The 36% Club

May 17, 2021May 17, 2021Michael 5 Comments

Did everybody in the U. S. of A. hear the latest mask guidance? It’s what, 4 or 5 days old now and hasn’t changed so I guess it’s in place. Around here, and I imagine around most everywhere else, it’s gotten a lot of airtime and newsprint, or whatever the 21st century equivalents are. And of course, a bazillion or so pixels of social media coverage. To summarize, “Update that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in any setting, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Department of Health and Human Services, May 13, 2021)

That was the big story last Thursday (bigger than even my blog post, can you imagine that?) but of course, that’s not the whole story. Very few people bothered with the whole story because, well, because I don’t know. The rest of the story is just as important but isn’t easily compressed in a 2- or 3-word headline or meme. It’s been modified a little to clarify the language and expand on travel and post-travel guidelines. (The most recent complete guideline summary is on line at the CDC site here. Everybody should read it. The entire summary is only about 800 words. That’s not much longer than one of my typical blog posts. Even to stop and look at the pictures it’s less than a 15 minute read. Much less. Again, I suggest everybody should read it. Go on. I’ll wait.

Welcome back! The CDC site has other great information, all in easy to read, short articles including the new youth vaccine guidance. By the way, that mask wearing guidance was updated Sunday morning. There could be clarified, revised, or new guidance even by now. That’s been some of the criticism aimed at the CDC. They change the rules too much. No. They don’t. The rules are the same. Protect yourself and others. How you do that changes, how you do almost anything in life changes as circumstances change. And even these circumstances haven’t changed for the majority of Americans.

You see, that new guidance was for those Americans who are fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated means those who have received all the required shots in the series depending on the formula (i.e., brand for this discussion), AND have accounted for a sufficient time for the body to have mounted an appropriate and adequate immune response, typically 2 to 3 weeks but for some immunocompromised individuals up to 6 six weeks after the final dose in the series. Going into the weekend, that would apply to 36% of the population (CDC, May 15, 2021). To the other 2/3 of you all, well there just ain’t no change to what you should be doing!

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to be out among the public and it scared me a bit. I probably didn’t count more than 15% of the people I saw wearing masks. If they were all older that number might be appropriate. About 70% of the over 65 population may be fully vaccinated but what I was seeing was a cross section of ages. Science would tell us that the unmasked, unvaccinated people are mostly placing themselves at risk, that the point of vaccination is to minimize the risk so one can carry on normal daily activities without fear of developing the disease or significant serious effects of the disease. In normal circumstances that is how it works. Consider the typical flu season. Not everybody gets a flu shot yet even though those who do get the flu shot may get sick, they often present with less severe symptoms that those who get the flu who did not get the flu shot. But the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has shown a remarkable aptitude for accommodation and mutation, hence the myriad of variants. Again, science would suggest those variants are not growing in vaccinated individuals but in the hosts (people) where colonies (viruses) can grow unchecked. Upon release into the air, the vaccinated individuals whose immune systems that have been primed for a previously identified or conjectured set of viral variants may or may not have as robust an effect, or theoretically no effect, against this new variant. Do you really want to be taking that chance with my life?

I absolutely think it’s wonderful that we have reached a point in this country where we feel good enough about the testing and followup testing of the vaccines, and the adequacy of social distancing measures to ease the virulence of COVID-19, among those who are fully vaccinated. I look forward to the day where there will be many, many, many more than just 1 out of every 3 of us who fit that category. But for now, even though I am one of that category, I will continue to wear my mask and maintain my distance in public because, and I say this most regrettably, I don’t believe that all of you running around without masks also fit that category and I really don’t want to be taking that chance with my life.

mask

Continuing with my experiment on the WordPress/Anchor partnership, Don’t Believe Everything You Think is available on these platforms.

Please let me know what you think. So far I’m still mostly just recording the blog posts but eventually there will be more than that. We might even get into a discussion about how we all got into blogging.

Smoking or Non? 2021 Style

May 3, 2021May 2, 2021Michael Leave a comment

There is a new movement afoot in Western Pennsylvania and, because we are not known for groundbreaking thought, probably across the rest of the US, and likely Canada too. But then this is pretty self-serving so maybe not in Canada. This is the pandemic version of the smoking section. You certainly recall the days of being greeted at the hostess stand with the initial query, “Will that be smoking or non-smoking?” (They always put smoking first. I wonder why.) I often asked for the first available because in most restaurants, particularly the smaller diner types that I was apt to visit, you could section off the smokers, but not the smoke.

