From the Associated Press:

US COVID-19 cases rising again, doubling over three weeks

Coronavirus

The COVID-19 curve in the U.S. is rising again after months of decline, with the number of new cases per day doubling over the past three weeks, driven by the fast-spreading delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings. Confirmed infections climbed to an average of about 23,600 a day on Monday, up from 11,300 on June 23, according to Johns Hopkins University data. And all but two states — Maine and South Dakota — reported that case numbers have gone up over the past two weeks. “It is certainly no coincidence that we are looking at exactly the time that we would expect cases to be occurring after the July Fourth weekend,” said Dr. Bill Powderly, co-director of the infectious-disease division at Washington University’s School of Medicine in St. Louis. At the same time, parts of the country are running up against deep vaccine resistance, while the highly contagious mutant version of the coronavirus that was first detected in India is accounting for an ever-larger share of infections. Nationally, 55.6% of all Americans have received at least one COVID-19 shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The five states with the biggest two-week jump in cases per capita all had lower vaccination rates: Missouri, 45.9%; Arkansas, 43%; Nevada, 50.9%; Louisiana, 39.2%; and Utah, 49.5%.

Even with the latest surge, cases in the U.S. are nowhere near their peak of a quarter-million per day in January. And deaths are running at under 260 per day on average after topping out at more than 3,400 over the winter — a testament to how effectively the vaccine can prevent serious illness and death in those who happen to become infected. Still, amid the rise, health authorities in places such as Los Angeles County and St. Louis are begging even immunized people to resume wearing masks in public. And Chicago officials announced Tuesday that unvaccinated travelers from Missouri and Arkansas must either quarantine for 10 days or have a negative COVID-19 test. Meanwhile, the Health Department in Mississippi, which ranks dead last nationally for vaccinations, began blocking posts about COVID-19 on its Facebook page because of a “rise of misinformation” about the virus and the vaccine. Mississippi officials are also recommending that people 65 and older and those with chronic underlying conditions stay away from large indoor gatherings because of a 150% rise in hospitalizations over the past three weeks. In Louisiana, which also has one of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates, officials in the city of New Orleans said Tuesday that they are likely to extend until fall virus-mitigation efforts currently in place at large sporting and entertainment gatherings, including mask mandates or requirements that attendees be vaccinated or have a negative COVID-19 test. State health officials said cases of the coronavirus are surging, largely among nonvaccinated people. But the political will may not be there in many states fatigued by months of restrictions. In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is facing a drive to repeal a law that she used to set major restrictions during the early stages of the pandemic. And Republican Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama pushed back against the idea that the state might need to reimpose preventive measures as vaccinations lag and hospitalizations rise. “Alabama is OPEN for business. Vaccines are readily available, and I encourage folks to get one. The state of emergency and health orders have expired. We are moving forward,” she said on social media.

Dr. James Lawler, a leader of the Global Center for Health Security at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, said bringing back masks and limiting gatherings would help. But he acknowledged that most of the places seeing higher rates of the virus “are exactly the areas of the country that don’t want to do any of these things.” Lawler warned that what is happening in Britain is a preview of what’s to come in the U.S. “The descriptions from regions of the world where the delta variant has taken hold and become the predominant virus are pictures of ICUs full of 30-year-olds. That’s what the critical care doctors describe and that’s what’s coming to the U.S.,” he said. He added: “I think people have no clue what’s about to hit us.” President Joe Biden is putting a dose of star power behind the administration’s efforts to get young people vaccinated. Eighteen-year-old actress, singer and songwriter Olivia Rodrigo will meet with Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday. While the administration has had success vaccinating older Americans, young adults have shown less urgency to get the shots. Some, at least, are heeding the call in Missouri after weeks of begging, said Erik Frederick, chief administrative officer of Mercy Hospital Springfield. He tweeted that the number of people getting immunized at its vaccine clinic has jumped from 150 to 250 daily. “That gives me hope,” he said.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

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Vaccinated Calif. man gets breakthrough COVID case after trip to Las Vegas, spreads to family

Coronavirus

Fruit, who has a history of sinus infections, was sick in bed. "I had never felt pain that bad in my head in my life. With my medical history, I'm pretty confident that if I hadn't had the boost from the vaccination, I might not be standing here talking to you right now," he said.

