By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
As people return to work and school after the holiday break, Medical Director of Infection Prevention at the University of Washington Medical Center Dr. Seth Cohen says that we are seeing a rise in COVID-19 activity particularly in the State of Washington.
Holidays around the world are seen as a joyous time to be celebrated with loved ones. However, Dr. Cohen associates the days and weeks after the holidays as a particularly dark time where it tends to be quite busy for healthcare professionals, especially this year as they have seen a spike in COVID cases.
“It is a time where a lot of people are on mechanical ventilators who are being treated for COVID,” said Dr. Cohen.
Leading up to the holiday season and just right after the holidays, COVID has really hit the state of Washington tremendously.
According to Cohen, health care professionals believe that spending time with larger groups of people has been a significant driver when it comes to the rapid spread of COVID.
“Prior and after the holiday season we certainly saw a bump of COVID activity, which may just be related to the fact that people are spending time indoors and mingling with more people than they normally do,” says Cohen.
“COVID has not been quite as seasonal, so those waves we have experienced of COVID have been more challenging to predict,” added Cohen.
Outside of the basic health and hygiene practices, and all of the other COVID recommendations by the CDC, it is very difficult to stop the transmission of COVID overall but there are ways to work towards slowing down those drastic surges that we have seen.
According to health officials, getting vaccinated is the first step in the right direction of slowing down the transmission of COVID. Dr. Cohen said the goal is not to completely prevent transmission, but it is to make sure that if people do get COVID that they stay out of the hospital, and remain safe as possible.
For the most part, Dr. Cohen believes that vaccines have been underutilized and vaccine uptake has been low even with the most recent booster. With the current rise in COVID cases, the new vaccine is highly recommended to help healthcare professionals like Dr. Cohen achieve their goal of keeping people as safe as possible.
“Particularly for high-risk groups, I highly recommend that people with underlying medical illnesses, heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease, and people over the age of 65 should get vaccinated with the most recent booster,” says Dr. Cohen.
Despite the rise of COVID activity entering the new year, the University of Washington Medical center has noticed that things are starting to trend downward. With the help of the new updated vaccine, which seems to be more efficient when it comes to protecting against severe illness, hospitalization, and death, COVID cases are not as severe as they were during the height of the pandemic.
However, Dr. Cohen is quick to point out that COVID vaccines may not completely protect people from becoming infected, it can, in most cases, significantly reduce the symptoms and impact that the virus can have on individuals. However, the vaccine might not be for everyone.
“Right now, the new vaccine is approved for a one-time dose for the most recent booster, but that is for people with normal immune systems,” says Cohen. “For people who are immunocompromised like ones who are getting treated with chemotherapy or on other medications that could suppress your immune system, should talk to their doctor about how many times they need to be boosted.”
For better or for worse, COVID is here to stay. Just like the influenza, COVID is something that society and healthcare professionals will have to find ways to live and survive with. However, Dr. Cohen, who started caring for patients with COVID in March 2020, is optimistic that COVID cases will continue to be manageable.
“This year, I must say that it was sort of a much brighter time,” says Cohen. “I felt more optimistic when it was nearing Christmas and in between Christmas and New Years. It was nice to be able to spend time with my patients and not dwell on the fact that there were so many people in the hospital with COVID or any ICU.”
“I think that COVID will be around for a while,” continued Cohen. “It is still killing far more people than influenza or RSV, so it is still something that we take seriously and still has a significant impact on healthcare facilities and in our community.”
