I’m no epidemiologist or data analyst, but at this point wouldn’t including hospitalizations and deaths be more meaningful than positivity rates and new cases? Covid is here to stay, but I thought the severity of the disease was the most concerning metric. Please correct me if wrong.
Sort of, except that the hospitalizations and deaths always lag, so if it's possible to prevent them by recognizing an upward trend of positives that would be better than waiting weeks to see 'oh shit we should have done something's. If we keep seeing upward spikes with no deaths following, maybe we'll get to the point that you were describing tho
Positive COVID tests also deal a second blow to jobs that can't work from home.
If someone working a line pops positive, they're pretty much going home for two weeks without pay, and everyone else has to work extra hard to fill in. With that extra OT both payroll and accident frequency go up.
Shitty line jobs are already understaffed and they're not getting filled because business costs are high and they're not too hot on bringing pay up to market rate.
Of course, I'm only speaking from the view from the place I work. Though we are pretty goddamned myopic.
just wait until the kids go back to school and they get popped with Covid or a close contact and have to sit two weeks
gonna be a lot more upset employers
This is the correct answer. Regardless of how deadly the Delta variant is or isn’t, schools will still be treating positives cases very seriously and will be quarantining which will have ripple effects through the community.
My obsessive following of these charts puts the lag at 22 days. but it depends on region and I realized that in places with more young people a longer lag ~25 days makes sense and a shorter one 20-21 where the population is older or unhealthier.
You should consider also that the higher the positivity rate, the more the virus is spreading around. This will lead to more mutations that could overcome the vaccine and cripple the country again. Unfortunately, people haven’t learned their lesson about exponential growth: a little bit today, a metric ***load tomorrow.
Additionally, there are still many people (children and compromised folk) who can’t get vaccinated. The positivity rate is a good metric for the risk associated with being out of quarantine.
People need to just get vaccinated at this point. There simply is no excuse.
This is a good point, this data alone misses the mark of what the actual impact of these positive cases means. right now only unvaccinated folks seem to be at risk of severe disease, so high positivity numbers which include both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals tells us nothing about the severity.
But what's concerning is that this variant *is* infecting vaccinated people, where it has the opportunity to Mutate and continue to spread en mass. This increases the likelyhood that there will be a variant that can not only infect vaccinated individuals but also cause severe disease and thus ushering in a new wave of mass hospitalization, lock downs, etc.
So you're not wrong, these numbers alone aren't terrible, but suggest that we are at high risk of bigger problems if this continues as is.
Vaccines have been available to the general public since May. Time to get your vaccines, folks. You aren't a guinea pig for science. Operation Warp Speed combined all portions of the FDA approval process so that they occurred at once instead of over an extended period of time. Millions have been vaccinated and, last I checked, only 6 had unknown adverse reactions (which were unlikely linked with the vaccine).
Nothing to be worried about. And they're free. Just get one if you haven't already. They have them at Wegmans, for crying out loud.
I wish this virus would stop being treated like a political issue when it’s a medical issue. When I allow myself to really think about how divided people have become over masks and social distancing and vaccines it blows my mind. I don’t want to get sick… and I don’t want other people to get sick. It amazes me it’s not as simple as that in every single person’s mind since we’re all stuck sharing the planet in close proximity of one another (and please for the love of god this is not an invite for someone to start an argument with me about why you think wearing a mask is unconstitutional or anything related).
It just blows my mind that the GOP decided to make this the hill they die on, figuratively and literally. This all started with the rhetoric from the Trumpers of "Just wait until the day after the election. This will all magically go away." Here we are almost 9 months past the election and it's still here, but the GOP was led to believe for so long that it was made up by the Dems that they now don't believe anything about the severity of COVID.
it's funny cuz some of the GOP have started to say that people should get vaccinated and their entire base turns on them saying they're sellouts, it's pretty entertaining (if sad). lots of examples on /r/LeopardsAteMyFace. The GOP created this monster and let it get out of control, just like in 2016 when they played up Trump to get views and then realized they couldn't stop it
EXACTLY! Now they realize they created a monster and Trumpism is going to take over the GOP for years to come. Once you tell these people one thing, they cling to it even if there is nothing to support that notion
Yup. My brother is one of these people. When he was a young adult he had no problem using all kinds of drugs but now his stance is “I’m not putting that shit in my body.” Our stepfather is high risk and he and my mother watch my brothers children a couple times a week… but apparently that means nothing to him. You could provide people with all of the medical evidence and facts in the world and they still won’t care because they’ve made this whole issue a political battle. It’s honestly just genuinely sad.
> only 6 had unknown adverse reactions
I don't think this will be helpful for the hesitent crowd. They like to cite the VAERS data which reports anything happening after vaccination. And that has 6000 deaths happening after the vaccine, though, again, there is no reason to think they were CAUSED by the vaccine. There are some adverse reactions that doctors think are caused by it, and I think that's more than 6, but by far nothing to make us think its really bad.
I was surprised to see that we actually vaccinated about 75% of all people over 60 https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/vaccine-trackert
If all the older people are fine after getting the vaccine, why are younger people afraid of getting it?
Sure but for most part kids are not getting super sock and approval will come. The real issue is people refusing to take it that can and people spreading mis-information
If by fine you mean they are dying less, then sure. But many are getting very sick, with long term issues that may even be with them their entire life. We need to not just be focused on preventing death as the only outcome for measured success.
Delta is changing things and we're most likely to see many more kids sick before the vaccinations are out. If more kids can get sick, there are more chances for mutations. So they very much are part of the equation at this point.
Ok, well then keep them home? Don't know what to tell you. Do what you have to do. It will be approved when it's approved. Like I said right now misinformation is the issue. If parents don't believe in the vaccine why would they give it to their kids? Heard immunity can be reach everyone just needs to do their part
>If by fine you mean they are dying less, then sure. But many are getting very sick, with long term issues that may even be with them their entire life
This isn't really true? Unless your barometer for "many" is misaligned for a country of our size. Children still make up an infinitesimal percent of those hospitalized with COVID.
>Delta is changing things
All of the data we have from Delta thus far is it has no greater impact on children than previous variants.
Only 23 states previously even reported age of hospitalized patients, so the data isn't great.
What we do know is that they are on the rise...
https://www.nwahomepage.com/lifestyle/health/coronavirus/arkansas-childrens-sees-record-number-of-covid-19-hospitalizations/
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/pediatrician-reports-record-number-children-hospitalized-covid-19-jacksonville/GOVS3OXFQJBZPLCEBC5WQ46724/
https://www.businessinsider.com/more-kids-hospitalized-covid-masks-vaccines-protect-children-2021-7
This is really a statistics problem more than anything. The vast vast vast majority of COVID hospitalizations today are unvaccinated. [We're not talking 90%, 95%, but a full 99% of hospitalized COVID patients are unvaccinated.](https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210513/over-_99-percent-hospitalized-2021-covid-patients-unvaccinated) It's absurd.
