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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, Aug. 10-11

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, Aug. 10-11

by Anne Laurie|  August 11, 20216:14 am| 134 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19, Foreign Affairs

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Hospitals in the United States are filling up rapidly as the Delta variant sends COVID-19 cases surging to a six-month high, with the U.S. averaging 100,000 cases for three days in a row https://t.co/QBPcIDJNdf pic.twitter.com/54K2XYlo8x

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 10, 2021


Just gonna keep kicking this out there until people stop saying being unvaccinated only hurts the unvaccinated. https://t.co/qapgwMUpjc

— Daniel Summers, MD (@WFKARS) August 10, 2021

GOP Death Cultists:

Pretty safe for Ted since nobody except Rand Paul will come within 10 feet of him anyway. Ted Cruz calls for ‘zero’ coronavirus mandates. https://t.co/LlPOBHwxPw

— MinneapolisCask (@MinneapolisCask) August 10, 2021

… The United States reported nearly 160,000 cases on Monday, pushing the seven-day average to almost 115,000 daily, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. It was the most severe day for new cases in the country since Jan. 29, when coronavirus vaccines were not widely available. Hospitalizations are also up to nearly 70,000 as businesses and schools grapple with mandates for vaccinations and masks during the fourth wave of the pandemic.

But Cruz told Fox News host Sean Hannity that no health regulations are needed to help curb a nationwide surge fueled by the highly transmissible delta variant and the millions who remain unvaccinated.

“There should be no mandates — zero — concerning covid,” Cruz said. “That means no mask mandates, regardless of your vaccination status. That means no vaccine mandates. That means no vaccine passports.”…

Cruz joined Paul in denouncing mandates amid the resurgence in cases and hospitalizations. The senator from Kentucky — who has fashioned himself as the Senate’s chief skeptic of Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious-disease doctor — released a video Sunday that urged people to resist the regulations implemented by health experts and elected officials to help prevent the spread of the deadly delta variant.

“It’s time for us to resist. They can’t arrest all of us,” Paul said. “They can’t keep all of your kids home from school. They can’t keep every government building closed, although I’ve got a long list of ones they might keep closed or ought to keep closed.”…

======

China is keeping its guard up as its latest surge of COVID-19 cases entered its fourth week, with calls from officials to close containment loopholes unlikely to see cities easing strict virus control measures https://t.co/8jf6jYgXWy pic.twitter.com/btIeT80gU6

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2021

China reports 111 new coronavirus cases vs 143 a day earlier https://t.co/QaZjjmQXFn pic.twitter.com/8rtaztdglb

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2021

India reports 38,353 new COVID-19 infections https://t.co/1y76l1uXrj pic.twitter.com/Gki2Dh4jV7

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2021

India approves J&J's single-shot Covid vaccine for emergency use. The nation of 1.3 billion has administered 500 million vaccine doses so far, but barely 8% of the population has had 2 shots https://t.co/knlwGscPTR pic.twitter.com/Br71QNKhJg

— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 10, 2021

Covid-19: Fears over sharp rise in diabetes in India https://t.co/tpf7thsZUi

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 10, 2021

South Korea's daily COVID-19 cases top 2,200, hit record https://t.co/7Oa6HbhT4A pic.twitter.com/KLKfI2pgzq

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2021

Australia's second-biggest city Melbourne will stay locked down for a second week after reporting 20 new COVID-19 cases as it struggles to stamp out infections caused by the highly infectious Delta variant of the pandemic https://t.co/T3nM2pSpZP

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2021

Olympic body lambasts 'cruel' 28-day quarantine for athletes returning to South Australia https://t.co/PaPu0ADcBw pic.twitter.com/4W9KZTsVCA

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2021

Iranians are suffering through their country's worst surge in the coronavirus pandemic yet, and anger is growing at images of vaccinated Westerners without face masks on the internet or on TV while they remain unable to get the shots. By @jongambrellAP https://t.co/4WvRSCHJrv

— AP Middle East (@APMiddleEast) August 11, 2021

What Israel is showing is that a stubbborn core of #COVID19 #vaccine refuseniks (there, the UltraOrthodox) can foster constant spread of virus + variants, so that waning efficacy of 2-dose vax in some ppl is overwhelmed, requiring 3rd dose. https://t.co/tOpeuOlJYl

— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 10, 2021

Russia on Wednesday reported 21,571 new coronavirus cases and 799 deaths — a joint record high number of fatalities in a single dayhttps://t.co/TD7ky7wQ7l

— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) August 11, 2021

Russia's Sputnik V shot around 83% effective against Delta variant, health minister says https://t.co/wKXsv06UKD pic.twitter.com/QG20XAg8jz

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2021

Facebook has shut down an attempt, run by a British-registered marketing agency operating out of Russia, to dupe social media influencers into spreading anti-Pfizer vaccine hoaxeshttps://t.co/aFOgKyniSG

— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) August 10, 2021

So much for ‘post-pandemic’ travel. E.U. weighs restrictions on American tourists, while U.S. says avoid Europe https://t.co/Ilq0X62Css

— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 10, 2021

Angela Merkel to the unvaccinated: If you're eligible for vaccination and choose not to get a shot, then you can't go to restaurants, the movies or the gym unless you show evidence of a negative Covid test. And, you have to pay for that yourself. https://t.co/Rf3gSAMGmZ

— Simon Just ? (@Just1921) August 10, 2021

Britain reported 146 new deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test on Tuesday, the highest daily total since March 12, as the impact of last month's surge in cases fed through into fatalities, government data showed https://t.co/XUPy45hEEz

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2021

Booster shots for COVID-19 vaccines are not currently needed and the doses should be given to other countries, Oxford vaccine chief Andrew Pollard said in contrast to the position taken by Britain's health minister https://t.co/EOIakxDiTb

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2021

Mexico reports 19,555 new coronavirus cases, 786 more deaths https://t.co/hZarIXjYp7 pic.twitter.com/MplXi1Xpjy

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2021

======

Vaccine maker Novavax says it's asking regulators in India, Indonesia & the Philippines to allow emergency use of its Covid vaccine—offering its shot to low-income countries before rich ones, which have ample supplies. The vax is a 2-dose shot https://t.co/Wah4nve2ed pic.twitter.com/djb0eoeD1f

— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 10, 2021

It's becoming clear that if we want #Covid vaccines to block spread of the virus, we'll probably need nasally administered vaccines. Is that doable? Should that be a goal when the current vaccines are doing such a great job protecting lungs? I explore. https://t.co/DydEQFDhmn

— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) August 10, 2021

More than 13 million Americans have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, some of whom now question how well it will protect them against the delta variant. w/@lateshiabeachum & @marisa_iati https://t.co/H717dOHVrk

— Lindsey Bever (@lindseybever) August 10, 2021

… A trial out of South Africa has caught the attention of people, particularly infectious-disease experts, with regard to the effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine against the delta variant.

The Sisonke trial looked at the effectiveness of the single-dose shot in South Africa’s front-line health-care workers.

Linda Gail-Bekker, one of the researchers for the trial, said the vaccine was found to be to be up to 95 percent effective in preventing delta variant-caused death and up to 71 percent effective in averting hospitalizations.

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that the preliminary results add to the body of evidence that confirms its efficacy in averting death and severe illness.

“A single-shot vaccine that provides protection and prevents hospitalization and death is an important tool in the global fight against covid-19,” the company said. “Evidence from our Phase 3 ENSEMBLE study demonstrates the efficacy of the J&J single-shot [coronavirus] vaccine, including against viral variants that are highly prevalent. Regardless of race and ethnicity, age, geographic location and comorbidities, these results remain consistent.”

The company also pointed out a double-blind study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed its vaccine gave antibody and T-cell immune response protection against the coronavirus. The defense lasted up to eight months after immunization…

“More than 115K healthcare workers have died due to #Covid19 …they represent a loss of over 1 M years of education, $4.5 B in training, and a blow to a sector facing personnel shortages estimated to reach 18M people by 2030” @VBKerry @Seed_Global https://t.co/9YR3kAJ2NQ

— Women In Global Health (@womeninGH) August 10, 2021

======

Black and Hispanic people experienced a slightly larger increase in vaccination rates compared to White and Asian people over the past two weeks (7/19 to 8/2), however gaps in vaccination rates are persisting for Black and Hispanic people. https://t.co/5orgWWkFeD pic.twitter.com/mdFZGGVIqt

— KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) (@KFF) August 10, 2021

The escalating surge in COVID-19 infections across the U.S. has caused a shortage of nurses and other front-line staff in virus hotspots. Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana have more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic. https://t.co/L5KcNzuKvk

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 10, 2021

That gray is, I assume, "No data" and not "Magically low number", which is why it's useful to include the key when you share a choropleth. So, less "we're simply lying" and more some genius GOP rule like "Let's just not bother to collect data from rural counties, that'll work". https://t.co/PUp2zcveEH

— Kieran Healy (@kjhealy) August 10, 2021

They're not reporting no cases, just not reporting numbers at all: https://t.co/9tqRpt0iE8

— Julia Wolfe (@juruwolfe) August 9, 2021

Also JFC, Louisiana, all of your problems are the source of all your other problems in a self-perpetuating loop.

