Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Two epidemiologists with the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are echoing the urging of local health officials and government leaders for residents to get fully vaccinated along with the booster shot to prevent becoming severely ill or hospitalized if infected with COVID-19, especially now with the highly infectious omicron variant which has spread around the world including the U.S.

CDC Epidemiologists, Dr. Thane Hancock and Dr. Richard Brostrom were among the 55-member federal team that arrived last Friday on a military flight and joined Monday’s Zoom news conference where Health Department Epidemiologist, Dr. Aifii J. Tufa noted that although DoH is tracking confirmed cases, which are documented and made public, it does not necessarily mean that the documented positives of the community spread are the only ones in the territory.

“We suspect, that because the virus that causes COVID-19 — if you are to get the virus — a lot of people would probably feel very mild to no symptoms at all,” he said. “And so it’s possible that you have the virus but have not had symptoms enough for you to come in.”

He said that one of the ways that “we’re going to fight this and beat this [virus] — is that, if you are symptomatic, we’re urging you to come to one of our clinics, get tested, and assess you for treatment.”

“Data suggests that if you are fully vaccinated and have also been boosted, it really reduces your risk of hospitalization and death,” he said and reiterated that importance of getting fully vaccinated and getting the booster dose.

Data presented by Dr. Tufa shows that a majority of the shots given out at last Saturday’s vaccination drive-thru at the Tafuna airport were booster shots.

He thanked the federal team that hand carried with them 2,700 doses on last Friday’s flight, further helping with the drive-thru vaccination drive. And the territory also received on Saturday’s cargo flight 12,900 doses from the CDC.

“We have a lot of support coming from our federal partners,” he said, and was asked by the media if DoH has identified the variant infecting those who have tested positive so far.

Dr. Tufa responded that samples have already been sent to a Hawaii lab, and DoH has been informed that it will take 7 to 10 business days to get the results back.

Of concern to the local medical community is the omicron variant that has spread across the U.S and DoH suspects omicron on the local positives.

DoH data presented at the news conference shows that 6.1% of the eligible population is not vaccinated, and some residents have argued, that with their “natural immunity”, they don’t need to get vaccinated to protect them from being infected.

According to the John Hopkins Medicine website, “Natural immunity is the antibody protection your body creates against a germ once you’ve been infected with it.” The CDC website also has an explanation and information on natural immunity.

And the CDC medical experts were asked about the argument of “natural immunity” versus the person getting fully vaccinated to which Dr. Hancock responded that, “omicron [variant] has certainly changed the use of vaccinations.”

“The vaccinations are still incredibly important to prevent severe disease, hospitalization and death,” he said and pointed out that it’s also “especially important” to get the booster dose.

“When people worry about natural immunity, that they may have, that will protect them from the virus — unfortunately, in American Samoa — no one [really] had natural immunity until just a few weeks ago.”

“By not having natural immunity you really need to get the vaccination, to be able to boost your immunity, so that if you do get omicron [variant], you do not get severe illness,” he explained.

And if American Samoa is “unable to vaccinate everyone — that’s okay. The people that we really, really need to get vaccinated and boosted to protect against omicron — is anyone who is older. I would say, even if you are over the age of 40 you absolutely need to get vaccinated and boosted to protect from severe illness,” he pointed out.

Furthermore, vaccination along with the booster, helps those with high risk factors from being infected.

“Again omicron has sort of changed the dynamic. If you are vaccinated and boosted, you can get infected with the virus. That’s something important to keep in mind,” he said. “But being vaccinated and boosted reduces your risk of developing several diseases, and hospitalization.

 “It’s very important that the American Samoa community go out and get the boosters — especially if you’re high risk,” he declared.

Dr. Brostrom added that it’s unfortunate that with the omicron variant, the vaccine “will probably not protect you from getting the virus. But I think where the vaccine is so valuable, is to keep you from going to the hospital, keeps you from having a minor cold, sore throat...”

He referred to Dr. Tufa’s presentation where some who tested positive had been fully vaccinated and some of them also received the booster doses.

And “that’s actually okay. From our perspective, we expect that,” he pointed out and noted with concern data from the LBJ Medical Center presented during the news conference — where people tested positive and many of them were unvaccinated and with no booster shot.

On the issue of all eligible residents in American Samoa being fully vaccinated, Dr. Brostrom said, “there’s probably no jurisdiction that can achieve 100%” vaccination rate, and American Samoa’s vaccination rate of over 80% — at the time of the news conference — is as high as anywhere in the world.

“It’s not probably realistic to image 100% fully vaccinated,” said Dr. Brostrom, who also called on residents to get vaccinated along with the booster shot, especially those 40-years and older.

For vaccination and testing sites, call DoH Command Post at 219 or their Facebook page, where updates are posted. And CDC website (www.cdc.gov) provide additional information on vaccination.