Since I was working in a hospital at the time, I was among the first in Hawaii to be vaccinated, and the 19th of this month will be exactly eight months since my second dose of Pfizer. I think they’re aiming at the 20th for general boosters, at least for Pfizer. I expect to get a booster shot this month.
I think “geezer” qualifies.
I’m on Prednisone, 20 mg daily, for a Polymyalgia Rheumatica flare up. I can find authoritative sources that say I’m on an immunosuppressive dose of medication.
Even if you were on half that, no Pharm Tech is going to turn you away. They wouldn’t have turned away Dad if he said, “blah, blah, blah, geezer, blah, blah.” LOL.
Posted by a Facebook friend:
Not the cat’s fault their antivaxxer parents are now both in the hospital with bad cases of Covid. One ICU and may not survive, other is getting pneumonia treatments in Covid ward. So, I now have to go into their house (which is supposed to be being packed up because they are moving to [another state]) to take care of an amazing cat. I am gloved and masked [and] using Lysol etc. Poor cat.
Poor cat, indeed. Some people have an amount of Schadenfreude when anti-vaxxers get sick and/or die. Some people may feel bad for more responsible family members who are left behind. To me it’s particularly sad for the pets, who have no idea why their family member(s) left them. 
Hospitals in my area are so stressed, the DOD sent a 20-person team to help fill the void from over 500 vacant positions at Kootenai Health (the hospital in Coeur d`Alene).
This is after they’ve already started “rationing care”, aka death boards:
A Honolulu police officer with 24 years on the force and who is only one year from retirement has been suspended without pay and told he will be fired, because he refuses to get the vaccine. Story here. His wife is fully vaccinated too.
Wow - the article says his wife supports him. If I were his wife, I would not be so understanding. Maybe she’s less understanding behind closed doors?
Biden is speaking right now about sweeping new vaccine mandates:
From the AP article:
“The expansive rules mandate that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated.”
Somehow I doubt that Biden bothered to make an exception for the companies who are still mostly work-from-home.
Why would he?
Los Angeles school district will require vaccines for all students 12+.
AP story:
I just saw this on the AP; schools being open is (surprise!) a problem:
His speech is no doubt less detailed than whatever OSHA regulations he wants to push through. If he succeeds in doing that, I assume it WILL distinguish between people who work entirely from home and those who interact with other people, since OSHA regulates workplaces, not employment practices overall.
(And I can’t think what mechanism he plans to use other than OSHA. But feel free to fight my ignorance.)
Iowa has went to the 7 day or whenever model of reporting. Keep in mind not only does Iowa only have ~4 million (less but not sure) citizens but less than 50% have been vaccinated (whether 1X (including J&J… represent!!) or 2X or coming up on 3X.
"Statewide, 8,404 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the past week, according to Wednesday numbers released by the Iowa Department of Public Health.
That compares to 8,308 cases the previous week.
The statewide seven-day positivity rate was 9 percent. The week before, it was 8.6 percent.
The total number of COVID-19 cases reported in Iowa since March 2020 now stands at 416,794."
and:
"The number of hospitalizations statewide jumped to 578 this week, the highest since Jan. 8. The previous week, 524 individuals were admitted for COVID-19.
Patients in the intensive care unit rose to 158, the highest since Dec. 15, 2020.
Patients on ventilators jumped to 83 from 66 the week before. Ventilated patients this week are the most since Dec. 17, 2020."
Delta and Mu are here and I only got the J&J shot. I’m kinda hoping it’s so uber of a vax that I don’t have to worry but…
For the record, if they are rationing care, that doesn’t mean what some people think, that the people who need it most get the care. It means that the people they think they can best help get the care. The ones who are the worst off, the ones more likely to die even with care? Those will not receive care.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that triage?
224,045,683 total cases
4,621,165 dead
200,628,164 recovered
In the US:
41,561,156 total cases
674,547 dead
31,744,959 recovered
Yesterday’s Two days ago’s numbers for comparison*:
*Apparently I took Labor Day Wednesday off too. 
[/quote]
I’m not sure what they are specifically referring to there, but some things that can go beyond mere triage are, for example, removing people from ventilators once it becomes clear they are unlikely to survive, or putting an age limit on who can go on a ventilator.
The former is happening in some places. I don’t know if there are categorical limits like the latter in play, but decisions might involve more than just survival odds.
There’s a new separate thread devoted to Biden’s speech from yesterday. That speech got so much traction in the news media, I spent much of the day reading about it until my eyes got bleary. I agree with the OP of that new thread that it’s worthy of a thread of its own. I think we’re going to be talking a lot about this in the Near Foreseeable Future.
New Seven-day-Average reported daily new cases in
Tennessee (11,055)
Alaska (748)
Washington (3698)
South Carolina (5991)
…and a slew of other states that have just passed a record high, just barely missed achieving one, or appeared poised to set a new record – Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia. Iowa is low, but really shooting up fast for some reason. I’m still surprised that there wasn’t a bigger rise from South Dakota and surrounding states in the wake of Sturgis.