today. See below. The race/ethnicity numbers remained unchanged.
FACE MASKS… Good News in Benicia and Vallejo
GOOD NEWS! Benicia City Council passed a citywide indoors mask mandate that went into effect on August 24 and includes everyone 4 years old and up when indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated. Benicia was joined by Vallejo on August 31. In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.
THE SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to even consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE this week. On Tuesday, September 14. the Board’s agenda called for discussion of an indoors mask mandate for all and a vaccination mandate for county workers. The Board voted 4-1 to require county-run facilities in Vallejo and Benicia to abide by local mandates. But the Board voted down the vaccination mandate 3-2, and failed to even consider the county-wide mask mandate. The Solano Board of Supervisors now joins with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cases by City on Monday, September 20:
Beniciaadded 10 new cases today, a total of 1,398 cases since the outbreak began. Benicia has seen 29 new cases over the last 7 days, returning to just above the CDC’s definition of HIGH community transmission (28, based on Benicia population).[Note that Solano County is also rated far above high transmission, and Solano’s 6 other cities are likely also individually experiencing high or substantial transmission.]
Dixon added 11 new cases today, total of 2,425 cases.
Fairfield added 48 new cases today, total of 11,712 cases.
Rio Vista added 6 new cases today, total of 556 cases.
Suisun Cityadded 20 new cases today, total of 3,082 cases.
Vacaville added 45 new cases today, a total of 11,502 cases.
Vallejoadded 60 new cases today, a total of 12,770 cases.
Unincorporatedadded 2 new cases today, a total of 136 cases (population figures not available).
FDA panel endorses coronavirus boosters for older adults and those at risk of serious illness
The recommendation is not binding. A decision about boosters from the FDA is expected by next week.
An Israeli man receives a booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine Aug. 30 in Jerusalem. Officials in Israel said their booster campaign, launched in July, has helped curb the pandemic there. (Maya Alleruzzo/AP)
Expert advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously Friday to recommend that the agency authorize a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine six months after vaccination for people 65 years and older and for anyone at risk for severe illness.
The vote is not binding, and Peter Marks, the FDA official overseeing coronavirus vaccines, indicated that the final decision could be slightly different, encompassing people who are at higher risk of infection because of their professions, such as health-care workers and front-line employees, including teachers. The advisory committee members were polled on whether they would agree with making boosters available to people who were at risk of infection because of workplace exposure, and they all said yes.
A decision about boosters from the FDA is expected by next week, and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee is slated to meet Wednesday and Thursday to recommend how a third shot should be used. The FDA advisory committee, following Pfizer’s lead, recommended that the third shot be given at least six months after the second.
Friday’s protracted online meeting, the most important FDA advisory committee meeting since the vaccines were first authorized, gave the Biden administration and Pfizer some, but not all, of what they wanted. Boosters will be on the way into many millions of arms — with the exact number depending on how the FDA and the CDC decide who meets the criteria for being at high risk of serious illness.
The consideration of booster shots comes as the United States endures a fourth wave of covid-19 infections, with hospitals in some corners of the nation confronting the long-feared prospect of rationing care and having to decide which patients receive access to treatments and medical equipment. And the debate has sparked criticism from some officials in the global health community who argue that the U.S. discussion of boosters betrays selfishness, as many in the world do not have access to a first dose of vaccine.
The recommendation to target shots primarily to older adults is far narrower than what the companies and top officials in the Biden administration had sought: a blanket approval to boost anyone 16 and older. The panel voted resoundingly against a broadly available booster. Many committee members said they felt uncomfortable about whether the benefits outweighed the risks to younger adults, citing the lack of robust safety data.
The meeting then took an unusual turn. The voting question was reformulated, to ask if members of the committee thought a booster would be safe and effective for a narrower slice of the population. The panel voted unanimously yes.
The vote and the variety of views on display during hours of debate Friday, even among experts, could complicate the Biden administration’s effort to extend boosters to all adults beginning next week — and exacerbate public confusion.
“Today was an important step forward in providing better protection to Americans from COVID-19,” White House spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement. “We stand ready to provide booster shots to eligible Americans once the process concludes at the end of next week.”
The committee’s deliberations did not address many of the questions circulating among the public, including the roughly 81 million people who have received shots made by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson and whose eligibility for a booster may not be decided for weeks.
The all-day meeting revealed an array of opinions among America’s top medical experts on whether boosters are necessary and, if so, when and for whom.
“It would be great to wait until we have all the data about safety,” said Jay M. Portnoy, a professor of pediatrics who works at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. “I’d rather not get the covid disease. I’d rather get the third dose of the vaccine.”
