The idiot from Alaska speaks... I guess it is the "science" she found in conspiracy groups on social media. Sarah Palin Reveals She Has Not Gotten Vaccinated Because She Believes in "Science" https://www.mediaite.com/tv/sarah-p...n-vaccinated-because-she-believes-in-science/
As outlined before -- due to more infectious variants developing --- the required "herd immunity level" is above 90%. The entire theory of herd immunity uses the infectiousness of the disease as a starting point -- the higher the infectiousness (R) then the higher the required herd immunity level. Let's take a look at a recent article outlining the required herd immunity level for Delta Covid in a community. Upward of 95% of Dallas County residents need protection against COVID-19 to reach herd immunity Herd immunity refers to the condition in which a population is indirectly protected from infection because enough people are vaccinated or have natural immunity to a disease. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/202...tion-against-covid-19-to-reach-herd-immunity/ More than 95% of Dallas County residents need to be protected against COVID-19 for the county to benefit from herd immunity, according to a new estimate from the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation. The updated estimate was included in a peer-reviewed article authored by several of the center’s researchers and published this month by the New England Journal of Medicine’s media outlet. Researchers tracked and analyzed detailed COVID-19 data since the start of the pandemic. The new herd immunity estimate doesn’t include an exact number, but the portion of the population that needs to be protected against the virus is estimated to be in the high 90s, and could even be as high as 98% or 99%, said Steve Miff, the center’s president and CEO. “All indications are that to start to see a measurable impact for immunity, we’ll need to get to the upper 90s,” he said. The Dallas-based center is a nonprofit organization that works to find solutions to problems in health care using data analytics. The center works closely with Parkland Health and Hospital System and focuses on the needs of North Texas. The estimate for herd immunity — the condition in which a population is indirectly protected from infection because vaccinations and previous exposure limit a disease’s spread — has changed throughout the course of the pandemic. The center previously said that the county would reach herd immunity once 80% of residents were protected. But the highly contagious delta variant of the virus altered that estimate shortly after Dallas County hit that benchmark in early July. “Any time you have a new dominant variant, you have to go back to the drawing board and reassess everything,” Miff said. The updated estimate is based both on local data and on how the virus spread in other parts of the world. In the U.K. and Israel, for example, transmission of the virus has tampered off among age groups with 90% or more people protected against COVID-19, Miff said. In Dallas County, some older residents are approaching the upper 90s threshold. But the overall progress is slow going, he said. About 76% of the county is currently protected against COVID-19, either through vaccinations or natural immunity, Miff said. In recent weeks, about 20,000 new individuals have been getting their shot each week, he said. That means with vaccinations, the county is only increasing toward the herd immunity goal at a rate of less than 1% each week. “We still have a ways to go,” Miff said. “As a community, we remain very vulnerable to the virus.” While vaccines protect against severe illness and death, they don’t stop people from passing the virus on to other people. That means even if the county reaches the new herd immunity threshold, transmission will still continue. But Miff said keeping track of herd immunity progress remains important because it helps epidemiologists and hospital systems predict how the virus impact the community. For the general public, herd immunity progress is important because the closer the population is to the threshold, the lower the risk of serious illness is for those that are still vulnerable to the virus — children under 12 who can’t get a shot yet, for example. Health experts say that the proportion of cases occurring in younger individuals — age groups that were previously thought to be at a lower risk of serious COVID-19 illness — has been increasing. The average age of hospitalizations has gone down, and health officials recently reported record numbers of children with COVID-19 in intensive care units. In Dallas County, children under 18 made up about 15% of all cases in June, when the delta variant wasn’t as large of concern. Currently, they account for about 28% of all new cases, Miff said. “Our numbers indicate that we still have a quarter of the population who is very vulnerable, and remains very vulnerable to the virus,” he said. “We’ve all seen what delta does to those that don’t have immunity, that aren’t vaccinated. Folks should pay attention to vaccinations and should pay attention to their own behavior to protect themselves as we get through this thing.”
