Dr. Anne Zink Addresses Valdez City Council
Photo Courtesy of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
By Keenan James Britt
Valdez had a special presentation at the September 7 city council meeting. Dr. Anne Zink, the chief medical officer for the State of Alaska, joined the meeting remotely to address the council on COVID-19 vaccination.
Dr. Zink was joined by Valdez’s Dr. Angela Alfaro who attended the meeting in person.
Mayor Sharon Scheidt thanked Dr. Zink and Dr. Alfaro for being able to present on the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Zink responded that she had been “inspired by you all in Valdez since the beginning of the pandemic” for Valdez’s quick response to the pandemic.
Dr. Zink began her presentation by observing that COVID-19 cases are surging across the United States, including Alaska, largely due to the delta variant. The delta variant is more highly transmissible than the original coronavirus that emerged from Wuhan, China, and also carries a viral load that is a thousand times greater. Dr. Zink stated that the delta variant is now responsible for more than 99 percent of the COVID-19 cases in Alaska.
Dr. Zink continued by emphasizing the importance of being vaccinated to help minimize the impact of COVID-19 infections, but she did explain that “breakthrough” cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated individuals are rising.
Dr. Zink cautioned that even vaccinated individuals should take additional precautions, using an Alaskan weather analogy of wearing additional layers during heavy rains. In the case of COVID-19, these “additional layers” would be continuing to mask and socially distance (even if fully vaccinated) in areas where COVID-19 transmission is high.
Following the presentation, Mayor Scheidt opened up the meeting to questions for Dr. Zink. Councilmember Dawson Moore observed that there were approximately 20 years between the development of the polio vaccine and when polio was eliminated, and asked if vaccination could eventually eliminate COVID-19 entirely and how long that would take.
Dr. Zink answered, “We don’t know how much this virus will continue to mutate and change. This virus will be here with us for a while. No pandemic, no epidemic, lasts forever, but we will be humbled by how this virus continues to change.”
Dr. Alfaro spoke to Dr. Zink about concerns among some people in the community about possible side effects of vaccination, such as myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart muscle), and asked her to address those concerns. Dr. Zink stated some cases of myocarditis in younger age groups had been linked to the Pfizer vaccine, though those cases were extremely rare (five out of one million), but that the risk of developing myocarditis as a complication of COVID-19 were much higher in the same group (500 out of one million, or a hundred times greater risk).
Dr. Zink stressed an important warning to her audience, “Please don’t underestimate the risk of COVID-19. Please, we’ve lost over 600,000 people in this country, do not mess around with this.”
Read about the recent rise of COVID-19 in the Copper Valley here.
