[News] Coronavirus

A place to discuss the now-global coronavirus outbreak.

Isn't everywhere a high spread area again?

Stop giving people an out.

I really dont like that articles about this don't take a 'here's what you need to know/do right now' approach. This is information about public health and safety, so the top line should be

Who should do it
What they should do
Why they should do it

The history of doing it
and only THEN should the link to your soundcloud show up

The updates from the CDC:

CDC wrote:
  • Updated information for fully vaccinated people given new evidence on the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant currently circulating in the United States.
  • Added a recommendation for fully vaccinated people to wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission.
  • Added information that fully vaccinated people might choose to wear a mask regardless of the level of transmission, particularly if they are immunocompromised or at increased risk for severe disease from COVID-19, or if they have someone in their household who is immunocompromised, at increased risk of severe disease or not fully vaccinated.
  • Added a recommendation for fully vaccinated people who have a known exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 to be tested 3-5 days after exposure, and to wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days or until they receive a negative test result.
  • CDC recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status

If you're wondering if you live in an area of substantial or high transmission you very likely already do or will in about a week or so:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/GrRlFgw.png)

Stele wrote:

Isn't everywhere a high spread area again?

Stop giving people an out.

Really depends on the state; more heavily-vaccinated states aren't having the major spike, and things in MN are picking up a bit, but it's not like southern states. Saw a thread on Twitter that Arkansas has 100% full ICUs, but a quick scan of MN's dashboard is showing less than 20 ICU cases admitted in the last week or so. Delta is going to obviously be exponentially worse in places that have refused basic vaccinations, and it's going to be hugely mitigated in blue states where people respect basic science.

OG_slinger wrote:

The updates from the CDC:

CDC wrote:
  • Added information that fully vaccinated people might choose to wear a mask regardless of the level of transmission, particularly if they have someone in their household who is ... not fully vaccinated.

There you go. Everyone with a child under 12 wear a mask indoors.

And yet my stupid company is pushing return to office.

Stele wrote:
OG_slinger wrote:

The updates from the CDC:

CDC wrote:
  • Added information that fully vaccinated people might choose to wear a mask regardless of the level of transmission, particularly if they have someone in their household who is ... not fully vaccinated.

There you go. Everyone with a child under 12 wear a mask indoors.

And yet my stupid company is pushing return to office.

Which is why I never stopped wearing a mask indoors.

It's incredibly extensive, and not overly "easy to read" but wow, a paper put together by a bunch of leading epidemiologists, public health experts, and economists is absolutely worth your read COVID-19 false dichotomies and a comprehensive review of the evidence regarding public health, COVID-19 symptomatology, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, mask wearing, and reinfection

Just a high quality review to debunk so many common black and white false dichotomies. Definitely helps expand the conversation in a number of areas without having to "both sides" the argument

OG_slinger wrote:

I hate that there's part of me that's thinking "why the f*ck should I mask back up again to protect the dumb f*cks who refuse to get vaccinated?" I'm tired of saving selfish idiots from the consequences of their own actions.

Agreed. It sucks to be the responsible adults in the room and yet again have to do something because it's for the good of humanity. It really sucks that the Trump administration poisoned the well with vaccinations and their selfish attitude of "personal freedoms" being violated. The Republican party is still stuck in viewing this pandemic as a personal thing which has no impact on others. Until a significant number of people get past the spoon fed belief of "American freedoms " and "American exceptionalism" we're well and truly F'd.

Spoiler:

They are incapable of getting past it

With the new CDC guidance, and increasing infection rates basically everywhere... I'm wondering if my company is going to delay our return to office.

At the end of the day I never stopped wearing a mask indoors or in groups of people, so it's no big deal for me to continue that behavior. I do feel bad for the next anti-vaxer that I cross paths with. I'm going to full on blast them.

Great example of how the stupid people are going to die, and take us with them.

‘What’s Covid?’ Why People at America’s Hardest-Partying Lake Are Not About to Get Vaccinated

“I’m living, breathing proof—I’ve not been sick once. I’ve been as hands-on as you can be with people from everywhere,” Like others who spoke for this article, she asked to go only by her first name. She said she’d heard a rumor—common among vaccine skeptics but also plainly false—that “more people are dying from getting the vaccine this week.”

