onfocus

"Although, statistically, counties and states with higher vaccination rates have lower case counts and hospitalization rates, they have still become areas with high levels of community spread."

Excellent summary of what we know about the current covid wave.

"I think the problem we have is people — whether it’s the CDC or the people that are doing the briefings — their big concern is, they just want to get vaccinations up. And they don’t want to punch any holes in the story about vaccines. But we can handle the truth. And that’s what we should be getting."

The CDC is dropping the ball by not collecting data about breakthrough cases.

"What we don’t know – but need to know to make any meaningful policy decisions around vaccinated people and the pandemic moving forward – is how common breakthrough cases are, how common long Covid is in these breakthrough cases, and how breakthrough long Covid compares with long Covid in unvaccinated infected individuals, in terms of severity, duration and pathophysiology."

Hello covid anxiety my old friend.

"Out of 469 positive cases identified, nearly three-quarters of cases were in fully vaccinated people. Delta was determined to be the culprit in these cases, not older strains or some new variant. And — most surprisingly — the amount of virus measured in a subset of people who tested positive was nearly identical among vaccinated and unvaccinated people."

Fascinating story of citizen science but maybe misses the real headline? Are breakthrough cases more common than they’ve been saying they should be? And why isn’t the CDC studying overall breakthrough rates?

“Oregon is facing a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations––consisting overwhelmingly of unvaccinated individuals––that is quickly exceeding the darkest days of our winter surge,” Brown said in a written statement Wednesday. “When our hospitals are full, there will be no room for additional patients needing care––whether for COVID-19, a heart attack or stroke, a car collision, or a variety of other emergency situations. If our hospitals run out of staffed beds, all Oregonians will be at risk.”

This was also avoidable.

"Kids remain, as they have been throughout the pandemic, at much lower risk of getting seriously sick with the coronavirus, especially compared with unvaccinated adults. But the recent rash of illnesses among the nation’s youngest is a sobering reminder of the COVID-19 adage that lower risk is not no risk. With so many children unable to access vaccines and their health contingent on those around them, parents and guardians must now navigate the reality that Delta represents a more serious danger to everyone—which means it’s a more serious danger to kids as well."

This was avoidable.

"A number of universities and hospitals, the Defense Department and at least one major city, San Francisco, are expected to mandate inoculation once a vaccine is fully approved. Final approval could also help mute misinformation about the safety of vaccines and clarify legal issues about mandates."

Full approval could happen as early as September 6th! I saw this in the Johns Hopkins covid newsletter which is a good source of covid news.

"We’re seeing a wave of mandates for various kinds of public employees and health care workers to get vaccinated. We’re also seeing the federal government clear the way for private organizations to do the same. That is the proper path forward. We do not need to see it as punitive. It is simply placing the burden of non-vaccination on the voluntarily unvaccinated."

This is the rant I needed to read right now.

"Certainly the severe consequences will fall mostly on the unvaccinated. But the dysfunction affects all Americans."

This update from Zeynep Tufekci mirrors my frustration with the CDC, FDA, and OSHA. These agencies seem to be acting slowly while cases rise quickly in the US.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, the CDC said that a close contact was somebody that you’re indoors with unmasked for 15 minutes or more. The equivalent of that with the Delta variant is not 15 minutes, it’s one second."

Grimacing emoji.

Can I (a vaccinated parent) transmit the virus to my (unvaccinated) kids?

Yes. During pre-Delta, vaccines reduced transmission by a lot (85-90%), but they’re not perfect (100%). So, yes you can give the virus to your kids, although it’s much less probable than an unvaccinated person. We do not know how Delta changes the game. Delta is stickier with a higher viral load, so Delta has the potential to transmit from vaccinated to unvaccinated higher than before. But we just don’t know yet.

An epidemiologist looks at the Delta variant's impact on kids who can't get vaccinated yet.

"They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn’t get as sick. They thought it was ‘just the flu’. But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back."

A doctor in Alabama talks about treating covid now that we have vaccines.