Tag Vaccines

My 10 cents worth

Michael 12 Comments

In honor of Dr. Peter Marks’ last few days as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research I present to you what is possible when there is a compassionate, empathetic occupant at the White House.

Dr. Marks was given the choice of resigning or being fired for not agreeing with HHS Secretary, AKA the black sheep of the Kennedy clan. Dr. Marks wrote in his resignation letter, ““It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” Dr. Marks’ last day will be April 5.

It’s significant all this is happening in April. Just a week after Dr. Marks closes his office door for good, we will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  It will also be the 70thanniversary of the announcement that the Salk polio vaccine was safe and effective. It is clearly not the most remembered thing about the Roosevelt administration, but had it not been for his instigation, Jonas Salk may have never had the funding behind his monumental research and discovery.

It is no secret that President Roosevelt suffered from polio. He was stricken with the disease in 1921, at age 39 and 11 years before being first elected President of the United States. Polio left him paralyzed from the waist down for the remainder of his life.

During his presidency he founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), a philanthropic organization dedicated to treatment and care for polio victims, raising millions of dollars through “Birthday Balls,” fund-raising dances held across the country on his birthday.

In the late 1930s, the NFIP began soliciting contributions directly from everyday citizens through a counter display program known as the March of Dimes. Through the 1930s and 1940s, through the March of Dimes, the NFIP raised enough money to support the care of every polio patient in the United States and began setting aside funds for preventative care.

With funds raised through the March of Dimes, Dr. Jonas Salk began research in 1947 into a vaccine against the poliovirus, an extremely contagious viral organism in the enterococcus family of viruses. Five years later, safety trials began on human volunteers. After three years of testing, on April 12, 1955, the polio vaccine was determined to be safe and effective for human use.

Within two years of its release, polio in the United States had declined over 90% from 58,000 cases to 5,600 cases. By 1961 only 161 cases of polio were reported in the U. S., a decrease of 97.7% from the 1945 baseline.

Dr. Salk was the single largest beneficiary of the NFIP March of Dimes fundraising efforts, began because of the philanthropic efforts of the man in the White House.

A couple parting thoughts. Roosevelt’s image appears on the American ten cent piece, the dime, because of his efforts behind the March of Dimes campaign. In 1945, Congress voted to feature his likeness on the dime, specifically in honor of his role in the March of Dimes.

If you have an interest in virology, public health, or just curious about what research looked like 80 years ago, an exhibit of Salk’s lab equipment and memorabilia is on display at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, in the common areas of the lobby and second floors of Salk Hall, Fifth Avenue, in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, PA.

Some may argue Roosevelt would never have been so active in pursuing research for the fight against polio is he himself has not contracted the disease. A valid point but also a petty argument. Nearly all research and funding for research is accomplished through endowments made by patients or patient families. Fortunately sometimes those afflicted with diseases are prominent and/or wealthy citizens who do not mind giving of their time and fortunes to see good is done. Good that can be experienced by all.

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Dr. Jonas Salk

Is there any possible way to work in my weekly plug for the latest Uplift post. Hmm. It would be stretch. Last week we published, Coming Attractions, a discussion on balancing progress with the present. Fortunately for us, there are people like Dr. Salk who will always be looking for that next big thing.

An old fashion shoot ‘em up

Michael 11 Comments

I have to be honest at with you. This post was to be a critique of the debate. There was just so much ammunition. Enough to fill a year’s worth of blog posts. From hidden communication devices (Trumpican: She was wearing magic earrings to help her. Normal Person: How did her earrings make him say stupid shit?) to dinner menu choices (Trumpican: They are eating dogs and cats. All high and mighty one says so. Normal Person: He would know. He is a dirty dog who never skip a chance to grab some pus…..) …umm, but all that’s been done and it’s way too easy anyway.

So instead, I’m doing a normal person version of a public service announcement just in time for a real potential disaster. Cold and flu season and a return of covid.