Several establishments, notably the concert and sports venues, have asked city, county, and state authorities for permission to ease pandemic related seating limits by permitting non-distance seating areas for people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Personally, as a fully vaccinated individual I like the idea of mingling with others who take their health and the health of those sharing space on the planet seriously. Personally, as a card-carrying cynic I am certain three-quarters of the individuals claiming to be fully vaccinated are more full of lies than vaccine. Especially now that news broke on internet sites with templates and instructions for forging COVID-19 Vaccination Record Cards.

I already can hear the hue and cry. You’re making us second class citizens! You’re taking away our rights! This is no COVID! Regardless of the incorrectness of those statements, they will be the justification for opposing Vaccinate and Non-Vaccinated seating sections just as they are the uninformed persons justification for not getting the vaccine and not be asked the question at all.

For my other life I have been working on an article about vaccine hesitancy and its less famous cousin vaccine confidence. While doing research I discovered an alarming fact. When asked if they have plans to be vaccinated, 13% of the people in the US eligible for vaccination responded they had no intention of receiving the vaccine. An additional 7% would consent to the vaccine only if required. That is alarming. It is expected that there would be some hesitancy but basically 20%, one-fifth of the people who could get a vaccine, a free vaccine, are saying no thank you. Still not the really alarming part of the survey. The really alarming part is that of healthcare personnel, 18% said they had no intention of getting the vaccine and an additional 12% answer they had not yet decided. (Kaiser Family Foundation COVID Vaccine Monitor) Think of that the next time you go to the doctor. After being greeted by a receptionist, you will be escorted to the exam room and prepped by a medical assistant, have your vitals measured and history reviewed by a nurse, and then be seen by the doctor. Of those three people caring for your health, one has chosen to not receive the vaccine that will reduce the risk of exposing their patients to the virus that has as of May 1 already killed 576,339 Americans. (New York Times compiled from state health agencies) And we call them heroes. (pfft) (Expressed as a card-carrying member of the health care personnel world with as much venom as I can muster in written form.)

In the United States, even as vaccination rates have slowed, variant cases of COVID-19 are escalating. Earlier in the pandemic the question was raised if vaccination should be mandatory. Opponents argued that the 14th Amendment prohibits mandated vaccinations as an arbitrary legislative action. Supporters cited the Supreme Court’s 1905 decision to allow mandated smallpox vaccinations in part because “liberty for all cannot exist if each individual is allowed to act without regard to the injury that his or her actions might cause others.”

Attempting to argue the legality of mandatory vaccination is out of my league as I am not a constitutional lawyer (although that stops so very few nowadays) and about as satisfying as arguing with a Trumpican about who won the election. Arguing the safety and efficacy of the vaccine is a different story and firmly in my wheelhouse. It is. Period. Go get the shot. Just do it. You don’t need any other reason but if you insist, get it because you will be protecting liberty for all.

And if you don’t, don’t be surprised if the next time you stop for dinner and drinks after work you are greeted with, “Welcome to Henny’s! Will that be Vaccinated or Non?”

Not Vaccinated Section

Hugging Hope

March 11, 2021Michael 9 Comments

March 11, 2020: “WHO declares corona virus disease pandemic.” March 11, 2021: “Government says in person nursing home visits OK.” Who would have thought in a year we’d be turning this corner already? That’s who, little letters, not WHO. I don’t know that WHO is that optimistic. The CDC is not that optimistic either if you read beyond the headline. Not unlike another headline from this week, “Fully vaccinated people can have small gatherings indoors.”

It’s been a year. More than a year really as WHO probably should have declared the pandemic a pandemic 2 or 3 or maybe more weeks earlier than it did. People want to return to normal even though many can’t define normal. I will say that we are approaching a point in an exit to the pandemic that I figured we would not have reached until the end of this summer. That’s approaching(!) an exit. But there are many encouraging signs: Three approved vaccines in the US, four in Canada and the EU, twelve different vaccines throughout the world. Export and travel agreements and restrictions minimizing rampant spread. Voluntary mitigation efforts taking place in larger than anticipated numbers when official orders have expired – with some notable exceptions. All that and more is hastening a resolution to the pandemic, not an eradication of the virus and its disease, and a resolution is the best we can hope for against as cunning enemy an enemy as Orthocoronavirinae betacoronavirus-2.

