COVID-19-related death rates in Contra Costa County are now higher than any time since March, and nearly all of the new county cases involve the delta variant of the virus, health officials told the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
“For the seven-day period that ended a week ago — Aug. 31 — 15 people in our county passed away from COVID,” said Dr. Ori Tzvieli, the medical director of the county health department. “Then this week, the period that ended today, for which we don’t even have full data yet, some data will still trickle in — we’ve had 20 COVID deaths for this past week.”
Tzvieli said the lowest number of deaths in the interim came the week that ended May 25 — one death. But the delta variant has changed things.
“We are seeing the death numbers coming up,” Tzvieli said. “That is why we are asking people to vaccinate. People dying from COVID is still a real thing — we’re still very concerned.”
Contra Costa Health Services Deputy Director Randy Sawyer said the delta surge is changing how the department is now approaching the pandemic.
“This pandemic will last for years and we expect (there) will be additional surges and variants,” Sawyer said. “CCHS is now preparing for a COVID-19 response for the next five to 10 years, so we do expect it to be around for that period of time.”
“The surge that we’re seeing from the delta variant is being fueled by people who are not vaccinated,” Sawyer said. “You are 13 times more likely to end up in the hospital with COVID if you’re unvaccinated — that’s based on our own data.”
Tzvieli said demand for COVID-19 tests have gone up as well.
“We’ve actually been setting records this past week for number of tests done per day, countywide,” Sawyer said.
Though overall case numbers have gone down slightly in the past week, most new cases are coming from the eastern part of the county, where vaccination rates are the lowest. The health department has expanded testing and vaccination hours in the area.
Tseveli equated COVID-19’s staying power and our necessary adjustments to taking precautions whenever someone gets into a vehicle.
“When you get in the car, you always put on your seatbelt,” Tseveli said. “And with COVID, it’s the same thing. You wear a mask, which is like wearing a seatbelt to keep yourself safer. Cars also have airbags, right? And so with COVID we also social distance, that’s like having an air bag, like another measure to protect yourself.
“And when we drive a car, sometimes we’re getting low on gas or an electric charge, and we have to charge or add more gas. That’s the same thing with our body and our immunity. Over time, our immunity runs a little low and that’s when we need a booster.”
Tseveli said boosters will likely be available the week of Sept. 20, though the county is still waiting on official guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The first to be eligible will likely be elderly people in care homes and immunocompromised people, he said.
Is the health department comparing seatbelts to masks? Are they making an innuendo that we will be ‘required’ to wear masks for years? Are you folks starting to see that the government will NOT give you back what you FREELY gave them … your rights, your freedom … what else are you willing to give up?
And as for the booster shots, the CDC has only endorsed it for the immunocompromised … they are saying the efficacy is still good and they will make a decision later … so why are they talking boosters? Seriously …
For those of you unwilling or unable to do your own research.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/health/booster-shots-acip-discussion/index.html
I would say that wearing a mask compares to wearing a helmet. Almost nobody wears a helmet in their car when going to the grocery store or commuting to work. They wear them in high-risk situations like racing, riding motorcycles, etc. Should be the same with masks. Wear one in the hospital, where sick people are likely to be.
How many people would support requiring a helmet while driving or riding in a car? Probably not very many, even though it would absolutely save lives.
@ Chicken Little
I like the helmet analogy! That works.
@ParentAlso … way to find the humor in this.
@Chicken Little
I’ve worn helmets and masks and believe me when I say they are not comparable.
+1
amen!
these lefties see they can keep their power forever, literally because fear has brought us to our knees. if we do nothing, then in generations from now hopefully some of you will be reminding your grand children of when we had rights provided by God and our constitution because for them they will have privileges they will be given by their rulers.
#RecallGavinNewsom
#EndTheDemocratRule
#RestoreOurLiberties
God Bless America
FDA just sued by Bobby Kennedy for sham approval of vaccine.
“Under federal law, if the FDA licenses a product for the same precise purpose as an existing emergency use authorization product, it must withdraw the EUA. Yet here, the FDA is allowing Pfizer to have “interchangeable” vaccines, Comirnaty and Pfizer-BioNTech, on the market at the same time for the same indication of people aged 16 and up, while suggesting that the vaccines are “legally distinct.” CHD asserts that the FDA has violated the law.”
https://tinyurl.com/nphaapja
Shush!
If the Democrat politicians hear this one, they’ll to want to lock us down forever, take total control over our lives and violot, their socialism will be here.
Definitely beyond the time the public here should have been pushing back as they are doing in many European countries and Australia. I don’t think these authorities have the stomach for a push back, confrontation and civil disobedience.
