This is so out of whack that I question whether I’m reading or interpreting this correctly. According to this page (on which you will still have to use drop down menus to find specifics) Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket Counties have less than 10% of their residents vaccinated against COVID-19 even among the 65+ crowd while all other counties are above 50%, some by quite a bit. No wonder Provincetown became such a hot spot! Here I was blaming the vacationers from states that maybe have not prioritized vaccinations, but this chart does use the word “residents”. Seems DPH needs to launch a full court press maybe by setting up mobile vaccine sites offering it to residents and vacationers alike, preferably J&J for vacationers since you only need to get that one once. Unbelievably there are parts of the country so hostile to vaccines that some are showing up in disguise and begging that nobody be told they got the shot for fear of their community’s reaction. Maybe there are more such people who would be willing to get their shots while they are away from home. What are we coming too? Even if you are reluctant for whatever reason, why in the world would you care if your neighbor got the vaccine?
This is a data error — those counties actually have the highest vaccination rates. You should look at the state’s data here (the weekly update and dashboard, in particular): https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-covid-19-vaccination-data-and-updates
Thanks. I’m in Dennis where we’re at almost 80% vaccinated. Still, I’ve gone back to wearing my mask while shopping at the grocery store and if I go to a restaurant, I look for outdoor seating. Yes, I am vaccinated.
I’m doing the same, I think that’s wise for anyone over 65 — especially those of us who have other health issues (hypertension, diabetes (type 1 or 2), obesity, etc).
The data is becoming more clear that vaccinated people are just as able to catch and then transmit the Delta variant as unvaccinated.
Any of the vaccines commonly given here (Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J) are very effective at preventing infections from becoming serious or deadly. This is consistent with other vaccines for other diseases — the Chicken Pox vaccine does not prevent infection with the virus, it instead prevents that infection from being a serious health issue.
Similarly, the COVID vaccines transform COVID from a dangerous potentially life-threatening event into a mild cold.
That all means that we are better off wearing masks in any indoor public setting such as a restaurant, store, religious gathering, and so on. While a mask provides a small measure of protection for the wearer, it’s primary benefit is to dramatically reduce the chance that the wearer will spread the infection to others.
Your decision to wear your mask is correct and socially responsible — thank you!
I’ve had both Shingles vaccines and despite that, I came down with a very mild case of it a few months after. It was so mild that I thought I had a mild cold and an odd skin rash – and just went to the doctor to check out the rash. My doctor explained that with all probability, had I not received the vaccine, my outbreak would have been severe. A friend of mine lost an eye to a shingles outbreak.
It pains me to watch Fox News but I do so to try and see where the next madness will take us. Mike Huckabee was on yesterday and while he admitted to getting the Covid vaccine, he told his audience that many of his friends have not and they are waiting for the FDA to fully approve it…and then launched into a full rant about liars in government, fraudulent elections, and yes, Benghazi. It would be funny if it was not so tragic.
The prior administration has done serious damage to pretty much every federal agency. Most scientific positions in those agencies are not well-paid, and dedicated people did them because they believed in the importance of what they were doing (very much like how the GOP has brutalized educators).
The prior administration shredded that trust. They forced the exodus of several generations of excellent scientists.
It will take years to rebuild that trust — years that we don’t have.
I got the vaccine to help us get out of masks and distancing. Now it’s sounding like until everyone gets it we might as well behave as if nobody has despite breakthrough cases being rare – AAARRRGH!
I think it will be more effective to somehow persuade our Democratic leaders (because nobody else will do anything) that mandatory vaccinations are the way to go.
Masking, social distancing, and lockdowns are necessary to protect unvaccinated people from serious illness and death. When we had no vaccines, they were the only option.
The federal government should make life extremely uncomfortable for anyone who is not vaccinated. The sorts of things that come to mind are:
Yes, of course these should have hard-to-get exemptions for various hardship situations. Yes, full CDC/FDA approval of the vaccines should come first.
Choosing to be unvaccinated (against Covid) is no more tolerable than choosing to drive while drunk. People who do so endanger all of us.