— Laurie Voss (@seldo) August 9, 2021

#DeltaVariant: A Texas hospital system is preparing massive tents to deal with the rapid surge in Covid patients. Harris Health System in Houston is reporting that 1 in 4 patients at its 2 hospitals have tested positive for Covid https://t.co/GF4PeWUwMe

— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 10, 2021

Amazon loses bid to stop New York from probing COVID-19 standards https://t.co/D2dqvqfspN pic.twitter.com/XivazZnq6K

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2021

Leading Republicans are raising money on Facebook by blaming migrants for the covid surge in the Southern U.S.

Last year Facebook said similar claims amounted to hate speech.https://t.co/Xh71BeB0uM

— Isaac Stanley-Becker (@isaacstanbecker) August 10, 2021

they gave me a spongebob bandaid and a lollipop and mom said we can stop at mcdonalds

— kilgore trout, terminal hiccups patient (@KT_So_It_Goes) August 11, 2021

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Reader Interactions

134Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    August 11, 2021 at 6:17 am

    Monroe County, NY web site says 93 new cases on 8/10, 4.2% test positivity.

    The NYS Dept of Health web site says 121 new cases in Monroe County on 8/10.

  2. 2.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 6:19 am

    Ms Delta Rona is not playing?

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 6:20 am

    When we begin to see the morgue freezer trucks???

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 6:21 am

    So, unvaxxed religious azzholes are at the root of Israel’s new spike in cases.???

  5. 5.

    YY_Sima Qian

    August 11, 2021 at 6:24 am

    On 8/10 China reported 83 new domestic confirmed cases (15 previously asymptomatic) & 7 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Yunnan Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (both mild). 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 51 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases there. 1 community at Ruili remains at High Risk. 3 site at Ruili & 1 village at Longchuan County remain at Medium Risk.

    Jiangsu Province reported 54 new domestic confirmed cases. 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There are currently 666 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Nanjing did not report any new domestic positive cases. 3 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 204 domestic confirmed (47 mild & 157 moderate) cases in the city. The Lukou Sub-District remains at High Risk. 18 sites are curently at Medium Risk.
    • Yangzhou reported 54 new domestic confirmed cases (13 mild, 41 moderate). 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. Of the 48 domestic confirmed cases reported on 8/9, 38 are traced close contacts (but only 32 of whom were already under centralized quarantine), & 10 were identified via mass screening or at fever clinic (though all have been staying home since 8/1). There currently are 447 domestic confirmed (73 mild, 339 moderate, 23 serious & 12 critical) cases in the city. 2 sites are currently at High Risk & 92 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Huai’an there currently are 12 confirmed cases in the city, all members of the group that had gone to Zhangjiajie. 10 sites remain at Medium Risk.
    • At Suqian, there currently are 3 domestic confirmed cases (all moderate) there, 2 of whom are traced to the outbreak in Nanjing. A dormitory remains at Medium Risk.
    • At Wuxi, there currently is 1 domestic asymptomatic case in the city, a person involved in processing incoming visitors/returnees from overseas & not connected to the Delta Variant outbreak from Nanjing.

     

    Hunan Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases. There are currently are 96 domestic confirmed (including 3 serious) & 18 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • At Changde there currently are 3 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all had ridden on the super-spreading boat cruise.
    • At Xiangtan there currently are 2 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all having been on the super-spreading boat cruise at Changde on 7/24. 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.
    • At Changsha there currently are 2 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, 2 had ridden on the super-spreading boat cruise at Changde on 7/24 & 3 from transmission chains related to 2 of the domestic confirmed cases reported by Beijing. 3 sites remain at Medium Risk.
    • At Yiyang there currently are 3 domestic confirmed & 5 domestic asymptomatic case in the city, all traced close contact of domestic confirmed cases reported by Beijing. 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.
    • At Zhuzhou there currently are 29 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, 7 had gone on the super spreading cruise & rest are their close contacts. 7 sites remain at Medium Risk.
    • Zhangjiajie reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases, 3 are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 8/6 & 2 were found via mass screening on 8/8. There currently are 58 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 2 areas & 1 community remain at High Risk. 11 sub-districts remain at Medium Risk.
    • At Xiangxi Prefecture there currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases in the city, both close contacts of the party from Huai’an. 1 village & 1 residential compound remain at Medium Risk.

     

    Henan Province reported 7 new domestic confirmed (6 previously asymptomatic) & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There are currently 134 domestic confirmed & 12 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Zhengzhou reported 6 new domestic confirmed (5 previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic case. Both new domestic positive cases are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. The currently are 122 domestic confirmed & 10 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, the vast majority of whom are staff, patients & caretakers at the #6 Hospital, & their close contacts. 1 sub-district remains at High Risk. 28 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Shangqiu, there currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases in the city, both connected to the nosocomial outbreak at Zhengzhou. 2 residential compounds, 1 community & a shopping mall remain at Medium Risk.
    • Zhumadian reported 1 new domestic confirmed (previously asymptomatic) case. There currently are 3 domestic confirmed cases in the city, 2 connected to the nosocomial outbreak at Zhengzhou & 1 w/ there outbreak in Wuhan. 5 villages remain at High Risk. 6 sites remain at Medium Risk.
    • Kaifeng reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, found via mass screening. There currently are 6 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases, all connected to the nosocomial outbreak at Zhengzhou. 7 villages remain at High Risk. 1 township remains at Medium Risk.
    • At Anyang there is 1 domestic asymptomatic case, a person who had visited #6 Hospital in Zhengzhou on 7/28.
    • At Xuchang there is 1 domestic confirmed case, who was discharged from the #6 Hospital in Zhengzhou on 7/22.

     

    Hubei Province reported 14 new domestic confirmed (8 previously asymptomatic) & 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 69 domestic confirmed & 60 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Huanggang reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases (all previously asymptomatic). There currently are 5 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, 4 connected to the group from Huai’an in Jiangsu Province on company outing & 4 to the secondary outbreak at construction site in Wuhan. 2 township are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Jingzhou, there currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases in the city, both connected to the group on company outing from Huai’an in Jiangsu Province. 1 area remains at Medium Risk.
    • Jingmen reported 7 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic) & 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There are currently 25 domestic confirmed & 13 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all connected to 4 individuals that returned from Wuhan on 7/31 (having worked at the construction site w/ the outbreak there). 1 township has been elevated to Medium Risk. 1 sub-district & 1 township are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Wuhan reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases, all traced close contacts (2 already under centralized quarantine since 8/2, 1 found via mass screening on 8/8 having last tested negative on 8/4). There currently are 36 domestic confirmed & 40 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all but 1 traceable to transmission chains sparked by 2 separate cases that were at Jingzhou high speed rail station on 7/27 as the party from Huai’an. 3 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Ezhou reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (previously asymptomatic). There currently are 1 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases, all connected to the construction site outbreak at Wuhan.
    • At Xianning there currently is 1 domestic asymptomatic case, connected to the construction site outbreak at Wuhan, already under centralized quarantine since 8/3.

     

    Beijing Municipality reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case (previously asymptomatic, mild). There currently are 9 domestic confirmed cases in the city, all connected to the outbreak at Zhangjiajie in late Jul. 2 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.

    At Hulun Buir in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region there currently is 1 new domestic confirmed case (at Hailar), who had stayed at the same floor in same hotel at the same time as the confirmed case reported by Yinchuan. 1 residential compound has been elevated to Medium Risk.

    At Haikou in Hainan Province there currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases in the city, a person who had crossed paths w/ the party from Huai’an in Jiangsu Province on company outing at Jingzhou high speed rail station & a worker at the airport. The two are unlikely to be connected. 2 sites are currently at Medium Risk.

    Imported Cases

    On 8/10, China reported 28 new imported confirmed cases, 23 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang Province – 11 confirmed cases, all Chinese crew members off a cargo ship w/ last port of call in the Philippines
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), coming from Cameroon; 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 each coming from Thailand & the US
    • Yunnan Province (locations not specified) – 5 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar, via land border crossings
    • Shanghai Municipality – 4 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Russia, Serbia (via Paris CdG), Thailand & the US
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 3 confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 1 Chinese national each returning from Cambodia, Cyprus (via Frankfurt) & Nigeria (via Frankfurt); 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Nigeria Nigeria (via Frankfurt)
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Saudi Arabia & Qatar, off flights that landed at Guangzhou
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 8 asymptomatic cases, 3 Chinese nationals returning from Bangladesh, 2 from South Korea & 1 each from Sri Lanka, Japan & the US
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UK (via Paris CdG)
    • Rizhao Port in Shandong Province – 1 confirmed & 1 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese crew members off a cargo ship w/ last port of call in South Korea
    • Beijing Municipality – 7 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Wuhan in Hubei Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Indonesia

     

    Overall in China, 24 confirmed cases recovered, 14 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 19 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 3,496 individuals were released  from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,789 active confirmed cases in the country (729 imported), 60 in serious condition (15 imported), 498 asymptomatic cases (392 imported), 1 suspect case (imported). 50,808 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 8/10, 1,808.093M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 13.043M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 8/11, Hong Kong reported 1 new positive case, imported (from Bangladesh).

