September 10, 2021
In a major speech, President Biden announced he will use the full force of his office to protect Americans and the American economy from the worst public health crisis in the history of our country. Nearly 665,000 Americans have already died, approaching the total number who perished in the flu pandemic over 100 years ago. That number is still climbing, with 3,300 more deaths recorded yesterday.
Initially reluctant to enact mandates, the President signaled he had no choice but to act now, before it is too late. So, as CEO of the federal government, he ordered federal employees to get vaccinated. He also ordered federal agencies not to do business with companies that do not vaccinate their employees. Nor pay federal Medicare funds to hospitals or other facilities that do not vaccinate their workers. Nor pay federal Head Start funds to unvaccinated educators who expose children to the virus. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration, whose job it is to oversee workplace safety, will require large companies to get their employees vaccinated or have them submit to weekly testing. In total, nearly two-thirds of American workers will be affected by the President’s decision.
Why did President Biden take this action? To answer that question, let’s take a look at Alabama. Over the last 3 days, ADPH has reported 13,958 more cases (4,791 on Wednesday; 4,367 cases on Thursday; and 4,800 today). There are 2,667 confirmed patients in 105 Alabama hospitals, including 53 children (25.4 per hospital) and 87% of them are unvaccinated. There are 1,573 patients requiring intensive care, over half of whom have Covid, but there are just 1,513 ICU beds in the entire state. In the last two days alone,132 Alabamians have died of Covid, adding to the state’s death toll of 12,552. On the eve of 9/11, 4 ½ times as many Alabamians have died in this pandemic as everyone who died in the Twin Towers.
Adding to the urgency of Biden’s announcement is the heavy toll on America’s children, especially in the South. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 251,781 children in the U.S. were diagnosed with Covid during the week of September 2, shattering the prior weekly record of 211,000. Nearly 30,000 children entered hospitals in the month of August, also a record. While states with the highest vaccination rates have seen relatively flat pediatric hospital admissions so far, pediatric admissions in states with the lowest vaccine coverage, like Alabama, have increased four times. A recent CDC study found that unvaccinated adolescents are hospitalized at 10 times the rate of vaccinated ones.
In the last week, children represented 26.8% of all new cases in the country, the highest percentage since the pandemic began. By way of comparison, only 2.6% of cases diagnosed 17 months ago were children. What’s more - of the 251,781 newly diagnosed children last week, 140,000 of them (56%) live in the South region - U.S. census; in contrast, the South region contains only 38% of the U.S. population.
In Alabama during the week of September 3, there were 9,195 cases of school-age children and staff. That’s more than double the 4,337 cases reported the prior week, and far more than the 3,552 cases reported in the worst week of the 2020-21 academic year. Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey said Thursday that K-12 schools will likely see “well over 10,000” new cases among students and staff this week (though the dashboard, updated this morning, currently reflects just 8,428 cases for the week). Although Alabama school districts have adopted mask requirements, enforcement is spotty and schools have no control over what happens at home.
After devastating the Gulf Coast, there is growing evidence that the Delta surge is now moving north. Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky and West Virginia are leading the nation in per capita infections over the last 14 days, while Southern Ohio, the Dakotas, Wyoming and rural Maine are seeing some of the fastest growth in new cases. Florida, Alabama and Georgia still lead the way in per capita hospitalizations, a lagging indicator. The Delta variant has proven it is a more formidable foe than the original virus. It is more opportunistic and it spreads more rapidly. Experts in the Biden Administration know this and have urged the President to act now.
So, nine months after vaccines became plentiful, 80 million Americans still have not received a single shot. After getting off to such a fast start, we suddenly hit a wall of resistance. Only 54% of Americans are now fully vaccinated - lower than Greece, Ecuador and Lithuania. How did this happen? The answer lies in the power of anti-science propaganda that has consumed our national politics. A litmus test has been advanced by talking heads and political pundits that never applied to routine vaccinations, like polio and chickenpox. It should be no surprise that Alabama, like every single red state, has a vaccination rate below the national average.
Will the national vaccine mandates announced by the President make a difference? “It’s going to fundamentally shift the arc of the current surge,” said the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health. Although the mandates will take time to become effective, and undoubtedly will face legal challenges, most public health experts are effusive in their praise. In the long run, vaccines are the pathway out of this pandemic, and an important step on that pathway has just been taken. The totals:
8/29 - 3,433
8/30 - 3,072
8/31 - 5,206
9/1 - 4,691
9/2 - 5,312
9/3 - 5,128
9/4 - 4,420
9/5 - 2,162
9/6 - 2,566
9/7 - 2,672
9/8 - 4,791
9/9 - 4,367
9/10 - 4,800