They already do, and it already is.
Move over, Joshua, we’ve just had the longest two weeks in recorded history.
Well gee no fooling..
It’s like the flu, it’ll never go away…EVER.
Thank you China, bunch of liars from the get go about it..
Thanks Fibbin Fauci
I didn’t read that load of baloney.
I said at the beginning of this charade that once these mid-management civil employees got the power to control the people that they would never relinquish that power.
My accusation has now been proven.
I’m not denying that there is a nasty virus.
I believe it is man-made.
I believe that $2 of what should be over-the-counter meds will cure the virus.
Charade is a polite word for what has been done to us all.
Israel is supposed to be close to 100% vaccinated yet their hospitals are filling up with those sick from the variants. I would not be surprised if the variants are coming from the vaccinated. If that is the case I doubt we learn that for years.
That is incorrect. Only 58% are. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/08/20/1029628471/highly-vaccinated-israel-is-seeing-a-dramatic-surge-in-new-covid-cases-heres-why
Israel proves that the protection from the vaccine wanes starting at 6 months, that’s why boosters are coming. However, people were 9 times more likely to be seriously ill in the hospital with covid if they were unvaccinated. Most of the cases are young unvaccinated people. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/08/20/1029628471/highly-vaccinated-israel-is-seeing-a-dramatic-surge-in-new-covid-cases-heres-why
This is not true. You are spreading lies. Vaccination rate is under 60 percent in Israel
According to an Israeli newspaper it is 78%.
Israel is nearing 400% vaccination.
Israelis have vaccinated 78% of the ‘eligible’ (over 12yo) population, 58% of the the total population. Not sure whether Palestinians in occupied territories are in those stats or separate. Many Palestinians were not provided with vaccines or were offered the Russian vaccine.
This is absolute insanity. If you didn’t already realize just how dumb the people in power think we are, please see below quote from the medical director of the county health department:
“‘When you get in the car, you always put on your seatbelt,” Tseveli said. “And with COVID, it’s the same thing. You wear a mask, which is like wearing a seatbelt to keep yourself safer. Cars also have airbags, right? And so with COVID we also social distance, that’s like having an air bag, like another measure to protect yourself.
‘And when we drive a car, sometimes we’re getting low on gas or an electric charge, and we have to charge or add more gas. That’s the same thing with our body and our immunity. Over time, our immunity runs a little low and that’s when we need a booster.'”
.
Why aren’t performance metrics being posted any more? What is the positivity rate? Is there a separate positivity rate for the Delta variant? What about hospitalization rates?
What are the metrics for when we can go maskless again?
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Have we become numb to the mask mandate? Will we be compelled to wear mask from now on because Newsom says so?
.
Most of what you’re asking for is available on the County’s Covid-19 website.
https://www.coronavirus.cchealth.org/overview
Fortunately, cases and hospitalizations have been dropping. Deaths are a lagging statistic, usually occurring at least a month after the person becomes infected. Although cases are now declining, Next week’s numbers may jump due to the Labor Day holiday activities.
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I reviewed their site. What is the target positivity rate so we can go maskless once again?
Find that info… go ahead. It is nowhere to be found.
Reminds me of a movie I saw recently where the vaccine was causing the deaths. The motive was population reduction and the officials would soon have the world to themselves.
Captain Bebops~
No vaccine in this movie, but did you ever see Logan’s Run?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film)
Sure. When it came out and again streaming a couple years ago. 🙂
Check this one out to see how bad it was even before Covid!!
https://youtu.be/av7ckPGP8VI
When will they learn that the fearmongering isn’t working? Anybody with critical thinking skills can see right through their lies. The cheap mask that most people are wearing, and some wear it below their nose is useless, and when a sneeze or a cough travels more than 20 feet, six feet social distancing is a joke.
They are always telling us the mask is to protect others, now he’s comparing it to seatbelts, stating the mask is to protect the wearer.
I don’t doubt there is a serious virus, and I don’t doubt the efficacy of the vaccine. My only problem is that they are pushing the vaccine too hard, and it hasn’t been out long enough to know if there will be any serious side effects.
Wash your hands and don’t touch your face.
The scary thing is that I’m finding out most of the people I work with do not have critical thinking skills.
A vaccine is supposed to provide an “acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease” according to the Wikipedia article for “vaccine.”
It’s clear that the existing jabs don’t provide much of an immunity to at least the delta variant of the virus. The surprise to me is that Delta has been out for a couple of months but I don’t recall seeing any media reports about developing a vaccine so that people have an immunity.
