Vaccines and Therapeutics 2.0 & 3.0 Merge

[Res Ipsa]

And the death rate is way, way down.

I can confirm that this is consistent in rural and urban hospitals in my area as well. The union labor is pissed as hell, but they are not dying. They are not dealing with as much death either.

Somehow I doubt that the anger of health care workers has anything to do with unionization. Cute attempt at well poisoning, though. If I'd had my ass on the line in an ICU or ER over the last 18th months, I'd be pissed at people who prolonged the suffering and death by turning simple public health measures into political pissing contests.

[Res Ipsa]

Somehow I doubt that the anger of health care workers has anything to do with unionization. Cute attempt at well poisoning, though. If I'd had my ass on the line in an ICU or ER over the last 18th months, I'd be pissed at people who prolonged the suffering and death by turning simple public health measures into political pissing contests.

Shut up Res. I am the most pro union person on this board you jackass. I used the Union designation to include the maintenance, cleaning, nursing and security staff that do not have the same seat at the table as some of white collar people. Take your assumptions and assertions and eat crap.

My apologies.

[Chap]

[...]

ETA: Just to clarify (reiterate?), basic dual layer cloth masks, and cheap disposable "surgical" masks that can currently be bought in most stores are effective and preventing transmission.

That's am important point, and I'm glad you stopped by to make it.

Wearing masks, even the kind you can buy in stores or pharmacies, is an effective means of making it less likely that you will infect others (remember you can be carrying the virus without having any symptoms yourself). People who wear masks when sharing enclosed space with others have a desirable combination of being smart and kind.

[canpakes]

People who wear masks when sharing enclosed space with others …

Having just gone through the last year of watching elementary school kids put masks on, then do lessons and learn, participate, run around and have fun - with nary a tantrum - I have to conclude that most kids seem to be better at ‘adulting’ than many adults, when it comes to masks.

[Jersey Girl]

AND JUST LIKE THAT, THE DOORS SUDDENLY FLING OPEN!!!! GOD BLESS US ONE AND ALL!!!


England relaxes travel restrictions for vaccinated Americans, who will no longer have to quarantine
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/n ... 399072001/

[Chap]

The UK has achieved a high rate of vaccination and of vaccine acceptance. This has enabled the gathering of reliable statistics on the effects of vaccination in reducing the risks of viral infection, and of serious illness if a vaccinated person is one of the relatively few who do suffer a symptomatic infection:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights: Vaccines
21 July 2021

Two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are estimated to be 96% and 92% effective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant, respectively

Vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic cases with the Delta variant is estimated to be 88% after both doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and 67% after both doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
Two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are estimated to be 96% effective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant (94% after one dose) compared with 95% with the Alpha variant.
Two doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are estimated to be 92% effective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant (71% after one dose) compared with 86% with the Alpha variant.

A large majority of the adult population have had two doses of vaccine:

88.3%
1st dose
71.1%
2nd dose

An interesting situation will eventually occur: in due course, the fully vaccinated will make up pretty well 100% of the adult population of the UK. Once that happens, there will be hardly any unvaccinated people around to catch the virus, and as a result pretty well all the adults who get sick with COVID will turn out to have been vaccinated.

That will of course prove that the whole vaccination project was a complete waste of time and money.

Or will it?

[Chap]

I apologise for having submitted the post below in a form that may have caused confusion.

I have now modalised the bolded portion so as to make my intentions clearer.

The UK has achieved a high rate of vaccination and of vaccine acceptance. This has enabled the gathering of reliable statistics on the effects of vaccination in reducing the risks of viral infection, and of serious illness if a vaccinated person is one of the relatively few who do suffer a symptomatic infection:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights: Vaccines
21 July 2021

Two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are estimated to be 96% and 92% effective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant, respectively

Vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic cases with the Delta variant is estimated to be 88% after both doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and 67% after both doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
Two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are estimated to be 96% effective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant (94% after one dose) compared with 95% with the Alpha variant.
Two doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are estimated to be 92% effective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant (71% after one dose) compared with 86% with the Alpha variant.

A large majority of the adult population have had two doses of vaccine:

88.3%
1st dose
71.1%
2nd dose

[Heavy Irony Warning!]An interesting situation will eventually occur: in due course, the fully vaccinated will make up pretty well 100% of the adult population of the UK. Once that happens, there will be hardly any unvaccinated people around to catch the virus, and as a result pretty well all the adults who get sick with COVID will turn out to have been vaccinated.

That will of course prove that the whole vaccination project was a complete waste of time and money.

Or will it?[/Heavy Irony Warning!]

[Chap]

... if everyone is vaccinated then nobody can get the virus from an unvaccinated person.

Yup. Please recall that even a high efficacy vaccine will let some of the fully vaccinated be infected by the virus, even if the proportion of people who do is much lower than amongst the unvaccinated.

And even a few fully vaccinated people will develop a symptomatic case after being in contact with such a carrier.

Remember this part of my post?

Vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic cases with the Delta variant is estimated to be 88% after both doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and 67% after both doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
Two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are estimated to be 96% effective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant (94% after one dose) compared with 95% with the Alpha variant.
Two doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are estimated to be 92% effective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant (71% after one dose) compared with 86% with the Alpha variant.

None of those figures are 100%. But if you are vaccinated your chances of:

(a) carrying the virus.

(b) Developing a symptomatic case of COVID.

(c) Suffering symptoms of COVID requiring hospitalisation.

(d) Dying of COVID

Are all hugely less than if you were unvaccinated. And the 'hugely less-ness' increases as you go down the list.

[Doctor Steuss]

The Las Vegas valley is currently seeing a spike that trends about with the spike in June of last year. Nowhere near as sharp of a spike as Nov-Dec, but it’s enough that Nevada has re-implemented a partial mask mandate.

If I had to wager an unprofessional guess, I would say it's because it's hot as crap, instead of because of one of the new variants. When it's miserable outside, everyone tends to hunker down inside -- often taking advantage of the A/C of public spaces during the day when electricity premium rates are active.

MGM resorts has just taken an interesting (and by “interesting,” I mean that I’m having a hard time processing how I feel about it) approach to their employees and the vaccine. Unvaccinated employees are now required to personally pay for onsite COVID testing.


ETA: It appears the indoor mask mandate for all individuals is going back into effect tomorrow.

[Chap]

The Las Vegas valley is currently seeing a spike that trends about with the spike in June of last year. Nowhere near as sharp of a spike as Nov-Dec, but it’s enough that Nevada has re-implemented a partial mask mandate.

The UK has had the strange experience of seeing detected cases of people testing positive for COVD fall markedly for several days, and then start rising again. There is no agreement as yet as to why this has occurred: some suggest that there was a real reduction due to very widespread vaccination making it more difficult for the virus to spread (which is likely), followed by the delayed effect of recent loosening of restrictions leading to a rise in infections. Some suggest that the effect may have been due to people simply avoiding being tested for a while. Hospitalisations have however continued to rise, which is agree to be the effect of the much greater infectiveness of the now very widespread delta variant in the UK. Coming to a theatre near you soon ...

See:
UK Covid cases rise for second day running amid drop in testing
Experts warn against drawing conclusions from fluctuations as 31,117 daily infections reported