Coronavirus 6: The Plague of Delta

[clueliss]

One of the alternates of the US Women's gymnastics team has tested positive for covid.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/19/member-of-us-womens-gymnastics-team-tests-positive-for-covid-days-before-tokyo-olympics.html

[FiveAcres]

I "know" two of the US people there. One will be a dressage judge that I took some lessons from years ago. The other is an equine vet that will be there helping to take care of the horses of the US combined training team. She was one of the kids associated with the group I rode with back in the day. 

I hope it goes well and that all horses and riders (of all countries) come through safely. 

 

Edited July 19, 2021 by FiveAcres
typos

[clueliss]

Apparently the gymnast in question is Kara Eaker (because the local news had to make this one local)

 

[Alisamer]

On 7/10/2021 at 9:05 PM, Coconut Flan said:

It was a thing in the US, too.  Most places here vaccinated the "waiters" in age order.  It's much better than letting doses go to waste.

Yes, at one point I was on several waiting lists and text lists, and would sometimes get a text along the lines of "we have two Pfizer vaccine doses available for anyone over 18 who can get here by 5pm". I'd heard of pharmacists in stores anouncing over the loudspeaker that there were extra doses available, or going around and asking shoppers if they wanted the vaccine. 

On 7/16/2021 at 9:13 PM, 47of74 said:

I hate to sound uncaring and cruel but I'm at the fucking point of if you had some bullshit excuse for not getting the vaccine (as opposed to a real GOOD reason) and now you're in the hospital or worse cause covid it's all on you.  If it hadn't been for the fuck face and his bullshit pandering to anti-vaxers covid would just be an unpleasant memory now.  I'm at the point of bed.  Fucking made.  Fucking lie.

So much the same. I traveled for the first time in forever this weekend (just a one night out of town trip) and it looked very much like "normal". We are all vaccinated but wore masks inside any store where we weren't the only shoppers, but toward the end of the weekend got a little more complacent - hardly anyone anywhere was wearing masks. And we didn't wear them at all outdoors, where we spent lots of time. 

I'm somewhat wary of the Delta variant and others, but I told my boss the other day that the primary reason I've been continuing to wear masks inside stores and public indoor spaces is because I don't want to bring in the disease and take out our entire press department, because both of them cannot be convinced to get the damn vaccine already.

On the one hand, I'm annoyed I'm having to change my own actions to protect them, when they won't do one simple thing to protect themselves. On the other hand, I like my co-workers and don't want them dying. The boss just shrugs and says "well they won't be infecting US". To which I answer, "maybe, but the more unvaccinated people there are the more variants there will be!"

That said, if either or both of them DO get Covid? I'm probably going to just shrug. I'm not wasting any more breath trying to convince them, and if they die, that was their choice. They're asking for it. I'll be sad, but not surprised. I will also be annoyed because damn. They know better. 

I'm trying to be nice and not HOPE that all the antivaxxers would just go ahead and get Covid already and either learn their lesson or die, but sometimes I feel that way. 

On 7/17/2021 at 4:17 PM, Ozlsn said:

Yeah, I think initially postponing was a good response but then cancelling and giving Tokyo the next available one would have been better. It's all money based, and it's such a stupid idea right now.

Both parts of the Olympics used to be in the same year, every 4 years. I don't get why they didn't just decide to do it that way again. Put it off until next year, at least!

Although I think the next Winter olympics is only a few months away at this point (February 2022, maybe) so even that might not be far enough out the way things are going. 

[WiseGirl]

Very grateful to live in a U.S. state with a high vaccine rate.  That said I still mask up, wipe my cart, sanitize my hands, etc. It's maddening that the vaccines are there and people won't get it.

@AussieKrissy how are you holding up? (I know I'm missing others that I haven't seen tagged yet). I feel for you all. Stay safe and well.

[ADoyle90815]

I'm fortunate to live where the vaccine rate is high, but since the county is more densely populated than some US states, they've started a mask mandate for indoor places, regardless of vaccination. The cases and hospitalizations have gone way up, but among those who aren't vaccinated. It never affected my behavior at all since this pandemic has shown that I can't trust anyone, so I've worn a mask inside crowded stores. Also, masks have been required for everyone at my job, even if you're fully vaccinated, so I'm totally used to wearing a mask for 8 hours at a time. When I went back to work, I had to bring my vaccine card so HR could make a copy as they want everyone who can be to be fully vaccinated before returning to the office.

 

[Becky]

Here we go again - Covid hospitalizations at record level in Jacksonville, Florida:

https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/jacksonville-hospital-breaks-covid-record-amid-latest-florida-surge-n1274402

Dammit, I am beyond sick of reading quotes from unvaccinated-and-now-infected-and-very-ill people saying how they regret not vaccinating.  Stupidity, pure and simple.  If I were a medical professional treating these folks, I would have a very very hard time being kind and compassionate.  

