Experts said that holiday activities pose more risk in large crowds, indoors and in poorly ventilated spaces where the virus spreads more easily. People should gather outdoors, wear masks and perform rapid tests before meeting unvaccinated family and friends and before returning to work, said Joshua Barocas, associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
Dr. Sean O'Leary, a professor of pediatric infectious disease at the University of Colorado School of Medicine who works with Children's Hospital Colorado, said his fellow pediatricians are starting to hear from more parents, "particularly for the older kids who were vaccinated several months ago."
The Office of Behavioral Health also consulted with Daniel Goldberg, associate professor and researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Center for Bioethics and Humanities, who specializes in structural stigma. People often experience or think about stigma in an individualized way, he said. For example, a person may feel stigmatized seeing their doctor or talk with a social services provider. But stigma, he said, is a “downstream manifestation of an upstream phenomenon.”
“Is there cause for concern? Absolutely,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, the vice chair of the academy’s infectious diseases committee, said in an interview on Monday night. “What’s driving the increase in kids is there is an increase in cases overall.” Children have accounted for a greater percentage of overall cases since the vaccines became widely available to adults, said Dr. O’Leary, who is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado.
“That’s not because there is something biologically different between 49- and 50-year-olds,” says Swati G. Patel, a gastroenterologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, who was not involved in the study. Rather it is because when people start getting screened, cancers they may have had for years are detected.
The last time that hospitalizations dropped for three days in a row was Oct. 7-9. They promptly rebounded and rose for the next month, though. It’s too early to know whether the same thing will happen now, said Dr. Jon Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health. “If you’re the 100% optimist, it’s a glimmer” of hope, he said. “We’ve seen this bouncing around before.”
“We’re still not back to where we need to be,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at Children’s Hospital Colorado and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Routine immunizations protect children against 16 infectious diseases, including measles, diphtheria and chickenpox, and inhibit transmission to the community. The rollout of Covid shots for younger kids is an opportunity to catch up on routine vaccinations, O’Leary said, adding that children can get the vaccines together.
“He could be helping us in finishing off this pandemic, especially with a vulnerable population,” says Joshua Barocas, an associate professor of medicine with an expertise in infectious diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “We’re looking at millions and millions of people worldwide. He could be a global ambassador, and instead he’s chosen the pro-covid, anti-public-health route.”
