Coronavirus

[lenarenee]

As reported by ABC news the group America’s Frontline Doctors “has been widely discredited for spreading disinformation about the coronavirus and unproven treatments, and social media platforms have removed its content.” The group’s founder, Simone Gold, was arrested (and has now been indicted) for charges related to the attack on the US Capitol.

edited for clarity

I looked into this group (looked up their alleged credentials) many months ago as a friend of mine asked my opinion on their concerns. At that time; many of those doctors were not even medical professionals, or even held Ph.d in any field.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I’ve added the word endemicity to my vocabulary:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/08/delta-has-changed-pandemic-endgame/619726/

 

[TheGecko]

I know you are very likely frustrated and feel a lot of pressure. And you want to take time to make your decision, but I hope that you continue to consider all the sources available to you. I think the road is a little harder for those who want to do a lot of independent research because many of us are not experts in the field, and to me, I don't know anyones job as good as they know it so I do the best I can to understand the data, but I cannot contextualize it like an expert could. I think you're an attorney too, and it kinda reminds me of people who have read their pocket constitution , but they aren't able to contextualize the information because they don't really know the applicable case law, areas of law that may implicate constitutional law or precedent cases or even ideas like dual sovereignty.

And, just know that I hope you stay happy and healthy no matter what. Its like 4 am, so I'm a little loopy and I feel like I should thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

Yes, it is incredibly frustrating when trying to make an informed decision only to have folks treat you like you're an *****. NOT to pick on the OP, but when I read stuff like this: Following the science and using critical thinking really does foster having the best outcomes. There are bumps in the road, but without doubt, the best outcomes. You must be very relieved to be working in such a wise environment! It just makes me angry because I HAVE been following the science***, I have been thinking critically.

And to be honest, you're not helping either because what you have just said above...that because I'm not an "expert", I can't possibly understand.

No, I'm not an attorney though I did work as a paralegal and ran my own LPD business. These days I'm a Senior Staff Accountant for a CPA firm and even though I don't have a degree in business, finance or accounting, those that do consult with me quite frequently.

With that said.....

- You don't need to be an 'expert' to see that there has been a lot of misinformation and conflicting information regarding Covid, or how heavily it was politized (by both sides). Just type it in into any search engine and you will find millions of links...Google gave me 4,220,000 results in 0.62 seconds. Of course, you'll have to use multiple search engines to see the full scope since so many of them limit how far they go back or even what they show. Best to go your local library and pull old newspapers and magazines.

- You don't need to be an 'expert' to know that studying a new disease or virus takes time. Yes, I understand that Covid-19 is part of the 'family of coronaviruses that usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold', but therein lies the problem. And I understand that because of SARS and MERS the scientific community was able to quickly identify it as a coronaviruses and start developing strategies for diagnostics, treatments and possible a vaccine, but...this was not SARS or MERS...this was something new.

- You don't need to be an 'expert' to know that it takes time to develop develop treatments, medications, vaccines and hopefully a cure. On the average it takes 10 to 15 years for vaccine development...which is pretty damn good considering that it took 22 years from the initial development to approval for Chicken Pox vaccine. Again, no doubt that development of the Covid-19 vaccine was jump started with previous research with SARS and MERS, but both were still in Pre-Clinicals (animal testing). I get it, we're in the midst of a global pandemic...countries are shut-down, businesses are closed, millions of people are out of work, a lot of people are getting sick, some are even dying. Governments threw billions of dollars in to R&D and then took the most promising of what was being developed and authorized emergency use of...when you consider that there are over 20 vaccines in five categories (RNA, DNA, Adenovirus Vector, Inactivated Virus and Subunit)...the biggest Phase 3 trial ever in history.

- And you sure a heck don't need to be an 'expert' to see what what is missing or what is deliberately being ignored or gets spun...kind like the source that you cited. I was really dizzy after reading it.

“When a new vaccine is introduced into a population, when vaccination rates become very high, we can expect as many and sometimes more cases in the vaccinated population than the unvaccinated — even when the vaccine is doing its job and protecting people at a high rate — because the denominator of number of people vaccinated is so large,”

Does that makes sense to anyone? And doesn't it contradict:

While it’s not known how many visitors to Provincetown were vaccinated, anecdotally many of them were, and data from the state show that prior to the outbreak, virtually everyone in the town had received at least one dose of a vaccine, with 85% or more of each age group fully vaccinated.

