Oregon and Washington’s recent spikes correlated perfectly 10 days after kids returned to in-person school. Like clockwork.
But it’s an artificial one. We can do both; it’s not either-or. It’s a question of whether we have the will to do both.
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If you remember the Scandinavian (?) anti-masker woman who was going around to different businesses in California with fake credentials (The Freedom to Breathe “Agency”), I won’t put it past her group to start manufacturing fake vaccination cards.
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Those are already widely available. They were never meant as “passports” or anything, and as such have no security measures at all. Way easy to fabricate. Fucking assholes.
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We are living in such an “interesting” time that you risk someone taking it seriously and starting a new conspiracy theory and a new line of health products, also known as snake oil.
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Last weekend, I was tasked with getting something from a grocery store’s bakery section, and while I was the first one in line, they first served the two men without masks who came right after me and then the two women with three 8-12 year olds between them (again, all maskless) and even then, when no one else was around, they somehow would not look at me. The store itself requires masks, and so all the bakery workers were wearing them, but they were not so subtly indicating their views on the matter.
Yes, I went to the customer service office and calmly explained why I was leaving the store without buying anything. But that’s one of those subtle situations that is impossible to prove. I won’t go back to that store as a result, but I doubt the workers involved will even be questioned about it, let alone be made to change their actions.
That’s what we have to look forward to in the coming months. The jerks now have CDC cover for being jerks, and the people being harmed are the ones who are most at risk despite doing everything right.
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Search for “miracle cures” aside, it’s a real shame there hasn’t been more progress in finding effective treatment protocols for people who are sick with this disease. No matter how good the vaccines are, there has been and will continue to be a significant wait until everyone in some of the hard hit countries has access to vaccination. So finding good treatment could save quite a few lives in the meantime. The only widely-accepted treatment described in that article is Dexamethasone, which only reduces mortality by 1/3. We need to do better.
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i actually got to see one of these early on, spelling mistakes and all. fortunately, the person just wanted to make a scene, not actually get into a physical fight about it.
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At least some institutions in some states are having a vaccine requirement. I’m sure the kids from Clarence etc. will be pushing back on it unfortunately.
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ugh
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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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