Waterloo Times

Black Hawk County entered the second full weekend in August with 62 new positive COVID-19 cases, and a health department trying to get people vaccinated.

"Wear a mask when you are around people you don’t live with, especially in indoor spaces," Black Hawk County Health Department said in a Twitter post Friday, Aug. 13. "Learn more about the importance of wearing a mask in public settings:  #TaketheShotBHC #dailynumbers."

Black Hawk County Health Department Director Nafissa Cisse Egbuonye | bhcpublichealth.org/

The county's COVID-19 status that day was listed as "high."

In a Twitter post the previous day, the county health department reported 39 new positive COVID-19 cases.

"Masks help slow the spread of COVID-19," that Twitter post said. "Wear a mask when you are around people you don’t live with, especially in indoor spaces."

At least some Iowa politicians don't agree with — or flat out deny — the county health department's mask efficacy message.

Earlier this month, Black Hawk County Health Department Director Nafissa Cisse Egbuonye told The Courier in Waterloo that she felt Iowa's governor was giving her the cold shoulder by forbidding schools from issuing mask mandates. Northeast Iowa’s elected officials in Congress are encouraging vaccinations but oppose mask wearing, The Courier reported.

Only 31% of college-aged adults in Black Hawk County had been vaccinated by the first of August, a figured that then dragged down overall community vaccination numbers, The Courier reported. That allowed the delta variant to circulate, putting at risk even vaccinated people. Most individuals that go to the hospital due to COVID-19 are under the age of 60 and most of them are not vaccinated.

It isn't only in Black Hawk County. COVID-19 hospitalizations in Iowa were up by about 36% before the middle of this month, according to a KWWL 7 news story.

KWWL 7 also reported on Aug. 11 that, by that time, 446 more Black Hawk County residents had been fully vaccinated, bringing the total then to 63,525.

"People are witnessing science in real time," Egbuonye told The Courier. People are also having to figure out what's misinformation and what isn't. “It takes that one friend to make that statement, and then the others will follow suit."