WEST PALM BEACH – COVID-19 deaths in Palm Beach County are declining, thanks to an increase in vaccinations, according to reports given at the Sept. 14 meeting of the Palm Beach County Board of Commissioners.

The COVID-19 Delta variant continues to be dominate in the United States, Dr. Alina Alonso, director of the Florida Department of Health – Palm Beach County, explained. She said 99.1% of all cases continues to be the delta variant.

In Palm Beach County, there have been a decrease in positive cases in recent weeks. The county was averaging 9,000 cases per week in the summer and had 5,548 positive cases in the last week.

“We attribute most of the numbers going down to the fact that we’re getting vaccinations up,” she explained. She said 72% of Palm Beach County residents over age 12 are vaccinated with at least one dose. About half of those age 12-19 have been vaccinated.

Alonso also addressed some of the false claims circulating on social media about the vaccines. Alonso said the vaccine does not change your DNA. “It’s messenger RNA that sends a message to your cells to create the antibodies,” she said. “It does not change your DNA at all.” There is no virus inside the vaccine, she added. That is also a false rumor.

Monoclonal therapy is available for high risk individuals who are covid positive. “This is for people who are positive and may have some symptoms but are not sick enough to go to the hospital yet,” Alonso explained. “They need to go right away,” she said. Studies have found monoclonal therapy is most effective when administered before a person is seriously ill. She said these are man-made antibodies that are infused into the body through an IV or with two shots in the upper arms and two in the abdomen. “This is specifically for people who are at high risk,” she added.

“The vaccine is a different process than injecting those man-made products into your body,” said Alonzo. She said the monoclonal treatment is used with emergency FDA authorization, just as the vaccines were when they first came out. The Pfizer vaccine now has full FDA approval, she added.

“We need to continue all of our mitigation strategies to stop the spread of covid,” she said. “Vaccination remains the most important tool to stop the spread and save lives. The vaccines are working against all the variants. Even if it breaks through, people are not going to the hospital and they aren’t dying. That’s the purpose of the vaccine.”

“So you can either have a needle stuck in your arm and fluids infused into your veins, or you can get four needles stuck in your body – two in your stomach and two in your arms,” said Commissioner Melissa McKinlay, who compared that to a vaccine that’s at a maximum two shots. The ingredients in monoclonal therapy are man-made antibodies, Alonso explained. With the vaccine, your body produces antibodies.

McKinlay also thanked the county health officials for taking care of the people in the Glades. ‘The state of Florida did not help us set up the monoclonal therapy center in Belle Glade,” she said. She explained county health officials saw the problem for people who did not have transportation to the coast and made that happen for the people of the Glades. Lakeside Medical Center, 39200 Hooker Hwy, in Belle Glade, offers monoclonal antibody therapy.