CLEVELAND — “To be clear - you will get COVID. If you can hear my voice right now, you will get COVID.” It’s a stark warning from Dr. Amy Edwards, pediatric infectious disease doctor at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.
As the highly contagious omicron variant overlaps with the delta variant, COVID-19 cases in Northeast Ohio have been on the rise. Once more of an anomaly, breakthrough cases are increasing as well.
“Understand that even if you’ve done everything right throughout the pandemic, and as frustrating as this may seem, you likely will be infected at some point and that’s just something we all have to come to terms with,” said Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer at Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center.
Both Edwards and Gonsenhauser emphasized the increased transmissibility of omicron compared to the original strain of virus and subsequent variants.
“Where we’re seeing the vaccines are still very effective is in preventing any serious illness, we’re at the point now where our vaccines are no longer able to prevent infection at a reliable rate any longer,” Gonsenhauser said. “A two dose vaccine sequence is only about 20 percent effective at preventing an omicron infection. With the booster that prevention goes up to about 55 to 80 percent.”
To put it in perspective, Gonsenhauser said omicron is five and a half times more contagious than delta, which he said was about three times more contagious than the original coronavirus.
While both doctors emphasized the vaccines still supply protection and reduced chance of severe disease and hospitalization, they are no longer a guarantee in preventing the infection in the first place.
“Because omicron is so contagious and I imagine we have more contagious variants in our future, everybody is going to get COVID at some point. Let’s just be very clear about that.” Edwards said. “We are no longer talking about absolute protection from disease, we have now moved into this world where the question is, ‘when you get COVID, how is it going to be?’ Are you going to have mild disease fully protected by the vaccine that you almost don’t even notice it? Or are you going to come visit me in the hospital?”
Edwards said it’s now about different layers of protection, and taking measures to prevent severe infection.
“There are layers of protection that you can provide yourself such that when you get COVID, it won’t be that bad,” she said. “If you’re vaccinated, if you’re boosted, if you’re wearing your mask, then when you get COVID, you can take a couple of days off, you can have a cold and you can be right back at it and you can be fine.”
However, Edwards warned that on the other side of that spectrum and without protection, another reality is ending up in the hospital or even ICU.
“If you don’t have protection with masking, with vaccinating, then you are rolling the dice on your health when it comes to these very contagious variants of COVID,” she said.
Both doctors emphasized the importance of getting vaccinated.
"If I told somebody that they had a near one hundred percent chance of getting in a car crash, most of them would choose to put their seatbelt on because they know it will protect them," Gonsenhauser said. "Interestingly, we are telling people that there is a near hundred percent chance that they are going to experience the car crash that is COVID infection, and yet individuals are still choosing not to put that seatbelt on in the form of a vaccine."
*Editor's Note: The video in the player above is from a previous report.