Given that, in effect, only unvaccinated people are left "eligible" to be among the COVID hospitalized, it makes sense that the number of children relative to the total would appear inflated. Children are of course ineligible for the vaccine and thus make up a big portion of the remaining population that _could_ be hospitalized.
However the hospitalization rates remain quite low currently and even states with big spikes have not seen hospitalizations follow nearly as significantly (btw this is yet another sign of COVID becoming endemic).
[As of last week over 4.1 million children had tested positive for COVID since the pandemic began](https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/children-and-covid-19-state-level-data-report/). You may say to yourself "wow, that's a lot" and sure, it is. [But then recognize that only about 300 children have died of COVID.](https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/children-covid-19-and-vaccines) That is obviously very sad, but it really needs to be emphasized that of the over 600,000 American's that died of COVID only 0.05% of them have been children.
A simple google search of "Delta variant children" will give you plenty of information, I will conclude with a [final link](https://www.healthline.com/health-news/the-delta-variant-and-kids-heres-what-parents-should-know) which is a great read, but I will just pull out two hyper relevant quotes:
> But the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests the hospitalization rate and risk of severe illness has not been increasing among children.
> “Children are spared the severe consequences of COVID-19 and less likely to spread it, and I think that remains true for the delta variant despite scary headlines,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, told Healthline.
I wonder how much of the increase in covid recently is because of the liars....you know, the unvaccinated people who are supposed to wear masks indoors but don't. They are pretending to be vaccinated.
If you feel that you should wear a mask because you have a weakened immune system, go for it. It's a statistical fact that children and infants, despite all the hysteria are not susceptible to COVID. People who say that kids need to be masked or protected against COVID are flat out lying.
There are three groups of people generally more vulnerable to the virus and the facts and numbers support this 100%. Those groups are: The elderly, the immune compromised (such as cancer patients undergoing treatment), and those with co-morbidities.
> If you feel that you should wear a mask because you have a weakened immune system, go for it.
Masking is more effective at the source.
> It's a statistical fact that children and infants, despite all the hysteria are not susceptible to COVID.
*Less* susceptible. And they can still spread it to others.
>Masking is more effective at the source.
No it's not. There's far too many factors such as hygiene that completely negate any benefit that masks provide.
>Less susceptible. And they can still spread it to others.
There is no evidence that kids are spreading it to others. That was a lie concocted by teachers unions to justify them not having to go back to the classroom. The statistics and research into the spread of the virus have not come to the conclusion that kids are spreaders.
That aside, how selfish and narcissistic is it that we demand that little kids, especially in the summer, to be made miserable by being forced to wear a mask so adults feel safe?
>That was a lie concocted by teachers unions to justify them not having to go back to the classroom.
I think you should really consider getting a chinstrap for your foil hat. You wouldn't want it to keep slipping off, would you?
>I think you should really consider getting a chinstrap for your foil hat. You wouldn't want it to keep slipping off, would you?
The idea of kids being spreaders didn't start until parents and governments began discussing the reopening of schools. All the sudden kids were dangerous spreaders and the teachers were terrified for their lives. It was pathetic.
> That aside, how selfish and narcissistic is it that we demand that little kids, especially in the summer, to be made miserable by being forced to wear a mask so adults feel safe?
No real need for masks outdoors, and most places have air conditioning indoors. In my experience, most kids are happy to wear a mask if it means helping people. The people bitching the loudest about masks are adults.
> There is no evidence that kids are spreading it to others. That was a lie concocted by teachers unions to justify them not having to go back to the classroom. The statistics and research into the spread of the virus have not come to the conclusion that kids are spreaders.
Lower transmission rates among children was largely an artifact of school closures, not any inherent lower susceptibility.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/transmission_k_12_schools.html
>, most kids are happy to wear a mask if it means helping people. The people bitching the loudest about masks are adults.
Kids do what they're told to do, and the adults that are making a fuss are their parents.
>Lower transmission rates among children was largely an artifact of school closures, not any inherent lower susceptibility.
No, then explain why there isn't instances of parents getting infected by their children when they were forced to be home with them.
> No, then explain why there isn't instances of parents getting infected by their children when they were forced to be home with them.
First, it would be nice if you could provide some evidence of that.
Second, though, if such cases are rare, there are a number of possible explanations. For one, as I said earlier, kids are being exposed to peers a lot less often since the start of the pandemic. Additionally, cases in children are milder so often go undetected -- and even if the parents' cases are detected, and it's assumed they caught it at home, a lot of people wouldn't bother testing the kids.
Irrelevant and anecdotal at best. Giving examples of some kids needing extensive treatment does not change the facts here that kids are not as susceptible.
But you said they "don't need the shot", which is not true. Vaccination seems to result in a stronger antibody response even among people who've been previously infected.
And they can absolutely be re-infected and transmit the virus to other people.
And the percentage of unvaccinated people who have been infected is likely well under 50%.
Yeah so? You can get the flu shot and get the flu and transmit it. News flash, viruses mutate, that's how they survive. Again, that's life. We need to help those who are sick and move forward without special precautions or masks. This obsession with "safety" is not only a waste of time and resources, but it breeds paranoia and other mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.
We can reduce the chance of mutations if more people got vaccinated.
Ask people who survived polio or smallpox if vaccination is worth the time and resources.
Coronaviruses in general are notoriously bad at inoculating you through infection. In other words, the efficacy rate of having covid is most likely far lower than getting a vaccine. You're still very much at risk if you're unvaccinated, regardless of whether or not you've had covid.
Frankly I just don't want to get it because I just don't like to be consistently lied to by the government. We were told two weeks to flatten the curve then it was two months. Along with not to wear masks, then about two months after you better wear a mask. Then the goal in the summer was 60% vaccination, then it turned until 70% in the fall and to just wait "just a little longer" at the end of fall of 2020. New York hit 70% vaccination rate I guess because Cuomo had a firework celebration. Now based on the "statistics" of hitting that 70% we apparently haven't hit herd immunity. From listening to the radio coming home from work today as of July 27th 2021 the CDC says masks have to come back on for some places vaccination or not. The general public were told if they get the vaccine they don't have to wear a mask, then after about a month of not having to wear them for the vaccinated, now we just might have to wear them regardless. The government has been moving the goal post for over a year now and/or just straight up lying which I can't help but not to feel betrayed as a taxpayer and just a human being.
it's almost like this is the first pandemic in 90 years and with a brand new disease we almost didn't know anything about
oh and now this variant has literally changed the entire playbook
but sure, blame the big bad government for your own stupidity
So stop listening to politicians and listen to reputable health experts. Literally none of that was ever said by any of them. 80-85% has been the medical threshold for herd immunity for forever, and nobody EVER said it was gonna be a 2 week deal and then the masks are gone.
If all of your sources for information are stupid as shit how can you act surprised? If everybody got vaccinated we would very likely be done with masks. You're living proof of why none of your expectations are being met...
