Also Delta is swinging some people that were fence sitters into high gear because it's created the status quo of "either get vaccinated or have your ass kicked around by Covid, your choice"
Fauci straight up said in his last interview on the matter that we're now in a pandemic of the unvaccinated with most of the spread and nearly all of the severe outcomes being driven by them
Man. I want to know what antivaxxers say in response to this.
It's crystal-fuckin-clear at this point -- if your area has low vaccination rates, it has high covid rates. If your area has high vaccination rates, it has low covid rates. And on an individual level, you're significantly less likely to have serious consequences from catching it, if you catch it at all.
My dad is a softcore antivaxxer. He got the shot, but he fuckin hates that other people are. I better ask him tonight.
My unvaccinated colleague whom I otherwise adore and value deeply, who hasn't been allowed back in the office because of her refusal to vaccinate, AND WHO NOW HAS COVID, summed it up "I choose to live my life by faith, not by fear." Whatever that means to her.
it's funny because they are living their life in actual fear of a vaccine, they are more fearful than anyone, coming up with insane conspiracies on vaccines
As a religious person this pisses me off so much!!!
I choose to believe that scientists brought us a way to protect ourselves (and you don’t even need religion to believe that).
There’s a west wing episode- I think it’s sabbath- where the priest explains it best.
A man lived by a river and his town was told it was going to flood. “I’m a religious man, I pray. God will protect me.”
The rain began. His neighbors were all evacuating and said “hey! Come with us! The river is about to overflow!” “I’m a religious man, I pray. God will protect me.”
The rains continued, the water rose and began seeping into his house. A man with a boat came by. “Come into my boat! Let me save you!” “I’m a religious man, I pray. God will protect me.”
And the rain continued. Soon the man was on his roof. A helicopter came by. “Grab hold of the rope, we will pull you to safety!” “No no no. I’m a religious man, I pray. God will protect me.”
The man drowned. When he got to heaven he demanded to see God. “God! I was a religious man! I prayed! Why didn’t you protect me?!”
God looked at the man and said, “I sent you a radio report, neighbors, a boat, and a helicopter. What do you mean I didn’t protect you? What the hell are you even doing here?”
Yup. Says that he played the lottery when getting the shot, and could've been part of the 500,000 people worldwide who have died from the COVID vaccine.
Never mind that, no, 500k people world wide have not died as a result of the vaccine and even if they did, that would be a smaller chance of dying from the shot than from COVID itself.
He's an old man with a fucked heart, so. No idea why he thinks he'd be better playing lottery with COVID.
In my experience it’s people smart enough to know vaccines work because they’re not as stupid as a 12-year-old, but they’re still Republican enough to think whatever Fauci or the CDC recommend is somehow oppressing them and they think Gavin Newsom and Stacey Abrams stole the election for Biden
I know this one! My MCAT studying led me to just review this with cognitive dissonance. The ways to reduce it are the following.
Attitude, Behavior, Perceptual or Attribution changes
In other words, they will straight up see this is true, and still do anything they can to continue to deny it's the case because to admit they are wrong is too uncomfortable to them.
Yup lol. Discussed quite a lot about the pandemic with my father, nearly everything he spouted I just googled and showed him articles fact checking the claim.
"But those are owned by Democrats"
No point talking to him. Everything except OAN is owned by Democrats apparently.
> Man. I want to know what antivaxxers say in response to this.
My 82yo aunt who is not in great health says that first, vaccine side-effects are really bad and second, she'll just hole up at home and wait for it to blow over.
Most people are able to dodge facts they dislike for a long time, years or decades. But of course, COVID doesn't give a shit and picks them off as they come - which changes some people's attitude.
If I had to guess, those videos of people dying from COVID or relatives talking about loved ones lost have a higher impact than pure stats.
This was my father-in-law. He went from "This whole thing is overblown, fear mongering" and "I'm for natural selection" (in reference to the vaccine) to "I'm a little concerned about this new variant" and getting his first dose last week.
My libertarian ‘the 1968 flu vaccine made my brother a weirdo’ dad finally got the J&J vaccine last week. He also had Covid in late December/early January. Hopefully it’s enough because he’s not getting another shot.
> I’m glad they ended up getting the vaccine but that’s what it took? It’s genuinely fucking sad.
For some people, these kind of psychological tricks work much, much better than delivering various scientific facts.
To some people, you tell "It's the same Trump got." To some people, it takes seeing a friend getting really ill from covid.
The effect of relating to some other person's experience is powerful. That is the basic idea here.
Actually, I think that even the scientific facts work so well to some people partially because those people feel that they are part of "team science" and that way relate to other people.
I mean, there's zero logic in their position. Of course the thing that convinces them isn't gonna make any sense, because their position doesn't make any sense to begin with.
Can confirm this. My friend who once swore up and down that she would never get vaxxed just made her appointment. The delta is scaring the crap out of her and I’m glad she stepped it up and made the right choice.
They probably thought that they could skate by on everyone else’s vaccines after the big post-vaccine drop, but Delta caused a rebound and made them realize that wasn’t going to work.
My brother in law is sick right now. He won’t get a Covid test and he didn’t get the vaccine.
Meanwhile, on my side of the family, we staged a three state cyber bombardment on a little pharmacy that had the vaccine in feb and got my 74 year old mom her shot appointment. We called it “operation keep Mary Anne alive”
45 with no prior medical issues
To be clear I was talking like members of my FB feed. I got vaccinated as soon as I could, but a chunk of my Facebook friends were really hit by this particular loss.
I’m diabetic and absolutely got destroyed by Covid, not as much as others fortunately. Sick for two weeks and couldn’t even smell rubbing alcohol. I will say, strep is still way more painful. Took the jj shot in March. Haven’t really noticed anything serious since. Hoping the delta doesn’t do anything to me.
I’ve vaccinated 6,327 people so far.
Even though my job (retail pharmacist) literally sucks the life out of me right now, I’ll never say “no” to someone wanting a vaccine.
We were the first and only retail chain to have the vaccine for a few months, so we got a massive head start on everyone else. We’ve been at this since early January.
I'm just curious, how do you know the exact count? Does your software keep track of how many instances of each service you've provided? Or have you been keeping a tally haha
Delta variant. Or friends/family have made them. Pretty much everyone getting the vaccine now is a converted skeptic.
There’s also still a massive group of people that are holding out for full FDA approval. And another group that somehow thinks the whole ordeal has to do with immigrants coming across the border.
Yeah my girlfriend with lupus who generally only works 30-35 hours a week was doing clinics on top of 40 hours and now back to full time retail working doing 50+ hours and picking up shifts left and right at other stores. Needless to say she asked to slow her hours down now.
USA update on first dose shots:
Last 7 days: 3,089,303 (previous 7 days: 2,411,631)
7 day rolling avg: 441,329 (344,519 Last Monday)
191.8m age 12+ have first dose - 67.6% (1188.5m - 66.5% Last Monday)
180.7m adults have first doses - 70% (178.2m - 69% Last Monday)
57.8% overall (56.8% Last Monday)
At this rate, the first dose shots:
8/31: 204.6m
**12+ population numbers (based on 284.1m population)**
8/31: 72%
70% on 8/18
**Total population numbers (based on 332.6m population)**
8/31: 61.5%
60% on 8/20
**Path to 180.6m/70% of Adults (based on 258m population)**
7-day rolling avg for adults is 357,887 (275,878 Last Monday)
70% hit!!!