Immunity is what stops the virus. Had the 75% that has already jabbed been immunized then COVID-19 largely be gone.
what is it going to take folks?
first it was two weeks to slow the spread
next don’t wear a mask, oh wait wear a mask
then it was shutdown the economy
then it was get the vaccine
now it is, well it will never end
take back your freedoms before they are gone
of course it will..its the flu..its the corona family of viruses, are they going to tell us the flu went away forever now after a thousand years?
If we believe the data these health department hacks have been putting out, it appears that almost all deaths and hospitalizations are the unvaccinated individuals. At this point, everyone that wants the vaccine has gotten it. So, they made a choice and suffered the consequences. So, why is the government trying to control us. I made a choice to not be vaccinated. I realize the risks. If I infect a vaccinated person, according to these dictators, the vaccinated person will suffer from possible mild symptoms but not die or be hospitalized. So, what is really going on here? It’s called control people. Wake up before it’s too late.
It makes no sense why our county will not enforce mandates for indoor spaces! PLEASE follow SF, LA, NY, and require vaccine for any indoor activity. We are tired of carrying the burden!
Signed: vaccinated people!!!
I have a better idea @jen—why don’t you move to one of those places instead?
Signed: Critical Thinkers
Why should I have to move? If you “critical thinkers” won’t proactively do your part then YOU should move.
Mandates are coming, brace yourself.
what burden are you carrying? feeling afraid of the sky falling? if you are vaccinated you are safe right? maybe you need to go back to CNN so they can tell you want to think.
You must be referring to ‘viral burden’…A study by University of Oxford scientists has found that people who contract the Delta variant of COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated carry a similar amount of the coronavirus as those who catch the disease and have not been inoculated.
@earl
When you write things it’s just sad. Really is. What Jen is saying is that people who aren’t vaccinated don’t care about anyone besides themselves. Because that is why these surges happen. Things would have been fine if people would have masked up for a few months but noooo, Some feel like it’s “My Freedom” to do whatever I want. You live on average over 75 years. A few months out of your life wouldn’t have changed anything. But sadly people like you that don’t want to end this make it worse for others who can’t live when getting covid. Getting vaccinated and masking does help weather you want to believe it or not. I do have they mandate it. I say this because I want it over just like the rest.
@Sancho Panza
Sorry but you left out 1 very important detail about that study. Over 99% of those people actually don’t. The breakthrough cases yes can. But are extremely rare.
@jen I’m so tired of everyone being lumped into one group. Just because I’m against forced vaccination doesn’t mean I’m anti-vax. Just because I think wearing a mask should be a choice doesn’t mean I’m not pro-actively doing my part.
What your trying to imply is that SF, NY and LA are beating this pandemic because of their strict mandates. They aren’t. All they are doing is fueling neighbor against neighbor, vaccinated against unvaccinated.
If you think vaccine mandates for indoor spaces is the answer, you clearly don’t understand that Covid is never going away. They can force mandate all they want, but in the end it small businesses and
people like you and me who lose.
@ Sancho Panza
And you left out the part that found that the breakthrough cases cleared the virus at a much higher rate and thus carried high levels of virus for a much shorter time.
@Me & JWB~ Did you read the report? Here you go:
https://www.ndm.ox.ac.uk/files/coronavirus/covid-19-infection-survey/finalfinalcombinedve20210816.pdf
@ Sancho Panza
Yes but did you? Can you see that they incorporate reference (31) which says:
“The mRNA vaccines are highly effective at preventing symptomatic and severe COVID-19 associated with B.1.617.2 infection. Vaccination is associated with faster decline in viral RNA load and a robust serological response”
That means the vaccinated individuals cleared the virus faster “faster decline in viral RNA load”.
@JWB~There are 48 references…guess you didn’t read (34)…
“Peak viral load therefore now appears similar in infected vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, with potential implications for onward transmission risk, given the strong association between peak Ct and infectivity34.”
You can interpret this report to meet your ‘worldview’…the point is data is now available, if you look for it!
@ Sancho :Panza
I’m not sure what you’re trying to argue here? Nobody disputed that peak viral load is about the same in unvaccinated and vaccinated breakthrough cases. The question is how fast is that viral load cleared from the infected individuals. And the data is quite clear that vaccinated clear the virus at a much faster rate. This means that vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infection have a shorter time frame to spread the virus when compared to unvaccinated.
So even with delta the advantages for vaccination is that the number of individuals infected is lower in vaccinated compared to unvaccinated (I believe the CDC last week published findings indicating the rate is about 5 fold lower), the symptoms are generally milder in vaccinated versus unvaccinated (again according to the study published by the CDC last week the difference was about 19 fold in favor of the vaccinated individuals) and lastly while the peak in unvaccinated individuals is about the same as in breakthrough infected individuals the rate of decline for the virus is much enhanced in vaccinated individuals.