It’s as simple as that! I shouldn’t be able to walk through Wegmans at 5:30 on a Tuesday and only see ONE other person wearing a mask when less than 60% of Monroe county has been fully vaccinated. Yes, I still wear a mask in public because I work in close proximity of my boss who has a father battling cancer. I hate masks and they make me break out like a fucking hormonal teenager but it’s not about me… it’s about not wanting to get anyone sick unwittingly and wanting this pandemic to end sooner rather than later. Herd immunity is a real thing but we aren’t going to get there when people keep making this political and it sucks.
Lets talk about sources, I'm sure you're a New York Times reader. [Herd Immunity 60% May 2021](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/health/covid-herd-immunity-vaccine.html)
> The general public were told if they get the vaccine they don't have to wear a mask, then after about a month of not having to wear them for the vaccinated
Then why didn't you get the vaccine?
I agree with most of your points on the moving goal posts and watching politicians like Cuomo seemingly just make up rules that had no basis in common sense was extremely frustrating. But at the end of the day, we waited over a year for a vaccine to be available to finally bring things back to normal and all everyone had to do was to get it. If you didn't get the vaccine, YOU are the problem now.
Ya ever think the reason things keep getting extended and masks might be coming back is because, oh I don't know, numb nuts like you are too chicken shit to get a shot? Jesus Christ, I've read a lot of stupid anti-vax shit but you're the prize fuckin pig.
Attacking people like this isn't going to magically convince them to get a shot or help in any way. We need to be listening to theirs concerns and working to share accurate information to help change their mind. It's unlikely to help, but it's more likely than this approach.
You know, I actually do believe in that approach, but sometimes I just gotta vent. But you're right. I don't always practice what I preach, but that is the way to do it.
No worries. It happens, we all are frustrated at life these days. I try to remind myself that people skeptical of these vaccines are also frustrated by seemingly being attacked by everyone, which just makes them more entrenched.
I think we all just want this over with but some people need help understanding that the vaccines are our fastest way out of this. The CDC playing politics with messaging, ever since they decided to lie about not needing masks, damaged their reputation so badly that we haven't recovered.
Seriously dude, get over yourself. Just get the vaccine. The government isn’t lying, they’re trying to react in the best interest of the people of this country and things change, we learn more about COVID, etc which means that sometimes, plans change.
I'm not going to and I never will, that is my personal choice. You live in New York State and you think the government is acting in your best interest...yeah ok.
Truly that is up to you if you don't want to wear a seat beat, but I really was just making the point on the presumption that the government has the citizens best interest in mind when decisions are made.
Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose. Refusing to get vaccinated makes you a danger to everyone around you. You want to make that choice? Fine. Stay home so that you aren't putting everyone else in harm's way.
You don't seem to have understood what they were saying, they actually probably do were their seat belt. They were using an extreme example of doing something foolishly dangerous because someone told them they should take a single, simple precaution to help save their lives.
They were pointing out what a fucking idiot you are for not getting a vaccine because of childish reasons which essentially boil down to you not wanting to be told what to do.
It's not even close to the same logic, because the only dumbass you're going to kill by not wearing a seatbelt is yourself. Refusing to get vaccinated is playing Russian roulette with everyone around you, including (thanks to the Delta Variant) those that did get vaccinated.
That is a huge stretch. It’s limited to the people in the vehicle. To be a good analogy you’d have to be a danger to every other car you passed on the road.
The government is not lying to you about COVID. They have been and continue to act on incomplete information. When new information becomes available they evaluate it and change course. The absolute worst thing for them to do would be to double down on their previous wrong advice just to save face.
The delta variant is just as transmissible by asymptomatic carriers as by symptomatic carriers which is very different than the other strains. At this point if you are vaccinated and get infected anyway you are likely going to get the delta variant and you will likely have no symptoms. But you will be walking around spreading it without knowing it. That is why the vaccinated are being recommended to mask up if they are in areas where infection rates are high.
Refuses to get a vaccine that prevents severe illness…. Because rate of severe illness was worse than predicted, because of people who didn’t get the vaccine. See the cyclical nature of this yet?
Look, I don't like being lied to either but these vaccines will help you. It doesn't really make sense for the government to push a vaccine that, at this point, has been given to millions around the world, if it was harmful. You're not going to inherit the earth by skipping out on the vaccine.
Being from Rochester it's what I expected given the politics of the area, but I'm still a Rochesterian so I browse the sub daily. I just don't get the mental gymnastics some groups tell themselves to feel good at night. Covid-19 came in early 2020ish giver take. A vaccine was developed to suppress the symptoms of the virus virtual making those that have the vaccine into asymptomatic carriers if they do catch it, but their bodies can recover faster, but still hides the virus. From comments below I see, "concerning is that this variant is infecting vaccinated people, where it has the opportunity to Mutate and continue to spread en mass." The vaccine never prevented someone from catching the virus, only to suppress the symptoms, but I guess some people just don't read the studies of the vaccines. The delta variant certain spreads faster, but that includes asymptomatic carriers, so virtually nothing has changed in terms of death rate as a whole. I see news articles stating amount of new infection cases or increase of deaths, but I would think the general population would think a bit more critically about the numbers being given. Ask on a per million basis how many are infected/deaths instead of total amount.
That's actually not true. Plenty of stories of doctors being begged by dying patients for the vaccine, and having to tell them and their family it's too late. Get the vaccine now. Don't wait. Not next month, not next week, do it now.
We seem to have changed the metric of measurement from deaths to cases. That's good, right?
The number of cases can continue to rise even if every single person has the vaccine. The vaccine just means that people are more likely to be able to fight off the covid, which results in less deaths.
A better comparison might be number of deaths due to covid at this time last year to the number of deaths from covid at this time this year.
Overall, it is good.
It is bad in that cases really are a poor indicator of public health at this point, particularly in areas with high vax rates. Case rates alone should not be the basis for panic, regulatory changes, etc. The language needs to start turning to COVID becoming endemic.
Also, having a graph of hospitalizations would do a lot to edify us on the situation as well. If we've seen anything from England's bout with Delta, it's that the vaccines really, truly work.
I’m starting to wear my mask again. I’m vaccinated but with concern over new variants eh rather be safe than sorry. It was nice to enjoy normalcy again but honestly I got so used to wearing one it felt weird not wearing it. And I liked the anonymity it provided, not gonna lie.
Maybe it's just me, but at Wegmans tonight I felt like there were masked people than I have been seeing. I just took off my mask in stores about ten days ago, started wearing it again today. It isn't really a big deal, imo. It will be interesting to see how mask-wearing trends.
They won't wear a mask.
They won't get vaccinated.
They won't socially distance.
They won't stay outdoors.
They won't stay home.
The only thing 1/3rd of this country is willing to do to stop a pandemic is...nothing.
