Top Doctor Updates Pandemic Status in Northeast Ohio

Cleveland — Some of the top medical minds in northeastern Ohio have provided some sort of “pandemic state” in our region. Doctors from the Cleveland Clinic and the University Hospital have come together to get the latest information on the hospital’s fight against COVID-19.

Dr. Robert Willy, MD, Head of Health Care at the Cleveland Clinic, confirmed that cases and hospitalizations have returned to a decline after peaking in delta surges about a month ago. He said there were an average of about 7,200 new patients per day at its peak. As of Thursday morning, there were 3,500 new patients. Hospitalizations have dropped from a peak of 3,700 to 2,500 this morning. Dr. Wily said it was a 34% reduction in hospitalization. However, vaccination rates remain a concern.

“Looking at the state’s total population, at least 55% of people are vaccinated with at least one vaccine, and 51% are fully vaccinated,” he said. These numbers are not a good omen as we head into the winter months. Dr. Wily shared concerns about the people who might get together for the holidays. He recommended that more Ohio be vaccinated when they were together and take simple precautions. The CDC recommends outdoor meetings when possible. If you gather inside, it’s a good idea to keep the doors and windows open for better ventilation.

Dr. Daniel Simon, MD, President of the UH Cleveland Medical Center, talked about new hopes for the fight against COVID-19. It is a new treatment option.

“We now have the Tamiflu equivalent of COVID-19,” he said. He mentioned Merck’s new oral antiviral drug, molnupiravir. Dr. Simon said the 40-tablet course lasted five days and patients took four tablets each morning and night. The drug has been shown in clinical trials to reduce hospitalization and serious illness by 50%. He added that the trial killed 0 people in the molnupiravir group and 8 people in the placebo group. That’s not the only reason to be optimistic.

“The course is only $ 700, much less than the $ 3,000 for monoclonal antibodies,” he said. In addition, “It’s much more convenient because it doesn’t require an IV drip. Also, a subgroup analysis of this study showed that it had an equivalent effect on all variants, including delta variants.” The Food and Drug Administration is considering Murnupira Building for an emergency use authorization.

Claudia Hoyen, MD, Director of Pediatric Infection Control at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, discussed the expected pending recommendations for the Pediatric Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for ages 5-11. Dr. Hoyen said that at the peak of the delta surge, her hospital had 10 times more pediatric COVID-19 patients than in summer and early autumn. She also said the CDC found that more than 100 children in this age group had died from the virus.

“It’s probably almost twice as many as those who died of the flu in the meantime, so when people say” this is a lot like the flu, “it’s actually more serious,” Hoyen said. He pointed out that COVID-19 is currently the eighth leading cause of death in the United States. In the coming weeks, she and her team will pay attention to the long-term side effects of children with both mild and severe illness. These may include symptoms such as pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), brain fog and persistent cough. , And myocarditis.

Myocarditis is of particular concern among parents after a rare case occurs in young Americans vaccinated with the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. Dr. Hoyen said there were no cases of myocarditis in a group study of 5-11 years. That does not mean that we do not see some rare cases after the vaccine has been distributed to the public. However, she said this case was extremely rare in other age groups.

“When we vaccinated children aged 12 to 15, the group was not as likely to have myocarditis as young men aged 18 to 30 and young men aged 18 to 30. Again, this doesn’t seem to be a big deal for children. “Still, she said, doctors would pay attention to the risk. She said children who developed myocarditis after vaccination had very mild cases. And this particular risk is much higher for children infected with the COVID-19 virus.

“The incidence of myocarditis in children infected with the actual COVID virus is about 10 to 100 times higher than the vaccine, depending on the data you are looking at,” she said. ..

The FDA is expected to meet within the next few days to determine the panel’s recommendations for approving pediatric vaccine doses. Then CDC recommends it. The dose may be ready to be administered to groups aged 5 to 11 years soon next week.

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