Dr. Anthony Fauci: Normalcy possible this summer -- unless Americans slack off https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/mar/14/dr-anthony-fauci-normalcy-possible-this-summer-unl/ Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday he is “optimistic” the U.S. can see normalcy by summer but warned the U.S. risks a European-style relapse if Americans give up on public health measures. The National Institutes of Health official said Italy is heading into lockdown for a second Easter in a row because the continent lifted restrictions before reaching a safe baseline of transmission. Young people, in particular, ditched their masks prematurely, Dr. Fauci told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “They had a diminution of cases,” he added: “They plateaued.” Biden administration officials are worried about a similar plateau-and-surge after a sharp decline in cases this year flattened in late February. The rolling average of U.S. cases is still above 50,000 per day — far better than the 250,000 per day in early January, but enough to spark another surge. “We can avoid that if we continue to vaccinate people … without all of a sudden pulling back on public health measures,” Dr. Fauci said. President Biden is upset about states that are lifting their statewide mask mandates and reopening businesses fully while the vaccine push continues. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said he tried to stake out a middle ground by lifting capacity restrictions on dining and other businesses while keeping mask and distancing rules in place. “We took a balanced approach,” Mr. Hogan told CNN. Dr. Fauci said he’s optimistic about July 4 gatherings that Mr. Biden touted as a benchmark for normalcy, though said he couldn’t detail what those parties might look like. He said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will put out updated guidance as more people are vaccinated. The rules “will be much more liberal than they are right now about what you can do,” Dr. Fauci said.
Duke is one of the few universities in North Carolina which stayed open for in-person learning throughout the pandemic. The university has been a national example of how to safely hold classes. They did this by having weekly testing, clear distancing and mask rules, full contact tracing for staff & students, and a host of other restrictions. For most of the past year; zero cases were recorded each week at Duke while 100% of the students were tested. Students who violated the rules were expelled. Imagine having to go home to mommy and daddy to explain why you were kicked out of a school that costs $70K per year -- due to this compliance was very high at Duke. Unlike nearby UNC-Chapel Hill where the compliance was low and spread high because there was no repercussions for poor behavior. Recently the wheels came off the wagon at Duke due to unsanctioned fraternity parties - it looks like students who organized these parties will be expelled -- in the meantime Duke is totally locking down. Frat-party-fueled outbreak prompts Duke to quarantine 14,000 students https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/fr...-duke-to-quarantine-14-000-students/19575940/ Duke University ordered thousands of students Saturday evening to quarantine for at least a week because of a coronavirus outbreak at the school. More than 180 students have tested positive in the last week, and an additional 200 people were already in isolation after contact tracing, the university order said. In a statement Sunday, Duke said the new cases were “almost all linked to unsanctioned fraternity recruitment events that took place off campus.” “This stay-in-place order is the direct result of individual behavior in violation of Duke’s requirements for in-person activity,” the statement said, adding, “Those who are found responsible for organizing and hosting these events will be held accountable.” Under the order, students who live on the campus in Durham, North Carolina, must stay in their rooms except for essential errands like picking up food; they may walk outdoors in groups of three or less. Students living elsewhere were told not to go to campus and were “strongly encouraged” to limit their movements and activities off campus. All classes will be taught online. In all, the order covers 6,000 undergraduates who are in or near Durham, the university said. Graduate and professional classes will continue as planned. Students across the country have had their college experiences upended as the pandemic has dragged on for more than a year, and the virus has continued to spread on campus and in surrounding communities. Since Jan. 1, more than 120,000 cases have been linked to American colleges and universities, according to a New York Times database. When rumors circulated Saturday that the order was coming, students rushed to stock up on food and other supplies for their rooms, the campus newspaper reported. Leah Boyd, 19, a sophomore who covered the events for the paper, said she and several friends walked around campus Saturday to “soak up our last hour or so of freedom.” She said they were worried that the lockdown would be extended to last longer than a week. Another reporter for the paper, Nadia Bey, 19, said that while most students understood the need for restrictions, “I think the stress is really getting to us.” Students who are careful about safety rules are starting to resent those who are not, Boyd said: “They’re tired of sacrificing their social lives, getting to see their families, getting to go to in-person classes, for other people to still be acting irresponsible.” An online petition calling on the university to sue the Durham Interfraternity Council for “reckless endangerment” gathered more than 1,000 signatures in less than 24 hours. After closing down last spring, Duke allowed freshmen and sophomores back into campus housing in the fall, and juniors and seniors in January. It garnered praise for its COVID testing program. But a coronavirus case sent the whole men’s basketball team into quarantine, forcing the team to withdraw from its conference tournament and dooming it to miss the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1995. “The thing is, as much as you test, if you’re still gathering in large groups, if you’re still being unsafe, if you’re still not following the rest of the protocol, the amount of testing you do doesn’t matter,” Boyd said. “You’re still going to end up in situations like this.”
