Coronavirus positives in Bradenton and Hillsborough Counties (Miami, Sarasota: vehicles, locations)

[wondermint2]

Today's update from Sarasota Memorial Hospital:

Today's COVID-positive patients total: 250 (239 yesterday) [Another new record]

COVID-positive patients in ICU today: 48 (52 yesterday)

2 more Covid-19 patients died over the past day

7-Day SMH positivity rate: 19.2% (18.2% for week ending Aug. 13, 2021)

Source:
https://www.smh.com/Home/News-Events...ly-news-update

[wondermint2]

17,096 people are hospitalized due to COVID-19 right now in Florida — an all-time record.

92.5% of our ICU beds are full, 55% with COVID-19 patients — an all-time record.

This is far worse than the last wave.

Source:
https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages...al-utilization

[wondermint2]

Gov. DeSantis top donor invests in COVID drug governor promotes

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savi...tes/ar-AANsmmP

DeSantis has been promoting the effectiveness of Regeneron, a monoclonal antibody treatment.

Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, has $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals as well as options to buy its stock.

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has donated $10.75 million to a political committee that supports DeSantis. Citadel’s investment in Regeneron is a tiny fraction of its overall $39 billion in investments.

Experts say Regeneron is an effective treatment.

[wondermint2]

Emergency meeting scheduled to discuss potential mask mandate at Sarasota schools

https://www.mysuncoast.com/2021/08/1...asota-schools/

With the school year in full swing, school board members and parents across Sarasota County are concerned about the hundreds of COVID cases reported in just the first week back.

After hearing public comments from parents on both sides of the mask mandate issue Tuesday, as well as advice from experts from Sarasota Memorial Hospital, the Sarasota County school board agreed to hold an emergency meeting Friday at 3 p.m., to talk about a potential mask mandate.

“I’m here as a fairly reasonable person whose just pleading with our local school system to heath to the advice of our local healthcare system of Dr. Gordillo who told them very clearly today to proceed with masks,” said kindergarten parent Jamie Jawlan.

School board member Karen Rose said she will not support any policy that dismisses laws in the state. School board member Bridget Ziegler said during a workshop meeting she would not support a mandate because she wants people to have options.

“If there’s no appetite for this five-person group to break the law then we don’t need to have an emergency meeting; we don’t need to have an emergency vote,” said board member Tom Edwards. “It seems to have been taken away from us legally so we don’t want to set an example for our students to break the law.”

Edwards says the governor’s order forcing districts to have an opt-out provision in their mandate is making things difficult. He wants the board to move forward with this discussion whether they decide on masks or not.

“I’m surprised this isn’t an emergency meeting today. I’m disappointed that it’s not,” said Sarasota grandmother Lori Verirer.

Some parents during public comment voiced their concerns about the potential mandate.

“I will not send my kids to school with a mask in this county again. That’s my stance. If I have to pull them out no problem. If I have to home school that’s what we’ll do,” said Sarasota County parent John Wilson.

While some are against others are calling on the board to move forward with mandating masks to mitigate a bigger spread of the virus.

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* Doctor Manuel Gordillo from @SMHCS is giving the @sarasotaschools
board members an update on COVID in our area. Gordillo says we’re at the worst of the pandemic in the state and in Sarasota. He says all mitigation efforts used before need to be used now.

Board chair Shirley Brown asked Dr. Gordillo for his advice on masks at schools. He advised the board to move forward with a mask mandate without allowing opt outs. Gordillo said “We must move with mask because of the current acute crisis”

https://twitter.com/DaniCHurtado_/st...72448846155779

[KMerendino]

What's the point jack? lol

[wondermint2]

Child Covid-19 cases are steadily increasing. But with schools opening, expert warns this is just the beginning

https://news.google.com/articles/CAI...S&ceid=US%3Aen

Cases of Covid-19 among children have steadily increased in the US since the beginning of July, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. And an expert says this rise is just the start of what is to come.

"This is happening before school starts. Schools are opening now," Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said Tuesday. "So, Houston Independent school district opens August 23, that's going to be a huge accelerant. ... This is just the beginning, unfortunately," he told CNN's Jake Tapper.

More than 121,000 child Covid-19 cases were reported in the US last week. That's more than 14 times the number of child cases reported in the week ending June 24, AAP says.