Dr. Peter Hotez Decries Anti-Vaxxers: ‘We’re No Longer Limited by Biotechnology and Science. We’re Now Limited by Anti-Science’ https://www.mediaite.com/tv/dr-pete...and-science-were-now-limited-by-anti-science/ Dr. Peter Hotez, who has appeared many times on television to give his expertise amid the coronavirus pandemic, said on Thursday on MSNBC that anti-vaxxers are undermining the fight against Covid-19. During a segment on Katy Tur Reports, a soundbite was played of Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, predicting earlier on TODAY that “in the next few weeks” the FDA will approve booster shots for the Johnson & Johnson and Moderna vaccines. He also predicted that at that time the FDA will approve vaccination for kids in addition to the Merck pill to fight Covid-19. “Boy, we go into Thanksgiving and the holidays with a whole new set of tools, it’s really going to be helpful,” said Jha. “And that’s what makes me optimistic that we’re going to have a better holiday season.” In response to the clip, Hotez said: I share his optimism in the sense that it is exciting that we’ll have these new tools. And with each of these new interventions, we come one step closer to getting ourselves out of this epidemic. You know, I think the biggest problem is compliance and acceptance of these new technologies, and that’s where we see this pretty high level of resistance, refusal in regional areas of the country. So things are going to look very different in the Northeast and the West Coast than they will up in some of the Mountain West states and in the Southern United States. There, we still have to conquer this terrible political divide and anti-science aggression that we’re seeing coming from the political right. It all depends on that really. We’re no longer limited by biotechnology and science. We’re now limited by anti-science. Watch above, via MSNBC.
On the other hand, if some of the well-known scientific types who are treated as gods would stop investing our money in programs and places that specialize in turning bat viruses into deadly worldwide pandemics, THAT WOULD BE GREAT. Not sayin, that science is a bad thing. Dr. Mengele never said that either.
Covid did NOT originate in infamous bat cave where six Chinese miners were struck down with mystery flu-like illness in 2012, French study claims The Mojiang cave has been touted as the possible birthplace of the coronavirus Six miners were struck down with a mysterious pneumonia illness in 2012, 3 died Scientists from now-infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology sent in to investigate https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ve-six-Chinese-miners-struck-mystery-flu.html Covid did not originate in an infamous south Chinese bat cave at the centre of the 'lab leak' theory, a French study has claimed. The Mojiang cave has been touted as the possible birthplace of the virus after it emerged six miners were struck down with a mysterious flu-like illness in 2012. Scientists from the now-infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were sent in to investigate at the time and sent bat samples back to the lab 1,000 miles away. Covid did not originate in an infamous south Chinese bat cave at the centre of the 'lab leak' theory, a French study has claimed. The Mojiang cave has been touted as the possible birthplace of the virus after it emerged six miners were struck down with a mysterious flu-like illness in 2012. Scientists from the now-infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were sent in to investigate at the time and sent bat samples back to the lab 1,000 miles away. The six miners struck down with the mystery pneumonia had been sent into the cave in Mojiang to clear bat guano in April 2012. They were aged between 30 and 63, and three died as a result of their infection. The latest study, led by the Roger Frutos, a microbiologist at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, said hospital records highlighted 'major discrepancies' between their illnesses and Covid's typical symptoms. They pointed out that one of Covid's tell-tale symptoms is a dry cough, whereas the miners suffered from a very different kind of cough. They were found to be coughing up blood or mucus. CT scans showed they also did not have the same lung scarring seen in many hospitalised coronavirus patients. All of the miners suffered from swelling of lymph nodes in their chest or 'water on the lungs', symptoms only reported in fewer than 0.01 per cent of Covid patients. 'We thus dismiss the Mojiang mine as the origin of SARS-CoV-2,' the researchers wrote in the paper published in the journal Environmental Research. 'Dismissing the Mojiang mine theory leaves the laboratory leak narrative without any scientific support thus making it simply an opinion-based narrative.' However, the researchers were accused of failing to refute the central assertions of the lab leak theory. Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline: 'The theory argues that this virus [which infected the miners] maybe was the progenitor of SARS-CoV2... not that it was SARS-CoV2 itself. 