And the basketball team shut down their games in the ACC tournament as well ending their season due to a postiive test. Imagine one careless teammate messing it up for all of you...
Most Americans don't want to return to the office unless their employers require the vaccine for all workers https://www.businessinsider.com/mos...-to-mandate-covid-vaccine-survey-finds-2021-3 Over 60% of US adults say employers should mandate the COVID-19 vaccine, a new survey found. Overall, workers say they're concerned about the safety risks of reopening offices. Employers nationwide are said to be mulling mandatory vaccination policies for their workers. Most US adults want their employers to make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory in order to return to the office, a new survey found. Workplace technology firm Envoy conducted a survey of 1,000 full- and part-time workers in the US about returning to the workplace in order to gauge employee sentiment one year after the start of the pandemic. The survey found that most adults are concerned about the health and safety risks of reopening offices, but are also hoping to return to work at least a few days per week. In order to do so, however, most say they want their coworkers to be vaccinated: 62% said they feel companies should require employees to get the vaccine before they're allowed to report to work in person. That statistic is higher among those who work in technology and business services, with 76% saying vaccines should be mandatory for office workers. Overall, workers say they're concerned about their health at work. Most of the employees surveyed, or 66%, said they're worried about compromising their health and safety by returning to the office, which is even higher among people of color and Gen Z: 78% and 75%, respectively, are fearful about the risks to their health. And as vaccinations rise nationwide, it could cause some employers to relax safety measures at the office, which is top of mind for most of the workers surveyed: 61% said they're concerned that their workplaces will ease COVID-19 restrictions too quickly. These findings come as many corporations mull a mandatory vaccine policy. The Financial Times reported last month that some top UK firms are considering "no jab, no job" employment contracts before their employees can come back to work. Some companies have already enacted the policy for all employees, while others are considering a mandatory vaccine policy for any new workers. In the US, employers are open to requiring vaccines. A poll of 150 current and recent CEOs conducted at the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute's virtual summit in December found that 72% were open to the idea, including executives from Walmart, Goldman Sachs, and UPS. A poll of 150 C-Suite executives conducted in January found a similar sentiment, with about half of respondents saying they would make vaccines mandatory before their employees could come back to the office. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, said earlier this year that he's certain many institutions will require vaccines, like hospitals, schools, and companies. "I'm not sure [the vaccine is] going to be mandatory from a central government standpoint, like federal government mandates," he said. "But there are going to be individual institutions that I'm sure are going to mandate it." Employers can legally require their staff to get vaccinated as long as employers don't seek information about a worker's health status, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said last year. Employers cannot, however, conduct medical exams, including antibody testing. President Joe Biden announced last week that the US will have enough vaccine doses for every American adult by May 1 and that he hopes to return to some sense of normalcy by July 4. As of Monday, 71 million Americans have received at least one vaccine dose, or about 21% of the population, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
How misinformation is distorting COVID policies and behaviors https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-misinformation-is-distorting-covid-policies-and-behaviors/
Remember how we segregated smokers? It could be a lot worse for the unvaccinated Opinion: A majority of Americans don't want to be around unvaccinated people. But keeping the two groups separate could be as tough as it is messy. https://www.azcentral.com/story/opi...ated-divide-get-lot-wider-nastier/4716874001/ Bottom Line: Reasonable people don't want to be around plague rats.
