December 17, 2020 - "We Want Them Infected"

"We Want Them Infected"

December 17, 2020

“We Want Them Infected”. When the history of the pandemic in the United States is written, those four words could be its title. Former HHS scientific advisor, Paul Alexander, wrote those words in concert with White House senior adviser, Michael Caputo, to HHS officials in a July 4, 2020 memo. The memo apparently was part of the Trump Administration’s policy to try and reach “herd immunity” by exposing non-high risk groups - including schoolchildren - to the virus.

To be fair, CDC Director Redfield has denied that Caputo and Alexander ever influenced policy at the agency. But, you will recall that these are the same two gentlemen who reportedly coerced the CDC last summer to alter its weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, “the holiest of the holy” agency reports informing scientists of the latest trends in public health. Those reports were repeatedly revised, at Mr. Caputo’s behest, in order to conform to the President’s prior rants and tweets. 

It seems clear that our current national predicament - over 17 million cases and 300,000 deaths - is at least partly the result of this unstated government policy to achieve herd immunity through infection, regardless of its costs. To achieve herd immunity, between 70% and 90% of the nation’s 330 million people would have to become immune, either through vaccination or infection and recovery, or both. If 17 million cases culminated in 300,000 deaths, the policy being advanced by the White House could have resulted in millions more deaths. 

Fortunately for us, enough doctors and scientists at the CDC and elsewhere did not allow this policy to go unchecked. Still, we are in uncharted territory. Yesterday, over 245,000 new cases, 3,600 deaths and 113,000 hospitalizations were counted in the United States …  all three totals have never before been reached during this pandemic. 

Here, in Alabama, 4,695 new cases (1,180 probables) were reported this morning, just 40 cases shy of another single-day record. To repeat, the “probables” are real cases that were diagnosed using rapid antigen tests and they should be treated no differently than the “confirmed” cases using PCR tests. Alabama’s one-day positivity rate is 40.5% and the 7-day average rate is 33.7%. Only Idaho, South Dakota and Pennsylvania are suffering higher rates of infection. 

COVID hospitalizations in the State also soared from 2,310 yesterday to 2,425 today (104 reporting hospitals), the highest they have ever been - and sadly, 56 more have Alabamians died. Dr. Ashish K. Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, wrote a recent piece for the Washington Post, which argues that it could signal bad news if hospitalization rates begin to stabilize or drop because that likely means hospitals have filled up, causing the threshold for admission to rise. If less severe cases get sent home, some patients will get much sicker there. Some will die there. That’s what rationed care looks like.

Our State may not have reached that point yet, but I’m willing to bet we’re close. When that happens, it could affect not just COVID patients, but all hospital patients. I hope we can still avoid that result by wearing masks and staying home for the holidays. The totals:

12/4  -  3840

12/5  -  3390

12/6  - 2288

12/7  -  2335

12/8  -  4436

12/9  -  3522

12/10 - 4735

12/11 - 3853

12/12 - 4066

12/13 - 2790

12/14 - 2264

12/15 - 3638

12/16 - 4107

12/17 - 4695

Jefferson County experienced 829 new cases today, back-to-back record-setting days. Madison County had 375 cases, followed by Calhoun (218); Shelby (201); Mobile (178); and Morgan (173). Tuscaloosa, Baldwin, Etowah; Montgomery; DeKalb; Limestone; Cullman; Marshall; St. Clair; and Lauderdale also reported more than 100 cases each.