'So, some difference in pathology is not unreasonable.' He said that he was still wasn't convinced the lab leak theory was the most likely origin of the virus. But he admitted there were some 'remarkable coincidences' He added: 'The pandemic began in Wuhan, which is far from the bat caves of south China (and) does house the institute of Virology undertaking molecular work, including gain of function, on coronaviruses.' His comments were echoed by Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist from Warwick University, who said it was 'entirely possible' that Covid's origins could be traced back to the caves in Mojiang. He told MailOnline 'While I still think that this is the result of natural spillover from an animal, a lab leak accident still can't be ruled out.' Professor Livermore added that the lab leak theory had turned from conspiracy to mainstream thought because extensive searches had failed to find any natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2. He said it was also 'important' to note that one of the authors of the paper, Christian Devaux, was involved in setting up the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Dr Devaux's involvement is listed in the paper's disclosures. The WIV specialises in manipulating dangerous coronaviruses, in what's known as 'gain of function' research. The risky experiments involve engineering viruses to make them more infectious or lethal, in the hope of developing treatments and vaccines to get ahead of outbreaks. But the French researchers say RATG13, the pathogen first discovered in horseshoe bats in Mojiang, is unlikely to have been used to create Covid. They said that while it is real, the virus particles were not isolated from animals meaning researchers only have samples of its genetic code, and not physical copies of the virus itself. 'Therefore, there is no evidence that this sequence corresponds to any real and viable virus or even that all reads are coming from the same virus,' they wrote in the study. 'RATG13 has never been isolated as a virus and replicated in cell cultures. It has no physical existence and thus cannot leak from a laboratory.' But questions still hang over the Mojiang caves. Attempts by Western journalists to visit the caves have been denied and the caves are closely monitored by Chinese authorities.
CDC director says the Covid pandemic’s end date depends on human behavior CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky cannot predict when the pandemic will end, saying it largely depends on human behavior – and that might be a problem. As the Covid-19 pandemic stretches into its 20th month, cases in the U.S. have begun to decline after a wave of delta infections peaked at more than 172,000 a day in mid-September. Some medical experts predict we could be in the virus’ last major surge, but when it ends is anybody’s guess. “We have a lot of the science right now; we have vaccines,” Walensky told reporters Thursday in a session organized by the Health Coverage Fellowship, a health journalism program. “What we can’t really predict is human behavior. And human behavior in this pandemic hasn’t served us very well.” With only about 55% of the U.S. population fully vaccinated and some additional protection among people who have been recently infected, there is not enough immunity to fight off the more contagious delta variant, the infectious diseases expert warned. “With the delta variant, the R-naught is 8 or 9,” Walensky said. R-naught, or the basic reproduction number, signifies the average number of people to whom an infected person will spread the virus. “That means we need a lot of protection in the community to not have disease.” And the problem is, she continued, some communities have high vaccination rates and are very well protected, but “there are pockets of places that have very little protection.” “And the virus isn’t stupid – it’s going to go there,” Walensky said. “So really what your question depends on is how well we coalesce together as a humanity and a community to do the things that we need to do in those communities to get ourselves protected.” But so far, “we are battling with one another and not battling with the common foe, which is the virus itself,” Walensky said.
USDA dropping food packets in eastern Tennessee with rabies vaccine in them to fool unsuspecting racoons into eating them an vaccinating themselves. The next plan is to drop bacon strips laced with Pfizer on Tennessee cities. Tennessee using helicopters and airplanes to vaccinate raccoons for rabies It's not as weird as you think. Crews fly over Tennessee's rural wilderness, dropping vaccine packets coated with bait in hopes the raccoons will eat them. https://www.wbir.com/article/life/a...abies/51-386c2583-d283-41a8-a31a-b87a7322a55e
So let's take a look at two comparable rural Texas counties -- one nearly fully vaccinated with few Covid cases. A second barely vaccinated with dead and dying all over the place. A tale of two counties: Texas communities illustrate deep divide in COVID-19 vaccination efforts In Texas, vaccination rates vary drastically from county to county. