West Virginia was one of the leading states in the United States in deploying Covid-19 vaccines. It is now one of the least vaccinated, with a growing rate of infections in the country. Health systems are overflowing, with a record number of patients in the hospital, intensive care units and ventilators.
What happened?
West Virginia was quick to vaccinate people over 65 and long-term care center residents, achieving good levels of protection among these groups.
But reaching out to young West Virginians has been much more of a challenge.
Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, has been a vocal supporter of vaccination, regularly urging members to get the punch. The state was one of the first to offer vaccination incentives, including $ 100 savings vouchers and a lottery, christened the English Bulldog of Justice Babydog, to award scholarships, a car, a pontoon boat and much month. He has spoken out strongly against conspiracy theories and criticized health workers who reject the vaccine, calling the decision “asinine.”
However, only 39.9% of West Virginians are fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data, and Wyoming is tied with the lowest rate in the country. According to the West Virginia Department of Health, this rate is much higher, at 51.7%; the reason for the discrepancy is unclear.
And with the Delta variant dominance, West Virginia is experiencing its worst increase to date.
“This has been more serious than we have seen at any other time in the pandemic,” Dr. Clay Marsh, head of state’s Covid response, told Guard. And the Delta variant makes young people much sicker than in previous waves, he said.
West Virginia has the fastest acceleration of new cases, given its population of about 1.8 million, with a 52% increase in new cases last week. The number of hospitalizations, ICU admissions and people with Covid-19 ventilators have broken previous records and continue to rise.
On Saturday alone, the state reported more than 2,200 new cases, with one in 10 testing positive.
“I think more people are very anxious about what they’re seeing in West Virginia,” Marsh said, and the recent increase in cases has led to an increase in vaccinations.
The vast majority of hospitalized patients are not vaccinated, Justice said at a news conference on Friday, and this is especially true of patients in the ICU and in ventilators.
“We can stop this, West Virginia, we can stop it,” Justice said. “Vaccines are safe. Vaccines are not an invasion for anyone. However, he also criticized Biden’s new vaccination warrants, which he says are invading companies.
Several major health systems have forced vaccination, as well as some emergency medical services. At the University of West Virginia, the faculty voted to request vaccinations from all students and employees.
In a state with a large rural population, access could be a problem, but Marsh believes it has not been the main driver of low vaccination rates. “We’ve been very aggressive so access isn’t a problem,” he said. “We’ll go to someone’s house to give them a vaccine.”
Instead, residents often suspect the government, the health care system, and the vaccines themselves. Vaccines alone are not enough, even with the urgency of the top leader of the state.
Justice lifted the state mandate on June 20. While he has said the requirement may return, he has preferred to leave decisions like these to local jurisdictions. It also does not support a school mask mandate, but 51 of 55 counties have some sort of mask requirement in schools, Marsh said.
Almost the entire state is in the highest risk category of virus transmission. Justice said there was no indication that West Virginia was near the peak, and said it could be Halloween or Thanksgiving before the virus is under control.
Marsh said the wave had put enormous pressure on health systems.
“In Idaho, where we see a rationing split, that’s what has worried us,” Marsh said. But the state “has not yet” implemented crisis care standards, he said. Electoral procedures requiring a hospital bed have been postponed.
Unlike other hikes, the solution is not as simple as gathering ad-hoc field hospitals. “This time, it’s different because the staff is really the limitation,” he said. Finding trained health workers has been the main challenge, he said.
Rapid precautionary action now would not only help curb this outbreak and prevent health systems from collapsing, but would also prevent further spikes from occurring.
Vaccination would help a lot, Marsh said, “to slow things down here, not just with the Delta variant right now, but as we move into the winter with other variants that may arise.”