It’s been a long time since I’ve encouraged people to get their flu shots. It’s pretty much not been necessary. Since 2016, flu vaccine rates have increased with some stagnation in 2020 and 2021 when a good chunk of the population was getting its medical information and recommendations from politicians and future billionaire social media platform owners. Even with those idiots attempting to sabotage the then new covid vaccine, flu vaccination rates remained stable.

Unfortunately, the actual flu vaccination rate has never reached the Office of Disease Prevention (of the Department of Health and Human Services) goal of 70% of the population. Most years, the actual percent of population receiving the seasonal flu vaccine is in the 50-56% range. Not good enough!

The flu vaccine repeatedly prevents 67% of potential hospitalizations. Extrapolating for the number of people who go unvaccinated, 44% of those hospitalized for flu do so unnecessarily. According to CDC data, over 18,000 patients were admitted to hospitals during the 2023-2024 flu season. This was the highest rate since 2010-2011. It may not seem like a lot of people, but these are those admitted admitted for flu, not those admitted for other conditions like pneumonia exacerbated by the flu virus.

Why are people still reluctant to get a flu shot? Not understanding the severity of the disease has always been a factor in noncompliance with available, effective vaccines. The emergence of antiviral medications to treat flu symptoms also gives people false confidence in being able to treat the flu if they get it. These are effective but only in a very specific window of virus activity, within 48 hours of infection which may leave only hours after symptoms appear.

If you’re older than 6 years old, there is a flu vaccine for you. Go get one.

Flu shots aside, there are other vaccines this season to seriously consider. The first is covid. Yes, since the pandemic has cooled, little has been heard of covid and only those most susceptible have routinely availed themselves to the annually updated vaccine. Although a large percentage of the population has some immunity to covid, that immunity is likely effective against earlier variants, no later than the delta variants. New strains of the omicron variant have been noticed with increasing frequency in at-risk patients, the young, the old, the immunocompromised. If you don’t know if you are in one if those groups, you probably are.

How bad is the new covid strain. Over 10 million Americans over 65 were treated in hospitable emergency rooms in June. That’s twice as many as last June. Over 60% of those presenting to an ER with covid symptoms are hospitalized and of those 10% die within 24 hours. But those who survive experience few immediate complications. The current most significant risk is developing long-covid and experiencing long-term respiratory problems, GI symptoms, and mental and cognition disturbances.

Regardless of how convincing the charts posted to social media seem to be in differentiating between flu and covid, in life, the differences are not so obvious. The best predictor of infection, and which infection, are home tests. If you are achy, tired, and running a fever, take a test. If you can’t tell if you have a fever, don’t go by the “if it’s not over 100°, it’s not a fever.” If you feel good right now, take your temperature. Do that a couple times a day for a couple days. That is your average normal temperature. If you take your temperature and it is 2° higher than your average normal temperature, you have a fever.

Now there is one more risk for my at-risk friends. RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus). RSV has been with us a long time. When I was a young pharmacy resident (yeah, that was a long time ago), we started seeing RSV in pediatric ICUs. Now it is responsible for the hospitalization of 240,000 Americans of all ages. Many  of those are still under 5 years old but now the highest demographic are those over 60. The CDC calls those most at risk are children under 6, adults over 75, adults with immunologic conditions or pulmonary disease over 65, and those routinely in contact with at-risk populations. Finally, a vaccine is out there. Let’s use it.

Those closes this year’s public service announcement. I now return you to your regularly scheduled routine.

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You want to improve how you get through the day? We know how. You need your rests – all four of them! Yeah, four. We talk about them in Get Your Rests, the latest Uplift blog at ROAMcare.

The pursuit of clean, filtered air

Michael 2 Comments

I saw an interesting Tweet yesterday. “Going to the US in just a couple days. Planning to wear a mask whenever I’m in public. Looking for fun and creative (preferably not too political) reasons to give in case anyone asks why I’m wearing one.“

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The Tweeter(?) obviouslly lives outside the United States and wants to protect herself against a virus that is still raging, even though less actively than a few weeks ago, while visiting a country with a COVID death rate twice the rest of the world’s – and 82 times higher than her country! (WorldOMeter, “COVID Live – Coronavirus Statistics,” March 9, 2022)  According to a New York Times analysis of mortality, since the first Omicron case was reported in the United States in December 2021, Americans have been killed by the coronavirus at a rate at least 63 percent higher than other large, wealthy nations and was averaging about 2,500 deaths per day. (New York Times, “U.S. Has Far Higher Covid Death Rate Than Other Wealthy Countries.” Feb 1, 2022) The report went on to state that the only European countries with higher death rates are Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Greece, and the Czech Republic.

