Ripon man who urged people to get vaccinated loses battle with COVID-19
The COVID-19 surge, driven by the highly infectious delta variant, is affecting more people in the 18-49 age group.
Philly Baird, 40, of Ripon expressed serious regrets about not getting vaccinated on a July 30 Facebook video posted shortly before he was transferred to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto. Baird died on Saturday, losing his battle with COVID-19, according to the KCRA news station in Sacramento, which did previous interviews with him.
Baird was such an ardent fan of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles he legally changed his name to Philly. “Hoping your Eagles will win. We know you will be flying high over them,” said one post online.
Baird’s story was posted on news sites and was mentioned in a Modesto Bee editorial. “I was an idiot,” Baird said. “I didn’t get the shot. I believed in all the hoopla.”
The recent surge of coronavirus has taken a toll on younger adults who have lower rates of vaccination than older age groups. Older people were stricken more heavily by previous surges in December-January and summer 2020.
In Stanislaus County, about 45 percent of residents from 18 to 49 years old are fully vaccinated and 46 percent are fully vaccinated in San Joaquin County.
The number of recent COVID deaths among younger adults, who often have families, is not disclosed by the Stanislaus County public health agency. The county says it only releases a count of verified COVID-19 deaths to protect the person’s privacy. The age of the deceased is not released because it could make them identifiable through obituaries or other public reports, the county says.
Some COVID-related tragedies surface by word of mouth, such as Baird and a 40-year-old Salida mother who died Aug. 23.
The county Health Services Agency has reported 74 deaths due to COVID-19 since July 25. This is shaping up as the deadliest week of the delta surge, with 17 deaths reported since Monday, already surpassing the previous high of 16 last week.
The number of unvaccinated and vaccinated people hospitalized in Stanislaus County is not known, though the county may post that kind of data on its public dashboard before long. Hospital staff have said a much larger number of unvaccinated people are in hospital rooms and they are more likely to become seriously ill.
According to the California Department of Public Health, the new case rate for unvaccinated state residents was 61.55 per 100,000 Aug. 15-21. It was 10.77 per 100,000 for fully vaccinated people. The state has identified 306 deaths among fully vaccinated people, though it’s not known if COVID-19 was the primary cause of death in those cases.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adults age 18 to 49 in the United States were hospitalized in August at the highest rate since early January.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported 905,929 new cases of COVID-19 across the nation in the last seven days, with a total of 80,734 hospitalizations and 6,271 deaths.
In California, adults age 18 to 34 have endured by far the most COVID infections over the course of the pandemic — 1,405,499 or 33.8% of total cases. The 35 to 49 age group is next with 985,350 cases or 23.7% of the total. The two age groups represent 44% of the state’s population and account for 7% of COVID-19 deaths since last year.
The Bee made a records request to the county Aug. 9 for data on COVID-19 hospitalizations for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. The county denied the request, saying in a letter last week the Health Services Agency does not have the information.
According to the county’s letter, data on COVID hospitalizations are fed into the county’s public dashboard Monday through Friday but it’s only a count and does not specify vaccination status.
The county agency is working on getting more specifics on hospital admissions and will post the information. The letter didn’t exactly say what fresh content will appear on the dashboard.
“Once we have enough verified data, it is our intent to produce content for the public website, however, we do not yet have a timetable set for this work as it is contingent upon the hospitals’ ability to get us this information,” the county letter stated.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 6:58 AM.
