SOUTHERN INDIANA — As COVID-19 vaccination rates in Southern Indiana inch toward the 50% mark, younger adults still make up the greatest number of positive cases and the least vaccinated, which could push achieving herd immunity further down the road.
Indiana Department of Health data published Monday showed that 52,284 or 44.2% of Clark County residents and 35,598 or 45.3% of Floyd County residents have been fully vaccinated. Population numbers were pulled by the News and Tribune from the 2019 Census estimates as of July 1, 2019.
Floyd County Health Officer Dr. Tom Harris said while it’s encouraging to be getting closer to that 50% mark, “It’s almost misleading,” he said. “We’ve done extraordinarily well in the elderly, we’ve done extraordinarily well in the 12-to-18 range, but we’re following the national trend that the 25- to 35-year-olds group is just not getting the shot.
“When you’re looking at herd immunity, you want as many people vaccinated as possible so there’s less available victims, and unfortunately, there’s still a pretty significant population that’s resistant to getting the vaccine.”
State department of health numbers show that of the 7,897 overall positive Floyd County cases, those 20 to 29 make up 16.9% — the highest rate of positive cases — but have the lowest vaccination rates. The same is seen in Clark County, where as of Tuesday, 20 to 29-year-olds made up 17.6% of the county’s cases. As of Monday, only 4.4% of those 20 to 24 in Clark County had been vaccinated.
Clark County Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel said that while health officials obviously want higher vaccination rates across the board, “first and foremost we want to make sure that we’re getting through to our highest-risk people,” he said. “If there’s a 65-year-old who’s on oxygen and you can sit down and educate them to do it, that’s a big win, probably even more so than five 16-year-olds.”
He said the health department is putting a focus on getting those older and/or more at-risk adults vaccinated, as well as educating people who have had COVID and may think they’re protected and don’t need the shots.
He said there’s evidence that about one in three people who have had the disease do not develop long-term antibodies to fight against it, like the vaccine can do. And as an ER doctor at both Clark Memorial Health in Jeffersonville and University of Louisville Health, Yazel said he’s seen the evidence of the vaccines.
“I still to this day have not admitted a patient who had gotten a vaccine,” he said. “I have not seen a sick patient who had been vaccinated.
“So when I see these people who have chosen not to get it for whatever their personal reasons are and they’re really sick, it’s just kind of heartbreaking. It’s essentially a preventable disease at this point.”
The health officers also urged people to get vaccinated as overall case numbers start to rise, and as the more infectious Delta variant spreads. State health officials have reported around 200 cases where the Delta variant has been identified, but this genetic testing is not done to every sample, so health officials believe it is likely much more widespread than numbers currently show.
Neither Harris nor Yazel has been notified of Delta being specifically identified in a case in Southern Indiana, but they both believe it is likely already here.
“I’m sure that it’s in our community,” Harris said. “There hasn’t been enough genetic sequencing to know, but the 200 cases that have been in Indiana to my knowledge have been in all the major metropolitan areas.”
He added that the variant could be responsible for the recent rise in cases. According to the local index used by the Floyd County Health Department, the weekly average positivity index was .45 three weeks ago, 1.75 last week, and 2.5 this week.
In Clark County, Yazel believes it’s not only present but that “it’s probably already the predominant strain,” he said. This is something people who aren’t fully vaccinated should take into account. He said while with some of the earlier variants, there was pretty significant protection even after the first of two shots done with Pfizer and Moderna, with the Delta variant, there’s only about 30% protection after the first dose, “so you really have to get both doses to get the high level of protection.”
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