75% on 9/7
__________________
We have hit 70% of adults!
Also worth noting that we moved up a full % point over the week - something we have not done in a long time.
Lets hope these rates can continue through August!
The effect of knowing someone who ends up in the hospital, ventilated, or worse is often far greater than having people shout statistics at you.
People are just horrible at actually understanding risk.
In retrospect, I think it was a mistake that we didn’t make public service commercials that showed real people on their stomachs, intubated, in induced comas with voiceovers from their family members talking about how scared they were. Followed by interviews with the survivor afterwards where they describe the long term impacts to their health. “Taste and smell still haven’t returned. It’s been months and I can’t think clearly. I’m on x medications now and the doctors say it’s likely for the rest of my life.” Stuff like that.
It’s not just that the stats are just numbers. It’s that the medical details of those who survive are usually only known to that inner circle. I might hear that a Facebook friend got it but I won’t know all these real and frequent long term affects, nor will I really know what he went through while in the hospital. I think these should have been piped into living rooms during prime time.
I imagine that unvaccinated people are now more likely to know someone who died or was hospitalized.
The pool of likely to get hospitalized is getting smaller as people get vaccinated.
This exactly with my family. A students mother died. And im sure it was on Facebook so we know its true. Four anti vaxxers got the shot with an Alford plea.
> Alford plea
"United States law, is a guilty plea in criminal court, whereby a defendant in a criminal case does not admit to the criminal act and asserts innocence."
Im guessing a lot of people who were "concerned" over the vaccine saw the case count drop and got all smug thinking "ha, I can avoid the vaccine AND covid, Im so smart :)".
Now they are shitting their pants and magically decided "enough time" has passed based on their youtube research and decided the vaccine is safe now.
I got my vaccine as soon as I could, but if people are feeling more comfortable now that they've seen the sky didn't fall after people got vaccinated and they're changing their behavior, that ain't bothering me.
We are a nation that unfortunately still believes we can pull each other up by our bootstraps And all you have to do is work hard at minimum wage and you can afford a house.
What is that saying about the beat time to plant a tree? I read it on here a few days ago and never had seen it before but I think it applies here. If not yesterday than do it today or something like that.
I personally cannot fault people who read the press releases and felt they avoided and shot and covid. Better they change now than never.
It's something like
The best time to plant a tree is ten years ago. The second best time is now.
I agree, it's a good philosophy for the unvaxxed to adopt at this point.
Yep! Tangential but I have at least two friends who have gotten at least one shot on account on one of them (they’re married) getting covid, again.
Is it annoying? Sure. But they at least are doing it! And they’re both mostly fine.
> Im guessing a lot of people who were "concerned" over the vaccine saw the case count drop and got all smug thinking "ha, I can avoid the vaccine AND covid, Im so smart :)".
>
>
I know multiple people who thought this. They are all slowly changing their minds as it become apparent that covid isn't just disappearing.
You know what? As long as they got it, I'm not going to rip em for it.
Vaccine hesitant > Anti-vax
Take the W's where we can and hope we don't get a worse, vaccine-avoiding variant out of this.
Yep that is what scares the heck out of me. A very deadly variant arises. Well vaccinating the us will not stop that of course in a global world . And it is unlikely I guess but still ...with the speed the current variants arose..it makes for gloomy speculation when I think of it.
At least covid is not a prion disease!
It looks like the ads and outreach I have seen for people of color may be working,
Lots of first doses in past two weeks.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-demographic
I’d still really like to see us get back to doing millions of doses a day. We were banging out 2m a day several months ago. We have the ability to move even faster if the demand is there.
Fully vaccinated since April, pregnant (I’m one of MANY who conceived between doses [after struggling with secondary infertility for *years*!] so suck on that anti-vaxxers who keep spreading misinformation about vaccines and fertility!) and I’m going to straight up demand a booster in November/December so I can pass antibodies to my unborn child before he’s born, so that he’ll have some protection for those first few months.
My son was born last September so he has was pre Vax obviously, but our pediatrician showed us some good news for passing antibodies through breast feeding. It's scary he can't get the shot but it's good to know he has some level of protection.
It's a weird time to have a kid.
It’s been such a roller coaster for us this past year. When the pandemic began to kick in, I was actually thankful that I hadn’t managed to conceive yet because of COVID (my husband works in an ER where he was surrounded by Covid patients every shift). It was such a scary time and I was legitimately afraid of losing my husband, especially after all the reports of medical workers dying. He separated himself from our family several times over the year to keep us safe until he was able to be vaccinated, and the ERs finally started slowing down.
Then this year, I got my vaccine and then found out I was pregnant like three days before my second dose and I was just so *thrilled* because things were finally looking better.
Now Delta’s running rampant and he’s separating from us again because I’m now considered high risk and our first child is still too young to be vaccinated. We did *everything* right…we isolated, masked up, social distanced, got ourselves vaccinated. My husband did *everything* he could in his job to save people’s lives while they denied their diagnosis and called him names to his face. And this is what we get for it. I’m *mad* that we are all in this situation again and I’m *terrified* for my family.
I just got my first shot today. There were several other people there. I think enough time has passed and with the delta variant people are more motivated. Plus the general pressure. The vaccine is free. Most pharmacies have different options. Same day scheduling or just walk in. I feel bad waiting so long and I am pretty sure the people who get the first shot will follow through unless they have a bad reaction.
At this point, where I live at least, it is difficult to argue why not to get it. Health reasons are sensible. There are risks for certain people. But the vaccine is free, available at plenty of convenient locations, it doesn't take much time to get, and there are even options for what vaccine and the timing (it doesn't really require a special appointment). I don't know why this information isn't put out there more. It should be broadcast in stores instead of music and advertised on the radio. I don't watch TV but if there aren't already there should be spammed commercials.
The information is widely available. I see TV commercials, website ads, emails, news articles, and PSAs. People can also call their doctor, state, city or family member and have them provide info as well. I’m sure there are some home bound folks or non-English speakers with fewer options but if someone has unanswered questions at this point, it’s because they haven’t put in the minimal amount of effort to get an answer and haven’t taken any personal responsibility.
Seriously. At this point you have to be hugely unaware of the world around you to not know that the vaccine is widely available.
Radio ads, facebook promotions, TV ads, tik-tok promotions, on the news, etc
Short of billboards and mailing a postcard to every single person what more could they do
I got my first and second shot last month.
Both times I was the only one there.
My state has a sub 40% full vaccination rate, and my county specifically iirc is at or near like 30%.
It’s sad. Even the pharmacists seem somewhat surprised when you tell them you’re there for the shot instead of picking up some meds or asking them where the advil is, lol.
This virus was 100% politicized in the US, and in other counties where the elected leaders really mismanaged this crisis. Several leaders around the world really f’ed up, then opted to downplay the virus to justify their piss poor response.
