Have you been watching the statistics? It looks like we’re finally on the right track.
It might have something to do with this:
I also check the state stats. Minnesota is looking a bit above average for the country.
I still have anxiety nightmares about the pandemic, though. After all, someone has to be the last person to die of COVID-19 this year, and the end of the pandemic doesn’t mean we aren’t going to have to live with this virus forever after.
Also, I figure that once I get my second dose of the vaccine (I haven’t even gotten my first dose yet), I’ll probably get hit by a bus the day after.
Clearly, you’ll need to get the “bus vaccine” also, too.
I hear it’s going to be rolled out strongly, later this year.
I got my 1st dose last Friday and my second is scheduled for next month on St Patrick’s day. Thanks to your comment about the bus, I’m now concerned about driving home from the vaccination site with all the drunks on the road.
Just got my 2nd dose yesterday and I feel like I got hit by a bus today. But I’ll take it…few days like this vs. actually catching the plague and croaking it? Worth.
It seems pretty early to say that, with a number like 13.6%.
As I recall, in the first couple of months and with no clue about a vaccine yet, some were already predicting a peak over the fall and winter. Maybe we should’ve expected as much with no vaccines.
Besides, “better” is not saying much, given the circumstances. We still have more new cases confirmed every day compared to last summer’s peak, as well as more confirmed deaths every day compared to the peak in the spring. Despite the premature ejaculations of many news outlets at the time, the declines from those didn’t end well, as we know. I’m not holding my breath this time either.
I should introduce you to my life partner who is convinced that she’ll die before she gets vaccinated. In our community, even people carrying dead animals are eligible before her…a 60yo with a heart condition. And when she gets the vaccine it will be the J&J and she will still die because it’s “effectiveness” is only 42% for her cohort. I beginning to hate that word “effectiveness”.
The vaccine is probably helping a bit but the decline is more likely due to other factors that make infection rates rise and fall. I just hope we get enough folks vaccinated before the next rise.
Wow. In Morris, they have buses?
As a great man once sung “It can’t get no worse.”
Solano County is finally getting its act together… I’m scheduled for my first jab this Saturday.
This NYT report was introduced with the tag line “But caseloads are no longer falling” in an email headlined “We look at four new virus developments—two encouraging, two worrisome.”
My twin brother had his first jab today ,i am his full timer carer ,i asked when i am likely to get my jab .
They said they are in the process of rolling them out.
Well, she might be disappointed to find that the latest results from the J&J vaccine trials has shown it to be 100% effective in preventing death and hospitalization. Would she be okay with just a 33% risk of a moderate illness? (It’s also pretty good at preventing asymptomatic illness.)
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/latest-johnson-johnson-covid-vaccine-data-means/story?id=76092851
The article also points out that the more recent trials have been conducted at a time where there’s a lot more variants out there, which makes it more difficult to compare results from those performed during last summer.
I see the latest stats. and it does look pretty good at least they seem to be going a hopeful direction for now. I also see the development of new mutations with worrying degrees of infectiousness. We have only been dealing with this particular virus a little over a year, the disturbing question that sits in the back of my mind is, what was the infection rate a year ago compared with the new strains emerging? Are we looking at a whole new cycle of pandemic? how effective are the the existing vaccines against the new strains?
I grew up on post apocalyptic fiction, with the sword of Damocles, nuclear war, constantly over everything. During the Viet Nam war I heard “the light at the end of the tunnel is just a train coming the other way”. i am always looking for that train
I got one shot and am waiting for the second hoping things will work out for a while at least.
uncle frogy
In the UK, my 90-year old parents finally get their second jabs of the Pfizer vaccine next week, almost 11 weeks after their first. While it’s not been keeping them awake at night, it is interesting how much of a relief it was for them to finally get the call, not that it’s likely to materially affect their lives until most of the British people have been jabbed.
tacitus @ #12 — She’s an avid reader, so she’s read it. I’ve also pointed it out to her. However, high anxiety can affect how a person judges this kind of technicality. To those of us who are not well versed in these things, it seems like a significant difference, so the caveats are not very persuasive.
It ain’t the vaccine that’s causing case counts to dive. It’s people being spooked combined with no holidays in almost two months where idiots gather in large groups. We see the same pattern in Canada where the vaccination rate is far lower.
The mortality rate might take a dive starting about now, with a lot of elderly now vaccinated.
Double negatives have reverse meaning, an item of humor that passes many readers. Ex.: ” It can’t get no worse.” means ‘ It can get some worse.’
A. Hoch
jack16@17 Well John Lennon did have a puckish sense of humor, but I always interpreted it as “It can’t get any worse.” which is already sardonic in the context of a song called Gettting Better.
I have a dozen family members that just got it within the last month, close to half are under the age of 8. Doesn’t look like anyone is in grave peril, but how TF you get this far into the pandemic and then catch it? You’re right to be cautious.
More specifically, my boyfriend’s cousin’s two 20-ish children and their mom got it first, then separately another cousin and her 20ish daughter and both of their husbands and their collective five young children all got it more recently. All the new cases were from people active in a church that dropped dosh on an “air replacement” HVAC system and had people sit six feet apart. One of the pastors is sick too.
My 30ish daughter recently got it, too. She has severe asthma and has been very careful to not be exposed.
She had a really bad sinus and ear infection, for which her doc has been prescribing antibiotics for over a month, without any success.
The doc insisted that she go to an ENT. Sure enough, less than a week after going to the ENT, she tested positive for COVID 19.
Luckily, she is doing just fine.
This is why I’m refusing any and all health appointments until I’m vaccinated.
I’m 63, and I have a few chronic autoimmune issues, untreated for over a year now.
Nevertheless, I still have to wait for my age group to be vaccinated.
I am starting to get anxious to get this over with!
Well, I was preparing for a long wait for my vaccination, wondering how much time and effort would be required to hunt down an appointment once Texas opened them up to the general public, and then suddenly, out of the blue, I just got jabbed!
I picked up a prescription from my local supermarket pharmacy this morning, only to discover later in the day I’d been given one for another person of the same name. I went back this evening, 40 minutes before they closed, they apologized, dug around, and gave me another one with my name on it, only for me to discover it was also for the other guy as I was walking out of the store.
I got back in line, not particularly miffed — these things happen and they’re still catching up from the big freeze last week here in Texas — and finally got to the front of the line about 10 minutes before they closed. More apologies ensued, a free prescription for my trouble (even though I said it wasn’t necessary) and best of all, a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccination!
They had received their first shipment today and someone didn’t show up for their appointment, so rather than let it go to waste (presumably they don’t have the means to keep it cold enough), the pharmacist offered it to me instead! So my second trip to the store and extra hanging around in line (twice), paid off handsomely…. unless I just caught Covid-19 as a result — that would be ironic (don’t ya think?).
OK, your number of cases is still horrible, but at least you’re getting the vaccinations done. Germany is currently fucking them right up. We got more or less sensible priority lists, only that we seem to make little progress (we haven’t even given all of group 1 their first shot!) and now a lot of complete assholes are refusing the Astra Zeneca vaccine, meaning they’re either blocking slots or using up the other two vaccines so that elderly people in group 2 will have to wait even longer (AZ is only for under 65 yo in the EU). It looks like hopefully I’ll be bumped up from group 4 to 2 and thank you very much, I’ll take AZ with an added fucking paper umbrella taped to the syringe.
6 months ago the same people would have pushed granny with her walker out of the way to get a 70% total risk, 100% risk of death reduction vaccine and now 1 million shots are lying around unused…