wearing again.

https://wgntv.com/news/who-urges-continued-mask-wearing-even-for-vaccinated-individuals-as-delta-variant-spreads/

Apparently, this variant strain might be more deadly than the previous strains, and
countries are implementing full lockdowns again. Sydney, Australia just issued
a full lockdown for all of its civilians after a sharp increase in covid cases.

WHO is advising all civilians worldwide to go back to wearing masks, even the fully
vaccinated. A few weeks ago they stated that vaccinated people didn’t have to
wear masks.

Also, they are saying that more shots might be needed to deal with the variant,
and that they are not sure about the course of the new variant, or if there will be
an uptick in deaths.

Stadiums are at close to full capacity, and cities and countries have rushed to reopen , and with that, we are seeing some players and teams test positive.

The upcoming holidays are going to be very interesting...

MCs from my thread title.

Bunch of dweebs playing Serpico...You need some comedy
in your lives.

Too early to freak yet. I want to enjoy the mask free hot boy summer a bit longer.

apparently israel is seeing a relative surge.

https://twitter.com/sailorrooscout

Lastly, data out of Israel shows 244 individuals have tested positive. 61% were not fully vaccinated and 60% of these individuals are experiencing symptoms. 2 are hospitalized. BUT amongst the 39% who ARE fully vaccinated and tested positive, ZERO have symptoms. H/T:
@ariehkovler

of this being more of a worldwide issue vs. within the US? I know our vaccination numbers are way ahead of most other counties.

Last estimate I heard was that 10% of US cases were of this variant. But that percentage is highly location-dependent and will grow over time.

The existing vaccines are very effective against this mutation. So for vaccinated people it's not anything to worry about. The problem is, vaccinated people CAN get mild infections, and can likely transmit it to others, who might be unvaccinated.

Our high vaccination rate is likely slowing the growth of the delta variant, but it's only a matter of time until it takes over here as well. This is evolution by natural selection (the thing that republicans were busy banning in schools before they got to work on critical race theory).

And when it becomes widespread, dangerous cases might explode again in unvaccinated populations. The thing that worries me is that vaccination rates correlate with politics (thankyou president whatsisname), and politics correlates with geography. So rural areas, where vaccination rates are very low and safety protocols are rarely observed, might have nasty outbreaks on the way.

Then again, rural areas are less densely populated, so infections can't spread as far. That's one reason we haven't seen as much covid as a lot of people expected in those rural areas so far. Whether they're still below critical density for the delta variant is something we'll only know in time.

Similarly, in cities, where vaccination rates are thankfully much higher, we still have double-digit percentages of the population who are unvaccinated. Whether those people are at major risk will depend on those vaccination rates and also on how effectively this variant spreads via vaccinated carriers. Again, we probably won't know what to expect until it happens. Anyone who interacts closely with unvaccinated people should probably go back to wearing a mask around them.

>The existing vaccines are very effective against this
>mutation. So for vaccinated people it's not anything to worry
>about. The problem is, vaccinated people CAN get mild
>infections, and can likely transmit it to others, who might be
>unvaccinated.

An article I just said mentioned that two shots of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines provide a decent defense against the Delta variant, while the jury is still out on the Johnson & Johnson single shot vaccine.


Off tangent, given that unvaccinated folks are left to fend for themselves to an extent, I am unfortunately curious how the Delta variant effect children too young to get the three vaccines here in the States. Have to feel sorry for them and teachers/staff that will have to come in contact with children in this context, assuming schools will open under normal pre-void conditions.

We need a teacher's strike.

In the UK and Israel, children (I think ages 5 to 14) is the group with the highest increase in cases due to delta. So far, in Israel with 80% of adults fully vaxxed, there is a surge in cases but no increase in hospitalizations and deaths.

The UK reporting Pfizer (2 shots) confers 96% protection against hospitalizations from the delta variant.

I'm just worried the unvaxxed is gonna keep transmissions up long enough to the point where there is a variant that evades our current vaccines.

