Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2021 Breaking News

[teelabrown]

Re: birthday parties contributing to the spread.

I posted this before: my dumbfuck neighbors had a kids’ birthday party several months ago, well before the vaccine had become widely available. They ordered in a bouncy house, and a dozen or more kids were bouncing around inside there for at least an hour. The adults, meanwhile, crowded together maskless and drank and laughed in each other’s faces, and eventually joined the kids in the bouncy house. It looked to me like you couldn’t design a better event for efficient viral spread - a sealed up plastic enclosure crowded with maskless, unvaccinated people shrieking and crashing into each other. I wonder why bouncy houses weren’t clamped down on for the duration of the pandemic.

[Folacin]

@mistymage

I live in Iowa and I got the one shot J&J. This concerns me due to the Delta variant showing up just south of my state

On behalf of my state (now #1 in infection rate per today’s paper), I apologize.

[LSLGuy]

@teelabrown

I wonder why bouncy houses weren’t clamped down on for the duration of the pandemic.

Americans revere social Darwinism so much they decided to take a flyer on real reproductive / survival Darwinism too?

One can only hope.

[PhillyGuy]

153 people resigned or were fired from a Texas hospital system after refusing to get COVID-19 vaccine

While 24,947 workers did get vaccinated by earlier deadlines, Houston Methodist suspended 178 workers who had failed to do so on June 7, giving them an additional two weeks to prove they had been immunized. Twenty-five of those employees did get vaccinated, Smith said.

Earlier this month, a federal district court judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by one of those employees, Jennifer Bridges, a former nurse who alleged the policy was unlawful and forced staffers to be “guinea pigs” for vaccines that had not gone through the full Food and Drug Administration approval process. . .

The University of Pennsylvania Health System last month announced that it would require its roughly 44,000 employees and clinical staffers to be vaccinated by September, crediting Houston Methodist’s example.

I was thankful to read that last given that I get my health care from the Pennsylvania Heath System.

That phrase “guinea pig” is, to me, a terrible insult against brave people who make scientific health care possible.

[Bootb]

Maybe we should take up a collection to send the anti-vaxxers to the Philippines for a week or two. Let them see how good they have it here.

[dtilque]

@PhillyGuy

That phrase “guinea pig” is, to me, a terrible insult against brave people who make scientific health care possible.

It’s also a rather disingenuous argument, considering how many other people have already received each of those vaccines.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

179,932,696 total cases
3,898,121 dead
164,694,101 recovered

In the US:

34,434,803 total cases
617,875 dead
28,817,134 recovered

Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:

@Snowboarder_Bo

179,553,288 total cases
3,888,842 dead
164,259,162 recovered

In the US:

34,419,838 total cases
617,463 dead
28,767,507 recovered

[Senegoid]

@Bootb

Maybe we should take up a collection to send the anti-vaxxers to the Philippines for a week or two. Let them see how good they have it here.

Or just send them to Guantánamo.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Missouri (and the US in general):

Unvaccinated Missourians fuel COVID: 'We will be the canary'

The hope among some health leaders is that the rest of the U.S. might at least learn something from Missouri’s plight.

“If people elsewhere in the country are looking to us and saying, ‘No thanks’ and they are getting vaccinated, that is good,” said Erik Frederick, chief administrative officer at Mercy Hospital Springfield, which has been inundated with COVID-19 patients as the variant first identified in India rips through the largely non-immunized community. “We will be the canary.”

The state now leads the nation with the highest rate of new COVID-19 infections, and the surge is happening largely in a politically conservative farming region in the northern part of the state and in the southwestern corner, which includes Springfield and Branson, the country music mecca in the Ozark Mountains where big crowds are gathering again at the city’s theaters and other attractions.

While over 53% of all Americans have received at least one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most southern and northern Missouri counties are well short of 40%. One county is at just 13%.

There are also warning signs across the state line: Arkansas on Tuesday reported its biggest one-day jump in cases in more than three months. The state also has low vaccination rates.

Lagging rates — especially among young adults — are becoming an increasing source of concern elsewhere around the country, as is the delta variant.

