Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

[malchior]

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

In honor of Philadelphian's chasing actual nazis out of town I'll translate to the local favorite version of this phrase, "Fuck around and find out".

But seriously like Smoove_B said, I can't waste time worrying about these morons anymore. I have a friend who for some reason that escapes us all won't get vaccinated. Her whole family is vaccinated, her husband is vaccinated, all our other friends are and she is moping this weekend that no one wants to do anything with her. I wonder if someone should tell her why.

[gbasden]

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

In honor of Philadelphian's chasing actual nazis out of town I'll translate to the local favorite version of this phrase, "Fuck around and find out".

But seriously like Smoove_B said, I can't waste time worrying about these morons anymore. I have a friend who for some reason that escapes us all won't get vaccinated. Her whole family is vaccinated, her husband is vaccinated, all our other friends are and she is moping this weekend that no one wants to do anything with her. I wonder if someone should tell her why.

[Smoove_B]

I wonder if someone should tell her why.

I'd be happy to.

[YellowKing]

Lifting the mask mandate was equivalent to the end of the pandemic in a lot of people’s minds. We were talking to a neighbor last night and she kept saying things like “back during the pandemic” and “when COVID was around.” To a lot of people, no masks = no COVID, end of story.

The communication failure coupled with general ignorance has been a staggering failure on multiple levels.

[Unagi]

Lifting the mask mandate was equivalent to the end of the pandemic in a lot of people’s minds. We were talking to a neighbor last night and she kept saying things like “back during the pandemic” and “when COVID was around.” To a lot of people, no masks = no COVID, end of story.

The communication failure coupled with general ignorance has been a staggering failure on multiple levels.

At the same time, there are some levels of ignorance that are just impenetrable. I’m not sure how one would have ever dialed any thing back at all, without this army of degenerates taking it as ‘proof we probably never even needed the damn masks’.

[Smoove_B]

It's almost like...people can't be trusted:

Owners of the ski-themed Aspen Valley nightclub in the city of Enschede in eastern Netherlands couldn’t wait to reopen their venue after more than a year of harsh lockdowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. They did everything the Municipal Health Authorities told them to do before opening on June 26: require all customers to present vaccine certificates or negative COVID-19 tests. No face masks or social distancing was required for the revelers.

What they apparently didn’t account for was how desperate the customers were to dance. So far, 165 of the 650 nightclub goers have tested positive for the virus despite the precautions. Now they know that many of those who attended shared screen grabs of Q-codes or negative tests and the bouncers didn’t notice.

Of note:

In the Netherlands, people are also given vaccination certificates just one day after they complete their last dose, even though immunity doesn’t start right away and in most cases people are not fully immune for two weeks. And when people are required to take a test 48 hours before attending an event, most don’t quarantine to stay COVID-free in the meantime. “Something that does bother me is that customers can do their test 40 hours in advance,” a bartender told the local newspaper. “So someone gets tested on Friday afternoon, goes to football practice, has a beer with friends and then comes to us 33 contacts later.”

[Unagi]

Well. I mean at least the local random bartender gets it.

[Isgrimnur]

People suck.

[stessier]

OSHA guidance says

OSHA has stated that employers are obligated to implement multiple controls to protect not-fully-vaccinated employees, visitors, business partners and customers based on CDC guidance.

CDC guidance says that anyone fully vaccinated has face coverings optional (among other things).

So we're asking vaccination status and then managing people's hygiene requirements (which falls to the supervisors). This is going to get interesting.

At least we didn't interpret the OSHA guidance to mean everyone had to remain in face coverings to protect the unvaccinated. While undoubtedly the safest route, I'm not in a particularly charitable mood this week.

[Smoove_B]

I am really hoping the FDA removes the "emergency use" designation over the next 30 days. Of course, that assumes employers will then start requiring vaccinations. I suspect (but can't prove), there's been lots and lots of industry pressure on OSHA (and maybe even the FDA) to not make things extraordinarily difficult for businesses (i.e. mandating vaccinations, mask use, etc..) over the last ~120 days. My guess is there was a plea to see how the general population and workforce responded to voluntary vaccination uptake before the government forces the employment sector to be the "bad guys". Well...now we know.

