The Covid-19 Thread: News, Preparation Tips, Etc

pear

Well-Known Member
What has happened to people….seriously????

I mean it just seems like common sense, critical thinking and an “educated and healthy” degree of skepticism has gone out the water. Everybody is a conspiracy theorist and groups of people (and mindsets) that I once thought were extreme and fringe seem to have quickly become mainstream. I have my thoughts as to why but that is for another discussion in another forum.

I can’t believe some of the nonsense that so many people I know personally (many who are highly educated) have bought into as reasons not to get vaccinated, wear a mask, etc. I am tired of trying to save people who seem to not want to save themselves :wallbash:
 

MamaBear2012

Well-Known Member
What has happened to people….seriously????

I mean it just seems like common sense, critical thinking and an “educated and healthy” degree of skepticism has gone out the water. Everybody is a conspiracy theorist and groups of people (and mindsets) that I once thought were extreme and fringe seem to have quickly become mainstream. I have my thoughts as to why but that is for another discussion in another forum.

I can’t believe some of the nonsense that so many people I know personally (many who are highly educated) have bought into as reasons not to get vaccinated, wear a mask, etc. I am tired of trying to save people who seem to not want to save themselves :wallbash:
This is where I am. And I was telling a friend of mine, that they need to set up those makeshift hospitals again. We can't have unvaccinated adults who now have Covid overwhelming our ERs and hospital beds. It's unfair.
 

Melaninme

Well-Known Member

CDC study shows three-fourths of people infected in Massachusetts covid-19 outbreak were vaccinated​


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending masks be worn in indoor public settings in some circumstances to combat the coronavirus. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)
By
Carolyn Y. Johnson
,
Yasmeen Abutaleb
and
Joel Achenbach

Today at 1:00 p.m. EDT


A sobering scientific analysis published Friday of an explosive Massachusetts covid-19 outbreak fueled by the delta variant found that three-quarters of the people who became infected were fully vaccinated. The report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bolstered the hypothesis that vaccinated people can spread the more transmissible variant and may be a factor in the summer surge of infections.

The data, detailed in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, provided key evidence that convinced agency scientists to reverse recommendations on mask-wearing and advise that vaccinated individuals wear masks in indoor public settings in some circumstances.
Critically, the study found that vaccinated individuals carried as much virus in their noses as unvaccinated individuals, and that vaccinated people could spread the virus to each other. The CDC was criticized this week for changing its mask guidance without citing unpublished data. The report released Friday contains that data.


“This finding is concerning and was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC’s updated mask recommendation,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “The masking recommendation was updated to ensure the vaccinated public would not unknowingly transmit virus to others, including their unvaccinated or immunocompromised loved ones.”
Scientists said the Provincetown outbreak and other recent data on breakthrough infections make clear that the vaccines do work, as hoped, against severe illness and death, but do not offer blanket protection against any chance of infection. Only a handful of people in the outbreak were hospitalized, but four of them were fully vaccinated.
A CDC internal document obtained by The Washington Post estimated that 35,000 vaccinated people a week in the United States are having symptomatic breakthrough infections out of a vaccinated population of more than 162 million. Vaccination coverage is higher than average in Massachusetts, with nearly 70 percent of residents fully vaccinated.


“This shows the delta is formidable,” said Larry Corey, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “We can’t take one report of packed bars and extrapolate and say the sky is falling. The sky is not falling. But it does say the vaccine is not infallible.
“Common sense has to be used,” Corey said. “It’s a learning moment, it’s a teaching moment. You can’t overlook the vast data we have on the effectiveness of the vaccine.”
The study’s authors note that Massachusetts has a high vaccination rate and the virus was still able to spread.
“Findings from this investigation suggest that even jurisdictions without substantial or high COVID-19 transmission might consider expanding prevention strategies, including masking in indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status,” they write.


Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, noted that the new CDC guidance on indoor masking for vaccinated people applies to communities with substantial transmission, and Provincetown on July 3 had low levels of virus.
“What this tells us is we need much more context and better data to guide whether and when vaccinated people should wear masks because following CDC’s new guidance wouldn’t have stopped this outbreak from occurring,” Nuzzo said.
The internal CDC document obtained by The Post and published Thursday states that the delta variant is as transmissible as chickenpox and likely to cause more severe infections. That document also shows the CDC believes it needs to revamp its public communications strategy to stress the importance of vaccinations as the best way to crush the pandemic while acknowledging that breakthrough infections are more common than top health officials have previously indicated.


