During National Immunization Awareness Month, vaccination takes center stage. That’s why Medix’s Occupational Health Consultant, Dr. Scarlet Spain, is here to provide an update on COVID-19 vaccines, the Delta variant and the latest safety guidelines for employers and individuals. For more information on how Medix is supporting COVID-19 vaccination efforts, please visit: https://www.medixteam.com/covid-19-vaccine/
[Music] we are here today with medics healthcare consultant dr scarlett spain hi dr spain hi andy how are you i’m i’m doing well how about you i’m good nice to see you again yes nice to see you um you know we we’ve been talking with dr spain about a lot of issues as they relate uh to health care in the last year particularly around covid19 and as there have been a lot of updates in recent days around the covid19 pandemic vaccines and how folks should be approaching the pandemic as it continues on we wanted to check back in with dr spain to see you know what were the latest updates from the cdc and other healthcare sources and what people could be doing to remain safe and you know there’s another reason why we’re talking to you right now because it is national immunization awareness month which i’ll be honest i was not aware of uh until very recently so i was wondering before we start digging in the details of uh the pandemic if you could share just a little bit about what goes into this month of awareness sure thanks for having me so national immunization awareness month is held in august and this has been a time that’s been designated for highlighting the importance of vaccination for people of all ages um so the cdc website houses a lot of great information and resources that can be used to assist health care providers patients parents just anybody with questions about vaccinations and requirements and timing and that kind of stuff so it is important to remember that although august is our time to highlight this immunizations are imperative all year long yeah that’s that’s a great point and certainly something that has been driven home uh in in the last year in a big way so i know obviously vaccinations have been top of mind as we’re talking about the kovid 19 pandemic but you know obviously it applies much more widely than just kovid you know of course that when i when i think of the healthcare space number one thing i’ve been thinking about has been uh the latest developments around covid19 so can you give us sort of an overview of where we are right now in regards to the pandemic well we are i speaking for myself really had started to see and feel some optimism at the beginning of the summer but the delta variant which we’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about lately is now making up a predominant number of our cases and this is frankly very concerning for multiple reasons so we see some areas in the u.s where there are disproportionate number of unvaccinated people and obviously our kiddos are falling into this group as well as we don’t have a vaccine approved for children under age 12 in the us currently the delta variant does seem to have the potential to be impacting younger age groups more than the previous variants we had seen and we are seeing a rise in cases hospitalizations and deaths from with statistics from the cdc stating that cases are on the rise in nearly 90 percent of u.s jurisdictions we are also seeing outbreaks specifically in areas of the country that have low vaccination coverage as well as of late july 35 of u.s counties are experiencing high levels of community transmission this could be catastrophic for areas with lower vaccination rates wow yeah that’s definitely concerning i know we’re all seeing these updates on the news and you know it could sort of be confusing and alarming at the same time so i’m hoping you can break down some of the things that you brought up um in that overview there and number one being uh the delta variant because that is you know certainly leading the way in all the stories i’ve been seeing lately so can you give me a little bit more information just about what is the delta variant sure so it’s a highly contagious stars cov2 virus strain which was first identified in december in india so we were seen on the news all the issues with india and how covid was so severe over there um so this is that same strain it’s also impacted great britain strongly it has been here in the u.s our first case was march that we found it so the world health health organization says that we are at a very dangerous period of the pandemic due to the delta variant becoming the predominant strain so this delta variant is dangerous and spreading quickly so it it it seems like you know like you said this is a variation of covid19 um so what really causes viruses like this to change or or mutate in this way yeah that’s a great question so all viruses evolve over time and undergo changes as they spread and replicate so going from person to person variants happen as the virus is transmitted so often times the changes are mutations will make the viruses less infectious sometimes though unfortunately these changes during replication may make a mutation that will allow the virus to bind to an individual better so this is where the concern comes in so this variant that we’re seeing with delta now has essentially increased the fitness of the virus and allows for better binding or invasion of the immune system okay so with all that in mind how how is the delta variant different than what we were seeing previously with covid yeah so the cdc director stated the delta virus is more aggressive and more transmissible than the strain we saw at the beginning of the pandemic it’s also spreading quickly so that delta the delta variant represents more than 83 of the virus spreading in the united states currently as of like today or this past week it is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of and delta is more contagious than the other virus strains that we’ve seen previously as mentioned so the cdc estimates that twenty percent of cases in the us were due to the delta virus variant toward the end of june and by the end of july delta was the cause for more than eighty percent of new u.s cova 19 cases so they are not and if you have watched any of our videos before um we’ve talked about this but the r knot of delta is estimated to be 3.5 to 4 as opposed to the original coronavirus strain that was approximately two so as a reminder the term are not it’s a mathematical term that describes how many additional cases of a disease each infected person will cause during their infectious period so how many people will get sick from one person basically so these numbers represent a range and will vary depending on a variety of factors that may change from situation to situation and we’re also seeing that delta variant behaves differently from these past strains so those who are vaccinated previous with previous versions of the virus carried less of the virus essentially making them less likely to spread infection with the delta variants research and data that we currently have is showing that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people have the same amount of virus in them to transfer infection with