Bad News Thread

I was on field 1 and I was the one WHO got yelled at again for breaking the mask rule. I actually had someone say you better get that mask over your nose or we could lose this gig and it will be all your fault. I told her to worry about the lady from ABC news and the dudes up on the hill. I think were all trying to break a few stupid rules and I believe the mask is the biggest scam put on us ever. Talk about selling us ketchup popsicles....lol!!!
Sad to see the religious adherence to the COVID Robes.
 
5 weeks down - 1 to 9 to go.

Well, we have been down for 9 straight days. When more contagious variants take over, we should expect a sustained increase unless vaccinations and seroprevalence are enough to overcome the higher R. The "bump" in late February is partially caused by testing anomalies due to the storm - taking TX out smooths the curve noticeably - and maybe a bit of Super Bowl effect (just a guess).

NY Times has us at over 18% with the vaccine as of Sunday. I'd expect it to be near 21% by the end of this week with more vulnerable folks vaccinated at a much higher rate. I'd guess that the distribution of newer cases has to be moving much more toward the younger population. If the behavior of younger people is "riskier" in terms of the virus, the effective R will not be as significantly impacted by the vaccinations %. However, we should see a significant reduction in the case fatality rate with older folks being vaccinated.

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Can you overlay deaths on this same chart?
 
Can you overlay deaths on this same chart?
Here you go. As context, I started this post 5 weeks ago when epidemiologist Michael Osterholm indicated the following

Osterholm predicted that B117, the more contagious strain of the virus that is sweeping England and has been found in pockets of the United States, will become the dominant strain of the virus in the country. “If we see that happen, which my 45 years in the trenches tell us we will, we are going to see something like we have not seen yet in this country,”

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Here you go. As context, I started this post 5 weeks ago when epidemiologist Michael Osterholm indicated the following

Osterholm predicted that B117, the more contagious strain of the virus that is sweeping England and has been found in pockets of the United States, will become the dominant strain of the virus in the country. “If we see that happen, which my 45 years in the trenches tell us we will, we are going to see something like we have not seen yet in this country,”

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Coronavirus: 53 new deaths, 110 new cases in Orange County on March 7

Can you take a look at OC death counts from Rona? It seems like everyday 50+ deaths and under 200 cases. The other day it was 69 deaths and only 208 cases. What is going on?
 
A. I’m assuming eventually the variants move away from the vaccine since we know that one has.
B. Do we have numbers yet on how long vaccine immunity in fact lasts separate and apart from mutations/variants?
C. Some vaccines like the Johnson and Johnson or az vaccines are substantially less efficient
D. So I’m not sure we get to 90% immune. It will be a substantial amount. How close to 90% is a guess based on many variables
e. Northern italy has had the longest history with covid in Europe and a very high immunity rate. What’s going on there right now is wholesale classrooms including nursery schools are getting it. This is different than what happened before.
f. You seem to be implying covid eventually goes away. If it were just the us I think there’d be a good chance but remember vaccination In the third world unlikely to be complete until 2022. So unless somehow the Biden admin is pursuaded to shut the border even more tightly than trump did there’s always going to be this outside reservoir for outbreaks a la the Disneyland measles outbreak despite very high levels of measles vaccination
If you’re worried about vaccine resistant variants, why do you want to open now instead of June? Running high case rates while halfway vaccinated is how you create vaccine resistant variants.

90% was assuming an 80% vaccination rate and 50% infection rate (past + future) among the unvaccinated.

If you have it, send links for the scale of the Italian school outbreak problem, and estimate of seroprevalence in Italy. If Lombardy has 80% seroprevalence and is still seeing 3 elementary school outbreaks per week, that’s interesting. If Lombardy has 50% seroprevalence and has enough school outbreaks for a reporter to find one as a human interest angle, that’s merely expected.

I’m saying less that covid goes away, and more that the covid fight will shift to the variants- first b.1.117, and then to any vaccine resistant variants that are around. The last is the most important.