Provincetown is famous for its party scene and is at the tip of Cape Cod in a festive July 4 environment that could have, and did, prove ideal for explosive spread of the more contagious delta variant.
The outbreak has all the hallmarks of a superspreader event, with infected people reporting to public health officials that they gathered in “densely packed indoor and outdoor events that included bars, restaurants, guest houses and rental homes.” The full outbreak, which began July 4, is close to 900 cases, but the analysis included only a subset of them.
About three-quarters of cases occurred in people who were fully vaccinated, and that group had received vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

Scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a research institute in Cambridge, Mass., involved in the genetic analysis of the outbreak highlighted that this was not a single event. At least five events sparked the outbreak, so it is not possible to blame it on one party or one bar.

“There’s no one person or spot to blame here,” said Daniel Park, group leader for viral computational genomics at the Broad Institute. “The thing that’s catching the attention in national public health is that you can have these types of events; there’s no one particular bar that did any worse than another. Simply mixing that many people in one place with delta going around, with a decently high vaccination rate isn’t quite enough.”
The scientists, along with officials at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, reported that 79 percent of vaccinated breakthrough infections were symptomatic. Four of five people who were hospitalized were fully vaccinated. They are analyzing the genetic fingerprints of the virus samples taken now to trace chains of transmission and determine how commonly fully vaccinated people were infecting one another.

“We are at an inflection point, I’d say we are in a moment right now a crossroads, a fork in the road where we can either try and take a road to end the pandemic or take a path that will prolong it — a potential nightmare scenario,” said Pardis Sabeti, a geneticist at the Broad and Harvard University.

The study makes clear that vaccines offer significant protection, but do not prevent infection entirely even among the fully vaccinated. On July 3, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported a 14-day average of zero covid-19 cases per 100,000 in Barnstable County — but by July 17, that number had increased to 177 cases per 100,000.
“This report demonstrates that vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is not perfect, particularly in a setting with a highly contagious variant, in a large group in close contact, even if most are vaccinated against the virus,” said Gregg Gonsalves, associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health. “The good news here: If you’re vaccinated, refrain from large group gatherings and mask up, chances are good you’ll be okay. This is not 2020. But we’re not out of the woods
 

oneastrocurlie

Well-Known Member

CDC study shows three-fourths of people infected in Massachusetts covid-19 outbreak were vaccinated​


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending masks be worn in indoor public settings in some circumstances to combat the coronavirus. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)
By
Carolyn Y. Johnson
,
Yasmeen Abutaleb
and
Joel Achenbach

Today at 1:00 p.m. EDT


A sobering scientific analysis published Friday of an explosive Massachusetts covid-19 outbreak fueled by the delta variant found that three-quarters of the people who became infected were fully vaccinated. The report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bolstered the hypothesis that vaccinated people can spread the more transmissible variant and may be a factor in the summer surge of infections.

The data, detailed in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, provided key evidence that convinced agency scientists to reverse recommendations on mask-wearing and advise that vaccinated individuals wear masks in indoor public settings in some circumstances.
Critically, the study found that vaccinated individuals carried as much virus in their noses as unvaccinated individuals, and that vaccinated people could spread the virus to each other. The CDC was criticized this week for changing its mask guidance without citing unpublished data. The report released Friday contains that data.


“This finding is concerning and was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC’s updated mask recommendation,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “The masking recommendation was updated to ensure the vaccinated public would not unknowingly transmit virus to others, including their unvaccinated or immunocompromised loved ones.”
Scientists said the Provincetown outbreak and other recent data on breakthrough infections make clear that the vaccines do work, as hoped, against severe illness and death, but do not offer blanket protection against any chance of infection. Only a handful of people in the outbreak were hospitalized, but four of them were fully vaccinated.
A CDC internal document obtained by The Washington Post estimated that 35,000 vaccinated people a week in the United States are having symptomatic breakthrough infections out of a vaccinated population of more than 162 million. Vaccination coverage is higher than average in Massachusetts, with nearly 70 percent of residents fully vaccinated.


“This shows the delta is formidable,” said Larry Corey, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “We can’t take one report of packed bars and extrapolate and say the sky is falling. The sky is not falling. But it does say the vaccine is not infallible.
“Common sense has to be used,” Corey said. “It’s a learning moment, it’s a teaching moment. You can’t overlook the vast data we have on the effectiveness of the vaccine.”
The study’s authors note that Massachusetts has a high vaccination rate and the virus was still able to spread.
“Findings from this investigation suggest that even jurisdictions without substantial or high COVID-19 transmission might consider expanding prevention strategies, including masking in indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status,” they write.


Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, noted that the new CDC guidance on indoor masking for vaccinated people applies to communities with substantial transmission, and Provincetown on July 3 had low levels of virus.
“What this tells us is we need much more context and better data to guide whether and when vaccinated people should wear masks because following CDC’s new guidance wouldn’t have stopped this outbreak from occurring,” Nuzzo said.
The internal CDC document obtained by The Post and published Thursday states that the delta variant is as transmissible as chickenpox and likely to cause more severe infections. That document also shows the CDC believes it needs to revamp its public communications strategy to stress the importance of vaccinations as the best way to crush the pandemic while acknowledging that breakthrough infections are more common than top health officials have previously indicated.


