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Fourteen of them left Provincestown as potential carriers.
After a week of vacation during Independence Day, they tested positive for COVID; none of them became seriously ill, but all were surprised by an unexpected virus attack, according to interviews with four sick men. Health experts are examining isolated cases like this in hopes of demystifying the delta strain.
“I knew it wasn’t completely immune to the risks, but I didn’t think it could spread that quickly among vaccinated people,” said Barefoot, a 33-year-old Washington attorney who developed mild symptoms during the trip. “When I got home, I ate sweets and didn’t feel any taste.”
The spread of the Delta strain in Provincest became the focus of a study presented by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday, prompting the agency to issue new recommendations. – Fully vaccinated people should wear face masks again in indoor areas of rapid virus spread.
The Provincestown home covers more than 900 cases. No one died, only seven people were hospitalized because vaccines are still effective and limit the effects of the virus on the body. However, the rapid spread of the outbreak raises concerns that the delta strain could turn even fully vaccinated individuals into virus vectors.
Important conclusions
Based on cases related to meetings in Provinstown, including 238 urban dwellers, researchers came to important conclusions about the delta strain of the coronavirus that caused the increase in hospitalizations in the country, mainly among the unvaccinated, writes The New York Times. .
The good news is that the majority of those infected in Provinstown, about three-quarters of whom were fully vaccinated, were sick, had not died, and only seven were hospitalized. The bad news is that the strain is extremely contagious, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), just as contagious as chickenpox, and people infected with the so-called ‘breakthrough infection ‘can transmit the virus to other people.
In Provinstaune, this news caused something of a commotion.
“We’re turning the clock back to maybe April or May 2021,” said Susan Pekin, a longtime visitor to the city during the summer season who moved here permanently four years ago. – It is now clear from the day that you can be vaccinated and still be infected with a fight. Most importantly, we must be careful not to think that the virus is gone. It is far from disappearing. “
By the end of the week, Katsurinis received reports of coronavirus infections, with all gay men between the ages of 30 and 35, most of whom sought medical attention for other reasons, such as flu symptoms or sexually transmitted infections, without suspecting a coronavirus. infection. He was puzzled by the fact that many of those infected had been vaccinated.
“Frankly, I could not believe that vaccinated people became infected and spread the virus, as the contact trackers said,” he said. – Then I had a thought in mind: “I don’t think the data is accurate.”
According to him, a few days later it became clear that the circulating virus is a delta strain, “and then I said to myself, of course, delta is something else.”
“I don’t think we would have expected anyone to go into the delta here,” he said.
Infectious disease specialists praised the scrupulous follow-up of community contacts, which was actually done by four nurses in Barnstable County, and which helped understand the scope of the outbreak.
Speaking with city leaders about safeguards that should be put in place, Morse said he was concerned about possible overreaction or decisions being made “under the guidance of the loudest and most outraged.”
But successive waves of tests have shown that the number of positive cases is increasing, reaching 15 percent on July 15. top. Four days later, the city issued recommendations to wear masks, Mr. Morse, and since July 25, wearing them is already mandatory.
“We are entering a new era where we have to live with the virus,” he said. “In the long run, it will no longer be realistic to put on masks one weekend and rip them off the next.”
Contact trackers interviewed Barefoot and his friends to find out where they had visited, who they had met on Cape Men, and if their confidence in vaccines had weakened. Such information is already adjusting national policies and raising questions about the best way to combat the virus at large-scale gatherings, such as the recent Lollapalooza Music Festival, which brought together 100,000 people a day, or the Sturgis motorcycles in South Dakota. this week.
In Provinstaune, vaccination had reached near-universal proportions by early July. No COVID-19 cases were recorded for several days in the surrounding Barnstable district.
Infected residents and guests begin their stories by how relaxed they felt escaping the clutches of the pandemic. Crowds of cheers flocked to the former gay hangout on July 4, said Bob Sanborne, executive director of the Provincetown Business Guild. “People wanted to enjoy life again after a break of more than a year,” he said. “They were discouraged.”
Mr Barefoot’s group enjoyed the local nightlife. First on the list was Tea Dance from Boatslip Beach Club, Provincestown’s largest open-air nightclub, as well as Crown & Anchor and Atlantic House.
The lines at the clubs grew longer, the playground was full of sweat and sweat, and the occasional thunderstorm assaulted the crowd from the outdoor playgrounds to the even more crowded enclosed spaces of the club.