Oddly enough, even though the CDC changed their masking recommendations this month, the federal vaccine mandate was never enforced and now seems to be headed for reversal by the courts, and most limitations on businesses have been removed, people still want to protest them.  Brian Brase, the organizer of the so-called People’s Convoy that just burned countless gallons of gasoline and diesel circling Washington, DC, has called mandates an “infringement on their freedoms” as recently as this week. (Washington Post, “‘People’s Convoy’ organizers meet with GOP lawmakers amid pandemic-related demonstrations,” Mar 8, 2022).

You know that I recently was hospitalized with COVID pneumonia in spite of vaccines and mitigation (TRYing to stay 6 feet away from unmasked miscreants sneezing their offensive germs into public spaces like grocery stores and churches). I empathize with our aforementioned Tweeter because I will be going out in public still masked and standing a safe distance from those who aren’t. What should I say to them? Clearly somebody with more pickup truck parts than brains will come up to me and say, quite politely I’m sure, “What’s the f**k wrong with you, you retard? Act like an American and take that f**king mask off, a$$ho*e!” How do I know? Because it’s already happened, and it happened before the CDC issued new guidance. Months before the recent new guidance was released (which really requires people to have an understanding of the surge of cases in their particularly are and the relative burden placed on the local health care systems (read, too difficult for your average simian to even say, yet understand so let’s just concentrate on the no masks part)), the CDC guidelines recommended that those who were fully vaccinated, may attend small indoor gatherings with other fully vaccinated individuals without masking. This was interpreted as “you don’t need to wear no more masks any more yippee yahoo but let’s keep protesting masks anyway” by the under 65 (as in IQ score) crowd. And yes, I had been approached by inquiring sorts of that ilk, while in public with my mouth and nose stylishly clad in the latest surgical garb as to why I was wearing a mask. “Don’t you believe in science?”

Considering how adamant so many non-maskers were in demanding understanding on their positions and their rights to their freedom to breath the air as it was intended, I hope they will also understand why those of us who are medically challenged, immunocompromised, or just plain leery that a long term accord has been reached between the United States of America and SARS-COV-2, elect to exercise our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of breathing clean, filtered air.

And while we at it, it seems to me that those still calling masks, vaccines, and other life-saving measures “infringements on their freedoms,” need to spend some time in the Ukraine right now.

Shields up – phasers on stun

Michael 9 Comments

‘Tis the season! Time again to remind everyone the difference between vaccines and force fields.

Not Vaccinated Section (5)

Not Vaccinated Section (4)

If you don’t want to get the COVID vaccine, don’t, but please, don’t make up reasons. Just that you’re stupid, selfish, irresponsible, and probably one of those people who wears shorts in the dead of winter are plenty enough reasons. Saying you won’t because the vaccine doesn’t work or else why would we be getting all these new cases isn’t a good enough reason.

Why do the people with Twitter and Facebook accounts read the stories that COVID cases are rising and even those who are vaccinated are testing positive, but they don’t read the ones that the vaccinated people getting positive test results are typically asymptomatic or exhibit mild symptoms while the unvaccinated are the ones filling up the hospitals and funeral homes/crematoria?

As a reminder, vaccines work inside the body. They assist the immune system to defend against an intruder virus. When a virus enters the body, the immune system goes to work. It can’t do its job “out there.” It works from home you might say. I would say you can use that as interesting talk at a cocktail party, but… well…

You all know the drill. Get vaccinated and boosted, wear your masks, wash you hands, keep your distance, and eventually you will get to go back out. To those who think that’s a good idea, thank you for your help to save the human race.