Not sure I’d go as far as no benefits, but definitely schools should require it and I can see insurance companies charging the unvaccinated more. I of course continue to dispute how absolutely necessary all the other strategies were given how low the percentages of serious illness, hospitalization, and death were.
When was the last time you were in an ER?
Hospital rooms, ER beds, ICU beds, and so on were absolutely DEMOLISHED during the pandemic.
Those percentages were staggeringly high. Where do you get any idea to the contrary? You continue to offer commentary that dramatically understates the impact of this pandemic on our health care system.
Maybe that speaks to needing to be better prepared with availability of beds, but what I’m comparing is severity to non-severity and I have always been careful to say I’m working with percentages rather than raw numbers, which have always been in the LOW SINGLE DIGITS.
You’ve also been careful to say that you refuse to answer requests to name numbers.
You are cherry-picking statistics to confirm your bias, while steadfastly refusing to open your eyes to reality.
Children are dying across America in part because of people doing what you describe your commentary.
Here’s something in the “LOW SINGLE DIGITS” (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1275984):
ICU beds in the state of Mississippi.
SIX, to be precise — in the entire state!
Only 25 ICU beds in all of Arkansas today.
That needs to change.
On tonight’s news broadcasts, various care providers report that hospitals in Louisiana are unable to care for non-COVID patients because they are filled with people — especially children — suffering from severe COVID infections.
From MSNBC: Dr. Mark Kline, Physician-in-Chief, Children’s Hospital New Orleans:
Hospital ERs and ICU beds are full across the country. Your characterization of the percentages of serious illness, hospitalization, and death are wildly variant from reality.
Which doesn’t at all contradict what I have been saying. We just use different metrics and levels of tolerance. I find this article to be a reasonable match to my views.
The news reports last night were from doctors in rural LA who are turning away children because they have no beds, no ER space, and no staff to care for them.
It sounds as though you are saying that people dying from otherwise routine heart attacks and strokes because ERs and ICE beds are full of COVID patients is ok with you — no big deal.
Is that really what you mean?
From NBC news (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1275984):
Only six ICU beds to serve a population of 3 million people.
According to sites like
https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/icu-beds/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D, Mississippi has a total of 981 ICU beds statewide.
That is 3.2 beds per 10K population. By comparison, Massachusetts has 2.3 beds per 10K population.
Our for-profit health care system has apparently done an excellent job of cutting “overhead” like ICU beds and nursing staff in order for providers and insurance companies to maximize profits.
Not to worry, though. We have absolutely nothing to worry about given how low the percentages of serious illness, hospitalization, and death are.
And the rest of us should be penalized for that sorry state of affairs why?
Refusing to get vaccinated is the former while refusing to get vaccinated and refusing to remain in isolation is the latter, in my humble opinion.
I concur with jered that this is a data error at the CDC.
A colleague and I have been maintaining an interactive map of COVID data since the pandemic began last year — our COVID infection data goes back to the end of January 2020, and our vaccination data (from the CDC) begins in mid-December 2020.
The site is at http://covid.zeetix.com. To see the erroneous vaccination data, use the chevron (just to the left of the date) to open the dashboard, then click “vaccinations” and then “Apply”. If you then navigate to Massachusetts, you’ll see three MA counties — Barnstable, Nantucket, and Dukes, that stick out from the rest of the state (and, for that matter the entire country) with allegedly low vaccination rates.
My colleague and I have examined the vaccination data published by the state (weekly), and it reports a 76% vaccination rate for Barnstable County as of 22 July. That is at stark variance with the CDC database. We’ve opened a trouble ticket with the CDC — something is broken with the CDC reporting mechanism.
The CDC, FDA, and NIH were all under prolonged assault during the prior administration. Many of these agencies lost valuable people (and institutional memory with them), and many of the best and brightest who survived were traumatized and hurt by the mistreatment they experienced from political appointees dropped into their agencies by the last administration.
It may take some time for the CDC to regain the “gold standard” status it once enjoyed.
In any case, the CDC vaccination data is simply wrong. I’ll share more as I learn of it.