Des Moines Sun

The delta variant is throwing a wrench into the COVID-19 recovery plan and, although Polk County has been identified as a "high transmission" county, some businesses are choosing to opt out of a mask requirement because it can be a detriment to their business.

After a significant increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations throughout the country, especially throughout the South, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending that masks be worn even if residents are vaccinated, KCCI reported.

Polk County has a 65% vaccination rate, which is below the CDC’s recommended 70-75% vaccination rate. CDC reports substantial or high COVID-19 transmission levels in most Iowa counties, KCCI reported.

“[I] hope this is not an indicator that we're heading back to that because [my] business is back on track financially,” E.J. Fry, manager of Sticks Gallery in the East Village, told KCCI.

Frye said that the entire Sticks Gallery staff is vaccinated and feels safe. 

COVID-19 is currently one of the top 10 leading causes of death in children in the United States. As respiratory syncytial, or RSV, and other contagions keep Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines at max capacity, another KCCI article reports that Dr. Joel Waddell pleads for the public to put on a mask. 

"Our PICU is full," Waddell, a pediatric infectious diseases physician, said. "Our general pediatric floor is full. We're like, rooming children in the halls of the ED. And so it really creates a situation that if those numbers continue, and we go back to school with no masks and (under-vaccinated) children, it's going to be very difficult rooming every child who needs a hospital bed." 

Polk County Supervisor Angela Connolly expressed anger at Americans' lack of concern over COVID-19 deaths, including the over 600 deaths in Polk County, the Des Moines Register reported.

"I'm really struggling to understand how we have collectively let ourselves fly back to this level of risk," Connolly said. "We have safe and effective ways to put COVID behind us, and yet there is a segment of people who have made the decision that they are not responsible for the health of our community. They have decided that this is an acceptable level of death in our community."