that being said i definitely want to make make it known that vaccines are working and they do greatly help to prevent serious infection hospitalizations and death um vaccinated individuals still represent a very very small amount of people who are transmitting the virus okay yeah i think that’s that is a great point to keep in mind too because uh obviously there’s so much concerns of people thinking you know i i was vaccinated um but now i i’m spreading this so you know not quite sure how to approach it but that is that is a great thing to keep in mind that you know uh hospitalizations those serious infections death are are all being curbed um by the vaccines and and that’s at least somewhat comforting um especially as we keep hearing this term thrown around which i hadn’t heard before called breakthrough infections um so i’m wondering if you can share a little bit with me about that like what is a breakthrough infection and you know should should i be thinking about that um you know how how concerned should we be i was wondering if you could just give a little background on on that as well as well absolutely so with breakthrough infections although they’re exceedingly rare um basically it means that a infection can occur in those even those who are fully vaccinated so breakthrough cases happen in a person who’s been fully vaccinated that still gets coveted so they still test positive um so with that they can transmit the virus with the new delta variants so we’re seeing this more this does not mean the vaccine is failing you will see breakthrough cases when there are large numbers of people infected um circulating throughout the community okay with all that in mind breakthrough cases and everything uh how is this delta variant being impacted by the vaccine yeah so research is showing that mrna vaccines do provide protection against hospitalizations and severe illness with the delta variant so vaccination remains extremely important so best solution is to prevent transmission we will keep seeing the virus change as it continues to spread so doing those measures to stop that transmission is going to remain critically important with uh vaccines being of the utmost importance also of importance um to i want to mention that many areas that have higher substantial levels of transmission have lower rates of vaccination so you know i i i think that the the urging to to get vaccinated has been out there for a little bit um but at the same time there have been changing guidelines that i know have been personally hard to keep track of um you know not only over the course of a year plus but really recently um seems like there’s been been a lot of updates to keep in mind so uh what are the new cdc guidelines that we should be all following to to keep each other safe yeah so it’s interesting i think we’ve all and this is where a lot of people are just tired right because the guidelines have changed so often and it’s because it is a novel or a new virus so as new information is coming out we will continue to see changes so it is important to stay up to date on those guidelines but the current guidelines if unvaccinated you must continue to wear a mask to protect yourself and those around you and utilize those other mitigation strategies that were recommended from the start and then all vaccinated people should wear masks indoors in areas of high or substantial levels of transmission which i looked at one of the maps on the cdc website and it really still makes up a predominant area of the united states um and then also keep up with those other mitigation strategies as well even if you are vaccinated you should also continue to wear a mask where required by laws rules regulations or local guidance so some employers may still have those masked mandates and they may have lifted them i wouldn’t be surprised to start seeing those be put back into place so just for people to be aware of that um looking at the cdc website for guidance is gonna be crucial as well just to keep up to date on everything sure and you know obviously we think about employment a lot here at medics um so all these cdc guidelines trickle back down um into the way we work right so what can businesses do to keep employees safe as the the pandemic continues on uh in the coming months yeah so as always make thoughtful decisions to protect your health and the health of the community and your workforce this is not over unfortunately we feel that glimmer of optimism um but you know i as we start to see vaccination rates to continue to go up i do think things will start looking better but it does seem right now the greatest risk at this time is to those that are unvaccinated so employers should continue with their established workplace control programs and mitigation strategies they may need to adjust those change those obviously um due to again the changing guidance so some specific ways that employers can help to mitigate risk would be to encourage vaccines perform periodic testing and maintaining good infection control policies that were previously established so some of these may include daily health screenings hand washing social distancing when possible and masking and also bringing in professionals such as an occupational health nurse or somebody uh well-versed in infection to help to manage their infection control plan that’s going to be really really important also encourage your employees to talk to their personal providers about obtaining the the vaccine i’ve seen a lot of employers do some really cool things about um you know just kind of urging people to get the vaccination like it’s okay to leave work or whatever i can’t speak to each individual business that would be you know of course according to the workplace but definitely try to encourage people if they work crazy hours um try to encourage them to get the vaccine and the world health organization states that ways to push back against this current surge we’re seeing with the delta variants are public health and social measures so the same things we mentioned but other things such as early case detection keeping up with that isolation surveillance testing clinical care or hospital care and then things as the the mitigation strategies that we’ve already talked about so masking physical distance ventilation and then other specific mitigation strategies specific to your workforce well thank you i think that’s all great advice and actionable items for employers to take as well as you know employees as we all you know are trying to figure this out together um as a workforce and really as a society i mean this is a learning experience for everyone and clearly the situation continues to change and evolves so you know we’re all we’re all figuring this out together and i’ll have to say i appreciate having you here dr spain to sort of walk us through all this uh you know i wish it was under better circumstances and we didn’t have to be talking about a pandemic right now but if we have to um it’s good to have experts on our side uh to to really bring us uh the latest information and sort of translate it uh for use in our everyday life so thank you again for joining us and sharing a little bit of your insights yeah thanks andy it was great to see you again
