Conavirus......

[Yppej]

I am not worried about Delta variant at present, because DW and I both are fully vaccinated. The rare breakthrough cases have not resulted in hospitalizations, I understand. But I do worry about unvaccinated people gathering in the hot spots (Utah and SW Missouri come mind). Later on, after schools start up, it seems highly likely there will be outbreaks in specific schools. Kids infected with the Delta variant will bring the virus home after school, I imagine. So 3 and 6 months from now I fear the cases per 100,000 will be higher.

I would not be complacent about the death rates per 100,000. As of July 13, 2021 the 10 states with the highest death rates are:
NJ 298
NY 275
MA 261
RI 258
MS 250
AZ 248
AL 233
CT 232
LA 233
SD 230

For what it's worth, the party affiliations of the governors of the 10 states with the highest death rates at present are Republican (5) and Democratic (5) equally.

Not on the list, despite the high number of elderly in the state, and despite the lack of mask mandates, and despite people traveling there to avoid restrictions in their own states and have a good time - Florida.

Massachusetts which is third highest had very strenuous regulations, including a mandate that you wear a mask when walking by yourself in the middle of the woods.

You think maybe masks aren't that effective?

[iris lilies]

Not on the list, despite the high number of elderly in the state, and despite the lack of mask mandates, and despite people traveling there to avoid restrictions in their own states and have a good time - Florida.

Massachusetts which is third highest had very strenuous regulations, including a mandate that you wear a mask when walking by yourself in the middle of the woods.

You think maybe masks aren't that effective?

I think maybe government regulations aren’t all that effective on how and where the average Joe leads his life. The only thing the government can do is shut down places it regulates. The government can’t keep me from having a private event in my home of 20 people, for instance.

That is what we are seeing in Mass. no doubt.

Florida could be the fact that it’s warmer weather throughout most of the year and people are just outside more. We all know that being outside is a good thing for infection control.

They are actually so many variables as to infection rate and death rate that I find it odd this particular political slicing comes up again and again

[ApatheticNoMore]

Yea no attempt was made to control private maskless indoor gatherings really, if people wanted to do them. If we had the kind of contract tracing to know everyone was getting it from say the supermarket or somewhere else where everyone was masked it would be one thing. We don't have that kind of contract tracing anyway and people weren't even cooperating with what limited tracing existed. Might as well leave it to somewhere that did and was successful at contract tracing.

By the way at about 25th place in deaths (and much higher in cases 17th place) Florida is very very middling, noone considers middle of the pack somewhere we should look very closely at and take lessons from. We would be better off looking at states that actually did better than average. Not, oh wow you are the median, congrats for being average, all C's on the report card, you go Florida.

[jp1]

SO’s flagship hotel reopened their top floor bar today. SO invited a few friends to celebrate. Walking through the tenderloin to get here from the bus I passed a pop up vaccine spot just on a random busy sidewalk. About 15 homeless and not quite homeless people waiting to get jabbed.

[Yppej]

If Biden's plan to pay people $100 to get vaccinated goes through a lot of homeless will sign up. They won't die of covid but if they spend the money on drugs they might die of overdose. After all depending where you are heroin can be as little as $5 a bag.

[happystuff]

SO’s flagship hotel reopened their top floor bar today. SO invited a few friends to celebrate. Walking through the tenderloin to get here from the bus I passed a pop up vaccine spot just on a random busy sidewalk. About 15 homeless and not quite homeless people waiting to get jabbed.

Nice! And kudos to the people manning these pop-ups!

[Yppej]

I saw on the news today .02% of all covid deaths are among children. This reinforces what I have said all along. They should be able to return to school maskless and enjoy life instead if being told all the time to be afraid of the virus. Let them enjoy their childhoods! Let kids be kids free of adult anxiety! The virus isn't going after them and our government shouldn't either.

[jp1]

Apparently Lindsay graham is a breakthrough case. Apparently he was with a bipartisan group of senators on joe manchin’s boat at the time he started having symptoms. It will be interesting to see how many of them also end up with breakthrough cases. I hope they were all vaccinated.

[Teacher Terry]

One child’s death is too many if it’s preventable. I hope it’s safe to vaccinate small children.

[Yppej]

One child’s death is too many if it’s preventable. I hope it’s safe to vaccinate small children.

We could prevent measles outbreaks by never letting children go to school in person, confining them to their homes, etc. We could keep them from dying in motor vehicle accidents by banning them from riding in cars. We could prevent drowning deaths by making them take sponge baths rather than use bathtubs and not allowing them to go swimming.

Oh the things we could do in the name of safety because even one death is too many.