A Wisconsin wedding was found to be the source of a COVID Omicron ‘super-spread’ now taking Oakland by storm, leaving 38 hospital workers and patients exposed as the variant has now been spotted in half of U.S. states.
Debra Furr-Holden, 47, the associate Dean of Public Health Integration at Michigan State University, said she attended the Milwaukee wedding on November 27 after she was assured nearly all 100 guests, many of whom were medical experts, were vaccinated.
But the medical professional noted that as the celebration went on, many guests took their masks off and mingled, causing Furr-Holden and more than a dozen others to be infected with COVID-19, including 11 people who work for Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland Medical Center.
While Furr-Holden confirmed that she went on to infect her daughter, Jordan, Kaiser Permanente officials said the infected employees may have exposed a total of 38 co-workers and patients at two Oakland, California hospitals.
The super-spreader event comes as large holiday celebrations continue across the U.S., including the infamous SantaCon in New York City, where thousands gather for a massive pub crawl, despite the rise in COVID-19 cases and the Omicron variant.
Debra Furr-Holden, the associate Dean of Public Health Integration at Michigan State University, confirmed she contracted the virus after attending a wedding in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 27
The Omicron COVID-19 variant has now been sequenced around 80 times in at least 25 U.S. states, half of America
Wisconsin public health officials are investigating the outbreak and have yet to find any local positive cases among the wedding guests. They said one guest had recently returned from an international trip.
Kaiser Permanente officials told the San Francisco Chronicle that the 11 infected employees were fully vaccinated and had received booster shots.
Some of the infected did not exhibits systems before going to work after the wedding ceremony, exposing eight patients and another eight coworkers to the virus.
As of December 8, 13 of those exposed have tested negative for COVID-19. Kaiser Permanente would not provide further details on the remaining tests.
‘The few affected staff members, who are in patient-facing roles, worked briefly prior to being symptomatic or tested and all adhered to COVID-19 infection prevention guidance while in the facility,’ the medical company said in a statement.
One of the infected workers from the Oakland medical center also worked at the nearby Highland Hospital, where officials there said 11 staff members and another 11 employees were potentially exposed.
The wedding left 11 employees of Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland Medical Center infected with COVID-19. They potentially exposed a total of 38 coworkers and patients in two hospitals
Furr-Holden said she infected her daughter, Jordan, who tested positive for the virus shortly after. The pair are quarantining away from Jordan’s three-month-old daughter, India
Furr-Holden said she must have infected her daughter, Jordan, who tested positive for the virus shortly after. The pair are quarantining away from Jordan’s three-month-old daughter, India.
‘We all did the right thing, we got tested in advance. We got our vaccines. Many had boosters,’ Furr-Holden said of the attendees.
‘And we still ended up infecting each other and then some of us came home and infected our loved ones.’
She added that the bride and groom, who were on their honeymoon when they alerted the guests about the outbreak, had also tested positive and are still in a 14-day quarantine.
The Omicron COVID-19 variant is now in half of U.S. states, after Arizona, Iowa, Michigan and Virginia joined the growing list on Thursday or Friday morning.
Now, 25 states have recorded at least one Omicron case.
While Omicron dominates headlines, the Delta variant continues its spread nationwide, causing a 30 percent increase in new daily cases and 20 percent increase in deaths over the past two weeks.
America’s worsening COVID situation, combined with the Omicron variant and general apathy the population has for the pandemic at this point has one expert sounding alarms that things may get worse for the nation.
Dr .Gregory Poland (pictured) warns that there are 32,000 Americans alive right now who will be dead because of Covid by the end of the year, and do not even know it yet
Dr. Gregory Poland is one of the nation’s top experts on vaccination and immunology, and works as an epidemiologist for the Mayo Clinic and is editor-in-chief of the scientific journals ‘Vaccine’.
As deaths in America continue to rise, he warns that people should not let their guard down.
‘32,000 Americans who think they’re going to be alive to celebrate Christmas and New Years are, no pun intended, dead wrong,’ he told DailyMail.com, as his calculations show that with the current death rate in America, around 32,000 more people are likely to die between now and New Years.
‘Not one of them believes [they will die].’
