Let's see if you understand the basic theory of effectiveness and its relationship to the associated vaccinated breakthrough rate. Yes, we understand that vaccination wanes over time. How low does effectiveness need to go before the breakthrough infections greatly increase. For instance explain to us what an effectiveness against infection of 42% implies for the suggested vaccinated breakthrough infection rate. At least tell us if the correct answer is above or below a 3% vaccinated breakthrough infection rate.
Let’s answer this one.... https://www.yahoo.com/news/nearly-4-nfl-players-tested-191924923.html Nearly 4% of NFL players tested positive for COVID-19 in 2 days and it could turn into a nightmare for the league
As someone noted earlier -- the tight confines of locker rooms, training facilities, and practice venues for professional teams playing indoor/outdoor sports is basically a breeding ground designed to favor the Omicron variant of Covid. This issue with fast spread with sports -- especially indoor sports such as hockey should not be a surprise. Nor with outdoor sports with frequent contact. So let's try the basic theory math again. Just provide an answer -- above 3% or below 3%. Explain to us what an effectiveness against infection of 42% implies for the suggested vaccinated breakthrough infection rate. At least tell us if the correct answer is above or below a 3% vaccinated breakthrough infection rate.
Your little attempt to circumvent the truth by manipulating a meaningless data set... You tout a vaccine with a supposed “.05%” breakthrough rate, yet it apparently doesn’t apply when Omicron is present or if you’re in the close proximity of others with a much higher vaccination rate than the average population. On one hand you constantly spread fear of catching the virus and then tonight you’re telling everyone how they’ll have super immunity with natural infection, i.e. natural immunity combined with full vaccination. Please just go away, you’ve flip-flopped, changed narratives, down is up, night is day, so many times it’s ludicrous.
No flip-flops -- just following the science. The data from KFF and CDC shows very clearly the current vaccinated breakthrough rate by state. This is the largest publicly available dataset in the world in terms of millions of people covered. The top vaccinated breakthrough rate for states is a mere 0.56%. Most states average 0.2% or less. However this data really reflects the Delta and earlier infections this year -- not Omicron yet. Omicron -- as noted by scientists -- is vaccine evasive. It should surprise nobody as the vaccinated breakthrough rate goes up over the next few weeks. This is -- after all -- how science and data work when a virus evolves. The information will change as the virus evolves and the studies of variants provide fresh information. At this point there are preliminary studies on Omicron -- we don't if it is more or less deadly yet, more or less severe yet, how infectious exactly or how evasive to which vaccines --- and the data is all over the map at this point. I will note the NFL is taking steps to require masks be worn -- this should lead to a reduction of the rate of infection which the league is enduring. BTW -- "Super Immunity" -- merely means being double vaxxed plus getting infected in combination provides the best protection based on one study. Don't confuse the headline with the data. Bottom line : Get fully vaxxed -- get your booster is your last vaccination is more than six months ago.
Wow.The NFL just said fuck it,they can play with Covid https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-covid-19-protocols-194538465.html The NFL will stop mandating weekly COVID-19 tests for asymptomatic vaccinated players, according to memos distributed Saturday that described a major shift in the league's approach to the pandemic. The new protocols, which take effect next week, could allow the virus to spread undetected through locker rooms, and could increase opportunities for infected but otherwise healthy players to participate in games. The NFL and NFLPA announced the "more targeted testing plan" in a statement, along with "more flexibility" for players "to attend meetings virtually" and opportunities for "high-risk players" to opt out of the remainder of the season. The changes come two days after the NFL eased its return-to-play protocol for players who test positive, one day after three games were postponed, and at the end of a week in which the virus sent over 100 players to the league's reserve/COVID-19 list. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a Saturday memo, however, that "roughly two-thirds" of cases among NFL players and staff this week have been asymptomatic, while "most of the remaining individuals have only mild symptoms." Those facts, amid what NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills called "a new phase of the pandemic," led to Saturday's change, which some experts believe endangers not only players themselves but their family members and people they come into contact with away from football. The move further incentivizes vaccination, which experts widely believe to be a sports league's biggest weapon in battles against the pandemic. (Unvaccinated players will continue to test daily.) But new variants of the virus, including the Omicron variant, have been spread to and by vaccinated players and coaches. The new protocols, sports epidemiologist Zach Binney said in text messages Saturday, represent the NFL "basically announcing that they're giving up on infection control." "These new protocols will result in everyone in the NFL coming into contact with COVID," Binney said. "The hope is if you're vaccinated — and especially if you're boosted — you'll be able to fight off the virus with no or mild symptoms. But unless you're boosted it's quite likely you'll contract the virus and perhaps spread it to others, as well." The protocols shift responsibility for a given person's health and safety from the collective to the individual. Players will "retain the option to attend meetings virtually and wear a mask within the facility," Goodell wrote in his memo. Players and their families will also be given access to daily testing. Teams will even distribute at-home tests and allow players to self-report positives — either their own or a family member's. But without a requirement, many players — including some who feel the NFL should do away with COVID-19 protocols altogether — will have incentive to decline testing, because a positive test would rule them out of games. Many of those players, even when infected, feel well enough to play. Sills said earlier this week that many of the 100-plus who've tested positive this week would not have even sought a test based on symptoms. Washington Football Team doctor Tony Casolaro told reporters Saturday that of his team's 23 players who tested positive this week, only two would have been held out of practice solely based on symptoms. Some experts caution that, although evidence among young, healthy, vaccinated people suggests little susceptibility to severe disease, it does not suggest zero risk. "We still get a small percentage of athletes who develop long-COVID symptoms," Cameron Wolfe, a Duke infectious disease professor who has advised major sports organizations, said earlier this week. Professional athletes in several sports have suffered from the effects of COVID weeks and months after contracting it. For those unwilling to take that risk, or pass it on to loved ones, the NFL on Saturday introduced a new opt-out clause. Players with certain conditions that create "higher risk" related to COVID-19 have until 2 p.m. Monday to, if they choose, opt out of the remainder of the 2021 season. They will not be paid and cannot reverse the decision. Under the new protocols, meanwhile, players will be subject to enhanced daily symptom screenings. Any player who reports or exhibits symptoms will be isolated and tested immediately. It's unclear, though, how or whether team doctors will enforce or incentivize self-reporting. NFL doctors can also select certain players, position groups or "staff cohorts" for "strategic, targeted spot testing." That selective testing will be designed to prevent outbreaks, or based on contact tracing on a case-by-case basis. The exact procedure for the "targeted testing" program has not yet been finalized, Sills said, but he assured that it would be led by medical experts and not based on performance. “We're trying to test smarter," Sills said. The NFL has already mandated booster shots for top-tier staffers. On Saturday, it once again encouraged boosters but stopped short of mandating vaccination for players. The new protocols do not require boosters for a player to be considered vaccinated and exempt from mandatory regular testing. The updated protocols will go into effect after this weekend's games. Beginning the following week, the NFL will introduce stricter limits on the "essential football personnel" permitted in team facilities. Whether some of the more intensive protocols implemented earlier this week — which include mandatory masking indoors and limits on in-person gatherings — will stay in place throughout the rest of the season remains to be determined. "In many respects, Omicron appears to be a very different illness from the one that we first confronted in the spring of 2020," Goodell said in his memo. As the league heads into 2022, it's going to treat it like one.
https://sports.yahoo.com/3-nfl-team...covid-19-testing-and-protocols-234917155.html As COVID-19 surged through the NFL this week and forced the rescheduling of three games, multiple sources involved in talks between the league office and NFL Players Association told Yahoo Sports that three teams were on the verge of having to forfeit Week 15: The Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Rams and Washington Football Team. It was a staggering reality that began to sink in for the league and players union by Thursday, pushing the two sides into a rescheduling negotiation that the NFL was adamant about avoiding heading into this season. The about-face became increasingly necessary as all three teams struggled to patch together a gameday roster that could play safely, a point that became concerning enough for the Rams that players engaged in a midweek discussion about not playing. Ultimately, that concern led to the NFLPA pressing the NFL for a schedule change, arguing that the spate of uncontrolled infections occurred inside all three franchises in spite of the teams meeting vaccination standards and following proper protocols. Hovering overhead it all was the reality that three forfeits would effectively wipe three games off the television schedule and lead to the loss of game checks for the six teams that would have faced off. That was part of the parameters laid down by the NFL this past summer, when the league notified franchises that failing to field a game would lead to the forfeiture of game checks for both teams. That means not only would players for the Browns, Rams and Washington franchise have lost their pay for this week, it also would have stripped a week of pay from the Las Vegas Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks. As one source in the talks put it bluntly Friday: “Both the Browns and Rams nearly forfeited their games and Washington was also in danger of it. … If something hadn’t been done — if there were no games, the players on those six teams would not have been paid. It’s that simple.” That didn’t stop a multitude of players from those teams complaining on social media about the games being rescheduled. But the continued danger of forfeits and lost money — combined with the testing fatigue of the past two seasons — has fueled a more drastic push among players: Ending COVID testing entirely and permanently removing all protocols from the NFL. A swath of players have confronted the union calling for that dramatic change, which stands in direct opposition to the NFLPA’s push for a return to daily testing. Those complaints and calls for drastic change in testing and protocols ramped up significantly this week. The union fielded an onslaught of calls, texts and other messages from players who were angry that the NFL forced all 32 teams into enhanced protocols through the end of Week 15. The league took that step — which significantly limits contact inside facilities and locks down teams traveling this weekend — in hopes of slowing down the COVID infections wave that has been spreading across teams and staffs for more than a week. There are no plans to shut down COVID testing or protocols, but that changes to the system are under review, sources from the league and union told Yahoo Sports on Friday. The league and union already agreed to some new testing standards this week, which aim to get players back onto the field more quickly after they have been infected with COVID.