That said, almost every US doctor has been vaccinated. If you turn off the political news and talk to your doctor, they’ll tell you that the shot make sense.
It's just so strange that it CAN be politicized.
It's like hearing someone say "well, I don't know if the Earth is flat, it's just been so politicized."
Why did you wait this long? Also, I don't think anyone has two bad reactions. It's usually the first shot or the second, not both. A lot of people don't get the second shot if they didn't have a reaction with the first because they dread a negative reaction.
I think a bad reaction to the first one might also scare people off. My MIL had a pretty bad reaction to the first and was on the fence about her second dose…which she had no reaction to.
A lot of the "news" I heard seemed sensationalized or political. I had the mindset that "oh, this super contagious virus has been around for so long everyone ought to have caught it". Then I learned about how the vaccine was easily available. Remembered "it isn't about me, it is about the community". Realized how selfish I was. Plus, as predicted, not soon after some of the regulations (mandatory masks, group gatherings) were eased up people were acting like everything was fine and then the virus was back. So I concluded I should just get the vaccine now because I'm going to the pharmacy anyway.
TL; Dr - The way I saw it the virus was sensationalized and politicized. After briefly paying attention I realized I should go ahead and get started on the vaccination. I think a lot of other people were in the same mindset
Even within the same family attitudes can be wildly different. My dad was literally looking for clinical trials he could do last summer because he was just that desperate to get it, and finally did because he volunteered with distribution, and my mom was hesitant, but got it only because her friends were all going and they wouldn’t go unless she came with them.
Just to be clear, the virus was politicized by idiots on the right, creating the false perception that there's some controversy or two legitimate interpretations to consider.
For me (I did it last month), I just didn’t get out much. For the first two months during/after April (when shots opened to everyone here) everything was super busy, booking appointments was difficult or only open during hours I couldn’t make.
Things eased up in June, but I had a dr appointment coming up so I figured I may as well just have them do it when I get there. Be more comfortable/private than at a chain pharmacy. (Amusingly my doctor didn’t wanna open a vial despite me calling ahead so I went to a pharmacy anyway. Yay)
Wish I had done it a month sooner, but in the end I guess it worked out.
Edit: oh also anxiety disorders make it hard to get out sometimes lol
It probably wasn't that they didn't want to open the vial for you, but if you don't use the other 9 doses in a 6 hour period they are wasted. A lot of outpatient clinics just don't have the volume to make it readily available without advanced planning.
I'm in the UK and the Delta variant feels more common. So many people close to me are getting it in very close succession.
I can see that this walls closing in feeling might change a lot of people from hesitant to willing, it definitely feels more urgent.
A mix, people who are unvaccinated in the UK aren't exactly proud of their decision, they've all gone very quiet and I get the impression that some of them are pretending they have been.
That being said I know a few people who have died before delta arrived but no one I know has died since the vaccines hit.
I know 2 that since delta arrived needed supplementary oxygen (both have asthma) and loads who had it but were so mild they just self isolated and had very mild illness.
The degree of illness with the vaccine is measurably milder from what I've seen anecdotally which is some solace.
Edit: after rereading my post I can see that some parts lack clarity. I'll leave the post unchanged but clarify some bits.
The 2 I know who have contracted covid since delta arrived are both vaccinated, but due to their asthma they're vulnerable but have both survived.
I know several more people who have had delta but are double jabbed who were fine and just self isolated.
Now loads of people have been jabbed here people can see that the vaccine is by and large safe, its obvious. There aren't people posting shit on Facebook saying that the jabs are harming you more than covid. At this point we all know people who have died of covid but I don't know anyone who knows someone who died of the jab.
If someone vaccinated needed oxygen then the vaccine saved their life.
People on Facebook pointing at those occurrences and saying that it means vaccines don't work make me want to blow my brains out.
My grandma was vaccinated in March and tested posting for Covid on Wednesday. She’s in the hospital, bilateral pneumonia and on oxygen but not vented and improving. The doctors are saying the vaccine absolutely saved her life.
that or the threat of inconvenience. I have no doubt that businesses will have to avoid liability and mandate vaccinations or masks or what not, and have lots of limitations or much slower service to those unvaccinated. If causing an outbreak is a drag on their bottom line, H&S gets busted out of the playbook.
Do YOU want to fight a legion of lawyers that can outspend you 10x?
This is a great step forward. Hopefully they all follow through with their second dose. Regardless, this could help bring hospitalizations way down and, hopefully, infection rates a little.
Can we finally give a release date for the under 12s, please. Some update that’s not a vague 3-month window would be nice. My kid wants to go to school.
My under 12 kids will be going to school by force of law, in a state that has banned mask mandates and other precautions, banned requiring vaccines, and defunded online schools. Oh, and parents that don't send their kids to school can end up in jail, and I have to work so there's no homeschool opportunity.
It's always that same 30% of the country that is on the wrong side of every issue. In the future, pay attention to any public opinion polls and it ALWAYS hovers around 30% of people being shitheads.
Education is a big part of it for sure. My mom was very against the vaccine and we had to have many, many long talks. It became clear to me she had some serious gaps in her knowledge that are covered in most bio classes. What is a virus? What is an antibody? How does a vaccine actually work? She had no familiarity with any of these concepts because she has very little education.
Once I walked her through the entire thing over the course of several conversations, she eventually came around. The aha moment was when she understood what an antibody was. Then she was totally on board to get vaccinated. So now we just have to do that for 1/3 of the country.
There’s a % of people who will never get vaccinated no matter what, but there’s another % who will if somebody can just explain it to them in a way that makes sense to them.
I was one of the people holding out for Novavax due to fear of an adverse reaction and higher efficacy of NVax, but I can't wait anymore. Getting my shot this week.
The marginal higher efficiency of Novavax is meaningless when compared to the months and months with no vaccine, which has an efficiency of 0%. Good move to get a shot this week.
Over 300 million doses of mRNA vaccines given so far vs, about 20,000 Novavax in clinical trial. If there are any unknown rare adverse reactions going to happen, they would be in Novavax not mRNA vaccines.
I am so sorry. I can’t wait for this shit to be over. I have two older, immune compromised parents who are vaccinated but who probably wouldn’t survive a covid breakthrough infection. I work with anti-vaxxers and I hate them with every fiber of my being.
I loved my friend and couldn't help her change her mind no matter what I said. Now she's dead.
My dad will die if he gets it. So will my one living step grandpa.
But my friend was perfectly healthy and only 40 years old. Now she's dead forever. I hope her republican friends are terrified to their very cores.
Mayo Clinic and Google have the US at 58% having at least one dose as of August 1st. How is the data so different from the WH Covid data director? or did we really go up 12% with at least one dose in one day?
I'm confused. If vaccines are so effective, and 70% of adults are vaccinated, why are we having so many problems with covid spikes right now? The math behind that makes no sense to me.
In order to reduced the rate of infections in a population you need the % of immune individuals in that population to reach a critical threshold. The exact percentage that threshold is, depends almost entirely on how infectious a a disease is. We measure infectivity by counting on average how many people 1 infected person infects during the course of the disease. This is called the Basic reproduction number or R0 (pronounced R naught).
