The number of COVID-19 deaths vaccinated in California increased sharply in Omicron

During a three-week stretch in the midst of the catastrophic Omicron incident this winter, health officials in Santa Cruz County lost 10 patients with COVID-19. All but one were vaccinated and five were boosted.

California data reveal a trend of instability as the Omicron wave recedes. Compared to the surge in delta variant cases last summer, the death toll of vaccinated individuals increased sharply in Omicron, which is said to cause mild illness by many experts.

According to an analysis by the Bay Area Newsgroup on state COVID-19 deaths, the number of unvaccinated deaths was about the same in the most deadly four weeks of the Delta and Omicron surge, more than the total number of vaccinated people. It was much more. Still, three times more vaccinated people died during the peak of Omicron than in the Delta’s heyday.

“We’ve seen some twists in the vaccine armor we’ve never seen before,” said Dr. David Gilarducci, Deputy Health Officer in Santa Cruz County. “Vaccines are excellent, but not 100% protected.”

Girarducci and others, as more breakthrough infections, hospitalizations and deaths among vaccinated people continue to promote vaccination as the most effective defense against viruses containing variants such as Omicron. Added to the challenges faced by public health authorities.

“When I first saw it, Gilarducci remembered 10 Santa Cruz County COVID-19 patients who died between January 16th and February 10th.

The tragic consequences of Santa Cruz County turned out to be less alarming than the numbers suggest. Of the vaccinated patients who died, one was in their early 100s, three were in their 90s, two were in their 80s, and three were in their 70s, most of whom had underlying health problems. .. The man who died without vaccination was in his 50s.

State figures consistently show that coronavirus is deadly with age. Of the approximately 85,000 Californians who died of COVID-19, 71% were 65 or older and 92% were at least 50.

However, state data also show that a series of Santa Cruz County deaths among vaccinated residents was not a fluke.

From August 25 to September 21, mutants accounted for more than 98% of transgenic cases, the most delta surges when 2,917 unvaccinated and 533 vaccinated died. Deadly 4 weeks.

From January 14 to February 10, 2,999 unvaccinated and 1,767 vaccinated people died during the worst period of omicron surge when variants were more than 98% of sequenced cases. However, 436 of them received booster shots to enhance the weakening of vaccine protection. ..

Dr. George Rutherford, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, said the number of lives makes the deaths of vaccinated people look worse than they really are. Their mortality rate remains much lower than that of unvaccinated people. Even the 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, who tested positive for the virus last month and has been vaccinated and boosted, has only mild cold-like symptoms.

That’s true. However, the benefits of vaccinated and boosted people were dramatically reduced by Omicron. On November 1, the average 7-day death toll per million unvaccinated people was 38 times that of vaccinated people.But state figures show Average 7-day deaths per million For unvaccinated people, it is only 17 times higher than for vaccination and booster immunization.

What describes the shift? Dr. Errol Osdalga, a hospitalist at Stanford University who cares for COVID-19 patients through a pandemic, said Omicron brought a wave of immune-compromised people to a hospital infected with the virus, many of whom had seen before. He said he was vaccinated, unlike the one. Many of the hospitalized people were otherwise healthy due to the delta, and the early wave of infection before the vaccine became widely available.

“It disappeared at Omicron,” Ozdalga said. He said the variant afflicts people with weakened immunity, that is, those who are “prone to some form of serious illness.”

That doesn’t mean that Omicron is more deadly than originally believed. However, far more people became ill during the peak of the Omicron surge in January, when state figures indicate that more than 100,000 new cases are detected daily.

By comparison, less than 25,000 people were positive each day during the delta peak last summer. During the first winter case surge from 2020 to 2021, new daily cases approached 50,000. The average number of deaths per day in the winter of 2020-2021 exceeded 500, and the number of deaths per day in Delta reached nearly 140. Also, according to the latest data on Omicron, the number of deaths per day in early February is just over 200.

Dr. John Swartsburg, an emeritus professor of infectious diseases and vaccines at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health, said the vast number of rapidly spreading Omicron infections led to more deaths.

“At the Omicron peak, there were a few more cases after adding the previous year’s peak to the Delta peak,” Swartsburg said.

Girarducci said that unlike Delta and previous variants that caused severe infections deep in the lungs, Omicron tends to cause upper respiratory tract diseases like the common cold. But for the elderly and vulnerable people, it could still be too much for them. Swartsburg added that Omicron is a “still more serious infection” than influenza and is more capable of evading vaccine protection than previous variants.

Ghilarducci said that as the rate of vaccination increases, fewer people are left unvaccinated to become infected. Over 70% of all Californians have increased from 56% on September 1. Also, Dr. Sarah Cody of the Santa Clara County Health Department said that older people have higher vaccination rates, so those at high risk of starting are also more likely to be vaccinated. However, as Omicron’s experience shows, vaccination is not always sufficient, especially for the elderly.