All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (1 Viewer)

[Maxp]

I fear we are really going to be in a bad place due to the obvious cuts to the federal agencies that deal with infectious disease, but also the negative effect the Affordable Care act has had on non urban hospitals. Our front line defenses are ineffectual and our ability to treat the populous is probably at an all time low. Factor in the cost of healthcare and I can see our system crashing. What do you think about the politics of this virus?

 

[wardorican]

Have you noticed that Florida reported 9 deaths yesterday and less than 60 per day for the last several days, and they're consistently reporting their data late? I think there is some shenanigans going on in Florida that is far worse than the Cuomo reclassification reporting of the nursing home deaths. For example, Florida reported 9 deaths yesterday while Texas reported 453.

United States COVID - Coronavirus Statistics - Worldometer

United States Coronavirus update with statistics and graphs: total and new cases, deaths per day, mortality and recovery rates, current active cases, recoveries, trends and timeline.

www.worldometers.info

I think there should be some investigations of what they're reporting. I bet they're reclassifying most deaths as non-Covid, even if the cause of death was preceded and aggravated by Covid, and wouldn't have occurred without Covid. They probably want people to think that Florida is safe for visitors, and they're trying to vindicate DeSantis. I'm expecting something to come out soon about interference with the health officials from the Governor's office.

They switched it up a month ago. Not all states do it the same. They used to report deaths by date reported. Now they are reporting deaths by day They occurred. In the long run it will be the most accurate data, in the short term, it looks like deaths are dropping.... but you have to realize it's a delayed wave

 

[Optimus Prime]

The number of unvaccinated health care workers is still alarmingly high in New York, and fears of staffing shortages are real. But part of the problem is that the refusal to get vaccinated is being driven by partisan politics. As the New York Times reported about vaccination rates Monday morning, "the racial gaps — while still existing — have narrowed," but the "partisan gap, however, continues to be enormous."

The geography of vaccination rates mirrors the political geography, to the point where "almost every reliably blue state now has a higher vaccination rate than almost every reliably red state." The gap also shows up on the county level, with death rates much higher in Trump-voting counties than in ones that went for President Joe Biden.

There's a lot of reasons conservatives cite for this refusal to vaccinate, though ultimately it all boils down to a desire to "own the liberals." But a lot of this pettiness is intertwined with a right-wing bravado. To be blunt, white privilege has long shielded many conservatives from the concept of facing consequences for their actions. We see this in a lot of obnoxious right-wing behavior lately, from tantrums over COVID-19 mitigation measures in public places to the attempted insurrection on January 6. Who can forget how many of the arrested Trump supporters expressed genuine shock that they might actually face a legal consequence for participating in a violent effort to overthrow democracy?

This lack of familiarity with consequences is likely why there are so many holdouts, even in the face of vaccine mandates. Bluntly put, a lot of them probably don't think that leaders are serious about these threats to fire them, and won't believe it until it happens. As with the Capitol rioters, there's a persistent disbelief on the right that they will ever face real consequences for their bad actions.............

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Lapaz]

The number of unvaccinated health care workers is still alarmingly high in New York, and fears of staffing shortages are real. But part of the problem is that the refusal to get vaccinated is being driven by partisan politics. As the New York Times reported about vaccination rates Monday morning, "the racial gaps — while still existing — have narrowed," but the "partisan gap, however, continues to be enormous."

The geography of vaccination rates mirrors the political geography, to the point where "almost every reliably blue state now has a higher vaccination rate than almost every reliably red state." The gap also shows up on the county level, with death rates much higher in Trump-voting counties than in ones that went for President Joe Biden.

There's a lot of reasons conservatives cite for this refusal to vaccinate, though ultimately it all boils down to a desire to "own the liberals." But a lot of this pettiness is intertwined with a right-wing bravado. To be blunt, white privilege has long shielded many conservatives from the concept of facing consequences for their actions. We see this in a lot of obnoxious right-wing behavior lately, from tantrums over COVID-19 mitigation measures in public places to the attempted insurrection on January 6. Who can forget how many of the arrested Trump supporters expressed genuine shock that they might actually face a legal consequence for participating in a violent effort to overthrow democracy?

This lack of familiarity with consequences is likely why there are so many holdouts, even in the face of vaccine mandates. Bluntly put, a lot of them probably don't think that leaders are serious about these threats to fire them, and won't believe it until it happens. As with the Capitol rioters, there's a persistent disbelief on the right that they will ever face real consequences for their bad actions.............

MSN

www.msn.com

I'd like to see the chart for deaths by party registration ever since the vaccination became available in February of this year.

 

[J-DONK]

I'd like to see the chart for deaths by party registration ever since the vaccination became available in February of this year.

You can find stats by race. I assume this would skew Republican simply because minorities are more likely to not vote, or be registered to vote. They would have no party affiliation. All the HCA winners are going to be lifelong registered Republicans.

