outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

lol

I was just surprised to learn that with all the focus on delta, that actually isn't the (only) worrying variant around here!

i think a likely explanation is that Gamma's been in the US longer (started showing up in January, Delta showed up in March, and both were slow to unseat Alpha) but Gamma is not anywhere near as transmissible as Delta, so I would guess Delta will dwarf it eventually in Illinois.

be nice if neither did but y'know

looks like cases really are dropping in the UK 👍🏻

BREAKING: Tennessee will resume nearly all forms of adolescent vaccine advocacy, per state health commissioner. Lots of vaccine outreach was halted this month due to GOP political pressure, prompting a media firestorm. We will publish a story as soon as I, you know, write it.

— Brett Kelman (@BrettKelman) July 23, 2021

Here is a quick version of what was announced today. This article will get much longer and better as the day goes on. https://t.co/ESNPAXfurT

— Brett Kelman (@BrettKelman) July 23, 2021

that's some good news.

In the wake of that criticism, the health department started quietly making changes, according to a series of internal documents obtained by The Tennessean. First, the agency deleted some pro-vaccine Facebook and Twitter posts that triggered lawmakers.

i see what you did there

ugh

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/gop-madison-cawthorn-vow-fauci-b1888891.html

lol @

There’s no evidence that either of those claims are true, and the House of Representatives doesn’t have the power to criminally prosecute, something that takes place in the court system.

in that it goes without saying but....

xxpost Good strategy, that, given that Fauci (despite some dips and dings) has consistently earned very high approval ratings.

Fauci telling Rand Paul to go stuff it was pretty gratifying

Interesting read. Sure some people quoted will make you nuts but the range of reactions and explanations is worth noting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/us/covid-vaccine-hesitant.html

this is a good thread

THREAD:
As news stories drop about COVID+ pandemic deniers & anti-vaxxers ranting defiantly from ICU beds, let's review what fraud research suggests abt the responsibility we should attribute to them for their condition & the ms they send.

Are they victims we should pity? 1/x pic.twitter.com/jrmo6zQ7BL

— Brooke Harrington (@EBHarrington) July 22, 2021

that is good. but also maybe too optimistic for a so-called pragamatic option? (does shame even exist anymore)

yeah i'm not sure i buy the specific fixes in this case, but the diagnosis seems sound and it's a useful way of thinking about marks.

It’s this bad

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/24/covid-vaccine-push-rural-500717

A lot of talk in Chicago ahead of Lollapalooza next weekend:

The great @bellwak nails my concerns re: Lolla. "If major festivals turn into superspreader events, smaller music venues will ultimately suffer. After being dark for 18 months, if the city has to start shutting down again, I don’t see how they survive." https://t.co/s1tTPf42ms

— Jim DeRogatis (@JimDeRogatis) July 25, 2021

We vaccinated 8-10xs more people at our block party community clinic than we typically do at our mobile clinics, and here is what I learned 1/

— Dr. Hannah Tello, Ph.D (@MsHannahT_PhD) July 24, 2021

My friend's antivax Trumper parents apparently got both theirs mere months after telling me they never would.

Think people finally got spooked.

https://mobile.twitter.com/BristOliver/status/1419341714645471243

xxpost good work on the block party clinic. i did like the point that they need immediate access after discussion, i.e. if you've had the chance to answer their questions/concerns and they now feel comfortable getting the vaccine, they need to be able to immediately, not merely set up an appointment later that they can back out of or possibly not be able to attend.

vaccinations are trickling up a little bit nationally the last few days, and theyre seeing increases in the states with the worst out breaks. we're talking 50,000 - 100,000 shots a day but you have to start somewhere.

My friend's antivax Trumper parents apparently got both theirs mere months after telling me they never would.

Think people finally got spooked.

― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), Sunday, July 25, 2021 1:06 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglin

Vaccinations up in Florida by at least 10% in the last week.

Vaccinations picking back up — about 790k in past 24 hours per @CDCgov report. Might be the biggest 24-hour period since early July. Thanks to everyone involved. https://t.co/KcxAfoIxnI

— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) July 25, 2021

yeah that's definitely more than it's been in a hot minute, and the vaccinations reported on Sundays used to be smaller reports than the rest of the week.

after weeks of solid 500k a day, seems like there is some increase.

we should hit 50% fully vaccinated within the next week (well....second shot, so this week plus two weeks)

Provincetown re-imposed a mask mandate after 551 people tested positive for COVID-19 in or linked to the town.

"[COVID] isn’t going away any time soon, and I think Provincetown is experiencing what other places will be experiencing, [just] earlier."https://t.co/Oec6FiOoOC

— GBH News (@GBHNews) July 26, 2021

this provides a bit more context

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2021/07/20/new-mask-advisory-in-provincetown-follows-spike-in-covid-cases

seems like the lesson here is even if you are vaccinated, now is not the time to party with thousands of your friends in a small tourist town

it's weird that the phrase "mask mandate" has become commonplace in the US but you never hear it in the UK, I suppose because our government come out with a new set of jargon every few months.

Somehow doesn't sound like a phrase the UK Civil Service would come up with.