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 6:31 am

    Linsey Marr (@linseymarr) tweeted at 7:04 PM on Tue, Aug 10, 2021:
    We Studied One Million Students. This Is What We Learned About Masking. Vaccination is best, universal masking is a close 2nd. https://t.co/pemrnULk6X Of 40,000 exposed in schools, only 363 cases. “We believe this low rate of transmission occurred because of [universal masking].”
    (https://twitter.com/linseymarr/status/1425246801699946506?s=02)

  7. 7.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 6:34 am

    I continue to wait for some sort of useful information and guidance about long covid in breakthrough cases.  B/c with Delta rampant, everybody’s going to get exposed, and repeatedly, until the fire burns itself out.  If the preliminary study out of Israel holds true, 19% of breakthrough cases result in long covid.  But nowhere can I find out what that means: severity of symptoms, brain involvement, etc.  So as a prudent man, I’m forced to just assume that that’s something to avoid, *period*.

    I’ve stopped going to the gym (again, ugh!) b/c “heavy breathing”, no vaxx mandate, *ugh*.

  8. 8.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 11, 2021 at 6:35 am

    “It’s time for us to resist. They can’t arrest all of us,” Paul said. “They can’t keep all of your kids home from school. They can’t keep every government building closed, although I’ve got a long list of ones they might keep closed or ought to keep closed.”…

    In Bowling Green, Kentucky (Rand Paul’s home), they have 700 kids and staff in quarantine after the first week of school with somewhere between 95-100 kids with active COVID diagnoses. Despite it being in the middle of a hotbed of “mah freedumbs and libberty”, the school district has enacted a mask mandate.

    I’m guessing they’ll be closed by this time next week.

  9. 9.

    Spanky

    August 11, 2021 at 6:36 am

    @rikyrah: Delta is ready, whether you are or not.

  10. 10.

    WereBear

    August 11, 2021 at 6:42 am

    @rikyrah: As they are here.

  11. 11.

    WereBear

    August 11, 2021 at 6:43 am

    A puzzling development:

     

    Vaccine uptake or obesity? Surging child Covid hospitalisations in the US leave experts stumped
    Are American doctors getting an early view of something that may play out here, or do different social factors better explain the divide?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/vaccine-uptake-obesity-surging-child-covid-hospitalisations/

  12. 12.

    Chris Johnson

    August 11, 2021 at 6:49 am

    I’m pretty sure the purpose of all this pivoting is to continue to make rightwingers psychotically, genocidally anti-immigrant.

    It looks like someone got the idea that you could do that by doubling down on the pandemic and then simply blaming it all on immigrants. So, that would be ‘any excuse to murder all the brown people just like the Nazis wanted’, using a real pandemic to fuel it. And therefore there can’t be any mask mandates, or vaccines, or health care, because it’s important to these people to CAUSE a huge amount of obvious sickness and death now that they’ve got a plan for what they’re going to do with that.

    I’m going to keep an eye on how that excuse fares. It’s not there to convince US. It’s there to turn the already insane MAGA hordes into revolutionary forces prepared to literally fight the immigrants and Democrats, and this is a good reason NOT to let them all fester and die of their own toxic choices: they’re being taught it’s us and immigrants doing it to them, and to the extent that they believe it, the more damage it does them the more radicalized they become, and we want them less radicalized not more.

  13. 13.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 6:51 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    In Atlanta, I think, it was 1,000 kids and they had been open, what, 2-3 days??

  14. 14.

    Kay

    August 11, 2021 at 6:51 am

    Brinley Hineman
    @brinleyhineman
    ·7h
    Here’s the video I tried to tweet earlier but wouldn’t go through. A man was being disruptive during the Williamson County Schools meeting and deputies escorted him out. Dozens of enraged anti-mask parents followed.

    Brinley Hineman
    @brinleyhineman
    ·8h
    Board chair Nancy Garrett says the anti-mask mandate folks think they’re in a majority, but after tallying up emails they’re not.
    Her tally as of 3 pm for emails she personally received: 781 emails for masks. 348 against masks.

    Tennessee, very Trumpy county, despite hours of Trump people screaming at them about masks the board voted to require masks.
    Straight from Fox news. They’re carrying signs comparing the mask mandate in schools to Obama’s birthday party.

  15. 15.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 6:52 am

    @Chris Johnson: Your analysis coincides with Timothy Snyder’s in his podcast about “sadopopulism”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOjJtEkKMX4

    Really worth watching, esp. at this time.

  16. 16.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 7:01 am

    Jesus H. Christ: https://twitter.com/CorsIAQ/status/1425347508847349763

  17. 17.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 11, 2021 at 7:05 am

    @Chris Johnson:

    You’re definitely not wrong here. The RWNJ spaces seamlessly swing between “it’s a hoax”, “it’s just the flu”, “it’s a crime against humanity committed by China for which they must be nuked”, “it’s all been done by the entire world just to make Trump look bad”, “illegal immigrants are walking it across the border”, “filthy immigrants have it”, “blacks and Latinos have low vax rates and that’s why it spreads”, “Dems want to control us with mask mandates and vaccines”, Dems are failing at vaccine messaging”, “but BLM demonstrations”, “mah freedumbs and libberty”, etc., etc., etc.

    The goalposts always shift, with zero acknowledgement that we all have to get behind vaccines, masks, some distancing and working smarter in business, education and government – and with (finally) some significant economic sacrifice by the most economically privileged people in our society.

  18. 18.

    prostratedragon

    August 11, 2021 at 7:06 am

    @Spanky:  How many of us have thought the same lately?

  19. 19.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 11, 2021 at 7:08 am

    @rikyrah:

    What is striking about that is how small Bowling Green is compared to Atlanta. That county (home to Western Kentucky University, the Corvette plant and a major Smucker’s facility) only has about 135K residents.

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    August 11, 2021 at 7:08 am

    While I wait for the Ministry of Health to finish posting today’s nationwide Covid-19 stats, its media statement on the aborted Parliamentary session of 29th July is a pretty grim I-told-you-so to the politicians who demanded it and to the Malay rulers who ordered it — basically, against MoH advice.

    There was an outbreak related to the session. A whopping 97 people tested positive in screening conducted before and during the session, which was consequently suspended for two weeks on its first day, including five who had the Delta variant. One person, a senior government official, has died.
    The session is supposed to resume tomorrow.

  21. 21.

    New Deal democrat

    August 11, 2021 at 7:22 am

    Some *relatively* good news. Another day’s data supports the idea that Delta is peaking in the States that it hit earliest. Missouri, Arkansas, Utah, and Nevada all show either a sharp deceleration in the increase in cases, or an outright decline. Even Florida’s latest weekly number showed some deceleration. Only Louisiana’s numbers have not broken their exponential trend.

    It may represent Delta consuming the dry tinder, or it may represent the effects of behavioral changes due to panic, or some of both.

  22. 22.

    debbie

    August 11, 2021 at 7:25 am

    @rikyrah:

    I couldn’t have been happier to learn that Abbott’s tyranny is being overturned, county by county.

  23. 23.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 7:28 am

    @debbie: That study was conducted pre-Delta, though, yes?  Everything is worse now.  Is it even clear that masking (without careful adherence to protocols to ensure an actual seal) is enough?

  24. 24.

    debbie

    August 11, 2021 at 7:30 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    It’s going to be interesting watching school districts around here. Some have mandated masks, some have banned them, some have mandated them for kids under 12 and “recommended” them for kids over 12. I look forward to the statistical comparisons that will be flooding FB and local news.

  25. 25.

    sab

    August 11, 2021 at 7:32 am

    Found it on Stu Stevens twitter: Archie Manning ( Peyton and Eli’s dad) has done a public service announcement in Mississippi encouraging vaccinations. That’s encouraging.

  26. 26.

    MomSense

    August 11, 2021 at 7:36 am

    Dr. Summers is trying to convince sociopaths to care about other humans.  They won’t.

    We need mandates.   From the comments of people like Fauci, it seems like the federal government doesn’t think they have the authority to mandate vaccines and masks.  Is that true?  I do think the mandate for all military personnel and contractors will significantly increase vaccination rates in what are currently low-vax places.  Any of our jackal lawyers know why the feds can’t mandate vaccines?

