For the last few months, it's been nice to go into the town library without wearing a mask. But those days are over, as the town has reimposed a mask mandate on town buildings. Stores are following suit.
Today, the Gray Lady ran an opinion piece that COVID is now a pandemic of the unvaccinated. There was recently a story about vaccine regret. There's a story about who are the unvaccinated.
At this point, if you can be vaccinated and you're not, I don't what to hear your bullshit reasons for not getting vaccinated. If you subsequently contract the coronavirus, spare me your tales of regret. Spare me the lamentations of your family because you didn't get vaccinated.
What I know is this: Because of the clowns who won't be vaccinated and who then don't wear masks, we're going back to the kids having to wear masks in school (at least in states where science takes precedence over outrage politics). We're going back to having to wear masks in stores. It'll be a small miracle if the restaurants and movie theaters don't close, again.
Those who aren't vaccinated can't be trusted to adult up and wear masks. Many of them think they should have the freedom to spread an infectious disease.
One of my acquaintances said that she wasn't going to be vaccinated because she doesn't have to. Which sounds pretty fucking childish, but that's the MAGA crowd for you.
I stopped wearing two masks at the grocery store after I was vaccinated, but I still wear one, and will continue to for as long as there is a chance I could spread the virus to someone who might die from it.
ReplyDelete-Doug in Sugar Pine
For a week or so, it was nice going maskless into the store. At that time, I thought we had put Covid in the rear view mirror. But the recent Darwin surge put me back into full defensive mode. Now I go maskless on dog walks but mask up with an NK95 mask anytime in a store. The problem was and is that there are a large population of folks who still believe in the lies surrounding Covid. That population will continue to shrink as Covid takes its toll as the Darwin variant is far more infectious than before with the science saying that an infected person will now infect nine people instead of the previous two prior to the rise of Darwin. What we're seeing is Natural Selection operating on an extremely limited timeline, instead of the usual millenia. Additionally, vaccinated people can catch the Darwin variant and express few if any symptoms, but will spread it. So expect a big surge in coming months, as most antivaxxers will never alter their opinions even in the face of overwhelming medical consensus...
ReplyDeleteA very dark thought...
ReplyDeleteAs a vaxed person I will be safe in that I may get it but
a high probability not severely. However based on all
I've read If I should get it, I can transmit it, the
people most impacted if I am unaware or care to not
quarantine will be the unvaccinated.
Now that means the unvaccinated are at double risk of both
the source and severity. If that's not an incentive to get
darted I'd be at a total loss to understand why.
Are they depressed or harboring a death wish?
Eck!
Funny, if you look at actual data, you find that the MAGA crowd you want to blame actually has a higher percentage of vaccination than either black or hispanic communities... https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-race-ethnicity/
ReplyDeleteOld NFO---I've looked at the data, and understand the disparities that exist, as well as a number of reasons why they exist (look up the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment), but it was the Trump and the right wing media that convinced so many Americans to believe that Covid was a democratic hoax. Now that the "Darwin" variant is running amuck amongst their viewers and base they're switched gears a little, but in the early days they were fine with Covid ravaging the blue states as they were the main ports of entry...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-coronavirus-democrats-new-hoax-n1145721
and
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6B0EB93F6BA17608D82B4D23EDA75E50/S0008423920000396a.pdf/how_rightleaning_media_coverage_of_covid19_facilitated_the_spread_of_misinformation_in_the_early_stages_of_the_pandemic_in_the_us.pdf
The unvaccinated are the new Kulaks, right?
ReplyDeleteNo, and that’s an absurd comparison.
ReplyDeleteSitting here in Australia and pondering in the tropical sun. Everyone on our plane (more than 250 pax) vaxxed more than 6 weeks before our travel, and STILL required to quarantine for two weeks, wear masks on the plane, etc. (crew was 100 percent vaxxed as well). I do not expect the masks etc to go away because of rising vax rates, TPTB still need the drama to sell their bullshit.
ReplyDeleteLast year it was Biden and Harris pooh-poohing the not-yet-arrived vaccine(s).
ReplyDeleteOn a slightly different note, the vaccine requirement about to come into effect at my work still has the usual opt-outs. And won't be enforced until FDA approval.
And there is still no evidence showing that masks work.
ReplyDeleteWe are flying into a hurricane...and it could get lots worse as Covid continues to evolve.
ReplyDeletehttps://foreignpolicy.com/2021/07/30/booster-shot-coronavirus-covid-science/
We are being forced, by the anti-vaxxers, to play an insane variant of Russian Roulette: each time you survive, you put another cartridge in the cylinder. Eventually, infection will be a near-certainty....and the human race gets a Darwin Award.
In addition to the Ptown breakthrough cluster
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/this-900-person-delta-cluster-in-mass-has-cdc-freaked-out-74-are-vaccinated/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/us/covid-outbreak-provincetown-cape-cod.html
there's one is San Francisco
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/31/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine?type=styln-live-updates&label=coronavirus%20updates&index=0#covid-san-francisco-hospital-delta
...and a friend writes:
One of the nation's most prestigious hospitals--long a global leader in combating AIDS and other infectious diseases--is itself affected by the newest surge of COVID-19. And who is San Francisco General now named after? The head of arguably the world's biggest driver of disinformation about COVID, not to mention homophobia and racism. [Footnote: Priscilla Chan, Zuckerberg's wife, is a pediatrician and a graduate of UC San Francisco's medical school.]
OTOH, perhaps Covid's evolutionary increase in lethality will be restricted to blue states, since only there is evolution given credence. Red states won't have to worry.
To Ooh-Ooh, the truth is President Biden and Vice-president Harris did not say they don't trust the vaccine. They said they couldn't trust a prematurely rolled out vaccine that expresident T###p was trying to force out so he could brag about his great pandemic leadership skills after lying about it and fudging it all up in the preceding ten months.
ReplyDeleteO_O,
ReplyDeleteMasks do work or would you prefer your surgeon to work without
that encumbrance. I'd think of course not.
There is a level of proof they do work in reducing spread or
contact. If not hospitals are being silly.
At the other extreme rubber/nitrile gloves are easier to prove as
they are a barrier. Closest thing would be level A suiting with
mask and remote air source.
The key is reduction of exposure and resulting risk for transfer.
zAs to the comment on Vaccine that was a sound bit removed from
context where the comment was about Drumpfs accelerated vax
development and the possibility of shortening the testing phase
to an unacceptable level. Since that foreshortening wasn't done
and with more than 180,000,000 in arms we know it is both safe
and effective.
Sound bites for politicizing science and health is still
propaganda of some of the worst kind.
Eck!
A handy reference for anyone who wants detailed scientific info on masking...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(20)31142-9.pdf