SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

covid-vaccine-mistrust-fueling-spike-rural-deaths-here-s-what-ncna1280746

 

An eye catching quote:

. . . new data shows that the death rate from Covid in rural areas is now double what it is in urban ones. You would think that fact, coupled with medical professionals pleading with people in rural America to get vaccinated, would lead more to get their shots. Yet, people in rural states lead the list of those who remain unvaccinated, putting themselves and others at risk.
. . .
Many in rural America aren’t vaccinated because two pernicious forces — the implosion of the rural health care system and the decay of local news — have left them with limited sources of information. That has allowed them to become prey to misinformation and overconfident quacks.​

I have rural relatives around Stillwater OK.

Bob Wilson

 

Got my 'old guy' flu vaccine today. But tracking local COVID-19 risks:

Sure hope I and my family (the star is home) don't need an ICU bed anytime soon,

Bob Wilson

 

I only read the abstract, and even though it's a a "retrospective quasi-experimental study" I would tend to agree that increased levels of COVID-19 cases and rates should be experienced statistically (and probably in the real world too) following "mass gatherings."

It will be interesting to see if somebody does a stare and compare with the 2021-2022 season, once it's completed, even though I'm not seeing very many games being played in stadiums with cardboard cutouts this year - at least in college ball.
I haven't watched very many pro games....

 

38,000 people packed into fenway park last night, not a mask in sight. screaming, singing, drooling, spitting, sneezing and coughing.
should be a reasonable test

 

Other countries are saying 100% of population will get cov19.
Real researchers are finding natural immunity is lasting so far 1 year into this.
As vaccines are 6 months.
Don't worry medication that never killed anyone that Pfizer doesn't make will INSTANTLY kill you as soon as 2020 happened.
Khaza!! #pfizermectin
Ask questions!
Would Satan tell you he is a bad dude?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Satan introduces himself as Governor DeSantis

Bob Wilson

 

"Real" researchers are as divided as the rest of us, which is why the folks on the front lines (teachers, nurses, docs) are also divided....but there is some consensus that both "wild caught" immunity and the human-made variety are BOTH value adders - if not completely mutually additive.
I can report that there is some gun-decking going on where the little white cards are concerned where some nurses are employing a "you sign off for me and I sign off for you" modality of authoritarianism push-back.
Docs may run the hospitals, but nurses make hospitals run.

Curiously.....there's no talk of a flu vax mandate.
Yet.

We had "the talk" at work today.
White smoke came gushing out of the chimney and the "compromise" that was struck with my beloved union is that employees not working in Montana will have to have one shot by Feb or face termination for-cause.
We were also told that there's no "test-out" option of any kind.
However (comma!!) there's an exemption for religious beliefs or medical conditions that, curiously, do not include pregnancy.
It was emphasized there is NO reason to believe that religious exemptions will be granted automatically!!!
You actually have to sign a piece of paper...

Of course, those who are excused from getting the vaccine will have to practice strict social distancing and wear masks at all times, as opposed to those of us who are fully vaccinated.....who will have to practice strict social distancing and wear masks at all times.


Science and data......

 

Some folks out here learned that hard way that the religious exemption doesn't necessarily work out as they intended. After their agency approved said exemptions without too much fuss, then came the "reasonable accommodation" step, at which point the agency wrote up termination papers due to lack of available workable ""reasonable accommodations".

PS here is a news reference:
Washington state workers are getting exemptions to avoid the COVID-19 vaccine — but will they keep their jobs? | The Seattle Times

"As of Sept. 6, state agencies received requests for at least 3,891 religious exemptions and 892 medical exemptions, according to state data released Tuesday. Of those, 737 religious requests were granted — but accommodations were made for only seven workers.

Meanwhile, 49 medical exemptions have been granted, with accommodations provided so far in the single digits."

"The Washington State Patrol hasn’t yet found any practical accommodations for workers who have been granted religious exemptions, according to agency spokesperson Chris Loftis. The patrol has received at least 327 applications for religious exemptions, according to state data.

