COVID hospitalization rates are increasing among unvaccinated teens - CBS News

[Rhiannon12866]

The CDC says unvaccinated teens are 10 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared with those who have been fully vaccinated. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, more than 200,000 coronavirus cases were confirmed in children last week. Right now, only children between the ages of 12 and 17 are eligible for the vaccine. Dr. Taison Bell, a critical care and infectious disease physician and the medical ICU director at the University of Virginia, joins CBSN's Lana Zak to discuss that and more. 9/3/2021

[wnylib]

1. It's true in my area that teen infections

are rising. I check our county health board's covid dashboard every day to keep updated. It lists the numbers of infections by age groups. The 0 to 19 age group is second highest in percentage of infections, right behind the 20 to 29 age group.

I don't know how many teens have been hospitalized locally because that info is not available. Only the total number of current hospitalizations is listed. The deaths have been mostly people over 65, with one recent exception of someone in the 40 to 49 age group.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. According to yesterday's news, the county has lost 79 residents, total, to this pandemic.

The most recent two on Thursday, both nursing home patients with significant health issues. They don't generally break down the cases or deaths by ages, but of the 172 active cases reported, 4 were fully vaccinated. From what I've read, it doesn't look like the vaccination percentage has gone up, it's still at 66% even though there have been mobile clinics going to more rural parts of the county for the past few weeks.

And I'm also wondering about the exposure here because it's "tourist season" in this area. When I've driven through Lake George Village just north of here, the sidewalks are packed, just like any summer - with few masks in sight. Last summer, everything was closed. And, of course, they rescinded the year-plus long mask mandate just in time for the tourist influx. *sigh*

I'm just hoping that eligible kids got vaccinated in time for the opening of school next week. The ideal place would have been the clinic in the old Sears store at the local mall which isn't far from the school, but that closed at the end of July. When I took my brother there for his second shot in May, I noticed a couple of young teens there with their Moms - and I know they got vaccinated since they stopped for photos outside.

Wouldn't it make sense to require vaccinations to attend school? Other vaccinations have been mandatory since I was a kid and when my friend returned to college a few years back, she had to get the MMR vaccine in order to attend classes. And requiring vaccinations didn't used to be controversial.

[wnylib]

3. Didn't Governor Hochul say that teachers

have to be vaccinated by the end of this month? That's a good start. I think that state college campuses also require students to be vaccinated. But I don't think that vaccines are required yet for eligible secondary public school students. But masks are.

Our site gives the percentage of cases that were vaccinated or not vaccinated. As expected, the majority of infections are among the unvaccinated.

Total deaths here since the beginning of the pandemic are over 150, mostly people in their 70s and 80s, but a few younger people, too. Our vaccination rate went up 7 percentage points in the past 2 months since delta arrived here. We're averaging around 20 to 30 new cases daily. I've noticed that the highest new case numbers usually are on Thursdays (posted on Fridays). That suggests that they were exposed the previous weekend, around 5 days earlier, probably at beaches, restaurants, bars, crowded outdoor public events, churches, and weekend family gatherings.

[BeckyDem]

4. K&R