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/tale-...llustrate-deep-divide-covid/story?id=80521119 Americans remain deeply polarized over the renewed push to get the country vaccinated. Nowhere is such a divide more evident than in Texas, where the vaccination rates tend to vary drastically from county to county. Presidio County -- a remote area of southwest Texas, home to approximately 7,800 people -- while rural, boasts the state's highest vaccination rate, with nearly every one of its eligible residents fully vaccinated. In the county, cell service is often spotty, and the closes medical center is hours away from most homes, but residents who chose to get vaccinated said they saw it as a matter of life or death. MORE: COVID patients overwhelm Texas hospitals, amid 'hair on fire' crisis Rosendo Scott, a Vietnam veteran, who is battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, was more than willing to roll up his sleeve when he became eligible for a vaccine. "We're so isolated that we could easily just fall like dominoes, if something wasn't done," he told ABC News. Big Bend Regional Medical Center serves approximately 25,000 residents in a vast 12,000 square mile area, Dr. Adrian Billing, chief medical officer at the hospital, said. "It's a 90-to-150-mile one-way trip to get to the emergency room, so I think some of that, just recognizing how limited we are for health care, contributed to our high vaccination rates," Billing said. Given the extremely high demand for vaccination, Billing said, all of the county's available health care workers were pulled away from other duties in order to assist with the shots. "We had to shut down our medical and dental service lines, and our behavioral health service lines, on these days that we did 500 or 600 vaccines at a time," Billing said, adding that he has not recently seen a single vaccinated patient wind up in the hospital. Scott explained that he has a very high level of trust in his health care providers, and thus, in their recommendation that he get vaccinated. "I'm a believer in science," Scott said. The county's impressive vaccination rate has kept residents safer, local leaders said, especially the community's youngest members. Scott's wife, Allison, who is the principal of Marfa High School, in Presidio County, told ABC News that thanks to the county's high vaccination rate, there have not been any coronavirus cases in the K-12 public school system since school started. "So far -- and this is our eighth week of school -- we haven't had a positive case, so we're remaining hopeful," she said. However, more than 620 miles away, in Lamar County, the story is very different. Despite the availability of vaccines, only 40% of the residents have been fully vaccinated. Klark Byrd, the managing editor of The Paris News, a small town newspaper, said he believes vaccine hesitancy in Lamar has been largely driven by residents' "distrust in the government, distrust in the vaccine makers, [and] distrust, based on misinformation that's found on social media sites." Given the low rate of vaccination in the county, Byrd has been printing op-eds, urging residents to talk to their doctors. Although Byrd himself has not been vaccinated, due to a pre-existing health condition, he said he is taking all the necessary precautions to keep himself safe, with hand sanitizer, masks and social distancing. "Sometimes, I'm the only one with a mask, and that's concerning, but I maintain my distance with people. If I turn down an aisle at Walmart, and there's a bunch of people, I will avoid that aisle and wait till it clears out," he said. Among the many who have opted not to get the shot is Kacy Cole. Despite the fact that he has seen firsthand how serious COVID-19 can be, with several close friends and family, including his wife, contracting the virus, Cole said he has not reconsidered his anti-vaccine stance. "It did not," Cole told ABC News. "We prayed about it and we firmly believe that a lot of faith is involved in a lot of things we do." The decision of Cole, and other residents not to get vaccinated has been a tough pill to swallow for many front-line workers. Dr. Amanda Green, the Lamar County health director and the local hospital's chief medical officer, explained she wants to do her utmost to keep her community healthy, and the public educated about vaccines, but she tries to be realistic in her awareness that she may never be able to convince everyone. "There are some people that I think they'll just never change, no matter what," Green told ABC News. From Green's perspective, such vaccine hesitancy can be a fatal choice. She pointed to Ronnie Stanley, the husband of a local nurse who chose not to get vaccinated. After falling ill to COVID-19, he wound up in the ICU, and died late last month. MORE: Why lawsuits against COVID-19 vaccine mandates will likely fail: Experts "No one is invincible to this disease, it doesn't care, it doesn't discriminate," Stanley's widow, Amanda, told ABC News. She had urged him to get the shot, from the very beginning, but he was set in his ways, she said. "He knew that it was as real as what it is, (but) he didn't know that he would have been affected the way he did. I think had he known, then absolutely, he would have vaccinated and, you know, saved us all the torment that we've seen the last month. But yes, he was unvaccinated, and others believe that plays a big role in his death," Amanda said She is now seeking to convince those who are still hesitant, by telling his story. "I don't believe it has anything to do with politics," she said about the COVID-19 vaccine. "I believe that this vaccine was created by brilliant doctors and scientists, and God gave them those abilities. And that's what people need to understand, it's a selfless act when you get vaccinated. It's not for yourself, but it's for those that you need to protect."
In other news, those extreme liberal states with high vaccination rates that GWB likes to point out as doing a helluva job containing the virus, Oops. https://uafreport.com/rich/three-st...nation-rates-are-stunned-to-see-case-numbers/