Veteran Bainbridge pediatrician urges parents to follow science, not politics, in vaccine choice

ALBANY — With COVID-19, an unseasonable number of respiratory syncytial virus patients and now influenza, Dr. Winston Price has seen a lot of sick children in recent months.

All three viruses can cause the classic symptoms of runny nose, cough, fever and shortness of breath, and Price has had one patient who tested positive for both the flu and COVID, though he says he suspects more of those cases will begin popping up.

The Bainbridge pediatrician is hoping that when COVID-19 vaccinations become available for children 5 to 11, there will be more buy-in among parents. And some have already expressed interest based on their concerns of having a child sick at home and out of school.

Unfortunately, this sentiment is not universal, and the low vaccination rate for adults in the area is also mirrored in unvaccinated children in the families of unvaccinated parents.

“I think in the Southern states, and Georgia certainly is included, vaccination is running around 40 percent,” said Price, a physician for nearly 50 years who works at Memorial Pediatrics. “Kids 12 and older are following the mandates of their parents.”

The delta variant that is behind the current surge, the fourth since the pandemic began, is more easily spread and has affected younger patients and more children than the when the virus first emerged in 2020.

As of Tuesday the state’s rate was 40.77 percent fully vaccinated and 46.6 percent who had received at least one dose.

Nationally, 55.4 percent, or 183.9 million, were fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 64.4 percent had received at least one shot. Among all of those 12 and older who are eligible to be vaccinated it’s 64.8 percent who are fully vaccinated and 75.3 percent have had at least one dose.

But among individual counties the numbers can vary wildly. Oconee County leads Georgia with 52.78 percent fully vaccinated, while in Chattahoochee County only 17.82 percent had received at least one shot and 15.52 percent were fully vaccinated.

Like other school systems in southwest Georgia, Decatur County saw increasing numbers in the early weeks of the school year in August and returned to virtual learning, with students at home. After about two weeks on campus, students were in that environment until returning to classes on campus on Sept. 13, Price said.

Other schools in the area adopted hybrid schedules for several weeks, with students attending on alternating days, to limit the number gathered in classrooms.

Among his patients who have tested positive for COVID-19, Price said he is hearing that while face masks are mostly worn in classrooms, there are times when students congregate without their mouths and noses covered. That includes time in the cafeteria, while waiting to be picked up and on the playground.

The best way to protect those too young to be vaccinated is for those around them to roll up their sleeves and get a shot, the physician said. That also will help hospitals and clinics continue to provide optimum care to patients who have emergencies such as heart attacks or need other medical procedures.

Hospitals in parts of the country, particularly Alaska and South Dakota, have been forced to ration care in recent weeks due to the high number of COVID patients.

“My advice, and I discuss this with my parents that come into the office, is we need to put the politics aside and do what’s best for the children and the families,” he said. “Certainly we don’t want to cause more degradation of our health care facilities in Georgia, and in south Georgia in particular. This virus will do that in a heartbeat. We (ask) the patients to not only think of themselves but to think about their family and community and country.

“It’s amazing how people come together during a weather event and clean up and take food and water to their neighbors. A vaccine presents the same opportunity to their families and to themselves to rebuild their community.”

The physician also encouraged residents to weed out misinformation and disinformation being spread.

“We are asking people to look at the science and how people are really suffering and dying from this disease,” he said. “Look at how people have been negatively impacted (by) not being able to get into hospitals and clinics to get the care they so desperately need.”

There also are long-term impacts for patients, many of whom suffer “long COVID syndrome,” and for health care in the future as surveys show that nurses who have been on the front lines fighting the disease are thinking of cutting their careers short, Price said. The latter will compound the shortage of nurses in the country, particularly in rural areas.

The Dougherty County School System has not been forced to return to virtual learning, even though transmission and hospitalizations have been high in the community, and Superintendent Ken Dyer attributes that to a protocol that includes mandatory face masks, air filtration systems in all classrooms, other protective measures and testing that is being rolled out throughout the system.

“The positive case rate is 1.47 percent,” Dyer said. “That’s good. That’s the lowest since school began.”

An emphasis has been placed on getting athletes vaccinated, and the school system has offered a $1,000 incentive to staff members who are fully vaccinated.

“We are very (serious) about all our athletes getting vaccinated, because they are in close quarters,” he said. “We had a speaker come in and talk about the importance. There is also an effort for all Dougherty County citizens 18 and older.”

While the restrictions have not been embraced by all parents, Dyer said he thinks they provide the best chance for students to continue on-campus learning through the school year.

“We’re trying to keep students and staff safe for in-person learning,” he said. “That’s the most important thing for our students to be able to learn. We recognize that.”

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