“The 74% needs to be put in the context that a very high proportion of the people exposed were vaccinated,” said Hanage. “It suggests that in the absence of vaccination the outbreak would have been much larger.”

So let's say 60,000 and 85% fully vaccinated. That's 51,000 vaccinated and 9000 unvaccinated. Out of 60,000 folks, 469 folks came down with Covid-19; 74% were fully vaccinated, 26% were not. 347 folks out of 51,000 is 0.007 or 0.7%. 122 folks out of 9000 is 0.013 or 1.3%. So technically...it was.

This is the kind of stuff that keeps a lot of people from being vaccinated...feeling like they are being sold a bill of goods. And truth be told...they have been, they still are. But honesty is a double-edge sword. How many of you, had you been told:

So we have these vaccines. They've only been tested with a small number of people so they are still experimental. We know what some of the short-term side effects, but we have no clue what the long-term effects will be because it's only been a few months. Computer models suggest that it's 90% effective against Covid-19, but we really don't know because it's only been a few months. And then there is the issues that viruses mutate and so we don't if it will work against them because we don't know what they will be. We also don't know how long the vaccine will last because again, not enough time.

Would have gotten vaccinated?

But before you answer consider this: There are approximately 333 Million people in the US with 253K cases (0.08%) and 3k deaths (0.001%) to date. We KNOW that masks and physical distancing work, we saw the numbers go down starting in March 2020 and then saw spikes around the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday 2020 and around Spring Breaks 2021. And we've seen the surge since mandates were dropped in June/July. Speaking solely for myself, until Phase 3 is complete, I think I have better odds of winning the lottery.

 

[rdc1978]

Yes, it is incredibly frustrating when trying to make an informed decision only to have folks treat you like you're an *****. NOT to pick on the OP, but when I read stuff like this: Following the science and using critical thinking really does foster having the best outcomes. There are bumps in the road, but without doubt, the best outcomes. You must be very relieved to be working in such a wise environment! It just makes me angry because I HAVE been following the science***, I have been thinking critically.

And to be honest, you're not helping either because what you have just said above...that because I'm not an "expert", I can't possibly understand.

No, I'm not an attorney though I did work as a paralegal and ran my own LPD business. These days I'm a Senior Staff Accountant for a CPA firm and even though I don't have a degree in business, finance or accounting, those that do consult with me quite frequently.

With that said.....

- You don't need to be an 'expert' to see that there has been a lot of misinformation and conflicting information regarding Covid, or how heavily it was politized (by both sides). Just type it in into any search engine and you will find millions of links...Google gave me 4,220,000 results in 0.62 seconds. Of course, you'll have to use multiple search engines to see the full scope since so many of them limit how far they go back or even what they show. Best to go your local library and pull old newspapers and magazines.

- You don't need to be an 'expert' to know that studying a new disease or virus takes time. Yes, I understand that Covid-19 is part of the 'family of coronaviruses that usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold', but therein lies the problem. And I understand that because of SARS and MERS the scientific community was able to quickly identify it as a coronaviruses and start developing strategies for diagnostics, treatments and possible a vaccine, but...this was not SARS or MERS...this was something new.

- You don't need to be an 'expert' to know that it takes time to develop develop treatments, medications, vaccines and hopefully a cure. On the average it takes 10 to 15 years for vaccine development...which is pretty **** good considering that it took 22 years from the initial development to approval for Chicken Pox vaccine. Again, no doubt that development of the Covid-19 vaccine was jump started with previous research with SARS and MERS, but both were still in Pre-Clinicals (animal testing). I get it, we're in the midst of a global pandemic...countries are shut-down, businesses are closed, millions of people are out of work, a lot of people are getting sick, some are even dying. Governments threw billions of dollars in to R&D and then took the most promising of what was being developed and authorized emergency use of...when you consider that there are over 20 vaccines in five categories (RNA, DNA, Adenovirus Vector, Inactivated Virus and Subunit)...the biggest Phase 3 trial ever in history.

- And you sure a heck don't need to be an 'expert' to see what what is missing or what is deliberately being ignored or gets spun...kind like the source that you cited. I was really dizzy after reading it.

