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Berkshire Health Systems Chief Medical Officer Concerned About COVID Delta Variant

A sign with directions for various departments of a hospital stands at a crossroads
Josh Landes
/
WAMC

With a new uptick in COVID-19 cases in Berkshire County, the region’s largest healthcare provider is renewing calls for residents to get vaccinated. Berkshire Health Systems Chief Medical Officer Dr. James Lederer says it’s safe to assume that the potent Delta variant is in the Berkshires, putting the unvaccinated in risk of serious illness, hospitalization or death. Lederer recommends mask wearing even if it’s no longer legally required, but says BHS isn’t concerned about breakthrough cases for the vaccinated at this time. He spoke with WAMC.

LEDERER: The Delta virus is our predominant national virus strain circulating today. It is addressed by the three main vaccines that we have available to us here in the US. It does still cause significant illness and death in the unvaccinated, and so if you are in the unvaccinated status, it would be in your in your family's best interest to get vaccinated to avoid any of the angst and concern and just unhappiness that we're seeing nationwide with outbreaks of the Delta virus.

WAMC: Locally in Berkshire County are we seeing rates increase over the past month or so?

Our testing positivity has increased a little bit. We were around .3% to .4% positive test rate, and we're now about 1.4%. But this past weekend, we had roughly 800 tests done and we dropped to below 1%. The state itself is somewhere around 1.5 or 1.6% positivity. So on the whole, Massachusetts is doing well. But that doesn't mean that there aren't still pockets of people, significant numbers, who are at risk, who in the right set of circumstances with the right exposure, would be dealing with what could be a very severe disease with Delta virus.

We've been hearing a lot in the news about breakthrough cases, even here in Massachusetts out in Provincetown. What are you advising the folks who are vaccinated? Is that a concern you think is prevalent here in the county?

Well, I think to understand- When we talk about breakthrough cases, we're really talking about someone who goes and gets a test, who had been previously fully vaccinated, and that test returns positive. What we don't know are the numbers of people who are fully vaccinated, go and get a test, and they're negative. Remember, in Berkshire County, probably 80,000 to 85,000 residents have already received a vaccine. Fully vaccinated. And so for us to have a few people pop up positive, from the base of 85,000 fully vaccinated, it really means that breakthrough infection is very rare. Or it's so minimally symptomatic that people don't get tested, which is exactly what we have told people- That even if you are fully vaccinated and were to contract a COVID strain, your risk of hospitalization and your risk of dying are markedly reduced.

There's been a lot of different messaging about how folks can best protect themselves over the course of the virus. At this point, with places like Los Angeles County reinstating mask ordinances for indoor activities- And certainly in Berkshire County, us being a very recreation-based community and a very summer based economy, there's this encouragement to open back up and have folks come back in. Where do you think the best advice lies for people to avoid the situation as it's evolving on the ground today?

So I think if you are in a risk group, where infection would cause more concern- And that would be the elderly, potentially people who are immunocompromised, cancer patients, diabetics. If you're in those groups and are fully vaccinated, if you actively choose to go do something where there's large crowd, you may want to consider a mask as an additional step for protection. If you are the family of young children, and you're fully vaccinated, you now have to wonder, what do I do with my kids? And so, you know, I see, because what mom and dad do, little kids do, I'm seeing a lot of young families out and about who are wearing masks. And I think that's really in an attempt to protect the vulnerable group who have no access to vaccine.

Looking into next year, at this point do you have any idea as to whether or not it would be wise to advise young people to be wearing masks in schools?

Yeah, I don't know enough about what the schools and what the state is wanting to do. But my understanding is that, at least in Massachusetts, there's strong consideration that for certain populations, you know, particularly the little kids, older than six but younger than 12, that they get masked, and that older than 12 that it's strongly recommended that they get vaccinated.

Looking into the summer as it continues, how do you feel like at least here in Berkshire County we can expect to see the pandemic evolve just over the next few weeks or months?

Well, because we are fortunate in that we have had such a high background vaccination rate, there are fewer people there to contract the infection. So I'd like to think that the rest of the summer for us will be low level infections, kind of, in just the normal ebb and flow of people that will constantly have 1.5% or so background positivity rate. And it's only if we can get people to really accept and move forward with vaccination that we would tend to see that disappear and our rates fall even lower.

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
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