  27. 27.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    August 11, 2021 at 7:36 am

    @New Deal democrat: do we know if any states are keeping track of breakthrough COVID cases that don’t end up hospitalized?   Meanwhile in my episode of “But wait! There’s more!” Of the five of us that got breakthrough COVID my niece now has pneumonia and my daughter is probably pregnant…I would be freaking out but I am just too tired right now. Still working from home though. And on the upside my husband’s second test came back negative so that’s a huge plus.  This movie sucks I want my money back..

  28. 28.

    satby

    August 11, 2021 at 7:37 am

    @Chetan Murthy: Is it even clear that masking (without careful adherence to protocols to ensure an actual seal) is enough?

    Yes.

  29. 29.

    Hildebrand

    August 11, 2021 at 7:37 am

    I am looking for insight – I am a pastor of a Black congregation in Detroit.  It’s Lutheran, the more liberal variety.  The vaccine holdouts are those deeply concerned about the way the government and health institutions screwed Black people, especially in the Tuskegee experiments.

    Now, the oldest members of the congregation, and those who work blue collar jobs, got the vaccine.  The ones who are most vocal about not getting it, because of these ghastly past experiences, are those in their 30s to 50s who tend to be the best educated. How do I encourage them to get the vaccine?

    Any sage advice would be welcome.

  30. 30.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 11, 2021 at 7:40 am

    @debbie:

    Banned? Damn…

  31. 31.

    sab

    August 11, 2021 at 7:40 am

    @debbie: Akron Public Schools announced a mask mandate for everyone entering APS buildimgs as of 8/28/21. They already had a mandate last year, plus zoom only classes.

  32. 32.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 7:41 am

    @Hildebrand: It would seem like the living example of their elders might to be of some motivational value?  I mean, they can see their elders, alive, healthy, and not living in fear of painful death — isn’t that somewhat convincing?  How do they explain to themselves  that their elders got the shot, and are thriving because of it, but it’s something bad?

  33. 33.

    satby

    August 11, 2021 at 7:42 am

    @Hildebrand: Can’t you have the elders of the church take the lead on encouraging the holdouts? Because those would be powerful voices to the younger ones.

  34. 34.

    Amir Khalid

    August 11, 2021 at 7:43 am

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 20,780 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 1,320,547 cases. He also reports 211 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 11,373 deaths — 0.86% of the cumulative reported total, 1.05% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 233,368 active and contagious cases; 1,053 are in ICU, 546 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 17,973 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 1,075,816 patients recovered – 81.39% of the cumulative reported total.

    31 new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 4,034 clusters. 1,258 clusters are currently active; 2,776 clusters are now inactive.

    20,765 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 6,910 local cases: 193 in clusters, 3,298 close-contact screenings, and 3,419 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 2,062 local cases: 121 in clusters, 1,043 close-contact screenings, and 898 other screenings.

    Johor reports 1,693 cases: 448 in clusters, 929 close-contact screenings, and 316 other screenings. Kedah reports 1,534 cases: 71 in clusters, 854 close-contact screenings, and 609 other screenings. Sabah reports 1,514 cases: 118 in clusters, 925 close-contact screenings, and 471 other screenings. Penang reports 1,385 cases: 65 in clusters, 424 close-contact screenings, and 896 other screenings. Kelantan reports 1,284 cases: 317 in clusters, 652 close-contact screenings, and 315 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 1,015 cases: seven in clusters, 613 close-contact screenings, and 395 other screenings.

    Perak reports 828 cases: 83 in clusters, 380 close-contact screenings, and 365 other screenings.

    Melaka reports 636 cases: 234 in clusters, 259 close-contact screenings, and 143 other screenings. Sarawak reports 633 local cases: 77 in clusters, 426 close-contact screenings, and 130 other screenings. Terengganu reports 613 cases: 176 in clusters, 342 close-contact screenings, and 95 other screenings.

    Pahang reports 585 cases: 127 in clusters, 317 close-contact screenings, and 141 other screenings.

    Putrajaya reports 41 cases: 33 close-contact screenings and eight other screenings. Perlis reports 29 cases: six in clusters, 12 close-contact screenings, and 11 other screenings. Labuan reports three cases: one close-contact screenings and two other screenings.

    15 new cases today are imported: 11 in Selangor, three in Kuala Lumpur, and one in Sarawak.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 375,981 doses of vaccine on 10th August: 160,320 first doses and 197,661 second doses. As of midnight yesterday, the cumulative total is 25,366,211 doses administered: 16,119,916 first doses and 9,246,295 second doses. 49.4% of the population have received their first dose, while 28.3% are now fully vaccinated.

  35. 35.

    eclare

    August 11, 2021 at 7:44 am

    @rikyrah:  That is stunning.  Abbottoir and DeathSantis should be criminally charged.

  36. 36.

    Robert Sneddon

    August 11, 2021 at 7:45 am

    @MomSense: Mandating masks is all and good, but are there enough police, National Guardsmen and orbital lasers to enforce such a mandate if it is widely unpopular in certain locales? Probably not, and politics is the art of the possible.

     

    The best thing about vaccination in my opinion is that it’s irreversible, no-one can take their vaccination off in a plane because they think their freedoms are being infringed.

  37. 37.

    Hildebrand

    August 11, 2021 at 7:45 am

    @Chetan Murthy: I wish that were the case.  Some of the strongest holdout’s parents are vaccinated.  I’m just stumped.

  38. 38.

    eclare

    August 11, 2021 at 7:46 am

    @Chetan Murthy:  I finally gave up and quit my gym.  I had to go in person.  Signs up everywhere saying “Masks recommended.”  Not required.  Confirmed my decision.

  39. 39.

    MomSense

    August 11, 2021 at 7:48 am

    @Hildebrand:

    I’ve been following a young man (early 30s) who engages with his followers by sharing photos and quotes of Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett and Kamala Harris receiving the Moderna she developed.  He only felt confident getting Moderna. Could you contact your local public health department and some other black churches and see if you could get a Moderna clinic?  I know that Walmart in my area was doing Moderna clinics.  If there are some older members who would be willing to organize a potluck for your clinic that might help too.

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 7:49 am

    @WereBear:

    No

    We are not doing this

    We are not going that the children have underlying conditions route ??

  41. 41.

    Hildebrand

    August 11, 2021 at 7:49 am

    @satby: I will say that one of my holdouts was guilted into it by her 14 year old daughter.  But even after getting vaccinated she has been very vocal about everyone needing to respect the decision of those who won’t vaccinate.

  42. 42.

    sab

    August 11, 2021 at 7:49 am

    @MomSense: My guess is they don’t want to push their luck by mandating under an emergency authorization and then lose in court, since our Supreme Court is nuts.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 11, 2021 at 7:50 am

    Ted Cruz calls for ‘zero’ coronavirus mandates.

    I call for Ted Cruz to be mandated by catapult.

  44. 44.

    eclare

    August 11, 2021 at 7:51 am

    @Amir Khalid:  I saw where a popular singer in Malaysia has died of covid.

  45. 45.

    debbie

    August 11, 2021 at 7:52 am

    @sab:

    I came across a video last night of Tom Hanks’ kid being all loud and anti-vax and berating those who had gotten theirs. Nice son. //

  46. 46.

    eclare

    August 11, 2021 at 7:52 am

    @sab:  Ole Miss football team, trainers, staff is 100% vaxxed.  Only school in SEC.

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 7:53 am

    @Hildebrand:

    There is the young man who did the fabulous one about the vaccine on Twitter. Has well over 1 million views AL even put him in one of her posts.

    Dr Kizzy has a lot of videos on YouTube.

    I am with the poster below.

    Can you set up a Moderna clinic?

     

    I would also think about seeing if you can do a zoom meeting with Dr. Kizzy. You can find her on Twitter.

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 11, 2021 at 7:53 am

    The senator from Kentucky — who has fashioned himself as the Senate’s chief skeptic of Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious-disease doctor — released a video Sunday that urged people to resist the regulations implemented by health experts and elected officials to help prevent the spread of the deadly delta variant.

    This is a true sentence.  Just let that sink in for a bit.

  49. 49.

    New Deal democrat

    August 11, 2021 at 7:53 am

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Short answer: I don’t know.

    One of the big failures of the CDC this year has been exactly its not publicizing daily the differences in rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated cases.

    Which reminds me: they did just start publishing demographic graphs of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated. They didn’t measure by partisanship, but surprisingly, the biggest correlation wasn’t age, it was whether the person had health insurance or not. Which makes me think there’s been a major failure to communicate that the shots are free.

  50. 50.

    sab

    August 11, 2021 at 7:54 am

    @debbie: Wow. And his mother almost died of Covid.

  51. 51.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 7:55 am

    @MomSense:

    I am with you

    Mandates

    Want your job?

    Get vaccinated.

    Is that simple

    Every school district, grades 7-12 should mandate vaccination for students and every adult in the schools.

    And then masks and offer hybrids, grades K-6.

  52. 52.

    Amir Khalid

    August 11, 2021 at 7:55 am

    @debbie:

    Would that be Colin Hanks?

