Glimmers of hope: FDA approves Pfizer, La. hospital numbers drop
Editor's Note: This story ran in our Tuesday print edition. The COVID statistics here have been updated elsewhere on this site.
Glimmers of hope emerged in the fourth wave of COVID-19 Monday, when Louisiana coronavirus hospitalizations declined and the Food And Drug Administration granted full approval to the Pfizer vaccine for people 16 and over.
Public health officials are hoping that the Pfizer approval will ease the fears of those concerned about vaccine safety and lead to more vaccinations.
There was no word Monday about when the other two-dose vaccine, Moderna, and the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will receive the final FDA OK. All three vaccines had been approved under emergency use authorization.
The number of people in Louisiana’s overextended hospitals for COVID-19 treatment fell over the weekend, marking the third straight Office of Public Health report in which hospitalizations were down.
Statewide, hospitalizations fell by 161 to 2,836. Before the first of the three straight daily decreases, the number of hospitalizations set records for 16 consecutive days.
In Louisiana Department of Public Health Region 3, which includes St. Mary and Assumption and extends to St. John the Baptist Parish, 494 of 601 hospital beds were occupied in Monday’s OPH report. In the region’s intensive care units, 89 of 97 beds were full.
Public health officials have warned that overcrowding in hospitals threatens the care of COVID patients and those with unrelated conditions or injuries.
Fifty Louisiana hospitals had asked the state government for additional staffing. A military team of 20 health care professionals arrived in Lafayette last week, but Gov. John Bel Edwards said the state doesn’t have the ability to provide the help hospitals need.
In St. Mary, another 111 new COVID cases were reported for Saturday and Sunday.
Those cases raised the number recorded in St. Mary since the pandemic began to 7,607. The number of COVID-related deaths in St. Mary is at 175.
One of every six St. Mary COVID deaths has occurred since Aug. 1. The number of COVID cases in St. Mary is up by 28% since the highly infectious Delta variant was confirmed in the state in early July.
The state reported 10,950 new cases and 59 deaths over the weekend.
The governor praised the FDA approval of Pfizer’s vaccine Monday.
“Today’s FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine, now marketed as Comirnaty, is yet another historic moment in our journey out of this COVID-19 pandemic,” Edwards said in a press release. “This full FDA approval of the first COVID vaccine follows months of clinical trials and millions upon millions of real-world doses safely administered across the globe. This vaccine is well researched, very safe and highly effective at preventing serious COVID illness, hospitalization and death.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and our most recent surge have been devastating,” said Dr. Joseph Kanter, the state’s public health officer. “To date, we have lost more than 11,900 Louisianans to this virus. Many more people going sleeves up for this life-saving vaccine will protect us against future COVID-19 surges and help us put an end to this pandemic.”
With the FDA’s Pfizer approval, the state’s public four-year colleges and universities will begin requiring COVID vaccine among the inoculations required for students, Nicholls State President Jay Clune said in a press release Monday.
The University of Louisiana System, which includes Nicholls State, had already obtained Department of Health approval to require COVID vaccine when full FDA approval was granted.
“Accordingly, I encourage all of our students to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as soon as possible,” Clune wrote. “You have already had to provide proof of vaccination for other conditions, and this process will be no different.”
Students who want to provide a written dissent or who have a medical condition that prevents safe vaccination can fill out a form and submit it to the university. A link to the form will appear on this story at StMaryNow.com.
Although the Pfizer approval is seen as a positive step, it seems likely to generate more debate over whether individuals have a right to reject the vaccine on personal freedom grounds, and whether private and public entities are entitled to require proof of vaccination from those using their services.
The Pentagon is moving to require members of the U.S. military to get the Pfizer vaccine, according to the Department Defense website.
Politico on Monday quoted President Joe Biden as encouraging employers to begin requiring vaccinations.
On Monday, the Office of Public Health reported that 33.13% of St. Mary’s population is vaccinated, up about 4 percentage points since the fourth COVID surge began.
About 40% of Louisiana’s adults are fully vaccinated, one of the lowest rates in the country. About 70% of the U.S. population has received at least one COVID shot.