What was not mentioned in the above was that Supervisor Mitchoff asked Dr. Tzvieli about natural immunity from having had Covid-19…he responded that “yes, immunity is very good, but don’t have full science…and that the vaccine is pretty close to it (natural immunity)…but that on the way to natural immunity, some will die.” There you have it, natural immunity is superior to vaccine–straight from the Public Health Director (his new role)!
@Sancho Panza
Again you’re not understanding the correct info. Everyone knows natural immunity is far better. Even the people who made the vaccines have even said that. That’s not the problem. The problem is, can your body fight off the virus before you die or have very bad lasting effects? And if it can. What about you giving it to someone who won’t survive? That’s the whole thing about vaccines.
What correct information are you talking about? I watch meetings live, read reports…I’m using deductive reasoning…why would you mandate a vaccine to someone that has far superior natural immunity produced by your own body? And please don’t tell me that you can give it to someone as the vaccinated are passing Covid-19 Delta variant…look for data, it’s out there!
@Sancho Panza and Me – “Everyone knows natural immunity is far better” is both not true and is not what Dr. Tzvieli said in the excerpt Sancho quoted.
@Me
Great argument from omniscience…”everyone knows natural immunity is far better…”
Fallacy
The “Pandemic Could Linger For Years” that says it all. As long as the pandemic is ongoing they’ll keep up with the mandates and restrictions. So that means it’ll linger as long as they want it to.
I do believe the wuflu will be around for a long time. How long? Have no idea. As far as wearing masks: Most people do not wear the correct masks. Some wear a mask incorrectly. Some appear to never wash the cotton ones judging by the filth and food particles. I’m willing to do my part to try to get back to a sense of normalcy, but so many yahooosss spoil the reality of the situation. I and my family continue to live our lives as we did prior to the wuflu. We follow the ever changing rules, but like many others have very little confidence in the CDC and especially our government with brain-dead.
if you have no confidence with those giving out the rules why do you follow them?
@Earl
Because they are listening to the science and scientist. Not some conspiracy theorist.
It’ll be around long enough to help rig the next election!
Right. They no longer have to come up with a new disease for each election cycle. They just use this one again.
Well at least by the time I retire, in 10 years, they may have this under control. Thank God this state knows what its doing, and the people in control know what’s best for us. Yes this was sarcasm!!
Just another 5-10 years to slow the curve!!
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What is the current positivity rate?
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The target rate when we can stop wearing masks?
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“This pandemic will last for years and we expect (there) will be additional surges and variants,”
No sh*t Sherlock. Been saying that from day one. It’s a flu bug. There is no magic cure. Sooner or later everyone on earth will get it. Amazing it took these health ‘professionals’ over a year to see this.
When will our representatives allow US citizens to sue China for unleashing this man made disease? China has to pay.
we are being played for saps and unable to stop them now that our freedoms & rights, intelligence, health, economy and finances have been compromised by them. we are the ants in the afterbirth.
Kauai Mike, we can stop them.
Ain’t nobody telling me to wear a mask. I do what I want, when and how I want. Don’t play me you liberal wackos.
It’s also a HOAX
The plandemic is over at the exact moment you refuse to play. First step is understanding it’s a complete HOAZ. Biggest HOAX ever ran on the planet.
If its a Hoax, then why is Idaho running out of ICU space?
BECAUSE MANY OF IDAHO’S NURSES HAVE BEEN FIRED OR RESIGNED FOR REFUSING THE MANDATED TOXIC JAB.
But remember……”We don’t want to overwhelm the hospitals”……so everyone needs to Cower-in-place.
FACT: One of the lowest vaccinated states is IDAHO.
Dont look now, but IDAHO is instituting “Crisis Care”.
Their ICU’s are so overwhelmed with Covid patients (mostly unvaccinated) that a Doctor will now make the decision whether or not someone is “healthy” enough to be admitted into the ICU.
If you are obese, diabetic, a smoker, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and the physician doesnt think that you are going to “make it”, he’s not going to be putting you in the ICU.
Only healthy people will get ICU bed space.
It’s a HOAX. Doctors and scientists have always had a god complex. It’s called Crimes against humanity and mass murder. Nuremberg code. Hippocratic oath. The simple solution would be to get more beds. But they would rather pump idiots full of fake fear news. Cry more lib. I water my lawn with liberal tears.
I remember when Granny Clampet introduced the cure for the common cold.
It was simple.
You took a dose of Granny’s Elixer 3 times a day, every day.
In a week or two, you were cured!