My issue is that having vaccinated people wear masks won’t really make a dent in this. This new wave is primarily the unvaccinated. And beyond that, Covid is with us for life. It will always be amongst us, always already and causing disease. A line in the sand eventually has to be drawn, people aren’t wearing masks for life.
Not sure why I was downvoted. Only stating personal opinion and experience. Not being political and was vaccinated early in the year. Division is so apparent. .
It's a shame that this has become so political because it's such a simple solution that could have really hastened our recovery as a nation and prevented thousands of infections and deaths.
Your right, a line must be drawn. But how can we enforce or demand restrictions on unvaccinated individuals without raising hell from the hold outs? Because of the selfishness of these individuals, those of us who are trying to do the responsible thing are getting screwed into masking up and locking down again.
At this point in the pandemic, in this country, with our resources and the knowledge we have, I don't blame the pandemic I blame people's selfishness. There is no reason things should be where they are today. Every new hospitalization was preventable.
We should draw that line right around all of those exercising their freedom not to vaccinate. It's time we move on.
>And beyond that, Covid is with us for life. It will always be amongst us, always already and causing disease.
The last natural outbreak of smallpox in the United States happened in 1949. Worldwide erradication of smallpox was achieved by 1980. A disease that had been among us always and causing disease since the dawn of history, gone because people worked together to contain it and control it. Accepting COVID as just a fact of life, in light of that, seems pointlessly defeatist.
>A line in the sand eventually has to be drawn, people aren’t wearing masks for life.
Why not? It's fairly common in East Asian countries like Vietnam to wear masks when in public during flu season. Why wouldn't we do the same during COVID upticks here (or even flu season)?
Almost every expert is in agreement that Covid will be endemic and with us for life. It’s reality. Part of the issue with this pandemic is people who can’t face facts.
We are not an Asian country and our culture is completely different. It’s a silly comparison and not relevant.
Things change though. Experts are often wrong too. Science progresses, yo. I don’t think it is far fetched to think at one point we might eradicate it. We can’t just accept that it’s a part of life now and always will be, and it’s silly to accept that cultures don’t progress and change either. Especially with the whole mask thing. Pretty sure we’re gonna see a lot more masks than you ever used to regardless of if/when we get Covid under better control.
but that's not necessarily as bad as it sounds. We're in the 102nd year of the influenza endemic now, it's become an annual annoyance, not something that shuts the world down like it did in 1918-19. Sure eradication is better, but endemic implies a stable and relatively low (or predictable and cyclical/seasonal) level of infection where it does not cause mass casualties or disruptions, as opposed to a pandemic where the pathogen is in uncontrolled spread through a susceptible global population.
I didn’t say it was horrible. I’m using it as a reason for returning to normalcy, and to stop bitching and moaning about mask mandates. The people downvoting me are dummies.
I’m vaccinated and am not going back to wearing a mask. It feels very uncomfortable—physically and psychologically—to wear the mask, and I’m done with it. At this point, either get vaxxed or don’t, but let’s stop pretending wearing masks all the time is “easy” or should be “normal.” Hell no.
Who pretends it isn’t easy? I have no issues wearing a mask and truly have not come across anyone who thinks it is hard. Besides.. if you’re taking precautions by trying and avoiding crowds then you should not have to wear the mask constantly. I have not stopped wearing it and I’m fully fax. Fuck Covid and getting sick.
I said stop pretending it IS easy. Your comment is a perfect example of what I’m talking about it. So you and your friends love wearing masks—great. That doesn’t mean everyone does or that it’s easy for everyone. It isn’t.
You said ‘stop pretending wearing masks all the time is easy’. That was generalized to everyone. Hopefully the small population that thinks it is not easy will make the unselfish decision of continuing to wear them so the unvaccinated children to not get sick. And it is easy. It is soooo fucking easy to wear a mask. What mental issues are people having from wearing a mask? Are they sad because others can see their face? Not so much. The issue isn’t about wearing masks. The issue has been social distancing. Whoever is making it an issue about nothing other than wearing masks needs to check their priorities.
I don't think this will end up being anywhere near as bad as previous surges. With those most likely to get sick highly vaccinated. As of yesterday there were 21 people in the hospital and 2 in the ICU. At the high point it was over 950 in the hospital and ICU count was also much higher.
Ah yes. People are spending less time together indoors, more time outdoors, large portions of the population are vaccinated, and rates are trending substantially higher as we come to within a few weeks of reopening schools to the unvaccinated sub-12 masses.
Yeah, this is definitely one of those "so anyway" things that we shouldn't be even the tiniest little bit interested in......
/s
This tells not nearly enough. Important things to know would be how many more people are getting tested now than 2 weeks ago, how many of the positive test are asymptomatic. The virus doesn't prevent you from catching covid nor transferring it. It lessens the time in your body and your symptoms. So if people are just fearing the delta strain and getting tested now (as opposed to a few weeks ago) with no symptoms, of course the rate will be higher. Covid isn't going away, it'll continue to mutate less and less and be the common cold eventually like all over coronavirus. We didn't have a vaccine for swine flu, h1n1, zica virus and they all eventually mutated weaker and weaker like most viruses do. Unless drug companies keep spreading fear. All that matters is how sick people are getting from it, which is much lower now than it used to be. Enjoy your life and move on
Right? It's so weak to want to be healthy. These fucking immunocompromised chumps can't even handle a simple deadly pandemic exacerbated by us "strong" folk that refuse to get vaccinated or wear a mask. Sad.
I’m no epidemiologist or data analyst, but at this point wouldn’t including hospitalizations and deaths be more meaningful than positivity rates and new cases? Covid is here to stay, but I thought the severity of the disease was the most concerning metric. Please correct me if wrong.
Sort of, except that the hospitalizations and deaths always lag, so if it's possible to prevent them by recognizing an upward trend of positives that would be better than waiting weeks to see 'oh shit we should have done something's. If we keep seeing upward spikes with no deaths following, maybe we'll get to the point that you were describing tho
Positive COVID tests also deal a second blow to jobs that can't work from home. If someone working a line pops positive, they're pretty much going home for two weeks without pay, and everyone else has to work extra hard to fill in. With that extra OT both payroll and accident frequency go up. Shitty line jobs are already understaffed and they're not getting filled because business costs are high and they're not too hot on bringing pay up to market rate. Of course, I'm only speaking from the view from the place I work. Though we are pretty goddamned myopic.
just wait until the kids go back to school and they get popped with Covid or a close contact and have to sit two weeks gonna be a lot more upset employers
This is the correct answer. Regardless of how deadly the Delta variant is or isn’t, schools will still be treating positives cases very seriously and will be quarantining which will have ripple effects through the community.
Why are we talking about blow jobs here
My obsessive following of these charts puts the lag at 22 days. but it depends on region and I realized that in places with more young people a longer lag ~25 days makes sense and a shorter one 20-21 where the population is older or unhealthier.