“When a new vaccine is introduced into a population, when vaccination rates become very high, we can expect as many and sometimes more cases in the vaccinated population than the unvaccinated — even when the vaccine is doing its job and protecting people at a high rate — because the denominator of number of people vaccinated is so large,”

Does that makes sense to anyone? And doesn't it contradict:

While it’s not known how many visitors to Provincetown were vaccinated, anecdotally many of them were, and data from the state show that prior to the outbreak, virtually everyone in the town had received at least one dose of a vaccine, with 85% or more of each age group fully vaccinated.

“The 74% needs to be put in the context that a very high proportion of the people exposed were vaccinated,” said Hanage. “It suggests that in the absence of vaccination the outbreak would have been much larger.”

So let's say 60,000 and 85% fully vaccinated. That's 51,000 vaccinated and 9000 unvaccinated. Out of 60,000 folks, 469 folks came down with Covid-19; 74% were fully vaccinated, 26% were not. 347 folks out of 51,000 is 0.007 or 0.7%. 122 folks out of 9000 is 0.013 or 1.3%. So technically...it was.

This is the kind of stuff that keeps a lot of people from being vaccinated...feeling like they are being sold a bill of goods. And truth be told...they have been, they still are. But honesty is a double-edge sword. How many of you, had you been told:

So we have these vaccines. They've only been tested with a small number of people so they are still experimental. We know what some of the short-term side effects, but we have no clue what the long-term effects will be because it's only been a few months. Computer models suggest that it's 90% effective against Covid-19, but we really don't know because it's only been a few months. And then there is the issues that viruses mutate and so we don't if it will work against them because we don't know what they will be. We also don't know how long the vaccine will last because again, not enough time.

Would have gotten vaccinated?

But before you answer consider this: There are approximately 333 Million people in the US with 253K cases (0.08%) and 3k deaths (0.001%) to date. We KNOW that masks and physical distancing work, we saw the numbers go down starting in March 2020 and then saw spikes around the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday 2020 and around Spring Breaks 2021. And we've seen the surge since mandates were dropped in June/July. Speaking solely for myself, until Phase 3 is complete, I think I have better odds of winning the lottery.

But I don't think you're an expert and you don't assert that you are. Wouldn't you agree that being an expert in a particular field gives you greater knowledge and ability to understand your field of study or career? This is why we send people to school, this is why employers ask for prior experience. Because being an expert does allow for better understanding than that of a non expert.

This is in any field. No one should trust me to build a bridge or design a bridge. Even if the bridge was to my own house. I can read all the articles I want on bridge building and design but there is a reason why a bridge expert should design and build the bridge and not me.

Your point is similar to my own. As a non expert, my decisions are going to be more about WHO I trust and which information sources I think are trustworthy.

Because as a non expert I do not have the background, nor the education and expertise to put the raw data into context.

What I linked didn't seem particularly confusing. The vaccine takes 2 weeks after the second dose to become fully effective. If a population is largely vaccinated at the same time, People who get cases in that time are going to largely be vaccinated. It didn't seem that confusing to me.

I think "introduced" and "new vaccine" may have been skimmed over in your review of the article and so no, the first quotes passage doesn't contradict the second quoted passage you cited.

I'm not sure why the numbers would make you feel distrustful. By any analysis the percentage of overall cases low. And by your analysis less than 1% of vaccinated and over 1% of unvaccinated.

However, a large number of vaccinated people who were likely exposed but did not contract or spread the virus would have helped to protect many of the unvaccinated from exposure.

I'm not sure why any of this would prompt someone not to get vaccinated.

I think that if I were faced with a medical decision with various potential risks and benefits. I'd discuss my decision with an expert who could help me better understand the landscape and context in which to consider each factor. In my case it would be my doctor.

And this isn't just in medicine. I also don't do my own taxes and entrust them to an expert.

Let me ask you this. Exactly what will you need to see and over what period of time before you'd feel comfortable getting vaccinated?

If this is too personal, I apologize but you've been comfortable sharing the reasons why you won't get vaccinated and that you aren't an anti vaxxer so I didn't think it would be too intrusive a question.