 

[MT15]

There’s a lot of press coverage of hospital worker shortages in NYC this morning. I suspect there will not be such a huge deal as they make it sound.

 

[MT15]

For Farb:

 

[MT15]

Farb could have Super-Immunity(TM) if he would get vaccinated.

 

[MT15]

What should have been:

 

[Paul]

What should have been:

What should have been:

Ireland has few rednecks, that is why!

 

[DaveXA]

How do you know that? Have you been to Ireland?

 

[Paul]

How do you know that? Have you been to Ireland?

Rednecks are rare in Ireland and common in non-vax areas in America. Correlation is not causation, but I wonder. I did not mean to offend you.

 

[DaveXA]

Rednecks are rare in Ireland and common in non-vax areas in America. Correlation is not causation, but I wonder. I did not mean to offend you.

I'm just asking how do you know that? Do you think it's common knowledge or did you see or read something that would give you that idea?

 

[Bolo]

Another problem is that there are a lot of health care workers that are just done with the stupidity. How many took early retirements because people won't get the vaccine?

 

[MT15]

For Farb:

‘People who have recovered from COVID-19 should get vaccinated to reduce their risk of reinfection, which will prevent transmission and suppress the opportunity for more variants – like the highly contagious delta – to emerge.


“Natural infection will cause your immune system to make many types of antibodies and immune response to all parts of the virus, but only a small fraction of that response is actually protective,” said Nicole Iovine, chief hospital epidemiologist at University of Florida Health in Gainesville. “When you get the vaccine, the entire response is targeted to the virus's spike protein.”


A study published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found unvaccinated people who have had COVID-19 are more than twice as likely to be reinfected with the virus compared with people who were fully vaccinated after contracting the virus.


The study included hundreds of Kentucky residents with previous COVID-19 infections from May through June. It showed those who were unvaccinated were 2.34 times more likely to be reinfected compared with those who were fully vaccinated.’

Natural infection isn't enough to protect against COVID-19, experts say. You still need a vaccine. — USA TODAY

Although antibodies from having COVID-19 may provide some protection, health experts say nothing protects better than the vaccines.

apple.news

 

[MT15]

I’m glad to see this happening.

‘A Connecticut physician's license has been suspended after she provided fake vaccine and other exemption forms related to COVID-19, according to the state's Medical Examining Board.’

Connecticut Doc Suspended for Mailing Blank Vaccine Exemptions

Actions by Sue Mcintosh, MD, said to be a 'clear and immediate danger' to public health

www.medpagetoday.com

 

[MT15]

Another study about transmission of the virus by vaccinated vs unvaccinated:

The impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on Alpha & Delta variant transmission

Background Pre-Delta, vaccination reduced transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from individuals infected despite vaccination, potentially via reducing viral loads. While vaccination still lowers the risk of infection, similar viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals infected with Delta...

www.medrxiv.org

 

[RobF]

Another study about transmission of the virus by vaccinated vs unvaccinated:

The impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on Alpha & Delta variant transmission

Background Pre-Delta, vaccination reduced transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from individuals infected despite vaccination, potentially via reducing viral loads. While vaccination still lowers the risk of infection, similar viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals infected with Delta...

www.medrxiv.org

Well... it's an interesting study, and clearly shows some benefit, but I have to feel that guy is misrepresenting it a bit when he says it "put to bed the myth that vaccinated people are just as infectious as unvaccinated infected with Delta" when the abstract of the study clearly states "Transmission reductions declined over time since second vaccination, for Delta reaching similar levels to unvaccinated individuals by 12 weeks for ChAdOx1 and attenuating substantially for BNT162b2".

So that would indicate vaccinated people can be just as infectious as someone unvaccinated infected with Delta, if they had AstraZeneca 12 weeks or more ago, and that someone vaccinated with Pfizer should be less infectious over 14 weeks from second dose, but less so over time. That's not so much putting the myth to bed, as it is qualifying it.

I think it's important to get these things as accurate as possible - noting that studies like this aren't necessarily definitive - because there's negatives both ways. If we say vaccinated people do transmit as much as unvaccinated people in all circumstances, that is clearly untrue, potentially puts people off getting vaccinated, and may result in imposing unnecessary restrictions on vaccinated people.

But conversely, if we say it's a myth that vaccinated people can be just as infectious as unvaccinated, when we're looking at evidence that they can be and that where they are less infectious it's to a varying degree, we may be too relaxed and not apply other mitigations (like masks) where they should be applied. And we also risk undermining people's understanding of vaccination when transmission does occur.

 

[MT15]

You are right, Rob, I just think that the original lot of news articles carried the fallacy that vaccinated people were just as likely to spread the virus so widely, that this study is important to get out there too. The Astra Zeneca data doesn’t apply to the US, so I didn’t pay proper attention to that.