you can buy one of those dome umbrellas. which would also force people to distance a bit. (this started as a wise guy comment, but now im thinking i might buy one!
or even better (not as stylish though)
Estonia owes you an apology, I guess I can proxy it to you.
"We" - Aussies and Kiwis managed to get early response right. But not something we should claim undue credit for. We are both isolated islands and with relatively small populations and low international travel >> easy to shut the doors. And both countries politics a damn sight more stable than USA and UK just to mention two examples.It's funny how we have done some things so well, and then shown abject incompetence in such closely related fields.
I have been using the CDC website to track my county.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view
no they don't. they are supposed to just give us health info. i think if they were navigating politics they wouldn't be going out of their way to turn [rural] people off to getting a vaccine. Although i guess in urban areas, the delta rise itself should be encouraging vaccinations. and - in Connecticut- there are more people in the urban areas then all the rural areas. still....the CDC has to navigate state and national politics
Personally, I am concerned about guidance for incoming college students, one of the least vaccinated demographics. I have 70 in one class at the end of the month.
ok, scratch that. they sort of are, but not really..so basically they aren't.Our colleges are requiring vaccinations.
I agree. I suspect political apathy slowed down vaccination logistics because "we" were successful in the first response. Even with the current infection rates in NSW*** - ~200 new cases per day for a population of 8.2 million is low. But we have had many months of either zero or low single digit new cases per day. Also I suspect community preventative standards have been low for the same reason - "apathy" because it has not been seen as a real threat.its all gone bit pear shaped down here the Indian/delta strain going about various states of Australia.
The infected numbers are very low in world comparison but we seem to have a political eradication ideal rather than effective vax control
Im having trouble finding a accurate news page link that give broad brush national Australian perspective report
ok, scratch that. they sort of are, but not really..so basically they aren't.
Looking at the Worldometers table for international Covid data I noticed that recently the reported daily death rate for Russia has been remarkably stable. The last 7 days' figures, in reverse date order, are 788, 785, 789, 792, 794, 799, 798. That gives an average (mean) of 792.1. It will be seen that all data points are within 1 percent of the mean.
I note this as a statistical curiosity. Most other countries show greater short-term variation, often with a marked weekly cycle, perhaps due to delays and catch-ups in reporting deaths, as is well-known in the UK. Even in Russia the stability seems to be a very recent phenomenon, with figures stuck in the range 780 to 799 for the last three weeks (with a few lower figures, like 727 on July 26). Previous data seem to show a weekly cycle like other countries. The recent stability in Russia would be understandable if the daily figures were in fact rolling averages, but the occasional lower figures seem to rule that out. The cynic (or paranoiac) in me wonders if some luckless apparatchik has been told 'don't let the daily figures go over 800', and is making a rather clumsy job of it. But most likely it is just a genuine statistical oddity, like a long run of heads or tails in coin tosses.
Another data point today: 790. Continuing the pattern.'d go with the apparatchik explanation any day
or maybe your mainstream media is just smart enough not to cover it. I havent seen such coverage (on anti-vax) recently, come to think of it, so maybe our media wised up too.We don't appear to have any rabid advocates of either "selfish rights" or "anti-vax" - yes we have both but at this stage no critical mass...
The school took down all signs regarding COVID more than a month ago. We are back to face-to-face, full classes in about three weeks. No distancing. No vaccinations required. We were told we cannot make them wear masks in class or during office hours. I am worried, quite frankly.i was wondering what your school was doing about that. Our colleges are requiring vaccinations.
We sorta have appointments. We got a "window" to show up at the fairgrounds where we waited in line outside and then inside an exhibit hall. Always masked and separated by 6'. That was back in early April. Nowadays if I pick up some poison oak cream at the local (rural) pharmacy they practically beg me to get a vaccine or send someone that needs one.i do have to say, this (below) is ridiculous. there is no way i would stand in that line, that long, with a bunch of unvaccinated people to get a shot.
In America we have appointments, so it's in and out. (and -as long as you have a car- we can choose which vaccine we want)
australia:
ugh. that sucks. maybe it'll change a bit by then. (fingers crossed).The school took down all signs regarding COVID more than a month ago. We are back to face-to-face, full classes in about three weeks. No distancing. No vaccinations required. We were told we cannot make them wear masks in class or during office hours. I am worried, quite frankly.
are you northern California?We sorta have appointments
Yes I am. About 80-90 miles north of Sacramento.are you northern California?
yea if i was still working with little ones or if i was in a public facing job i would too. i dont want spreading it to anyone on my conscious. we have an amazing number of healthcare workers still not getting the vaccine. But i heard Pfizer should be FDA approved soona nd Moderna approved by late August... that might help convince some more to get it.
i got a few people to go in by telling them to just get the first shot, "at least it gives you some protection and most side effects are after the second shot". obviously the cdc doesnt agree with me or they would be putting out that message... but 30% chance at protection, is better than 0%.I'm at a loss to convince them
Article: Known infections among vaccinated and partially vaccinated residents comprise just 0.17% of cases, meaning the vast majority of infections involve people who are not yet immunized.