'I don’t want to be the one who gives it to people': Many Americans won't eat out, fly until COVID-19 herd immunity arrives https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...-fly-eat-restaurant-herd-immunity/6970810002/ A growing share of Americans would feel safe resuming activities like dining out or flying within a few weeks of their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, but 25% to 30% would wait until the nation reaches herd immunity, according to a Harris Poll survey for USA TODAY. Their attitudes bode well for what’s expected to be a historically robust recovery from the coronavirus recession. But the sizeable share of people who prefer to wait until at least 70% of the population is immune could mean a less roaring launch to the rebound as some activity shifts to late summer and fall from midyear. There's no doubt that Americans who have largely been confined to their homes the past year can hardly wait to bust loose. Thirty-three percent of those surveyed say they would feel safe eating indoors at a restaurant a few weeks after their second vaccine dose or earlier, according to the Harris Poll survey Friday through Sunday. By comparison, 29% of those polled in January said they would be comfortable dining out no later than a few weeks after the second dose. In the latest survey, 7% said they would feel comfortable eating indoors at restaurants after the first dose; 7% immediately after the second dose; and 19% a few weeks after their second dose. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said a person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after their second shot. Meanwhile, 28% would feel medically safe traveling by air a few weeks after their second dose or earlier, up from 25% in January. And 31% would feel comfortable attending a concert or sporting event in that timeframe, compared with 24% in January. “The vaccine is certainly a game-changer for getting back to doing the things we love,” said John Gerzema, CEO of The Harris Poll. Traveling again after vaccine Carol Tucker, 68, of Cranston, Rhode Island, has been hunkering down with her husband, son and daughter-in-law. For the past year, she hasn’t eaten at a restaurant, shopped for clothes or traveled, activities she did frequently before the pandemic. She orders all her groceries online. But, she says, “I plan on doing everything” two weeks after she gets her second vaccine shot around mid-April. “Once I’m vaccinated, I’m not worried about it.” She’s especially eager to resume plane trips to visit friends and relatives once every couple of months. “I can’t stand not traveling,” she says. Others plan to return to normal life gradually and to varying degrees. David Polinchock, 61, of Bloomfield, New Jersey, says that two weeks after his second shot he and his wife will again dine out without being so particular about the circumstances, revive their near-weekly moviegoing ritual and hit the local flea markets. He also has scheduled a visit to his mother in Florida, whom he hasn’t seen in 18 months. They also might go to an outdoor concert. But an indoor performance is off the table. He believes he’ll be immune from a severe COVID-19 case after vaccination but could get a mild bout and possibly transmit it. “I don’t want to be the one who gives it to people,” he says. Katie Reininger, 34, of Austin, Texas, has a similar view, with somewhat stricter parameters. Two weeks after she gets her second shot, “I would feel comfortable doing most things,” she says. But, she adds, “I wouldn’t go somewhere there’s a ton of people,” whether a concert or crowded restaurant. Reininger, who is pregnant, worries she could contract a mild case and possibly give it to her two young children. Until the country reaches herd immunity, “I would still be careful about being around too many people,” she says. Some Americans aren’t waiting to get vaccinated to resume their favorite activities. About one-quarter of Harris survey respondents already feel safe dining indoors, and 10% would feel confident after close friends and family are vaccinated – figures that are unchanged from January. That means nearly 70% of Americans are already dining indoors or plan to do so no later than a few weeks after the second dose. Waiting for herd immunity Still, a notable share of Americans are awaiting herd immunity, which is when a large portion of the population becomes immune to a virus through vaccination or prior infection, making person-to-person spread unlikely. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he expects the country to reach that milestone by late summer or early fall but added that Americans could return to at least some activities before then. Some may be hesitant. Twenty-three percent of those Harris surveyed say they won’t feel safe eating indoors until the country gets to herd immunity, and 27% won’t travel by air; 32% won’t feel comfortable attending a concert or sporting event. Those figures, however, are down significantly from the January survey. Still, many Americans’ inclination to continue lying low until herd immunity arrives could affect economic activity and forecasts. Noting that about 10% of the U.S. population has been vaccinated, Wolters Kluwer Blue Chip Economic Indicators says in its March report: “In this era, these data are the most important leading indicators of economic activity in the U.S. As vaccination rates increase, more economic activity can take place as it becomes less hazardous for people to gather inside.” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, says that if the vast majority of Americans aren’t back to their normal activities by July 4, it could shift up to a percentage point of his annualized economic growth estimate from the second to the third quarter, though it wouldn’t affect his forecast for the year. He projects 6.2% growth in the second quarter, 6.7% in the third quarter and 5.7% for all of 2021. Darris Johnson, 42, who lives in the Houston area, says he won’t go back to dining out freely, traveling and taking part in charity bicycle rides until the nation has herd immunity. “I would not feel comfortable until most of the nation’s vaccinated, jab or no jab for myself,” he says.
it does relate however to how quickly the consumer economy will bounce back. The sooner people feel comfortable in going out, the quicker to the economy will return to its pre-pandemic consumer spending levels in malls, restaurants, stores, movie theaters, entertainment events, resorts, etc.