With the new COVID-19 vaccine available, San Marino Unified School District officials and L.A. County health experts have recommended widespread vaccination as the holiday season approaches.
Since the onset of the pandemic through Oct. 16, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department has recorded a total of 2,494 COVID-19 cases in San Marino. At the beginning of summer, local health experts expressed concern over the sharp increase in COVID-19 testing positivity rates. In June, the figure was just 4%, but that number spiked to almost 16% by late August before taking a dip to around 14% at the start of September.
COVID-19 hospitalization rates are also on the rise, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however Los Angeles County cases are lower than the national curve, according to local wastewater and testing data.
The new vaccine is recommended in San Marino schools, but no requirement has been levied by county health officials. The San Marino Unified School District COVID-19 policy is guided by the County Department of Health, which has not issued masking or vaccine mandates.
“We recognize that the situation is dynamic, and our response to COVID-19 adapts as circumstances change,” SMUSD Superintendent Linda de la Torre told the Tribune. “We remain committed to the safety, cleaning, and ventilation protocols that have previously been instrumental in limiting the spread of the virus within our schools.
“Regarding the new COVID-19 vaccine, we understand that opinions and concerns about vaccination vary among members of our community. We encourage everyone to consult with trusted medical professionals and access reliable sources of information to make informed decisions regarding vaccination. The COVID-19 vaccine is not mandated by the state of California as a required immunization in order to attend or work in schools; however, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccines have played a significant role in reducing the severity and transmission of the virus, and they remain a key tool in our efforts to protect public health.”
In Los Angeles County, data collected by the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker from Oct. 15 through Oct. 21 indicated that there were 421 new COVID-19 hospital admissions confirmed in that week, with a 4% change from the prior week and about 4.2 additional admissions per 100,000 population. This level of hospitalizations is considered “low.”
There were roughly 200 current hospitalizations in June, compared to 612 as of the second week of September. Still, Los Angeles County remains in the CDC Low Hospital Admission Level with 7.2 weekly COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people as of Sept. 11.
There are now 14 prominent COVID-19 variants, but global health experts say that the jury is still out as to whether these new variants — EG.5, BA.2.86 and XBB. 1.5, which stemmed from Omicron — will be of significant concern.
The new vaccine, manufactured by ModernaTX Inc. and Pfizer Inc., more effectively targets these new variants, health officials said, and has become available in San Marino pharmacies.
“The 2023-2024 updated COVID-19 vaccines more closely target the XBB lineage of the Omicron variant and could restore protection against severe COVID-19 that may have decreased over time,” the CDC said on its website. “We anticipate the updated vaccines will be better at fighting currently circulating variants.”
Dr. Kimberly Shriner, medical director of infectious diseases and infection prevention at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, said that although many people are forgoing mask-wearing, she wants to remind people that the virus is not gone.
“Although we wish it were true, the pandemic is not over and COVID is very much with us,” Shriner told the Tribune. “The good news is that most people on the planet now have some immunity from it through natural infection, vaccination or from both. But it’s still challenging in that the virus still continues to mutate and is still quite infectious.
“It’s really the responsibility of everyone, healthy and compromised, to try and protect themselves the best way we can.”
When it comes to masking, she used a simple analogy that should be taken to heart.
“When it rains, put on a raincoat,” Shriner said. “When COVID starts going up, we should put on a mask, and that’s especially true if you have an immunocompromised elderly or otherwise fragile person at home you don’t want to transmit COVID to, because we know that people can be asymptomatic.”
Shriner expects to see spikes this season as the weather gets colder and holidays approach.
“Whenever people get together, especially for holidays or family celebrations, that increases the risk of viral transmission,” Shriner said. “When it’s the summertime, the risk is a little less because most people are outside and when it’s the wintertime, the risk is much higher because ventilation isn’t as good indoors and people are more likely to spread the disease that way.”
According to a statement from the CDC, “Staying up to date on vaccines is especially important heading into fall and winter, as indicators of COVID-19 transmission, including more outbreaks in schools, work sites and skilled nursing facilities, have increased in Los Angeles County over the past few weeks.”
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices have recommended updated COVID vaccines to individuals 6 months and older.
“The updated vaccines are expected to provide good protection against COVID-19 from the currently circulating variants,” the FDA said in a press release. “Barring the emergence of a markedly more virulent variant, the FDA anticipates that the composition of COVID-19 vaccines may need to be updated annually, as is done for the seasonal influenza vaccine.”
— Gavin J. Quinton contributed to this report
First published in the Nov. 2 issue of the San Marino Tribune
