I found something that said he graduated HS in 1976. That would make him 63 or so.
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Iâm not sure that means much. Another wave is coming (just look at Europe). Higher vaccination rate will mean fewer severe cases and deaths, but it isnât nearly high enough anywhere to stop a new wave.
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Different geographic areas are going to ebb and flow as they experience waves at different times. Some areas will get hit sooner and some later but in the end most places will be exposed.
From the article . . .
Meanwhile, the virus has gone quiet in Deep South states that abandoned mask orders, opposed vaccine mandates, posted lower vaccination rates and saw larger outbreaks over the summer. Californiaâs case rate is now well above Texasâ and double Floridaâs . . .
Might have been worth mentioning the deadly toll stemming from these policies. For example, in last 6 months (basically since the time vaccines started to become commonplace) there have been over 24,000+ covid deaths in Florida, which is well over twice as many covid deaths in than in California (11,000+) during the same period, despite that Californiaâs has nearly twice the population as Florida. And the relative death rates in much of the rest of the South are even worse.
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You may want to see figures 8.1 and 8.2 on page 7 of http://righteousmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Figures-for-The-Righteous-Mind.pdf showing the basic values associated with American liberals and conservatives. Figures 12.2, 12.3, and 12.4 on page 13 is another presentation of which basic values are more important for each of American liberals, libertarians, and social conservatives.
Basically, liberals highly value care or avoiding harming others (i.e. avoiding imposing negative externalities on others in economic terms), while also valuing liberty and (an American liberal definition of) fairness to some extent. Libertarians, on the other hand, value liberty almost to the exclusion of other values except for some valuation of (a libertarian definition of) fairness. Social conservatives place some value on all six values, which compete with each other, and value loyalty, authority, and sanctity more than liberals and libertarians do.
Where this comes into COVID-19 response is that liberals are much more strongly predisposed to favoring public health measures (e.g. that the goal of vaccination and other mitigation measures is to protect everyone, not just oneself), in contrast to social conservatives and libertarians. I.e. each group has different answers to the question âhow much are you willing to put up with for the common good?â.
The fact that COVID-19 is so contagious (i.e. high in negative externalities) and difficult to see if oneself or anyone else is contagious (because of presymptomatic contagiousness), while being just deadly enough to provoke fear but not deadly enough to provoke universal fear, makes it ideal for amplifying the pre-existing political divisions that were already here. Perhaps it can be seen as an accidental biological weapon to increase civil conflict?
Thanks @ucbalumnus. Will take a look.
Thereâs definitely another wave in full swing in the northern areas of New York State, while where I live the rates have been under 2% for the last two months.
Would love to see the rate of hospitalizations/deaths in CA broken down by vaxxed or not, and then compare it to the same when FL/TX had their peak.
Iâd place bets that the unvaxxed in all three states are the overwhelming reason for the severe cases. Covid doesnât have borders.
Nope, covid doesnât have borders. It also doesnât hit everywhere at once. And Iâm sure the unvaccinated are having worse outcomes. Perhaps the wave will end up being just as bad in California as it was in other areas earlier. Only time will tell. Especially with Delta, thereâs no real hiding from this, eventually it will reach everywhere.
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And even within states, not only are there vaxxed/unvaxxed, there are also people who mask/donât (and areas where each predominate). Traveling along the Blue Ridge Parkway today we came across a couple from Switzerland who have been traveling all around the US heading west along the southern route and on their way to Boston via this middle route. One of the things they mentioned to us is how different the US is with masking policies. Itâs the exact same thing we noticed on our Amtrak trip.
One canât say âCalifornia/Florida/Texas/Illinois/Virginia/whatever.â There are specific areas within each that just differ from each other. Covid takes whatever path it can to reach anywhere it can.
One thing this couple agreed with us on though - those who wonât get vaxxed (here or Europe) are strange creatures with their reasoning/logic.
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From the CDC website. Current (this week) community transmission. So yes, it can certainly vary within an individual state also.
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I am 100% not joking. Jha lined it up beautifully for the propaganda machine.
I am a genius, thank you, youâre welcome:
Watch it to the end.