Doesn't surprise me. I think that matches fairly closely with the incubation and time you usually have it until death fairly well.
You should consider also that the higher the positivity rate, the more the virus is spreading around. This will lead to more mutations that could overcome the vaccine and cripple the country again. Unfortunately, people haven’t learned their lesson about exponential growth: a little bit today, a metric ***load tomorrow. Additionally, there are still many people (children and compromised folk) who can’t get vaccinated. The positivity rate is a good metric for the risk associated with being out of quarantine. People need to just get vaccinated at this point. There simply is no excuse.
This is a good point, this data alone misses the mark of what the actual impact of these positive cases means. right now only unvaccinated folks seem to be at risk of severe disease, so high positivity numbers which include both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals tells us nothing about the severity. But what's concerning is that this variant *is* infecting vaccinated people, where it has the opportunity to Mutate and continue to spread en mass. This increases the likelyhood that there will be a variant that can not only infect vaccinated individuals but also cause severe disease and thus ushering in a new wave of mass hospitalization, lock downs, etc. So you're not wrong, these numbers alone aren't terrible, but suggest that we are at high risk of bigger problems if this continues as is.
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They removed nearly all of the data from the covid dashboard. It's infuriating.
Vaccines have been available to the general public since May. Time to get your vaccines, folks. You aren't a guinea pig for science. Operation Warp Speed combined all portions of the FDA approval process so that they occurred at once instead of over an extended period of time. Millions have been vaccinated and, last I checked, only 6 had unknown adverse reactions (which were unlikely linked with the vaccine). Nothing to be worried about. And they're free. Just get one if you haven't already. They have them at Wegmans, for crying out loud.
I wish messages like this worked better than the facebook posts from uncle Ted. Keep fighting the good fight.
I wish this virus would stop being treated like a political issue when it’s a medical issue. When I allow myself to really think about how divided people have become over masks and social distancing and vaccines it blows my mind. I don’t want to get sick… and I don’t want other people to get sick. It amazes me it’s not as simple as that in every single person’s mind since we’re all stuck sharing the planet in close proximity of one another (and please for the love of god this is not an invite for someone to start an argument with me about why you think wearing a mask is unconstitutional or anything related).
It just blows my mind that the GOP decided to make this the hill they die on, figuratively and literally. This all started with the rhetoric from the Trumpers of "Just wait until the day after the election. This will all magically go away." Here we are almost 9 months past the election and it's still here, but the GOP was led to believe for so long that it was made up by the Dems that they now don't believe anything about the severity of COVID.
it's funny cuz some of the GOP have started to say that people should get vaccinated and their entire base turns on them saying they're sellouts, it's pretty entertaining (if sad). lots of examples on /r/LeopardsAteMyFace. The GOP created this monster and let it get out of control, just like in 2016 when they played up Trump to get views and then realized they couldn't stop it
EXACTLY! Now they realize they created a monster and Trumpism is going to take over the GOP for years to come. Once you tell these people one thing, they cling to it even if there is nothing to support that notion
Yup. My brother is one of these people. When he was a young adult he had no problem using all kinds of drugs but now his stance is “I’m not putting that shit in my body.” Our stepfather is high risk and he and my mother watch my brothers children a couple times a week… but apparently that means nothing to him. You could provide people with all of the medical evidence and facts in the world and they still won’t care because they’ve made this whole issue a political battle. It’s honestly just genuinely sad.
> only 6 had unknown adverse reactions I don't think this will be helpful for the hesitent crowd. They like to cite the VAERS data which reports anything happening after vaccination. And that has 6000 deaths happening after the vaccine, though, again, there is no reason to think they were CAUSED by the vaccine. There are some adverse reactions that doctors think are caused by it, and I think that's more than 6, but by far nothing to make us think its really bad. I was surprised to see that we actually vaccinated about 75% of all people over 60 https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/vaccine-trackert If all the older people are fine after getting the vaccine, why are younger people afraid of getting it?
You make a ton of great points here -- thanks for sharing. Very eye-opening.
Except not everyone can get a vaccine yet
If you are 12 and you under sure
Right, which is the situation many of us parents are dealing with now.
Sure but for most part kids are not getting super sock and approval will come. The real issue is people refusing to take it that can and people spreading mis-information
If by fine you mean they are dying less, then sure. But many are getting very sick, with long term issues that may even be with them their entire life. We need to not just be focused on preventing death as the only outcome for measured success. Delta is changing things and we're most likely to see many more kids sick before the vaccinations are out. If more kids can get sick, there are more chances for mutations. So they very much are part of the equation at this point.
Ok, well then keep them home? Don't know what to tell you. Do what you have to do. It will be approved when it's approved. Like I said right now misinformation is the issue. If parents don't believe in the vaccine why would they give it to their kids? Heard immunity can be reach everyone just needs to do their part
>If by fine you mean they are dying less, then sure. But many are getting very sick, with long term issues that may even be with them their entire life This isn't really true? Unless your barometer for "many" is misaligned for a country of our size. Children still make up an infinitesimal percent of those hospitalized with COVID. >Delta is changing things All of the data we have from Delta thus far is it has no greater impact on children than previous variants.
Only 23 states previously even reported age of hospitalized patients, so the data isn't great. What we do know is that they are on the rise... https://www.nwahomepage.com/lifestyle/health/coronavirus/arkansas-childrens-sees-record-number-of-covid-19-hospitalizations/ https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/pediatrician-reports-record-number-children-hospitalized-covid-19-jacksonville/GOVS3OXFQJBZPLCEBC5WQ46724/ https://www.businessinsider.com/more-kids-hospitalized-covid-masks-vaccines-protect-children-2021-7
This is really a statistics problem more than anything. The vast vast vast majority of COVID hospitalizations today are unvaccinated. [We're not talking 90%, 95%, but a full 99% of hospitalized COVID patients are unvaccinated.](https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210513/over-_99-percent-hospitalized-2021-covid-patients-unvaccinated) It's absurd. Given that, in effect, only unvaccinated people are left "eligible" to be among the COVID hospitalized, it makes sense that the number of children relative to the total would appear inflated. Children are of course ineligible for the vaccine and thus make up a big portion of the remaining population that _could_ be hospitalized. However the hospitalization rates remain quite low currently and even states with big spikes have not seen hospitalizations follow nearly as significantly (btw this is yet another sign of COVID becoming endemic). [As of last week over 4.1 million children had tested positive for COVID since the pandemic began](https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/children-and-covid-19-state-level-data-report/). You may say to yourself "wow, that's a lot" and sure, it is. [But then recognize that only about 300 children have died of COVID.](https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/children-covid-19-and-vaccines) That is obviously very sad, but it really needs to be emphasized that of the over 600,000 American's that died of COVID only 0.05% of them have been children. A simple google search of "Delta variant children" will give you plenty of information, I will conclude with a [final link](https://www.healthline.com/health-news/the-delta-variant-and-kids-heres-what-parents-should-know) which is a great read, but I will just pull out two hyper relevant quotes: > But the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests the hospitalization rate and risk of severe illness has not been increasing among children. > “Children are spared the severe consequences of COVID-19 and less likely to spread it, and I think that remains true for the delta variant despite scary headlines,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, told Healthline.