Cute stories will return next week.

(PS: Now those are light sabers!)

(PPS: Yes I know I’m mixing my Trek with my Wars. Tough! 😝)

It’s time to shoot up again

Michael 4 Comments

There’s so much happening in the world, in the country in the state and I can’t do anything about it. Really, I’ve tried and the world/country/state hasn’t budged. But I can do something about me, for me, and help the world/country/etc/etc/etc at the same time. I can see it in your eyes! You know where I’m going!! Yes, you are 100% right. I’m going to get a flu shot. Much more fun than getting the flu. Trust me, I’ve had both. I was going to write a whole new post about flu shots but I’ve already done did that a dozen times or so, so I reached back to 2016 and pulled this one out. It’s still good stuff. Then after you read it, go get your flu shot. It’s about that time again!

Just Shoot Me

(From October 24, 2016, slightly edited to remove unnecessarily big words)

I’ve been shot. I suppose it was about 10 days ago now. I got my flu shot. I can probably count on one hand the number of years I didn’t get a flu shot all the way back to when I can remember doctors keeping lollipops on their desks for the good boys and girls who got their flu shots.

For years I worked in a hospital and getting a flu shot was just something you did every year. It went along with doing annual evaluations, decorating for Halloween, and renewing your parking permit. Everyone grumbled about it but everyone did it.flu

Now that I’m not working I have to remind myself to get a flu shot. And while I was busy reminding myself I thought I’d remind you. Get your flu shot.  If you are a southern hemisphere resident hold that thought for 6 months.

I never understood people who would come up with a dozen different reasons not to get a flu shot when it’s so effective at preventing the flu and when getting the flu can be so devastating. No, you won’t get the flu from the flu shot. You can’t get the flu from a flu shot any more than a zombie will eat your brains. The virus in the flu shot is dead – even more dead than an undead zombie. It can’t come back to life and infect you. What can happen is that you can get a cold or a fall allergy or a seasonal bacterial sinus or respiratory infection at the same time you get the flu shot but it’s not the flu.

You can get the flu in the same year that you get the flu shot if you don’t get it at the right time. Now is the right time. The flu shot doesn’t start working the instant the needle pierces your skin. It takes about two weeks for the vaccine to work its magic on your immune system so it is at its peak in protecting you against a live flu infection. You should schedule your shot about a month before the anticipated beginning of the flu season. If you wait too long to get a flu shot and you are exposed to the flu virus before your body can adequately prepare enough antibodies to repel an assault you can get the flu. The high dose version of the flu shot may provide effective resistance a bit sooner but should not be used as an option to timely inoculation.

You can also get the flu late in the season even if you got a flu shot if the circulating viruses mutate more quickly than expected and if your immune system is weakened by age or compromised by other diseases or conditions. For individuals with compromised immune systems the flu vaccine should be active for about six months. If you have weakened immune system and the active flu season in your area is expected to last past March or April you might consider asking your physician if you should repeat the flu shot six months after your initial vaccination.

Sorry if this post sounded too much like a public service announcement. It’s probably just a result of those years I spent in public service

Vaccines, Star Trek, and Fluorescent Lights

Michael 2 Comments

I promise you, this will be my last rant for a while. Even I’m getting tired of listening to myself. Fortunately, I wrote this, waited a day, read it, then re-wrote and it isn’t actually quite so abrasive as its first incarnation.

I think a new rant is justified because stupid has really taken hold of the reins and we need to get this wagon back on track. (Did you like the horse and buggy metaphor? I don’t think I’ve used that one here.) (Anyway…)

Anyway, what got me thinking was another news article, this one that a group of shoppers was mounting a boycott of a local supermarket deigning to require all employees and shoppers to wear masks beginning this Friday. This group is taking some unusual “justifications” for their actions. Not only does a mask requirement infringe upon their rights (you remember those, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of fabric-free faces), but that the CDC calling for masks in high transmission areas of the country is “proof” that the vaccine doesn’t work. Well to that I say horse hockey!

Yes, you heard me right. Horse Hockey!