Article: Mecklenburg Public Health Director Gibbie Harris gave county commissioners an update on the pandemic Wednesday night, reporting that at least 624 people have contracted COVID-19 before completing their vaccine series.
This number is in addition to the 376 “true breakthrough cases” in the county that Mecklenburg officials reported for the first time last week, Harris said. The data is current as of July 26.
....
The full tally of breakthrough infections could be far higher, though.
Due to data reporting problems between the state and county, Mecklenburg officials on Friday acknowledged the 376 figure “does not represent all breakthrough cases.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4094700/Blood injury injection (BII) phobia is a common psychiatric disorder, with an estimated prevalence of 3% to 4% in the general population [1, 2]. While most patients with blood injury phobia will not look for medical assistance and refuse medical appointments because of anxiety symptoms emerging with exposure, do not present to clinics or hospitals, and generally refuse hospital appointments because these things act as a phobic stimulus to them which increase their anxiety. BII phobia is a condition in which people are likely to faint at the sight of blood, the anticipation of physical injury, or the anticipation of an injection, characterized by avoidance behavior and intense, irrational fear in response to seeing blood, injections, injuries, disability, or exposure to these or other similar medical procedures
I'm very happy for you FatPhil, and thank youWow, thanks for sharing @Mauro - I am very slowly pulling myself out of that state, I've had it since forever. When they asked "have you ever passed out after an injection" my honest response was "no, but I've passed out *before* them, vomitted too" - even when being administered to other people. I can't even watch injections on medical TV programs (slasher horror movies, no problem, but one needle and I'm toast). I've been forcing myself to not turn away, it's got easier over time. I know it's irrational, and I know it can be overcome, and I'm a decent part of the way there.
I honestly felt like a big brave 6-year-old after my (single J&J) jab. In some ways it was utterly pathetic, but it's a step forwards. My nurse was excellent, even though, or perhaps because, she treated me like the big brave 6-year-old that I was. I walked away from the surgery with a smile and a warmth within that I was genuinely surpised by.
I honestly felt like a big brave 6-year-old after my (single J&J) jab. In some ways it was utterly pathetic, but it's a step forwards. My nurse was excellent, even though, or perhaps because, she treated me like the big brave 6-year-old that I was
that is extremely useful. I never thought of that.3%-4% of the population
...
ps add: its a super small needle (if you have needle phobia) and i had no blood drops on my bandaid..*not that i had to LOOK at my bandaid on removal, but i had none). it's nothing like the needle you feel when getting blood drawn, and its done in 1/4 of a second. No pressure!!!.... i dont think badly of you for not getting the vax... just sharing.
i consider anyone who has access to a vaccine who won't get one an idiot unless you have other complications which make sense for you to avoid it.
There is no evidence to suggest that vaccinated people can cause variants.well...until one of the infected vaccinated teach the virus how to mutate its spike protein to get around the vaccine. then we're back to square one.
There is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccinations have caused the original coronavirus to mutate. As explained here by the World Health Organization (WHO), when a virus is spreading widely in a population and infecting many people, it is more likely to mutate. “The more opportunities a virus has to spread, the more it replicates – and the more opportunities it has to undergo changes,” the WHO says.
You said,i didnt say the vaccinated cased the original coronavirus to mutate.
No evidence exists to suggest your statement is possible.well...until one of the infected vaccinated teach the virus how to mutate its spike protein to get around the vaccine. then we're back to square one.
You said,
No evidence exists to suggest your statement is possible.
sorry i didn't realize the "lay off antibiotics because it's making antibiotic resistant germs", thing had been debunked. thanks.
Antibiotics deal with bacteria. Viruses operate differently. A common confusion.
Article: Why is drug resistance common and vaccine resistance rare? Drugs and vaccines both impose substantial pressure on pathogen populations to evolve resistance and indeed, drug resistance typically emerges soon after the introduction of a drug. But vaccine resistance has only rarely emerged. Using well-established principles of population genetics and evolutionary ecology, we argue that two key differences between vaccines and drugs explain why vaccines have so far proved more robust against evolution than drugs. First, vaccines tend to work prophylactically while drugs tend to work therapeutically. Second, vaccines tend to induce immune responses against multiple targets on a pathogen while drugs tend to target very few. Consequently, pathogen populations generate less variation for vaccine resistance than they do for drug resistance, and selection has fewer opportunities to act on that variation. When vaccine resistance has evolved, these generalities have been violated. With careful forethought, it may be possible to identify vaccines at risk of failure even before they are introduced.
since you didnt explain why, ill just move on back to the drug vs vaccine issue.
