15,000 Coloradans have died due to COVID, a loss of historic proportions

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As of March 22, 2023, 15,007 Coloradans have now died in the coronavirus pandemic.

Colorado’s first COVID-19 death was an El Paso County woman in her 80s who died in a Colorado Springs hospital on March 13, 2020. 

Since then, the pandemic has claimed enough people to fill Red Rocks Amphitheatre one and a half times. 

“Fifteen thousand deaths is just terrible and it kind of forces us to reflect on what’s happened,” said Dr. Anuj Mehta, a pulmonary care physician at Denver Health, and member of the Colorado Vaccine Equity Taskforce. 

Reaching this milestone puts other changes in perspective. 

“COVID has done so much more than just killed people. It’s impacted people’s lives,” Mehta said. That includes children who lost a parent or grandparent, those suffering from long COVID and the other social and economic ripple effects of a global pandemic. 

Read more at CPR.

What’s the Impact of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in Colorado?

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Immunize Colorado and Children’s Hospital Colorado recently released a report detailing the impact of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) in Colorado from 2020-2021. The report, which was prepared by researchers in the Department of Epidemiology at Children’s Colorado, reveals that in the two-year span over 327,000 adults and nearly 50,000 children visited a Colorado emergency department (ED) or were hospitalized from infection with a VPD. More, VPDs resulted in a combined $13 billion in healthcare charges. While the COVID-19 pandemic prevented many from staying up to date with vaccines, routine childhood vaccination rates continue to lag even as we return to more normal behaviors. Colorado ranks 32nd in the nation for the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) recommended 7-series vaccines by 24 months of age for children born in 2018. So what does this mean for Coloradans? We’ve broken down a few of the report’s key findings.

Which VPDs most impact Coloradans?

COVID-19 and influenza caused the most hospitalizations in both adults and children in 2020 and 2021. In those two years combined, there were over 420,000 hospitalizations and ED visits for both age groups due to VPDs. A majority of adult hospitalizations were due to COVID-19, followed by influenza, varicella, and pneumococcal disease. Childhood hospitalizations were dominated by infections from influenza, COVID-19, and pneumococcal disease. (The report does note that COVID-19 vaccines were not widely available in 2020 and thus COVID-19 was not considered a VPD at that time.) The report’s authors also recognize that while children do have a lower risk of severe disease from COVID-19 infection compared to adults, “since 2020, COVID has been a top ten cause of death among US children.” This stands in contrast to the myth that COVID-19 does not pose a risk to kids. 

VPDs also result in economic costs, which disproportionately impact those most underserved in our communities. For instance, the economic toll of VPDs for publicly insured and uninsured children is nearly double that for commercially insured children and more than double for publicly insured and uninsured adults. Hospitalizations and ED visit charges for publicly insured and uninsured Coloradans (adults and children) totaled over $5 billion in 2020 and $4 billion in 2021. The costs of VPDs are felt by hospitals and health insurance companies, and can trickle down to taxpayers. For individual families, these costs also include not only hospital bills, but lost wages due to time taken from work. 

The report also highlights human papillomavirus (HPV)-related ED visits in Colorado adults. HPV can cause oropharyngeal, cervical, and anogenital cancers. HPV-related ED visits resulted in $80-95 million in charges for the two-year period. Statistically, four out of five people will develop HPV at some point in their lives, but the HPV vaccine can prevent 90% of HPV-related cancers. The HPV vaccine can be given as early as age nine but is recommended between ages 11 and 12 – when the immune response is the strongest. In Colorado, only 51% of 13-17-year olds have initiated their first dose of HPV vaccine and only 37% have completed the vaccine series, placing Coloradans far below the Healthy People 2030 goal of 80% HPV vaccine coverage. The Alliance for HPV Free Colorado has made public  HPV vaccine data in Colorado, which breaks vaccination coverage down by region and race/ethnicity and shows large disparities across the state.

HPV is transmitted through intimate skin-to-skin contact and can be spread unknowingly. Some are concerned that giving the HPV vaccine will increase sexual activity in teens and pre-teens and choose not to vaccinate their children. Data doesn’t support this claim. In fact, there is no association between HPV vaccination and increased sexual activity. HPV-related cancers affect both men and women so it’s important for both boys and girls to get vaccinated before they are ever exposed to the HPV virus. Again, the HPV vaccine prevents 90% of HPV-related cancers. HPV vaccination is truly important to ensuring health throughout the lifespan!