The mutant version now accounts more than 20% of new COVID-19 infections in the U.S., doubling in just two weeks, the CDC said Tuesday. It is responsible for half of new cases across a swath that includes Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

“The delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the U.S. to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. He said there is a “real danger” of local surges like the one in Missouri in places with deep vaccine resistance.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

180,370,125 total cases
3,907,574 dead
165,094,599 recovered

In the US:

34,449,004 total cases
618,294 dead
28,846,304 recovered

Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:

@Snowboarder_Bo

179,932,696 total cases
3,898,121 dead
164,694,101 recovered

In the US:

34,434,803 total cases
617,875 dead
28,817,134 recovered

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Russia is lagging in vaccinations and seeing an increase in new cases:

A surge in infections that hit Russia earlier this month comes as the authorities struggle to overcome widespread vaccine hesitancy and immunize its 146 million people. As of Wednesday, only 20.7 million — or just 14% of the the population — have received at least one shot of the vaccine, while 16.7 million — 11% — have been fully immunized.

In response to the soaring contagions, authorities in 14 Russian regions have made vaccinations mandatory for certain groups of people, such as state officials, those employed in retail, healthcare, education, restaurants and other service-providing businesses. In most of those regions, eligible companies are required to ensure vaccination of at least 60% of their staff in the coming months.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said Wednesday that over the past week, vaccinations rates have increased nearly two-fold.

Denmark is asking people who attended a soccer match to get tested after others who attended tested positive for the delta variant:

Danish health officials are urging soccer fans who attended the Euro2020 game between Denmark and Belgium in Copenhagen on June 17 to be tested after they found at least three people who afterward tested positive with the delta variant.

On Twitter, Denmark’s Health Minister said Wednesday that some 4,000 people sat in the same area as those who tested positive — six sections of the C stands at Copenhagen’s Parken stadium.

Since April 2 when the Delta variant — known for being more infectious — was first discovered in Denmark, 247 cases have been reported.

The Latest: Hawaii to drop rules for vaccinated travelers

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Prolly a good place to post this: What should I know about the delta variant?

What should I know about the delta variant?

[Tfletch1]

Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated

An Associated Press analysis of available government data from May shows that “breakthrough” infections in fully vaccinated people accounted for fewer than 1,200 of more than 853,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations. That’s about 0.1%.

And only about 150 of the more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people. That translates to about 0.8%, or five deaths per day on average.

[glowacks]

And only about 150 of the more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people. That translates to about 0.8%, or five deaths per day on average.

The fact that this number is not identically 0 is why I’m still wearing my mask in public places. Why take the risk when it’s clearly happening?

[Snowboarder_Bo]

180,776,268 total cases
3,916,246 dead
165,426,389 recovered

In the US:

34,464,956 total cases
618,685 dead
28,871,914 recovered

Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:

@Snowboarder_Bo

180,370,125 total cases
3,907,574 dead
165,094,599 recovered

In the US:

34,449,004 total cases
618,294 dead
28,846,304 recovered

[Dr.Drake]

Math question: 150 / 18000 ≠ 0, true, but it does = .083% of deaths, which seems negligible unless you have other risk factors. I’m not going to critique you for doing what you think is sensible: I’m just asking in terms of risk assessment how much of a risk it really is.

I’m assuming, based on what I’ve been reading, that if .083% of those who are dying from the coronavirus are fully vaccinated, the percentage of those who fall ill with the coronavirus but are fully vaccinated is a higher number, and the percentage of those who catch coronavirus asymptomatically while fully vaccinated is higher still. But I don’t know what those numbers are, so I can’t assess the risk.

My risk of dying was already miniscule: my concerns were not passing it on to the more vulnerable, and not wanting to risk any long-term effects of covid.

[Bootb]

@glowacks

The fact that this number is not identically 0 is why I’m still wearing my mask in public places. Why take the risk when it’s clearly happening?

And how are you getting to those public places? I hope it’s not in an automobile, because that would be considerably more risky than not wearing a mask.

[filmore]

WHO urges fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks as delta Covid...

It seems like they are recommending masks for the vaccinated to help limit community spread to the unvaccinated rather than the vaccinated being at risk.

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

@filmore

It seems like they are recommending masks for the vaccinated to help limit community spread to the unvaccinated rather than the vaccinated being at risk…

That’s not what your quote says, but also from the article: There is some risk to fully vaccinated people.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that about half of adults infected in an outbreak of the delta variant in Israel were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, prompting the government there to reimpose an indoor mask requirement and other measures.

[glowacks]

@Bootb

And how are you getting to those public places? I hope it’s not in an automobile, because that would be considerably more risky than not wearing a mask.

Ah yes, the old “automobiles aren’t perfectly safe, therefore we shouldn’t take any precautions for things more safe than them” argument. There is virtually no drawback to wearing a mask. There is a drawback to not using an automobile. There’s no reason to take risks that don’t create any reward.