EXCLUSIVE: “We Are in Epidemic Free Fall,” Top RIDOH Epidemiologist Tells Group of Doctors
Friday, December 03, 2021
GoLocal was provided a copy of a Zoom meeting in which a top Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) expert said that COVID is in an “epidemic free fall” in the state.
He made these comments to a group of nearly 200 physicians this week.
John Fulton, Ph.D., who was the Chief Health Program Evaluator for the State of Rhode Island, warned that the state has functionally no strategy to stop the spread of the virus.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTFulton is now a consultant to RIDOH as an epidemiologist and is a researcher at Brown University.
"At this point, we're in a situation where we are in sort of epidemic free fall," said Fulton.
Fulton's comments are in stark contrast to the comments of Governor Dan McKee and RIDOH Director Dr. Nicole Alexander Scott who continue to state that the state’s program of emphasizing vaccinations is effective.
Rhode Island’s vaccination rate is 73% but many of those who received two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines have lost more than half of their initial protection.
Hospitalization Capacity to Run Out
In his presentation, Fulton said that due to diminished staffing levels at Rhode Island’s hospitals, the capacity for COVID cases is approximately 175.
On Thursday, RIDOH announced that there are 170 COVID patients hospitalized in Rhode Island.
As GoLocal reported on Thursday morning, Rhode Island is now number one in both the increase in hospitalizations and the increase in cases for COVID of any state in the country.
The double dose of "top" rankings paints a dark picture for Rhode Island over the next month in its battle against the virus.
In the past 14 days, Rhode Island has seen the greatest percent increase in the number of COVID hospitalizations in the country, according to tracking data by the New York Times.
Cases Rising
Fulton warned there is “very little evidence of mitigation whatsoever."
"We expect that our daily case numbers will top 800 in about three weeks," said Fulton.
But Fulton's estimates underestimated the speed of the spread of the virus. Later on Wednesday, RIDOH announced that there were 861 new cases.
And, on Thursday the number of new cases jumped to 903 — more than Fulton projected and weeks earlier.
This story was first published 12/2/21 6:40 PM
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