At this rate, places in the US are going to have to lock down again at some point.  My state is one with a very high vaccination rate, but the positivity rates are rising again and I have gone back to masking my own vaccinated self indoors in public spaces.

[CTRLZero]

4 hours ago, Becky said:

At this rate, places in the US are going to have to lock down again at some point.  My state is one with a very high vaccination rate, but the positivity rates are rising again and I have gone back to masking my own vaccinated self indoors in public spaces.

I’m concerned about this as well.  We wear our masks indoors, and yesterday noticed that a lot of grocery store patrons still wore theirs.  Our county has a high vaccination rate, but vaccinated people are still choosing to mask up because there are enough thoughtless folks circulating the virus. 

[47of74]

If only more restaurant owners were like this. 

Quote

A Brewster restaurant shut down for a “Day of Kindness” after customers’ insults and threats drove its staff to tears, and they’ve gotten support from servers across the country who say angry diners are out of control.

Brandi Felt Castellano, the owner of Apt Cape Cod, said customers frustrated by wait times or service have been berating servers, even threatening them.

“Patrons have crossed the line from being just like rude or upset to verbally abusive,” Castellano said. “They told one of our workers that ’I hope you get hit by a car when you leave work today’.”

So she decided to close the restaurant for a day and treat the staff to a “Day of Kindness” free from abuse, telling them to decompress and focus on their own well-being. Castellano posted about the closure — and the reason for it — on the restaurant’s website, and soon heard from workers across the country about how they’re facing similar issues.

 

[NotQuiteMotY]

27 minutes ago, CTRLZero said:

I’m concerned about this as well.  We wear our masks indoors, and yesterday noticed that a lot of grocery store patrons still wore theirs.  Our county has a high vaccination rate, but vaccinated people are still choosing to mask up because there are enough thoughtless folks circulating the virus. 

I was at the grocery store yesterday and it was somewhere between a third and a half wearing masks (vaccine rates in my area are something like 60-70% of eligible adults). It's still unnerving.

I think what's driving me the most nuts right now is the attitude that "if you haven't gotten vaccinated by now it's your own fault if you get sick" and that's why we should get back to normal. I get it, I seriously do, and I can't muster much sympathy for someone who's sick after not only refusing to get the vaccine but also indulging in risky behavior. For that matter, I get downright mad at them for putting others at risk; it was really fun when that happened in my extended family this year.

At the same time, though, I can't get my whole family back to normal: my kids are too young to get vaccinated, and even once they're okayed to later this year/beginning of next, we'll have a new baby, and until then I'm being cautious for my/the pregnancy's sake, despite being vaccinated. I want everyone to be cautious for a while longer, because the earliest I can "get back to normal" will be next summer, IF they okay the vaccine for as young as six months by then. I need people to still be sympathetic to those who can't get vaccinated for a while longer yet.

[Alisamer]

1 hour ago, NotQuiteMotY said:

I think what's driving me the most nuts right now is the attitude that "if you haven't gotten vaccinated by now it's your own fault if you get sick" and that's why we should get back to normal. I get it, I seriously do, and I can't muster much sympathy for someone who's sick after not only refusing to get the vaccine but also indulging in risky behavior. For that matter, I get downright mad at them for putting others at risk; it was really fun when that happened in my extended family this year.

I feel that way. I'm sympathetic to those who cannot get the vaccine, have kids who are too young to be vaccinated, etc... and I know it's definitely not time to get back to normal just yet. BUT... we will literally never get back to "normal" at the rate we are going, until a large percentage of the antivaxxers either die of Covid or get some natural immunity from it. 

That's the reason I feel that way, really. It's the people choosing not to get vaccinated who are making it dangerous for those who are too young, immunocompromised, or otherwise unable to be vaccinated. So yeah, it IS their own fault if they get sick, and it's their fault if they get other people sick, too. It's their fault variants are developing, it's their fault the pandemic is still spreading, and it's their fault that it is NOT yet safe to get back to some semblance of normal. 

Literally in the US, everything is dragging because of anti-vax people. Not those who can't be vaccinated, who rely on herd immunity - but because of those who CAN be vaccinated but are too stubborn, gullible, and/or stupid to do their part by getting the vaccine. 

I hope your family stays safe. I'm just pissed because if all these morons who "don't trust the government" and "think Covid is overblown" and who listen to all the other empty-headed conspiracy theorists who think the vaccine is some sort of global plot to control the world would just get the vaccine things would BE safer already! (In the US, where the vaccine is readily and easily available in most places.)

So while I want to be serene and calm, kind and compassionate, I find myself wishing the majority of the crazy anti-vaccine people would just get the virus already, and if they die, well the world will be smarter for it. I don't like that I feel that way, but I think I'm just worn out. I just can't deal with the stupid anymore. I've run out of compassion to give, I think.

