“CDC updated their data and, on a national level, the relationship couldn’t be more clear: In December, compared to fully vaccinated persons, the monthly rates of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations were 16 times higher in unvaccinated adults.
Deaths have increased 41% in the past 2 weeks. For the first time since February 2021, we reported 3,896 COVID19 deaths in the United States. This made last Friday the 10th deadliest day of the whole pandemic and the deadliest since vaccines were widely available to Americans. We are losing more Americans each day to COVID19 than we did during 9/11. And the biggest tragedy is that COVID19 death is preventable— vaccines reduce the risk of dying by 68 times. Omicron may be milder compared to Delta, but it’s not mild.”
Source: Katelyn Jetelina, a PhD epidemiologist and the wife of an evangelical Christian pastor. She digs deep into statistics and always writes thoughtful explanations.
The problem likely wasn’t whether you were infected, but the consequences of you being infected. Aside from drinking raw milk, you can contract TB by being exposed to an infected person for a decent amount of time, or if they handle your food, etc. So if you were one of the rare cases of people with TB, you could pass it on to many kids.
BTW, My wife contracted TB in the USSR in the 1970s, before she was old enough to be vaccinated. She was treated, and cured, but it was still common enough in the 1970s that a kid in a highly developed area of the USSR could still be infected, and vaccinations in the USSR were mandatory - no “faith” based weaseling out, and home schooling like anti-vaxxers do here was not an option. So you never know where you can pick it up.
My mom was very sick with TB when she was a teenager, before a vaccine was available (northern Europe). She missed about six months of school. No one else in her family, school or community was infected and they could not figure out where she picked it up. She frequently had to have chest X-rays as an adult in her professional life, as she was a child psychologist working in health care. It’s a tough one.
Your mom was tough - TB as a teen. TB incubation can take up to 12 weeks, meaning that tracking the source can be very difficult. My wife was lucky in getting it very young, since she was left with no scars on her lungs (at least by the age of 24 - she still had some scarring at 15). She was also lucky in getting it after the discovery of penicillin, so it could be cured entirely.
If some no longer perceive TB as a threat, it is because the vigilant and continuing efforts to address the threat have been somewhat (but not completely) successful (in part of the World.) Not hard to see a parallel regarding attitudes toward covid.
I live in Ohio and have been watching the Covid numbers since the beginning. Recently like most other states we have had a huge spike due to Omicron. Miraculously lately the spike has supposedly reversed. We went from adding 20k new cases daily to today we are at just over 4100. Good news? I don’t think so. I think the home tests have made it impossible for the government to report any kind of accurate Covid figures. I have been Covid free since the beginning. I have been vaccinated and boostered. Well it finally got me. Mild case, no worse than a mild cold. How did I find out? The home test. 7 other people also discovered they have Covid and also found out via the home test. Unfortunately the one unvaccinated person is pretty sick at the moment. I write this to say that beginning with the distribution of the home tests I don’t think we will ever have any kind of accurate statistics on the number of positive Covid cases again. The most meaningful data will be the ICU visits, hospitalizations and unfortunately deaths. There will be no more tracing except the impromptu tracing that we might do after we catch it. Just an observation.
I agree, but I think for the most part home tests will be for mild cases. People will follow up with PCR tests if they get really sick. But hospitalization and death rates are going to be more useful from here going forward.
Even before, there was some unreliability in knowing how many people actually had COVID-19. Some asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic people may not have realized that they had it. Some people who had various symptoms may believe that they had it but really did not (since some symptoms could occur with other diseases like flu or colds).
PA’s hospitalization numbers are on a downward trend. Our local deaths are increasing now, but that matches local numbers skyrocketing a few weeks ago.
I just watched The Gilded Age….no I’m not posting in the wrong thread……and wow there were 14 people credited in COVID related positions……”COVID Compliance Manager” “COVID set. Manager” COVID testing Officer” Many assistants etc… fascinating.
More prayer requests have come in lately regarding people I know are unvaxxed. Besides praying, I don’t know whether to scream, “Why???” or just shed a tear.
I’ve run out of sympathy cards on hand here at home this week. Only one hasn’t been Covid related.
I have noticed a big uptick in the obituary section of our local paper. No one says that their dear one has died of covid but it sure seems like a lot people in their 50-70’s are dying.
The pandemic has not been great for all aspects of health care. Many neglected routine check ups and when people do come in, they are much sicker on average than before the pandemic happened.
We also have to remember what a toll this has done in our mental health.
So yes there are so many dying of Covid. But also of heart disease that was not looked after. Cancers that were ignored. People aren’t going to the hospital for normal issues, the hospital is bogged down with Covid patients. Surgeries were postponed.
I think our health will be adversely affected in so many other ways because of this pandemic over and above just this virus.
I see the same thing. A lot of 50s and 60s, a lot of Dennises, Marks, Kevins, Dales, Pattys. It’s endlessly sad. Occasionally you get “unexpectedly” or “after a brief illness” but no one wants to say what that brief illness was.
Unsurprisingly, D texts me tonight and says her close friend’s tested positive and is moving into isolation; she and three other girls have been a tight-knit bunch not socializing much with anyone else, masking, using a HEPA filter in the room, but that means little right now on a campus with essentially no mitigation in place. They all ate together in the girl’s room yesterday, and the girl tested positive today by LFT, so I’ve told her to assume she and her roommate caught it, and to sit out classes tomorrow, report the contact, and skip her run. They’ll test on Friday. Who even knows if there’ll be isolation rooms left by then – they’ve been filling up fast.
At least all the girls are 3x vaxxed. The hospital’s completely full, so many children under 18 in there with covid now, too. Nobody around here wants to talk about that, either.