Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

Oregon's new case numbers rose through April and have been holding fairly steady until a couple of days ago. This puts us as an outlier in the midst of most states' sharp drops in new cases. I'm fully vaxxed, but I'm still masking for public indoor places like grocery stores and mostly avoiding them as much as in 2020. (I did visit a used book store last week for the first time in 15 months!)

On the whole, I do feel much more at ease now about my own prospects for avoiding a bout with covid-19, based on all the data I've seen about vaxx efficacy.

I was out this weekend: grocery stores, small stores, walking streets, sitting at outdoor bars (several friends visiting family for the first time since '19, all jabbed). Not a single person without masks. In Publix, which lifted its mask requirements on Saturday, 100% compliance from employees and customers.

If the cdc thinks people should act like they’re two weeks out from the second dose after their first dose they should say so.

people are pretty much all wearing masks at groceries and other stores here. restaurants, bars, and clubs are a different story.

Xpost literally not what I said. C'mon

So CDC is showing 3k vaccinations in the US today. That has to be incomplete data, right? Cos it says 0 vaccinations in NY

caek, are you fully jabbed?

Not until Friday. I got first dose the first day under 50s were allowed to in California so it’s not because I dawdled.

Xpost literally not what I said. C'mon

Fauci just ended a segment on Chris Hayes' show. The "takeaway":

1. He disagrees, he said mildly, with the date of the CDC's decision but agrees with the science.

2. The vaccine has exceeded every expectation.

3. The breakthrough cases with the baseball teams are better than expected: asymptomatic with viral loads so low that the infected couldn't transmit it. In other words, the players wouldn't have known they had it unless they'd been tested, and they weren't dangerous anyway.

California keeping mask mandate in place until June 15. Good.

yes, I am glad about that

I'm in an airport, first time in a year. Once again, no big "return to normalcy" rush. Just feels... normal.

there was a misentry of vaccinations on Sunday for New Hampshire I believe which overcounted by 400,000k , which they adjusted. so we're pretty well under 2 mill/day again. hoping the 12-15 starts making a dent soon - but being that it's still the school year, can't imagine they have a lot of pockets of time to get their kids vaccinated until weekends.

https://ohiovaxamillion.com/

into this

NEW: Anyone can call 312-746-4835 to request that vaccine be brought to your home, Arwady says

— Heather Cherone (@HeatherCherone) May 18, 2021

(that's the director of public health for the city of chicago IIUC)

Iniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign?

exactly

"if i understand correctly"

7-day national moving average in the US for daily cases dipped below 100 cases per million people for the first time since....I think last June?

Vaccination 7-day average down to 1.77 though :/

even if we're down to a million a day this trend will quash any potential surges

interesting to see where cases wind up tonight. per The World in Data, it was 35,111 last Tuesday, and it's at about 22,900 tonight with 9 states left to report (the big states are already in though). good chance the drop continues!

NY Times and Our World in Data pretty well in line last night - both report under 28,000 new cases for yesterday (27,506 for OWiD, 27,910 for New York Times). This continues the trend of dropping cases, as this is significantly lower than the cases reported on the same day last week (35,111-OWID, 34,088-NYT). the 7-day moving average for daily cases drops below 32,000 (31,004-OWID, 31,149-NYT).

Per NYT, this represents a 35% drop in the 7-day moving average (daily cases) in just the last 14 days - if you go back 28 days, it's a 52% drop (64,945 on 4/20, 31,149 today). The number of people hospitalized per NYT has declined 20% over the past 14 days. Deaths have declined 12% over the past 14 days, but as this is a trailing stat and hospitalizations and cases are decreasing, I expect that'll start dipping in about two weeks or so. Hopefully, at least.

what a shambles

Hmm pic.twitter.com/vjoCBLwtM6

— David Kroman (@KromanDavid) May 19, 2021

who could have predicted this?

Anthony Fauci tells Axios that many Americans are "misinterpreting" the CDC's new mask guidance, "thinking that this is a removal of a mask mandate for everyone. It's not." https://t.co/z671NxqBAr

— Axios (@axios) May 19, 2021

I started going back to my gym this week (vaxed) and two days in, based on CDC and NY mask rules, they removed the mask requirement. Today, mask wearers like me were definitely in the minority. So people are going to take the least restrictions possible and the CDC are morons.