My brother-in-law was one of those people who wasn't truly anti-vax, but was complacent and couldn't be bothered to take 20 minutes and go get the vaccine until a month or two ago. I'm not sure if it was my sister talking about upping his life insurance, her letting him know he was not allowed on any family trips until he was vaccinated, or me hinting that if he infected and killed our elderly parents with a vaccine resistant variant there would be TROUBLE that did it. 

At some point there are going to be manslaughter and wrongful death charges against some anti-vaxxer who managed to infect a vulnerable person.

[clueliss]

Quote

Missouri clergy urge vaccination: ‘medically, scientifically but also theologically’

By Jeanne Kuang

July 20, 2021 12:28 PM,

Updated 24 minutes ago

 

Duration 2:00

SW Missouri counties take a new approach getting more people vaccinated

As Missouri hits a wall in vaccinations, prompting a rapid spread of the deadlier COVID variant, health officials have turned to a painstaking and personalized outreach efforts. By Jill Toyoshiba

More from the series

Missouri COVID-19 delta variant surge

Missouri is experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations due in part to the spread of the delta variant. Read our latest coverage.

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JEFFERSON CITY

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More than 200 Missouri pastors and ministers are joining a COVID-19 vaccination outreach effort spearheaded by a Jefferson City-based Christian magazine.

The effort comes as the aggressive delta variant of the virus continues its spread across the state.

On Wednesday the pastors, led by Word&Way editor-in-chief Brian Kaylor, will launch an advertising campaign and issue a plea for Missouri Christians to get vaccinated, “as a way of following Jesus’s command to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

×

Missouri is second in the nation, behind Arkansas, for the most new COVID cases per capita on a weekly basis. Full vaccinations in recent days crept just above 40% of the population — far below the 75 to 80% needed to contain the virus.

In southwest Missouri, the area hardest hit by the delta variant so far, health officials have embarked on sometimes painstaking and personal outreach efforts to get vaccines to those who are mostly hesitant or opposed. Door-to-door canvassing is one component; another is urging conversations between friends and family.

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The endorsement of trusted figures in the community such as clergy, they say, is critical. Springfield health officials and clinics have partnered with two prominent local churches to host clinics in recent weeks.

The Missouri clergy on Wednesday plan to make a faith-based plea: for “every follower of Jesus to realize their responsibility to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8). At this moment that means increasing vaccination rates in our community.”

Vaccine hesitant

In a March poll, the Public Religion Research Institute found that white evangelical Protestants were among the leading groups of religious Americans who are hesitant or would refuse to take a vaccine. They were second to Hispanic Protestants.

But it also found that 47% of white evangelical Protestants who regularly attend church and were vaccine hesitant said they would be more likely to accept a shot with a faith-based approach. Sixty-six percent said they would go to a religious leader at least for information about vaccines — as would 70% of Black Protestants.

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Kaylor, a Baptist minister and writer, has been encouraging COVID precaution measures in churches since the pandemic began. The magazine devoted its January cover story to vaccinations, and “encouraging it from a faith perspective,” he said.

“We need to do whatever we can to speak into this moment,” he said. “Let’s get vaccinated: medically, scientifically but also theologically.”

Kaylor said he knows of no Christian denominations that oppose vaccination on religious grounds, but acknowledged anti-vaccine sentiments are pushed by some pastors or churches at the local level.

“I don’t think you’re seeing it at big-picture level,” he said. “I think that’s a minority opinion. There are some ministers that are pushing it but they are out of touch even with their own denominational leaders.”

Word&Way senior editor Rev. Beau Underwood, former senior minister at First Christian Church in Jefferson City, said leaders from more than a dozen Christian denominations are joining the outreach effort, including from more conservative sects and from both urban and rural communities.

“It really does cut across the theological spectrum,” he said.

Those joining the effort from Kansas City include Darron LaMonte Edwards, Sr., Lead Pastor of United Believers Community Church, and Emily Stirewalt, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and a hospital chaplain.

Kaylor has encouraged pastors across Missouri to share photos of themselves getting vaccinated on Facebook.

“It seems so simple but it really can make a difference coming from someone who speaks with moral authority,” he said. “If you’re sitting in a pew, Sunday after Sunday, that’s an important relationship with your minister, a trusted voice in your life.”

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article252898078.html#storylink=cpy

The above was linked in a post by Rachel Maddow. 

[Coconut Flan]

18 hours ago, ADoyle90815 said:

I'm fortunate to live where the vaccine rate is high, but since the county is more densely populated than some US states, they've started a mask mandate for indoor places, regardless of vaccination.

Most of the stores I've been in still have signs on the door that masks are required for entry even though I'm a bit south of you and our county is so far stubbornly holding to doing nothing except push vaccines.  