Genetic analysis of hundreds of shoot samples suggests that a group of D. Barefoot may have been infected in several locations.
“There was no so-called ‘patient zero,'” said Daniel Park, senior director of the genome-tracking team at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which studies the Provinstown focal samples.
“It was not a single event in which the virus spread super-lightning,” he said. There were many events in this case. You could say that some were bigger, some were smaller, but there was no specific place, a bar or a club. A lot happened at the same time. “
In June, the daily incidence rate in the surrounding Barnstable district reached single digits. By mid-July, there were already dozens of people infected.
When Howard Bragman, a crisis management and public relations specialist from Los Angeles, arrived on July 14, word of the outbreak was already flowing, so he tried to limit his circle of friends as much as possible. He was left with only three people, he did not attend any club or party, he did not have lunch in town.
“I was very careful; He wasn’t a saint, but I was quite cautious, ”Bragman said. He flew home on Monday, July 19. That Wednesday, he easily developed a fever and soon lost his sense of taste and smell.
Lying in bed, he handed out a selfie on Instagram with the inscription: “I brought a souvenir from Provinstown that NOBODY wants! # covid_19 #deltaatmaina “.
Family plaster
In mid-July, health authorities asked the Broad Institute to expedite testing of the Provinstown samples.
There has been growing concern that the sudden spread of the virus may be related to a dangerous new strain. But research has found that this is primarily a family delta.
“That family cast turned out to be even stronger than we thought,” Park said. Communication between vaccinated people, even those who don’t wear masks, may have been safe enough against the rampant alpha strain of COVID, he said, “but maybe that protection isn’t enough for us now.”
An obvious example: Nathaniel Teichman, 34, a single incumbent leader in New York, spent a lot of time on Cape Cod during a pandemic. July 10 the weekend went to a party at a friend’s house. The approximately 30 people who participated were vaccinated.
Five of them soon tested positive for COVID-19, including N. Teichman. The other four people visited the bars before the party, so “we assume they were infected in Provinstaune,” Teichman said.
“I was the only one surprised at the party,” he said.
All have recovered quickly, but it is of particular concern that people who have been vaccinated not only become infected with the virus, but also transmit it.
“The biggest problem in getting back to normal life revolves around the question: do vaccinated people spread the virus and to what extent?” Says Deborah Hung of Harvard University, director of the Broad Infectious and Microbial Diseases Program. Institute.
Most importantly, even vaccinated people who do not have any symptoms can transmit the virus, the director added. How safe are you really? And what care should you be?
Retired Tom Doyle from Wakefield, Massachusetts, who visited Provinstown for three days until June 23, thought he was, as he should be, cautious. Fully vaccinated, he wore a mask in stores, dined in town only three times, and only once inside. No hips. There are no parties.
“I honestly thought that I could go out into town and that if I was tired, there would be no problems,” he said.
But he was also infected with fights.
The CDC report on the case in Provinstown shows that the virus concentration (viral load) was as high among the vaccinated as it was among the unvaccinated. This does not prove that vaccinated people can infect other people.
The Provinstown data does not provide “strong, objective evidence that the vaccine actually” misses “the virus,” Park said. “But possibly it’s true.”
The Bloomberg news agency collected data from 35 states and identified 111,748 “missed” vaccines at the end of July. Health authorities stress that this does not mean that vaccines are ineffective.
Not all vaccines are perfect, they say, and data from Provincestown shows that vaccines limit the number of serious illnesses and deaths. The fact that none of the friends in Barefoot’s group had a severe form of the disease only confirms the benefits of the vaccine, respondents said.
Washington attorney Tim Wilson, upon his return home on July 11, experienced symptoms of a cold. Her husband, who was traveling with him, avoided the infection. On the way home, the two visited a separate group of fully vaccinated friends in Boston, and neither of them got sick.
“This message is not a panic attack, but another statement that everyone should get vaccinated,” Wilson said.
Bragman shares that view, saying that the gay community, ravaged by the scars of the scourge of AIDS, intuitively understands that public health means taking care of friends, neighbors, and ultimately all Americans.
“As a gay man who has already survived too many epidemics, I have learned that public health is a personal responsibility,” says Bragman. “And our joint efforts to prevent other people from contracting the disease.”
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