 

[KiwiMoose]

My brain hurts

 

[Mobjack Bay]

For those who don’t have the time to read the article I linked above, here are some of my major take aways. The SARS CoV-2 virus is now here to stay. It is destined to become endemic, like the other covid viruses. The key to getting this variant under control, and stopping/reducing the public health crises we’re seeing yet again, is to slow the spread by using all of the tools in the toolbox - vaccinations, masks and other public health methods/precautions. The delta variant is highly transmissible, with an estimated R0 of 5-9. That’s 2-3 times what it was for the original variant(s). The probability of a new, more “successful” variant popping up goes up the longer the delta variant lingers in the population. Pockets of unprotected individuals can spread the virus very quickly, while pockets of vaccinated people transmit less on average because they carry viral loads for less time if they do become infected. Regardless of vaccination status, following public health guidance strictly helps to slow transmission due to reduced contact and “barrier” protection. On average, the vaccinated will be much less susceptible to the ravages of the disease and some/many will never know they were infected. Although that’s good news for the vaccinated for now, the impacts at societal and global levels on the pathway to endemicity are going to depend on the net effects of measures taken at all levels.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

I’ve added the word endemicity to my vocabulary:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/08/delta-has-changed-pandemic-endgame/619726/

Love learning new words!

 

[Susie]

Co-vid is here to stay. We will have co-vid vaccines offered each year just like flu vaccines. (Pneumonia vaccines are only necessary every 10 years, so I am leaving them out of this conversation.)

The current vaccines/boosters are the same vaccine, just that if you have not been exposed to Co-vid in between the original set of vaccines and now, your immunity is waning. It was NEVER intended to provide 100% immunity to all variants of this virus. We (anyone who studied what an RNA virus is to begin with, not just medical professionals) knew this was going to mutate, and mutate fast. The only idea behind getting the vaccine was to keep the cases down to a manageable level so the hospitals could continue to provide care long enough to let both the "natural" (meaning you get sick) immunity and the immunity provided by the vaccine protect enough of the population to prevent a mass die off of the population due to lack of hospital beds/staff/ventilators.

And in case anyone spouts that this is not as bad as last year, let me correct you. This is far, far worse. Last year we had mask mandates in Texas and mandatory shut downs. This year, we have mayhem as hospital after hospital shuts its doors to incoming patients. I spoke Friday to hospital after hospital that quoted that they had anywhere between 8-30 people lined up waiting for every bed in the hospital. Not every ICU bed or every ventilator. Every bed.

And while I am not pointing fingers at anyone in this forum, let me tell you what Texas and Louisiana are seeing. It is NOT the vaccinated people taking up hospital beds. The vaccinated are managing their mild cases at home. It is the unvaccinated. Because, you see, no one in the US had ANY immunity to this germ before it came over here. And that means deaths.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

For those who don’t have the time to read the article I linked above, here are some of my major take aways. The SARS CoV-2 virus is now here to stay. It is destined to become endemic, like the other covid viruses. The key to getting this variant under control, and stopping/reducing the public health crises we’re seeing yet again, is to slow the spread by using all of the tools in the toolbox - vaccinations, masks and other public health methods/precautions. The delta variant is highly transmissible, with an estimated R0 of 5-9. That’s 2-3 times what it was for the original variant(s). The probability of a new, more “successful” variant popping up goes up the longer the delta variant lingers in the population. Pockets of unprotected individuals can spread the virus very quickly, while pockets of vaccinated people transmit less on average because they carry viral loads for less time if they do become infected. Regardless of vaccination status, following public health guidance strictly helps to slow transmission due to reduced contact and “barrier” protection. On average, the vaccinated will be much less susceptible to the ravages of the disease and some/many will never know they were infected. Although that’s good news for the vaccinated for now, the impacts at societal and global levels on the pathway to endemicity are going to depend on the net effects of measures taken at all levels.

This realization several days ago threw me into a mental health funk, as I call it - a day of crying at the drop of a hat, deep frustration, anger, grief - you name it, lots of negative emotions. I am pulling out of it. I know that I can only control my actions, so will continue to follow safe practices. This will include wearing masks in public places, not eating indoors with strangers, staying 6 feet from strangers, getting my 3rd vaccine shot when eligible. But you know I am just so dang tired of all this.
Being outside helps me tremendously to get back my equilibrium, so hopefully the weather will get better here soon and I can spend lots of time outdoors.