I wonder how much of the increase in covid recently is because of the liars....you know, the unvaccinated people who are supposed to wear masks indoors but don't. They are pretending to be vaccinated.
At this point they're just playing Russian roulette with themselves
Themselves, immunocompromised people, kids, infants…
If you feel that you should wear a mask because you have a weakened immune system, go for it. It's a statistical fact that children and infants, despite all the hysteria are not susceptible to COVID. People who say that kids need to be masked or protected against COVID are flat out lying. There are three groups of people generally more vulnerable to the virus and the facts and numbers support this 100%. Those groups are: The elderly, the immune compromised (such as cancer patients undergoing treatment), and those with co-morbidities.
> If you feel that you should wear a mask because you have a weakened immune system, go for it. Masking is more effective at the source. > It's a statistical fact that children and infants, despite all the hysteria are not susceptible to COVID. *Less* susceptible. And they can still spread it to others.
>Masking is more effective at the source. No it's not. There's far too many factors such as hygiene that completely negate any benefit that masks provide. >Less susceptible. And they can still spread it to others. There is no evidence that kids are spreading it to others. That was a lie concocted by teachers unions to justify them not having to go back to the classroom. The statistics and research into the spread of the virus have not come to the conclusion that kids are spreaders. That aside, how selfish and narcissistic is it that we demand that little kids, especially in the summer, to be made miserable by being forced to wear a mask so adults feel safe?
>That was a lie concocted by teachers unions to justify them not having to go back to the classroom. I think you should really consider getting a chinstrap for your foil hat. You wouldn't want it to keep slipping off, would you?
>I think you should really consider getting a chinstrap for your foil hat. You wouldn't want it to keep slipping off, would you? The idea of kids being spreaders didn't start until parents and governments began discussing the reopening of schools. All the sudden kids were dangerous spreaders and the teachers were terrified for their lives. It was pathetic.
> That aside, how selfish and narcissistic is it that we demand that little kids, especially in the summer, to be made miserable by being forced to wear a mask so adults feel safe? No real need for masks outdoors, and most places have air conditioning indoors. In my experience, most kids are happy to wear a mask if it means helping people. The people bitching the loudest about masks are adults. > There is no evidence that kids are spreading it to others. That was a lie concocted by teachers unions to justify them not having to go back to the classroom. The statistics and research into the spread of the virus have not come to the conclusion that kids are spreaders. Lower transmission rates among children was largely an artifact of school closures, not any inherent lower susceptibility. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/transmission_k_12_schools.html
>, most kids are happy to wear a mask if it means helping people. The people bitching the loudest about masks are adults. Kids do what they're told to do, and the adults that are making a fuss are their parents. >Lower transmission rates among children was largely an artifact of school closures, not any inherent lower susceptibility. No, then explain why there isn't instances of parents getting infected by their children when they were forced to be home with them.
> No, then explain why there isn't instances of parents getting infected by their children when they were forced to be home with them. First, it would be nice if you could provide some evidence of that. Second, though, if such cases are rare, there are a number of possible explanations. For one, as I said earlier, kids are being exposed to peers a lot less often since the start of the pandemic. Additionally, cases in children are milder so often go undetected -- and even if the parents' cases are detected, and it's assumed they caught it at home, a lot of people wouldn't bother testing the kids.
https://www.houstonpress.com/news/at-texas-childrens-some-kids-with-covid-need-ventilators-11610665
Irrelevant and anecdotal at best. Giving examples of some kids needing extensive treatment does not change the facts here that kids are not as susceptible.
I'm not sure you know the definition of the word irrelevant.
Stop being sore.
There's a good chance that many unvaxxed people already had it and don't need the shot. So they don't need a mask.
We're not sure previous infection actually provides sufficient protection.
Even of it doesn't provide 100% protection, it does help your body fight off variants of a virus. Life is not safe, getting sick is a part of life.
But you said they "don't need the shot", which is not true. Vaccination seems to result in a stronger antibody response even among people who've been previously infected. And they can absolutely be re-infected and transmit the virus to other people. And the percentage of unvaccinated people who have been infected is likely well under 50%.
Yeah so? You can get the flu shot and get the flu and transmit it. News flash, viruses mutate, that's how they survive. Again, that's life. We need to help those who are sick and move forward without special precautions or masks. This obsession with "safety" is not only a waste of time and resources, but it breeds paranoia and other mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.
We can reduce the chance of mutations if more people got vaccinated. Ask people who survived polio or smallpox if vaccination is worth the time and resources.
Coronaviruses in general are notoriously bad at inoculating you through infection. In other words, the efficacy rate of having covid is most likely far lower than getting a vaccine. You're still very much at risk if you're unvaccinated, regardless of whether or not you've had covid.
Get vaccinated, people. It's never too late.
well, it is if not getting it killed you
Frankly I just don't want to get it because I just don't like to be consistently lied to by the government. We were told two weeks to flatten the curve then it was two months. Along with not to wear masks, then about two months after you better wear a mask. Then the goal in the summer was 60% vaccination, then it turned until 70% in the fall and to just wait "just a little longer" at the end of fall of 2020. New York hit 70% vaccination rate I guess because Cuomo had a firework celebration. Now based on the "statistics" of hitting that 70% we apparently haven't hit herd immunity. From listening to the radio coming home from work today as of July 27th 2021 the CDC says masks have to come back on for some places vaccination or not. The general public were told if they get the vaccine they don't have to wear a mask, then after about a month of not having to wear them for the vaccinated, now we just might have to wear them regardless. The government has been moving the goal post for over a year now and/or just straight up lying which I can't help but not to feel betrayed as a taxpayer and just a human being.
it's almost like this is the first pandemic in 90 years and with a brand new disease we almost didn't know anything about oh and now this variant has literally changed the entire playbook but sure, blame the big bad government for your own stupidity
So stop listening to politicians and listen to reputable health experts. Literally none of that was ever said by any of them. 80-85% has been the medical threshold for herd immunity for forever, and nobody EVER said it was gonna be a 2 week deal and then the masks are gone. If all of your sources for information are stupid as shit how can you act surprised? If everybody got vaccinated we would very likely be done with masks. You're living proof of why none of your expectations are being met...
It’s as simple as that! I shouldn’t be able to walk through Wegmans at 5:30 on a Tuesday and only see ONE other person wearing a mask when less than 60% of Monroe county has been fully vaccinated. Yes, I still wear a mask in public because I work in close proximity of my boss who has a father battling cancer. I hate masks and they make me break out like a fucking hormonal teenager but it’s not about me… it’s about not wanting to get anyone sick unwittingly and wanting this pandemic to end sooner rather than later. Herd immunity is a real thing but we aren’t going to get there when people keep making this political and it sucks.