That agency has approved every one of those requests that it has so far reviewed, according to Loftis, with roughly 100 applications still in the review process."

 

i'm not sure what part of my quote you are resonding to, so i'm not sure how to reply

 

are boosters partly political?
620259

 

What a great introduction:

So let's share an example of "Real researchers" versus random poser posting. One key metric is citing the population of the study, methods, and of course, showing up in a credible, peer reviewed source, New England Journal of Medicine:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2114583

BACKGROUND
Despite high vaccine coverage and effectiveness, the incidence of symptomatic infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been increasing in Israel. Whether the increasing incidence of infection is due to waning immunity after the receipt of two doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine is unclear.

METHODS
We conducted a 6-month longitudinal prospective study involving vaccinated health care workers who were tested monthly for the presence of anti-spike IgG and neutralizing antibodies. Linear mixed models were used to assess the dynamics of antibody levels and to determine predictors of antibody levels at 6 months.

RESULTS
The study included 4868 participants, with 3808 being included in the linear mixed-model analyses. The level of IgG antibodies decreased at a consistent rate, whereas the neutralizing antibody level decreased rapidly for the first 3 months with a relatively slow decrease thereafter. Although IgG antibody levels were highly correlated with neutralizing antibody titers (Spearman’s rank correlation between 0.68 and 0.75), the regression relationship between the IgG and neutralizing antibody levels depended on the time since receipt of the second vaccine dose. Six months after receipt of the second dose, neutralizing antibody titers were substantially lower among men than among women (ratio of means, 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.55 to 0.75), lower among persons 65 years of age or older than among those 18 to less than 45 years of age (ratio of means, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.48 to 0.70), and lower among participants with immunosuppression than among those without immunosuppression (ratio of means, 0.30; 95% CI, 0.20 to 0.46).

CONCLUSIONS
Six months after receipt of the second dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine, humoral response was substantially decreased, especially among men, among persons 65 years of age or older, and among persons with immunosuppression.
. . . ​

We have to be careful as random posters will make some claim without citing sources and upon investigation, we find they are dodgy or even misquoted. So here is a deep-dive paper explaining what happens over time with COVID-19 vaccinations. Don't be fooled by the posers.

Bob Wilson

 

this study shows the divide among experts regarding booster shots. do we boost to prevent infection, or severe illness?

 

Both. Just I preferred infection avoidance to block new infections over mitigation of illness. The worst is not using the vaccine and letting it go to waste.

Bob Wilson

 

Study: COVID recovery gave Israelis longer-lasting Delta defense than vaccines | The Times of Israel
Instagram Post Missing Context About Israeli Study on COVID-19 Natural Immunity - FactCheck.org
PolitiFact | Fact-checking DeSantis on COVID-19 natural immunity

lather, rinse, repeat.....

There IS one thing that I heard from fake news today that IS patently false.
Dot.mil is NOT giving military people Dishonorable Discharges simply for refusing the shot, although refusal of a direct order IS cause.

Generally speaking, people are AD-SEP'D or given an administrative separation.
It's not the kinda think that you brag about in a job interview - but it's a long way from being as punitive as a dishonorable or a "Big Chicken Dinner" (Bad Conduct Discharge) both of which are considered to be quite punitive.

 

i'm convinced most media would rather knowingly commit a lie and apologize later if caught. it embellishes their point, and most people won't see the apology/retraction.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-04/china-pcr-purchases-spiked-in-months-before-first-known-covid-cases-firm-says

Science:
....."Any sufficiently advanced conspiracy theory is indistinguishable from stupidity"

 

china's foreign ministry: 'virus traceability is a serious scientific issue that should be addressed by scientists.'

i agree, let the scientists back in, and give them free rein

 

Will that historic search improve treatments or prevention of the anti-VAX and anti-maskers in ICU beds today and tomorrow?

Bob Wilson