First of all, considering the meteoric rise of COVID deaths and hospitalizations are near exclusively among unvaccinated individuals speaks to the effectiveness of the vaccines. And that there have been some positive cases among vaccinated individuals and the notice that it is indeed possible for vaccinated people to spread the disease is not news among those who understand immunology at least as well as they do Tic-Toc.

Not Vaccinated Section (5)Try to picture this in your mind. Vaccines do not create a force field around you. This is not like in Star Trek. “Shields up, Mr. Sulu.” Even if it was, when do you ever see an episode when the shields weren’t breached, at least even a little bit? “I’m givin’ ‘em all wee got Cap’n, but I doona know how long thar’ll hold!” No, the vaccines are more like the incessant hum of a poorly grounded fluorescent light. You (or in this case the virus) goes into the room, plans on getting comfortable, switches on the light, and after hanging out for as long as you can take, you are driven out screaming, half crazed by the sensory assault. Before you went in the room you thought you found you happy spot. So you go on in but when you turn on the light, the room responds by making it so unlivable you are driven out.

Not Vaccinated Section (4)Vaccines work like those lights. They can’t keep the virus from entering you. Viruses are out there hanging around, looking for a happy place to settle in. They see those big nostril openings and buzz on in. (Note: make sure masks cover noses.) Their presence trips the sensor that turns on the immune system which drives the little buggers out. So you see, the vaccine doesn’t keep you from getting the virus. It keeps you from getting sick from the virus. That explains why 99+% of the people in the US now sick and dying from COVID are unvaccinated. And that also explains why a vaccinated individual can test positive for COVID when they swab the inside of the nasal passages.

PowertoProtect_1080x1080_FB-IGNow, here is something un-ranty. (Un-rantish?) (Un-rantlike?) August is Vaccine Awareness Month. It was founded by National Public Health Information Coalition nearly 10 years ago so it’s not something new just to trick you into getting the COVID vaccine. Remember my older posts. The first vaccine was developed in 1784. This is not new science. Do you part. Go get your vaccines. Already did? Wear a mask!

Okay, that’s it for now. Next week I promise promise promise I’ll be happier.

The shot heard around the world -or- Yes, Virginia, there are other vaccines out there

Michael 8 Comments

One hundred, thirty-seven years ago this month, Louis Pasteur administered the first rabies vaccine and things haven’t been the same since. That wasn’t the first vaccine developed for an animal. That would have been the chicken cholera vaccine in 1879, also developed by Pasteur. But when he gave that first rabies vaccine five years later he was setting a course for protections from a then universally deadly disease in humans by inoculating the animal. Prevent the disease in the animal and the animal can’t transmit the disease to the human. And thus, today dogs are roaming the streets with rabies tags hanging from their collars indicating they bear no risk to their human companions other than perhaps smothering them with dog kisses. And all is right with the world.

Except it isn’t. Cats and dogs aren’t the only animals who can get rabies. Nor were there in the days of Pasteur’s experiments. Bat, rats, raccoons, even cattle can too. In fact, any mammal can carry and transmit rabies to any other mammal. Could then, can now. In 1885, a year after he developed it for animal use, Pasteur injected the rabies vaccine into nine year old Joseph Meister who had been mauled by a rabid dog. The boy survived the rabies infection, the first ever to do so.

Animal vaccines were new in the 1880s but they weren’t the first time animals had been used in the development of vaccines. That happened 90 years earlier when Edward Jenner injected cowpox into humans to prevent the closely related smallpox virus. Through subsequent studies and experiments, the lives saved from smallpox through vaccination was so significant that by the 1922, primary schools in the United States began requiring smallpox vaccination for admittance. Through the 1930s diphtheria, tetanus, anthrax, cholera, plague, typhoid, and tuberculosis vaccines were developed, and then by mid-century work was completed on vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella. The latter half of the century brought vaccinations against chicken pox, pneumonia, and hepatitis B. This century saw the successful development of rotovirus, herpes zoster in adults (shingles), and human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines. And don’t forget SARS-CoV2 aka CoViD-19.

