The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped in Dallas Friday to encourage North Texans to get vaccinated ahead of an inevitable increase in COVID-19 and flu cases.
Dr. Mandy Cohen, who took over the federal agency in July, visited Dallas County Health and Human Services as part of a tour of vaccine clinics across Texas and the country. Shots to fight against the three major respiratory illnesses that spread during cold and flu season — the flu, COVID-19 and RSV — are available, but vaccine uptake has been slow.
One in five adults say they’ve received the updated COVID-19 vaccine since it became available in September, according to a recent KFF report, although those numbers look different depending on a person’s political party affiliation. Some 76% of Republicans said they would probably not or definitely not get a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 26% of Democrats and 59% of independents. The reworked jab targets XBB.1.5, an omicron subvariant that spread this summer.
Only 3.7% of Texans were up-to-date on their COVID vaccines as of Sept. 12, which was just before the latest COVID shot was rolled out.
Just under 35% of adults had gotten this season’s flu shot as of Nov. 4, according to CDC data.
Both COVID-19 and flu rates remain relatively low in D-FW. But the holidays bring with them increased spread of viruses as families and friends gather to celebrate. Cohen warned that anyone, regardless of age or pre-existing conditions, can experience prolonged illness with a seemingly simple COVID case.
“We’re seeing people even with a mild case of COVID have extended symptoms called long COVID,” Cohen said. “And no one wants to be sick, particularly not for a long time.”
Long COVID is somewhat of a mystery in that it can be hard for doctors to predict who will develop the condition that can cause chronic pain, fatigue, shortness of breath and brain fog. Estimates of the percentage of nonhospitalized adults who experience long COVID range anywhere from 7.5% to 41%, according to the CDC.
COVID-19 is on the back burner in North Texas as the region deals with a swell of respiratory syncytial virus cases that have filled most pediatric hospital beds. The virus, which circulates every year, causes cold-like symptoms for kids and adults with healthy immune systems, but can be deadly for infants and the elderly.
Fort Worth’s Cook Children’s sounded the alarms last week after some intensive care unit patients had to be held in the emergency department as they waited for beds to open. Nearby Children’s Health in Dallas reported 382 RSV cases for the week beginning Oct. 29, marking the highest case count the hospital system had seen all year.
“We do anticipate that this problem is going to worsen as we progress through the winter months as opposed to getting better,” said Dr. Amy Richardson, assistant medical director of Cook Children’s urgent care centers.
Earlier this year, federal regulators approved new RSV protections, including vaccines for adults over 60 and pregnant women. Infants can also get a monoclonal antibody shot, called nirsevimab, although the treatment is in short supply.
“The manufacturers did not anticipate this demand, and we’ve been working hard with them to get more and more doses out,” Cohen said during her visit to Dallas County Health and Human Services.
The CDC announced the release of 77,000 additional doses of the shot on Thursday. Dr. Philip Huang, Dallas County’s top health official, said the agency has doses of the RSV vaccine for adults, but is still waiting on doses of the monoclonal antibody shot for infants.
Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins and Rep. Jasmine Crockett greeted Cohen during her visit to Dallas, which included a stop at a church vaccine drive in addition to a tour of the DCHHS’ vaccine clinics. Cohen even stepped into a patient room with Dallas resident Debra Clark, 67, as she got her updated COVID-19 shot.
Cohen made similar stops in Houston and San Antonio on Thursday.
During the Friday event, Lewis Jenkins shared that his 91-year-old mother, JoAnn Jenkins, recently contracted COVID-19.
“But Momma had gotten that vaccine, the new one that matches the new COVID that’s out there,” Lewis Jenkins said. “So even at 91-and-three-quarters years old, it wasn’t that bad.”
Crockett took time during the event to tout Dallas’ new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health hub that was announced last month. The headquarters, one of three across the country, will focus on diversifying and expanding clinical trials.
“One of the things we found as we were trying to save lives is that so many minorities were not really wanting to take the vaccine. They were like, ‘That’s not for us,’” Crockett said. “But we want to make sure that when we go through these trials we can say that the data shows if you’re Black, if you’re Latino, if you’re Asian, this is what it might do. We want to make sure people know that it was all inclusive and we’re going to be able to do that.”
More than a quarter of Black adults said they have received the updated COVID-19 shot, compared to 20% of Hispanic adults and 19% of White adults, according to KFF data.
