Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Is it fair to ask if the huge spikes in the south...especially along the coasts isn't tourism related? Will we maybe start seeing the drop in cases due to everyone returning home and the "red/orange" hot maps spread back out? Even places like Tennessee have huge summer vacation destinations (Pigeon Forge, Nashville, Mountains etc.).

No idea, just asking.

 

Disagree with the bolded part. There is an abundance of outstanding data and info. People can find it if they care to. Posters on Too Hot are not moving the needle on vaccination acceptance. Your experience is probably unique in that way.

 

I hesitate to call them victims. The conventional wisdom has been out there for months and months. Any person with an open mind and seeking facts should have pretty quickly got to the truth - that vaccines work.

The reason that people get confused is that they mix up these health issues with politics, and get their information from news sources and peers who have chosen this path of alternative facts. They are intentionally choosing these erroneous sources and willfully ignoring even their own doctors who tell them to get the damn vax.

I suspect most people are anti vaxxers have been presented the facts, numerous times. But they choose to ignore it. That is their fault.

I find this perpetual whining of people being mean to the willfully ignorant annoying. Maybe people should be nicer and more tolerant, but it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference who have incorporated anti vax and anti mask into their core identity.

 

That's a lot of it, but I'm not sure it fully explains it. Florida has 54% of its population fully vaccinated. The UK has 65% of its (total) population vaccinated. Yet Florida's current death rate is 6 times higher than the UK. Unless a 20% increase in the vaccinated population leads to an 83% reduction in deaths. Maybe it does, I don't know. Florida's median age is 42 and the UK's is 40. So age may be a bit of a factor.

 

Socialized medicine?? People will actually go to see a doctor in the UK since it will not bankrupt them??

 

Yeah, show a small amount of personal responsibility (something conservatives are always harping on) and do some research. It doesn't take much at all -- just reading headlines from credible news sources should be enough. So I agree, anyone still holding out on the vaccine, regardless of reason, isn't a victim. Just show some personal responsibility/accountability.

 

It's required in my county.

 

So looking at the numbers I found, the 65+ population in the UK is around 17% of their population while the 65+ population in FL is around 22% of the population. That could be a significant factor.

 

And there are also EMT's and nurses telling their friends not to get it which then neuters all the good info.
I'm just saying there are a lot more confused folks out there than some give credit too.

Regardless, the shame game will certainly not help, but the info game may help some.

 

OK...I have been off this thread for a few days, and another mod may have already mentioned it, But we HAVE to stop the name calling.

We will edit and then move to temporary thread bans.

Keep it civil boys and girls.

 

You can't just look at the vax rate now. You have to look at vax rates two weeks before Delta showed up. Recall that UK took a different approach. They had a majority of adults get one shot first, then started two shots. So they have had a majority at least partially vaccinated for quite a while now.

 

Good point.

 

I haven't been to a doctor in years. I have had zero health issues...ever...knock on wood. The point being that I don't really have a doctor to ask.
I know many (men especially) that are in the same boat for better or worse.

What I do have is several friends in the medical field at many levels. Some have political agendas, yes...but... Some of them are just very hesitant about the vaccine do to it's haste.
Listening to friends who have a history of providing helpful info to you from a medical background is not "Ignoring" or "intentionally choosing erroneous sources". It is actually listening to sources that have always been trustworthy and may now for the first time be wrong.

That creates real confusion and to just lazily discount that is dangerous.

 

Also, a 10% difference in vaccination rate is a big difference. That is more than 20% more unvaccinated, plus there is a multiplicative effect of herd immunity which compounds that even more. Plus people that have natural immunity may increase the relative difference in the two.

 

You skip annual physicals? They were required in the military and I just kept up the habit, seemed like a good idea.

 

Actually, I will be starting them this year. I have hit that age and all that.

To clarify, I haven't been to a doctor REGULARLY in years. I have had a mishap or two along the way. (Hernia surgery upcoming in the next several weeks in fact from a small abdominal tear caused by lifting that led to the hernia)

 

I understand the multiplier effect, but 6x is still a pretty big difference. And delta started in the UK a month before Florida (when the UK's vax rate would have been a little lower than it is now). There's a lot of variables but it's obvious that vax rates make the biggest difference.

 

"medical background" can mean a lot of things. Nurses EMTs therapists, etc. They arent doctors, they are not qualified to practice medicine and to the extent one relies on them they do so at their own risk. Given the statistics it is quite clear that these non MD medical professionals are almost as likely to fall for partisan propoganda as the general public. Plus it is likely that those around you have similar political affiliations so are more likely to get caught up in the nonsense.

96 percent of medical doctors are fully vaccinated.

AMA survey shows over 96% of doctors fully vaccinated against COVID-19

I would suggest it would be good for you to find a primary care physician. It is just good to have one. If there is a major pandemic going on, with hundreds of thousands dying, and vaccines that have been tested over and over again with lots of scientific data out there, and you still have doubts, it would be good to have a doctor to bounce things off of.

For those inclined to listen, who have either suffered a bad bout of covid, or come to realize that vaccines do make sense, I'd suggest that they really reconsider their information sources. A friend of ours 50 years old, healthy, not vaxxed was hospitalized for covid. Recently my wife told her she will get the booster whenever she can. The friend was incredulous, "but you don't know what's in it!! I know of two people that got it and now can't walk". She really needs to reconsider her information sources. It's gone beyond abstract political issues to issues of personal health and caused her signicant suffering, significant medical expenses and could have cost her life. Her information sources lead her to the hospital.

Just because one decides to get a vaccination or follow conventional medical wisdom doesn't mean they have to become a lib, stop obsessing over Hunter Biden or Kamala Harris, etc. They arent mutually exclusive.

 

In my anecdotal experience the people I come across are politicallyl driven, willfully ignorant and closed minded to anything associated with vaccines. There is simply no reasoning with them. They run to any article, video, random "medical person" or vaccinated death to justify their stance while refusing to even entertain any information source contrary to theirs. I'm over it and while I will never celebrate or mock a death i understand the apathy for some, not all, but some deniers deaths.

 

When I hear people say " do your research" what that has come to mean is go start googling, or talk to like minded people, to reaffirm your identity based opinion.