Provincetown is famous for its party scene and is at the tip of Cape Cod in a festive July 4 environment that could have, and did, prove ideal for explosive spread of the more contagious delta variant.
The outbreak has all the hallmarks of a superspreader event, with infected people reporting to public health officials that they gathered in “densely packed indoor and outdoor events that included bars, restaurants, guest houses and rental homes.” The full outbreak, which began July 4, is close to 900 cases, but the analysis included only a subset of them.
About three-quarters of cases occurred in people who were fully vaccinated, and that group had received vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

Scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a research institute in Cambridge, Mass., involved in the genetic analysis of the outbreak highlighted that this was not a single event. At least five events sparked the outbreak, so it is not possible to blame it on one party or one bar.

“There’s no one person or spot to blame here,” said Daniel Park, group leader for viral computational genomics at the Broad Institute. “The thing that’s catching the attention in national public health is that you can have these types of events; there’s no one particular bar that did any worse than another. Simply mixing that many people in one place with delta going around, with a decently high vaccination rate isn’t quite enough.”
The scientists, along with officials at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, reported that 79 percent of vaccinated breakthrough infections were symptomatic. Four of five people who were hospitalized were fully vaccinated. They are analyzing the genetic fingerprints of the virus samples taken now to trace chains of transmission and determine how commonly fully vaccinated people were infecting one another.

“We are at an inflection point, I’d say we are in a moment right now a crossroads, a fork in the road where we can either try and take a road to end the pandemic or take a path that will prolong it — a potential nightmare scenario,” said Pardis Sabeti, a geneticist at the Broad and Harvard University.

The study makes clear that vaccines offer significant protection, but do not prevent infection entirely even among the fully vaccinated. On July 3, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported a 14-day average of zero covid-19 cases per 100,000 in Barnstable County — but by July 17, that number had increased to 177 cases per 100,000.
“This report demonstrates that vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is not perfect, particularly in a setting with a highly contagious variant, in a large group in close contact, even if most are vaccinated against the virus,” said Gregg Gonsalves, associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health. “The good news here: If you’re vaccinated, refrain from large group gatherings and mask up, chances are good you’ll be okay. This is not 2020. But we’re not out of the woods

I read the CDC's lil report on that. 89% of it was Delta. With only 5 people being hospitalized and no death (yet) seems like the vax is vaxxing.
 

Chromia

Well-Known Member
How quickly the numbers change. On July 20th my county had a 7-day average of 20 new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people.

A week later on the 27th the average was up from 20 to 44 per 100,000. :oops:

On the 28th it was 48. And yesterday it was 54, which moved us from the CDC's "moderate" category to the "substantial" category for the risk of transmission. :(

My mayor and county executive are not requiring masks for vaccinated people though, unless you go inside of a county building. They're leaving it up to private businesses to decide whether they want their vaccinated customers/clients/guests to go back to wearing masks. :confused:
 

lavaflow99

In search of the next vacation
Strong work Florida. :nono:

And this is the results of no mask mandates....


Here is the next epicenter in the making :sad:

 

MamaBear2012

Well-Known Member
One of the charter schools in Atlanta started on Tuesday of this week with more than 90% of their almost 2000 students learning in-person. Today, they announced that they will quarantine more than 100 students after 2 students and 2 employees tested positive in these few days.

This is about to be a mess, y'all. My kids start back in-person next week.
 

sunshinebeautiful

Well-Known Member

He is really intent on killing people in the state of Florida. It is really infuriating that he also called the mask mandates "unscientific and inconsistent" recommendations. Bruh. He protecting the rights of parents to have choice over whether their kids wear masks, but what about the adults working in the school? If they know like I know, these kids wouldn't have teachers because WTF.
 
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sunshinebeautiful

Well-Known Member
I just heard the saddest thing today. One of my sister's friends - the family was celebrating the daughter's graduation from college. Mom, Dad, brother, sister. They took a family trip to Jamaica. On the way back, before boarding the flight, Mom tests positive for COVID. She isn't allowed to board the plane to come back to the US.

Dad stays behind with the wife. He eventually tests positive for COVID too. Mom's health takes a turn for the worse. She passed away from COVID. The very next day - Dad dies too.

Both parents are now gone. The family has to not only plan their funerals but also has to get their bodies back home. I cannot imagine the pain of losing both parents at once, not only off the backs of this virus, but as a result of taking a vacay to another country in the middle of a pandemic.
 