After Pfizer’s initial request for a booster broadly available to the general population was voted down, the panelists had a freewheeling discussion about what the age limit should be for getting an additional shot.
Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said he favored boosters for people age 65 and up, after which Eric J. Rubin, editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, said, “I’m 63, so I like the 60 age instead of the 65 age.” Portnoy said he planned to get his dose next week — and then said he would get one the very next day.
Those divisions extended even within the FDA.
“We know that there may be differing opinions about the interpretation of the data regarding the potential need for additional doses, and we strongly encourage all the different viewpoints to be voiced and discussed regarding the data, which is complex and evolving,” Marks said at the introduction of the meeting.
Marks, in addressing the panel, showed his hand about his views without explicitly spelling them out. He noted that many vaccines require additional doses six months down the line, so it “should not be a surprise” if the coronavirus vaccines need another dose as well.
He also said many other vaccines are used not just to prevent severe illness and hospitalizations but also mild cases. And he mentioned the importance of preventing the spread of the virus to vulnerable populations such as younger children, for whom a vaccine has not been approved.
Two career FDA scientists who co-authored a highly unusual paper in the medical journal Lancet this month, arguing that boosters were not needed in the general population, also asked questions that betrayed their inclinations. Both have announced that they will soon step down from the agency.
Phil Krause, one of those FDA officials, asked a pointed question about some of the data Pfizer is using to support the case for boosters.
“Part of this, of course, is the difficulty of looking at this kind of data, without having the chance for FDA to review it or allowing for this kind of data to go through the peer-review process,” Krause said, adding that Pfizer was a co-sponsor of the study.
Marion Gruber, the other FDA official, raised the issue of safety earlier in the meeting, pointing out that the risk of heart inflammation after vaccination, though rare, is highest among younger males, who may have different risks and benefits from the vaccine than do older adults.
Some Americans have already found unofficial ways to get additional vaccine doses, and that number is only expected to increase, experts said. A third dose is already recommended for people with compromised immune systems.
Advisory panel members heard presentations from the FDA, the CDC and Pfizer. The data was often conflicting.
CDC scientist Sara Oliver presented data showing that while protection against milder infections has waned over time, protection against severe disease remains robust, even among older adults. She showed unpublished data that found that through July, adults 75 and older were 88 percent protected against hospitalization.
But scientists from Israel showed that in their highly vaccinated population, protective immunity from vaccination had clearly waned as the country confronted the delta surge this summer. That resulted in a huge uptick in infections, they found — and in severe cases, even among people who were fully vaccinated.
The government there decided to implement a booster campaign at the end of July, beginning with people older than 60, and presented data suggesting that it may have helped save hospitals from being overwhelmed.
Cases “were doubling every 10 days, and we got to places with thousands of cases, doubling every 10 days. It was scary,” said Sharon Alroy-Preis, director of public health services for Israel’s Ministry of Health. “If we had not started boosters at the end of July, we would have come to the capacity of Israeli hospitalization capabilities — and gone beyond it.”
One of the studies from Israel, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that people 60 and older who were given a booster shot had an 11-fold lower risk of contracting an infection than people who did not receive the additional shot. Research data from Israel’s Ministry of Health, posted online Wednesday by the FDA in advance of its presentation at Friday’s advisory committee meeting, also showed that the booster campaign dramatically lowered the rate of severe cases among people 60 and older.
Pfizer officials have depended heavily on the data from Israel in making their case that boosters are necessary.
“The Israeli experience could portend the U.S. covid-19 future — and soon,” said William C. Gruber, senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development at Pfizer.
The booster issue has been swamped with scientific and political controversies in recent weeks. Senior Biden administration officials, worried about data showing a waning of vaccine efficacy, announced in mid-August that boosters would be available the week of Sept. 20, pending FDA and CDC sign-offs.
Many scientists were outraged by the decision to make a political announcement ahead of the scientific confirmation that boosters were safe, effective and necessary. Those scientific agencies subsequently told the White House that only the Pfizer-BioNTech product, whose data was the first to be filed at the agency, could be cleared by then.
Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has spoken forcefully in favor of boosters. In an interview Thursday with The Washington Post, he said the Israeli data suggests that a third shot might prevent viral transmission — something that could help curb the pandemic.
Fauci said some scientists seem to believe “it is okay” for vaccinated people to get infected as long as they experience only mild or moderate symptoms and don’t end up in the hospital. But, he said, “as a clinical person who sees a lot of patients, that isn’t okay,” adding that even mild infections can result in missed work, disruptions of family life and potential cases of long covid, with its debilitating effects.
Yasmeen Abutaleb and Lena H. Sun contributed to this report.
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