Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston: how much, homes, refrigerators)

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by YevTK

By the way, MA has now added the breakthrough data to the daily vaccination report.

"As of July 16th, there were 4,291,441 fully vaccinated people; as of July 31st, there were 7,737 cases from among those vaccinated people. 395 of those 7,737 cases resulted in hospitalization and 100 cases resulted in death based on information reported to date."

% of all fully vaccinated individuals:

Cases 0.18% or 1 in 556
Hospitalized 0.009% or 1 in 11,111
Deaths 0.002% or 1 in 50,000

I'm glad to see this. We're scheduled for our first COVID-19 tests tomorrow as we just returned from a vacation out of the country and don't have a ton of faith in the antigen test we took in order to return. When signing up for the test, we had to check whether or not we were fully vaccinated before we could confirm the appointment. That was new.

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by YevTK

% of all fully vaccinated individuals:

Cases 0.18% or 1 in 556
Hospitalized 0.009% or 1 in 11,111
Deaths 0.002% or 1 in 50,000

Those numbers are kind of misleading because that includes from before the Delta variant showed up.

[OutdoorLover]

"Most unvaccinated Americans believe coronavirus vaccine poses greater health risk than the disease, [a Kaiser Family Foundation] poll finds". Least surprising news ever. That's exactly what Americans have been told by certain leading voices - Covid-19 isn't very dangerous, but the vaccines are. It's the reverse of the truth of course, but you can't tell that to the people who've bought into this worldview. They'll hold onto those alternative facts with pitbull-like tenacity.

See:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ted-americans/

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

Correct, and despite that people still pushed back even with the higher risk of mortality.

And this is exactly my fear going forward. We've learned nothing. What if it were even more lethal, or that people suffered a gruesome death (e.g. Ebola)? At least 50% of the American public has already signaled how they're going to react to the next pandemic. It scares the daylights out of me because Covid has demonstrated that we don't give 2 hoots about collective wellbeing, at the expense of personal "freedom".

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

And this is exactly my fear going forward. We've learned nothing. What if it were even more lethal, or that people suffered a gruesome death (e.g. Ebola)? At least 50% of the American public has already signaled how they're going to react to the next pandemic. It scares the daylights out of me because Covid has demonstrated that we don't give 2 hoots about collective wellbeing, at the expense of personal "freedom".

Personally, I chalk this up to the disinformation that people have been suckered into. If people actually understood the risks of the virus, if they realized the death toll was real and the reports of serious ongoing complications are real, if they understood that public health methods actually work and are not just a conspiracy of Nazi mind control, then they wouldn't value "freedom" from such mild sacrifices over their own health and that of the rest of their community. Many people are simply in the dark because they've absorbed far too many "alternative facts" to understand what's actually happening.

[msRB311]

I wish they would just make the masks mandatory again then. Why is that such a big deal ? If people should really end truly be wearing them then mandate them. Throwing phrases out there like it's we highly recommend or we encourage or strongly suggest doesn't seem to be cutting it. I have seen increased mask usage here and there but not a whole lot. And yes I'm frustrated that this is happening again.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

Personally, I chalk this up to the disinformation that people have been suckered into. If people actually understood the risks of the virus, if they realized the death toll was real and the reports of serious ongoing complications are real, if they understood that public health methods actually work and are not just a conspiracy of Nazi mind control, then they wouldn't value "freedom" from such mild sacrifices over their own health and that of the rest of their community. Many people are simply in the dark because they've absorbed far too many "alternative facts" to understand what's actually happening.

And what I'm saying is--It happened in 2020-21, and it can/will happen again with the next pandemic. Disinformation which hamstrings us from taking quick action...by the time the doubters wake up (if they do), it's too late. Heck, we've all read about folks on their deathbed denying that what they're dying of is Covid.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

And what I'm saying is--It happened in 2020-21, and it can/will happen again with the next pandemic. Disinformation which hamstrings us from taking quick action...by the time the doubters wake up (if they do), it's too late. Heck, we've all read about folks on their deathbed denying that what they're dying of is Covid.

Well, certainly it can happen again. I may be naive, but I hope that that people who've had this unquestioning faith in charlatans and political hacks and this deep distrust of scientists and medical experts will realize that they've been had and rethink their choice of information. It could happen.

Just 6-8 weeks ago, scientists and public health experts warned that the Delta variant would soon displace the original strain in the USA and pose a much more serious threat due to greater transmissibility and greater likelihood of a damaging course of disease. These insights were greeted with angry denunciations by the alternative facts crowd as as "fear-mongering!" "lies!" "hysteria!"... Today, the Delta variant has displaced the original strain in the USA, and in our states with the greatest hostility to public health measures, hospital wards are filling up dangerously with Covid-19 patients experiencing a serious course of disease. Can't people see that these "alternative facts" aren't facts at all, they're just BS??? If people can figure that out, they can become part of the solution, instead of part of the problem.

[msRB311]

Perhaps they came out with the vaccine too soon. There could be another deadly strain that comes along.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Perhaps they came out with the vaccine too soon. There could be another deadly strain that comes along.

Well you're not wrong when you say that another strain may appear even beyond Delta that may evade current vaccines more successfully and/or be more damaging. But I don't think that developing the current vaccines was a mistake. Even though the rollout has been a little rocky, I think they've already saved countless lives and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future anyways. And, if/when that next challenging variant takes the stage, we'll already have learned a lot about what works and we'll have most of the infrastructure already in place to riff off the existing vaccines and develop and manufacture a variant vaccine much more rapidly.