But many people – and most Americans – aren’t good at reading beyond the headlines and that’s why the same papers also are running headlines, “Texas Rangers plan to allow full capacity of fans for 2021 MLB Opening Day,” “Gov. Wolf indicates Pa. restaurants and bars can celebrate St. Patrick’s Day,” and “Wyoming to lift statewide mask mandate next week.” (If you are wondering, Wyoming will join 16 other states without mask mandates.)

It is a great thing that the fully vaccinated and can re-socialize with other fully vaccinated and low risk individuals (fully vaccinated occurs 2 to 4 weeks after the final shot), and that nursing home residents can enjoy indoor visits with contact (hugs!), but there is more to the guidance beyond the headlines. In the nursing homes contact visits are allowed for residents who have completed their vaccination, precautions such as wearing masks and using hand sanitizer should continue, and outdoor visits are still preferred. When the CDC released new guidelines earlier this week that included, “Fully vaccinated people can visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing, visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing, and refrain from quarantine and testing following a known exposure if asymptomatic,” the same guidance document recommends,“ it also noted that fully vaccinated people should continue to:

Take precautions in public like wearing a well-fitted mask and physical distancing
Wear masks, practice physical distancing, and adhere to other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease or who have an unvaccinated household member who is at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease
Wear masks, maintain physical distance, and practice other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people from multiple households
Avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings
Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms
Follow guidance issued by individual employers
Follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations

20201004_185802 We do well to celebrate the approach of near normalcy but approach the celebration cautiously. Otherwise these will be the more representative headlines in the next few weeks: “Brazil hospitals buckle in absence of national virus plan,” “Africa’s new variants are causing growing concern,” and “1 in 5 in US lost someone in pandemic.” You don’t want to be one of the 1s or you may find out “Why the ‘grief pandemic’ might outlast the worst of COVID-19.”

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Please Note: All headline quotes are actual headlines from Associated Press, Austin American Statesman, BBC, CBS Sports, CTV News, and the Pittsburgh Press from March 8 through March 11, 2021. CDC Guidance from “Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Dept. of Health and Human Services, March 8, 2021. Links included in guidance direct to CDC web-site.

Fearful Things

November 23, 2020November 22, 2020Michael 7 Comments

I saw an interesting article last week but when I tried to find it again I had no luck so I’m going to end up paraphrasing most of it from memory. Typically my memory can be likened to a well-worn sieve but one line I particularly remember. “We can still make a difference but I’m not seeing enough fear.” I don’t remember the speaker other than it was the medical director of one of the local hospitals. Unfortunately my local has like 30 some hospitals. Well now, I suppose that is more fortunately than un unless you are trying to remember which one of the 30 some hospitals had a medical director quoted in a recent newspaper article. About 30 some of the do so then there’s that too.

For our purposes I doesn’t matter who said it other than it was said by a respected medical authority (unlike the nut case hospital “executive” in the [name withheld to protect the professionalism of the health care team] health center in South Dakota) (See what happens when you let just anybody run a hospital, like a doctor wasn’t good enough.) Anyway, where was I? Oh yes – I’m not seeing enough fear.

That was in reference to mitigating the surge of confirmed new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths attributed to CoViD-19. We could make a difference. We could wear a mask even though some seemingly intelligent people chose to not. We can continue to wash out hands even though many have forgotten the 20 second rule. We could not go to the unofficial fortieth high school reunion even though somebody obvious figured out that if you call something unofficial like maybe a home coming dance the virus won’t know to go there. We could do all those things and that would be a good start but “we” the society aren’t and we aren’t because we aren’t fearing the virus. If we respected it and realized the power it has and the knowledge that we don’t (and unless you are a microbiologist I don’t mean the societal “we,” I mean each every one of we) we would be damn scared of this thing.

I look around and I see even more than the virus that we don’t fear. We don’t fear the nation is being torn apart because people like the virus people don’t realize the power of division and lack the knowledge to make accept outcomes. The American we has polarized more strongly than the hawks and the doves of the 1960s, more than the free states versus the slave states of the 1860s, and more than the federalists versus the centrists in the 1770s. Division and polarization are not the same as party loyalty. Party loyalists address ideals. Polarizers address egoism.

