WhitinsvilleWX

Evidently the CDC used it to put the vaxed back in masks.

I told people that a year ago.

But case counts are driving policy now. And has been for months, but more so now.

I also need to get a shingles vax.

I’ll get one if they offer it.

That sounds like something Belichick would say. MyFace and Instachat

They should. Any inside the park HR involves some kind of bobble or over running the ball, etc

They ruled it a triple and an error. BS

I’ve did it until I’m blue in the face. STOP THE INSANE ROUTINE TESTING! Of course your going to find virus with PCR. There’s a lot of virus circulating. Doesnt mean they are infected or contagious. The CDC guidence says you don’t need routine testing of vaxed people. So folks pick and choose which CDC guidence they listen too depending on what they want to hear and do.

But it is driving policy. That’s the problem.

Cases mean shyte at this point. Deaths are running about 250 a day. Thats about 90,000 per year. Yes, it’s somebodies family I get it. But from a pure numbers standpoint, that’s a touch worse than a bad flu season.

I just read what he said. Sounds like he’s not going to do much. He reiterated that Massachusetts has the second highest vax rate and second lowest lowest hospitalization rate. The first being VT, and we’re number one in those categories among high population states. He has zero appetite to go back to statewide masking sounds like. Localities can do sone things, but I still think it’s limited based on no state of emergency. We have no county government so cities and towns will do what they want within limits I think. Middelsex county is still below the cdc threshold so maybe I’ve dodged the mask at work for another week or 2. As far as schools go, I think baker punts and leaves it up to each school system. Clearly Janey ignored the DESE guidence and imposed masks at school this year.

He’ll be under a ton of pressure. The Globe will be up his keister every day.

It’s all politics at this point. The CDC just did it to give politicians cover to put mandates back. And places that MIGHT benefit won’t do it anyway, so why’s the point. Hospitalizations and death are really low in the NE. Mass has 150 in the hospital and deaths have been flat for 2 months. These metrics based on cases are garbage. We’re in a fast track to a zero Covid policy. Not possible. Ever

Oregon did it. But that's not surprising. Whitmer said no. PA and i think NJ said no. That still wont stop local despots though. We're now in 2 Americas. Masked up forever, and free breathers.

If they use the 50/100k metric for cases to mask up, and don't take the hospital load and deaths into account, some jurisdictions will have people masked indefinitely. Doesnt look like Ned and Cuomo are going to do it. I dont think Baker will either, but he'll be under tremendous pressure. I'm shocked Cambridge hasn't done it yet

They’re down to 18 today. Once the percent positive drops to 3% per day for 5 days in a row the mask mandates comes off and goes back to an advisory. Once it goes to 1%, the advisory comes off. While I do not agree with masking, at least there’s metrics on it.

Meant to add for comparison, sone counties in Missouri are at 50-110 per 100,000.

I did a little more digging on the CDC guidence today. The masking recommendations are in areas where there are 50 cases per hundred thousand per day. For comparison, Massachusetts is at 7.1 per hundred thousand.

Agree

I honestly think it’s been over reported by a certain amount. The criteria for a Covid death is something like any death within 40 days of a positive test, I think? At any rate, it’s probably a little high. What percent, I have no idea. If you look at excess deaths over baseline, it’s pretty close. I also think the US had a load of people die in nursing homes. The stats I know of say that other countries don’t warehouse people in nursing homes like we do. Once all this shakes out, my guess is close to 40% died in LTC facilities.

It can

They won’t. They’ll leave it up to locals. There’s not enough hospitalizations and deaths around here to see widespread mandates. I read that out of the 750 plus positives that were contract traced from p-town, only 3 went to the hospital, 2 got released after a day, and no deaths. So they masked up p-town for cases, nothing more.

Just so people know. The dTap vaccine are for bacteria. Tetanus, pertussis, and diphtheria are caused by toxins from bacteria. Bacteria are easy to vaccinate against. They don't really mutate. Measles virus is pretty stable, but it’s still “only” 90% effective. Rubella is around 90%, mumps 75%, polio is around 90%. But they are that high because there’s not much of that virus that circulates because kids were vaccinated against those since the 50’s and 60’s. If COVID virus circulated at those levels, there would be very little break through infection. Covid vaccines stop infection too. Breakthrough infections are minuscule compared to the total number of people vaxed.

Deaths have been going down steadily. The cases bottomed out 6 weeks ago and rose ever since. But deaths have steadily declined over the same period. There’s been no increase at all. Right now it’s averaging 275. If that didn’t go up significantly in the next couple weeks, the cases have uncoupled. Another anecdote at least locally, my buddy at mass general told me that a lot of patients in the hospital right now, at least at MG, probably wouldnt even been admitted last January or at the peak in April 2020. They’re not as sick. Delta will end up like a bad cold for most. This uncoupling is why they need to stop worrying about cases. If they don’t, they’ll chase cases until Jesus returns.