Did you hear about the case in Australia in the Bondi Junction Westfield mall? Hopefully, it's just an extreme, extreme outlier, but an Australian health official says in that instance it looks like Delta was transmitted after only 5 to 10 seconds of exposure. Like, they only walked past each other since they were signing in at different places 65 feet apart.

L.A. County urges everyone to wear masks indoors as Delta variant spreads

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-28/as-delta-variant-spreads-l-a-county-recommends-everyone-mask-indoors

Swipe:
While not a new mask mandate, L.A. County is urging that, as a precaution, “people wear masks indoors in settings such as grocery or retail stores; theaters and family entertainment centers, and workplaces when you don’t know everyone’s vaccination status.”

“Until we better understand how and to who the Delta variant is spreading, everyone should focus on maximum protection with minimum interruption to routine as all businesses operate without other restrictions, like physical distancing and capacity limits,” officials wrote in a statement.

probably 80-85%. dunno if it's out of caution or just peer pressure because they see everyone else do it, or both.

and when you look at the people who aren't masked up you can tell at least half of them are fox news types who also aren't vaccinated, and surely thinking look at all these scared sheep

I'm sure the percentages shift when you get further out in LA County to places like Palmdale

hell it's almost a country within a country. pretty sure LA is more populated than places like portugal and sweden. except much more dense, obviously.

currently the virus is finding pockets of unvaccinated. the public health experts here said this would happen a couple weeks ago. palmdale, lancaster and inglewood account for most of the new cases in la.

personally, i'm going to avoid packed indoor bars and restaurants until we see how things play out with this variant. we'll probably have a better idea a week or two after the 4th.

* it's important to note that anytime a news story talks about LA, they are talking about the entire county of 11 million, not the city of LA. i think the there is something like 4 million residents in the city of LA.

...why do i feel like we're jumping the gun on this ...what's the harm of being on the safe side for a while longer?

transmission chain. More cases, more variants. I'll keep wearing my mask as if I wasn't vaxxed.

Why its an issue is theres still people fighting against masks, lockdowns and more importantly vaccines. So limit how many times this keeps mutating and being an issue of killing people we have to wear masks and keep going through this damn cycle of lockdowns and vaccines more frequently to protect these mouth breathers. THAT is the issue. Either make it mandatory or make it difficult for these anti vaxxers to live normal is going to be the only option at some point. Whether it's showing proof of vaccinations to get into bars, restaurants, events, and making vaccines mandatory for anyone working in the medical field and allowing jobs to make it mandatory to work there/in the office. Eventually things like this are going to have to happen to avoid going through these cycles, I don't know what other solution there could be.


----------

IG @erichrigonan

https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/health/2021/06/28/delta-variant-infects-covid-vaccinated-new-yorker-what-know/7786215002/

Probably will be slightly more frequent ones with the Delta variant and subsequent variants, but obviously not a reason for folks not to get the vaccine.

Yep. Last week, spike in infections but a small increase in hospitalizations in the UK and that's with 62% fully vaxxed.

New data says 117 dead from Delta in UK...

...50 received both doses
...20 one dose


...44 unvaxxed

fully vaccinated people who aren't elderly are not at nearly as much risk

I'll keep masking up and staying away from yall until 2022, like I been doing

https://news.yahoo.com/vaccinated-people-dying-delta-variant-104813911.html

Eight people under the age of 50 died after getting the Delta variant, the data showed. None was fully vaccinated, while two had received one dose of the vaccine.

As of June 21, 92,029 cases of Delta have been confirmed by Public Health England, of which 117 ended in death.

Of those cases, 109 were in those over the age of 50. UK officials did not give a more detailed age breakdown, but coronavirus deaths disproportionately affect the very elderly.

