Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Current rate is much more relevant than average rate. Currently, everyone is contracting and spreading covid at a similar rate, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated. What happened in 2020 or summer of 2021 is not relevant to now. The spreading of covid is now common place. The only way to avoid it is to avoid people. All that being said, Covid vaccines protect the vaccinated from serious illness.

If you are a senior, get your shots and get boosted.

 

Is the "point" that a vaccine developed for a given virus may not be as effective against future variants yet still be beneficial? You know, immunity 101?

The same point can be made without blatant misinformation.

 

Even with omicron against severe disease it is better than a flu shot.

 

Scotland numbers are per 100k per vax or unvaxed group. That is why they are calling it weird.

The rate of hospitalization and deaths are higher per 100k vaxxed vs per 100k unvaxxed during their Omicron wave.

Here is another odd chart out of England (again per 100k per vaccine status to give rates):



Why is the infection rate higher among the vaccinated groups?
England hospitalizations and deaths remain low which is great news

There are a few studies out right now that I think need to be peer-reviewed that do show something potentially troubling. The more boosters you give, the weaker the immune system is getting.
The studies are suggesting that since each time you get the shot, the body responds briefly lowering parts of your immune system that it's having a negative effect each time you get a shot.

I have not read much into this yet so I cant speak more on it.

 

Wouldn’t call UK data weird. I do declare the CDC a national embarrassment and little more than the promotional arm of pharma.

 

Interesting. Link?

 

I meant as far as dealing with different strains, doesn't fully protect from getting or spreading it (but yes gives some protection which is better than nothing), but most certainly protects from moderate to severe symptoms/consequences, and looks like you'll need to get it yearly. Like the flu shot. And I fully think people should get the flu shot.

Versus a "regular"vaccine like MMR, tdap, etc, where there are longer intervals and efficacy against even catching those illnesses is much greater.

Is it better than the flu shot? Too soon to tell TBH, but people should absolutely get both the Covid shots & their flu shots.

 

Question on some of these studies. Could people have changed their behaviors back to "normal" (no distancing, no masks, etc) because they felt "immune" and thus increasing the infection rate? Just curious if that was accounted for/looked into.

 

I think it points to a combo of what you mentioned plus Omicron generally escaping any protection from the vaccine when it comes to infection.

I noticed the older groups who happen to be the ones recently boosted doing ok but oddly no different than the unvaccinated as well so not sure what to make of that.

A lot of eyes need to be on Australia. They have virtually no NI in that population due to their zero covid approach throughout the pandemic. Omicron is spreading like wildfire there now and hospitalizations are spiking with it. They more or less have decided to just let go since they are a highly vaccinated country. Curious to how this plays out.

 

Here are some Aussie numbers regarding COVID from the first week of the year. In Australia, unvaccinated are nearly 7X more likely to be hospitalized than the fully vaccinated. And the unvaccinated are 17.5X more likely to end up in the ICU. These numbers are for people 12 and older.

 

The CDC is losing the trust of Americans and even some in the medical profession.
Their messaging has been terrible.
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Such out-of-touch advice has been a hallmark of many CDC recommendations long before the pandemic began, and the agency needs to do better, said current and former health officials and physicians who have worked with the CDC on health guidance.
"As we say in Tennessee, that dog won't hunt," said Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
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Part of the problem, Schaffner and others say, is that CDC scientists are sometimes stuck in a bubble.
"You've got nerds -- literally science nerds -- who are writing these things," said Dr. Otis Brawley, who worked with the CDC on cancer guidance while he was chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society from 2007 to 2018.
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Also, Read down to the part about tomato's

CDC's advice 'unrealistic' - CNN

 

What you linked to school enrollment of hispanics.

 

Will you provide the actual non-paywall article you are referencing? It has been tagged as clickbait on reddit since the underlying article does not jive with the headline. If you cannot find a free version, can you provide the a fair use synopsis (4 paragraphs) from the article that supports the headline.

thanks in advance.

 

I was just about to post that. For those who don't want to click the CDC wants a cancelation of football, band, and other extracurricular activities.

"If the scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had their way, to curb the spread of Covid-19 right now, nearly every US school would cancel football, wrestling, band and loads of other mainstay school activities."

 

Using the phone. Must have had an old link and not copied the proper one. Here's the URL: 20220104-COVID-19-Monitor.pdf

Let's try the link again. My apologies.

 

The protective benefits against infection are obviously way down compared to earlier strains. Omicron is reportedly 5x more transmissible than delta. As far as protection numbers against infection, I'm seeing anywhere from 30%-55%. Yet even down, you are still better protected than not being unvaccinated, especially against severe sickness and against death.

Def best to avoid people if you can (after all people are the vehicles!), but if you must be in public, get boostered, wear N95s, and try to limit your time in indoor public settings.

 

I loved this part lol...

When considering the CDC's school and isolation guidance, Glen Nowak thinks back to a foodborne illness outbreak that occurred in 2008, while he was the CDC's head of media relations. It was unclear exactly what had made people sick, but one of the possible culprits was tomatoes, so Nowak says the agency's scientists wanted to tell Americans to stop eating tomatoes.

Nowak says he told the scientists that this was quite broad, considering that tomatoes are a very common food. He says he asked his colleagues to be more specific -- was there a particular type or source of tomatoes that Americans should avoid?
"I got an answer back -- they said 'round, red tomatoes.' I told them that wasn't actionable," Nowak said. The warning about tomatoes was scrapped altogether, and the red round vegetable ended up not being the cause of the outbreak after all -- it turned out to be jalapeño and serrano peppers.

 

Not really fair or accurate to claim the CDC wants to cancel these activities. I believe the message was that schools should cancel or postpone the activities in high transmission areas. The problem is that at the moment, 99% of the country is experiencing high transmission. I think the CDC is in a a no-win situation. They are trying to offer the best guidance possible, but due to the evolving nature of the virus, they are not afforded time to properly examine circumstances and effectively communicate guidelines (which will be scorned by many regardless). Right now, the media is going full-Fauci on the CDC. Some of that is warranted, but not all. I thought this quote offered an important perspective:

I certainly don't want school sports/music to be cancelled, nor do I think they should be in any kind of sweeping way. Then again, that's not what the CDC is suggesting. The follow-up to the quote above offered a good idea: Publish a statement(s) about the dangers associated with these activities and leave it to the local decision-makers.

 

Actually, it is what they're suggesting, the argument being...breathing

"CDC's school guidance

As part of its guidance last updated on January 6, the CDC advised schools to "cancel or hold high-risk sports and extra-curricular activities virtually" any time a community has a "high" Covid-19 transmission rate.
...
The CDC gives football and wrestling as examples of high-risk sports and says that "high-risk extracurricular activities are those in which increased exhalation occurs, such as activities that involve singing, shouting, band, or exercise, especially when conducted indoors.""

As one part of the article mentioned, if shouting is an issue, it's obvious they've never been in an actual school hallway/lunch room.

Leave the kids alone already. Parents can keep their kids home from sports if they want but the rest of us have had enough. If it's safe enough to be in school, to do gym, etc, then it's safe enough for everything else.

 

based on what. Link?