Edited July 20, 2021 by Coconut Flan

[Coconut Flan]

People don't want to get vaccinated because they didn't learn how to read tables in third grade?

[Dandruff]

How about a massive hospital surcharge, not coverable by insurance, for COVID-19 patients who are eligible to be vaccinated and refuse?

[clueliss]

Oh and here in the most vaccinated % county in Missouri - we are now over 700 cases which puts us back at December levels.  I think we still have another weekend of Missouri State Games - OH and hey the county fair. 

[Alisamer]

8 hours ago, Dandruff said:

How about a massive hospital surcharge, not coverable by insurance, for COVID-19 patients who are eligible to be vaccinated and refuse?

Insurance companies already do all they can to deny coverage - I won't be the slightest bit surprised if this winter when it's time for everyone to get coverage for next year some of them decide that if you're eligible to be vaccinated and do not get the vaccine, they won't cover Covid treatment. Or, if they can't manage that, vaccination status will become one of the questions they ask along with whether you smoke. They raise rates for smokers because they are more at risk of serious illness long term, surely they'll raise rates for non-vaccinated people because they are more at risk of Covid. They would likely frame it as a discount for vaccinated people, I'm sure. 

I'm OK with people who refuse vaccination who are eligible and able to be vaccinated being charged outrageous insurance premiums or being denied coverage for Covid. They're the same people who say "why should I pay more taxes to help poor people" so I say "why should I pay higher premiums to cover stupid people's Covid treatment?"

[Ali]

In my area so many are acting like the pandemic is over. Numbers are low right now, but I feel like it is only a matter of time before they go up again. All three of my kids are too young to be eligible for the vaccine. All surrounding school districts, including the one my kids attend made masks optional for next school year. My oldest had no complaint about wearing masks, but has recently been complaining about it because hardly no one else is wearing one except our family. She is starting middle school and understandably does not want to stand out in the crowd. I really wish people would just cooperate!

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, Alisamer said:

Insurance companies already do all they can to deny coverage - I won't be the slightest bit surprised if this winter when it's time for everyone to get coverage for next year some of them decide that if you're eligible to be vaccinated and do not get the vaccine, they won't cover Covid treatment. Or, if they can't manage that, vaccination status will become one of the questions they ask along with whether you smoke. They raise rates for smokers because they are more at risk of serious illness long term, surely they'll raise rates for non-vaccinated people because they are more at risk of Covid. They would likely frame it as a discount for vaccinated people, I'm sure. 

I'm OK with people who refuse vaccination who are eligible and able to be vaccinated being charged outrageous insurance premiums or being denied coverage for Covid. They're the same people who say "why should I pay more taxes to help poor people" so I say "why should I pay higher premiums to cover stupid people's Covid treatment?"

I logged into our life insurance policies several days ago to check something, and looked around a bit on their site. If my husband and I were shopping for policies from that same company right now, the fact that we had Covid in December would disqualify us.

[Cartmann99]

[Coconut Flan]

One doctor is saying get vaccinated or get COVID.  He says Delta is so contagious those are the only choices left.  

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/564214-mayo-clinic-expert-warns-delta-variant-will-infect-everyone-who

[Smash!]

1 hour ago, Coconut Flan said:

One doctor is saying get vaccinated or get COVID.  He says Delta is so contagious those are the only choices left.  

I think if you avoid being inside closed spaces with others than your immediate family and if you have to wear a properly fitted FFP2/KN96 mask then chances are high you won‘t get it even if unvaccinated. But you have to be really careful.

I‘m angry at the governments around the world who think the lives of the children (who can get long covid) and vulnerable people who can‘t get the vaccine or don‘t develop enough antibodies are expendable. I‘m sorry to say but this feels kind of like eugenics. The government has to protect its people at least according to the constitution. And they chose not to.

And yes I‘m freaking scared that my mom will eventually catch Covid despite all the precautions. If she does there won‘t be a good outcome. Whether she survives or not.

[MomJeans]

Are anyone's schools backtracking on lifting covid precautions?

Our public schools don't require masks, and have no online option for the new school year.  We were already planning to homeschool for this coming year anyway, for this reason. (Adult population is only 40% vaccinated for our area and our state is a covid hotspot). 

I don't think anything will change in our area (masks are very political, I've been spit at for wearing one), but I'm curious if other school systems are changing their covid precautions with Delta on an upswing. 

[clueliss]

10 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

One of the hospitals in Springfield has transferred something like 13 patients to my county.  It is both comforting and frightening to live in a city with multiple hospitals right now.

[Coconut Flan]

14 hours ago, Smash! said:

I think if you avoid being inside closed spaces with others than your immediate family and if you have to wear a properly fitted FFP2/KN96 mask then chances are high you won‘t get it even if unvaccinated. But you have to be really careful.

I'm fully vaccinated and that is very close to the life I'm living.  I'm at risk for being a breakthrough case though.