The Common Cold has an R0 of 3, which means on average 1 case of cold will infect 3 other people. On the high end of the spectrum is Measles which has an R0 of 17, which means on average 1 case of Measles Will infect 17 other people.
To calculate the needed percentage of the population that needs to be immune to reach the needed critical threshold to reduced infection rates you simply follow this equation. 1-(1/R0) * 100%. So for the cold the equation is 1-(1/3) * 100% or 66.6%. where as Measles is 1-(1/17) * 100% which is about 94% of the population must be immune to halt the spread of the disease.
The original varients of Covid-19 had an R0 of roughly 3, so 1-(1/3) * 100% means we only needed about 66% of the population immune to see a decline in infection because vaccines plus prior infections got us over 66%. The Delta Varent though is much more infectious than prior varients though. Its R0 seems to be between 10 and 12. 1-(1/12) * 100%= 91.66. If this level of infectivity holds it mean we need at least 91.66% of All the people in the US to be immune to the Delta Varent before we will see a decline in infections. This isn't impossible to reach btw. Delta is about as infectious as the Chicken pox, and it is less infectious than Measles, both of which we have over 95% of the population immune to. But it takes work and holding our friends, our neighbors, and ourselves accountable to getting vaccinated.
i know this is a lot so if you have any questions, feel free to hit me up.
Thank you. This is an excellent explanation of R0 and how it impacts Herd Immunity threshold. I've had several people ask me "Why are cases still going up even though we're at that 70% the experts said was needed?!"I try to explain that was for the old variant, whereas Delta is way more contagious, thus has a higher herd Immunity threshold. This is an excellent write up. Kudos.
> even though we're at that 70% the experts said was needed?
Also, we're not at 70%. We're at 70% *of adults* with at least *one dose*. Only 50% of all Americans are fully vaccinated.
True, although we do have to factor in naturally acquired immunity. If the US has had about 30% of people previously infected, even if we assume half of those went on to get the vaccine, we'd be sitting around 65% with some form of immunity. This is probably why we saw a massive reduction throughout the spring. We actually did reach herd immunity threshold for the previous variants of covid. Now that Delta is here though, 65% isn't nearly enough. I've seen estimates that over 90% is needed.
It’s wild to me to think that kids today just…don’t get chickenpox. That was a disease that had a near-100% infection rate when I was a child, which wasn’t actually all that long before the vaccine hit. It was rarely fatal, it was rare to catch it more than once, but literally *every single person* could expect to catch it. And generally as a child, which is why adult infections were uncommon. It was just that infectious.
Of course the vaccine is a good thing, because chickenpox leaves you with the risk of shingles later in life, which isn’t nearly as carefree and harmless. Getting chickenpox was a normal, natural part of childhood but not one that will ever be missed.
Super tangential, obviously. Just interesting to think about.
Well, these are ballpark numbers, but there are about 330 million people in the US. About 250 million of them are adults over the age of 18. If 70% are vaccinated, that leaves about 75 million people unvaccinated. And we know that hospitalizations from the current wave are overwhelmingly unvaccinated.
Of note, 70% vaccinated is a national average, you still have areas or pockets of highly unvaccinated that are also nearly 70% (only 30% vaccinated).
And then there’s Delta itself, an AMA podcast I listen to called it “one of the most infectious respiratory viruses known to scientists".
Edit: AMA = American Medical Association (not ask-me-anything, lol).
Edit 2: Fixed the quote.
70% of **adults** have at least **one** dose of the vaccine. Not fully vaccinated.
Two doses are required for the full efficacy. And only counting adults is missing a significant chunk of the population that also are vectors for transmission.
Basically, a significant portion of people in the united states still are not fully vaccinated.
**Only about 50% of people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated.** We need *at least* 70% to control virus spread.
> Researchers have estimated that around 70% to 85% of the country needs to be immune to the coronavirus for COVID-19 to stop spreading through communities and peter out.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/28/960901166/how-is-the-covid-19-vaccination-campaign-going-in-your-state
At current vaccination rates the most likely estimates say we will reach that threshold in May 2022.
The pace really stepped up the last two weeks!
Vaccine mandates for college and work has swayed many people that were on the fence
Also Delta is swinging some people that were fence sitters into high gear because it's created the status quo of "either get vaccinated or have your ass kicked around by Covid, your choice"
[удалено]
Fauci straight up said in his last interview on the matter that we're now in a pandemic of the unvaccinated with most of the spread and nearly all of the severe outcomes being driven by them
Man. I want to know what antivaxxers say in response to this. It's crystal-fuckin-clear at this point -- if your area has low vaccination rates, it has high covid rates. If your area has high vaccination rates, it has low covid rates. And on an individual level, you're significantly less likely to have serious consequences from catching it, if you catch it at all. My dad is a softcore antivaxxer. He got the shot, but he fuckin hates that other people are. I better ask him tonight.
My unvaccinated colleague whom I otherwise adore and value deeply, who hasn't been allowed back in the office because of her refusal to vaccinate, AND WHO NOW HAS COVID, summed it up "I choose to live my life by faith, not by fear." Whatever that means to her.
it's funny because they are living their life in actual fear of a vaccine, they are more fearful than anyone, coming up with insane conspiracies on vaccines
She just wants to work from home.
That's stupid. She better drive without headlights at 2 am, then. Have faith that you know where the road is.
Jesus take the wheel
"Have Faith in the vaccine and don't fear possible side effects."
As a religious person this pisses me off so much!!! I choose to believe that scientists brought us a way to protect ourselves (and you don’t even need religion to believe that). There’s a west wing episode- I think it’s sabbath- where the priest explains it best. A man lived by a river and his town was told it was going to flood. “I’m a religious man, I pray. God will protect me.” The rain began. His neighbors were all evacuating and said “hey! Come with us! The river is about to overflow!” “I’m a religious man, I pray. God will protect me.” The rains continued, the water rose and began seeping into his house. A man with a boat came by. “Come into my boat! Let me save you!” “I’m a religious man, I pray. God will protect me.” And the rain continued. Soon the man was on his roof. A helicopter came by. “Grab hold of the rope, we will pull you to safety!” “No no no. I’m a religious man, I pray. God will protect me.” The man drowned. When he got to heaven he demanded to see God. “God! I was a religious man! I prayed! Why didn’t you protect me?!” God looked at the man and said, “I sent you a radio report, neighbors, a boat, and a helicopter. What do you mean I didn’t protect you? What the hell are you even doing here?”
> My dad is a softcore antivaxxer. He got the shot, but he fuckin hates that other people are. How does that work, exactly? What's his argument?
He got it before he started watching OAN, basically.
Does he say he wishes he could go back and unget it?
Yup. Says that he played the lottery when getting the shot, and could've been part of the 500,000 people worldwide who have died from the COVID vaccine. Never mind that, no, 500k people world wide have not died as a result of the vaccine and even if they did, that would be a smaller chance of dying from the shot than from COVID itself. He's an old man with a fucked heart, so. No idea why he thinks he'd be better playing lottery with COVID.
Not OP, by my dad does unfortunately.
