Cowlitz County Health Authority Addresses False Information on COVID-19 Vaccine

Longview-According to state health ministry data, the number of COVID-19 vaccinations in the state and Cowlitz counties has increased only slightly in the last two weeks after falling in the spring and leveling off since July. Seems to be doing.

As of Friday, 51.7% of Cowlitz County residents had begun vaccination and 46.5% were fully vaccinated. Throughout the state, 60.9% of the population started vaccination and 55.2% were fully vaccinated.

Many unvaccinated people have misunderstandings about the safety of the vaccine, said Dr. Steve Craiger, deputy health officer in the county.

During the Cowlitz County Commissioner’s meeting on Tuesday, many in favor of the board’s resolution not to require the COVID-19 vaccine said data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) showed injuries and increased medical care. I commented. Problems and deaths caused by the COVID vaccine.

Craiger said the vaccine is safe and effective, and many people misinterpret VAERS data.

The national system is operated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration to detect potential vaccine safety issues. VAERS is not designed to detect whether a vaccine has caused a particular event, but its website helps identify anomalies or unexpected patterns that require further investigation.

Anyone can report any health problems that occur after vaccination to the site.

Health providers report serious events, including death, life-threatening events, hospitalization, persistent or serious incapacity, birth defects or birth defects, or serious medical events, regardless of causality. is needed.

Just because a problem is reported does not mean that the vaccine caused or caused the problem, Craiger said.

According to a July county health department report, VAERS data should be interpreted with restrictions in mind, including biased, incomplete, inaccurate, and potentially unverifiable information. is needed. Individual adverse events may be reported repeatedly. Events that occur after vaccination are not necessarily due to the vaccine.

“VAERS data is absolutely misunderstood and misused. It’s frustrating to see,” Craiger said. “People who receive all reports and assume a causal relationship with the vaccine are not how VAERS is intended to be used.”

The “perfect example” of how VAERS is used is when we capture the association between the increased risk of rare blood clots with low platelets and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. When the problem was investigated, he said, the use of the vaccine was suspended and the risk of death from COVID was so high that authorities decided it was worth the vaccine.

Health officials have not seen an increase in deaths associated with the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Craiger.

Delta variant and vaccination

Another misconception of the COVID-19 data is that the vaccine causes a delta mutation, which is predominantly spread by vaccinated people, Craiger said.

According to the CDC, the delta variant, known as B.1.617.2, was first identified in India in October 2020, before the vaccine became available. More contagious strains began to spread in the United States this spring and are currently the predominant mutant strain in the United States.

According to the CDC, the COVID-19 vaccine does not “shedding” the virus. Preliminary evidence suggests that fully infected and fully vaccinated people can spread it to others. Vaccination helps prevent serious illness and death.

There is a clear correlation between low vaccination rates and high case rates, Craiger said.

As of Wednesday, San Juan County had the lowest two-week case rate in the state, with about 150 new cases per 100,000. The county had the highest vaccination rate in Washington as of Monday, with 77.2% of the population starting vaccination and 71.4% fully vaccinated.

The same trend is seen nationwide, with fewer cases in less vaccinated states, Craiger said.

“Most of the time it’s caused by unvaccinated people,” he said. “It’s not that vaccinated people aren’t sick, but they’re not the main impetus. It’s even more true about hospitalization and death.”

About 80-85% of the cases are unvaccinated, Craiger said. He said the vaccine provides more protection against severe illness, hospitalization and death.