While early data about the Omicron variant is promising – showing that the highly infectious variant does not cause as severe cases as Delta and other Covid strains – he fears that people will see those messages and expose themselves to the existing dangers of virus.
‘Everybody’s comforting themselves with the idea that Omicron is less severe,’ he said.
‘It may well be but that is very, very, preliminary information that comes from one specific area of the world where Delta has not been as deadly as it has here.
‘It fascinates me that a tiny little preliminary report like that makes its way around the world. Everybody fixes on that belief. And yet, look at the last year of work trying to get people immunized and they ignore it.’
Poland urges Americans to get fully vaccinated as soon as they can, and for those already fully vaccinated to get their booster shot.
He is echoing the calls of many other health officials since the discovery of the Omicron variant, with Dr. Anthony Fauci – the nation’s top infectious disease expert – even saying earlier this week that the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ would eventually be changed to only include people who have received their booster doses.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report finding the first 43 cases of Omicron sequenced in the U.S. were all mild infections, with no severe complications reported so far.
Poland says that much of America’s failures to deal with the pandemic draws back to humans inability to understand the scale as to which how quickly the virus can spread.
‘What we’re fundamentally discussing is a concept called exponential reality… and there are no circumstances in which humans don’t fail in decision making under conditions of exponential reality,’ he said.
Because of the nature of COVID, and especially the more infectious variants like Delta and Omicron, cases can double in a matter of only a few days if spread is not mitigated – meaning a situation that seems controlled can quickly become overwhelming.
Poland supports vaccine mandates and believes that no one should be able to travel into the United States without showing proof of a negative test.
He also supports the ‘pre-emptive’ strike against COVID that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced earlier this week – implementing vaccine mandates on the private sector workforce and requiring proof of two vaccine doses for a person to go to many indoor events and facilities.
‘I thought that was a very wise and courageous action that most people will not want to do, not realizing the value of that to them,’ Poland said.
While his outlook on the pandemic is not the rosiest, Poland still thinks it is ok for people to travel for Christmas and New Years this holiday season, as long as they understand they are absorbing some risk in doing so.
‘I have no problem with that. Just [make sure] they’re fully vaccinated and boosted and they were a proper mask properly,’ he said.
‘We were built for community, we were built for social interaction, we must have that. That question is how to do it safely. And [how to] balance risks and benefits.’
There is no such thing as doing anything ‘safe’, Poland said, even adding that the act of driving a car can be extremely dangerous, but people could do things ‘safer’ by taking some precautions like wearing a mask and getting vaccinated.
The United States reached 60 percent of its population fully vaccinated earlier this week, a milestone reached only days before the one year anniversary of the first vaccine doses becoming available.
Some officials are pushing to bring that rate even higher, including New York Gov Kathy Hochul.
On Friday, Hochul announced that all indoor businesses in New York would have to either institute a vaccine mandate or mask mandate, a drastic move that will go into effect on Monday.
On Wednesday, Pfizer, who manufactures the most commonly used vaccine in the U.S. – used to fully vaccinated over 110 million people – announced it had data showing that the first two doses of its vaccine were not as effective against the new variant.
It came a day after the African Health Research Institute released a study finding that people who were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine had 40 times less antibodies available for fighting Omicron that they did other strains.
Pfizer did say that it had data showing the booster shot would get protection levels back up, though, and increases antibody levels 25-fold.
On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration expanded eligibility of the Pfizer booster shot to also include people aged 16 and 17.
Nearly 50 million, or 15 percent of the population, has received a booster shot, with half receiving the Pfizer shoot as their booster.
America is also averaging around 120,000 new daily COVID cases, a 30 percent increase over the past two weeks.
Deaths in the U.S. are up 18 percent over the past two weeks, up to nearly 1,300 per week, and the 62,000 Americans in the hospital due to severe cases of the virus is a 20 percent increase over the past two weeks.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, a public health expert at the University of Minnesota said this week that he believes Omicron could become the dominant strain within the next few weeks.
‘I think Omicron is going to be remarkable in how fast it takes,’ Osterhold said.
‘If you look at what it took for Alpha and Delta to prevail, it took really two months before they became the dominant variants around the world, some countries sooner than others. I think you’re going to see this one become the dominant variant in just a matter of weeks.’