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 7:56 am

    @debbie:

    Yeah, I see a sad video in Rita’s future, asking us to pray for her ill son?

  54. 54.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 7:57 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    You are funny, Amir ??

     

    Colin has never been the problem

  55. 55.

    debbie

    August 11, 2021 at 7:57 am

    @Hildebrand:

    Their concern is understandable, but couldn’t the older, vaccinated members talk about their experience post-jabs? And if any of them are worried about how the vaccine works, this video was something even I could understand.

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 7:59 am

    Navajo Nation- 91% vaccinated ??????

  57. 57.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 11, 2021 at 7:59 am

    Facebook has shut down an attempt, run by a British-registered marketing agency operating out of Russia, to dupe social media influencers into spreading anti-Pfizer vaccine hoaxes

    I guess Fuckerberg has had his fill of rubles.

  58. 58.

    debbie

    August 11, 2021 at 7:59 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    Memory’s not that good this morning. It started with a “C,” but seemed more hickish than Colin. ??‍♀️

  59. 59.

    Hildebrand

    August 11, 2021 at 8:03 am

    @rikyrah: @MomSense:  My thanks.  I’ve used Dr. Corbett’s videos to some effect in the past, but will definitely highlight them again.  One of the big churches down the street is having a moderna clinic next week, I’ll ask to see if we can make it a joint effort.

  60. 60.

    Amir Khalid

    August 11, 2021 at 8:04 am

    @Hildebrand:

    The only people whose decision not to get vaccinated deserves respect are the very rare few who were advised against it on medical grounds.

  61. 61.

    sab

    August 11, 2021 at 8:04 am

    @debbie: Chet hanks ( aka Chet Hanx.) White Boy Summer guy.

  62. 62.

    Peale

    August 11, 2021 at 8:07 am

    @rikyrah: same where I live. The zip code that’s about 85% ultra orthodox is less than 25% vaccinated for the  eligible population. On the plus side, they were a hot spot for months last year, so maybe they have a bit more herd immunity against what’s coming. Lol. Doubtful wishful thinking on my part.

  63. 63.

    MomSense

    August 11, 2021 at 8:07 am

    @Hildebrand:

    check out the #modernagang on Twitter.  Lots of videos – plus some nonsense, too.  Dr. Corbett is a champion and would never do anything to harm black people.  Ive seen a lot of By Black For Black on social media about Moderna.

    I’m also team Moderna!!

  64. 64.

    Ken

    August 11, 2021 at 8:08 am

    A possible solution to the Nebraska choropleth map problem (“no data” looking too much like “few cases”) would be to use a color that is not so easily confused with the “low” end of the scale. I suggest black.

    Now, some might object that black could be confused with the “severe” end of the scale, but I maintain that it is clearly different. Besides, how plausible is it that most of a state is in the “severe” category?  That would require monumental incompetence and/or sociopathy from its leadership.

  65. 65.

    MomSense

    August 11, 2021 at 8:08 am

    @Hildebrand:

    You are my hero!!

  66. 66.

    Ksmiami

    August 11, 2021 at 8:10 am

    @Hildebrand: Hi- my mom was a public health nurse in Watts  in 1965 and she thinks utilizing nurses and doctors from the community is highly effective as they have a much deeper reservoir of trust. Also, is there a chance you can set up a clinic after services with donuts and coffee afterwards? Peer pressure can work.

  67. 67.

    Butter Emails

    August 11, 2021 at 8:12 am

    @Chris Johnson: I’m not sure if the purpose is to explicitly make right-wingers violently anti-immigrant. It seems to be more for scapegoating, grifting and vote-getting purposes. Making right-wingers genocidally anti-immigrant is just a predictable consequence of their actions, but as they don’t even give a fuck about the lives of their own supporters, they aren’t going to lose any sleep over potential dead immigrants and liberals.

    Just ask yourself what an amoral sociopath would do. Most Republican politicians wouldn’t murder 100,000 people for shits and giggles, but if the choice were between killing 100,000 people or losing their next election, well that 100,000 people is a sacrifice they are willing to make.

    The Delta Covid spike is the result of rhetoric and policies designed to undermine the Biden Administration’s efforts to combat Covid and inflame their base of support. Red states are experiencing the brunt of the spike, so people are starting to assign responsibility to the correct people, so it’s time to blame Canada immigrants which has the added benefit of making the Republican base ragegasm.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    August 11, 2021 at 8:13 am

    @rikyrah: And no attending your kid’s events at school if you haven’t been vaccinated.  THAT INCLUDES SPORTING EVENTS.

  69. 69.

    RSA

    August 11, 2021 at 8:13 am

    @Hildebrand:  I read an interesting story the other day, though I can’t track it down now, with a plausible suggestion:

    Host a community event, like a cook-out or something social. Arrange for a mobile vaccine clinic to be present. The event should held for its own sake, rather than for the purpose of vaccination, but if vaccine-hesitant can see other people they trust talking about vaccines and even getting a jab, it may be persuasive.

    Good luck!

  70. 70.

    WaterGirl

    August 11, 2021 at 8:13 am

    @rikyrah: They don’t appear to have the 27% crazification factor.  That should be studied.

  71. 71.

    debbie

    August 11, 2021 at 8:15 am

    @sab:

    That was it, thanks!

  72. 72.

    Ken

    August 11, 2021 at 8:16 am

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Of the five of us that got breakthrough COVID […] my daughter is probably pregnant.

    I hadn’t heard about that side effect before.

    Congratulations, I guess?  And I hope your niece (who I cut out of the quote for the sake of a bad joke) gets well quickly.

  73. 73.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 11, 2021 at 8:17 am

    I would think old Zodiac Killer Ted there would be a big fan of wearing masks considering his hobbies; fleeing the country during a crises, serial killing.

  74. 74.

    Another Scott

    August 11, 2021 at 8:19 am

    @Hildebrand: Jesse Jackson got the Pfizer shot in January.

    Chicago Tribune

    Maybe make a list of similar respected leaders?

    Is there any way to have regular small outdoor get-togethers where a vaccinator is present along with free food, etc?  It’s much easier to say no in the abstract than to do so when other good things are happening at the same time with your friends and family.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  75. 75.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 8:22 am

    @Hildebrand: I’m sure everyone reading your comments, is thankful for what you’re doing: working to save the lives of your congregation.

  76. 76.

    Suzanne

    August 11, 2021 at 8:23 am

    @rikyrah:

    Mandates

    Want your job?

    Get vaccinated.

     

    At this point, IMO, if you want to enter any public accommodation, you better be vaccinated or a kid. Mandates.

    We don’t have enough time to figure out what alchemical potion of The Right Things To Tell the antivaxxers to get them to hear the message at just the right pitch. There is no Shot Whisperer. Just make it a policy, punishable by fines or home confinement or both, and let’s move on.

  77. 77.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 11, 2021 at 8:23 am

    So that Satoshi Smith quote, all this anti vacc shit is just because these dinks are afraid of needles? I mean I don’t like getting stuck but it’s easy enough to look way while the nurse does it.

  78. 78.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    August 11, 2021 at 8:28 am

    @Ken:

    Besides, how plausible is it that most of a state is in the “severe” category?  That would require monumental incompetence and/or sociopathy from its leadership.

    Have you met Florida’s leaders? //

    Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.

  79. 79.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 11, 2021 at 8:31 am

    @WereBear: Vaccine uptake or obesity? Surging child Covid hospitalisations in the US leave experts stumped

    Headlines like this set off my bullshit detector.  That smacks of the writer is lying and covering himself by claiming he is only asking questions.

    As always go to the last paragraph

    “I don’t know what the demographic or the phenotype of those children in Texas and Florida is among the ones that are getting critically ill, so we need more information,” she told the APPG.

    There is no data on this. So in other words, basically Erotrash trying to fat shame Americans.

  80. 80.

    Betsy

    August 11, 2021 at 8:32 am

    @MomSense: The federal government does not have the power to regulate for the public health, safety, and welfare.  That power (called the “police power”) is reserved to the states.

  81. 81.

    WereBear

    August 11, 2021 at 8:36 am

    @Hildebrand: Any sage advice would be welcome.

    I’m not sure how sage I can be, but does the fact that so many white people have gotten vaxxed have any effect? Do they think the government is lying about that in some way?

    I wonder if you have any local scientists/doctors/public health folks who can be trusted by your community to give people good information. From a source without the baggage?

  82. 82.

    Sloane Ranger

    August 11, 2021 at 8:37 am

    Tuesday in the UK we had 23,510 new cases, once again this is a reduction in new case numbers from the day before. The rolling 7-day average, however, is still showing an increase of 7.3%. New cases by nation,

    England – 20,630 (down 1285)

    Northern Ireland – 1305 (up 174)

    Scotland – 1032 (up 181)

    Wales – 543 (down 821).

    Deaths – There were 146 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is an increase of 14.8% in the rolling 7-day average. 132 deaths were in England, 2 in Northern Ireland, 11 in Scotland and 1 in Wales.