Article: The five main mechanisms by which bacteria exhibit resistance to antibiotics are:
- Drug inactivation or modification: for example, enzymatic deactivation of penicillin G in some penicillin-resistant bacteria through the production of β-lactamases. Most commonly, the protective enzymes produced by the bacterial cell will add an acetyl or phosphate group to a specific site on the antibiotic, which will reduce its ability to bind to the bacterial ribosomes and disrupt protein synthesis.[84]
- Alteration of target- or binding site: for example, alteration of PBP—the binding target site of penicillins—in MRSA and other penicillin-resistant bacteria. Another protective mechanism found among bacterial species is ribosomal protection proteins. These proteins protect the bacterial cell from antibiotics that target the cell's ribosomes to inhibit protein synthesis. The mechanism involves the binding of the ribosomal protection proteins to the ribosomes of the bacterial cell, which in turn changes its conformational shape. This allows the ribosomes to continue synthesizing proteins essential to the cell while preventing antibiotics from binding to the ribosome to inhibit protein synthesis.[85]
- Alteration of metabolic pathway: for example, some sulfonamide-resistant bacteria do not require para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), an important precursor for the synthesis of folic acid and nucleic acids in bacteria inhibited by sulfonamides, instead, like mammalian cells, they turn to using preformed folic acid.[86]
- Reduced drug accumulation: by decreasing drug permeability or increasing active efflux (pumping out) of the drugs across the cell surface[87] These pumps within the cellular membrane of certain bacterial species are used to pump antibiotics out of the cell before they are able to do any damage. They are often activated by a specific substrate associated with an antibiotic,[88] as in fluoroquinolone resistance.[89]
- Ribosome splitting and recycling: for example, drug-mediated stalling of the ribosome by lincomycin and erythromycin unstalled by a heat shock protein found in Listeria monocytogenes, which is a homologue of HflX from other bacteria. Liberation of the ribosome from the drug allows further translation and consequent resistance to the drug.[90]
From what i've been reading, these two bolded reasons that vaccines typically dont produce resistance, don't apply to the covid vaccine that we have now. (i'm not insulting the vaccine, they got us something good and quickly so major major kudos to the producers!)
Article: SARS-CoV-2 variants are not caused by vaccines and numerous Variants of Concern (VOC) were detected prior to mass rollouts of vaccines, despite suggestions to the contrary online.
[..]
“Effectively, we are hearing so much more about viral variants in 2021 because, globally, we now have the systems in place to consistently detect and track mutations,” Grier added.
On May 31, the WHO assigned Variants of Interest (VOI) and VOC to letters of the Greek alphabet to simplify discussion and to curb stigma (here).
“I think the recent change to Greek letter names has made it easier to follow reports about specific variants, but the name changes might have made it seem as if a whole bunch of new variants appeared all at once,” Grier said.
Article: SARS-CoV-2 variants are not caused by vaccines and numerous Variants of Concern (VOC) were detected prior to mass rollouts of vaccines, despite suggestions to the contrary online.
[..]
“Effectively, we are hearing so much more about viral variants in 2021 because, globally, we now have the systems in place to consistently detect and track mutations,” Grier added.
On May 31, the WHO assigned Variants of Interest (VOI) and VOC to letters of the Greek alphabet to simplify discussion and to curb stigma (here).
“I think the recent change to Greek letter names has made it easier to follow reports about specific variants, but the name changes might have made it seem as if a whole bunch of new variants appeared all at once,” Grier said.
Article: Coronavirus transmission among vaccinated people could raise the risk of an even more dangerous variant
The coronavirus could be "just a few mutations potentially away" from evolving into a variant that can evade existing COVID-19 vaccines, CDC director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday.
According to research published Friday in the journal Scientific Reports, vaccinated people — counterintuitively — play a key role in that risk.
The best way to stop coronavirus deaths and severe illness is to roll out vaccines quickly. However, the researchers concluded that the chance a vaccine-resistant strain will emerge is highest in a scenario that combines three conditions: First, a large portion of a population is vaccinated, but not everyone. Second, there's a lot of virus circulating. And third, no measures are in place to curb potential viral transmission from vaccinated people.
Article: Rates of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and vaccination impact the fate of vaccine-resistant strains
Vaccines are thought to be the best available solution for controlling the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. However, the emergence of vaccine-resistant strains may come too rapidly for current vaccine developments to alleviate the health, economic and social consequences of the pandemic. To quantify and characterize the risk of such a scenario, we created a SIR-derived model with initial stochastic dynamics of the vaccine-resistant strain to study the probability of its emergence and establishment. Using parameters realistically resembling SARS-CoV-2 transmission, we model a wave-like pattern of the pandemic and consider the impact of the rate of vaccination and the strength of non-pharmaceutical intervention measures on the probability of emergence of a resistant strain. As expected, we found that a fast rate of vaccination decreases the probability of emergence of a resistant strain. Counterintuitively, when a relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions happened at a time when most individuals of the population have already been vaccinated the probability of emergence of a resistant strain was greatly increased. Consequently, we show that a period of transmission reduction close to the end of the vaccination campaign can substantially reduce the probability of resistant strain establishment. Our results suggest that policymakers and individuals should consider maintaining non-pharmaceutical interventions and transmission-reducing behaviours throughout the entire vaccination period.