HomeMy WebLinkAbout122923 KPTZ Listener Questions for Tuesday January 2_ 2024 BOCC Update (0002)County Commissioners, Dr Allison Berry, and Willie Bence,
Please see the KPTZ listener questions listed below for the first BOCC update of the year on January 2, 2024. The first question was submitted just after the December 11th update and
it is multifold.
Happy New Year!
Thank you,
Lynn Sorensen
KPTZ Virus Watch Team
Questions for Dr Allison Berry:
1. In the 12/11 broadcast, Dr. Berry stated that although the risk of long Covid is substantially reduced by vaccination, the risk of developing long Covid increases with multiple episodes
of disease.
As I understand what she said, the risk of long Covid is substantially the same following any separate episode of disease and is not cumulative, but multiple episodes simply increase
the chance that one of those times long Covid may result.
My question is why the protection conferred by vaccine-induced immunity reduces long Covid risk but immunity acquired by natural infection does confer the same protection.
My second question concerns what we are learning about pediatric Covid infection. I look at, for example, the experience of my 6 year old fully vaccinated granddaughter who has now had
Covid 5 times -
June 2022
May to July 2023 - 3 times in 2 months - a case followed by another case 4 weeks later, then another case 5 weeks after that in December 2023
Is any evidence emerging regarding potential long-term health impacts of multiple childhood infections? Is there reason to believe that this pattern of frequent infection is common among
school-age children (even if many kids are not being tested as frequently as this one who has very health-conscious parents) and lives in a multi-generational household with a medically
vulnerable elder?
2. What percentage of fully-vaccinated people develop long covid symptoms after experiencing a breakthrough infection?
I am interested in the latest findings on this topic.
3. I read in a recent New York Times that there were 26,000 hospitalizations for Covid the week of December 10th, and that was 3,000 more than the previous week nation wide.
Of the hospitalized patients do you have any statistics regarding the percentage of ventilators used or deaths from Covid?
Also, I am wondering about the percentage of hospitalized patients who are unvaccinated or not up to date with the most recent booster?
4. Do you the number of Jefferson county residents who have received the newest Covid booster?
Are local pharmacies seeing a drop off in the number of people requesting the new Covid booster?
5. Do you have statistics on the latest variant JN.1 and the risk for people aged 25-40 who have not received the newest booster but had all the vaccinations prior to September 2023?
6. Port Townsend has an increasing population of urban deer roaming the yards and gardens and leaving their excrement as they roam. I have heard that deer can be vectors for Covid. Is
this true?
Are residents of PT at risk for transmission of Covid or other infectious diseases from the deer population?
7. A herd of deer regularly reside in the high school sport field and leave their feces across the field.
Have there been any high school illnesses associated with the students exposure to feces as they play their team sports?