Yes, it is incredibly frustrating when trying to make an informed decision only to have folks treat you like you're an *****. NOT to pick on the OP, but when I read stuff like this: Following the science and using critical thinking really does foster having the best outcomes. There are bumps in the road, but without doubt, the best outcomes. You must be very relieved to be working in such a wise environment! It just makes me angry because I HAVE been following the science***, I have been thinking critically.

And to be honest, you're not helping either because what you have just said above...that because I'm not an "expert", I can't possibly understand.

No, I'm not an attorney though I did work as a paralegal and ran my own LPD business. These days I'm a Senior Staff Accountant for a CPA firm and even though I don't have a degree in business, finance or accounting, those that do consult with me quite frequently.

With that said.....

- You don't need to be an 'expert' to see that there has been a lot of misinformation and conflicting information regarding Covid, or how heavily it was politized (by both sides). Just type it in into any search engine and you will find millions of links...Google gave me 4,220,000 results in 0.62 seconds. Of course, you'll have to use multiple search engines to see the full scope since so many of them limit how far they go back or even what they show. Best to go your local library and pull old newspapers and magazines.

- You don't need to be an 'expert' to know that studying a new disease or virus takes time. Yes, I understand that Covid-19 is part of the 'family of coronaviruses that usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold', but therein lies the problem. And I understand that because of SARS and MERS the scientific community was able to quickly identify it as a coronaviruses and start developing strategies for diagnostics, treatments and possible a vaccine, but...this was not SARS or MERS...this was something new.

- You don't need to be an 'expert' to know that it takes time to develop develop treatments, medications, vaccines and hopefully a cure. On the average it takes 10 to 15 years for vaccine development...which is pretty **** good considering that it took 22 years from the initial development to approval for Chicken Pox vaccine. Again, no doubt that development of the Covid-19 vaccine was jump started with previous research with SARS and MERS, but both were still in Pre-Clinicals (animal testing). I get it, we're in the midst of a global pandemic...countries are shut-down, businesses are closed, millions of people are out of work, a lot of people are getting sick, some are even dying. Governments threw billions of dollars in to R&D and then took the most promising of what was being developed and authorized emergency use of...when you consider that there are over 20 vaccines in five categories (RNA, DNA, Adenovirus Vector, Inactivated Virus and Subunit)...the biggest Phase 3 trial ever in history.

- And you sure a heck don't need to be an 'expert' to see what what is missing or what is deliberately being ignored or gets spun...kind like the source that you cited. I was really dizzy after reading it.

“When a new vaccine is introduced into a population, when vaccination rates become very high, we can expect as many and sometimes more cases in the vaccinated population than the unvaccinated — even when the vaccine is doing its job and protecting people at a high rate — because the denominator of number of people vaccinated is so large,”

Does that makes sense to anyone? And doesn't it contradict:

While it’s not known how many visitors to Provincetown were vaccinated, anecdotally many of them were, and data from the state show that prior to the outbreak, virtually everyone in the town had received at least one dose of a vaccine, with 85% or more of each age group fully vaccinated.

“The 74% needs to be put in the context that a very high proportion of the people exposed were vaccinated,” said Hanage. “It suggests that in the absence of vaccination the outbreak would have been much larger.”

So let's say 60,000 and 85% fully vaccinated. That's 51,000 vaccinated and 9000 unvaccinated. Out of 60,000 folks, 469 folks came down with Covid-19; 74% were fully vaccinated, 26% were not. 347 folks out of 51,000 is 0.007 or 0.7%. 122 folks out of 9000 is 0.013 or 1.3%. So technically...it was.

This is the kind of stuff that keeps a lot of people from being vaccinated...feeling like they are being sold a bill of goods. And truth be told...they have been, they still are. But honesty is a double-edge sword. How many of you, had you been told:

So we have these vaccines. They've only been tested with a small number of people so they are still experimental. We know what some of the short-term side effects, but we have no clue what the long-term effects will be because it's only been a few months. Computer models suggest that it's 90% effective against Covid-19, but we really don't know because it's only been a few months. And then there is the issues that viruses mutate and so we don't if it will work against them because we don't know what they will be. We also don't know how long the vaccine will last because again, not enough time.

Would have gotten vaccinated?

