45 thoughts on “C-19 Chat Post – July 30 2021”

    1. Yes, communication is a problem at CDC. Dr. Walensky works hard. Has her heart and mind in the right place. But, she clearly lacks communication skills.

      1. I think this is fairly typical in most businesses. It is good to see that folks are beginning to realize the message given by too many is far too often conflicting. The media needs to stop its attack on unvaccinated. That will only alienate folks who have legitimate concerns with regard to the vaccine. I don’t think there is a thing you can do about Trump’s cult. But the media attack also strengthens the rhetoric of those folks too.

    1. Specifically, many “red” states are replicating Louisiana. Those in “blue” (other than CA) are nowhere close. I can see why Baker isn’t making any changes for now.

  1. Joshua, just curious. Where is the (small) CVS located in your neighborhood? I go to the Copley Sq. and Coolidge Corner in Brookline. The latter is quite small where most workers do wear masks, but customers are mixed. Of course soon it may be moot and everyone will be back to 2020 inside all these stores.

  2. I heard on the radio recently that the nursing profession here in the U.S. is in trouble. There were fewer nurses coming into the profession even before the pandemic but there are now shortages of nurses in general. Due to Covid-19, many are leaving and not being replaced due to fewer applicants.

    Joshua, is this the same in other countries as well?

  3. I was talking with a friend last night. He had bloodwork yesterday. They used a finger prick rather than a vile. He was told there is a vile shortage in the US. I had standard bloodwork for a yearly checkup in Monday but they did use vials. I have a two inch black and blue on my arm as proof. For me, I’d rather a finger prick.

  4. Do keep in mind that breakthrough infections and deaths in vaccinated folks is like .003 and .006. So the vaccine is doing what it should. Not sure how anyone thought they were a cure. This will be with for this long haul and we are going to have to figure out a way to live with it. People have to get vaccinated and we will need booster shots to keep it at bay.

    Fine with masks indoors in certain locations but we can’t close life down again especially for states that have high vaccination rates. Schools must be open fully come September. Sports, extra curricular activities must continue

  5. I have felt like death warmed over the past couple of days. It’s definitively the “common cold” that I have but it has me knocked on my butt. When I first started getting a scratchy throat on Wednesday I was like “uh oh, I hope this isn’t the ‘rona” – funny because I used to get a bad cold every other year before this but now every tickle, cough or runny nose makes me think of the worst.

      1. Yeah it was a negative – but I knew it would be. This is the cold I tend to get every other year that knocks me on my ass and makes me a baby. Lmao. But I am definitely gunna double mask when I go back to work because I had to have gotten this from there. Maybe I’ll wear a mask forever. lmao

  6. What I find rather shocking is the fact that health care workers don’t have to be vaccinated. And many of them are NOT. I forget the exact percentage.

      1. 25% too many AFAIC! You would think vaccines were mandatory amongst those workers from the beginning…at nothing less than 100%.

  7. I am getting blood work done in September. I hope I don’t get my fingers pricked. Just suck it out of my arm as usual, thank you.

  8. NWH had an excellent checkin procedure. Women’s imaging was equally efficient. I have not spoken to the dr but the ultrasound tech saw one 1 cm (about) kidney stone and pronounced it is a boy. Im taking suggestions for names.

  9. Vicki, hope you feel better. Kidney stones are not pleasant, and that’s the understatement of the year.

    1. Thank you, Joshua. I’ve passed a dozen or more and had a few lithotripsies and stents….latter being only part that bothered me. This guy is behaving so far. Jean and I will need to have an intervention to make our expectations clear 😉

  10. Philip, the Delta wave in the U.S. can be divided up into regions with almost vertical slopes (all red states), areas with moderate to large slopes (mix of blue and red), and areas with gradual slopes (all blue).

    Personally, I’m not fond of calling certain states blue or red, as they’re really purple: Virginia, NC, Ohio, Wisconsin, etc …

    Overall, the case rise in the U.S. is astoundingly high: 94,000 yesterday, with relatively limited testing compared to previous waves. Test positivity in states like Florida is nearing 20%. Tragic, actually. Hospitalizations are now at 45k and rising steadily. Deaths are around 400 per day and increasing. Let’s hope we don’t hit 1,000 per day. I don’t think we will. Still, having this much suffering is hard to bear, especially since a lot of it was preventable.

    1. Rolling 7-day average of Covid hospitalizations:

      Three weeks ago: 19,437
      Two weeks ago: 24,110
      Last week: 32,842
      Today: 46,807

        1. Great question, and the answer is no, not yet. CDC said last week that 97% of hospitalizations are unvaccinated. They later clarified that they put the partially vaccinated in the unvaccinated group. But, what they didn’t say was when the percentage of hospitalized unvaccinated/vaccinated individuals was last updated. The best I could find was 5 weeks ago, at least, for a systematic, country-wide calculation. I’ve done some digging and it would appear that the percentage of unvaccinated is still quite high but dropping to anywhere between 88% and 95%, depending on which estimate I looked at.

          Please note, as you vaccinate more and more people the percentage of folks that wind up in hospital and are vaccinated will grow. Say, you’ve vaccinated 100% of the population and a couple of people wind up in the hospital. Well, the percentage of vaccinated in the hospital is then 100%.

  11. I really wonder now if the CDC should be including the partially vaccinated as “non-vaccinated”.

    I would assume that being even partially vaccinated offers a lot more protection than completely unvaccinated.

    Joshua, would the numbers look a bit better if partially vaccinated people were included among the totally vaccinated? There may very well be some who received shot #1 but “chickened” out halfway through or are still waiting the required 3 weeks for shot #2.

    1. Which means that the vaccine is working as expected. I still have trouble understanding that though.

      Get well soon Dr. S!

      1. Exactly. The media is framing this completely wrong and the message is being lost. The vaccines are working, period.

Comments are closed.