Flu shot & COVID vaccine, who is getting it or not?

[kork13]

That's disappointing. Our deadline at work for getting ours was October 20, although they extended it a week or so. If your base hasn't gotten them, can you just go to CVS or somewhere else?

Yes, that's my understanding.... They always prefer that we get it on base (simpler for record keeping, maybe cheaper?), but yeah, I may be getting it that way soon, and having my folks get it done ASAP.

[Like2Plan]

Holy cow-Recent covid positivity rates for some of the states are pretty shocking:

States ranked by COVID-19 test positivity rates: Oct. 30

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/states-ranked-by-covid-19-test-positivity-rates-july-14.html

South Dakota: 46.3 percent positive

New daily cases: 1,000

Tests per 1,000: 2.4


Idaho: 34

New daily cases: 961

Tests per 1,000: 1.4


Wyoming: 31.8

New daily cases: 361

Tests per 1,000: 1.9


Iowa: 30.6

New daily cases: 2,315

Tests per 1,000: 1.4

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/south-dakota

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/idaho

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/wyoming

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/iowa

[disneysteve]

Holy cow-Recent covid positivity rates for some of the states are pretty shocking:

Covid is spreading rapidly in much of the country, but lots of people simply don't care. Clearly the administration doesn't and even came right out and said that they are making no efforts to contain the disease. It's tough to accomplish anything when that's the attitude of the people in charge.

It's going to be a long painful winter. Fortunately, I have a bunch of PTO scheduled for November and December. Just yesterday, I booked myself for a 5-day vacation in January and another 5-day break in February. I figure I'm going to need some downtime when we're in the heat of the season. I already have 10 days off scheduled in late March as well.

[Like2Plan]

Some areas still seem to be doing good:
I think the quarantine (or in some cases take a covid test instead) might help:

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/new-jersey

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/new-york

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/massachusetts

We wanted to visit upstate NY this summer, but our state got put on quarantine list right around the time we were planning to go--so, that was that.
We have friends who live in MA and they went on a vacation--but, when they returned to their state they either had to take a covid test or quarantine.

[disneysteve]

ake a covid test

One of the biggest failures in the US has been the disgraceful state of Covid testing and subsequent contact tracing. There is simply no way to contain outbreaks when little to nothing is being done to identify and isolate infected individuals and those who were exposed.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Well it might be worse for the next president come January 20, 2021

[disneysteve]

Well it might be worse for the next president come January 20, 2021

What might be worse?

I think it's still possible to take actions that can help minimize the impact of Covid on this country if we get leadership committed to doing it.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Los Angeles' current rates today are 26 new deaths and 1296 new cases. For comparison at the height Los Angeles had about 75 deaths a day and about 6000 new case a day.

[disneysteve]

Los Angeles' current rates today are 26 new deaths and 1296 new cases. For comparison at the height Los Angeles had about 75 deaths a day and about 6000 new case a day.

The number of inpatients with Covid at our hospitals has doubled over the past 30 days from 35 to 70. It had been as low as 13 a couple of months ago. I spoke to a friend who works for a hospital in Chicago and she said they are at just under 100 which is up sharply from their low.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Everyone think about this for a minute, why didn't the Spanish flu in 1918 wipe out humanity? Because it ran its course and killed off all that were susceptible and humans built up immunity to it. Fast forward to 2020 with COVID. I don't want to seen insensitive to the vulnerable population but the cure should not be worse than the disease itself. Yes COVID is deadly and yes protect the elderly and immuno-compromised, I agree. But do we need to kill off businesses and jobs and put them all on unemployment and welfare and free housing and grind the economy to a halt while we wait for a vaccine?

[Like2Plan]

Everyone think about this for a minute, why didn't the Spanish flu in 1918 wipe out humanity? Because it ran its course and killed off all that were susceptible and humans built up immunity to it. Fast forward to 2020 with COVID. I don't want to seen insensitive to the vulnerable population but the cure should not be worse than the disease itself. Yes COVID is deadly and yes protect the elderly and immuno-compromised, I agree. But do we need to kill off businesses and jobs and put them all on unemployment and welfare and free housing and grind the economy to a halt while we wait for a vaccine?

Well, back in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, face masks were required: https://www.history.com/topics/world...8-flu-pandemic

Probably the big difference between then and now is that it impacted young people and it was quicker--folks could go off to work in the morning and be dead by nighttime. But, these days so many people do not feel Covid will negatively impact them personally so....
Anyway, from the above link:
"The first wave of the 1918 pandemic occurred in the spring and was generally mild. The sick, who experienced such typical flu symptoms as chills, fever and fatigue, usually recovered after several days, and the number of reported deaths was low.

However, a second, highly contagious wave of influenza appeared with a vengeance in the fall of that same year. Victims died within hours or days of developing symptoms, their skin turning blue and their lungs filling with fluid that caused them to suffocate. In just one year, 1918, the average life expectancy in America plummeted by a dozen years."