One hundred and seventeen deaths from 92,029 cases is a death rate of about 0.13%.


https://news.yahoo.com/vaccinated-people-dying-delta-variant-104813911.html


www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Is it about to get really real?

troubling is that it's a sign that the virus is going to continue to mutate. The B117 (Alpha) variant was bad for a while, and I don't remember hearing about others before this Delta variant (B.1.617 variant). But after a quick google search ("doing my research!") there's been a BUNCH of variants, all with different traits in terms of how transmissible they are, and who gets impacted worse. There's a decent explanation of that on the wiki for all the Covid variants

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variants_of_SARS-CoV-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SARS-CoV-2_Delta_variant

The fact that there's that many, and it continues to mutate because so much of the world has been infected, means that at some point a variant could outpace the current vaccines and have a BIG impact. Or might have a really bad effect on kids/other people who can't get vaccinated.

Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Nebraska trending up:
https://mobile.twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1410286999748059136

Delta is 40-60% more transmissible than Alpha which was 50% more transmissible than earlier Sars-cov-2. Also, 1.85x more hospitalizations than Alpha. mRNA vaxxed are protected for the most part right now. As a whole, though, only 57% U.S. adults are fully vaxxed.

Palmdale, Lancaster and Inglewood account for a majority the current surge. These areas have relatively low vaccination rates.

We've been warned that the virus is going to find pockets of unvaccinated and it's doing just that.

Keep washing your hands (duh!)
Keep sanitizing if you have been
Keep your mask if you feel comfortable


The whole family is vaxxed and I still keep my mask on in public and indoors if I don't know who you are/larger group. Just because restrictions are lifting (prematurely or not is your call and another discussion) doesn't mean you have to throw caution to the wind. This is still a thing until it's not, so protect you and yours how you see fit

Said man was fully vaccinated
Ain’t nobody wearing masks though.

variant in Illinois.

“In Illinois, the most recent data shows roughly 500 fully vaccinated people have gotten sick enough from COVID-19 to be hospitalized, out of 6 million who got all their shots.”

https://www.pantagraph.com/news/state-and-regional/covid-19-infections-are-rising-again-in-parts-of-illinois-here-s-where-and-why/article_6d5b31e3-d2c2-592f-9957-fc554b7e6f98.html

...I'm fully vaccinated since May ...got tested negative for COVID yesterday ..not sure what this was, but holy shit, it kicked my ass ..runny nose like a faucet, sneeze attacks, sore throat, nightmares ..WTF

>

Fully vaccinated, now sick with the Delta variant. Symptoms are bad body aches, loss of taste, and fatigue.

Strangely enough he got sick the same week we're supposed to go back into the office - all of the managers at my company who are local are supposed to be in person tomorrow. He obviously won't be there since he's sick, but I REALLY don't want to be in the same building with a bunch of folks who haven't been in my bubble, vaccinated/masked or not.

I’m not going back into lockdown

It'll be by state as before with specific guidelines by each state like before. It'll be regional with in a state and likely target unvaccinated people by not allowing admission.

I hope its just that. I cannot take another lock down. I'm just now getting back out.

which strain of the virus that they have?

told him that or if it's an assumption.

for COVID 19 the whole time vaccine or no. Wear your mask and keep that bad boy on, socially distance and wash your hands.

Hospitals Amazon, grocers, public transportation have all been open before and after the vaccine. Yes ppl contracted it and died. the vaccine is supposed to lessen the negative outcomes. You have more information than we did in 2020. Wear your mask even if they say you don't have to.
We all will eventually have to go back to work or not but most of us.

there being relatively small risk. I have three issues though...first the "in my head" issue about keeping a tight bubble this entire time, and now I'm having to pop that bubble when it wasn't my choice.

Second, while all those places have been open this entire time, for most of that time people were wearing masks. From what I've been told at the office, at this point barely anyone at all is wearing a mask, and we'll be in confined meeting rooms.

