The CDC has released guidelines advising fully vaccinated people to wear masks indoor in area of high transmission of covid. “High transmission” is defined as over 50 new infections per 100,000 people calculated over seven days; an alternate definition is a percent positivity of eight percent or higher. Currently, two-thirds of all counties would be considered high areas of transmission. Some epidemiologists have said that the CDC should have advised a blanket mandate covering the who country. The CDC also advises universal masking of everyone, including those who are fully vaccinated, in schools. Some states, including Illinois and Nevada, have already put mask mandates in effect. As you might imagine, there are already states saying that they will not follow the CDC’s guidance. The governor of Arizona has said, “Arizona does not allow mask mandates, vaccine mandates, vaccine passports, or discrimination in schools based on who is or isn’t vaccinated.
Vaccine hesitancy and resistance continue. Most hardcore vaccine-resistant people are older, white, and more Republican. More of the resistant are from the South. The hesitant are more likely to say that they don’t follow traditional mainstream news. The are also most likely to distrust institutions and authority figures including POTOS, the CDC, and state governments. Interestingly, at least to me, is that people with children at home are disproportionally likely to be vaccine-resistant, a potential complication to efforts to increase child vaccination rates.
The University of Washington reports that US covid cases may have been undercounted by as much as 60 percent. Officially, the US has seen 33 million cases, but that 33 million could really be 65 million. One factor considered is the rates from Indiana and Ohio, two states that did random testing rather than only testing people presenting with symptoms. These two states identified two-thirds more covid-positive people than other states did. This finding has implications for what level of vaccination might be needed for the US to reach herd immunity. We might not reach herd immunity this year or, perhaps, ever.
The CDC has issued new travel advisories for five countries. Israel is now at level three—reconsider travel. Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan, Portugal, and Spain are now at level four—do not travel. The situation in India has greatly improved. In May, there were 400,000 new cases and 4,000 deaths daily. On Monday, there were 30,000 new cases, the lowest level in over four months, and 1,000 or fewer deaths. Sydney has extended its lockdown not by one week this time but by four. In Thailand, people seeking treatment for covid are being sent home by train to ease the pressure on the medical system.
Finally, a finding on life in a hermitage, at least in the UK. There, vulnerable people were advised to say at home or to shield. Those people advised to shield were eight times more likely to have confirmed infections than those at low risk. While testing rates were higher in the shielded group than in the low-risk one, many tests were ordered only if a person was symptomatic. People judged to be at medium risk had four times as many confirmed infections that people judged to be at low risk. Said one of the researchers, “We don’t know what would have happened to these people if they hadn’t been advised to shield, but the bottom line is that it certainly didn’t prevent them from having adverse outcomes … I don’t think you can realistically expect someone to stay in their house and never leave it for months on end.”
While I did leave my house to walk in the subdivision, until I was fully vaccinated (two weeks following my second dose of vaccine) I left the house only for a flu shot, to walk the dog in places not conducive to contact with other people, and to stay somewhere other than the house while the hardwood floors were being refinished. I was lucky enough to have Son #1 who at the outset told me there was no reason for me to go out because he would take care of shopping and erranding. I’m still pretty much staying in, venturing out only when necessary or someone very special. The view from the hermitage? Pretty damn nice, though I do wonder if it might be time to call this pandemic blog something a bit more accurate.
No comments:
Post a Comment