    Testing – There were 725,764 tests conducted on Monday, 9 August. The rolling 7-day average for tests conducted was down by 4.1%. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on that date was 710,193.

    Hospitalisations – There were 5909 people in hospital and 859 people on ventilators on Monday, Monday, 9 August. As of 6 August the rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions was down by 11.8%.

    Vaccinations – As of Monday, 9 August, 47,091,889 people had received the 1st shot of a vaccine and 39,780,455 had received both. This means that 89% of all adults in the UK have had 1 shot as of that date and 75% were fully vaccinated.

  83. 83.

    WereBear

    August 11, 2021 at 8:38 am

    @rikyrah: I’m not saying that. But I do wonder: the one difference I did come up with was how Britain has universal coverage and we do not.

  84. 84.

    WereBear

    August 11, 2021 at 8:39 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: If our kids are at higher risk we need to know WHY and I didn’t find too much.

    However, it might be just sending all these kids to school while the Delta is surging — numbers might be enough.

    I just couldn’t find anyone who had done the math.

  85. 85.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 8:40 am

    @WereBear: At least, finally, senior pediatrics specialists are screaming about it.  That’s a start.  It’s not enough, but it’s better than it was a few weeks ago.

  86. 86.

    WereBear

    August 11, 2021 at 8:41 am

    @Chetan Murthy: The Right Wing floated sacrificing grandparents. Are they willing to go Full Moloch?

  87. 87.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 8:46 am

    @WereBear: This has come up twice in this thread (actually, thrice) so I’ll just reiterate that I think it’s worth watching Timothy Snyder’s video about “sadopopulism”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOjJtEkKMX4

    In it, he explains that it’s not that they’re a death cult, as much as that

    1. they’re oligarchs
    2. and oligarchs can’t actually govern well: they tend to incompetence for unavoidable reasons
    3. so they have to distract their population with other targets of anger
    4. and so they pick “the other” to make a scapegoat, b/c they need to keep their base revved-up to retain power

    Snyder does a great job of explaining all this.  It’s from 2017 or so, and wowsers, so relevant to today.

  88. 88.

    terben

    August 11, 2021 at 8:46 am

    Thank you, Anne Laurie. The Reuters tweet that you posted above concerning the extended quarantine for Olympians returning to my state of South Australia has made my day.
    First a little background. Last month, a traveller who was returning from Argentina, spent 14 days in a quarantine facility in Sydney, NSW. Having tested negative for COVID, he then returned to South Australia and resumed his normal life. A few days later, he was testing positive for a COVID strain found in Sydney, but not Argentina. He appears to have been infected while in quarantine. As you can see, NSW is not sending us their best. He subsequently caused a small cluster of cases which prompted the government to lock the state down. A lockdown from which we are yet to completely emerge. This has caused millions of dollars of lost economic activity and immense disruption.
    Now we in SA have decided that quarantining in Sydney isn’t worth spit and insist that anyone returning from NSW will self isolate, at home, for 14 days.
    The Australian Olympic Committee were notified well in advance and chose to return athletes through Sydney knowing what the requirements were. That we have some entitled arsehole from the AOC crying foul is just too delicious.

    Meanwhile, in Australia today.
    New cases – 368 (344 in NSW)  Total cases – 37,377
    Deaths – 2 (in NSW)  Total COVID deaths – 945
    In hospital – 439, ICU – 64, Ventilated – 29 In NSW these numbers are (373/62/29)
    Vaccinations – 256k today which brings the total to 14,214,009. We need about 40,000,000 doses to fully cover everyone over 16.​

  89. 89.

    WereBear

    August 11, 2021 at 8:48 am

    @Chetan Murthy: I have it on my list to listen to today. Thanks!

    However — and mind you I haven’t listened to it — I’ve lived among them, and many are death cultists, in a way: they can’t wait for the Rapture to come and take them away, and they hate and scorn the actual world.

    That has to leave a mark.

  90. 90.

    Betsy

    August 11, 2021 at 8:50 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’ve long believed that a good fraction of those who have “principled” objections or “questions” are really just people who are afraid of needles.

    No messaging has addressed this, that I’ve seen.  There should be a little quick Q and A about “does the shot hurt.”

    If people understood that it’s the tiniest needle (about the width of a cat hair, and very short), that you really even can’t feel it,and how quick it is, I think it would relieve some concerns.

    I can’t count how many pictures in the press I’ve seen of people cringing or squinting your eyes are looking miserable while the shot is being administered. That makes for a great photo, but… That’s not how people actually look when they get the shot.

    I think most people, like me, are actually unaware  of it until it’s over because the nurse gets it in there so quickly!

    I imagine a lot of these hesitant folks are people who haven’t had a shot since they were 10 years old and they just remember that they were fearful and a big deal was made of it and the needle seem to go in forever and ever.

  91. 91.

    Peale

    August 11, 2021 at 8:53 am

    @Hildebrand: ugh. I understand, but there really isn’t any evidence that the government is currently running a massive experiment on African Americans to explore the effects of COVID in a clinical setting. We actually have enough examples, thank you very much. So bringing up Tuskegee as a reason is actually not that much different than bringing up Bill Gates and microchips. I wish putting the onus on the holdouts to prove their feelings would help, but we know what happens when people go out to research these things on their own. Right now the two populations in the meta study group are the vaccinated vs. the unvaccinated.  I would prefer to be in the vaccinated group. It looks promising. Choosing to be in the unvaccinated group in the study…well that’s like volunteering to let syphilis go untreated. Like volunteering to be in the brutal control group willingly. Did the Tuskegee victims volunteer to be in that control group? No, they were tricked. Lied to. They would never have volunteered for that. Why someone would volunteer to be in the COVID control group?

    ugh. Sorry. Somewhere in this analogy there’s a reason. But I think if Tuskegee is the source of the concern, exploring the ways this isn’t at all like Tuskegee might help. 

  92. 92.

    MomSense

    August 11, 2021 at 8:55 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    If they don’t like needles, wait till they try intubation.  Maybe run a few videos of that shitshow.

  93. 93.

    WereBear

    August 11, 2021 at 9:01 am

    @Betsy:

    I imagine a lot of these hesitant folks are people who haven’t had a shot since they were 10 years old and they just remember that they were fearful and a big deal was made of it and the needle seem to go in forever and ever.

    You are likely right because so many people lead an unexamined life; and let their unexamined fears and conclusions ruin their adulthood, too.

  94. 94.

    YY_Sima Qian

    August 11, 2021 at 9:05 am

    @terben: Chinese Olympians returning from Tokyo will be undergoing 3 weeks of centralized quarantine at port of entry, followed by 2 weeks of centralized quarantine at final destination.

  95. 95.

    Robert Sneddon

    August 11, 2021 at 9:05 am

    @Betsy: ​  Phobias are not rational, for needles or anything else. Someone I know has a phobia about buttons, yes those things used to connect pieces of cloth, buttons. She can’t explain it, there’s nothing she knows in her life that might have caused it but it’s real for her.
    Needle phobia is similarly real, for some people it’s at the level of throwing-up and blacking-out and finding some way to get these people vaccinated should be under consideration but I’m not in charge — anti-anxiety meds, perhaps? I’ve certainly seen pictures of people getting vaccinated while a friend holds their (other) hand. I looked away for both of my injections because it’s something that doesn’t happen every day and it’s still mildly unpleasant. Saying that I used to donate blood and I did the same looking-away thing when the half-inch diameter blunt pipe they used just for me was pushed into a vein in the crook of my elbow.​

  96. 96.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 11, 2021 at 9:08 am

    There are going to be tragedies among elementary age kids in Florida and Texas due to the prohibitions on mask mandates in schools.. Remember the scene in Jaws when Roy Scheider gets slapped by an aggrieved mother?

    This is going to happen to DeSantis and Abbott, and the political toadies who thought this a smart play are going to be befuddled.

  97. 97.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 9:09 am

    @Robert Sneddon:

    Saying that I used to donate blood and I did the same looking-away thing

    Same here: I don’t care about the needle prick, but I can’t stand seeing the blood spurt out.  So I look away.  If I see the blood spurt out, I’ll get queasy and maybe pass out.  If I don’t look, hell, you could draw a bunch and I wouldn’t care.

  98. 98.

    Peale

    August 11, 2021 at 9:12 am

    @Chetan Murthy: I think I’m one of the rare humans who likes watching my blood squirt into the tube. It’s so cool that I can do that. Whoosh…it just come out like it’s supposed to. What a relief that it works. I’d be worried if it didn’t.

  99. 99.

    dopey-o

    August 11, 2021 at 9:16 am

    I’m going to keep an eye on how that excuse fares. It’s not there to convince US. It’s there to turn the already insane MAGA hordes into revolutionary forces prepared to literally fight the immigrants and Democrats,@Chris Johnson: 

    If i were prone to paranoid thinking, i would say we will look back on the vax / mask refusers as the first battles in a second american civil war. Just as TFG thought he could decimate blue cities / states with his hands-off response, the anti-vaxniks are fighting and dying to protect their ‘heritage’ and way of life against the godless baby-eating city dwelling democrats.
    And just like the gullible volunteers in the first confederacy, they are dying to protect their wealthy overlords.

