News From Florida

[RS ODonnell]

Our daughter-in-law works at an AdventHealth hospital in Florida. She sent us this today. She said things are gettin really bad again at her hospital.

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/lo...with-covid-19/

[jondrew55]

Our neighbor works at Advent. Told us the same thing. My daughters dance studio has a break out. 8 people we know of. Some under 12 so no vax for them. 2 adults. Both vaccinated. I'm working from home mostly, but go in a few days a month. Went in today and wore my mask even thought they are mandating it yet. And yes, I've had my shots.

[NXR]

Three lines from that article:

Across the hospital system, there are 942 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of Monday morning, according to AdventHealth officials.

The chief medical officer said 90% of patients in the hospital now have not been vaccinated.

Dr. Raul Pino, Orange County health officer with the Florida Department of Health, said the county reported 13 deaths last week, the youngest was 27 years old. All those individuals were unvaccinated.

I get it, not everyone can get vaccinated and it's not their choice. We have two immunocompromised people in our family and both got the vaccinations. In fact their docs recommended it to lessen the severity. Is it effective in them? Who knows, but it certainly is not less effective than not getting it.

My niece got vaccinated while pregnant and there are no issues with her or the child yet and she delivered months ago. Yes, she is a sample size of one.

I also have a relative in FL who works as a dental assistant and absolutely refuses to get vaccinated. She was told she's not getting invited to a family member's wedding because of that.

I waited until there was what I figured was a large enough population to see if serious issues were arising. And then I got the shots.

I used to be a healthcare professional and one thing I understand is the arrogance of medical professionals about what they think they know and that caused a lot of hesitancy for me. Over the years I've seen 100% about-faces in recommended treatment protocols because what was the "gold standard" later turned out to be killing people.

"Give calcium IV during a cardiac arrest because it strengthens the cardiac compressions." "Whoa, DO NOT GIVE CALCIUM! It's stopping the heart from restarting!" is one of them.

One 25-year ER RN we know was adamant about not taking an "experimental shot". And then she did. She said the sight of young doctors slowly trudging through the hospital corridors while pulling an oxygen tank behind them was what made the difference.

I also understand that the lack of a formal full approval is an issue for some people as it was for me. That in fact is why the military cannot be ordered to get the COVID vaccinations. After multiple instances of military people being permanently injured by defective, unapproved vaccines Congress passed a law forbidding the ordered vaccination unless the vaccine was fully approved.

Yes, it will get interesting once the vaccine(s) get full approval. And it will be even more interesting if they do not.

A person used to need to research the truth and facts for themselves. Now with social media many are letting others do their thinking for them without knowing their motivations.

I wonder if the anti-vaxxers have pets and whether they show the same hesitancy in getting their pets vaccinated.

Ray

[NXR]

Originally Posted by jondrew55

Our neighbor works at Advent. Told us the same thing. My daughters dance studio has a break out. 8 people we know of. Some under 12 so no vax for them. 2 adults. Both vaccinated. I'm working from home mostly, but go in a few days a month. Went in today and wore my mask even thought they are mandating it yet. And yes, I've had my shots.

That is one thing I don't think many people understood. Almost no vaccine is 100% effective. Primarily they give a person's immune system a head start on fighting a real infection.

My original shingles vaccine (Zostavax) was supposed to be about 50% effective but definitely was known to reduce the severity. My subsequent one (Shingrix) is supposed to be in the 90th percentile. I got shingles on my face before my first vaccine because I was five years younger than the approved age. Then after I recovered I was suddenly allowed to get it.

Unfortunately vaccines are like trying to prove a negative. If you never get the illness, was it because you were never exposed or because the vaccine worked? I guess it depends on which side of the vaccine debate you're on.

I was very little when the polio vaccine became available and I still remember how terrified my parents were of us getting it. And how relived they were once we got the vaccine. Maybe that's a difference with the anti-vaxxers; they never had that experience because vaccines were already mainstream.

Ray

[PABO05]

This pandemic will be here for the long haul.
I am fully vaccinated and still wear a mask around people.