Either way, when the vaccines make it through the final hurdle, I suspect things are going to get very, very interesting.

[Smoove_B]

Right now the 7 day rolling average for COVID-19 new cases is 4 per 100,000 people (daily average of ~12,000 cases).

In Arkansas it's 17.
In Missouri is 16.
In Florida it's 10.

I mean, really.

[pr0ner]

Right now the 7 day rolling average for COVID-19 new cases is 4 per 100,000 people (daily average of ~12,000 cases).

In Arkansas it's 17.
In Missouri is 16.
In Florida it's 10.

I mean, really.

DC and Maryland are at 1; Virginia is at 2.

[Alefroth]

I found it surprising that the South has the most vaccinated people in the U.S.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/07 ... sparities/

[LawBeefaroni]

I found it surprising that the South has the most vaccinated people in the U.S.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/07 ... sparities/

It's because they have the highest population.
Their vccination rates are lower.

[Alefroth]

Yep. I was also surprised they are the most populous region in the U.S.

They must have a huge population, because every state besides FL and VA is doing miserably.

[Max Peck]

It looks like it's largely Texas, Florida and perhaps North Carolina that skew the numbers. Not only are they high population, but they also appear to have the highest vaccination rates among the southern states.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Good ol' SC is stuck at around 43% fully vaccinated. And, not surprising, our case numbers are starting to tick up. The positivity rate yesterday was something like 5.4%, which I think is the first time it's been over 5% in months. And after weeks of having single digit new cases/day, we've been getting well over 100/day the last week or two. At least we're sticking it to the Libs pretty good.

[Kurth]

FL is actually doing pretty well on the vaccination front. It strikes me as odd, because if you were just a casual reader of headlines or a CNN watcher, I don’t think that’s the picture most people would get.

[El Guapo]

Good ol' SC is stuck at around 43% fully vaccinated. And, not surprising, our case numbers are starting to tick up. The positivity rate yesterday was something like 5.4%, which I think is the first time it's been over 5% in months. And after weeks of having single digit new cases/day, we've been getting well over 100/day the last week or two. At least we're sticking it to the Libs pretty good.

You can tell others there that I feel pretty pwned.

[ImLawBoy]

Obviously just speculation on my part, but it's possible that some vaccine hesitant people decided to get vaccinated with all the reports of Florida opening up so early and forecasts of impending doom.

[Pyperkub]

US vaccination program has already saved almost 300k lives:

Without a vaccination program, by the end of June 2021 there would have been approximately 279,000 additional deaths and up to 1.25 million additional hospitalizations.

[LordMortis]

My ignorant ass believes it would be more. As a nation, we were done with COVID moving in to 2021. This is to say nothing of violence around grandstanding that is getting people killed and people dying in isolation because of COVID, not getting treated for other illness. Again this might just from my ignorant ass and watching the rates go up locally in spite of vaccinations because they weren't coming fast enough by March and my fellow Michiganders decided it was time to out a drinkin and a carousen until it got too cold at night and then it was time for huddling and spreading disease with no masks, drunk projected talking, and even closer indoor proximity.

Our rates, including death rates, in late March through April were worse in 2021 than they were 2020 because stay at home was done and not coming back.

[noxiousdog]

FL is actually doing pretty well on the vaccination front. It strikes me as odd, because if you were just a casual reader of headlines or a CNN watcher, I don’t think that’s the picture most people would get.

Old people can still remember smallpox and polio. They (generally) believe in vaccines.

[Smoove_B]

Here are the clusters putting us all at risk:

The five most significant clusters together include more than 15 million people. Of those, only 27.9% are fully vaccinated -- far lower than the national rate of 47.6%.

The county data is not without its flaws. When someone gets a shot, their home county is supposed to be noted in state records, but the system doesn't always work perfectly. In the Georgetown analysis, at least 90% of all vaccinations were recorded with the person's home county, Bansal said.

In some cases, the Georgetown data differs from CDC data because Bansal and her team were able to obtain additional data directly from state health departments.