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Evolving78

Well-Known Member
One of the charter schools in Atlanta started on Tuesday of this week with more than 90% of their almost 2000 students learning in-person. Today, they announced that they will quarantine more than 100 students after 2 students and 2 employees tested positive in these few days.

This is about to be a mess, y'all. My kids start back in-person next week.
Mine start back soon too. I’m homeschooling my youngest, since that child is under 12. I’m worried.
 

pear

Well-Known Member
It's like he is in the race to destroy the state single handedly and make as many people sick as possible. He is in a race by himself. :nono:

How does one justify this? What is his end goal? :pullhair:

I believe this is more about politics than anything. He is making a calculated political decision and sadly it will probably pay off for him politically looking at the way Florida has behaved in recent years.

I am all for parent’s rights when I feel parents will do the right thing to protect their children as well as mine. The fact that cases are skyrocketing in Florida shows me that people there do not have the will to make the right decisions when it comes to this pandemic.

He knows that if he mandates masks in school then the next argument will be around mandating masks in other places because of the numbers. That won’t sit well with a lot of Florida voters.

I feel so bad for parents in Florida who just want to keep their kids safe!
 
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lavaflow99

In search of the next vacation
I believe this is more about politics than anything. He is making a calculated political decision and sadly it will probably pay off for him politically looking at the way Florida has behaved in recent years.

I am all for parent’s rights when I feel parents will do the right thing to protect their children as well as mine. The fact that cases are skyrocketing in Florida shows me that people there do not have the will to make the right decisions when it comes to this pandemic.

He knows that if he mandates masks in school then the next argument will be around mandating masks in other places because of the numbers. That won’t sit well with a lot of Florida voters.

I feel so bad for parents in Florida who just want to keep their kids safe!
If these parents who voted for him in the past have their children get severely sick or die and the family friends get sick and/or die and their elderly parents get sick and/or die and these parents are surrounded by sickness and death, how is that political move paying off? :huh:

Oh let me also include said parents themselves getting sick or dying. They can’t vote from the grave. :nono:

The only “positive” I can see if that a large number of Republicans all die away or are too sick to vote in the next election. Evil thoughts maybe? devil: I don’t care at this point.
 
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lavaflow99

In search of the next vacation
I believe this is more about politics than anything. He is making a calculated political decision and sadly it will probably pay off for him politically looking at the way Florida has behaved in recent years.

I am all for parent’s rights when I feel parents will do the right thing to protect their children as well as mine. The fact that cases are skyrocketing in Florida shows me that people there do not have the will to make the right decisions when it comes to this pandemic.

He knows that if he mandates masks in school then the next argument will be around mandating masks in other places because of the numbers. That won’t sit well with a lot of Florida voters.

I feel so bad for parents in Florida who just want to keep their kids safe!
Florida is at a point of no return at this point. You are right. The governor have created a culture there that implementing any mask mandates at this point will be career suicide for him. He has dug in and has to see this through for his supporters. :nono: And I can’t see that going well.

Sucks to be a normal mentally sound person in Florida :sad:
 

lavaflow99

In search of the next vacation

No need to read it all.

The only takeaway from the article I got (cut and pasted and in bold below). I know we all being saying this but to see it in writing. :nono:


On a Friday night in May, Christy and Tony Statzer were shopping at a Kroger supermarket a short drive from Johnston Memorial. The couple had at times relied on local doctors and nurses: Christy went to Johnston’s emergency room after a car accident last year, and their 6-year-old daughter had a corrective surgery on her legs at Ballad’s hospital in nearby Johnson City, Tenn. But when it came to the coronavirus, they falsely accused the same hospitals of perpetrating a fraud.
“I just think there’s a lot of people who had the flu, and they’re saying it’s covid to get money from it,” said Christy, who is 47 and works as a janitor at a nearby college. “It’s publicly known that if the hospital says it’s covid they’re getting kickbacks from the government.”
What was in it for the government?
“One World Order. That’s what they’re after,” Christy said. “The Democrats want it.”
“They’re pushing people to see how far they can get,” said Tony, 48, a disabled former sawmill worker. “They used this as a test to see what they could get away with.”

Tony and Christy Statzer, with daughter Montana, 6, are avoiding the vaccine and say hospitals are falsifying covid-19 death numbers. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
Virginia’s mask mandate had just been lifted for the fully vaccinated. But the Statzers had never paid attention to that mandate, and they had not been inoculated — despite the repeated urging of Tony’s doctor, who warned him that he was at high risk after having both a kidney and pancreas replaced because of diabetes.
Their opinions about the pandemic had been shaped by sources that include Facebook, YouTube, Fox News commentator Sean Hannity and conservative talk radio. They distrusted the evolving guidance from public health authorities.
 
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