Coronavirus

I genuinely hope the long awaited trivial difference between full FDA approval and emergency approval does matter to people and we see vaccination rates go up even more. I wasn't born yesterday so I doubt it, but I would love to see it.

ubarose wrote:

Sagrilarus wrote: www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/nat...hs/?itid=hp_pandemic

I'll tell you what, looking at the infection rates by state in the Washington Post it becomes really apparent how much this is a disease of the Confederacy.

The deep south holds the worst six slots in the state-by-state numbers, followed by Kentucky, a border state at best, then back south again, with the exception of Wyoming for the top 12. The only "southern" state not at the bad end of the list is Virginia, which comes in at 32.

The best 10 slots are Alaska, Maine, Connecticut, Maryland (marginally southern), Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Minnesota.

I don't want to minimize the impact in other parts of the country, but this is really lopsided. I'd be curious to see if other countries are as out of balance as we are.

Living in New England, with most of my family in MD, I often feel like I'm living in a different county from the rest of the US. Here the divide between the vaccinated and unvaccinated is seen as mostly socio-economic, not ideological or political. In fact our towns and districts than lean Republican (which are also our wealthiest towns and districts) have the highest vaccination rates (at least one is at 100%).

Is that because the US vaccination program costs for the person or relies on health insurance ... or just other reasons like vaccine ignorance (scared or don't believe in them) ?
In the UK it is all driven by the governments and everyone was sent their appointments as their group came up (health workers, health compromised, and age down). And when it got to the young people (under 30s) a couple of months back they have been providing incentives like taxi rides to get as many young people in as soon as possible.

southernman wrote: Is that because the US vaccination program costs for the person or relies on health insurance ... or just other reasons like vaccine ignorance (scared or don't believe in them) ?
In the UK it is all driven by the governments and everyone was sent their appointments as their group came up (health workers, health compromised, and age down). And when it got to the young people (under 30s) a couple of months back they have been providing incentives like taxi rides to get as many young people in as soon as possible.

There are a lot of things wrong with healthcare in the U.S., but so far the cost of getting a COVID vaccination isn't one of them. If you have health insurance, your insurance carrier pays 100% of the cost of vaccination. If you don't have health insurance, you still don't need to pay for the vaccination. There are even some incentives to get vaccinated now, depending on which state you live in.

There are two major obstacles to getting everybody vaccinated. One is political. For reasons that still don't make any sense to me, a majority of Republicans remain opposed to any safety precautions against this pandemic: masks, social distancing, and especially vaccinations. When former president Trump finally told his followers to get vaccinated at a recent rally, he actually got booed. The other obstacle is accessibility. A lot of poor and working poor people lack the information and the transportation to get motivated to get the vaccine or travel to a site where they can get a shot.

Some non-white communities also have background skepticism of the healthcare system due to how they've historically been mistreated or discriminated against (and in some ways still are!).

Still others work tough jobs that offer no sick time or paid leave, and if there's a real chance that vaccination could lay you low for a couple days but you don't have the safety net of time off, incredibly you could face the real choice of keeping your job and income or a life-saving vaccination.

Well our right of centre govt is quite white, as is the top of the health service, and they seem to be able to take advice about issues with different economic and ethnic parts of the country so I think the 'race' card is just an easy target.
Maybe look at what I said here a year ago - the actual culture of the US where you are indoctrinated into an individuals rights above that of the community, that is not going to help at all (and I already see so many posts about state leaders and staff and students at universities and many others all refusing to follow safety guidelines to assist the community - that barely happened in the UK).
Really - looking at the actual people you are the dis-united states, the individual comes before the state or the country. You are only united when the country itself is attacked.

Sagrilarus wrote: www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/nat...hs/?itid=hp_pandemic

I'll tell you what, looking at the infection rates by state in the Washington Post it becomes really apparent how much this is a disease of the Confederacy.

The deep south holds the worst six slots in the state-by-state numbers, followed by Kentucky, a border state at best, then back south again, with the exception of Wyoming for the top 12. The only "southern" state not at the bad end of the list is Virginia, which comes in at 32.

The best 10 slots are Alaska, Maine, Connecticut, Maryland (marginally southern), Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Minnesota.

I don't want to minimize the impact in other parts of the country, but this is really lopsided. I'd be curious to see if other countries are as out of balance as we are.

Given the data from Israel, I imagine that it will eventually shift and become an everywhere problem again. Hopefully, people will be willing to get the booster. But, we see that most people don't get the flu shot every year, so I'm not hopeful.

I think that the IFR of around .68 (avg. across all ages) makes people think that this isn't a big deal for them personally -- they just don't realize that all other activities they engage in on a daily basis have a much lower chance of killing them.

southernman wrote: Well our right of centre govt is quite white, as is the top of the health service, and they seem to be able to take advice about issues with different economic and ethnic parts of the country so I think the 'race' card is just an easy target.
Maybe look at what I said here a year ago - the actual culture of the US where you are indoctrinated into an individuals rights above that of the community, that is not going to help at all (and I already see so many posts about state leaders and staff and students at universities and many others all refusing to follow safety guidelines to assist the community - that barely happened in the UK).
Really - looking at the actual people you are the dis-united states, the individual comes before the state or the country. You are only united when the country itself is attacked.

My personal theory is that America has a dysfunctional culture because of the kinds of people that were motivated to move here over the years: rebels, heretics, greedy opportunists, and other outcasts. Hollywood reinforces this with so many movies featuring individualists who break the rules because they consider themselves above the rules.

I don't recall see mention of it anywhere previously in this long discussion thread, but another political difference in America regarding this pandemic is monoclonal antibody treatment. If you catch COVID and realize it before the symptoms turn serious, you can get these cloned antibodies put into your body so that your immune system can fight back more effectively. It's clever, but really a stupid alternative to getting vaccinated, which is what the governors of Florida and Texas are aggressively pushing. Monoclonal antibody treatment is stupid compared to vaccination because a vaccination is as easy as getting a shot (or two) in the arm, while monoclonal antibody treatment involves a more labor intensive intravenous injection process. It's an unnecessary drain on healthcare manpower at a time when our healthcare system is already under strain. And you know what is much better than an effective treatment for COVID? A vaccination that prevents you from catching COVID in the first place. But this is America, and we have a lot of idiots here.

southernman wrote: I already see so many posts about state leaders and staff and students at universities and many others all refusing to follow safety guidelines to assist the community

It's even more sinister than just not following guidelines. The red state governors--all vaccinated themselves, of course--are rushing headlong to use executive authority (or threats) to prevent localities from instituting measures to protect people and reduce transmission.

Pennsylvania state representative Russ Diamond is now comparing vaccination to rape. He is a Republican, of course.

Shellhead wrote: My personal theory is that America has a dysfunctional culture because of the kinds of people that were motivated to move here over the years: rebels, heretics, greedy opportunists, and other outcasts.

We got the preachers, Australia got the criminals, and Australia got the better end of the bargain.

I love how tiny it is -- is it refigerated?

My guess is that inside the trailer are multiple Yeti type coolers that house the vaccine; to be opened one at at time depending on demand. Once you open them, the clock is ticking on how long you have to use the vaccine before its compromised.