[hepcat]

So I found out the other day that our accountant lied to me back in April when she said she was getting vaccinated. She has two elderly parents that she visits regularly, one of whom has serious health issues and a compromised immune system thanks to chemotherapy for cancer treatment. Back in April, she told me she was getting vaccinated so she could visit them.

Then on Monday, my boss and I were talking about the people in our office who refused to get vaccinated. The far right coworker I've mentioned before was brought up, but then he mentioned that our accountant hadn't been vaccinated. I told him that wasn't right as she had done so explicitly for the sake of her parents.

Turns out she hadn't though as she admitted as such when my boss casually brought it up to her later.

She's another one of those idiotic new age, homeopathic believing nut jobs that think 2000 year old Chinese herbs can cure cancer and that aromatherapy will resolve wealth disparity in our nation...but that vaccines are going to destroy us all. She obviously knows she SHOULD get vaccinated for the sake of her parents. I mean, why else would she lie to me about it? But now she's fully on the antivax train and the next stop is Deathtown.

I don't know why, but these two idiots bug me. It takes all my willpower to resist just berating them for endangering others.

[Zaxxon]

Apparently we're back to full-on sprint mode.

C.D.C. to Issue New School Guidance, With Emphasis on Full Reopening

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to release new guidance on Friday urging schools to fully reopen in the fall, even if they cannot take all of the steps the agency recommends to curb the spread of the coronavirus — a major turn in a public health crisis in which childhood education has emerged as a political flash point.

[ImLawBoy]

It's not quite that black and white. Per this article:

Schools that are ready to transition away from pandemic precautions as community transmission reaches low levels should do so gradually, the agency said in a draft of the updated guidance obtained by CNN.

"If localities decide to remove prevention strategies in schools based on local conditions, they should remove them one at a time and monitor closely (with adequate testing) for any increases in COVID-19 cases before removing the next prevention strategy," the guidance says, adding that schools need to be transparent with families, staff and the community as they do so.

Italics mine.

So they're urging opening, but they're still couching it in the context of low levels of community transmission and they're saying to remove measures one at a time.

[Paingod]

I worry about all the kids that are potentially going to be living with 50+ years of chronic health complications because we prioritized the economy over keeping them safe.

On the blight side, that number is incredibly low compared to all the kids who are going to live 50+ years with chronic health complications from obesity and diabeetus due to horrific diet and/or parental neglect.

Things in Vermont and Maine feel almost "normal" again - like pre-2020 normal. Except people are automatically keeping some distance between each other, which I like. I used to hate it when I'd be in line somewhere and the person behind me would get so close I could almost feel their breath on me. Each state also has a small contingent of mask-wearers, like 5%. Most of them seem younger folks.

I gave up wearing my mask when my wife let me know she had been going out and shopping for a week without hers. Not much point in persisting then.

I may break them out pre-flu season.

[LordMortis]

On the blight side, that number is incredibly low compared to all the kids who are going to live 50+ years with ... obesity ....

Hey... What are you trying to say?

[LawBeefaroni]

On the blight side, that number is incredibly low compared to all the kids who are going to live 50+ years with ... obesity ....

Hey... What are you trying to say?

Always look on the blight side.

[LordMortis]

whi-whistle. whi-whistle. whi-whi whi-whi whi-whistle

[stessier]

I live in such a lovely state.

SC Gov. Henry McMaster calls on DHEC to 'ban' door-to-door vaccine outreach

Mr. Mark Elam
Chairman
South Carolina Board of Health and Environmental Control
2600 Bull Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Dear Chairman Elam,
Earlier this week, President Biden announced plans for the federal government to “send
people door to door….to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus." Biden
Administration officials have publicly described their plans as "targeted community door-to-door
outreach."

Thanks to the tremendous ongoing efforts of the Department of Health and
Environmental Control (DHEC) - working collaboratively with state and local healthcare
organizations - South Carolinians have been provided access to all available information about
the vaccine as well as access to the vaccine itself.

A South Carolinian’s decision to get vaccinated is a personal one for them to make and
not the government’s. Enticing, coercing, intimidating, mandating, or pressuring anyone to take
the vaccine is a bad policy which will deteriorate the public’s trust and confidence in the State’s
vaccination efforts. The prospect of government vaccination teams showing up unannounced or
unrequested at the door of “targeted” homeowners or on their property will further deteriorate the
public’s trust and could lead to potentially disastrous public safety consequences.

