Hurricane Ida and COVID-19: The Perfect Storm

Rescue efforts continue with little hope in sight for relief.

Less than 41 percent of all the people in Louisiana are currently vaccinated against COVID-19.  The state already has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the United States.  And this was before Hurricane Ida.

Many of the 59 percent of Louisiana residents that are not vaccinated have been forced from their homes.  More than one million people in Louisiana do not have electricity.  It is not just that the shelters being used for people displaced by Hurricane Ida certainly have unvaccinated and potentially infected people.  Considering the widespread resistance to vaccinations, it is doubtful that majority of the people running temporary shelters are testing displaced people.

Even if people running shelters wanted to test people in their facilities, they lack the supplies to perform the tests.

Let’s consider the longer-term issues.  The supply chain in Louisiana has been heavily damaged.  Social services have been heavily impacted.  Now thousands of emergency workers are descending into an area heavily hit by COVID-19. 

After helping the people of Louisiana, those workers will return to their home states.  Hurricane Ida has both the possibility of becoming the largest super spreader event since the outbreak of Covid, the hurricane has crippled the ability to vaccinate and test people in the state. 

The impact of hurricane Ida highlights the need for vaccination to slow the impact of Covid.  Yesterday a friend of mine called.  His 28-year-old daughter in Pensacola Florida is about to deliver a baby.  Sadly, her 32-year-old husband, a sheriff’s officer, is in the ICU of the same hospital with Covid related pneumonia.

Programming Note: Listen to Timothy Powell’s live reporting of news every Tuesday on Talk Ten Tuesdays, 10 Eastern.