Covid-19 News/Discussion

[BobbyPhil1781]

36 minutes ago, theJ said:

[ramssuperbowl99]

15 minutes ago, theJ said:

I'm guessing they'll wait for cases to fall.  But that is good news.

If they weren't in that position, the recent spike in cases week over week should cause everyone to hit the pause button. No reason to panic or anything, but we opened back up a little and got a solid yellow light back.

[BobbyPhil1781]

24 minutes ago, WizeGuy said:

Seems like we're reaching a plateau in hospitalizations + cases are on the rise. It's going to be interesting to see how many of these hospitalizations turn into ICU admissions and then deaths. 

Prior to vaccinations we had a general idea of X amount of hospitalizations= Y amount of ICU admissions =Z amount of deaths

Now with vaccinations we should see that ratio decrease. Still, not out of the woods yet, but hopefully this is COVIDs last jab as many vaccinations are ramping up and many states are opening eligibility to every 16+. 

 

St Paddy's Day!!! Spring Break!! Woooohooo!!!!............................ 

This shouldn't be too much of a surprise but hopefully, like you said, this is the last rise we see.

[vikesfan89]

On 3/28/2021 at 1:14 PM, Xenos said:

I’m okay with it for the time being.

What do you mean by for the time being?  I didn't see anything mentioned about people that recently recovered from Covid getting the green check mark.  Did I just miss that? 

[Xenos]

29 minutes ago, WizeGuy said:

Seems like we're reaching a plateau in hospitalizations + cases are on the rise. It's going to be interesting to see how many of these hospitalizations turn into ICU admissions and then deaths. 

Prior to vaccinations we had a general idea of X amount of hospitalizations= Y amount of ICU admissions =Z amount of deaths

Now with vaccinations we should see that ratio decrease. Still, not out of the woods yet, but hopefully this is COVIDs last jab as many vaccinations are ramping up and many states are opening eligibility to every 16+. 

 

Right now the people being hospitalized are younger. So the death rate won’t be as high. But it still may prove detrimental if it keeps going up.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/03/28/982086058/u-s-is-in-a-race-between-vaccines-and-variants-says-public-health-expert

[Xenos]

5 minutes ago, vikesfan89 said:

What do you mean by for the time being?  I didn't see anything mentioned about people that recently recovered from Covid getting the green check mark.  Did I just miss that? 

Probably because getting vaccinated is better and safer than getting Covid and recovering from it. And yes, you do ask ridiculous questions.

[Xenos]

29 minutes ago, WizeGuy said:

Also, the CDC- for the first time to my knowledge- has said the mRNA vaccines appear to be incredibly effective at preventing infection. 

Two weeks after the first dose they're 80% effective at preventing infection.

They're 90% effective at preventing infection after the second dose. 

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/real-world-study-shows-mrna-vaccines-protect-symptomatic/story?id=76752330

I have to wonder how this will change guidelines going forward. Will the CDC say it's safe for vaccinated individuals to engage in more risky behaviors such as going out to a bar or will they wait for cases to fall before saying that?

But the transmission data is still unclear. You also have to take into account breakthrough infections since most of the population isn’t inoculated yet.

[MWil23]

Warning:

*Unpopular hot take incoming*

Once the vaccination rate and the option of getting vaccinated reaches its full capacity, we need to open back up, period. It's been over a year, everyone will have had the option of whether or not to get vaccinated, and the ability to do so. We can't continue on like this forever (or even much longer IMO).

The education gap is incredible, the children that have been discarded and unaccounted for is over 3 million, and the adolescent depression (22.3% compared to 13.2% diagnosed as clinically depressed). and suicide rate/attempted rate is at an all time high, as high as 67% increase from 2019 in some areas. (Granted, there is also a correlation between screen time/cell phone/social media usage to factor in that's undeniable since 2010. I have had 5 students in the past 12 months die (22 and younger), 3 of which have been self inflicted.)

We have gone from flattening the curve (check)

to

Waiting for the vaccine (check)

to

Making sure that the entire population has the ability to get said vaccine (will be a check by early summer)

to

...what exactly next, aside from the pediatric portion?

It's time to take a step back and look at the impact it's having on people's physical and mental health, marriages, jobs, economy, the education of young people, religious and personal belief system gatherings, etc.

JMHO, said respectfully

[ramssuperbowl99]

1 minute ago, MWil23 said:

Once the vaccination rate and the option of getting vaccinated reaches its full capacity, we need to open back up, period. It's been over a year, everyone will have had the option of whether or not to get vaccinated, and the ability to do so. We can't continue on like this forever (or even much longer IMO).

This isn't an unpopular take. There may be a vocal minority of people who want COVID cases at 0 before stepping outside, but they're a vocal minority.