But before you answer consider this: There are approximately 333 Million people in the US with 253K cases (0.08%) and 3k deaths (0.001%) to date. We KNOW that masks and physical distancing work, we saw the numbers go down starting in March 2020 and then saw spikes around the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday 2020 and around Spring Breaks 2021. And we've seen the surge since mandates were dropped in June/July. Speaking solely for myself, until Phase 3 is complete, I think I have better odds of winning the lottery.

I appreciate your perspective and thoughts, even though the right choice for me is vaccination. I personally feel I have better odds of not getting seriously ill, making others ill, or giving this virus a chance to create more dangerous variants by being vaccinated. I applaud you, that you are wearing masks, keeping physical distancing, etc.

 

[Gaisy59]

Co-vid is here to stay. We will have co-vid vaccines offered each year just like flu vaccines. (Pneumonia vaccines are only necessary every 10 years, so I am leaving them out of this conversation.)

The current vaccines/boosters are the same vaccine, just that if you have not been exposed to Co-vid in between the original set of vaccines and now, your immunity is waning. It was NEVER intended to provide 100% immunity to all variants of this virus. We (anyone who studied what an RNA virus is to begin with, not just medical professionals) knew this was going to mutate, and mutate fast. The only idea behind getting the vaccine was to keep the cases down to a manageable level so the hospitals could continue to provide care long enough to let both the "natural" (meaning you get sick) immunity and the immunity provided by the vaccine protect enough of the population to prevent a mass die off of the population due to lack of hospital beds/staff/ventilators.

And in case anyone spouts that this is not as bad as last year, let me correct you. This is far, far worse. Last year we had mask mandates in Texas and mandatory shut downs. This year, we have mayhem as hospital after hospital shuts its doors to incoming patients. I spoke Friday to hospital after hospital that quoted that they had anywhere between 8-30 people lined up waiting for every bed in the hospital. Not every ICU bed or every ventilator. Every bed.

And while I am not pointing fingers at anyone in this forum, let me tell you what Texas and Louisiana are seeing. It is NOT the vaccinated people taking up hospital beds. The vaccinated are managing their mild cases at home. It is the unvaccinated. Because, you see, no one in the US had ANY immunity to this germ before it came over here. And that means deaths.

Well said!

 

[LynetteO]

I’ve added the word endemicity to my vocabulary:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/08/delta-has-changed-pandemic-/619726/

LOVE new words & what a GREAT article! However, I kept thinking, did I miss this word? Then I saw it! “ Endemicity was always the likely outcome—I wrote as much in March 2020.”
Thanks for sharing!

 

[Megan]

But before you answer consider this: There are approximately 333 Million people in the US with 253K cases (0.08%) and 3k deaths (0.001%) to date. We KNOW that masks and physical distancing work, we saw the numbers go down starting in March 2020 and then saw spikes around the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday 2020 and around Spring Breaks 2021. And we've seen the surge since mandates were dropped in June/July. Speaking solely for myself, until Phase 3 is complete, I think I have better odds of winning the lottery.

These numbers are nowhere near what reputable sources like John's Hopkins/ the CDC are reporting. There have been 37,583,545 cases in the US and the current number of deaths is 625,375 in the US alone. Morbidity is around 1.67%. Which is high...much higher than it should have been.

 

[Susie]

These numbers are nowhere near what reputable sources like John's Hopkins/ the CDC are reporting. There have been 37,583,545 cases in the US and the current number of deaths is 625,375 in the US alone. Morbidity is around 1.67%. Which is high...much higher than it should have been.

But morbidity is heading much lower than last year. We have treatments this year, and a whole lot of time under our belt to understand this virus. There is hope. It is going to get better. We just have to hang in there and get enough herd immunity for this to become nothing worse than the flu. And yes, I know people die from the flu, but there are people refusing that vaccine also.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

This realization several days ago threw me into a mental health funk, as I call it - a day of crying at the drop of a hat, deep frustration, anger, grief - you name it, lots of negative emotions. I am pulling out of it. I know that I can only control my actions, so will continue to follow safe practices. This will include wearing masks in public places, not eating indoors with strangers, staying 6 feet from strangers, getting my 3rd vaccine shot when eligible. But you know I am just so dang tired of all this.
Being outside helps me tremendously to get back my equilibrium, so hopefully the weather will get better here soon and I can spend lots of time outdoors.

