STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
COVID GRAPH BY PAUL RIES
Wish that we could take a holiday from the COVID pandemic.
But unfortunately, it continues to rage.
Blaine County’s number of average new cases per 100,000 residents based on a seven-day average continued to climb in the latest count. It’s averaging 75.1 new cases per 100,000, compared with 53.4 during the week of Nov. 8-14.
And the number of positive tests among all the tests conducted from Nov. 15-21 was 17.2 percent, up from 11.18 percent the week before.
That means Blaine County stayed in the Critical Risk category, according to the Harvard Global Health metrics.
Those between the ages of 30 and 39 continued to have the most cases with 34. There were 21 cases between the ages of 50-59; 29 between the ages of 18 and 29 and 18 between the ages of 40 and 49.
There were 8 cases among those 70 and older; 7 between the ages of 60 and 69 and 14 and 17. There were 3 between the ages of 5 and 10; 2 between the ages of 0 and 4 and 1 between 11 and 13 years of age.
IDAHO REACHES MILESTONE
Idaho posted 3,981 new cases from Thanksgiving through Sunday, topping 100,000 for a total of 100,484. That, however is an average of 995 new cases a day, which is far better than what the state has been averaging.
Blaine County recorded 32 new cases over the four-day period for a total of 32, or an average of eight a day. Blaine County has recorded 1,287 official cases since the pandemic started, although health officials estimate many more were missed.
The state lost 25 more Idahoans to COVID during the four-day holiday weekend for a total of 920.
A CALL TO SACRIFICE
The White House Coronavirus Task Force says that Americans need to exhibit a significant behavior change, including wearing masks and distancing in public and private spaces. America just saw a record 91,000-plus hospitalizations and ICU patients. More than a thousand hospitals are on the brink of capacity.
Taking precautions is a short-term sacrifice with vaccinations in the front-view mirror, the report said.
ROLLING UP THE WELCOME MAT
A story that aired this past week on Boise State Public Radio told how hospitals in Western states are looking across state borders for help—and no one has room.
“For our healthcare workers to be having to put themselves at risk for residents of states who are not following the best science is exceptionally frustrating,” said Cassie Sauer, CEO of the Washington State Hospital Association.
Sauer noted that Washington has followed stricter public health protocols than many Mountain West states, implementing a statewide mask mandate early on and recently instituting a second lockdown. But across the border in Idaho there are no plans for a lockdown and no mask mandate.
As a result, Sauer pointed out, Idaho ranks among the top states for COVID-19 infection rates and an increasing number of Idaho patients are showing up in Washington much to the dismay of hospital managers there.
“One of the hospital leaders said, ‘We do not support extending an invitation to send us more,’” Sauer added.
DISINFECTING CUBE DISCREDITED
Idaho’s Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin says she has the solution for hospitals that are having to turn away patients: A cube that people can walk through and be disinfected from head to toe.
But a June study in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene found that walk-through sanitation gates were not only ineffective but potentially dangerous, in addition to violating World Health Organization standards.
Fumigation is meant for inanimate objects and surfaces and should ever be used on people, the study said, according to The Hill. That study and one with similar findings from the Royal Society for Public Health have both been cited by the National Institutes of Health.
VACCINES AND CRABS
A little-known fact is that vaccines utilize horseshoe crab blood. Vaccine manufacturers stick needles into the crabs’ hearts removing about a third of their blood. Then they release the crabs back to the Delaware Bay, according to Audubon Magazine. But conservationists suspect those crabs don’t produce as many eggs as they normally would.
That, in turn, could adversely affect Red Knot birds who feast on their eggs.
Vaccine manufacturers are trying to address that problem with a synthetic alternative.
HOPEFUL NEWS ON IMMUNITY
A new COVID-19 antibody test indicates that immunity to the coronavirus may last for years, even decades. A study by the La Jolla Institute of Immunology determined that eight months after infection most people still have enough immune cells to fend off the virus, according to an article in the New York Times.
And a slow rate of decline suggests the cells may persist in the body for a very, very long time to come.
The research has not been peer-reviewed but it is the most comprehensive and long-ranging study of immune memory to the coronavirus to date. And it’s consistent with evidence emerging from the University of Washington and other labs.
DR. BIRX IN IDAHO FALLS
Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force recently paid a visit to Idaho Falls where she told Idaho’s governor and others that schools are not super spreaders. It’s gatherings where people are not distancing and wearing masks that are causing the problems.
CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS
A trampoline park in Spokane was fined $10,000 after reopening despite the governor’s orders to remain closed.
Meanwhile, a man has been charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly exhaling on purpose on two women outside the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va.