If you are measuring what will happen with variants, you need to ask how long it will take something like Eeek or P.1 to grow to 100k cases per day. If we have around 10 cases per day now, then we have about 13 doublings before it happens. 16 doublings if we are currently at 1-2 cases per day. Half year? Maybe hits late fall, once the summer stops helping us? I haven’t seen anything on how fast the smaller variants are growing, so this doesn’t even count as a SWAG.
 
A. Women?
B. Amusing yourself ain’t exactly a “conservative” value
C. This image ruined my breakfast.

I was responding to your statement "people locked in with nothing to do weren’t exactly amusing themselves" by citing a continuation of what I believe you meant by "amusing themselves" that resulted in no surprise children.

Or did you have something else in mind?
 
Fun fact: it seems that lockdowns have had another unintended consequence. Us births are down about 300,000. Similar dip in Europe from dec-February so far. Seems like people locked in with nothing to do weren’t exactly amusing themselves. Now granted the economy would have dipped even without lockdown and people might have been afraid to go to the hospital for deliveries so it can’t all be attributed to lockdown, but the lockdowns have likely made this effect more severe. Well know the difference as we get March-may data from the us and europe
A year into the pandemic, we easily forget that the lockdowns and other draconian restrictions were imposed as a temporary measure to “flatten the curves” and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. We did that successfully. Months ago.

No one signed up for living in lockdown indefinitely.
 
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"With our results, we were not able to explain if COVID-19 mortality is reduced by staying at home"
 
A year into the pandemic, we easily forget that the lockdowns and other draconian restrictions were imposed as a temporary measure to “flatten the curves” and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. We did that successfully. Months ago.

No one signed up for living in lockdown indefinitely.
It was a part of the plan for the demic. "Flatten the curve" is like trying to "catch the wind" with your hands, it was never going to happen. They had a bigger plan. Now the team with the plan is stuck and will look like complete fools and lairs and Karma will get them. Karma is real Hound.
 
"With our results, we were not able to explain if COVID-19 mortality is reduced by staying at home"
That is exactly the point. They cannot find good evidence that stay at home orders made a difference.

Kind of like masks...there is little actual evidence to show they make any difference at all.
 
If you’re worried about vaccine resistant variants, why do you want to open now instead of June? Running high case rates while halfway vaccinated is how you create vaccine resistant variants.

90% was assuming an 80% vaccination rate and 50% infection rate (past + future) among the unvaccinated.

If you have it, send links for the scale of the Italian school outbreak problem, and estimate of seroprevalence in Italy. If Lombardy has 80% seroprevalence and is still seeing 3 elementary school outbreaks per week, that’s interesting. If Lombardy has 50% seroprevalence and has enough school outbreaks for a reporter to find one as a human interest angle, that’s merely expected.

I’m saying less that covid goes away, and more that the covid fight will shift to the variants- first b.1.117, and then to any vaccine resistant variants that are around. The last is the most important.

If you are measuring what will happen with variants, you need to ask how long it will take something like Eeek or P.1 to grow to 100k cases per day. If we have around 10 cases per day now, then we have about 13 doublings before it happens. 16 doubling. In yos if we are currently at 1-2 cases per day. Half year? Maybe hits late fall, once the summer stops helping us? I haven’t seen anything on how fast the smaller variants are growing, so this doesn’t even count as a SWAG.

Oh I'm not saying mass outbreaks in the schools. That's not what appears to be happening in Italy. I've looked around trying to find seroprevalence levels in Lombardy even in the Italian press but they don't seem to have them. Have they stopped doing antibody studies? But in any case, like the measles outbreak in Disneyland, I foresee periodic outbreaks in schools from time to time of fast moving variants which will cause the talking and egg heads which have panicked before to panic again in the fall. It only takes a handful to create a problem and risks of disruption. In your math I think you are also assuming prior infection and/or vaccination confer full immunity, no? I don't think it works that way particularly given the limited efficiency of some vaccines. How much less I don't really know.

As to if you are worried of vaccine resistance, I'd be more worried if the rest of the world had it's s together. But between 2023-2024 is a long time for the rest of the world to allow variants and Joe Biden has so far shown zero inclination to control the southern border.
 
