Masks in schools? Do covid vaccines work against delta? Top Upstate doctor answers your questions

Syracuse, NY – One of upstate New York’s top infectious disease experts, Dr. Stephen Thomas, answered questions from readers on the Covid-19 today at a Facebook Live event today.

Thomas, director of the Global Health Institute at Upstate Medical University, addressed the highly infectious delta variant, which means some vaccinated people catch the virus and schools safely reopen.

Here are some excerpts from the conversation. You can watch the full video on the Syracuse.com Facebook page.

The CDC recommends that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people wear masks in areas of “substantial transmission ‘, which includes Onondaga County. Do we all have to wear masks? Whether you are vaccinated or not, if you are going to a crowded indoor space, you should seriously consider wearing a mask. Whether you are vaccinated or not, if you are someone at risk of having a bad result – if you are an elderly person, if you have a lot of pre-existing medical issues, if your immune system is not functioning as well – I would strongly consider not to go into these situations, but if you do, you should definitely wear a mask.

If people can still be infected after being vaccinated, why get vaccinated? The burden of Covid is not a positive test. The burden of Covid is human suffering: people admitted to hospital, people who die. If you get vaccinated, even six months later, your risk of getting sick is reduced by 90% compared to the person who was not vaccinated. In the United States, 97% of hospitalizations in the last three months, since the arrival of Delta, have been unvaccinated. Ninety-nine percent of people who died from Covid in the past three months were unvaccinated.

Is it safe for pregnant women to get vaccinated? Pregnancies occurred in the (initial trials) and there were no adverse outcomes in the vaccinated group compared to the placebo group. There are many reporting systems, and when regulators look at this data, there doesn’t appear to be a difference in the adverse outcomes of those who have been vaccinated and those who have not. There have been trials in which they recruited pregnant women and there have been no adverse results.

We know that with unvaccinated pregnant women (who contract the virus) there can be negative outcomes not only for women but also for the unborn child.

What are your recommendations for going to the big summer events: weddings, concerts, state fair? My first recommendation is to get vaccinated. The second recommendation would be that attending outdoor events reduce your risk of infection by 20 times. Being outdoors, with lots of ventilation and the outdoors, greatly reduces your risk.

School is a month away. What are your recommendations for parents and schools? I am convinced that children need in-person learning. I have seen the impact on my own children, and when we look across the country and around the world we know that for the vast majority of children, learning in person is superior learning.

What can we do to minimize the risk of Covid so that children can have in-person learning and extracurricular activities? I believe, # 1, that everyone who is eligible to be vaccinated should be. No. 2, every adult who interacts with our children at school absolutely needs to be vaccinated, if it is possible for them. And # 3, I think universal masking, at least based on the current situation, is the right move.

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