From the #Science-following experts at the CDC:
I hope that everyone is inspired to come visit in the near future, just in case our blue status does not last. Here’s the forecast for Jupiter, Florida (apologies to European readers for using the temperature units that God prefers):
#Science proves that you should be in Florida in the winter! (but, if the raging plague of summer 2021 is any guide, try to be somewhere else in July and August)
Separately, where in the above map can we see the effect of differential vaccination rates among states? If vaccination rate doesn’t affect transmission rate, why are we so obsessed with harassing the hesitant?
Related:
- Optimum COVID-19 American lifestyle: Florida in winter; Maine in summer? (November 2020, just prior to availability of the vaccines that we were assured would halt transmission): Would the optimum lifestyle right now therefore be to live in a single-family home in a low-density part of Florida during the winter and in a single-family home in a low-density part of Maine during the summer? [Now that I am here in Florida, I realize that one need not be a single-family home to avoid public indoor spaces. Unlike in Manhattan or Boston, the typical apartment here is accessible without walking through an indoor lobby.]
This is indeed good news. Checking the graph for Florida on Google (search “florida covid” for a useful graph) this has come way down. Perhaps most in Florida have been either infected or vaccinated already? Either way, great news.
Alas, the US overall isn’t doing too hot, currently still averaging ~900 deaths per day.
That’s about four 747s crashing, daily.
G C: Those crashing 747s have a lot of folks who are 85 and older on board and hardly any kids were able to get out of school for the flights. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#SexAndAge (then click on “Monthly”) shows that nationwide COVID-19-tagged deaths in November 2021 were 11 for those between 0 and 17 years of age and 3,162 for those 85 years old and older. From a casual look at the data, the median age of an American who died in November 2021 with a COVID-19 tag seems to be early 70s, consistent with Psalm 90:10 (“The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty”).
If you’re thinking that the 747s were packed with folks fresh from the tennis court, remember that life insurance rates still haven’t moved. https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2021/11/27/thankful-that-life-insurance-rates-are-still-down/
In our own Blue state (CO), we have recently had a significant spike in cases, like all states seem to be going through over time (SE in the summer, West now, etc), regardless of vaccination status (look at Vermont today!). As you have been saying, there is no way to hide/escape from the virus (something the Swedes figured out early on, as you also have been saying).
But I believe the nationwide data on hospitalizations seems to be consistent on relative ratios of people who are hospitalized with and without vaccinations. I’ll use CO and our major hospital conglomerate (UC Health as an example) – 78% of those hospitalized (with COVID-19) and 91% of those in the ICU are unvaccinated. Source: https://www.uchealth.org/today/why-are-colorado-covid-19-cases-spiking/.
You like anecdotes, Phil. I have a trainer who I workout with in our gym, and she has 2 friends who are ICU nurses in one of the local UC Health hospitals – they describe the ICU the past few weeks as akin to a ‘war zone’. Our county COVID dashboard says we have 62% of people fully vaccinated. Yet, it’s so bad (they say) that we have had medical teams from the DoD come into Ft. Collins to help (https://www.9news.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/federal-team-fort-collins-hospital/73-71b740ac-97c4-4bca-86a6-e22f0a37272f).
Does vaccination affect transmission rates? I’ve seen reports that it is *thought* to be less transmissible when vaccinated but no solid real evidence. But the overwhelming evidence is that vaccinations do reduce the severity of infections.
Paul B: I am sure that 62% “full vaccinated number” is essentially a lie. That’s of the total population? Including 6-month-old babies who cannot legally be injected with the magic serum? In what other domain of human activity would we do statistics like that?
https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2021/11/09/larimer-county-covid-hospitalizations-county-matches-past-peak/6339386001/
says “Larimer County had 122 COVID-19 patients in its hospitals Friday, reaching the same record number of patients recorded Dec. 4, 2020, during the county’s largest COVID-19 surge last fall and winter.”
That’s out of roughly 360,000 people (plus any that didn’t want to be “documented” by the Census Bureau).
Is it time to panic because more than 100 people are in the ICU with a COVID-19 tag? Obviously, the answer is “yes” since you report that people are in a state of panic. But do folks in Ft. Collins have an exit strategy from their panic? If so, what is the number of COVID-19 ICU patients in a 360,000-person county that they can accept as the inevitable consequence of viruses being smarter than humans?
If one uses the graph that Google spits out, fatalities in Colorado are the same as last year in October/November. Either we have bred a super variant that smites the unvaccinated, or the vaccines don’t work.
Given the inconsistencies in mainstream reporting and the fact that the vaccine now has cult status, I tend towards the latter.
You’ve got the cool blue state to go along with the beautiful blue waters, and now you also have the musical stylings of Barrington Levy. You’re Broader (and bluer) than Broadway!
Almost no one reports the blueness of Florida as a success. The Pravda doubles down and writes a vicious attack on Floridians and their Junta:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/us/florida-coronavirus-covid-19.html
Do note that “vaccine hesitant” has been upgraded to “vaccine skeptic”.
Only the press that had been despised as Yellow Press before 2020 reports accurately:
https://www.foxnews.com/media/media-stops-covering-fl-covid-data-downtrend-threatens-lockdown-politics