Though that coincides with a rise in all-age case rates in the US since early summer, the proportion of child cases is up. Child cases represented 18% of the US total last week, against 14.4% over the whole pandemic, AAP says.

[wondermint2]

Third Pfizer dose 86% effective in over 60s, Israeli HMO says

https://news.google.com/articles/CBM...S&ceid=US%3Aen

A third dose of Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine was found to be 86% effective in people aged over 60, an Israeli healthcare provider said on Wednesday, citing initial results from a study of thousands of members.

Israeli HMO Maccabi, which covers around a quarter of the country's 9.3 million population, compared results from 149,144 people aged over 60 who received their third dose at least a week ago against those from 675,630 more who had received only two doses, between January and February.

Some 37 people tested positive for coronavirus after their third jab, compared with 1,064 positive cases among those who had received only two doses, Maccabi said in a statement. The comparison groups had similar demographic profiles, it added.

Maccabi did not provide any information on the severity of the 37 positive cases, or whether they had any underlying conditions.

[wondermint2]

The Manatee County School District is reporting 169 Covid-19 cases for August 17 (yesterday).

Since the start of school on August 10 there have been 374 Covid-19 cases amongst students and 106 cases among staff.

The Manatee County Schools Dashboard is updated daily.

https://www.manateeschools.net/covidDB

--------------------------------------------------

For Sarasota County Schools their dasboard says current students contract traced & quarantined is 210. The total number of students testing positive since July 1 is 565. The total number of students contact traced since July 1 is 680.

The total current staff positive and isolated is 51. The total staff positive since July 1 is 142.

The Sarasoty County Schools Dashboard is updated daily at 3PM.

https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrI...ca7060063200ec

[wondermint2]

Researchers from NC State University reviewed various levels of safety precautions in schools and used modeling methods to estimate new infections.

Without masking and testing, the model predicts up to 75 percent of susceptible students could get COVID-19 by the end of this semester.

The study shows with universal masking alone, the level of infections drops by up to 78 percent and the addition of bi-weekly testing with mask-wearing, drops the infection rate even more. *(This study is a preprint and hasn't been peer reviewed yet).

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....10.21261726v1

Abstract
Background Millions of primary school students across the United States are about to return to in-person learning. Amidst circulation of the highly infectious Delta variant, there is danger that without the appropriate safety precautions, substantial amount of school-based spread of COVID-19 may occur.

Methods We used an extended Susceptible-Infected-Recovered computational model to estimate the number of new infections during 1 semester among a student population under different assumptions about mask usage, routine testing, and levels of incoming protection. Our analysis considers three levels of incoming protection (30%, 40%, or 50%; denoted as “low”, “mid”, or “high”). Universal mask usage decreases infectivity by 50%, and weekly testing may occur among 50% of the student population; positive tests prompt quarantine until recovery, with compliance contingent on symptom status.

Results Without masking and testing, more than 75% of susceptible students become get infected within three months in all settings. With masking, this values decreases to 50% for “low” incoming protection settings (“mid”=35%, “high”=24%). Testing half the masked population (“testing”) further drops infections to 22% (16%, 13%).

Conclusion Without interventions in place, the vast majority of susceptible students will become infected through the semester. Universal masking can reduce student infections by 26-78%, and biweekly testing along with masking reduces infections by another 50%. To prevent new infections in the community, limit school absences, and maintain in-person learning, interventions such as masking and testing must be implemented widely, especially among elementary school settings in which children are not yet eligible for the vaccine.

[PineSpruce]

Originally Posted by wondermint2

Gov. DeSantis top donor invests in COVID drug governor promotes

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savi...tes/ar-AANsmmP

DeSantis has been promoting the effectiveness of Regeneron, a monoclonal antibody treatment.

Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, has $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals as well as options to buy its stock.

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has donated $10.75 million to a political committee that supports DeSantis. Citadel’s investment in Regeneron is a tiny fraction of its overall $39 billion in investments.

Experts say Regeneron is an effective treatment.

wondermint2, so what? what is your point?
As long as the drug is effective, everyone should promote it.
Many times, the investment decision of a hedge fund is made by the portfolio manager and has nothing to do with the CEO.