“Personally,” Erin added, “I feel like my immune system is doing a good job, so why pump it full of something that we don’t really know what it is?”

n the Lake of the Ozarks region, where Missourians and out-of-staters pour in to boat, fish, sunbathe and party, to be unvaxxed is a source of identity and—at times—pride, a totem of one’s independence and politics.

Inside, McNay sat along with a half a dozen other customers who likewise lamented, what they viewed as, a breathless push for vaccines. Two bartenders floated in and out of the conversation, dropping comments like “what’s Covid?” to laughter. Just recently, a beloved cook at the restaurant had died from the virus, they said. But that hadn’t changed the thinking around vaccinations. The cook, they reasoned, likely had other underlying complications.

“We don’t know what else was wrong with him,” said Murry Ferris, who frequents Shorty Pants with his wife Jane. By contrast, Murry said, he and his wife exercise vigorously and regularly. Even so, Jane Ferris said the vaccine hadn’t been studied long enough and she didn’t want to be a “guinea pig.”

I think we need to start calling these people that refuse to get vaccinated "pro-covid" and identify them by their full name. You're negligence is something that could potentially impact me. Therefore I have a right to know who you are so I can avoid you.

Can't remember if I heard it here or somewhere else, but someone suggested anti-vax people should simply be labeled bio-terrorists.

I kinda rolled my eyes at first, but now I'm seeing a grain of truth in it.

How about we offer those that don’t want the vaccine a choice

Door #1 you get the vaccine

Door #2 you waive the right to any future medical treatment if you become infected with Covid.

Door #3 you get to sit in a room with a Covid positive patient for 20-30 minutes. After which you’re forced to isolate for 2 weeks in a Covid hotel.

H.P. Lovesauce wrote:

Did... did that guy punch a horse?

I mean, I get that Australian horses are venomous, but that doesn't make it any better.

Yes, I think there were two cases of horse punching, and a lot of cases of people throwing stuff at the police officers and their horses. I think the two horse punchers got pretty big fines at least.

Still needs a peer-review but this makes sense, and I'll be in line for the 3rd shot if/when it comes about.

Pfizer data suggest third dose of Covid-19 vaccine 'strongly' boosts protection against Delta variant

The data posted online, which are expected to be discussed in a company earnings call on Wednesday morning, suggest that antibody levels against the Delta variant in people ages 18 to 55 who receive a third dose of vaccine are greater than five-fold than following a second dose.

Well, of course their earning call suggests getting a third shot is good for everyone.

Mixolyde wrote:

Which is why I never stopped wearing a mask indoors.

Yup! Likewise.

Yup I wear a mask whenever possible. I think the only time I don't is when taking my dog out for a few minutes to go potty.

Yeah outside seems safe. You'd have to stop and talk face to face with someone for an extended period of time or have them cough or sneeze in your face to catch it outdoors.

That was my thinking. I'm outdoors. I'm on the move. And I don't stop to talk to anyone.

I find that in the rare instance I bump into someone I want to talk to I can either wave and give the "phone me" hand gesture. Or I can talk off the main traffic path and at a something like an 8-10 foot distance. Sometimes, depending on the amount of people in the area, I will then put on a mask and talk.

I don't see how any of this is hard. Just be an adult. Take simple steps to protect yourself and the people around you. If someone is trying to work and you are on the phone loudly right next to them, you take the call into the conference room or become quieter or tell them you'll call back later. You don't breath down their neck, talk louder and try and break down the door to the boss's office to force them to fire any co-worker trying to work. Or then sue the company for discrimination if they discipline you or try and get a bunch of your incompetent friends on the company's board.

Ugh, sorry for the rant... It just is so frustrating dealing with the blindness and the unyielding laziness and drama.

Masks back in KC. f*ck the unvaccinated(that choose to be unvaccinated, to be clear).

Well, so far the numbers in the UK have held up pretty well despite the surge in cases. Hospitalizations were/are up, but deaths stayed way down compared to January's surge. That's entirely thanks to the aging population being vaccinated.

