onfocus

"Although, statistically, counties and states with higher vaccination rates have lower case counts and hospitalization rates, they have still become areas with high levels of community spread."

Excellent summary of what we know about the current covid wave.

"I think the problem we have is people — whether it’s the CDC or the people that are doing the briefings — their big concern is, they just want to get vaccinations up. And they don’t want to punch any holes in the story about vaccines. But we can handle the truth. And that’s what we should be getting."

The CDC is dropping the ball by not collecting data about breakthrough cases.

"What we don’t know – but need to know to make any meaningful policy decisions around vaccinated people and the pandemic moving forward – is how common breakthrough cases are, how common long Covid is in these breakthrough cases, and how breakthrough long Covid compares with long Covid in unvaccinated infected individuals, in terms of severity, duration and pathophysiology."

Hello covid anxiety my old friend.

"Out of 469 positive cases identified, nearly three-quarters of cases were in fully vaccinated people. Delta was determined to be the culprit in these cases, not older strains or some new variant. And — most surprisingly — the amount of virus measured in a subset of people who tested positive was nearly identical among vaccinated and unvaccinated people."

Fascinating story of citizen science but maybe misses the real headline? Are breakthrough cases more common than they’ve been saying they should be? And why isn’t the CDC studying overall breakthrough rates?

“Oregon is facing a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations––consisting overwhelmingly of unvaccinated individuals––that is quickly exceeding the darkest days of our winter surge,” Brown said in a written statement Wednesday. “When our hospitals are full, there will be no room for additional patients needing care––whether for COVID-19, a heart attack or stroke, a car collision, or a variety of other emergency situations. If our hospitals run out of staffed beds, all Oregonians will be at risk.”

This was also avoidable.

"Kids remain, as they have been throughout the pandemic, at much lower risk of getting seriously sick with the coronavirus, especially compared with unvaccinated adults. But the recent rash of illnesses among the nation’s youngest is a sobering reminder of the COVID-19 adage that lower risk is not no risk. With so many children unable to access vaccines and their health contingent on those around them, parents and guardians must now navigate the reality that Delta represents a more serious danger to everyone—which means it’s a more serious danger to kids as well."

This was avoidable.

"A number of universities and hospitals, the Defense Department and at least one major city, San Francisco, are expected to mandate inoculation once a vaccine is fully approved. Final approval could also help mute misinformation about the safety of vaccines and clarify legal issues about mandates."

Full approval could happen as early as September 6th! I saw this in the Johns Hopkins covid newsletter which is a good source of covid news.

"I asked about the possibility—floated by many critics of the account—that by sharing extremist rhetoric to a broad audience with little other information, PatriotTakes is effectively re-platforming people who have been removed from the public square for a reason. The account’s owner was uninterested in discussing it."

If an account reposts racist and fascist garbage does the intention (pointing and laughing or "monitoring") really matter? The account is amplifying and spreading racist and fascist garbage.

"CAPTCHA images are never joyful vistas of human activity, full of Whitmanesque vigor. No, they’re blurry, anonymous landscapes that possess a positively Soviet anomie."

more like post-apocalyptchas, right?

"The Fox pipeline is pretty simple. Fox News stokes a constant sense of outrage among its base of viewers, largely by highlighting narratives of white resentment and threats to Christianity. This in turn forces Republican politicians to follow suit. It’s a positive feedback loop that has no obvious braking system, and it’s already radicalized the conservative base so much that most Republicans literally believe that elections are being stolen and democracy is all but dead if they don’t take extreme action."

Looking at the roots of polarization since 2000 there’s a certain cable TV elephant in the room.

"We’re seeing a wave of mandates for various kinds of public employees and health care workers to get vaccinated. We’re also seeing the federal government clear the way for private organizations to do the same. That is the proper path forward. We do not need to see it as punitive. It is simply placing the burden of non-vaccination on the voluntarily unvaccinated."

This is the rant I needed to read right now.