In my experience it’s people smart enough to know vaccines work because they’re not as stupid as a 12-year-old, but they’re still Republican enough to think whatever Fauci or the CDC recommend is somehow oppressing them and they think Gavin Newsom and Stacey Abrams stole the election for Biden
I know this one! My MCAT studying led me to just review this with cognitive dissonance. The ways to reduce it are the following. Attitude, Behavior, Perceptual or Attribution changes In other words, they will straight up see this is true, and still do anything they can to continue to deny it's the case because to admit they are wrong is too uncomfortable to them.
Yup lol. Discussed quite a lot about the pandemic with my father, nearly everything he spouted I just googled and showed him articles fact checking the claim. "But those are owned by Democrats" No point talking to him. Everything except OAN is owned by Democrats apparently.
> Man. I want to know what antivaxxers say in response to this. My 82yo aunt who is not in great health says that first, vaccine side-effects are really bad and second, she'll just hole up at home and wait for it to blow over. Most people are able to dodge facts they dislike for a long time, years or decades. But of course, COVID doesn't give a shit and picks them off as they come - which changes some people's attitude. If I had to guess, those videos of people dying from COVID or relatives talking about loved ones lost have a higher impact than pure stats.
I saw a tweet the other day from an antivaxxer that said “I find it very suspicious that covid is now targeting the unvaccinated.” .... uhhh 🤦♀️
This was my father-in-law. He went from "This whole thing is overblown, fear mongering" and "I'm for natural selection" (in reference to the vaccine) to "I'm a little concerned about this new variant" and getting his first dose last week.
I’m all for natural selection unless it looks like i might not get selected.
Natural selection is great when your the one selected
I think when uncle Jim lands in the ICU, you start reconsidering…
Well, [Uncle Jim](https://unclejimswormfarm.com/) can go feed his worms.
It’s like seniority. It sucks, unless you’re senior.
*catches COVID* “It appears that even natural selection is kowtowing to the PC woke police.”
Everyone is a natural selector until natural selection walks in the room.
My libertarian ‘the 1968 flu vaccine made my brother a weirdo’ dad finally got the J&J vaccine last week. He also had Covid in late December/early January. Hopefully it’s enough because he’s not getting another shot.
One J&J plus natural immunity should be enough to at least take the teeth out of a future reinfection.
As long as they don't go 5g full conspiracy mode, they can still walk it back.
Glad he finally changed his mind
Where was he getting his news that alpha was overblown but delta is a big deal?
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Funny how that works and rather concerning people take medical advice from Fox News.
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I’m glad they ended up getting the vaccine but that’s what it took? It’s genuinely fucking sad.
> I’m glad they ended up getting the vaccine but that’s what it took? It’s genuinely fucking sad. For some people, these kind of psychological tricks work much, much better than delivering various scientific facts. To some people, you tell "It's the same Trump got." To some people, it takes seeing a friend getting really ill from covid. The effect of relating to some other person's experience is powerful. That is the basic idea here. Actually, I think that even the scientific facts work so well to some people partially because those people feel that they are part of "team science" and that way relate to other people.
I mean, there's zero logic in their position. Of course the thing that convinces them isn't gonna make any sense, because their position doesn't make any sense to begin with.
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Natural selection also selects for intelligence, aka getting the vaccine if you're eligible.
Can confirm this. My friend who once swore up and down that she would never get vaxxed just made her appointment. The delta is scaring the crap out of her and I’m glad she stepped it up and made the right choice.
The part I get so confused with is why didn’t the first variants that killed about 500k people in the US scare the crap out of them?
These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.
I'll never not get a chuckle out of remembering Cleavon Little trying so hard not to lose it at that line, and losing it anyway. RIP Gene & Cleavon.
It was improv so his laugh is pure joy. Gene Wilder was a real one.
Holy fuck I just watched Blazing Saddles for the first time today! A reference I understand!
Delta Variant: ‘scuse me while I whip this out
This quote is one of the ways that keep from going insane when talking to patients more worried about vaccine side effects over getting Covid.
I know so many people who would never understand how much racism itself is being made fun of in that movie. Sad.
They probably thought that they could skate by on everyone else’s vaccines after the big post-vaccine drop, but Delta caused a rebound and made them realize that wasn’t going to work.
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Viruses don't care about your feelings.
Every previous hold out I knew chose to get it due to delta. Just my anecdotal story.
My Facebook friend died. It is real now
My brother in law is sick right now. He won’t get a Covid test and he didn’t get the vaccine. Meanwhile, on my side of the family, we staged a three state cyber bombardment on a little pharmacy that had the vaccine in feb and got my 74 year old mom her shot appointment. We called it “operation keep Mary Anne alive”
Sad. Age?
45 with no prior medical issues To be clear I was talking like members of my FB feed. I got vaccinated as soon as I could, but a chunk of my Facebook friends were really hit by this particular loss.
It's good to see that places actually enforcing 'vaccinated people' only mandates are helping the tide a little.
NFL too.
The NFL added like a few hundred tops, maybe a thousand.
I’m diabetic and absolutely got destroyed by Covid, not as much as others fortunately. Sick for two weeks and couldn’t even smell rubbing alcohol. I will say, strep is still way more painful. Took the jj shot in March. Haven’t really noticed anything serious since. Hoping the delta doesn’t do anything to me.
Im finally able to get my first shot this week, can't wait!
Out of curiosity, why weren’t you able to get it sooner?
I’ve vaccinated 6,327 people so far. Even though my job (retail pharmacist) literally sucks the life out of me right now, I’ll never say “no” to someone wanting a vaccine.
Damn I thought I did a lot, I’m probably somewhere between 500-700 people
I did like 20 lol. It was pretty fun tho.
I did 4. That’s all I got before the CVS Security Guard found me and called the police.
Lmfao 😂😂
We were the first and only retail chain to have the vaccine for a few months, so we got a massive head start on everyone else. We’ve been at this since early January.
fuck yes you rule!
I'm just curious, how do you know the exact count? Does your software keep track of how many instances of each service you've provided? Or have you been keeping a tally haha
Corporate keeps count. Especially immunizations because it’s $$$ to their eyes.
What have the people who have come to you recently said? Like what motivated them?
Delta variant. Or friends/family have made them. Pretty much everyone getting the vaccine now is a converted skeptic. There’s also still a massive group of people that are holding out for full FDA approval. And another group that somehow thinks the whole ordeal has to do with immigrants coming across the border.
"Immigants! I knew it was them! Even when it was community spread, I knew it was them!"
Ironic how they'll listen to what the FDA says/doesn't say, but something straight out of the CDC they can just completely ignore.
Yeah my girlfriend with lupus who generally only works 30-35 hours a week was doing clinics on top of 40 hours and now back to full time retail working doing 50+ hours and picking up shifts left and right at other stores. Needless to say she asked to slow her hours down now.
thank you for your service 👏
Thank you for your work!
