I think this part in the summary (at the link) gets at your point:
Post-vaccines, the excess death rate gap between Republicans and Democrats widened from 1.6 pp (22% of the Democrat excess death rate) to 10.4 pp (153% of the Democrat excess death rate).
So yes, in the beginning, before vaccines and before we understood the transmission mechanisms, congregation in large population areas was a main component in getting Covid; at that point, Democratic voters were more likely to die. Once facts were in evidence, Republican voters chose higher risk in order to ‘own the libs’.
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Thanks! I also just noticed I hadn’t looked at the table closely enough to notice they were looking at Ohio and Florida, not the entire country. I imagine if they did a similar table for NY and PA there might be a noticeable blue spike early on.
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Yeah, the early spikes were bad enough that even today the total number of deaths per capita over the course of the pandemic are higher in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey than Ohio.
New Jersey was the 9th deadliest state per capita, and NY was the 16th deadliest. Florida is #13.
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Funny thing about that club - I don’t remember joining, but I keep getting all their announcements of upcoming events… 
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Rant warning.
Okay, total first world problem here, but on the topic of why uptake of the newly available bivalent boosters is so dismal, they’re definitely not making it easy.
I wanted the Moderna, based on some light reading. First it took me a while to find out where I could get that one locally, almost everyone local has Pfizer only.
Then when I tried to schedule an appointment online, it took all my information and then told me they were doing walk-ins (or drop-ins) only.
I was skeptical, so I called to confirm they had Moderna and the whole drop-ins thing.
On hold for 30 minutes. Hung up, tried again, gave up after 15 minutes and called the “front” of the store (instead of the Pharmacy). The lovely people there actually answered and walked back to the Pharmacy to answer my questions about the type of vaccine and how to schedule.
Finally got to the correct website to schedule an appointment, filled in all the data, including complete health insurance info, name of my high school gym teacher, etc., they offer a date when there are slots available and when I selected the date, it says “no appointments available on that date.”
I mean, it’s fine, and it’ll work, and I’m getting the booster, but whomever designs those web interfaces is NOT my friend. And the pharmacists are obviously stretched really thin right now.
I wish some of the stories scolding us for the slow uptake would focus a little attention on the barriers. I live pretty close to a number of pharmacies and have a car and a computer and internet, and it was infuriating. I can’t even imagine someone trying to do that over the internet on their smart phone or, heaven forbid, on the actual phone, and needing to secure transportation from a more rural area with limited pharmacy options!
[End Rant]
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I also noticed that the process is more difficult in my area. After encountering similar scheduling problems, I bypassed the old website and booked directly with the pharmacy. During my annual physical earlier this month, I noticed that my past two boosters were not in my records and the mechanism to manually add the information via medical portal is gone. They were previously getting reports from those institutions doing the vaccinations. So, I contacted the portal admins - haven’t heard back yet. Why do I get the feeling that the forces of “get back to the office” and “there’s no need for tracking” are behind this?
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Once again, I have to mention that despite all of the MAGA-type issues I have with rural Indiana, their public health has organized the state’s Covid response so well that my experience couldn’t have been more different from yours. And I assure you, I’m even more ‘out in the boonies’ than you are!
It is possible to get it right, even in a state that is redder than red.
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I got my bivalent booster two weeks ago at the CVS pharmacy inside the Target store near me. It was given by the pharmacist, and out of curiosity I asked her if only the pharmacists could do it, and she said that they’ve just recently trained the pharmacist’s assistants to do it, to take some of the pressure off the pharmacists. That seemed like a really good idea to me. She did seem to be awfully busy with a lot to do.
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FTFY.
Since day one, this fucking pandemic is a result of barriers, hindrances, hurdles, gatekeeping issues and more. Fuck this shit. If we, as humanity, would have done what an experienced professional has sad, THIS FUCKING HORRORSHOW WOULD HAVE ENDED. Maybe even before it became a pandemic.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1238504143104421888
Go where the cases are. Talk to people. Bring vaccinations to them. Go into social bubbles, into societal compartments. Give the vaccination for free.* Help people understand the importance of Al measures, including vaccination. Get fucking primetime PSA in clear and simple language without bullshit, and without the PR fuzz. TALK TO PEOPLE in their community.
Basically, get the fucking stick out of your fucking arse and stop looking at those bloody election polls, or your superiors, or your controlling.
Sigh.
Sorry, did I forget to put a rant disclaimer?
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Bivalent boosters approved for kids in the US aged 5-11. Ours will be getting one as soon as I can get her in. Luckily her last booster was 2 months ago today, so she’s eligible.
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If you catch her at the border, she probably does not have proof of vaccination in her name.
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Something on the positive side…
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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33415-5
Ah well, no one box.
Outcomes among confirmed cases and a matched comparison group in the Long-COVID in Scotland study
Abstract
With increasing numbers infected by SARS-CoV-2, understanding long-COVID is essential to inform health and social care support. A Scottish population cohort of 33,281 laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections and 62,957 never-infected individuals were followed-up via 6, 12 and 18-month questionnaires and linkage to hospitalization and death records. Of the 31,486 symptomatic infections,1,856 (6%) had not recovered and 13,350 (42%) only partially. No recovery was associated with hospitalized infection, age, female sex, deprivation, respiratory disease, depression and multimorbidity. Previous symptomatic infection was associated with poorer quality of life, impairment across all daily activities and 24 persistent symptoms including breathlessness (OR 3.43, 95% CI 3.29–3.58), palpitations (OR 2.51, OR 2.36–2.66), chest pain (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.96–2.23), and confusion (OR 2.92, 95% CI 2.78–3.07). Asymptomatic infection was not associated with adverse outcomes. Vaccination was associated with reduced risk of seven symptoms. Here we describe the nature of long-COVID and the factors associated with it.
Nearly half of those who did not die of covid are not able to live the same lives they had beforehand. This is only one study, but the more we learn about outcomes, the scarier this shit looks.
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It’s like post polio syndrome.
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