Oh, kelsmom, this is so sad! So the residents affected refused immunization? And to me, it is difficult to fathom the staff apparently refusing to do so, after losing so many patients in these facilities. Surely the state body that oversees long term care facilities will come down on this place. Has your husband considered moving his mother elsewhere?
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Maybe my wording was confusing. The state has a low vaccination percentage, not the facility. Actually, at least some of those who got Covid were fully vaccinated (maybe all - MIL said she thought it was mandatory). We are extremely pleased with the facility, and we don’t believe that they are to be faulted. It is in a state with among the smallest vaccination rates, and I would be treading into political territory if I made comments about the families of the residents (including one of H’s family members). The vaccine doesn’t guarantee that a vaccinated person will not get Covid. As long as Covid is out there, people can be infected. If unvaccinated family and friends visit, residents run the risk of getting the virus. This facility is handling it well, as they handled an outbreak very early in the Covid situation last year. They aren’t sweeping anything under the rug, and they are working to determine next steps in re-reopening to outside visitors. This is a cautionary tale of what can happen even if someone is vaccinated.
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I keep seeing herd immunity in the United States. What about the world? The United States is not an island into itself. In fact it’s probably one of the most porous nations. We haven’t stopped people from entering the country via many ways (planes, ships, automobile, foot) and probably won’t in the future. Even if we implement only entry with a vaccine “passport” there will presumably still be people entering that could carry variants with them.
Yes, we should strive for herd immunity here but without stopping this at every corner of the world what’s to stop a variant from popping up and eventually making it’s way here? Unfortunately this is a global pandemic.
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Very true.
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Elderly people with medical conditions that tend to result in needing nursing home care are also more likely than the general population to have weak immune responses to vaccination, so they may be more vulnerable to breakthrough infections than the general population. They are still better off being vaccinated, due to weak immune responses being even more of a problem if they get infected without vaccination.
I absolutely agree. The vaccine, along with better treatment for those who contract Covid, will hopefully lead to better outcomes than what were experienced a year ago.
It’s just that I think it’s really important for people to realize that as long as we don’t have true herd immunity, they need to be careful interacting with vulnerable people … even if those people are vaccinated. In particular, those who choose not to get vaccinated should realize that it’s possible for them infect someone who is vaccinated, and they should take precautions accordingly.
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Unfortunately, the selfish non-vaxxers (and even some of the vaxxers) do NOT care about other people. These are the ones who proclaim, “Let the vulnerable just stay home.” That’s the way it is around here. Unfortunately, I live in the area of my state with the greatest vaccine hesitancy, apparently. I hope it is different elsewhere!
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Unfortunately it’s that way here too. I’ve often heard, “It only affects old people,” and “They were going to die anyway.” The nastiest one was, “It’s nature’s way of culling - survival of the fittest.”
The same folks had a conversation talking about how much money it would save social security and medicare.
Karma will get them someday if they live long enough to be old.
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The irony and lack of critical thinking is staggering. Darwinism works both ways.
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I’ve wondered how it’s going to play out in the future. Our state has 40+% fully vaccinated now according to the news. Our area only has 23% and that area includes some small cities. The news also listed those most likely not to get vaxed and rural/republican/conservative topped the list. It all matches.
Our church has had some prominent people get it (bad) lately. I’m hoping that might inspire some when they actually see it in action in its bad form. Perhaps seeing is believing?
That is pretty common (for any subject regarding chances or risk). For many people, personal anecdotes override data regarding risk, even if their personal anecdotes are unrepresentative or misinterpreted.
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If you know someone who is vaccine reluctant but open to receiving information, here is a good article discussing how the vaccine was able to be developed “so quickly.” It might give comfort to someone on the fence.
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It’s intriguing, of all the pandemic movies I’ve watched, I’ve never seen politics be as much as an influencing force in the movies than it turns out to be in real life.
I can’t say too much without going down a bad road, but it is bizarre to me, both the people in blue cities who are vaccine enthusiastic, but double mask outdoors bike riding and the red cities who meet up, unmasked and unvaxxed. Each ‘side’ seems more focused on winning some theoretical point- “look at me, I am not a sheeple with a mask & shot” vs. “look at me, I am better than everyone else, I am vaxxed and masked.” (Talking about the extreme on each side seems fair) It’s practically like little kids sticking out their tongues at each other. Nope, I am a naif, I would not have expected things to unfold this way.
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It would have never occurred to me that politics would be so involved in a pandemic either. Truth is stranger than fiction I suppose.
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I am fully vaxxed and I mask when appropriate. I do it to protect myself and others from a potentially serious or fatal disease. NOT because I think “I’m better than someone else”.
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Normally, it is not the conservative or ‘red’ cities/states that are anti-vacs. States like Mississippi and Florida have the most compliance with MMR, DTap, and other vaccines for the Kindergarten crowd and places like Marin County California and Boulder Colorado have the most opting out. In Florida, it was not an option to opt out - if you want to go to school, day care, play in rec sports, you get vaccinated. If both California and Colorado, I could just opt out of getting my kids vaccinated if I wanted to by signing the form, NBD.
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CA no longer allows one to opt out of traditional childhood vaccines before starting school; religious objections were eliminated. The only exemptions are for medical reasons and doctors must provide their license number for every exemption they approve so the state can track the doc. If a doctor approves ‘too many’ the state will investigate.
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State vaccination rules per the CDC:
https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/publications/topic/vaccinations.html
To me this is what one should be doing until everyone who wants a vax is fully vaccinated. It’s not the extreme end. The extreme end is being all out on a trail or at the beach by themselves and still masked.
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@Creekland I don’t mask if I am outside by myself. But if I did, who would I hurt?
A person who does not follow mask guidelines can potentially infect someone else. A person who refuses to vaccinate is one more person who prevents “herd immunity”.
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