Executive Associate Dean of Emory University School of Medicine at Grady Health System Carlos del Rio provided an in-depth COVID-19 update on Jan. 22 covering the current Georgia COVID-19 spike, vaccine distribution and the politics of public health during the first publicly streamed Emory at Grady Dean’s Office Virtual Town Hall.
The event featured three guest speakers: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Public Health Microbiologist Amber Schmidtke and Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Peter Piot.
Del Rio explained the impact of President Joe Biden’s new administration on the national COVID-19 response, listing items such as joining the World Health Organization’s vaccine initiative, signing executive orders aimed at the COVID-19 federal response and releasing the national COVID-19 strategy as critical actions.
“I think he was serious when he said the U.S. can overcome COVID-19, and I firmly believe that we can,” del Rio said.
However, del Rio criticized Biden’s goal of administering 100 million vaccines in 100 days, suggesting that the administration should aim higher and citing data showing current vaccine distribution close to the one million vaccines per day goal.
“It’s not that far a reach,” del Rio said. “Quite frankly, I wish he was going for two million a day.”
In a pre-recorded interview with Ossoff, del Rio discussed the promise of the new administration not only providing a federal framework for the pandemic response but also in promoting effective public health communication.
“We are in a position now to ensure that it is public health experts such as the career leadership at [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and [the National Institutes of Health] who will be directing the response according to the needs of our nation’s public health infrastructure free of political interference,” Ossoff said.
Del Rio said the current COVID-19 response feels like “a ship without a captain,” especially in light of the undersupplied and largely uncoordinated vaccine rollout. At Grady, del Rio said low vaccine supply has been especially challenging, calling it “one of the major problems we’re facing.”
Ossoff, whose wife Alisha Kramer is an OB-GYN at Emory University Hospital, expressed appreciation for health care workers and concern for the toll the pandemic has taken on them.
“I see a core part of my job as being in constant contact with you and your colleagues and doing everything within my power to ensure you have the resources and the support necessary to do your jobs and to protect yourselves and your families,” Ossoff said.
Schmidtke, who tracks Georgia COVID-19 trends in the Daily Digest, broke down various COVID-19 measures across the state. She explained that while the nationwide and statewide surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is trending downwards, deaths are increasing, consistent with a two-to-three-week lag. In Georgia, hospital capacities are at what Schmidtke described as a “dangerous place.”
“It really takes a lot more time and concerted effort to come down from a surge than it takes to climb up it,” Schmidtke said. “What tends to happen is people see that we’re on the downhill, and they start to loosen up, they start to take a lot more risks. So I’m trying to communicate how important it is to stay vigilant about disease transmission.”
Schmidtke also presented statistics proving vaccines to be effective and safe, with vaccinated groups significantly outperforming placebo groups in clinical trials and allergic reactions remaining extremely rare, at 0.00013% of administered doses.
She credits this success to the makeup of the vaccines, whose mRNA base remains in cells for a short period of time, in addition to clinical trials transparently releasing results from diverse populations.
“What’s really neat about these mRNA vaccines and safety is that they are like the most minimalist vaccines I think we’ve ever produced in the sense that they’re made of these short-lived molecules, ” Schmidtke said. “And I really admired the way that the clinical trials … made efforts to include diverse populations to assess both efficacy and safety.”
However, even as vaccinations are distributed, she emphasized that masks and social distancing measures are still necessary.
Schmidtke gave two reasons: the medical community is not certain that vaccines prevent virus transmission, and efficacy gaps leave swaths of the population unprotected until an area achieves herd immunity. These gaps widen among people over 65, who have naturally deteriorated immune systems.
Schmidtke also urged health care providers to share their experiences receiving the vaccine through selfies on social media and discussions in their communities.
“Polling has shown that friends and family and medical experts as well as local leaders are among the most influential in helping people feel confident about that decision,” Sdhmidtke said.
Schmidtke also criticized Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s new budget proposal, which she said incorporates a “negligible increase” in funding for the Department of Public Health after a decade of consistent funding decreases.
“If public health wasn’t going to be a priority now, that just means that it never was,” Schmidtke said.
In his discussion with del Rio, Piot discussed concerns about new COVID-19 variants, including the more transmissible U.K. strain and a South African strain with the potential for “immune escape,” which could render current vaccines ineffective. Five cases of the U.K. variant are confirmed in Georgia.
Piot, who pioneered global access to AIDS antiretroviral therapy through the United Nations, noted global vaccination is both a moral and practical goal.
“It’s not over until it’s over everywhere,” Piot said.
The town hall will continue to stream biweekly via the Emory University School of Medicine Facebook page.
