Vaccines working and Red America has a problem

[mister_coffee]

If we just let this continue to fester eventually there are going to be variants with much higher fatality rates (like the closely related SARS and MERS coronaviruses). Then all hell will really break loose. Given that SARS COV-1 had a fatality rate of 9% (and a fatality rate of 50% in those over 60) those bodies could all too easily pile up.

Also, inevitably, there will be variants that can work their way past the vaccine. The good news is that with mRNA it will be easy to formulate a new vaccine (or more likely a booster shot), get it approved quickly (there is already an accelerated approval pathway), and manufacture and distribute it on a large scale.

I think in the short-medium term the first eventuality is much more likely than the second.

[PAL]

Great! If people will vaccinate...
We've got our own little surge going in Twisp, which the case numbers are expected to rise.
Our percentages will go up, unfortunately, but it's good news that the vaccines work to protect us from the Delta. There is a Gamma that not much is heard about right now. It is causing more break through cases of those that are vaccinated.

[pasayten]

New York Times...

The vaccines and Delta
One likely explanation is that vaccination rates have risen high enough in some communities to crush the spread of Covid. In the spring, these places were still coping with significant outbreaks, but they aren’t anymore.

In Marin County, just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, for instance, more than 90 percent of people aged 12 and above have received at least one shot. As a result, Marin has virtually extinguished the virus, with only three new confirmed cases per day in recent weeks.

A second explanation for the new divergence between more and less vaccinated places is the Delta variant. It appears to be making vaccination even more valuable. The vaccines are effective against Delta, sharply reducing the chances of infection and nearly eliminating any chance of serious illness. For unvaccinated people, however, Delta is significantly more contagious than earlier variants.

Missouri offers the clearest example. Over the past week, it has reported more new Covid cases per capita than any other state, and they are concentrated in rural areas that have low vaccination rates, as Charles Gaba, a health care analyst, has noted. In the parts of the state with high vaccination rates — like the metro areas of Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia — the number of new cases remains very low.

and link to full story... https://messaging-custom-newsletters.ny ... 9d9caf980