We have been so fixated on COVID for the last 18 months we may have forgotten, or at least not actively considered, all the other vaccines and routine vaccination recommendations for children and adults. This was illustrated last month when this year’s influenza vaccine strains were selected with no notice by the mainstream media and little fanfare even in specialty media circles.

Although we may take a break from thinking of all the horrible things that can happen to us (besides being asked to wear masks, wash hands, and give others some space), viruses don’t take a break from causing potentially horrible things to happen. So, you should probably start worrying about a bad flu season for 2021-2022. It’s not that far away.

Part of the reason we might expect a bad flu season is because we’ve been pretty good with our CoViD mitigation. Masks, handwashing, and social distancing (which I still think should be called personal distancing because there’s nothing social about it), did a fabulous job of keeping influenza airborne rather than allowing it landing zones in our persons. Now those little fellows are mad as anything and will be twice a virulent this year. Well, okay, that would be a great story line for a book or a movie but, viruses aren’t all that vengeful in reality though sometimes it may seem they are.

I’ll give you two reasons why this year’s flu season may be back with a vengeance, and these reasons are valid for any viral infection. One is science based and the other is more social. Science tells us the body’s immune system actually thrives on small, short term exposures (which is why vaccines work) and that the lack of repeated exposure to the flu virus deprived the body of an additional weapon to augment the flu vaccine. The social reason that this year will see a more substantial flu season is that people, having had over a year’s worth of “isolation” will do what people often do and overdo. Without mandated masking and social distancing, people will try to make up for lost time in close social settings and forsake those mitigation practices that added up to making flu season 2020-2021 a non-event.

To reiterate, this covers all viruses. Last year also saw record low incidents of respiratory syncytial virus (RVS) and rotovirus in children, adenovirus and rhinovirus in everybody, and subsequently less non-COVID induced pneumonia.

I know, you are thinking, and possibly saying out loud to your screen, “But it’s too early to think about a flu shot!” You’re right. And I’ll remind you again in September and October to get out there and get your shot. But now is a good time to think about all those other vaccines we’ve spent a year not thinking about. Are you due for a tetanus booster? Did you put off your second shingles or pneumonia shot? Young adults, have you been evaluated for meningococcal vaccination; caregivers, do you need a new hepatitis titre and possible booster? Parents, what is the status of your children’s vaccine regimens? Travelers, are your shots all up to date?

There are so many more vaccines than COVID and now is the time to refresh yourself about them. For years we’ve relied on them to keep us safer and healthier than we were just a single generation ago. But vaccines only work if people are willing to be vaccinated. Go ahead, be willing. Joseph Meister did and lived to talk about it.

Links to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immunization schedules for 2021:

For adults age 19 and older
Table 1: By age
Table 2: By indication

For children and adolescents, birth to age 18
Table 1: By age
Table 2: Catch up schedule
Table 3: By indication
Parent Friendly easy-read chart

Resources
Information for adults
Information for parents

VaccinatedFamily

Be careful out there

Michael 6 Comments

Deaths due to COVID-19 in 2021 already have surpassed the total number of deaths in all of 2020. Let me type that again. Deaths due to COVID-19 in 2021 already have surpassed the total number of deaths in all of 2020. Globally. If you are in the US, Canada, UK, pick a country that last year was locked up tighter than Marley and Scrooge’s backroom safe and you are going out later today without a mask on, that means there are places this year that make what you went through last year look like you were just trying to stay ahead of getting a really bad cold. One more time. Deaths due to COVID-19 in 2021 already have surpassed the total number of deaths in all of 2020. Globally

WorldDeathsAccording to data generated by the Johns Hopkins University, about 1,880,000 deaths from COVID-19 were recorded in 2020. As of the first week of June 2021, less than halfway through this year, about 1,883,000 deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported. Globally.

Globally. That sort of is important because we are a global world. Planes are back in the air with all seats filled, crossing borders. Ships are at sea again stopping at ports not always in the same country as the previous port of call. Students, vacationers, businesspersons are moving to and fro, free as can be. Give or take.