Colorado’s vaccination rates remain low while measles cases make national headlines. Vaccine-preventable diseases aren’t a thing of the past.

People may think that diseases like measles aren’t common anymore and so  we shouldn’t be concerned about vaccinating against them. The truth is that these diseases are still circulating, especially in certain parts of the world, and it doesn’t take a big gap in immunization coverage for them to spread. Measles is extremely contagious. In fact, a person infected with measles can infect 90% of the people they contact (CDC). A 95% MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) immunization rate is needed to prevent the disease from spreading easily in a community. 

Measles cases have made national headlines in recent months in the United States. In February, nearly 20,000 people were exposed to measles at a religious gathering in Kentucky. This event is linked to an outbreak in Ohio during which 85 children were infected and 36 were hospitalized. In January, the CDC released data that showed at least 250,000 U.S. kindergartners are not protected against measles. According to the Colorado VPD report, our state ranks 32nd in the nation for children completing the CDC’s 7-series of routine vaccines by age two. Data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) show that in 2021 only 94.4% of Colorado students were fully vaccinated against measles. 

Certain groups are more at risk from measles infection. Children under five are more susceptible to complications, as are people who are unable to be vaccinated, such as infants and those who have conditions for which the MMR vaccine is contraindicated. These groups rely on others to be vaccinated so they can stay protected. Given lower-than-ideal immunization rates in Colorado and measles’ ability to spread quickly, one can see why vaccination is so important! 

Measles isn’t the only disease that poses a threat. Polio, which is considered eliminated in the U.S., made a reemergence last fall in Rockland County, New York when a case of paralytic polio was identified in one individual and wastewater samples indicated its transmission in New York City. Vaccine-preventable diseases aren’t common today thanks to the success of vaccines, but they can come back and spread easily, especially when vaccination rates are low. We have to continue vaccinations for ALL VPDs to ensure that they remain uncommon! 

Your choice to vaccinate is not just about you or your family.

Vaccine-preventable diseases are just that – preventable! The health and economic impacts of these diseases to ourselves and our families, to our communities, and to our healthcare system are harmful, but preventable through vaccines. Vaccines remain one of the greatest achievements in public health. We all have a role to play to keep our community healthy. Your choice to vaccinate has impacts far beyond yourself and your family. Alternatively, when you delay or choose not to vaccinate, you make a choice that allows for diseases to spread. Join us in keeping Colorado communities healthy. Ensure that you and those you love are up to date with routine immunizations and vaccinations for COVID-19 and flu!

Immunize Colorado was formed in 1991 in response to alarmingly low vaccination rates across the state. At the time, only about 50% of Colorado’s children were adequately vaccinated. A group of physicians and other concerned individuals came together to strategize how to protect Coloradans from vaccine-preventable diseases and increase vaccine uptake. Much work remains. You can donate or discover other ways to get involved in supporting our commitment to healthy Colorado communities today!

If you had Covid before you were vaccinated, you might have less immunity than you think, study says

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People who caught Covid-19 before they were vaccinated had a weaker immune response to the shots than those who never had the virus, potentially leaving them less protected against reinfection, new research shows.

Co-funded by the National Institutes of Health, the study released Monday challenges older research that suggested a prior Covid infection enhanced a vaccinated individual’s immune response — a phenomenon known as hybrid immunity, which some scientists believe provides the best protection against reinfection.

In the study, researchers from Stanford University analyzed how immune cells found in the blood called CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells respond to Covid infection and vaccination. Those cells work together to produce an immune response that can help fend off the virus, killing other cells that have been infected. 

Read more at CNBC.

RSV Vaccines Are Nearly Here after Decades of False Starts

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Megan Smith was especially conscious of the threat COVID posed to her six-week-old daughter in October 2021. The now 36-year-old from Buffalo, N.Y., was “doing everything we could to protect her,” Smith says. Ultimately, though, it wasn’t COVID that sent her baby to the hospital but a more mundane virus that infects nearly everyone by their second birthday: respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Smith’s daughter required hospitalization and intubation from this respiratory virus, which infects the nose, throat, lungs and breathing passages. “I was not prepared for this in any sort of way,” says Smith, who was startled to learn no treatments for RSV exist besides supportive care and oxygen. Her daughter recovered, but Smith was left wishing a vaccine could have saved her that stress and heartache.

Read more at Scientific American.