  100. 100.

    Robert Sneddon

    August 11, 2021 at 9:19 am

    Scotland — 1,498 new cases of COVID-19 reported with 10 new reported deaths of someone who had tested positive. Test positivity rate is 5.0%. Hospitalisations and ICU bed occupancy numbers remain steady.

    Over 22,500 vaccinations were administered in Scotland yesterday (Tuesday) with over 20% of those vaccinations being first doses. 75.8% of the adult population are now fully vaccinated with another 14.3% having received their initial dose of vaccine.

    It’s possible the reported uptick today in first dose numbers is due to vaccination opening up generally to 16 and 17 year olds in Scotland yesterday. Schools in Scotland will be re-opening over the next couple of weeks with mask mandates in place but no at-home tutoring alternatives, at least for secondary education. This may change if the Delta variant which is now close to 100% of all new cases in the UK starts to cause serious levels of illness in younger people as it apparently has in the US.

  101. 101.

    terben

    August 11, 2021 at 9:21 am

    @YY_Sima Qian: That seems perfectly reasonable to me. However, the AOC thinks that Australian athletes are such delicate snowflakes flowers that their mental health will suffer if they are not immediately turned loose after only 2 weeks in a highly suspect quarantine system.

  102. 102.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 11, 2021 at 9:21 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    considering his hobbies; fleeing the country during a crises, serial killing. 

    LOL

  103. 103.

    dopey-o

    August 11, 2021 at 9:22 am

    Johnson: I’m going to keep an eye on how that excuse fares. It’s not there to convince US. It’s there to turn the already insane MAGA hordes into revolutionary forces prepared to literally fight the immigrants and Democrats,

    If i were prone to paranoid thinking, i would say we will look back on the vax / mask refusers as the first battles in a second american civil war.

    Just as TFG thought he could decimate blue cities / states with his hands-off response, the anti-vaxniks are fighting and dying to protect their ‘heritage’ and way of life against the godless baby-eating city dwelling democrats.
    And just like the gullible volunteers in the first confederacy, they are dying to protect their wealthy overlords. Suckers.

  104. 104.

    O. Felix Culpa

    August 11, 2021 at 9:42 am

    @WereBear:

    Are they willing to go Full Moloch?

    Sadly, I think the answer is yes. Except for the precious fetuses™, for as long as they are politically useful.

  105. 105.

    Ohio Mom

    August 11, 2021 at 9:43 am

    @Hildebrand:

    Find a Black physician to give a guest sermon and print the sermon in the newsletter? (Make sure the doctor stays for an elaborate spread after services to have informal conversations with congregants). Play the video of Obama urging everyone to get vaccinated? Sic the aunties in the congregation on the prominent hold-outs? Do one of those outdoor events — a congregational picnic — where shots are given and newly vaccinated are given a treat or a prize?

    The instinct to be skeptical of doctors can be useful and positive. For example, if I had listened to the doctor who told me (a white woman) the lump in my breast was a cyst, don’t worry…

    It’s a near universal experience to get occasional bad advice from a doctor, even without the layers of systemic racism. So I might validate their skepticism even as I point out, This is different. The whole world is reeling under Covid, people in nations that are not white (In Asia and Africa) are eager to be vaccinated.

    I will say, I had a moment when the arrival of the vaccine was first announced when I thought, I don’t want to be a human guinea pig for ANY new medicine. But then I realized with relief that I was a nobody. Millions of doctors, nurses, first responders, the highly connected, were going to go first. By the time it would be my turn, we would know if the vaccine had any awful side effects.

    It’s a trick, making people feel respected even as you try to change their minds. I can only wish you lots of luck, lives are hanging in the balance.

  106. 106.

    Hildebrand

    August 11, 2021 at 9:44 am

    My deepest thanks for all the ideas, advice, and thoughts on how to help folks get to the point where they will get the vaccine.

    I had a great chat with one of the elders on Sunday about how this is absolutely different than anything else anyone has experienced – and that sometimes that difference isn’t recognized, but needs to be.

    He also mused that the mask mandates and all the rest that were relaxed too quickly, and because of that, ‘well, folks just thought it was over’.  I think he is absolutely right.  Of course, now we need to get people to take it seriously again.  My hope is that we can.

    Again, thanks for the advice everyone.  I am grateful.

  107. 107.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 9:59 am

    @Hildebrand:

     

    I don’t mean to be flip, and I’m quite serious.

     

    You need to have someone there who does Life Insurance

    And, someone who does wills.

    They need to grasp the seriousness of it.

    If you know someone who does disability insurance and who can explain disability SSN, that would help.

    Because in between living and dying from COVID, there are a whole group of people who are now disabled because of long-term COVID.

    They need reality shown to them.

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 10:03 am

    @Hildebrand:

     

    I hope the 14 year old is vaccinated too. I can’t take the stories of babies 12-17 dying from this when they could have been vaccinated.

  109. 109.

    Hildebrand

    August 11, 2021 at 10:08 am

    @rikyrah: Yes – she is my hero right now.  She told her Mom she wanted to be vaccinated, and that her Mom needed to get vaccinated, too.

    The mom told me, ‘she guilted me into it’.  I resisted the impulse to say, ‘good’.  Instead, I thanked the daughter and told her how proud I was of her.

  110. 110.

    Skepticat

    August 11, 2021 at 10:45 am

    The Bahamas has tightened entry requirements and just instituted a penalty of $200 and/or a month in jail for not wearing a mask in public.

    Today I’m finally officially fully immunized, but I’ll be wearing a mask most of the time anyway. Maine is doing fairly well, but I wouldn’t be surprised (or displeased) to see masks mandated again. I’m often the only person wearing a mask in most stores, though the Casco Bay Lines ferries still require them except on the open deck.

    The Portland paper had an editorial today expressing disappointment that one of the big fairs (in an area with fairly low vax rates) didn’t include a vaccination clinic. I know they aren’t easy to organize, but that seems the precise kind of venue most conducive to encouraging otherwise-resistant folks. Sigh.

  111. 111.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    August 11, 2021 at 10:53 am

    Greece: Tuesday there were 4181 new cases, which is a jump of over a thousand in one day from the 3026 reported Monday, and uncomfortably close to the third-wave high of 4322 on March 30. Fatalities remain relatively low: 14 dead in yesterday’s report, with the trend slowly increasing but not nearly as bad as the high of 134 on May 3, at the peak of the third wave.

  112. 112.

    Ruckus

    August 11, 2021 at 10:53 am

    @Chetan Murthy:

    @satby:

    Was going to suggest the elders as well. Seems like a no brainer, unless there is some underlying thing about believing those elders.

  113. 113.

    Tom Levenson

    August 11, 2021 at 11:13 am

    @Hildebrand: Perhaps a bit of truth acknowledging the terrible past and pointing out that this time, white people were the folks who were experimented upon?

    We’re eight months or so into the vaccine era, and white and Asian populations top the vaccine uptake tables. Your congregants can take advantage of others’ eagerness/recklessness to take the risk, as their own ancestors could not.

    Think that might help?

  114. 114.

    Kelly

    August 11, 2021 at 11:14 am

    Oregon returns to statewide mask mandate today. Masks were already mandated for schools this fall. Nearby small town high school in Turner, OR is already objecting using the usual wingnut arguments.

  115. 115.

    bluefoot

    August 11, 2021 at 11:27 am

    @Chetan Murthy: ​  As far as I know, there isn’t a lot of data yet on vaccinated people and long COVID. It’s a big open question.
    Long COVID is some scary stuff too. My brother-in-law (a healthy 42 yo) has had long COVID for 11 months. Regained most of his pre-pandemic health, except his sense of taste and smell. Until three weeks ago, when his pulmonary function went to crap. Pre-COVID, ran 6-8 miles a day. Post-COVID, it took about 6 months to get back to normal. The last three weeks, he can run about a mile.
    As someone who has spent a long time in neurological disease research, I would not be surprised if we see a lot of post-COVID neurological syndromes appearing in 20-30 years as a result of the current pandemic.
    I’ve heard some pretty scary anecdotal stories from clinicians about how easily Delta can spread. I was planning on starting back at the gym here in MA, but no longer.​

  116. 116.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 11:35 am

    @Tom Levenson:

     

    We’re eight months or so into the vaccine era, and white and Asian populations top the vaccine uptake tables. Your congregants can take advantage of others’ eagerness/recklessness to take the risk, as their own ancestors could not.

     

    Actually, the best vaccination rate is Navajo Nation at 91%

    You think they learned something from history, and grabbed onto the vaccine?

  117. 117.

