17 thoughts on “C-19 Chat Post – September 12 2021”
Gottlieb this morning: “U.S. would have achieved vaccination rate of at least 80% even without federal mandate … we’re not going to get above 90% … we don’t even really reach 90% with childhood immunizations, which are mandated.”
I think he’s right, however, that shouldn’t be a criticism of putting in a federal mandate. Furthermore, it should outrage people that we as a country only achieve ~85% on traditional childhood immunizations, like MMR, DTP, and Hep B. I’ve analyzed this about 10 years ago. The U.S. is alone on an island in this regard, compared to all of its peers. Practically all of our peers have >98% childhood immunization rates. The few that are below have rates around 95%. Why on earth do we deviate? And, why do we allow for such deviation?
By the time the U.S. achieves an 80% vaccination rate, the 2024 presidential election will have come and long gone I’m afraid. GOP elected officials in the various RED states are planning on tying up the courts for as long as it takes defying Biden’s vaccine mandates if I understand correctly.
As it is, MA has an 83% “adult” vaccination rate. Those other states you can probably barely reverse those same digits. The absolute lowest I saw was 37% recently. I forget which state specifically, other than that it’s a “red” one of course.
Most worrisome is schools are leaving exposed kids in school and relying on daily testing. This person didn’t show positive until days after he felt symptoms. It also a message vaccinated folks are not getting. Or are just covid weary and not hearing.
The whole school situation is Disgusting in my view.
It really is.
Thank you for posting this. Pretty much as I suspected.
Agree. What I’ve been thinking also.
Some updated information on Mu and other variants:
Delta wave peaked last week and will diminish in intensity the coming weeks. This said, we’re facing tens of thousands of new cases every day, a hospital overload, and a 7-day average of ~1,550 deaths/day. The latter will further increase this week and next and could approach ~2,000/day. Also, some areas of the country are worsening, while others get better.
Good news to report on wastewater in Massachusetts. It’s showing a definite dip in SARS-CoV-2. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that the sampling is mostly in and around Boston. Hot spots in Southeastern Massachusetts, but also Northeastern Massachusetts are not taken into account.
There’s currently too much talk on the Internet and in Sunday TV talk shows about Covid-19 becoming endemic. It will become endemic, to be sure. But, folks we’re definitely still in a pandemic situation, and I’d like Gottlieb and others to remind us of that. Until we get our deaths down to, say, 100 a day nationwide we’re in pandemic mode. I remember hearing these discussions last September and being baffled by them. It’s premature. Worldwide deaths are ~9,500 daily. That’s pandemic, not endemic. I think we can get to endemic by spring, but not before then. Our bellwether is the UK, which, as I predicted would happen, has plateaued at a very elevated level of cases and hospitalizations (7-day average of deaths are approaching 180/day), despite a higher vaccination rate than we have. The U.S. isn’t going to magically become an exception to the rule. Can we please learn this lesson.
Gottlieb this morning: “U.S. would have achieved vaccination rate of at least 80% even without federal mandate … we’re not going to get above 90% … we don’t even really reach 90% with childhood immunizations, which are mandated.”
I think he’s right, however, that shouldn’t be a criticism of putting in a federal mandate. Furthermore, it should outrage people that we as a country only achieve ~85% on traditional childhood immunizations, like MMR, DTP, and Hep B. I’ve analyzed this about 10 years ago. The U.S. is alone on an island in this regard, compared to all of its peers. Practically all of our peers have >98% childhood immunization rates. The few that are below have rates around 95%. Why on earth do we deviate? And, why do we allow for such deviation?
By the time the U.S. achieves an 80% vaccination rate, the 2024 presidential election will have come and long gone I’m afraid. GOP elected officials in the various RED states are planning on tying up the courts for as long as it takes defying Biden’s vaccine mandates if I understand correctly.
As it is, MA has an 83% “adult” vaccination rate. Those other states you can probably barely reverse those same digits. The absolute lowest I saw was 37% recently. I forget which state specifically, other than that it’s a “red” one of course.
Very interesting
https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1437071177839636481?s=21
What exactly are the symptoms for a “mild” breakthrough case? I thought that was going to be a video to explain.
There is a link in the tweet. I’ll paste below. It describes this persons symptoms
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/09/12/1036356773/i-got-a-mild-breakthrough-case-heres-what-i-wish-id-known
Most worrisome is schools are leaving exposed kids in school and relying on daily testing. This person didn’t show positive until days after he felt symptoms. It also a message vaccinated folks are not getting. Or are just covid weary and not hearing.
The whole school situation is Disgusting in my view.
It really is.
Thank you for posting this. Pretty much as I suspected.
Agree. What I’ve been thinking also.
Some updated information on Mu and other variants:
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/coronavirus/new-possibly-vaccine-resistant-mu-variant-likely-in-mass/2488480/
For those interested, just posted a piece on the Biden Administration’s drug pricing plan: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2021/09/12/biden-administrations-prescription-drug-pricing-plan-promotes-incremental-change-not-overhaul-of-system/?sh=4982f783450f
Delta wave peaked last week and will diminish in intensity the coming weeks. This said, we’re facing tens of thousands of new cases every day, a hospital overload, and a 7-day average of ~1,550 deaths/day. The latter will further increase this week and next and could approach ~2,000/day. Also, some areas of the country are worsening, while others get better.
Good news to report on wastewater in Massachusetts. It’s showing a definite dip in SARS-CoV-2. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that the sampling is mostly in and around Boston. Hot spots in Southeastern Massachusetts, but also Northeastern Massachusetts are not taken into account.
There’s currently too much talk on the Internet and in Sunday TV talk shows about Covid-19 becoming endemic. It will become endemic, to be sure. But, folks we’re definitely still in a pandemic situation, and I’d like Gottlieb and others to remind us of that. Until we get our deaths down to, say, 100 a day nationwide we’re in pandemic mode. I remember hearing these discussions last September and being baffled by them. It’s premature. Worldwide deaths are ~9,500 daily. That’s pandemic, not endemic. I think we can get to endemic by spring, but not before then. Our bellwether is the UK, which, as I predicted would happen, has plateaued at a very elevated level of cases and hospitalizations (7-day average of deaths are approaching 180/day), despite a higher vaccination rate than we have. The U.S. isn’t going to magically become an exception to the rule. Can we please learn this lesson.
Alaskan situation: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-11/alaska-s-top-health-official-battens-down-for-a-difficult-winter?
This is VERY good news. If we can behave. Re the message from our health folk, you of course echo my thoughts for behavior conduct.
Glad to see The Atlantic publishing this article. We need to see more of these to bring about change. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/america-life-expectancy-spans-death-europe/620028/
C-19 for 9-13 is ready.