Ps there have been a couple of studies recently looking into it that have found a clear correlation. One of the big indications is actually lines of latitude. Web md has a good summer of the research if you are genuinely interested instead of doing your usual schtick.
I look at seasonality like restrictions, both may influence the timing and size of peaks but at the end of the day don't do jack crap to determine the overall results. Due to the virulence and nature of this virus it is like water, it will always find the path of least resistance. Using another water analogy, restrictions and seasonality may temporarily kink the hose but the water is still building up and will be released. I just believe that the virus (not accounting for vaccinations) is going to infect so many people before it dies out. I guess that's a pseudo herd-immunity theory, although I don't believe the number it needs to infect before it effectively controlled is known.

IMO our initial goal to not overwhelm the hospitals was a correct approach, as opposed to following a tier system based on unreasonably low # of infections. The goal to not overwhelm hospitals had widespread buy-in, but unfortunately our health policy was then hijacked by politicians and special interests.
 
Here you go. As context, I started this post 5 weeks ago when epidemiologist Michael Osterholm indicated the following

Osterholm predicted that B117, the more contagious strain of the virus that is sweeping England and has been found in pockets of the United States, will become the dominant strain of the virus in the country. “If we see that happen, which my 45 years in the trenches tell us we will, we are going to see something like we have not seen yet in this country,”

View attachment 10337

View attachment 10336
That's a pretty dramatic prediction. So the current vaccines were rendered useless even before the first poke??? Speaking of dramatic. I wanted to see the new death reports laid right on top of your initial chart. That way we can see some real drama.
 
I look at seasonality like restrictions, both may influence the timing and size of peaks but at the end of the day don't do jack crap to determine the overall results. Due to the virulence and nature of this virus it is like water, it will always find the path of least resistance. Using another water analogy, restrictions and seasonality may temporarily kink the hose but the water is still building up and will be released. I just believe that the virus (not accounting for vaccinations) is going to infect so many people before it dies out. I guess that's a pseudo herd-immunity theory, although I don't believe the number it needs to infect before it effectively controlled is known.

IMO our initial goal to not overwhelm the hospitals was a correct approach, as opposed to following a tier system based on unreasonably low # of infections. The goal to not overwhelm hospitals had widespread buy-in, but unfortunately our health policy was then hijacked by politicians and special interests.

"Using another water analogy, restrictions and seasonality may temporarily kink the hose but the water is still building up and will be released.

Nonsense.
 
I look at seasonality like restrictions, both may influence the timing and size of peaks but at the end of the day don't do jack crap to determine the overall results. Due to the virulence and nature of this virus it is like water, it will always find the path of least resistance. Using another water analogy, restrictions and seasonality may temporarily kink the hose but the water is still building up and will be released. I just believe that the virus (not accounting for vaccinations) is going to infect so many people before it dies out. I guess that's a pseudo herd-immunity theory, although I don't believe the number it needs to infect before it effectively controlled is known.

IMO our initial goal to not overwhelm the hospitals was a correct approach, as opposed to following a tier system based on unreasonably low # of infections. The goal to not overwhelm hospitals had widespread buy-in, but unfortunately our health policy was then hijacked by politicians and special interests.

I agree. At the end of the day in Europe it's increasingly looking like it will all end in the same place with some minor exceptions like Portugal and Ireland, and some places like the Czech Republic and Spain which might come out a little worse overall. I think it's more correct to say things like seasonality affect the timing of the waves...that's true of lockdowns and mobility as well because it's impossible to stay locked down for a year+. Again, it's ludicrous for the health officials to assume that healthy unmarried 20 year olds won't hook up for over a year if they aren't married or in the same households.
 
That's a pretty dramatic prediction. So the current vaccines were rendered useless even before the first poke??? Speaking of dramatic. I wanted to see the new death reports laid right on top of your initial chart. That way we can see some real drama.
Yes, I thought it was rather dramatic myself. That's why I wanted to follow it. His other quotes included the following. This was 5 weeks ago.

"I mean, imagine where we're at, Chuck, right now. You and I are sitting on this beach where it's 70 degrees, perfectly blue skies, gentle breeze. But I see that hurricane five, category five or higher, 450 miles offshore, ... That hurricane is coming" Osterholm said.
 
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