In the United States, the total reported cases, not deaths, for the single day, June 11 (the last full weekday before this was written) was 26,006, the running seven day average cases was 14,768. The last time a seven day average of less than 15,000 was reported at week’s end was on Friday, March 27, 2020 at 12,127. Then, seven day averages were increasing; now, they are declining. Proof that mitigation and vaccination worked and is working. It’s questionable that mitigation without vaccination would have eventually gotten us to the current case load, and certainly not by the end of May. By the end of 2020 with only mitigation, seven day average case totals routinely ran greater than 200,000 and peaked in January 9, 2021 with a single day case total of 300,779 and a seven day average of 259,615 cases. Widespread vaccination and continuing mitigation have since reduced both single day and seven day averages continuously to where we are today. The lowest single day reported cases for 2021 was May 31 at 5,557  with a seven-day average of 17,171. The last time previous to that when a single day case load less than 6,000 was reported was on March 20, 2020, with 5,619 cases.

UScases

 

Interestingly, since May 31, the daily totals and seven day averages of cases reported in the US have consistently increased. Also, since May 31, have the majority of states relaxed or eliminated mitigation requirements.  It would not be unreasonable to ask if vaccination without mitigation is and will be working. Certainly not wanting to cry wolf, but I will type once more, deaths due to COVID-19 in 2021 already have surpassed the total number of deaths in all of 2020. Globally.

Let’s be careful out there. There’s a lot of virus still out there.

Give me a shot and a beer!

Michael 2 Comments

I’m usually a day late and dollar short. Several dollars often. This time I’m a couple months late and running short on patience although high enough on admiration for those who are at least coming up with some ideas.

So what’s all this about? Vaccines, don’t you know? Apparently those who have waited have maybe waited their way into a windfall. Like those two Ohioans who each hit their state’s Vax-a-Million lottery. As long a we’re hanging around Ohio, how about that high school freshman (oops, first year student!), who won the first of five 4-year, all expense scholarships to any in-Ohio college.  In Maryland, they are awarding a daily $40,000 prize for 40 days culminating with a $400,000 on July 4. California, Washington, New Mexico, Colorado, Arkansas, and more that I can keep up with are offering cash incentives for getting the vaccine. A number of states are offering full scholarships for resident admissions to in state institutions. Over 30 companies are giving away almost anything you can think of including free flights for a year, free groceries for a year, free Super Bowl tickets, discounts and cash. At least 50 companies are giving cash bonuses or paid time off to employees for being vaccinated. And in a major, vaccine related announcement from earlier this week, Anheuser-Busch will buy America a beer if 70% of us get a vaccine.

You know, that vaccine that protects lives, returns normalcy to normal, and makes it possible for people to live life, lavish liberties, and pursue happiness. The one people in other countries would pay a king’s ransom to get. That vaccine.

I know I said I was a late to the party, suggesting these awards are to get unvaccinated people on the way to the nearest vaccination site. In truth, most of these scholarship and lottery prizes and many of the non-contest incentives are available to anyone vaccinated against COVID-19 regardless of when they were vaccinated, even early birds like me. The beer bash apparently will include everybody, over 21, even the unvaccinated coattail riders. According to an article in The Washington Post, “Adults 21 and older will be able to get a $5 virtual debit card that can be used to buy one Anheuser-Busch product, including beers, seltzers and nonalcoholic products,” when American hits the 70% vaccination mark before July 4. As of June 2, that means another 20 million Americans have to stick out their arms and say “Ahh.”

So where is the sticking point. Hesitancy is still an issue, but so is logistics in some areas. And, there are still a large number of young adults not vaccinated. According the Kaiser Family Foundation Vaccine Tracker, through the end of May, less than 48% of Americans age 18-29 have received at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccine and only 32% of that age group are fully vaccinated. Many colleges have announced they will require students to prove COVID vaccination to attend in person classes starting this fall, not unlike the requirement for other vaccines like mumps and measles. Maybe that will encourage others in this age group to get vaccinated.

Or maybe they would like a beer with their shot.

Not Vaccinated Section (1)

The 36% Club

Michael 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.

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