We've all been tracking this for a year, and now we can see it's a matter of weeks away. Not months, not indefinitely. Weeks. This is the part of the drive where your brain knows you're almost home, so all the sudden you have to pee like crazy.

[MWil23]

Just now, ramssuperbowl99 said:

This isn't an unpopular take. There may be a vocal minority of people who want COVID cases at 0 before stepping outside, but they're a vocal minority.

We've all been tracking this for a year, and now we can see it's a matter of weeks away. Not months, not indefinitely. Weeks. This is the part of the drive where your brain knows you're almost home, so all the sudden you have to pee like crazy.

To me, just seeing people speculate to the contrary, and the irony of those choosing NOT to get vaccinated (that's their right, so fine) holding everyone else hostage is pure ludicrous and instantly triggers me. LOL

[ramssuperbowl99]

1 minute ago, MWil23 said:

To me, just seeing people speculate to the contrary, and the irony of those choosing NOT to get vaccinated (that's their right, so fine) holding everyone else hostage is pure ludicrous and instantly triggers me. LOL

Once vaccinated, it's a lot easier to sit back and laugh at those people.

That's the beauty of vaccine passports or apps, especially private businesses using them to discriminate. 30% of the country decided that because this pandemic required a societal response, they could just troll everyone for a year. If the rest of the country is vaccinated and we can gather safely with a passport (so even people with compromised immune systems can go outside), all that means is the rest of us can default to our standard trolling playbook: ignore them.

[Xenos]

3 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

To me, just seeing people speculate to the contrary, and the irony of those choosing NOT to get vaccinated (that's their right, so fine) holding everyone else hostage is pure ludicrous and instantly triggers me. LOL

It’s not about waiting til hospitals get overrun or the other extreme of having zero cases. It’s about controlling the spread. Ideally we get enough people vaccinated and people that refused get infected so we get that herd immunity to open up again. Obviously things won’t be fully normal for some time like international travel. But things like schools and social/religious gathering should be back.

[vikesfan89]

23 minutes ago, Xenos said:

Probably because getting vaccinated is better and safer than getting Covid and recovering from it. And yes, you do ask ridiculous questions.

Can people in New York get vaccinated right after recovering from Covid?  Not sure if it still is but in Minnesota it used to be a 90 day wait before eligible for the vaccine. Are people more likely to get covid after already having covid compared to getting a vaccine? 

[MWil23]

3 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

Once vaccinated, it's a lot easier to sit back and laugh at those people.

That's the beauty of vaccine passports or apps, especially private businesses using them to discriminate. 30% of the country decided that because this pandemic required a societal response, they could just troll everyone for a year. If the rest of the country is vaccinated and we can gather safely with a passport (so even people with compromised immune systems can go outside), all that means is the rest of us can default to our standard trolling playbook: ignore them.

For someone like me who has already been vaccinated (clearly I've been given priority and it's no one else's fault, this is just projecting forward) and been teaching kids face to face on the frontlines since August, coaching since June, abiding by all of the rules, mandates, etc., it's unbelievably upsetting/frustrating.

3 minutes ago, Xenos said:

It’s not about waiting til hospitals get overrun or the other extreme of having zero cases. It’s about controlling the spread.

That much I understand. It's more about also understanding that this is also very unlikely/if not impossible to ever get to a 0 threshold. 

3 minutes ago, Xenos said:

Ideally we get enough people vaccinated and people that refused get infected so we get that herd immunity to open up again. Obviously things won’t be fully normal for some time like international travel. But things like schools and social/religious gathering should be back.

Schools should have been back everywhere in August. I'm adamant about this. It's worked where I am (albeit we had to go remote twice due to cases/quarantines) and will continue to work if done properly with masks, cleaning, etc. There's ZERO excuse for any other state or district not to have complied. We gave our parents the online option, and 1/4 of them K-12 took that option, which I also fully support!  

[WizeGuy]

30 minutes ago, Xenos said:

But the transmission data is still unclear. You also have to take into account breakthrough infections since most of the population isn’t inoculated yet.

If someone isn't able to be infected then transmission is dramatically cut down. COVID seems to be largely an aerial virus, so if the vast majority of those vaccinated aren't exhaling or spitting the virus out, then we're in really good shape. The only way for a strong majority of the vaccinated to transmit the virus then is through surface contact, which, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong- doesn't seem to be a major contributor to spread. 

Also, it's important to note- that even those that may catch the virus should have a reduced viral load compared to those that are not vaccinated, which should also mitigate spread. 

I'd like to hear from @Shanedorf @ramssuperbowl99 on this one, though. It seems the vaccines dramatically reduce transmission. 

Edited March 30, 2021 by WizeGuy