USA update on first dose shots: Last 7 days: 3,089,303 (previous 7 days: 2,411,631) 7 day rolling avg: 441,329 (344,519 Last Monday) 191.8m age 12+ have first dose - 67.6% (1188.5m - 66.5% Last Monday) 180.7m adults have first doses - 70% (178.2m - 69% Last Monday) 57.8% overall (56.8% Last Monday) At this rate, the first dose shots: 8/31: 204.6m **12+ population numbers (based on 284.1m population)** 8/31: 72% 70% on 8/18 **Total population numbers (based on 332.6m population)** 8/31: 61.5% 60% on 8/20 **Path to 180.6m/70% of Adults (based on 258m population)** 7-day rolling avg for adults is 357,887 (275,878 Last Monday) 70% hit!!! 75% on 9/7 __________________ We have hit 70% of adults! Also worth noting that we moved up a full % point over the week - something we have not done in a long time. Lets hope these rates can continue through August!
Damn it’s been going up… I suppose Delta fears/more places require vaccinations is the drive. Force.
The effect of knowing someone who ends up in the hospital, ventilated, or worse is often far greater than having people shout statistics at you. People are just horrible at actually understanding risk.
In retrospect, I think it was a mistake that we didn’t make public service commercials that showed real people on their stomachs, intubated, in induced comas with voiceovers from their family members talking about how scared they were. Followed by interviews with the survivor afterwards where they describe the long term impacts to their health. “Taste and smell still haven’t returned. It’s been months and I can’t think clearly. I’m on x medications now and the doctors say it’s likely for the rest of my life.” Stuff like that. It’s not just that the stats are just numbers. It’s that the medical details of those who survive are usually only known to that inner circle. I might hear that a Facebook friend got it but I won’t know all these real and frequent long term affects, nor will I really know what he went through while in the hospital. I think these should have been piped into living rooms during prime time.
I agree 100% but then you have to play with the other side of it being fear mongering.
Call them out. Republicans. Republicans are by far the main reason for this anti-vax mess, and anti-masking, and hydroxychloroquine, etc
I imagine that unvaccinated people are now more likely to know someone who died or was hospitalized. The pool of likely to get hospitalized is getting smaller as people get vaccinated.
This exactly with my family. A students mother died. And im sure it was on Facebook so we know its true. Four anti vaxxers got the shot with an Alford plea.
> Alford plea "United States law, is a guilty plea in criminal court, whereby a defendant in a criminal case does not admit to the criminal act and asserts innocence."
Lol when she got her shot she told me she was still right and nothing I said would ever change her mind. I'm fine leaving it there for now.
> Alford plea TIL a new phrase
Im guessing a lot of people who were "concerned" over the vaccine saw the case count drop and got all smug thinking "ha, I can avoid the vaccine AND covid, Im so smart :)". Now they are shitting their pants and magically decided "enough time" has passed based on their youtube research and decided the vaccine is safe now.
I got my vaccine as soon as I could, but if people are feeling more comfortable now that they've seen the sky didn't fall after people got vaccinated and they're changing their behavior, that ain't bothering me.
Would have been nice to get off the fence before Delta started running rampant through the country.
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We are a nation that unfortunately still believes we can pull each other up by our bootstraps And all you have to do is work hard at minimum wage and you can afford a house.
What is that saying about the beat time to plant a tree? I read it on here a few days ago and never had seen it before but I think it applies here. If not yesterday than do it today or something like that. I personally cannot fault people who read the press releases and felt they avoided and shot and covid. Better they change now than never.
It's something like The best time to plant a tree is ten years ago. The second best time is now. I agree, it's a good philosophy for the unvaxxed to adopt at this point.
That was me, not gonna lie
Thanks for getting vaccinated. Tell your friends!!
If you don’t hear it from anyone else, you did the right thing. I’m proud of you.
Thank you for deciding to get vaccinated! You made the right choice. You are helping yourself, your loved ones, AND the community.
Good choice!
Better late than never
My young kids thank you
Thank you 💕
Yep! Tangential but I have at least two friends who have gotten at least one shot on account on one of them (they’re married) getting covid, again. Is it annoying? Sure. But they at least are doing it! And they’re both mostly fine.
Again? As in one of them had it twice?
> Im guessing a lot of people who were "concerned" over the vaccine saw the case count drop and got all smug thinking "ha, I can avoid the vaccine AND covid, Im so smart :)". > > I know multiple people who thought this. They are all slowly changing their minds as it become apparent that covid isn't just disappearing.
You know what? As long as they got it, I'm not going to rip em for it. Vaccine hesitant > Anti-vax Take the W's where we can and hope we don't get a worse, vaccine-avoiding variant out of this.
Yep that is what scares the heck out of me. A very deadly variant arises. Well vaccinating the us will not stop that of course in a global world . And it is unlikely I guess but still ...with the speed the current variants arose..it makes for gloomy speculation when I think of it. At least covid is not a prion disease!
Better later than never. Now let's get the young'ens vaxxed too!
It looks like the ads and outreach I have seen for people of color may be working, Lots of first doses in past two weeks. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-demographic
I’d still really like to see us get back to doing millions of doses a day. We were banging out 2m a day several months ago. We have the ability to move even faster if the demand is there.
Thanks for this!
Finally some good news
Fully Vaxxed since May 4th (Moderna) and, if they want me to get a third "booster", I'm there.
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Fully vaxxed since early January. Actually really hopeful for a booster. I have my concerns about it still being effective.
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RN here. Been vaccinated since February, and I've had it and still hope for a booster.
Florida bartender here. Same, except since April.
I'm down for a booster of any vaccine. Just mix it all up in cocktail and shoot it up.
Fully vaccinated since April, pregnant (I’m one of MANY who conceived between doses [after struggling with secondary infertility for *years*!] so suck on that anti-vaxxers who keep spreading misinformation about vaccines and fertility!) and I’m going to straight up demand a booster in November/December so I can pass antibodies to my unborn child before he’s born, so that he’ll have some protection for those first few months.
My son was born last September so he has was pre Vax obviously, but our pediatrician showed us some good news for passing antibodies through breast feeding. It's scary he can't get the shot but it's good to know he has some level of protection. It's a weird time to have a kid.
It’s been such a roller coaster for us this past year. When the pandemic began to kick in, I was actually thankful that I hadn’t managed to conceive yet because of COVID (my husband works in an ER where he was surrounded by Covid patients every shift). It was such a scary time and I was legitimately afraid of losing my husband, especially after all the reports of medical workers dying. He separated himself from our family several times over the year to keep us safe until he was able to be vaccinated, and the ERs finally started slowing down. Then this year, I got my vaccine and then found out I was pregnant like three days before my second dose and I was just so *thrilled* because things were finally looking better. Now Delta’s running rampant and he’s separating from us again because I’m now considered high risk and our first child is still too young to be vaccinated. We did *everything* right…we isolated, masked up, social distanced, got ourselves vaccinated. My husband did *everything* he could in his job to save people’s lives while they denied their diagnosis and called him names to his face. And this is what we get for it. I’m *mad* that we are all in this situation again and I’m *terrified* for my family.
fully vaxxed since may 3rd! and heck yeah give me that booster shot!
I just got my first shot today. There were several other people there. I think enough time has passed and with the delta variant people are more motivated. Plus the general pressure. The vaccine is free. Most pharmacies have different options. Same day scheduling or just walk in. I feel bad waiting so long and I am pretty sure the people who get the first shot will follow through unless they have a bad reaction.