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NFL fines Green Bay Packers and players Aaron Rodgers and Allen Lazard for violating COVID-19 protocols that were previously agreed to by the NFL and NFLPA (playersâ union).
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I have no idea why GA is doing so great . Yes we were part of the southern wave, and while we were part of it, there was a high number of deaths to mostly unvaccinated , and mostly in rural parts of the state. But we are still not great with vaccinations, especially outside of the metro atlanta suburbs (rates are better ). I will take it though, as it feels good to know that in my county we are in yellow. I will assume that there will be another wave after the west, midwest, and northeast.
What shocks me the most is Vermont. It is one of the most vaccinated states yet has one of the highest rates of covid and hitting hospitalization peaks. (so it just not cases, but also severe illness).
Google tells me Vermont has roughly 624,000 people. NYT tells me 72% are fully vaccinated. Math tells me 28% are not fully vaccinated â 174,720 arenât vaccinated. NYT tells me VT is currently averaging 315 cases per day. Math tells me itâs a long time before 315 cases per day = 174,720 people (roughly 550 days, or over 1 1/2 years).
Assuming some of the cases are in vaxxed people, it could take even longer, though with asymptomatic cases that donât get noticed or symptomatic ones that donât test to get counted, itâs likely balanced out or could be a somewhat shorter.
The good news is NYT also says VT is now up to 81% with one dose, so some folks are joining the better odds group, whether it be due to mandates or seeing others not fare so well.
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Looking further into NYT data, GA has already had 15,089 known cases per 100,000 people since the beginning of tracking. VT has only had 6,846 per 100,000.
GA has 268/100,000 Covid deaths to date. VT has 62/100,000.
VT is still doing a lot better than GA even if it is catching up due to Covid hitting there now. It has a lot of room to go to even come close to GAâs numbers. With vaxxes, itâs doubtful it will get there.
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For that matter, for those who think FL did just fine since theyâre so low now, if we compare them to CA (as was done earlier):
FL has already had 17,055 known cases per 100,000 people since the beginning of tracking. CA has had 12,607 per 100,000.
FL has 281/100,000 Covid deaths to date. CA has 184/100,000.
Itâs closer, but I doubt CA will catch FL though the vax rates are closer with 62% for CA and 60% for FL. It goes up to 75% with one dose in CA and 70% in FL, so FL is trying to keep their lead I guess.
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For that matter we can pick a lot of combinations of two states and compare cases and deaths up until this point and draw all sorts of conclusions. Many states have fared worse than Florida and many have fared better than California, not that those two states are exactly anymore comparable than any other two. The reality is this virus has run through different areas at different times with slightly differing results. Yes, even the most vaccinated states are seeing increases as waves hit them and itâs not just the unvaccinated getting and spreading covid. Absolutely the vaccine helps but itâs not like it is a perfect shield that protects everyone all the time.
Here is a sample of the states with the highest deaths so far per Capita from covid. The link is to the rest of the data. The reality is vulnerable people, whether older, having other health issues, through genetics, unvaccinated or otherwise just unlucky, etc will still have big issues with covid. Even some fully vaccinated people are dying. In some cases covid just doesnât care what precautions people took, it wins. In the end everyone will be exposed and more will die. Hopefully it doesnât mutate again into an even more contagious and deadlier strain.
Thereâs a whole world out there that is still also going through waves of their own with way fewer vaccinated people than we have. Weâre a long way from the end of this.
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You state, âEven some fully vaccinated people are dying.â But itâs MUCH RARER! Why do people keep stating this as if itâs an argument against vaccination?
âOf nearly 29,000 Texans who died from COVID-related illnesses this year, 85% were not vaccinated and 7% were partially vaccinated, state public health data showed.â So only EIGHT PERCENT of deaths were among people who were fully covered by vaccinations. And thatâs huge considering the fact that the majority of people are vaccinated.
âPut another way: the unvaccinated in Texas were 40 times more likely to die of the disease than those fully vaccinated.â
Just this morning, I talked to a friend who said her unvaccinated brother-in-law is on a ventilator with COVID. He is not that old.
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