Continuing coronavirus happenings (Part 2)

There are several problems here.

First, as India and Nepal prove, we need the fuck get going on vaccinations outside of the US and Europe.

Second, we will need to get most adults and many children vaccinated.

Third (in possible slight disagreement to @DukeTrout), we can’t do both at the same time.

So, we have to balance it.

Fact is: kids don’t die of Covid-19, mostly.
Also, it seems that kids didn’t catch the older strains as frequently as adults (or: > 14y olds).
Also, it seems [citation needed] that kids don’t spread it as much to adults even considering the increase in infectiousity of the B.117 and similar variants.

So, the idea would be: get the adults vaccinated WORLDWIDE ASAP, AND try to build new capacity to manufacture more doses. Start vaccinating kids, but by all means just start with it when we get enough vaccine to have enough for the world’s poorest.

Meanwhile, get your kids to wear mask in class, give them air filtration, etc., WITHOUT ruining their childhood. (Don’t get me started on the assholes who oppose masks for kids on principles and bogous health claims…)

Also, protect the kids by wearing a mask, distance yourself as much as you can in your other parts of life, and don’t place additional burdens on the kids.

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There are currently 356 campuses that have said they will require vaccines. Unfortunately, in some cases there has been backtracking (in states that have passed laws in favor of university communities getting sick) and in many cases they’ve added this ‘pending FDA approval’ caveat.

The latter is unfortunate, as non-emergency approval before August is unlikely. OTOH, if students get the jabs just in case, and we see (say) 80% or more vaccination rate on campus, this should keep campus spread manageable.

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We just had a 40-y.o. vaccinated teacher die of COVID locally that was contracted from a student. Vaccinating kids is also stopping the spread.

Again, we can and should make enough vaccine for everyone, globally. We just lack the will to do so. Making it kids v. poor people is absolutely a false dichotomy.

ETA: And I 100% agree with you about this:

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That sucks, I’m so sorry!
And it’s also personally scary. I’ve been feeling a sense of relief seeping in since I got my second shot (Wednesday) but am planning to maintain vigilance. What’s the epidemiological synonym of, “don’t count your chickens before they hatch?” And how, oh how, do we get the community to understand it? (Not seriously expecting you to answer, you have enough to deal with. Just putting it out there…)

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earlier this week, the state of texas announced that covid vaccinations will not be required for public school attendance. a day or two later, governor abbott announced he was looking into whether he could legally make an executive order forbidding public school districts and public colleges and universities from requiring the same on their own.

at least he can’t strip workers of their federal unemployment benefits unless the legislature authorized it first.

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Honestly, I never, ever again want to hear “kids don’t die of covid.” You know what they do? Face a lifetime of disability due to complications and spread the illness to others, as well as providing a medium to generate more variants. At the very best, our vaccines provide 95% protection from infection. That’s excellent, as good as we could possibly hope. And yet it puts us in a place where herd immunity is a pipe dream, especially if we write off the kids. Additionally, who says we have to choose to vaccinate the developing nations, or the next generation? We have the manufacturing capability to do both. It’s a false choice, and asking whether we are to protect our children or people in other countries (don’t get me started on the racism that will come into play) and i suspect those developing nations will come out second best. No, i absolutely do not accept this as a binary decision, and i reject the attitude that it won’t matter if the kids get it. It will matter. A hell of a lot. I have previously posted references to the long term risks faced by kids who get infected. We cannot do that to our next generation.

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Same here. Just because it affects fewer children and babies than adults doesn’t mean there were no deaths. The numbers continue to climb for that age group, and this particular lie is among the worst spread by those with a “get back to work” agenda.

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If the 1960s TV show The 21st Century had had a segment predicting a time when leaders would be promoting legislation discouraging vaccinations during a dangerous pandemic, Walter Cronkite would have been laughed off the air.

As BB has a policy forbidding encouragement of violence towards anyone, I can’t share my feelings here about Andrew Wakefield.

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Andrew… Fucking… Wakefield…

All my normally kind and empathetic impulses go right out the window with that one. His body count will rival Pol Pot in the end. I can’t say what I would wish on him because I refuse to let my imagination go that dark, but where ever that would land would be far too good for his ilk.

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One of my coworkers recently said on a staff call that she hoped CDC et al would “seriously reconsider” their approach to closing schools and requiring masking in any future pandemics, given all the collateral damage to her kids that were made to miss in person schooling and sports for those months. She also specifically complained about a recent sporting event where the kids had to run track or play lacrosse while masked.
It kills me, bc I think they’ve really done the bare minimum. Overall.
I don’t even know how to get through to people like this. She’s otherwise intelligent and compassionate, but when I brought up the larger societal risks she said, “I got it, it wasn’t a big deal.” It’s really difficult to figure out how to get people to understand that it’s not all about them…

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chart

 
charts

 
ckelly17.github.io/vaccine_dashboard.html

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I hope she remembers that line when a vascular surgeon is pulling an 8” long clot from her leg…

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Because of course they did.

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36% is plenty, right?

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don't touch jodie whittaker GIF by Doctor Who

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America, get ready for the Jim Bob strain.

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We’ve got an Olympics coming up. And not in just the 2020 (2021?) Tokyo Summer Olympics; the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are just around the corner, too. I can’t help but feel, “We’re not ready.” At the same time, I can’t imagine the organizers being keen to cancel. It’s really looking like the Tokyo Olympics are going to happen, in spite of the wishes of people actually in Tokyo.

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