We're now in the "if you're unvaccinated you're probably younger and the main reason to get vaccinated (in the US) isn't so you avoid the disease but so you avoid the LIFE CRUSHING health bills most people have" phase. Quick, someone come up with an acronym!

Not to mention long covid and the IQ drop.

AUs_TBirD wrote:

Not to mention long covid and the IQ drop.

Does go quite a ways into why the Republican Party in the U.S. is so clearly on the side of making the pandemic worse; they're trying to increase their voter base by letting the virus make everybody dumber.

"Give me ineptitude dumbnity or give me death!"

Last night the St. Louis County Council voted to rescind a mask mandate after a raucous meeting.

Dr. Faisal Khan, the recently appointed director of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, was invited to speak at the meeting and answer any questions council members or members of the public had.

Instead of asking about Dr. Khan's 25 years of experience in public health, his previous experience running the county's Department of Public Health for nearly a decade, or if the mandate followed the science one council member decided the most important question Dr. Khan should answer for the crowd was where he was born, specifically making sure the audience--many of whom were wearing MAGA hats and chanting "Trump 2024"--knew he wasn't born in America.

While Dr. Khan was presenting how the Delta variant was catching on like wildfire he noted that several audience members were mocking his accent, mimicking what he was saying in a voice that sounded like Apu from the Simpsons.

When he left after his presentation Dr. Khan was physically blocked by several audience members, shoved or shoulder-check by others, and called a "fat brown {sexist slur}" and "brown bastard."

According to the CDC's website St. Louis County has a high level of community transmission with new cases going from single digits at the beginning of the month to over 200 a day. Over the last seven days new cases have jumped 37%.

JC wrote:

Great example of how the stupid people are going to die, and take us with them.

‘What’s Covid?’ Why People at America’s Hardest-Partying Lake Are Not About to Get Vaccinated

Ravages of COVID surge evident inside Missouri hospital

Associated Press wrote:

Daryl Barker was passionately against a COVID-19 vaccination, and so were his relatives. Then 10 of them got sick and Barker, at just 31, ended up in a Missouri intensive care unit fighting for his life.

It’s a scenario playing out time and again at Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach, where 22 people died from the virus in the first 23 days of July. Many other hospitals across Missouri are fighting the same battle, the result of the fast-spreading delta variant invading a state with one of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates, especially in rural areas.

The Associated Press was given access inside Lake Regional, where just two months ago, no one was hospitalized with the virus. Doctors, nurses and staff at the hospital in the heart of the Lake of the Ozarks region are now dealing with an onslaught of COVID-19 patients — some of them struggling to stay alive.

“We’ve had a big-time delta virus surge here. A lot of admissions, a lot of people who are very sick and are dying,” said Dr. Harbaksh Sangha, Lake Regional’s chief medical officer.

“So as a human being it’s very frustrating, but as a physician we just take care of whatever we get.”

Just 47.5% of Missourians have initiated vaccination, nearly 10 percentage points less than the nation as a whole. Around Osage Beach, a town of about 5,000 people that straddles two counties, state data shows only 38.6% of Camden County residents and 26.7% in Miller County have started the process.

Barker, of Branson, about 120 miles (190 kilometers) southwest of Osage Beach, understands the hesitancy.

“I was strongly against getting the vaccine,” Barker said through labored breathing. “Just because we’re a strong conservative family.”

...

The virus has recently run through Barker’s extended family. Not only did he and his wife, Billie, get it, but so did eight other relatives.

Barker got so sick that his wife took him to the emergency room in Branson. He was sent home with oxygen, but got worse.

With the Branson hospital maxed out with COVID-19 patients, doctors contacted a dozen hospitals in all corners of the state. All were at capacity. Lake Regional was nearly full, too, but Dr. Joe Sohal, a pulmonologist and critical care specialist, found a bed for Barker.

He arrived critically ill. Placed on a ventilator, Barker was given a 20% chance of surviving.