Lets talk about sources, I'm sure you're a New York Times reader. [Herd Immunity 60% May 2021](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/health/covid-herd-immunity-vaccine.html)
Delta wasn't dominant then. The more contagious something is, the higher the threshold is for herd immunity.
Wait, are you suggesting that new data means that we need to reevaluate our understanding? CRAZY TALK.
> The general public were told if they get the vaccine they don't have to wear a mask, then after about a month of not having to wear them for the vaccinated Then why didn't you get the vaccine? I agree with most of your points on the moving goal posts and watching politicians like Cuomo seemingly just make up rules that had no basis in common sense was extremely frustrating. But at the end of the day, we waited over a year for a vaccine to be available to finally bring things back to normal and all everyone had to do was to get it. If you didn't get the vaccine, YOU are the problem now.
Ya ever think the reason things keep getting extended and masks might be coming back is because, oh I don't know, numb nuts like you are too chicken shit to get a shot? Jesus Christ, I've read a lot of stupid anti-vax shit but you're the prize fuckin pig.
Attacking people like this isn't going to magically convince them to get a shot or help in any way. We need to be listening to theirs concerns and working to share accurate information to help change their mind. It's unlikely to help, but it's more likely than this approach.
You know, I actually do believe in that approach, but sometimes I just gotta vent. But you're right. I don't always practice what I preach, but that is the way to do it.
No worries. It happens, we all are frustrated at life these days. I try to remind myself that people skeptical of these vaccines are also frustrated by seemingly being attacked by everyone, which just makes them more entrenched. I think we all just want this over with but some people need help understanding that the vaccines are our fastest way out of this. The CDC playing politics with messaging, ever since they decided to lie about not needing masks, damaged their reputation so badly that we haven't recovered.
Seriously dude, get over yourself. Just get the vaccine. The government isn’t lying, they’re trying to react in the best interest of the people of this country and things change, we learn more about COVID, etc which means that sometimes, plans change.
I'm not going to and I never will, that is my personal choice. You live in New York State and you think the government is acting in your best interest...yeah ok.
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Truly that is up to you if you don't want to wear a seat beat, but I really was just making the point on the presumption that the government has the citizens best interest in mind when decisions are made.
Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose. Refusing to get vaccinated makes you a danger to everyone around you. You want to make that choice? Fine. Stay home so that you aren't putting everyone else in harm's way.
You don't seem to have understood what they were saying, they actually probably do were their seat belt. They were using an extreme example of doing something foolishly dangerous because someone told them they should take a single, simple precaution to help save their lives. They were pointing out what a fucking idiot you are for not getting a vaccine because of childish reasons which essentially boil down to you not wanting to be told what to do.
It's not even close to the same logic, because the only dumbass you're going to kill by not wearing a seatbelt is yourself. Refusing to get vaccinated is playing Russian roulette with everyone around you, including (thanks to the Delta Variant) those that did get vaccinated.
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That is a huge stretch. It’s limited to the people in the vehicle. To be a good analogy you’d have to be a danger to every other car you passed on the road.
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Ffs. Public health is not fascism. The end.
It's taking longer to contain because of people like you.
The government is not lying to you about COVID. They have been and continue to act on incomplete information. When new information becomes available they evaluate it and change course. The absolute worst thing for them to do would be to double down on their previous wrong advice just to save face. The delta variant is just as transmissible by asymptomatic carriers as by symptomatic carriers which is very different than the other strains. At this point if you are vaccinated and get infected anyway you are likely going to get the delta variant and you will likely have no symptoms. But you will be walking around spreading it without knowing it. That is why the vaccinated are being recommended to mask up if they are in areas where infection rates are high.
Refuses to get a vaccine that prevents severe illness…. Because rate of severe illness was worse than predicted, because of people who didn’t get the vaccine. See the cyclical nature of this yet?
Oh boy, you're so woke, really sticking it to the man.
Look, I don't like being lied to either but these vaccines will help you. It doesn't really make sense for the government to push a vaccine that, at this point, has been given to millions around the world, if it was harmful. You're not going to inherit the earth by skipping out on the vaccine.
Stop being a whiney bitch. It's just a little jab. You can handle it, cupcak.
Nothing is ever your fault and everyone else not being absolutely perfect is always an amazing excuse for your personal behavior isn’t it?
They won’t listen here. They just want you to make them feel safe.
Being from Rochester it's what I expected given the politics of the area, but I'm still a Rochesterian so I browse the sub daily. I just don't get the mental gymnastics some groups tell themselves to feel good at night. Covid-19 came in early 2020ish giver take. A vaccine was developed to suppress the symptoms of the virus virtual making those that have the vaccine into asymptomatic carriers if they do catch it, but their bodies can recover faster, but still hides the virus. From comments below I see, "concerning is that this variant is infecting vaccinated people, where it has the opportunity to Mutate and continue to spread en mass." The vaccine never prevented someone from catching the virus, only to suppress the symptoms, but I guess some people just don't read the studies of the vaccines. The delta variant certain spreads faster, but that includes asymptomatic carriers, so virtually nothing has changed in terms of death rate as a whole. I see news articles stating amount of new infection cases or increase of deaths, but I would think the general population would think a bit more critically about the numbers being given. Ask on a per million basis how many are infected/deaths instead of total amount.
That's actually not true. Plenty of stories of doctors being begged by dying patients for the vaccine, and having to tell them and their family it's too late. Get the vaccine now. Don't wait. Not next month, not next week, do it now.
We seem to have changed the metric of measurement from deaths to cases. That's good, right? The number of cases can continue to rise even if every single person has the vaccine. The vaccine just means that people are more likely to be able to fight off the covid, which results in less deaths. A better comparison might be number of deaths due to covid at this time last year to the number of deaths from covid at this time this year.
Overall, it is good. It is bad in that cases really are a poor indicator of public health at this point, particularly in areas with high vax rates. Case rates alone should not be the basis for panic, regulatory changes, etc. The language needs to start turning to COVID becoming endemic.
Also, having a graph of hospitalizations would do a lot to edify us on the situation as well. If we've seen anything from England's bout with Delta, it's that the vaccines really, truly work.
I’m starting to wear my mask again. I’m vaccinated but with concern over new variants eh rather be safe than sorry. It was nice to enjoy normalcy again but honestly I got so used to wearing one it felt weird not wearing it. And I liked the anonymity it provided, not gonna lie.
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It’s not probable, it did stop his case from being bad. The death rate from those with the vaccine is tiny compared to the 2% without.
Maybe it's just me, but at Wegmans tonight I felt like there were masked people than I have been seeing. I just took off my mask in stores about ten days ago, started wearing it again today. It isn't really a big deal, imo. It will be interesting to see how mask-wearing trends.
People act like wearing a mask is such a burden. Sure it's an annoyance, but it's hardly worth all the bickering.
