The positivity rate of COVID-19 tests hit a new high point Tuesday of 14.98 percent as a winter surge of infections continued following the Christmas holiday.
According to data released Tuesday, 5,753 COVID-19 cases were found among 38,395 new COVID-19 tests, for a rate of 14.98, about four percentage points higher than the previous record set since the state launched broad testing efforts.
...
The surge in infections comes as the state nears a grim milestone, 500,000 positive COVID-19 tests. If the trend in new cases persists, Connecticut will hit 500,000 total coronavirus infections this week. But experts believe the true number of infections is much higher.
The state governor, Toll-Booth Ned Lamont, has said that he has no intention of imposing another mask mandate. Some towns and cities have.[1] Lamont was aggressive in fighting the pandemic in 2019 and 2020. so one might wonder why he is now seemingly asleep at the switch. He's not alone, Pennsylvania has a positivity rate of over 15% with no mask mandate. What is going on?
I have my suspicions. I suspect that the various authorities have concluded that there is nothing more they can do to convince the anti-vaxxers to get their shots. There's no point in pushing large-scale mask mandates, for there is probably a nearly-perfect overlap between the anti-maskers and the anti-vaxxers.
So, given all that, they may have concluded that the time for mitigation measures is over. Better to let the virus burn through those who won't try to fight it, until they wind up in the hospital. Then we can get to herd immunity, get on with our lives and, if in the process, a few hundred thousand more unvaccinated people end up taking early dirt naps, them's the breaks of the game.
_____________________
[1] The CT Insider doesn't seem to care very much about the goings-on outside of Fairfield County.
Early on with the Trumpers, it seemed to me that their disconnection from reality resembled a sort of Ghost Shirt dance. Now that's a reality, and they will be as bulletproof as the Sioux were. Like being in a dream, mute and helpless to affect the outcome, as the Titanic runs into the iceberg. The people of the Right are (literally) hellbent on a doom created by their tribalism and magical thinking. Like a kid having a screaming tantrum when you yank them out of the path pf an oncoming car.
ReplyDeleteIn some circles Stewart, it is dared whispered the Ghost Dance may be working. Took a little longer than hoped for but the white dogs are killing themselves off!
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that a positive test is counted as a "case", regardless of the presence )or absence of symptoms) or the seriousness of the symptoms (if they exist) right?
ReplyDeleteIt does not in any way reflect towards a death rate.
Either way, we get to Herd Immunity faster....(although Herd Immunity was once defined as 60%, then 70%, now 85%....IF they stop moving the goalposts, we might actually get to "Herd Immunity"....plus those who get Covid seem to have LASTING immunity rather than fleeting like those from the shots.
Didn't the governor point to the ineffectual mask mandate in New York as a reason?
ReplyDeleteAnd remember, masks have been shown to reduce community spread by only 16%. Which, if you look at the masks, makes sense.
I would think that if one tested positive for the virus, that one has a case of the virus, no?
ReplyDeleteHerd immunity has a lot to do with the virulence of any particular virus and, of course, the numbers are going to change as more is learned. I believe, for example, that herd immunity for measles is over 90%, because that virus is so easily transmitted.
But this is what gets me: People demand certainty. Science doesn't work that way. This virus, in its original form, has been known for only two years. It mutates and things change. Almost everything in science changes, that's the nature of the field.
If you want certainty, go talk to a priest.
B, there is no data supporting your assertion. To quote Bertrand Russell, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, which you’ve been lacking to date.
ReplyDeleteI do know Dr Chris Kresser, functional medicine doctor I like, says vaccinations for kids 5-11 are not recommended for various reasons, most important being the statistically tiny number of children that age harmed or killed by covid. And that so many kids already had it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know that at my age, 70, I'm not going to any bars, parties or restaurants until I hear the all clear. Maybe stay in a cave like in Earth Abides, fine SF novel. Or else like Blast From the Past, underground crazy Christopher Walken. I already got the crazy part down.
What gets me is the infantile entitlement of the skeptics: The vaccines didn't just make the virus magically disappear and they might have a side effect or two so we should just wholesale reject them?
ReplyDeleteSeat belts don't stop all injuries in car crashes, either, and you can drown if you can't get one off in time if you are submerged, but like the vaccines, they raise the probability that you will live through it.
There are multiple reasons for the seemingly contradictory advice coming from the government just now, and no small part of it is the necessary judgement calls they are forced into about what the population will actually do at this point, given the poisonous propaganda that has made an already difficult undertaking fucking impossible.
When I first read about what they were doing in China to try and shut down the spread of covid I knew we were fucked because none of that prevention would fly in America. And I was right. About a third of the population might as well be actively trying to spread the virus. And no, having had the thing does not confer better immunity than the vaccines. Having a breakthrough infection of Omicron when fully vaccinated raises one's immunity to Delta, but the immunity you get from an infection isn't much better with covid than any other corona virus.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Tod, you are the first person I have ever encountered who has read Earth Abides. Fine scifi indeed. I have a coverless, spine-broken, pages delicately tucked into place copy on my shelf; introduced it to my son recently who as mechanically inclined as I instinctively got it but had never before seen "drain the crankcase".
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should talk about the Year of the Jackpot.
Obligatory LOL ~ One would indeed think that if one tested positive for the virus, that one has a case of the virus, yes? I don't why binary is so difficult, pretty straight-forward: yes or no, it either is, or it isn't. There's no "sort-of" pregnant ...
I’ve read Earth Abides.
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised ...
ReplyDeleteTG: Isherwood's cave sounds like an excellent retreat right about now.
ReplyDeleteTen B: Heinlein saved my life; went from a depressed insular preteen to understanding how magnificent the universe and grand ideas can be. 60 years on it's still just as wonderful and my local library is a like a second home (except for the last two years).
DTB: You are expecting rationality and logic from a group that has none. Literally eating magic dirt explains how possessed they are by the Q infection. First they gave their fealty, then their money, then their votes, then obeyed marching orders, now their lives. Like lemmings, they stepped over the edge into the ideological abyss.
Hey, JustMusing, take a look at this, given that your avatar thumbnail is of a sportscar:
ReplyDeletehttp://sdean.net/bugattis.html
Stewart: I will check this out soon. I suspect it will be a feast for the eyes. Avatar is a Sunbeam Tiger. Long gone, but fondly remembered despite poor brakes and handling.
ReplyDeleteAlex, I'll go with knowledge for a loner life...
ReplyDeleteAround here story of three Turkey day gatherings..These are poeple
I've not seen in over two years due to covid.
All three were grandparents, their kids, and grandkids under 7 years.
All three groups had at least one kid with "sniffles".
All three groups tested 3 days later positive for most all but a very few.
Two grandparents in one family dead, both unvaxed.
the second family Adults had covid only one went to the ER and are
home after a week.
Third family had two in the hospital for a few days, J&J breakthough
with no long term effects.
Among the whole 37 people total, all but 5 had positive covid. All
but 2 were vaxed however most were Moderna. Those with least illness
had been boosted more than 10 days before. Of those that didn't go
to the hospital three can't smell anything a month later.
NONE of them planned to be together for Christmas or New Years
or for Superbowl.
I wonder why?
So if you claim your shit don't stink, we know you have covid.
Eck!