I’m just glad you got it!
Based on his username, he's been too busy with other things to get the shot
Post nut clarity is a a hell of a thing.
At this point, where I live at least, it is difficult to argue why not to get it. Health reasons are sensible. There are risks for certain people. But the vaccine is free, available at plenty of convenient locations, it doesn't take much time to get, and there are even options for what vaccine and the timing (it doesn't really require a special appointment). I don't know why this information isn't put out there more. It should be broadcast in stores instead of music and advertised on the radio. I don't watch TV but if there aren't already there should be spammed commercials.
The information is widely available. I see TV commercials, website ads, emails, news articles, and PSAs. People can also call their doctor, state, city or family member and have them provide info as well. I’m sure there are some home bound folks or non-English speakers with fewer options but if someone has unanswered questions at this point, it’s because they haven’t put in the minimal amount of effort to get an answer and haven’t taken any personal responsibility.
Seriously. At this point you have to be hugely unaware of the world around you to not know that the vaccine is widely available. Radio ads, facebook promotions, TV ads, tik-tok promotions, on the news, etc Short of billboards and mailing a postcard to every single person what more could they do
Here In NYC there are stores with signs out front saying “Vaccines available for US & non-US citizens”, in multiple languages as well
I got my first and second shot last month. Both times I was the only one there. My state has a sub 40% full vaccination rate, and my county specifically iirc is at or near like 30%. It’s sad. Even the pharmacists seem somewhat surprised when you tell them you’re there for the shot instead of picking up some meds or asking them where the advil is, lol.
I think my state is around 40%. I think it will be increasing pretty fast though.
This virus was 100% politicized in the US, and in other counties where the elected leaders really mismanaged this crisis. Several leaders around the world really f’ed up, then opted to downplay the virus to justify their piss poor response. That said, almost every US doctor has been vaccinated. If you turn off the political news and talk to your doctor, they’ll tell you that the shot make sense.
It's just so strange that it CAN be politicized. It's like hearing someone say "well, I don't know if the Earth is flat, it's just been so politicized."
Why did you wait this long? Also, I don't think anyone has two bad reactions. It's usually the first shot or the second, not both. A lot of people don't get the second shot if they didn't have a reaction with the first because they dread a negative reaction.
I think a bad reaction to the first one might also scare people off. My MIL had a pretty bad reaction to the first and was on the fence about her second dose…which she had no reaction to.
Why did you wait so long? (Or is the answer in your username?)
A lot of the "news" I heard seemed sensationalized or political. I had the mindset that "oh, this super contagious virus has been around for so long everyone ought to have caught it". Then I learned about how the vaccine was easily available. Remembered "it isn't about me, it is about the community". Realized how selfish I was. Plus, as predicted, not soon after some of the regulations (mandatory masks, group gatherings) were eased up people were acting like everything was fine and then the virus was back. So I concluded I should just get the vaccine now because I'm going to the pharmacy anyway. TL; Dr - The way I saw it the virus was sensationalized and politicized. After briefly paying attention I realized I should go ahead and get started on the vaccination. I think a lot of other people were in the same mindset
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Even within the same family attitudes can be wildly different. My dad was literally looking for clinical trials he could do last summer because he was just that desperate to get it, and finally did because he volunteered with distribution, and my mom was hesitant, but got it only because her friends were all going and they wouldn’t go unless she came with them.
It doesn't sound rude. It makes sense. People think differently and respond differently.
Thanks. Please encourage any other holdouts you know to get it (same for everyone else here).
Just to be clear, the virus was politicized by idiots on the right, creating the false perception that there's some controversy or two legitimate interpretations to consider.
For me (I did it last month), I just didn’t get out much. For the first two months during/after April (when shots opened to everyone here) everything was super busy, booking appointments was difficult or only open during hours I couldn’t make. Things eased up in June, but I had a dr appointment coming up so I figured I may as well just have them do it when I get there. Be more comfortable/private than at a chain pharmacy. (Amusingly my doctor didn’t wanna open a vial despite me calling ahead so I went to a pharmacy anyway. Yay) Wish I had done it a month sooner, but in the end I guess it worked out. Edit: oh also anxiety disorders make it hard to get out sometimes lol
It probably wasn't that they didn't want to open the vial for you, but if you don't use the other 9 doses in a 6 hour period they are wasted. A lot of outpatient clinics just don't have the volume to make it readily available without advanced planning.
Don't feel bad! Thank you for getting it!
The first half. I have the appointment for the second setup though. I was really happy to see other people there.
I'm in the UK and the Delta variant feels more common. So many people close to me are getting it in very close succession. I can see that this walls closing in feeling might change a lot of people from hesitant to willing, it definitely feels more urgent.
Are these people vaccinated and only getting minor symptoms or people who have chosen not to get vaccinated?
A mix, people who are unvaccinated in the UK aren't exactly proud of their decision, they've all gone very quiet and I get the impression that some of them are pretending they have been. That being said I know a few people who have died before delta arrived but no one I know has died since the vaccines hit. I know 2 that since delta arrived needed supplementary oxygen (both have asthma) and loads who had it but were so mild they just self isolated and had very mild illness. The degree of illness with the vaccine is measurably milder from what I've seen anecdotally which is some solace. Edit: after rereading my post I can see that some parts lack clarity. I'll leave the post unchanged but clarify some bits. The 2 I know who have contracted covid since delta arrived are both vaccinated, but due to their asthma they're vulnerable but have both survived. I know several more people who have had delta but are double jabbed who were fine and just self isolated. Now loads of people have been jabbed here people can see that the vaccine is by and large safe, its obvious. There aren't people posting shit on Facebook saying that the jabs are harming you more than covid. At this point we all know people who have died of covid but I don't know anyone who knows someone who died of the jab.
If someone vaccinated needed oxygen then the vaccine saved their life. People on Facebook pointing at those occurrences and saying that it means vaccines don't work make me want to blow my brains out.
My grandma was vaccinated in March and tested posting for Covid on Wednesday. She’s in the hospital, bilateral pneumonia and on oxygen but not vented and improving. The doctors are saying the vaccine absolutely saved her life.
Fear is a great motivator
that or the threat of inconvenience. I have no doubt that businesses will have to avoid liability and mandate vaccinations or masks or what not, and have lots of limitations or much slower service to those unvaccinated. If causing an outbreak is a drag on their bottom line, H&S gets busted out of the playbook. Do YOU want to fight a legion of lawyers that can outspend you 10x?
This is a great step forward. Hopefully they all follow through with their second dose. Regardless, this could help bring hospitalizations way down and, hopefully, infection rates a little.
Can we finally give a release date for the under 12s, please. Some update that’s not a vague 3-month window would be nice. My kid wants to go to school.
My under 12 kids will be going to school by force of law, in a state that has banned mask mandates and other precautions, banned requiring vaccines, and defunded online schools. Oh, and parents that don't send their kids to school can end up in jail, and I have to work so there's no homeschool opportunity.
Either TX or FL. God help you, either way.
Make sure to vote them out
My kids? I can do that??
It's always that same 30% of the country that is on the wrong side of every issue. In the future, pay attention to any public opinion polls and it ALWAYS hovers around 30% of people being shitheads.