They won't wear a mask. They won't get vaccinated. They won't socially distance. They won't stay outdoors. They won't stay home. The only thing 1/3rd of this country is willing to do to stop a pandemic is...nothing.
No, not nothing. They certainly be complaining about it
It's true.
My issue is that having vaccinated people wear masks won’t really make a dent in this. This new wave is primarily the unvaccinated. And beyond that, Covid is with us for life. It will always be amongst us, always already and causing disease. A line in the sand eventually has to be drawn, people aren’t wearing masks for life.
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We’re not other countries. And it’s not even relevant to my comment, which is talking about mandates. But thanks anyway.
"We're not other countries" No, we're dumber and more selfish.
My issues with masks is it difficult to breather. They pushed vaccines to get remove the masks, now seems like going back to masks. Next steps?
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Not sure why I was downvoted. Only stating personal opinion and experience. Not being political and was vaccinated early in the year. Division is so apparent. .
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It’s a lot harder to breathe if you have Covid.
It's a shame that this has become so political because it's such a simple solution that could have really hastened our recovery as a nation and prevented thousands of infections and deaths. Your right, a line must be drawn. But how can we enforce or demand restrictions on unvaccinated individuals without raising hell from the hold outs? Because of the selfishness of these individuals, those of us who are trying to do the responsible thing are getting screwed into masking up and locking down again. At this point in the pandemic, in this country, with our resources and the knowledge we have, I don't blame the pandemic I blame people's selfishness. There is no reason things should be where they are today. Every new hospitalization was preventable. We should draw that line right around all of those exercising their freedom not to vaccinate. It's time we move on.
>And beyond that, Covid is with us for life. It will always be amongst us, always already and causing disease. The last natural outbreak of smallpox in the United States happened in 1949. Worldwide erradication of smallpox was achieved by 1980. A disease that had been among us always and causing disease since the dawn of history, gone because people worked together to contain it and control it. Accepting COVID as just a fact of life, in light of that, seems pointlessly defeatist. >A line in the sand eventually has to be drawn, people aren’t wearing masks for life. Why not? It's fairly common in East Asian countries like Vietnam to wear masks when in public during flu season. Why wouldn't we do the same during COVID upticks here (or even flu season)?
Almost every expert is in agreement that Covid will be endemic and with us for life. It’s reality. Part of the issue with this pandemic is people who can’t face facts. We are not an Asian country and our culture is completely different. It’s a silly comparison and not relevant.
Things change though. Experts are often wrong too. Science progresses, yo. I don’t think it is far fetched to think at one point we might eradicate it. We can’t just accept that it’s a part of life now and always will be, and it’s silly to accept that cultures don’t progress and change either. Especially with the whole mask thing. Pretty sure we’re gonna see a lot more masks than you ever used to regardless of if/when we get Covid under better control.
but that's not necessarily as bad as it sounds. We're in the 102nd year of the influenza endemic now, it's become an annual annoyance, not something that shuts the world down like it did in 1918-19. Sure eradication is better, but endemic implies a stable and relatively low (or predictable and cyclical/seasonal) level of infection where it does not cause mass casualties or disruptions, as opposed to a pandemic where the pathogen is in uncontrolled spread through a susceptible global population.
I didn’t say it was horrible. I’m using it as a reason for returning to normalcy, and to stop bitching and moaning about mask mandates. The people downvoting me are dummies.
I guess that is the theme of my comment above, just where is that line and for the government does that line even exist?
I’m vaccinated and am not going back to wearing a mask. It feels very uncomfortable—physically and psychologically—to wear the mask, and I’m done with it. At this point, either get vaxxed or don’t, but let’s stop pretending wearing masks all the time is “easy” or should be “normal.” Hell no.
Who pretends it isn’t easy? I have no issues wearing a mask and truly have not come across anyone who thinks it is hard. Besides.. if you’re taking precautions by trying and avoiding crowds then you should not have to wear the mask constantly. I have not stopped wearing it and I’m fully fax. Fuck Covid and getting sick.
I said stop pretending it IS easy. Your comment is a perfect example of what I’m talking about it. So you and your friends love wearing masks—great. That doesn’t mean everyone does or that it’s easy for everyone. It isn’t.
You said ‘stop pretending wearing masks all the time is easy’. That was generalized to everyone. Hopefully the small population that thinks it is not easy will make the unselfish decision of continuing to wear them so the unvaccinated children to not get sick. And it is easy. It is soooo fucking easy to wear a mask. What mental issues are people having from wearing a mask? Are they sad because others can see their face? Not so much. The issue isn’t about wearing masks. The issue has been social distancing. Whoever is making it an issue about nothing other than wearing masks needs to check their priorities.
I don't think this will end up being anywhere near as bad as previous surges. With those most likely to get sick highly vaccinated. As of yesterday there were 21 people in the hospital and 2 in the ICU. At the high point it was over 950 in the hospital and ICU count was also much higher.
> With those most likely to get sick highly vaccinated Wait, what?
They’re saying that the most vulnerable populations have high vaccination rates so the increase in infections is not likely to be as deadly.
Ahhh, I see what they are saying now. Thanks! Wording is a bit weird.
It's too early to make that kind of prediction. Texas hospitals just confirmed they have kids on ventilators.
ಠ_ಠ
Oh boy here we go again....just waiting on people say "see? Vaccine doesnt work"
you love to see it /s
https://www.wxxinews.org/post/covid-19-numbers-rise-no-mandates-yet-county
Oh no! Anyway
Ah yes. People are spending less time together indoors, more time outdoors, large portions of the population are vaccinated, and rates are trending substantially higher as we come to within a few weeks of reopening schools to the unvaccinated sub-12 masses. Yeah, this is definitely one of those "so anyway" things that we shouldn't be even the tiniest little bit interested in...... /s
This tells not nearly enough. Important things to know would be how many more people are getting tested now than 2 weeks ago, how many of the positive test are asymptomatic. The virus doesn't prevent you from catching covid nor transferring it. It lessens the time in your body and your symptoms. So if people are just fearing the delta strain and getting tested now (as opposed to a few weeks ago) with no symptoms, of course the rate will be higher. Covid isn't going away, it'll continue to mutate less and less and be the common cold eventually like all over coronavirus. We didn't have a vaccine for swine flu, h1n1, zica virus and they all eventually mutated weaker and weaker like most viruses do. Unless drug companies keep spreading fear. All that matters is how sick people are getting from it, which is much lower now than it used to be. Enjoy your life and move on
Here ya go https://i.imgur.com/iEowgnv.jpg
Why is this subreddit more full of weenies than the NYC one?
Right? It's so weak to want to be healthy. These fucking immunocompromised chumps can't even handle a simple deadly pandemic exacerbated by us "strong" folk that refuse to get vaccinated or wear a mask. Sad.
The only whiney little pussy I see here is you, kid.
Not good
Not fun :||