I get it. We will be welcoming a new cohort of students to our campus next week and I‘m having to work hard to feel the excitement and anticipation that usually come so easily this time of year.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

I get it. We will be welcoming a new cohort of students to our campus next week and I‘m having to work hard to feel the excitement and anticipation that usually come so easily this time of year.

Thanks. Wishing all in education the very best this school year. Fingers crossed! My granddaughter is in high school and I just hope they get to have as normal a school year as possible.
In 2020 and early 2021, there were a lot of activities I had stopped doing for fear of bringing the virus to my father, who just turned 100. Then we all were able to get vaccinated - those in close contact with my father. Sigh of relief. We still were/are vigilant- mask wearing, physical distancing, etc., but thought the worse was behind us. Now, here comes the Delta variant and the concern is great again. Some of the activities I planned for this fall, I am dropping, just can't take the risk.
Pre covid, we had large multi-generational holiday gatherings with lots of food and close interaction; now we do ZOOM gatherings.
I know we will find creative ways to continue to connect, but I realize I am grieving for the loss of our old traditions.

 

[rdc1978]

These numbers are nowhere near what reputable sources like John's Hopkins/ the CDC are reporting. There have been 37,583,545 cases in the US and the current number of deaths is 625,375 in the US alone. Morbidity is around 1.67%. Which is high...much higher than it should have been.

And then there is the "long covid" which we are just

I get it. We will be welcoming a new cohort of students to our campus next week and I‘m having to work hard to feel the excitement and anticipation that usually come so easily this time of year.

That's sad. I never had that college excitement but when I see footage of kids taking their first foray into freedom every year it makes me happy for them.

Heck I still get excited at the scene in revenge of the nerds when they were first being dropped off at campus.

 

[KiwiMoose]

So we had another 41 cases in the community overnight. That brings us to circa 140 cases now. You've gotta remember that (with the exception of a small outbreak in Auckland in February - not Delta) we have been living our lives completely normally here in NZ - covid free. SO - bam! That'll teach us for being cocky. It was only a matter of time. They've traced it back to someone who flew over from NSW in Aussie who was in managed isolation at the border. They transferred him to hospital and somewhere in those couple of days the virus got out into the community. They haven't found the missing link yet between him and the outbreak. The good new is - so far - that the affected are mostly in Auckland ( being our most populated city) with about 12 in Wellington (our capital). No cases reported anywhere else, although contact tracing has revealed possible spread to the South Island, but nothing has shown in testing yet.
The entire country is in lockdown until Friday evening now, at which time they will reassess. If It's still not showing in the regions, they may well keep Auckland and Wellington at level 4 ( maximum lockdown) and allow the rest of country to go to level three. Level three is basically a full lockdown ( although we can extend our family bubble to include one other household) but with uber eats and other takeaways allowed Bring on the pizza!

 

[Relle]

Bring on the pizza!

Mmmm, pizza. This is the pizza we order - meat with olives.

 

[Vicki C]

So we had another 41 cases in the community overnight. That brings us to circa 140 cases now. You've gotta remember that (with the exception of a small outbreak in Auckland in February - not Delta) we have been living our lives completely normally here in NZ - covid free. SO - bam! That'll teach us for being cocky. It was only a matter of time. They've traced it back to someone who flew over from NSW in Aussie who was in managed isolation at the border. They transferred him to hospital and somewhere in those couple of days the virus got out into the community. They haven't found the missing link yet between him and the outbreak. The good new is - so far - that the affected are mostly in Auckland ( being our most populated city) with about 12 in Wellington (our capital). No cases reported anywhere else, although contact tracing has revealed possible spread to the South Island, but nothing has shown in testing yet.
The entire country is in lockdown until Friday evening now, at which time they will reassess. If It's still not showing in the regions, they may well keep Auckland and Wellington at level 4 ( maximum lockdown) and allow the rest of country to go to level three. Level three is basically a full lockdown ( although we can extend our family bubble to include one other household) but with uber eats and other takeaways allowed Bring on the pizza!

That’s too bad. Delta is so transmissible it’s likely to keep going. Just wondering how you personally are feeling about getting the vaccine? I recall you were on the fence but maybe I’m not up to speed.

 

[KiwiMoose]

That’s too bad. Delta is so transmissible it’s likely to keep going. Just wondering how you personally are feeling about getting the vaccine? I recall you were on the fence but maybe I’m not up to speed.

I jumped off the fence when DELTA hit town.