Someone should probably get fired

Still chugging along nicely in SF, including widespread mask wearing. And indeed, another anecdotal confirmation that vaccinations at my local Walgreens are rolling right along; fourth time I've been there since they started fully offering it and there's always been at least a few people in line each time. Today I also saw the first 12-15 year old with their parent there, as required to get the shot, and I'm sure there's been plenty of others. Pharmacy numbers are still undercounts due to whether or not chain spots get shots from the state or nationally -- state are recorded, nationally not directly -- but combined with our continuing good numbers it's a further reassurance. (As of this morning 55% of the total city population, not just the standard 'eligible,' now has a completed regimen -- at the continuing steady pace I assume we'll hit 60% by this time next week; we're almost at 70% with one shot as it stands.)

Not unrelated:

Thanks a million SF! Together we have administered our one millionth vaccine dose and achieved an amazing milestone in our fight against the spread of COVID-19.
Get the data here: https://t.co/K9Q8T5OQJD#SF1Million #VaccinateSF pic.twitter.com/t7dAL6hAvp

— SFDPH (@SF_DPH) May 19, 2021

My university's jabbing any faculty, staff, or student with siblings between 12-17 this week. The line this morning pleased me.

More students on campus walking unmasked outdoors (fine); I'm starting to do it too. Yesterday I saw my firs two unmasked patrons at my Publix (inevitable).

without even asking, wow, that's rude

stab, stab, stab, stab

near me it's barely looked any different so far, but I'm in the 'responsible' side of town. haven't been to downtown Orlando, would not be surprised to see it's lax there- but then again, it kind of already was. a big reason I've avoided most of those bars for the last year.

the one thing that's bugged me for a while is all of the convenience stores with mask requirements on their signs and then you get in and none of the employees have them. that's been every 7/11 here since last April, my local one has a cashier that wears hers so far under her news it's like a plumber's butt scenario.

Sine last April?! I have seen in the last year the very occasional dicknose at pharmacies and box stores but never flat-out unmasked employees.

yep. the place near where I used to live before moving last year, I actually wrote several complaints to corporate about the free-nosing 7/11 employees that had no mask on at all (some did but were dicknosing), but it was clear they didn't give a shit. I picked the other convenience store down the street to go to.

Also, very good news here if this pans out:

https://www.axios.com/pfizer-ceo-new-vaccine-store-higher-temperature-a61eab6c-3529-4888-904a-1eb7adb341fc.html

Allowing for the normal hyping and over-optimism by management, this sounds beyond excellent:

"...we are right now working on a new version of this vaccine that will be ready-to-use vaccine, so you don't need to reconstitute it, you don't need to dilute it. ... And this vaccine can be stored up to six months in normal refrigeration."

that's good - there are a few recorded instances where a few inmates and a few regular civilians got like 5 shots at the same time due to the administrator thinking the prep had already been done when it had not been.

I just want someone to decide about boosters before the waning-efficacy wave in October or next March or whatever

i'm a bit annoyed that my trial hasn't mentioned it at all, I was fully vaccinated last September, which was a while ago.

I just want someone to decide about boosters before the waning-efficacy wave in October or next March or whatever

― Clara Lemlich stan account (silby)

Fauci mentioned in that Axios interview linked above.

Someone should probably get fired

She should probably get fired.

This is good https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/19/how-the-covid-pandemic-ends-scientists-look-to-the-past-to-see-the-future/

She sounds bad at this xp

As POLITICO has reported, several senior White House officials — including some on the White House Covid-19 task force — said the CDC did not warn them until the morning of the announcement that vaccinated people can forego masks in most situations.

Damn! Just the opposite of what I had thought. That politico story also states Walensky kept the announcement under wraps so the CDC could 'more tightly control the messaging', but the messaging was terrible from almost any angle you look at it.

They are about to start testing boosters in uk

The public is being urged to take part in trials to find out whether a third dose of Covid vaccine could protect against new variants.
All seven vaccines the UK has ordered will be tested on working-age people and over-75s as part of a randomised trial.
Data on side-effects and immune responses will be gathered.
The findings will help vaccine advisers decide if re-vaccinating some people in the autumn is necessary.

Trials obv good but as per convo in the other thread it would be kinda fucked if we started giving third doses here while most of the planet remains unvaccinated

UK people can sign up for that booster trial here (if you had your first dose in december or january)

EXCITING NEWS!

The @CovBoost clinical trial is open for registration of interest!

What is the @CovBoost trial you say?

Let me tell you!https://t.co/L0CLM1rPes

1/6

— Alasdair Munro (@apsmunro) May 19, 2021

haha nice

Highlights from Nets CEO @JAbbamondi mtg w/ reporters today:
-Nets will have increased fans for playoffs -- vaccinated and unvaccinated sections.
-Tickets will be MORE expensive in unvaccinated sections. "We are not neutral, we want people to get vaccinated."

— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) May 20, 2021