Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Meanwhile here in Polk:

Check out this article from The Ledger:

Some want Neil Combee to end his ivermectin crusade. Republican supporters egg him on

Top doctors want Neil Combee to end his ivermectin crusade. He isn't.

 

They should definitely be in school, WITH A MASK ON. At my school alone our quarantined student numbers dropped from 150-175 per day to under 20 because of our mask mandate. Contact tracing is very disruptive to the entire school community.

As it is, we get an email every night about positive covid cases at our school.

 

Masks don't work, but you can keep believing they work if it makes you feel better.

 

Wrongo! Daddy gets their money

 

Look I am fine with masks and we mandate them here. But that type of drop has to be more than masks. There is simply no data that suggests masks work THAT well.
I imagine you are seeing the results of an outbreak dying down. Again. I think masks help, but even the best data shows it is limited.

 

Tourists all stopped traveling when school started? I honestly think that was a factor in the south. No data. Just gut.
Delta is declining in other areas though, so maybe the vax is winning....slowly...but surely? (Also optimism)

 

No, its mostly the methodology behind contact tracing. Before, if students sat near someone that tested positive they had to quarantine for 10 days OR show a negative covid test OR show proof of vaccination.

Now, with everyone masked only the positive student goes home.

 

Then we have this AP article talking about UCF and UVA. UCF has no vaccine or mask mandate while UVA has both. Despite 72.6% of UCF students (at least partially) vaxed, and 97% of UVA students vaxed, UCF had 0.52% infections compared to 1.02% at UVA. Issue is they don't take into account natural immunity. Seems everyone discounts that.

Largest colleges push student vaccines with mandates, prizes

 

It should be noted that it mentions three schools. UConn just didn't fit the narrative of the post, with 10 total infections and 97% vaccination rate, compared to 377 at UCF. That, frankly, seems like a pretty big omission.

 

What's their percentage? Since UCF is 0.52%, i'm good with whatever you calculate UConn to be. UCF with no mandates at all. Sorry that the UCF/UVA comparison doesn't fit your narrative.

 

They have 19k students. 10/19k is equal to 0.05%.

I'm sorry UConn/UCF comparison didn't fit your narrative.

 

Fit's great. UConn has full mandates but gives out exemptions for not being vaccinated, doing better than UCF who has zero mandates who's doing better than UVA who has full mandates.

 

UVA hands out exemptions as well. That is why both UConn and UVA have 97% compliance, not 100%. UVA also requires weekly testing for those that are not vaccinated, unlike UCF, which requires no testing and likely, because of its large off-campus population, doesn't capture a big chunk of their cases.

 

Making assumptions again. Since the numbers don't work out well for you, you resort to saying they aren't capturing the numbers. Figured this would be the play.

Also, how many kids from UConn got unenrolled like they did at UVA?

 

You mean like the (wrong) assumption that UVA doesn't allow exemptions?

Again, you ignored the numbers that didn't work for your argument. Why? Did you not realize they were in the article? Or did you choose to leave them out purposefully?

 

Hardly any. And unrolling kids.

 

Masks work. While they provide little protection to the person wearing one, if there is full compliance with mask wearing, the group will be protected if/when one of them is infected with COVID. The mask will reduce the number of viral particles spread by the infected and lower the R0 rate.

As this Scientific American article says, there have been several lab studies that show a significant reduction in airborne viral particles when an infected person is wearing a mask. And the real world Bangladesh study showed a 10% reduction in cases when 30% of adults wore masks properly. Masks don't stop all infections, but they are an effective tool in reducing infections. From the article:

No single study is likely to completely quiet the naysayers, no matter how good it is, Kalu says. “I think naysayers will exist until we get to the end of this—if we ever get there,” she notes.

But Rothamer points out that the effectiveness of masks in schools is supported by not one but many different studies and tests. “The best evidence in science,” he says, comes from lots of studies “where most of them show the same thing.” Rothamer says that when you put together the steady stream of research conducted thus far—and there are more than a dozen studies beyond those cited here—the accumulation of evidence points to the same conclusion: masks work.​

 

The same number as UConn (3% of the student population). They unenrolled the students who provided no exemption nor proof of vaccination.

 

Not sure that is true. 800+ kids divided by 19,000 is 4.2% at least with exemptions.

 

The article itself states that it is 97% at UConn. The 800 is total exemptions, which includes faculty and staff, not just students.