[TandW]

Bay pines VA is full of Delta variant. No open beds.

[jondrew55]

Holy cow talk about side effects! I got the shingles van (first dose) and felt a bit under the weather for a day or two. Shot 2 kicked my but for almost 3 days. Fever, muscle aches etc. But I’d rather loose a weekend than get shingles.

Originally Posted by NXR

That is one thing I don't think many people understood. Almost no vaccine is 100% effective. Primarily they give a person's immune system a head start on fighting a real infection.

My original shingles vaccine (Zostavax) was supposed to be about 50% effective but definitely was known to reduce the severity. My subsequent one (Shingrix) is supposed to be in the 90th percentile. I got shingles on my face before my first vaccine because I was five years younger than the approved age. Then after I recovered I was suddenly allowed to get it.

Unfortunately vaccines are like trying to prove a negative. If you never get the illness, was it because you were never exposed or because the vaccine worked? I guess it depends on which side of the vaccine debate you're on.

I was very little when the polio vaccine became available and I still remember how terrified my parents were of us getting it. And how relived they were once we got the vaccine. Maybe that's a difference with the anti-vaxxers; they never had that experience because vaccines were already mainstream.

Ray

[Danny969]

The Delta variant while more contagious than the regular covid is far less lethal than the original version. Death rates are still going down despite the spike in cases. No need to worry.

[jondrew55]

When you say “no need to worry” what exactly do you mean? Only another 300K Americans will die because it’s less lethal? 200K? Since the delta variant is just making its big appearance I don’t think anyone knows what the lethality percentage is. And if we shut down again because people won’t get vaccinated, wear masks or social distance what impact will that have?

Originally Posted by Danny969

The Delta variant while more contagious than the regular covid is far less lethal than the original version. Death rates are still going down despite the spike in cases. No need to worry.

[Massparanoia]

Originally Posted by jondrew55

When you say “no need to worry” what exactly do you mean? Only another 300K Americans will die because it’s less lethal? 200K? Since the delta variant is just making its big appearance I don’t think anyone knows what the lethality percentage is. And if we shut down again because people won’t get vaccinated, wear masks or social distance what impact will that have?

It’s easy to figure out the percentage. A little over 34 million cases with a little over 600k deaths. Easy math.

[Danny969]

But the news gets even better. Even using the inflated death numbers, a tiny 0.18% of the US population has died from covid. When you factor in under the age of 65 and no co-morbidities, it drops to nearly 0.01%. The median age for those that died of covid is 79 yrs old. And 78% of all those hospitalized for covid were obese. Bottom line is if your fat or really old, you should be concerned. If not, your odds of living a long life are extremely high. The true epidemic in America is obesity.

[RS ODonnell]

Originally Posted by PABO05

This pandemic will be here for the long haul.
I am fully vaccinated and still wear a mask around people.

Agreed and the same. We wear our masks regardless. Oftentimes almost the only ones.

If this variant gets out of hand we could very well go back into full lockdown.

If we get a mutation that ignores the vaccines we'll be back to square one.

Unfortunately this is not a new phenomenon:

[jondrew55]

Almost a dozen people in my daughter's dance school are now positive. This includes several vaccinated adults. I see another shutdown coming soon. School starts here in 2 weeks and most school districts are making masks optional. So the population most likely to spread the virus (kids under 12 who cannot be vaccinated) are not going to be required to use the simplest form of protection.

[Defiant530]

I am one of those in the un-vaccinated test group by my own choice (as it should be ) but taking the shot or not is a personnel choice that every person has to consider, I've been in Florida or Mississippi throughout this whole thing workamping non-stop,no mask , I was sick once ( cold , flu, covid who knows ) and was back to normal after a week or so ,I still do take my Vitamin C,D ,Zinc and edelberry to keep the immune system in high gear . The problem seems to be in trying to get actual , reliable information and even then it's a virus it is now endemic and not going anywhere it will evolve ,mutate and go around every road block put in front of it and it will bypass these vaccines level of effectiveness. The common cold a and flu are still here despite sciences best efforts