County: Don’t hesitate on shots
Officials insist J&J blood clots remain unlikely
As the region contends with a fourth wave of COVID-19 cases, the director of the Allegheny County Health Department urged residents to sign up to be vaccinated, despite the pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“As your health department director, I urge you not to view this pause as a signal that our local, state or federal vaccination efforts are in any way flawed,” Dr. Debra Bogen said at her weekly briefing Wednesday. “Rather, view this response as evidence that the health care officials will do and have done decisive action at the slightest issue.”
“To anyone who has already received the Jansen [J&J] vaccine, be aware that adverse reactions are extremely rare.” Dr. Bogen said. “Meanwhile I continue to urge everyone to get vaccinated.”
More than half the adult population of Allegheny County is at least partially vaccinated, the health department said.
“I’m concerned about vaccine hesitancy,” Dr. Bogen said. “The fewer people who get vaccinated, the longer this virus will linger in our lives. We’re still filling a lot of appointments, and there’s still a lot of people getting vaccinations, but there’s probably some hesitancy as well.”
Dr. Bogen anticipates that within the next couple of weeks, providers may shift from mass vaccination clinics to a “boots on the ground” approach where
providers are going into community areas like churches to “reach people who may be a little hesitant and just need something more local.”
She spoke on a day when UPMC opened up its mass, drive-thru clinic Wednesday to all adults and said no appointments were needed. The clinic, offering the Pfizer vaccine, will be repeated from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday at the Pittsburgh Mills Mall in Frazer, again with no appointments necessary.
Also on Wednesday, Steelers legends Franco Harris and Mel Blount appeared at Central Baptist Church on Wylie Avenue in the Hill District to encourage the Black community to get the vaccine. The church has daily clinics but has not been at capacity.
Concern over the safety of the J&J shots could increase fears about all COVID-19 vaccines, increasing hesitancy to get inoculated at a time when coronavirus variants are fueling the spread of the disease, said Don Burke, former dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health and co-founder of Pitt spinout company Epistemix Inc., which models the spread of diseases and social forces within populations.
“Concern about vaccines in general could potentially spill over into worry about new symptoms and may contribute to hesitancy about the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which would not be warranted,” he said. “But it’s an understandable human reaction.”
Still, “one in a million for side effects is not a particularly high rate for a reaction,” Dr. Burke said.
More concerning is a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, which makes the virus 1.5 times faster moving, he said. The B.1.1.7 variant is expected to become the dominant strain in the U.S. in May.
“Overall, the pace of vaccination has been fantastic,” Dr. Burke said, but coronavirus variants like B.1.17 will make it “that much harder to stay ahead of the pandemic.”
“The loss of another vaccine will slow down the national response.”
In the U.S., 75.3 million people have been fully vaccinated, which is 22.7% of the population, according to the CDC. As of Tuesday in Allegheny County, 300,702 people were fully vaccinated, or 24.7% of the total population.
As Pennsylvania draws closer to having 2.5 million residents fully vaccinated, the state on Wednesday reported 5,730 new cases of COVID-19 and 50 additional deaths.
The new cases brings the state total to 1,087,792.
In Allegheny County, “the fourth wave continues,” Dr. Bogen said, and the health department reported 382 cases of COVID-19 and 14 virus-related deaths.
With the latest cases, the county total increased to 92,385. That figure is a jump from Tuesday, when the county reported 91,064 cases. The county health department said a local lab — GS Labs in McCandless and Upper St. Clair — had not reported a three-month backlog of test results until Tuesday.
“A total of 1,101 positive antigen test results were reported, of which 939 were of county residents,” the health department said.
The state health department also attributed Wednesday’s jump in cases to GS Lab mass reporting cases.
“Eighty-five percent of these newly identified cases are in Allegheny County,” they said in a press release Wednesday.
Wednesday’s case count includes only cases reported by other labs and results from GS Labs that were reported in the last week, the county health department said.
Those who have recently tested positive in the county range in age from 6 months to 94 years old.
The 14 newly reported deaths are “due to an import of data by the state,” according to the statement from the health department.
These deaths occurred between Feb. 22 and April 11, though 10 of the 14 were during the month of April.
Of the recent deaths, 12 were between the ages of 70 and 99 and the other two were between 50 and 69.
Three of the deaths were associated with a long-term care facility, the health department said.
The county’s positivity rate has climbed to 9.6%, which is up 1% from last week and there have been 79 COVID-19 related deaths between March 7 and April 10.
Since the pandemic began over a year ago, 25,522 people statewide and 1,828 people in Allegheny County have died as a result of the virus.
The state has given first doses of the vaccine to 40.1% of the eligible population, the health department said. As of Tuesday, anyone 16 and older is now eligible to receive the vaccine.
As part of that, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is encouraging all college students to receive a vaccine before the semester ends and they begin heading home.
“Even if students are concerned about not getting their second dose while at school, it is important to seek out the vaccine now and to later find the second dose if needed,” said Acting Physician General Denise Johnson.
Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Education Noe Ortega noted that having college students vaccinated would allow for more inperson learning and improved safety on college campuses.
An average of about 96,000 people are receiving vaccines every day, according to the state health department.