Vaccine makers prep bird flu shot for humans ‘just in case’; rich nations lock in supplies

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Some of the world’s leading makers of flu vaccines say they could make hundreds of millions of bird flu shots for humans within months if a new strain of avian influenza ever jumps across the species divide.

One current outbreak of avian flu known as H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b has killed record numbers of birds and infected mammals. Human cases, however, remain very rare, and global health officials have said the risk of transmission between humans is still low.

Executives at three vaccine manufacturers – GSK Plc (GSK.L) Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) and CSL Seqirus, owned by CSL Ltd (CSL.AX) – told Reuters they are already developing or about to test sample human vaccines that better match the circulating subtype, as a precautionary measure against a future pandemic.

Read more at Reuters.

Covid Worsened a Health Crisis Among Pregnant Women

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KOKOMO, Ind. — Tammy Cunningham doesn’t remember the birth of her son. She was not quite seven months pregnant when she became acutely ill with Covid-19 in May 2021. By the time she was taken by helicopter to an Indianapolis hospital, she was coughing and gasping for breath.

The baby was not due for another 11 weeks, but Ms. Cunningham’s lungs were failing. The medical team, worried that neither she nor the fetus would survive so long as she was pregnant, asked her fiancé to authorize an emergency C-section.

“I asked, ‘Are they both going to make it?’” recalled Matt Cunningham. “And they said they couldn’t answer that.”

New government data suggest that scenes like this played out with shocking frequency in 2021, the second year of the pandemic.

Read more at The New York Times.

Sleep affects your immunity after vaccination. Here’s how

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If you’re scheduling an appointment for a vaccination — whether for Covid-19, the flu or for travel to another country — make sure you’re getting a long, restful night’s slumber before you head to the doctor.

Sleeping less than six hours the night before you get the shot may limit your body’s response to the vaccine, reducing protection against the virus or bacteria, according to a new study.

“Good sleep not only amplifies but may also extend the duration of protection of the vaccine,” said senior author Eve Van Cauter, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago’s Department of Medicine, in a statement.

Read more at CNN.

Lying and Vaccine Disinformation Among Parents

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Approximately one-quarter of parents lie about their child’s COVID-19 status or don’t follow public health guidelines like quarantines meant to prevent viral spread, according to survey findings published in JAMA Network Open.1

Researchers, led by Andrea Gurmankin Levy, PhD, MBE, used a subset of data from a larger national sample of 1733 US adults to focus on survey responses among 580 parents (mean age, 35.9 years; 67% non-Hispanic White; 70% identified as women) of children younger than 18 years.

In total, 150 parents (25.9%) reported misrepresentation and/or nonadherence in at least 1 of 7 behaviors, the most common of which was not telling someone who was with their child that they thought or knew their child had COVID-19 (24.0%) and allowing their child to break quarantine rules (21.1%). Forty-seven parents (10%) said their child was vaccinated when they were not.

Read more at Clinical Advisor.

What the research shows about risks of myocarditis from COVID vaccines versus risks of heart damage from COVID – two pediatric cardiologists explain how to parse the data

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Soon after the first COVID-19 vaccines appeared in 2021, reports of rare cases of heart inflammation, or myocarditis, began to surface.

In most instances, the myocarditis has been mild and responded well to treatment, though up to four potentially mRNA vaccine-related deaths from myocarditis in adults have been reported worldwide. No known verified deaths of children have been reported based upon publicly available data. The exact number remains a topic of very heated debate because of variability in the reporting of possible myocarditis-related deaths.

Studies have largely confirmed that the overall myocarditis risk is significantly higher after an actual COVID-19 infection compared with vaccination, and that the prognosis following myocarditis due to the vaccine is better than from infection. The specific myocarditis risk varies by age and has been debated because of differing views among a small group of physicians related to risk tolerance and support for or against COVID-19 immunization for specific age groups.

Read more at The Conversation.

News Flash: COVID Vaccines Still Safe, Effective and Keep Economy Open

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It’s been three years since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. Now, as the pandemic begins to fade from our everyday lives, it pays to take a quick look back to remember how vital vaccines have been to keeping Americans healthy and the economy moving.  

So, here’s a reminder that FDA-approved COVID vaccines are safe and effective. What’s more, these vaccines have helped ensure the American workforce stays healthy and the economy remains open.  

COVID Vaccines Are Safe and Effective… 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.   

More than 672 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given in the United States. The vaccines met the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality. In addition, serious side effects from COVID vaccines are known to be rare.  

Read more at U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

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