I think the whole point is if the covid virus is not raging throughout a community more normal activities can occur. About the only thing we have in our prevention arsenal right now is face masks, social distancing and hand washing. If more people would do these things the numbers will come down and more drastic measures would not be needed. These measures have proven to be effective--when you look at communities where they have been able to turn things around.

[disneysteve]

Everyone think about this for a minute, why didn't the Spanish flu in 1918 wipe out humanity? Because it ran its course and killed off all that were susceptible and humans built up immunity to it. Fast forward to 2020 with COVID. I don't want to seen insensitive to the vulnerable population but the cure should not be worse than the disease itself. Yes COVID is deadly and yes protect the elderly and immuno-compromised, I agree. But do we need to kill off businesses and jobs and put them all on unemployment and welfare and free housing and grind the economy to a halt while we wait for a vaccine?

What we need is for everyone to get on board with taking appropriate precautions. Unfortunately, there is a wealth of misinformation being shared and actively promoted from people up to and most notably including the President and VP of the United States. There is a large contingent of people who continue to deny that COVID is a risk, or even that it exists in some cases.

The simple act of wearing a mask has been turned into a political statement with those doing it being mocked for being weak and living in fear. I read of one business owner who chose to close his business rather than remain open and comply with the mask mandate in his state. I read of a bar owner who refuses to observe the mask mandate and actually will not admit anyone to his establishment if they are wearing a mask. There was a huge ongoing legal case locally with a gym owner who refused to close. The place got shut down multiple times. He went so far as to remove all of the doors so that the police couldn't padlock the place.

People are selfish. They only want to do what immediately and directly benefits themselves with zero concern for how their actions impact others. Politicians want to hold huge rallies with people packed in and maskless, even in blatant violation of the local laws. They want to hold celebratory events that end up being superspreaders resulting in a dozen COVID cases directly tied to the event. Members of Congress have gone into chambers in close contact with their colleagues even after knowing that they had tested positive for COVID, and of course they didn't bother to wear a mask or tell anyone they were sick. People want to have their dream wedding even though it ends up causing dozens of COVID cases and several deaths.

We can't just protect the elderly and immuno-compromised. We need to work together as a population to protect everyone the best we can or else everyone suffers the consequences.

[disneysteve]

Everyone think about this for a minute, why didn't the Spanish flu in 1918 wipe out humanity? Because it ran its course and killed off all that were susceptible and humans built up immunity to it. Fast forward to 2020 with COVID. I don't want to seen insensitive to the vulnerable population but the cure should not be worse than the disease itself. Yes COVID is deadly and yes protect the elderly and immuno-compromised, I agree. But do we need to kill off businesses and jobs and put them all on unemployment and welfare and free housing and grind the economy to a halt while we wait for a vaccine?

Let's dig deeper into this.

We need a bare minimum of 50% of the population to have antibodies to provide herd immunity (and the real number is probably more like 70%). The latest studies estimate that about 9% of the US population has antibodies. We'd need about 155 million MORE Americans to get infected to get to the 50% threshold. Look at what has happened as a result of 9 million cases. Imagine the impact of 155 million more. The death toll would be massive. The number of people with long-term illness would be massive. The health care system could barely keep up when things were peaking in the spring and is getting overwhelmed again now in certain areas. How could it possibly hold up if cases increased 15-fold?

[QuarterMillionMan]

Good information DS, good to know.

[frugal saver]

Let's dig deeper into this.

We need a bare minimum of 50% of the population to have antibodies to provide herd immunity (and the real number is probably more like 70%). The latest studies estimate that about 9% of the US population has antibodies. We'd need about 155 million MORE Americans to get infected to get to the 50% threshold. Look at what has happened as a result of 9 million cases. Imagine the impact of 155 million more. The death toll would be massive. The number of people with long-term illness would be massive. The health care system could barely keep up when things were peaking in the spring and is getting overwhelmed again now in certain areas. How could it possibly hold up if cases increased 15-fold?

Yet there were just brand new news stories today saying that the immunity was only temporary and that herd immunity will never happen anyway. At least according to that news station. Another story a few days ago was a poll of a bunch of people that had tested positive. Of all the people that got it, something like 68% said that they "always wore a mask" while 10% said they never did. Was it true? Hard to say. It seems like there's competing "breaking news" stories just about every day.

Back to the vaccines, though. I've never had a flu shot--mostly because I've never had the flu, even when literally my whole section at work caught it, was coughing in my face and then all went home and I got to handle the work of 6 people by myself for a week. I'd probably have rather had the flu. My mother only ever had the flu once in her life--two weeks after getting her only flu shot. Maybe there should be some study of people who never catch anything and people that just seem to catch everything going around.

The covid vaccine? I doubt it. I'm still waiting to hear that someone I know--neighborhood, job, wherever--actually had covid. So far, still not a single one. I just talked to a friend who's very social and seems to know everyone--and she's still hasn't heard about a single person getting it. I'm sure it's "everywhere"--the media says so every day.