Third, while my wife, my oldest kid, and I have been fully vaccinated, my youngest is 7 and can't get vaccinated. I would feel terrible as HECK if we stayed healthy this entire time just to have my youngest get sick at this point in the game, just because he's too young to get vaccinated.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/12/most-fully-vaccinated-people-who-get-covid-delta-infections-are-asymptomatic-who-says-.html

It's pretty apparent here in the Netherlands, where the government eased up on nightlife restrictions a little too early (most people under 30 weren't vaccinated yet) and a huge spike in infections occurred.
By far most infections (around the 85% mark) happened in unvaccinated people, and hospitalizations are only a fraction of earlier waves so far. They're expected to increase in the coming days/weeks as the virus jumps to older people (who didn't go clubbing en masse), but since the over 40 demographic is mostly fully vaccinated it's unlikely to be a big wave again.

Countries with low vaccinations rates are probably fucked though.

Thought I was coming down with a cold - got tested for COVID-19 just to be sure.

Came back: Positive for COVID-19 :(

I'm fully vaccinated with Pfizer and I'm still wearing my mask inside- only 2 people I've been around unmasked for longer than walking by them outside are my friend Sean and my mother - both of whom are fully vaccinated.

This shit's way more contagious than even I though.

Right now 4 days into it it seems like a medium common cold. Let's hope it gets better - and not a Herman Cain type situation.

and keep hydrating

I had seen her a day before I started having symptoms, but she's negative for COVID 19.

"But rest assured, in my luxurious house built on the backs of people darker than me, I am sipping fine scotch and scoffing at how stupid you are." - bshelly

I can imagine it's frustrating as hell to do everything right and still get it.

I feel much MUCH better today than before. My blood oxygen is still lower than normal, but I think I'm going to make it out okay.

Fingers crossed.

And thanks to everyone who gave encouragement

most people in the stores i've been to are still masked up. (probably around 7/10 people)

some places have signs that just say 'masks recommended'

not sure if this will help or change much but i guess it can't hurt.

90-95% of the people are wearing masks. Just started going back to work, and a bunch of people are masked up all the time as well.

I imagine it'll be back to mandatory in a week or two.

Outdoor wedding and LV pool party:
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1416047347641905153

outdoor wedding - 2 hospitalized (1 died)
pool party - mild symptoms

I know some infections are happening in outside settings, but so far most (if not all) of the big outdoors clusters I've seen reported happened in tents (including the wedding mentioned here) and/or had people traveling to the site in crowded (mass) transport. And I'm not surprised at all that an outbreak happened among personnel on an aircraft carrier.

Not trying to dismiss that this Delta variant is more contagious, but if you're not in each other's face or partying in a tent, seeing people outside is still a responsible/safe way of socializing.

My brother contracted it 2 weeks ago. Lives in LA, unvaccinated, he and his wife weren't throwing caution to the wind but just weren't taking it seriously enough. Then he got it, his son, his wife, and after spending five days in the hospital and then going home, he had to go back in with blood clots in his lungs and had us fearing the worst. Claimed to be in the most intense, unbearable pain of his life (he had cancer in his 20s and said this was 100 times worse). The doctors thinks he'll have permanent lung damage, and he likely won't be back to some kind of normal for months.

GET FUCKING VAXXED YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!

caution to the wind IMO.

I hope he recovers

My brother is finally home, he had blood clots in his legs that traveled to both lungs and left him in intense pain for several days. He is on several medications to control the clots and handle the pain, but he is also riddled with embarrassment and shame at wasting time not getting vaccinated, getting sick, having his wife and son get the virus, and now being stuck at home and having to go through therapy and missing work and everything. Hopefully he recovers and doesn't have permanent lung damage, like they suspect, but we'll see.

i'm someone that has had lung and sinus issues her entire life. there's often something that's preventing me from breathing clearly. now i feel like i can never tell what's what.

He's currently testing as negative. Early symptoms over a week ago were loss of smell/taste, sore throat and chills (no fever though.) No breathing issues at first. At this point over a week later all those symptoms are gone, but he's not able to breathe deeply without lung pain. His doctor told him that with the level of symptoms he's had while vaccinated, it likely would have been ROUGH if he wasn't vaccinated.

.

comes at night, hurts like shit when I cough hard, but then just goes away after 4 or 5 hard coughs

I'm wondering now if that was an early version of covid