We can still make a difference but I’m not seeing enough fear.

People don’t get to choose facts. Folks who relish in saying “it is what it is” usually have no intention of admitting exactly what it is. Or don’t know. Masks stop the spread of airborne viruses. Voting machines don’t switch votes. Vaccines don’t cause autism. The travel sites Hotel, Hot Wire, Orbitz, Travelocity, and Trivago are owned by Expedia and the sun will always rise in the east. It is what it is. If we choose not to believe in something you may but you can’t argue it.

I’m certain I’ve written the FDR had it wrong. The only thing to fear is not fear itself for only a fool would not fear anything. Fear should be feared. And so should much, much else.

We can still make a difference but I’m not seeing enough fear.

FEARemogi

Stupid is as stupid does

February 3, 2020Michael 4 Comments

It’s official, or as official as it can be on my say so. We can stop worrying about global warming, international terrorism, party politics, and the Game of Thrones unsatisfying ending (just bby what I hear, I never watched the show). We can forget about all of them because I am no so sure we will make it through February. Stupidity has finally caught up with us and we are surely going to perish.

Check out these symptoms.

The coronavirus is a horrible, unexpected, seemingly uncontrollable health disaster. According to this morning’s news over 8,000 cases have been confirmed by the World Health Organization resulting in 361 deaths and that will probably be higher by the time you read this. The interwebs are buzzing, as they should be. We should be trying to do what we can to understand how to prevent its spread. But you aren’t going to find it looking for Corona Beer Virus. That’s what people are searching for on Google trying to find out more about it. Maybe it was last week’s Superbowl hype that had everybody thinking beer instead of flu like pandemics.

Speaking of flu, according to the CDC, as of January 31 there had been 300,000 hospitalizations due to the “common” flu this season and over 10,000 deaths (that’s ten thousand) (one comma and lots of zeros), 80% of whom reported not having received this year’s flu shot. I would call that a horrible, unexpected, clearly controllable health disaster.

There was a report over the weekend that if former Vice President Joe Biden wins this year’s election the Republicans will begin impeachment immediately upon his inauguration for something or other. I found it telling that the news reports last month were that the Democrats voted to impeach Donald Trump. As I recall my civics class, admittedly many, many years ago, it is the House of Representatives who impeach. It’s a shame we have replaced a rather well thought out form of government with a couple herds of sheep.

Americans don’t have the market cornered on odd political stances – or odd politicians for that matter. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was quoted in a Reuters report last month that he wants to lose weight but won’t join the 300,000+ who are expected to sign up for Veganuary 2020. (Yes, it’s a real thing and had been since 2014.) (Sigh) According to Johnson, “I thought about it but it requires so much concentration.”

Speaking to The Financial Times, Mastercard’s CEO expressed his dismay at countries adopting or considering nationalizing payment systems saying consumers worried about their privacy may shift back to cash for purchases. Oh my, what would the world be if we were all reduced to being able to buy only what we can afford. Soon people would be forced to work for what they want. In case you are wondering, Mastercard reported $17 billion dollars in revenue for 2019. For comparison Americans spent $1.6 billion to treat the flu during the 2018-2019 flu season. Sorry, no word on if that was cash or charge.

Last month the Japanese billionaire selected to be the first civilian passenger to the moon aboard a SpaceX rocket halted his search for “a girlfriend to take on a voyage around the moon.” About 28,000 women applied. And I still have trouble getting a woman to go to the movies with me.

Finally back in the coronavirus world, a man was escorted off a Dallas to Houston American Airlines flight last Thursday when he refused to remove a full-face gas mask. According to a passenger, “My gut reaction was that he was probably worried about the coronavirus and had put on the gas mask as overkill kind of protection. But then I noticed it didn’t have the filter, so that didn’t really make sense. What we heard from the lady sitting next to him was he said he wanted to make a statement. I don’t know what the statement was. I’m not sure what his goals were. To me, it seemed inconsiderate.” That might be considered understatement!

There you have it, living proof we’re never going to life long enough to see melting glaciers turn the midwest back into swamp land, California fall into the ocean, or cars flying themselves powered by dilithium crystals. Stupidity is the pandemic that is going to get us.

(The real proof is that the best part of the Superbowl for me was the commercial starring Punxsutawney Phil and that Bill Murray guy. See, even I’m not immune to stupidity, but come on, that was good!)