The above Coronavirus Map is courtesy of Fox News.
I downloaded data from Worldometers on new cases and new deaths two days ago to see how well the data matches.
Covid Case Rate Per 100,000 Last 7 Days
Covid Death Rate Per 100,000 Last 7 Days
New Covid Case Rate Per Million Single Day
New Covid Death Rate Per Million Single Day
Irrational Fear of the Shot
Inquiring minds may wish to know How many people have died from the vaccine in the U.S.?
Between December 2020 and July 19th, 2021, VAERS received 6,207 reports of death (0.0018% of doses) among people who got a vaccine, but this does not mean the vaccine caused these deaths. Doctors and safety monitors carefully review the details of each case to see if it might be linked to the vaccine. There are three deaths that appear to be linked to blood clots that occurred after people got the J&J vaccine. Since we now know how to correctly treat people who develop these blood clots, future deaths related to this very rare side effect can be prevented.
By way of comparison, getting COVID-19 while unvaccinated poses a grave risk; as of July 23, 2021, more than 610,000 deaths have been attributed to the virus in the US alone.
Contrary to popular conspiracy theory, not everyone who dies while having COVID is counted towards this total. Suppose someone who tested positive for COVID-19 was killed in a car accident. The car accident would be the cause of death. This person would be counted as having “died with” COVID, not as having “died of” COVID.
The Anti-Vaxers on the other hand will tell you 6,207 or some other made up number of people died from the shot.
Deaths and Hospitalizations Reflect the Divide
Please consider US is split between the vaccinated and unvaccinated – and deaths and hospitalizations reflect this divide.
As of mid-July 2021, the U.S. has fully vaccinated more than 160 million people – just under 50% of the population – against COVID-19. The vaccines themselves are nothing short of remarkable in their effectiveness at protecting against COVID-19.
Unvaccinated people, by comparison, are extremely susceptible to the coronavirus, particularly to the delta variant and the data on deaths and hospitalizations show this discrepancy clearly.
On July 16, 2021, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky revealed that 99.5% of recent U.S. deaths from COVID-19 were of unvaccinated people. “Those deaths were preventable with a simple, safe shot,” she said.
In her July 16 statement, Walensky also said that 97% of current COVID-19 hospitalizations are of unvaccinated people. An earlier analysis done by The Associated Press found that 98.9% of all hospitalized COVID-19 patients in May were unvaccinated. The director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services recently stated that all new hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Los Angeles were unvaccinated.
Alabama Governor Says “Blame the Unvaccinated”
Please consider Alabama Republican Gov. Ivey says ‘start blaming the unvaccinated folks’ for rise in Covid cases
Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday called out “the unvaccinated folks” for the rise in Covid-19 cases in her state, a remarkable plea at a time when many GOP leaders are refusing to urge people to get vaccinated even as Covid-19 cases surge in many parts of the country.
“Folks are supposed to have common sense. But it’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down,” Ivey told reporters in Birmingham.
Ivey insisted that she’s done “all I know how to do” in managing the situation. When asked what it would take to get more people to get shots, she replied, “I don’t know, you tell me.”
But many Republican leaders still won’t say publicly whether they are vaccinated and Trump himself has cast the vaccine in political terms, suggesting people aren’t taking it because “they don’t trust (Biden’s) Administration.”
Utah Stats
Damn. It appears Bill Gates has somehow hijacked the minds of the Utah Government in addition to the Alabama Governor.
It does not stop there.
What the hell happened to Fox News posting such a chart?
And did someone place a microchip in McConnell’s brain?
House Minority Leader McConnell on Board
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, has long advocated for vaccines and has talked about vaccines during multiple visits to his home state of Kentucky, but on Tuesday, he issued one of his fiercest calls to get vaccinated yet.
“These shots need to get in everybody’s arm as rapidly as possible, or we’re going to be back in a situation in the fall that we don’t yearn for, that we went through last year,” McConnell said Tuesday. “I want to encourage everybody to do that and to ignore all of these other voices that are giving demonstrably bad advice.”
Republican Resistance
However, McConnell faces Republican Resistance.
“I don’t think it’s anybody’s damn business whether I’m vaccinated or not,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told CNN.
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida told CNN “that’s very nosy of you,” when CNN started asking about his vaccination status.