“The doctor told me he was going to let my wife and kid in so I could say my goodbyes because he didn’t think I was going to pull through,” Barker said. In those conversations, he told his wife and 6-year-old son, Brody, that he loved them “and I wasn’t going to give up.”

Slowly, Barker started to recover. Sohal is optimistic but said Barker, who has been hospitalized for three weeks, isn’t out of the woods.

“This is the time when he’s going to get a lot better or a lot worse,” Sohal said.

...

Statewide, hospitalizations for COVID-19 have more than doubled since the start of June, and the number of ICU patients has more than tripled. Since June 7, Lake Regional has admitted 125 patients with the virus. As of Tuesday, it had 21 COVID-19 patients, including eight in intensive care and four on ventilators. Sohal himself signed about a half dozen death certificates over the past week.

Sohal said many patients now are younger — in their 20s, 30s or 40s — and sicker, often with gastrointestinal distress in addition to breathing problems.

Hospital staff members are exhausted. Among those feeling the strain is ICU nurse Chris Murphy, who spends much of his day running from one room to the next.

“It’s devastating people and families,” Murphy, a former combat medic, said of the virus. “And you should take precautions.”

Sohal said nearly everyone hospitalized is unvaccinated. Patients have said they worried about vaccine side effects, or felt the vaccines were rushed out took quickly.

Daryl and Billie Barker both plan to get vaccinated once he recovers.

Daryl said his wife and son are why he’s fighting so hard.

On a sweltering day, they sat outside the ICU in lawn chairs, looking at Daryl through glass. Every now and then, Brody walked up to the window and waved to his dad, who smiled and waved back. Billie used a dry erase marker to scrawl “I love you” backwards on the glass so her husband could read it.

“I don’t ever want to have to do this again,” she said, “and if that means getting a vaccination to prevent something like this, that’s what I’ll do.”

“I was strongly against getting the vaccine,” Barker said through labored breathing. “Just because we’re a strong conservative family.”

That has to be the purest expression of unthinking partisan idiocy I've heard recently and wish the reporter would have spent the rest of the article asking Barker to explain, in excruciating detail, what he meant by that.

OG_slinger wrote:

“I was strongly against getting the vaccine,” Barker said through labored breathing. “Just because we’re a strong conservative family.”

More like a weak conservative family, since they're all sick right now.

That has to be the purest expression of unthinking partisan idiocy I've heard recently and wish the reporter would have spent the rest of the article asking Barker to explain, in excruciating detail, what he meant by that.

Indeed.

An acquaintance was doing the "Our immune system" thing online today, and it's just like....

...do these people know how we beat polio? Or like, several other diseases? Handily?

Vaccines are arguably one of humanity's single greatest achievements to save lives and reduce suffering, and like 25% of the populace thinks we should've just rolled the dice and let mumps, measles and rubella hang around because it's up to our immune systems. (Or sniffed some natural oils or opened our pineal glands, whatever.)

I just can't.

EDIT: SPEAKING of sniffing natural oils, while research has shown that the ancient and medieval world wasn't nearly as awful and disease-ridden as we think, can we also point out to these "Do things like the Ancient Egyptians did, they fought illnesses naturally" morons that actually they still got sick a lot and had no treatment for most of these diseases, thus damning thousands of people to unnecessary deaths or lifetimes of pain brought on by said disease?

It's not just 25% of people. 25% of hospital employees are still unvaccinated. They should get another job. That's where we go to get better, not to spread disease.

I think it's just a facet of the just world fallacy. If they'll even acknowledge it, they just assume that those that suffered and died in the past probably deserved it, and think the same will happen now. They think that they'll be fine because they're good people.

Prederick wrote:

An acquaintance was doing the "Our immune system" thing online today, and it's just like....

...do these people know how we beat polio? Or like, several other diseases? Handily?

Vaccines are arguably one of humanity's single greatest achievements to save lives and reduce suffering, and like 25% of the populace thinks we should've just rolled the dice and let mumps, measles and rubella hang around because it's up to our immune systems. (Or sniffed some natural oils or opened our pineal glands, whatever.)

I just can't.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EPx0iOBW4AA-mEz?format=jpg&name=small)