Vaccine is a welcome sight, but we must stay vigilant

Marin Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis got his COVID-19 vaccine last week.

Willis, who himself battled the coronavirus earlier this challenging year, was among the frontline health care providers across Marin to get the first round of the shot. The second vaccine will be administered in a couple of weeks, completing the two-shot inoculation that is providing a ray of hope to a year that has been marked with deaths, severe illnesses, widespread lockdowns and layoffs.

The first round of vaccines was also provided to patients in long-term care facilities, many of which have been the scene of the 90% of the 110 COVIDlinked deaths recorded among Marin residents in 2020.

Officials and local medical care providers need to take steps to assure a methodical and safe vaccination of Marin residents and workers in the coming months. That means clear and constant public communication.

The long-awaited development, approval and rollout of the vaccines comes at a time of sad irony, when local COVID rates are rising, leading to a return of stricter lockdowns.

“We know that community transmission is accelerating exponentially,” Willis told the county Board of Supervisors on Dec. 22.

Some officials blame the increases on Thanksgiving gatherings, held despite repeated public-health warnings, and fear that similar Christmas celebrations could drive COVID numbers upwards as well.

On Dec. 16, Marin reported its highest number of daily cases of COVID-19 since March, when Willis’ office started tracking those numbers. The percentage of tests showing positive for the coronavirus has hit 3.9%. Compared

to 0.8% in October.

Even Bolinas, which early in the pandemic showed it had no cases of the virus, has reported 11.

And cases have included youths and teenagers.

Over half the cases, however, have been among people ages 19 to 49 and that number has been rising.

Most of those cases don’t result in severe symptoms or hospitalization, but those who have contracted the virus can still spread it without even knowing they ever had it.

The virulence of the virus has caused admissions to local hospitals, prompting worries about swamping intensive care unit beds and staff.

Willis stressed that now is not the time to let down our guard.

We have been fortunate that Marin has not seen the deadly crises that the pandemic has caused in the East Coast or in Southern California since the pandemic began to spread.

“The safest strategy for all of us is really to stay at home and limit our encounters outside of the household as much as possible,” he said.

After local health care workers, first responders and long-term care residents get vaccinated, the effort will turn to people at high risk because of medical conditions or age or those involved in infrastructure work. That phase should extend from late January through February, according to Willis.

During the second phase, school teachers and staff and childcare workers, residents and staff at homeless shelters, group homes and detention centers and workers at industries deemed “essential to the functioning of society” and potentially at a higher risk of exposure will be in line for the vaccine.

Vaccines for the general population would be in the next phase, expected to run from March through June.

Clarifying those phases, getting that information out to the public and making the vaccines readily available will be a herculean, but critical task for county officials and local health- care institutions involved in the dispensing of these life-saving vaccines.

The promise of the widespread administering of the vaccine is a welcomed light at the end of the dark tunnel we have endured since March. The coming months and the success of the rollout of the vaccines should set the stage for a return to a greater level of normalcy.

But we are not there yet. Not even close. The local statistics are heading the wrong direction.

In Marin, we have already lost 110 local residents. That doesn’t include the 28 COVID-linked deaths among inmates and staff at San Quentin State Prison.

Those numbers and the fact that the deadly threat of the further spread of the disease continues to grow should be enough sobering persuasion to continue recommended precautions to save others’ lives and your own.

Some officials blame the increases on Thanksgiving gatherings, held despite repeated public-health warnings, and fear that similar Christmas celebrations could drive COVID numbers upwards as well.