For those reasons, I ask the DHEC board to promptly issue direction to agency leadership
and to state and local healthcare organizations prohibiting the use of the Biden Administration’s
“targeted” “door to door” tactics in the State’s ongoing vaccination efforts.

[malchior]

What's really crazy is that the clear trend is one where the GOP is essentially broadcasting that Biden has no legitimacy. How is advocating for public health measures this controversial? This is going to end even more badly than it already is ending badly. I'll haul out and oldie. This is no way to run a country. It's ridiculous.

[LordMortis]

I was confuzzled. The only DHEC, I know is a circuit identifier to let you know your T1 is PRI.

[stessier]

I was confuzzled. The only DHEC, I know is a circuit identifier to let you know your T1 is PRI.

Department of Health and Environmental Control

[LawBeefaroni]

I live in such a lovely state.

SC Gov. Henry McMaster calls on DHEC to 'ban' door-to-door vaccine outreach

Mr. Mark Elam
Chairman
South Carolina Board of Health and Environmental Control
2600 Bull Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Dear Chairman Elam,
Earlier this week, President Biden announced plans for the federal government to “send
people door to door….to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus." Biden
Administration officials have publicly described their plans as "targeted community door-to-door
outreach."

Thanks to the tremendous ongoing efforts of the Department of Health and
Environmental Control (DHEC) - working collaboratively with state and local healthcare
organizations - South Carolinians have been provided access to all available information about
the vaccine as well as access to the vaccine itself.

A South Carolinian’s decision to get vaccinated is a personal one for them to make and
not the government’s. Enticing, coercing, intimidating, mandating, or pressuring anyone to take
the vaccine is a bad policy which will deteriorate the public’s trust and confidence in the State’s
vaccination efforts. The prospect of government vaccination teams showing up unannounced or
unrequested at the door of “targeted” homeowners or on their property will further deteriorate the
public’s trust and could lead to potentially disastrous public safety consequences.

For those reasons, I ask the DHEC board to promptly issue direction to agency leadership
and to state and local healthcare organizations prohibiting the use of the Biden Administration’s
“targeted” “door to door” tactics in the State’s ongoing vaccination efforts.

There's a lot to comment on there but I'll just stick to this part:

The prospect of government vaccination teams showing up unannounced or
unrequested at the door of “targeted” homeowners or on their property will further deteriorate the
public’s trust and could lead to potentially disastrous public safety consequences.

I'd consider that a threat/call to arms.

[Smoove_B]

I'd consider that a threat/call to arms.

I mean, really.

This is the part that gets me:

prohibiting the use of the Biden Administration’s “targeted” “door to door” tactics in the State’s ongoing vaccination efforts.

Joe Biden can be accused of many things, but I'm pretty sure he didn't create core public health practice, i.e. the idea of bringing public health to the people. I don't even know how to respond to this. After all we've seen and heard, I'm still (in July of 2021) astounded at how state and local officials are responding. Astounded.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

The state has such good outreach and information about the vaccine that we've managed to get almost 95%... er...

...

*checks notes*
...

45% of the population fully vaccinated.

[LawBeefaroni]

The state has such good outreach and information about the vaccine that we've managed to get almost 95%... er...

...

*checks notes*
...

45% of the population fully vaccinated.

It's a "personal decision" per McMaster.



It's no more a personal decision than stopping at red lights.

Wait, one time someone was rear ended and killed while stopped at a red light? I have red light hesitancy now....

[Jaymon]

Looking at one of the online maps for Oregon. The town I live in straddles 2 counties, because of reasons. The county I live in is at 66 percent, but the county I shop in is at 44 percent. Overall for the state, the vaccination rate is directly corelated to the population density. The bigger the city, the higher the vaccination rate. Portland and Salem areas up in the 70% range, and the farming ranch areas all the way down to 30%.

Washington, the only other state I am real familiar with the geography, looks the same. I know this isn't news to anybody, but its still depressing to see it actually charted out with numbers.