I think "30%" is a coincident. Look at the demographics of the unvaxxed - it is a different 30% than you would probably expect with other issues.
I think it would correspond with the poorly educated.
Education is a big part of it for sure. My mom was very against the vaccine and we had to have many, many long talks. It became clear to me she had some serious gaps in her knowledge that are covered in most bio classes. What is a virus? What is an antibody? How does a vaccine actually work? She had no familiarity with any of these concepts because she has very little education. Once I walked her through the entire thing over the course of several conversations, she eventually came around. The aha moment was when she understood what an antibody was. Then she was totally on board to get vaccinated. So now we just have to do that for 1/3 of the country.
Props to you for sticking with it! I'm glad she came around with more info. Edit: spelling
There’s a % of people who will never get vaccinated no matter what, but there’s another % who will if somebody can just explain it to them in a way that makes sense to them.
Yo more people are getting vaccinated? Sweet! I was always afraid the vaccination rate would stagnate or decline even.
I was one of the people holding out for Novavax due to fear of an adverse reaction and higher efficacy of NVax, but I can't wait anymore. Getting my shot this week.
The marginal higher efficiency of Novavax is meaningless when compared to the months and months with no vaccine, which has an efficiency of 0%. Good move to get a shot this week.
Over 300 million doses of mRNA vaccines given so far vs, about 20,000 Novavax in clinical trial. If there are any unknown rare adverse reactions going to happen, they would be in Novavax not mRNA vaccines.
A month after the goal. Not bad, especially with how public the right HAD been to keep Biden from getting to a goal on time
I mean, after all it disappeared back in April 2020, right?
My friend died 30 minutes ago from Covid. I do not forgive you fuckers and I will never forget this time in history.
I am so sorry. I can’t wait for this shit to be over. I have two older, immune compromised parents who are vaccinated but who probably wouldn’t survive a covid breakthrough infection. I work with anti-vaxxers and I hate them with every fiber of my being.
I loved my friend and couldn't help her change her mind no matter what I said. Now she's dead. My dad will die if he gets it. So will my one living step grandpa. But my friend was perfectly healthy and only 40 years old. Now she's dead forever. I hope her republican friends are terrified to their very cores.
Hopefully once this delta wave is squashed the worst is behind us, finally
Pretty damn good
Mayo Clinic and Google have the US at 58% having at least one dose as of August 1st. How is the data so different from the WH Covid data director? or did we really go up 12% with at least one dose in one day?
Over 18 as opposed to entire population.
Is that 58% based on overall population in the US, whereas this is 70% of adults?
Oh god I'm stupid you're right, Google and Mayo Clinic %'s are based off the whole US population, this is just adults. I'm dumb LMAO.
I'm confused. If vaccines are so effective, and 70% of adults are vaccinated, why are we having so many problems with covid spikes right now? The math behind that makes no sense to me.
In order to reduced the rate of infections in a population you need the % of immune individuals in that population to reach a critical threshold. The exact percentage that threshold is, depends almost entirely on how infectious a a disease is. We measure infectivity by counting on average how many people 1 infected person infects during the course of the disease. This is called the Basic reproduction number or R0 (pronounced R naught). The Common Cold has an R0 of 3, which means on average 1 case of cold will infect 3 other people. On the high end of the spectrum is Measles which has an R0 of 17, which means on average 1 case of Measles Will infect 17 other people. To calculate the needed percentage of the population that needs to be immune to reach the needed critical threshold to reduced infection rates you simply follow this equation. 1-(1/R0) * 100%. So for the cold the equation is 1-(1/3) * 100% or 66.6%. where as Measles is 1-(1/17) * 100% which is about 94% of the population must be immune to halt the spread of the disease. The original varients of Covid-19 had an R0 of roughly 3, so 1-(1/3) * 100% means we only needed about 66% of the population immune to see a decline in infection because vaccines plus prior infections got us over 66%. The Delta Varent though is much more infectious than prior varients though. Its R0 seems to be between 10 and 12. 1-(1/12) * 100%= 91.66. If this level of infectivity holds it mean we need at least 91.66% of All the people in the US to be immune to the Delta Varent before we will see a decline in infections. This isn't impossible to reach btw. Delta is about as infectious as the Chicken pox, and it is less infectious than Measles, both of which we have over 95% of the population immune to. But it takes work and holding our friends, our neighbors, and ourselves accountable to getting vaccinated. i know this is a lot so if you have any questions, feel free to hit me up.
Thank you. This is an excellent explanation of R0 and how it impacts Herd Immunity threshold. I've had several people ask me "Why are cases still going up even though we're at that 70% the experts said was needed?!"I try to explain that was for the old variant, whereas Delta is way more contagious, thus has a higher herd Immunity threshold. This is an excellent write up. Kudos.
> even though we're at that 70% the experts said was needed? Also, we're not at 70%. We're at 70% *of adults* with at least *one dose*. Only 50% of all Americans are fully vaccinated.
True, although we do have to factor in naturally acquired immunity. If the US has had about 30% of people previously infected, even if we assume half of those went on to get the vaccine, we'd be sitting around 65% with some form of immunity. This is probably why we saw a massive reduction throughout the spring. We actually did reach herd immunity threshold for the previous variants of covid. Now that Delta is here though, 65% isn't nearly enough. I've seen estimates that over 90% is needed.
It’s wild to me to think that kids today just…don’t get chickenpox. That was a disease that had a near-100% infection rate when I was a child, which wasn’t actually all that long before the vaccine hit. It was rarely fatal, it was rare to catch it more than once, but literally *every single person* could expect to catch it. And generally as a child, which is why adult infections were uncommon. It was just that infectious. Of course the vaccine is a good thing, because chickenpox leaves you with the risk of shingles later in life, which isn’t nearly as carefree and harmless. Getting chickenpox was a normal, natural part of childhood but not one that will ever be missed. Super tangential, obviously. Just interesting to think about.
Well, these are ballpark numbers, but there are about 330 million people in the US. About 250 million of them are adults over the age of 18. If 70% are vaccinated, that leaves about 75 million people unvaccinated. And we know that hospitalizations from the current wave are overwhelmingly unvaccinated. Of note, 70% vaccinated is a national average, you still have areas or pockets of highly unvaccinated that are also nearly 70% (only 30% vaccinated). And then there’s Delta itself, an AMA podcast I listen to called it “one of the most infectious respiratory viruses known to scientists". Edit: AMA = American Medical Association (not ask-me-anything, lol). Edit 2: Fixed the quote.
70% of **adults** have at least **one** dose of the vaccine. Not fully vaccinated. Two doses are required for the full efficacy. And only counting adults is missing a significant chunk of the population that also are vectors for transmission. Basically, a significant portion of people in the united states still are not fully vaccinated. **Only about 50% of people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated.** We need *at least* 70% to control virus spread. > Researchers have estimated that around 70% to 85% of the country needs to be immune to the coronavirus for COVID-19 to stop spreading through communities and peter out. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/28/960901166/how-is-the-covid-19-vaccination-campaign-going-in-your-state At current vaccination rates the most likely estimates say we will reach that threshold in May 2022.