According to the New York Times COVID Data Tracker, Benton County added 177 cases of COVID-19 to its case count. Since the pandemic started, the county has recorded 5,671 cases of the virus. This past weeks’ case report is down 12% compared to the weekly case report from mid-October. Hospitalizations throughout the county have also decreased, and appear to have peaked in September. Throughout the last month, reported cases of the virus in Benton County have been highest amongst the 18- to 29-year-old age group, followed by children 17-years old and younger.
Oregon reported at least 10,315 cases of the virus in the past week. This is a continuation of the declining trend of the third wave of the pandemic to hit the state, which is welcome news as the holiday season quickly approaches. For the last six weeks, the Delta variant has made up 100% of all samples sequenced from infected patients.
Countrywide, the U.S. reported over 407,000 cases in the last week. This is the first week of increasing case reports within the last two months. Only 58% of the U.S. population is currently fully vaccinated.
OHA Announces Vaccine Milestone
According to a statement released on Thursday by the Oregon Health Authority, 80% of Oregonians aged 18-years or older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. This is promising, as the state’s vaccination rate dipped dramatically during the summer, but has since increased. A large bump in the vaccination rate was seen in the beginning of October and was seen again as the beginning of November approached.
However, state experts caution the public not to let its guard down. The current one-dose receiver count of 80% does not include children under the age of 17, who are back in school and continuing to transmit and become infected with COVID-19 at a concerning rate. Only 63% of Oregonians are fully vaccinated, which is well below the percentage of the population needing to be vaccinated before herd immunity can be considered achieved.
Children Aged 5- to 11-Years-Old Now Eligible
The Food and Drug Administration granted Pfizer emergency authorization for the use of its COVID-19 mRNA vaccine amongst young children between the ages of 5- and 11-years-old. On Monday, the White House announced that within one week, millions of doses of the vaccine will be shipped across the country, specifically for administration to children. In trials, Pfizer found 90% effectiveness of the vaccine within this age group, at a dosage that is one-third the amount that adults receive.
This comes as welcome news to some parents, as infection rates among children have skyrocketed since the return to in-person learning this fall. However, surveys of families are finding that many parents are hesitant to get their young children vaccinated against the virus.
According to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), one of the largest non-profit groups of journalists and scientists focused on national health in the U.S., vaccine hesitancy is strong amongst parents of young children. Only about 27% of parents polled by the KFF reported that they planned to get their child vaccinated right away. An equally large group (30%) of parents said they definitely would not get their young child vaccinated.
The reported reasons for vaccine hesitancy are vast, but one of the most commonly reported reasons is uncertainties about long-term vaccine effects, specifically negative consequences for a child’s fertility. Concerns over long-term effects are likely the reason why a large proportion of survey respondents (32-40%) reported they plan to “wait and see” before getting their child vaccinated.
COVID-19 Vaccine and Infertility
While the myth that a COVID-19 vaccine can negatively affect a person’s fertility continues to spread, doctors and medical researchers are trying their best to dispel the misinformation. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has formally announced that no research has shown any indication that fertility can be negatively affected by receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, and encouraged parents to get their young children vaccinated. There has also been no evidence of infertility during clinical trials by any of the three pharmaceutical companies that currently produce COVID vaccines.
Experts at the Missouri University academic health center have found that the myth originates from the false belief that the vaccine could cause a recipient’s own body to attack a protein in the placenta, called syncytin-1. This protein features a small portion of DNA similar to that of the spike protein found in the COVID virus, thus, the false connection was made between the vaccine and negative fertility consequences. However, the structure of syncytin-1 and the COVID virus are so different that this does not occur in reality.
While health officials have found no evidence that the vaccine can cause infertility, it is known that becoming sick with COVID-19 can have negative consequences for both male and female fertility, including reduced sperm count in men and major complications (even death of a fetus) for expecting mothers. This is why nationally recognized medical groups such as AAP and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urge both adults and children to get the vaccine once they are eligible.
This is a weekly column updating the residents of Benton County on local, national, and international news on the pandemic. If you would like to make suggestions of topics to cover related to the virus, please email any resources or thoughts to covidupdate@corvallisadvocate.com.
By: Lauren Zatkos
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com