Duly sober new thread from Bob Wachter:

Covid (@UCSF) Chronicles, Day 495

When I began my tweets 494d ago, it was before we had reliable local, US, or world data. So I focused on data from @UCSFHospitals. Today, we’re awash in data, yet I find my hospital's data still provides a unique lens into our situation. (1/20)

— Bob Wachter (@Bob_Wachter) July 26, 2021

That's useful to have in one place, but again, what's new? Most infections, but specifically infections that lead to serious illness or hospitalization, are among the unvaxxed, and breakthrough infections among the vaxxed are typically mild, even those that *do* require hospitalization, and the latter seem to be, as it always has been, largely among those most at risk (immunocompromised or co-morbidities). The real dire situation is, yeah, among those densely populated pockets of unvaxxed people throughout the country, but what can you do? The US is awash in vaccines, and if you have to offer an empanada coupon or whatever to someone to get them to get a shot, that's great, but that shows me we've hit a hurdle we'll probably never leap. There's a problem, and there's a solution, yet if someone is more resistant to the solution than they are afraid of the problem one and a half years into a demonstrably deadly and disruptive pandemic, it would take years of empanada coupons to make a dent in that level of intransigence.

That said, if I were vaxxed but at higher risk I'd probably be masking up again more, too.

The Luntz comments here — say what you will, he’s been good on the outreach analysis side of this — are notable.

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-health-government-and-politics-coronavirus-pandemic-0433cfa3b684b50d0c67ed254f8d8c39

Well, yeah.

From Ned's linked twitter thread:

Along with renewed restrictions, it’s clear that gentle persuasion did not achieve the vax rate we need to defeat Covid. Yes, the politics are hard, but dying is worse, as is re-tanking the economy. It’s time for vaccine mandates – nothing else gets us where we need to go.(20/20)

This is everything in a nutshell. Every public accommodation (airlines, hotels, airbnb, trains, car rentals, restaurants, etc. etc. etc. needs a mask mandate now.

Whoops, vaccine mandate.

On a wholly personal and selfish note, I'm nervous that Lolla is going to be a shit show spreader event and it'll mean an end to concerts in Chicago again for the time being (including the outdoor shows in September I was hoping to attend).

that's not entirely selfish, since the venues and musicians of chicago have made precisely zero dollars over the past 18 months and a lolla spreader event could mean an even longer shutdown for live music

I've got tickets for a couple of indoor things this fall, I hope they happen. I expect they will.

Re that tweet thread, yeah, gentle persuasion doesn't work, but it's really worse than that. If you are so dead set on refusing the vaccine that you would rather be, well, dead, then I'm not sure what can possibly be done for you.

Barring people literally dying in piles in the middle of the street like the 14th C., nothing is going to get shut down again.

Even blue states are going to let people die. Maybe a mask mandate hear or there.

I don't think a widespread shutdown is going to happen again, no, but Lightfoot has made some absolutely baffling decisions over the course of the pandemic - i.e. shutting down the beaches and public parks far longer than necessary, closing the lakefront path, etc. I 100% could see her allowing Lolla to happen (why, because lots of $$$$) and overreacting to public pressure after by saying, "fine, I'll stop concerts now, if that's what you want".

there were a couple different music events scheduled for the end of July that I had been strongly considering, now I'm glad I didn't go for them.

First shows I'm planning on don't happen until the end of September, and by then things will be clearer one way or another.

Anyway some more UCSF perspectives on SF:

https://www.sfgate.com/coronavirus/article/California-COVID-delta-variant-when-surge-end-mask-16334993.php

Yeah, I don't have tickets for anything until mid-September, which I'm kinda glad for at this point.

Between this:

Y’all I hate this but - despite following all CDC guidelines in the last year and being fully vaccinated I received a positive Covid test this morning. Effective immediately I am canceling all my shows in the next week

— william tyler (@williamtylertn) July 23, 2021

and this, posted on the social media for Grateful Shred, a popular Grateful Dead cover band, that played at the Greek last weekend:

As many of you have already heard, a number of people have tested positive for Covid who attended our California shows this past weekend. Nearly all of the band and crew have also tested positive and are at home recovering with their families. If you were at any of these events, please get a test and if you're feeling sick, stay home. Apparently the vaccine does not prevent transmission. But fortunately, it does seem to really help with reducing sickness and preventing hospitalization. If possible, please vax up and be sure to wear a mask whenever you are inside or close to others. Please take care and be safe so that we can keep live music going and be together real soon!

No idea on the mask/vaccination status of the band and crowd. Given the statement it sounds like most, if not all, of the band was vaxxed though. Bummer to see this for sure.

lol at "Grateful Shred." Do you think they have a rehearsal space called the Shred Shed?

Honestly seeing the Stern Grove shots yesterday from a bunch of people at the Avengers/X show made me think 'ya know...'

Apparently the vaccine does not prevent transmission.

ugh, i wish people wouldn't misspeak like this. no, it doesn't 100% prevent transmission, but plenty of studies, even recent, have showed it reduces viral load and does reduce transmission even if it doesn't outright prevent it.

i'm wagering most of the 'spread' came from unvaxxed people in the audience though

lol Josh, it's a bunch of L.A. indie rock dudes getting together to play the Dead (members of Growlers, Dawes, etc)

Yeah, I wish that particular line wasn't in the statement, but I was very happy to see that they were still pushing people to get vaxxed. I was a little nervous where the rest of it was going to head when I first read it.

Apparently the vaccine does not prevent transmission.

this is patently not true. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/keythingstoknow.html#:~:text=illness%20and%20death.-,COVID%2D19%20vaccines%20reduce%20the%20risk%20of%20people%20spreading%20the,you%20did%20before%20the%20pandemic.

why is the guy implying person 0 (or people 0's were vaxxed)?

what Neanderthal said