MARQUETTE — COVID-19 “vaccine hesitancy” seems to be rearing its head in Marquette County, and in fact, the entire U.S.

Dr. Bob Lorinser, medical director of the Marquette County Health Department, acknowledged there have been recent vaccine “pauses” in the county.

He said 1,900 first-dose appointments were available the week of April 19, but 800 slots went unfilled.

“So, we asked the state last week not to send any more vaccines,” said Lorinser, who noted the county will not request any more vaccines this week either.

“There’s no waiting line,” he said. “We definitely don’t want to sit on vaccines if there’s other counties, (if) there’s other states that want (them), but if I think if you look probably at the internet, it’s a national issue.”

The issue apparently has pushed itself to the forefront.

“The vaccine hesitancy has become probably our No. 1 problem,” Lorinser said. “Before it used to be vaccine availability.”

He estimated 55% of all eligible people in Marquette County have received the vaccine.

“It’s interesting that when you look at other places, it’s about the same, around the same ballpark,” Lorinser said.

He surmised that the recent Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause due to rare blood clots contributed to the vaccine hesitancy, but the situation had been occurring before that pause.

“I think that on the national polls, 30% of them said they won’t take it,” Lorinser said of the vaccine “hesitaters.”

Some of those individuals, he said, have expressed various beliefs: that the vaccines aren’t safe, that they were developed too quickly, they don’t want to be the first ones to be vaccinated, that COVID-19 isn’t that serious and that “natural infection” is better.

However, Lorinser called the current COVID-19 vaccines “probably one of the most studied vaccines that we’ve ever had.”

Another question being asked, Lorinser said, is “Where’s my carrot? If I get vaccinated, I still can’t do this, can’t do this, can’t do that. So, what difference does it make?”

Individuals in Marquette County interested in getting vaccinated should visit mqthealth.org.

In a Tuesday news release, the MCHD discussed age-specific hospitalizations for the county.

“COVID isn’t just a ‘cold’ and not innocent even for the young,” the release read.

MCHD analyzed COVID-19 hospitalization rates by age range from Feb. 7 to April 7 — hospitalizations as reported by UP Health System – Marquette and UP Health System – Bell as well as cases reported to MCHD. It said that with the exception of one possible case, none of the individuals hospitalized were vaccinated.

The health department’s advice?

≤ Get vaccinated.

≤ If infected, consider monoclonal antibody treatment, which lowers the risk of being hospitalized by 70% for people at higher risk.

≤ Mask, social distance and practice good hygiene.

Pilot program

A statewide COVID-19 wastewater monitoring program piloted in 2020 resulted in all 20 participating sites detecting the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater samples.

The results are promising for future efforts to detect and respond to outbreaks of the virus, according to data published Tuesday by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

EGLE has developed a dashboard to display data from the pilot project, which can be found at https://bit.ly/3dYshnG. In conjunction with this dashboard, EGLE created a story map website, located at https://bit.ly/3aIZemq, that elaborates on the collaborative wastewater surveillance pilot project and includes an interactive data summary.

“EGLE is proud to bring its expertise in testing and data management to support this important, potentially life-saving work,” EGLE Director Liesl Clark said in a statement. “This project is yet another great example of state agencies working collaboratively with universities, municipalities and local health departments to slow the spread of COVID-19.”

From April 5, 2020, to Dec. 30, 2020, a total of 3,204 wastewater samples were tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. Of those samples, 62.5%, or 2,003 of 3,204 samples, were positive for the virus. Positive detections occurred at a variety of community and congregate living settings across Michigan.

The Michigan COVID-19 wastewater dashboard provides viewers with data from the October-December 2020 pilot project, including the types of wastewater samples collected, the testing methods used and the number of SARS-CoV-2 genes detected in wastewater at each individual sampling site. Additional data, starting in April 2020, is also included from sites that began collecting wastewater samples prior to the start of the pilot project.

From Oct. 1, 2020, to Dec. 30, 2020, the average positivity rate of all sampling sites combined was 66.3%. A few sites did not experience any positive detections throughout the pilot project, while many sites had 100% of their samples test positive.

During this time, clinical case numbers of COVID-19 slowly increased in October, continued increasing and peaked in November, and began to decline in December, although case numbers were still high for most of the month. Most wastewater testing results showed similar trends, and many sites experienced increased levels of virus detections in November and early December.

Wastewater testing results from individual sites can be viewed on the data dashboard. Northern Michigan University’s sample sites included the Baraga, Hawley, Lakeshore and Pine lift stations as well as the city of Marquette wastewater plant.

“Wastewater monitoring provides valuable data regarding the presence and trends of COVID-19 in a community,” said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, state chief medical executive and chief deputy for health, in a statement. “It allows health officials to detect the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Michigan communities and use this data to support public health responses.”

While COVID-19 wastewater monitoring is a new science and will continue to evolve over time, there are currently limitations on how this data can be interpreted and used, MDHHS and EGLE said. Most of the project data are not yet normalized for factors that can affect the amount of virus in wastewater, such as flow rate of the wastewater and population size. This means that more information is needed to compare wastewater data across different sample sites.

The average amount of SARS-CoV-2 virus shed by an infected individual in their feces is also currently unknown. Therefore, wastewater data cannot determine the total number of infected persons in a community or the percent of the population that’s infected.

The results from the pilot project have shown that a wastewater surveillance project of this scope and size is feasible and can provide value to local communities in their fight against the spread of COVID-19, the agencies said. Using wastewater surveillance data, in addition to clinical case data, can inform public health decisions and impact the public health response to COVID-19.

To continue wastewater monitoring in local communities, MDHHS is working to re-establish the coordinated wastewater monitoring network, now called the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemiology — Wastewater Evaluation and Reporting Network — the SEWER Network — that was developed through the pilot project.

Even as COVID-19 cases decrease in a community, this type of monitoring can provide an early warning sign to help detect potential outbreaks, identify new areas of disease transmission and help evaluate vaccination efforts, the agencies said. Additionally, wastewater monitoring can now be used to preliminarily detect variant strains of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater samples.

Future data from the SEWER Network will continue to be made publicly available on the COVID-19 wastewater dashboard. Local projects communicate testing results within 24 hours or less, which the agencies noted provides timely data that local health departments and other stakeholders can evaluate and act upon.

NMU numbers updated

NMU’s COVID-19 reporting dashboard, found at https://nmu.edu/safe-on-campus/dashboard, shows 32 active positives for a positivity rate of 0.47% as of Tuesday afternoon. This number includes 15 off-campus students, 17 on-campus students and no employees.

For the winter semester from Jan. 4 through Tuesday, there were 151 cumulative positive cases for a 2.31% positivity rate. The cases involved 84 off-campus students, 56 on-campus students and 11 employees.

In a Monday letter to students, faculty and staff, NMU President Fritz Erickson noted that NMU will lift pandemic university travel restrictions on May 10 for students and employees who are fully vaccinated.

The Lydia M. Olson Library and campus recreation center have had safety plans OK’d to begin lifting some of the visitor restrictions regarding their respective services as of May 10, Erickson said. The recreation center is already open to NMU students, faculty and staff as well as people in the community who had memberships before the start of the pandemic.

The Physical Education Instructional Facility will lift the pause on new yearly memberships, he wrote, although it still will not sell day passes. NMU will reconsider its overall visitors-on-campus restriction after seeing what if any changes are made regarding the state of Michigan epidemic order, which will expire on May 24.