    Fair Economist

    August 11, 2021 at 11:42 am

    The Russian numbers are transparently manufactured. From 7/28 to 8/8 every reported death number was between 785 and 799. Even if there were no weekly cycle on reporting (HA!) there’s less than a 1 in a million chance of variability so low in a Poisson distribution. The only question is whether they’re covering up real numbers or whether fascist corruption has damaged their reporting system so badly they have no choice other than to make numbers up.

  118. 118.

    JAFD

    August 11, 2021 at 11:43 am

    @Ken: In other words…

    your niece has caught the Egyptian Flu…

    … and she’s turning into a mummy

    Told that to my Primary Care doctor when she got back from maternity leave – she’d never heard it before – what do they teach the kids these daze ???

    Supposed to hit 97F in Gotham City today.  Hope you’re staying healthy, happy and hydrated.

  119. 119.

    JAFD

    August 11, 2021 at 12:08 pm

    Apologies.  Mixed up your daughter and niece.  Please forgive

    Needles.  Don’t like them, never got stuck voluntarily except by medics.  But have had a lot of them pushed into me, this past decade, and on scale where ‘9’ is “We need a couple vials of blood to test … there’s gotta be a vein here somewhere…” my vaccine shots ranked around ‘1/2’

  120. 120.

    VeniceRiley

    August 11, 2021 at 12:18 pm

    @Hildebrand:  ” Your rage about Tuskegee is valid. How does that apply to Dr. Kizzie Corbett, who worked her smart self to the wall to make this vaccine for us? She is heaven sent!” “100 million white people went first to make sure it’s safe. It’s safe, and will protect us and our children from suffering and death.” “Some long covid patients are experiencing erectile disfunction and infertility. There is a lot more we don’t know about the devastation of Covid itself. Up to you though.”

  121. 121.

    scav

    August 11, 2021 at 12:24 pm

    @Hildebrand: Would looking internationally help any with convincing people it’s not a govt plot?  Would African and other developing world nations be so very pleased to get even beginning stabs at their fair share of the vaccines if it was all a Tuskegee.2? Some discussions about global inequities in vaccine distribution — even if never explicitly mentioning local antivax holdouts — might  allay concerns.  Maybe a talk about programs helping those efforts, which would be of intrinsic value in any case.  There should be such programs, no?

  122. 122.

    J R in WV

    August 11, 2021 at 12:26 pm

    @WereBear:

    I’ve lived among them, and many are death cultists, in a way: they can’t wait for the Rapture to come and take them away, and they hate and scorn the actual world.

    After the rapture comes, and you are gone, may I have your RV, autos, and resort homes, in return for caring for your abandoned pets?

    Kthnxby!!

    More seriously, Fuq those depressive sociopath bastards with the rusty agricultural tool closest to hand!

  123. 123.

    Kent

    August 11, 2021 at 12:36 pm

    @Hildebrand:

    I am looking for insight – I am a pastor of a Black congregation in Detroit.  It’s Lutheran, the more liberal variety.  The vaccine holdouts are those deeply concerned about the way the government and health institutions screwed Black people, especially in the Tuskegee experiments.

    Now, the oldest members of the congregation, and those who work blue collar jobs, got the vaccine.  The ones who are most vocal about not getting it, because of these ghastly past experiences, are those in their 30s to 50s who tend to be the best educated. How do I encourage them to get the vaccine?

    Any sage advice would be welcome.

    This is probably a dead thread and others have probably answered.  But Tuskegee was an experiment about what happens to the progress of a disease when medicine and medical care are DENIED and the disease is left to run it’s course.   It wasn’t about experimenting with new therapies.

    What we are really doing right now is engaging in a grand national study on the effectiveness of the most state-of-the-art Covid prevention methods that science can develop.  Everyone has the freedom to make their own choice.

    They can choose the side of no vaccine and be part of the experiment of what happens when a novel disease ravages their body EXACTLY like the unwilling participants of the Tuskegee study were.  Or they can chose to get the modern vaccine and prevent the disease.  A choice that the Tuskegee victims did not have available.

    The Tuskegee victims were denied modern medicine against their will, or without their knowledge (if they were given a placebo).  Why would anyone voluntarily and willingly chose that SAME EXACT fate?

  124. 124.

    J R in WV

    August 11, 2021 at 12:37 pm

    @MomSense:

    If they don’t like needles, wait till they try intubation. Maybe run a few videos of that shitshow.

    Seriously! Spent over 2 weeks with wife in ICU on a vent, she had necrotic pneumonia, which wasn’t diagnosed for quite a while, and because I was quiet and helpful with the MICU nurses they allowed me to be in her room for all the treatments.

    • Suction of accumulations of mucus from her lungs? yep.
    • Removal of intubation while trying to wean her from the vent? yep.
    • Reintubation after attempt to wean off the vent? yep.

    I got a crash course in sucking chest wound treatment as they preped her for release after 9 or 10 weeks in the hospital, she still had chest tubes installed to drain chest fluids. If those were pulled out too early she would need emergency care. The in home RN nurses had NEVER seen a patient discharged with chest tubes, and I showed them the current state of care for those tubes.

    This was back in 2009 IIRC and had nothing to do with Covid-19. Anything is better than intubation perhaps excepting death.

  125. 125.

    snoey

    August 11, 2021 at 12:41 pm

    @Hildebrand: My daughter is a board certified infectious disease specialist and on the faculty at Wayne State.  She says that she’s seen that pattern before and would be happy to do a talk/forum.

  126. 126.

    J R in WV

    August 11, 2021 at 12:48 pm

    I see our family doctor every 3 or 4 months, and part of those appointments is a standard blood draw of 3 or 4 tubes of blood  from my arm.

    I watch them probe for a vein, some of the nurses are really good, others not so much. I have had tetanus boosters frequently as I live and work (well, not so much now) on a farm. I get a flu shot every year, they did shot clinics at work for years before i retired.

    I know it is a bigger deal for some folks, but I have not had any issue with needles since I was, 4 or 5? I don’t recall. The Salk polio injections didn’t bother me at all, tho the smallpox inoculation did, that was more like tiny cuts with the vaccine rubbed in, much more painful than a shot.

    In boot camp there were big strong guys who got their (many, many) shots lying down, lest they fall down again.

  127. 127.

    Fair Economist

    August 11, 2021 at 12:51 pm

    @Kent: To add on to that, the thing that is *really* like Tuskegee today is the disinformation accounts attempting to stop Black people from getting an incredibly safe and extensively tested vaccine. Except it’s even worse because the purpose of denying Black people effective treatment is to kill them, as people in the Trump administration explicitly said to each other early in the pandemic.

  128. 128.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    August 11, 2021 at 1:44 pm

    @YY_Sima Qian:  that’s smart and what all the other countries should be doing.

  129. 129.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    August 11, 2021 at 1:49 pm

    @Ken: thank you! I really worry about my niece but at least she has a nearbyVA  clinic and a partner who is a former Army combat medic

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 1:57 pm

    @Hildebrand: 

    In a tale of ‘ Art imitating life’, I go back to Law and Order: Organized Crime. The criminal/villain’s big scheme is to steal COVID Vaccine and sell them to the ‘Developing World’.

    He said:
    right now, 90% of the vaccine is in the hands of the 1st world, and the rest of the world is desperate to get their hands on it.

    Does your congregation know how desperate the rest of the world IS for the vaccine and would give anything to be able to walk to their local pharmacy to be vaccinated?

    Maybe you could find some stories about ‘vaccine tourism’. People spending thousands of dollars to get to the USA so that they can get vaccinated.

  131. 131.

    Uncle Cosmo

    August 11, 2021 at 5:10 pm

    @Betsy: ​If people understood that it’s the tiniest needle (about the width of a cat hair, and very short), that you really even can’t feel it, and how quick it is, I think it would relieve some concerns.

    You speak for your experience, so I’ll speak for myself: That was not my experience AT ALL.

    My first Moderna jab was a SUBSTANTIAL needle. The injection site actually BLED – and that has NEVER happened to me for as long as I can remember. And the damn thing HURT. And kept hurting for DAYS.

    My second shot went much smoother (Nigerian immigrant MD). Maybe the first guy was just not good with needles, I dunno.

  132. 132.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 8:05 pm

    @Hildebrand: 
    Hope you see this

    A link to the video that I told you about

    https://twitter.com/sjs856/status/1415386941973925888?s=19

  133. 133.

    Richard

    August 11, 2021 at 9:36 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Yes, same as in Iran. That gang of old men, those ayatollahs and mullahs have let their people down and are guilty of many crimes.

    I feel sorry for the people of Iran. They have been enslaved by their own ignorance. Those cruel old men are not going to help them.

  134. 134.

    Richard

    August 11, 2021 at 9:51 pm

    @Hildebrand: 
    I would ask them to respect their elders, and families and friends.
    I would ask them to not be so selfish. I would say- look at what is happening all around the world. The whole world is suffering!
    This is a time to unite and help each other.

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