The silence from some Republicans does even more damage when considering the extent of misinformation that some Republican lawmakers are spreading.
Freshman Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene was temporarily suspended from Twitter on Monday after sharing misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines. Greene, along with fellow freshman Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, have also invoked Nazi-era imagery to mock President Joe Biden’s latest Covid-19 vaccination efforts.
Sen. Ron Johnson, one of the two non-vaccinated GOP senators, has repeatedly spread vaccine misinformation, including a news conference in June and on a right-wing radio show in May.
Freshman Republican Peter Meijer of Michigan, who has been open about being vaccinated and encourages his constituents to do so, told CNN that while it is his colleagues’ choice whether or not they want to get the vaccine or disclose it, “I think individual leaders should do right by those who support them.
Meijer told CNN, “I don’t know why some, especially on the fringes, are doing the equivalent of telling folks not to wear seatbelts when we’re suffering tremendous amounts of highway fatalities. I mean, your voters are believing this.”
“So, there’s a moral and humanitarian imperative to be upfront and honest,” Meijer said. “At the end of the day, every leader is going to be accountable for his or her own actions.”
Why the Distrust?
For starters, look no further than Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
He has flip-flopped and lied so many times it’s arguably a wonder why the vaccination rate is as high as it is.
Also blame Trump, Republican Governors in general, anti-vaxers, Republican Senators, etc.
It would not surprise me in the least to see mask mandates again. The unvaccinated should get the blame.
Mythbusters an Amusing Utah Production
Safe and Effective but Politics Gets in the Way
I endorse these statement by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey: “It’s safe, it’s effective, the data proves that it works, doesn’t cost anything. It saves lives.”
People are dying for no reason at all except political posturing. It’s saddening.
Addendum
The WSJ has an excellent article out today What Makes the Delta Variant of Covid-19 So Dangerous for Unvaccinated People
Delta was first detected in the U.S. in March and by mid-July accounted for three-quarters of Covid-19 cases. It has supplanted the Alpha variant, which until recently was the most widespread version of the virus in the U.S. Its impact is acutely felt in parts of the country with low vaccination rates, where case counts and hospitalizations are surging. The Delta variant accounts for 83% of all U.S. cases, according to recent estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unvaccinated individuals make up more than 95% of all hospitalizations.
Researchers think Delta is about 50% more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which means the average patient would infect 50% more contacts. Alpha itself is an estimated 50% more contagious than earlier versions of the virus.
Despite Delta’s mutations, studies suggest that the Covid-19 vaccines authorized in the U.S. are effective in preventing serious illness in those exposed to the variant.
Real-world studies support findings from the lab. U.S.-authorized vaccines are somewhat less effective at preventing infection from the Delta variant than they are against established versions of the virus. But they still offer considerable protection against severe illness and hospitalization.
A study of nearly 20,000 people published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that after two doses, the Pfizer vaccine was 88% effective at preventing symptomatic disease caused by Delta. It was 94% effective against the Alpha variant.
An analysis of more than 14,000 Delta cases by England’s public-health agency found that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine reduced the risk of hospitalization by 96%.
Mish
Vaccination protects the vaccinated from COVID and for most, that benefit outweighs the known adverse effects of the vaccination.
The anti-vax movement has strong parallels with other things like denial of the harmful effects of tobacco, climate crisis denial etc.
“I realized that the same general pattern of arguments—a denialist playbook—has been deployed to reject other scientific consensuses from the health effects of tobacco to the existence and causes of climate change. The same playbook is now being used to deny facts concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.
In brief, the six principal plays in the denialist playbook are:
Doubt the Science
Question Scientists’ Motives and Integrity
Magnify Disagreements among Scientists and Cite Gadflies as Authorities
Exaggerate Potential Harm
Appeal to Personal Freedom
Reject Whatever Would Repudiate A Key Philosophy”
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-denialist-playbook/
” Doubt the Science
Question Scientists’ Motives and Integrity”
As you know, any scientist who has not parroted the official narrative, has been smeared. Dr Mike Yeadon, formerly a Vice President and Chief Science Officer at Pfizer, is one of those who has been smeared for not parroting. He even threatened to sue the BBC if they didn’t retract something said about him.
What you should be talking about is the official narrative playbook.