Except that he got sick because he trusted the vaccine to keep him safe. Had he not been vaccinated, he wouldn't have gone to Vegas, wouldn't have taken off the mask, and wouldn't have gotten himself and his family sick.

True. Some people are 'whatever' having been vaxxed.

But.

Had he not gotten vaxxed... can you pinpoint this as for all? No. But. Time will tell if that happens.

Getting the vaccine doesn't guarantee you won't die of COVID-19. No one has ever said that. It's like saying 'wear a seatbelt' an you won't die in a car accident.

It's risk mitigation.

And risk is incredibly mitigated for a bad outcome for the virus. Most people will be not get the virus, some will be asymptomatic, some will get mildly sick, and very few would die.

You see the stats right now in the US, where over 99% of deaths now, are from the unvaccinated.

What I don't understand is why this simple concept is so difficult to understand for such a large minority of people.

L.A. County’s coronavirus test positivity rate spikes nearly 700% in 1 month as delta variant circulates

Coronavirus

Los Angeles County’s coronavirus positivity rate has increased nearly 700% since last month as the delta variant circulates and vaccinations lag, officials said Tuesday. The positivity rate stood at 0.5% a month ago. Now, it’s around 3.4%. The number of coronavirus cases confirmed daily has also spiked, with L.A. County reporting more than 1,000 coronavirus cases every day for the past five days. On June 13, the five-day case average was 201. By Tuesday, it had skyrocketed to 1,095 — an increase of more than 500% in just one month, L.A. County Department of Public Health officials said in a news release. The increase, which comes after months of decline that followed the arrival of vaccines, mirrors upward trends seen nationwide. “A significant number of unvaccinated people indoors, with a highly contagious Delta variant circulating, makes it easy for this variant to be transmitted at higher rates,” L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said in a statement. She urged those who are are not yet fully vaccinated to wear a mask in all indoor public spaces and get vaccinated without delay.

Coronavirus transmission in L.A. County has been increasing among younger unvaccinated residents, county officials said over the weekend. Over 99% of the COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths being recorded recently are among unvaccinated residents, many of them under 50 years old, according to Ferrer. “Because of increased intermingling and summer social activities and the circulation of more variants of concern like the highly transmissible Delta variant, Public Health continues to caution there is increased risk of COVID-19 infection for people who aren’t fully vaccinated,” the agency warned.

The delta variant, now California’s dominant coronavirus strain, was first detected in India but is now spreading in dozens of countries. In L.A. County, it is mostly being found in people who haven’t been vaccinated.Why are officials alarmed? It is considered more contagious than even the other highly contagious variants reported. The county has been pushing residents to get vaccinated by offering gift cards and the chance to win a variety of prizes. At L.A. County- and city-run vaccination sites, everyone 18 and older coming to get a vaccine through Thursday could win one of seven packages of concert tickets, which include include tickets to see Celine Dion, Grupo Firma, Kane Brown, Luke Bryan and Dan and Shay at Staples Center, as well as box seats to four classical concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

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Vaccinated Calif. man gets breakthrough COVID case after trip to Las Vegas, spreads to family

Coronavirus

Fruit, who has a history of sinus infections, was sick in bed. "I had never felt pain that bad in my head in my life. With my medical history, I'm pretty confident that if I hadn't had the boost from the vaccination, I might not be standing here talking to you right now," he said.

Except that he got sick because he trusted the vaccine to keep him safe. Had he not been vaccinated, he wouldn't have gone to Vegas, wouldn't have taken off the mask, and wouldn't have gotten himself and his family sick.

True. Some people are 'whatever' having been vaxxed.

But.

Had he not gotten vaxxed... can you pinpoint this as for all? No. But. Time will tell if that happens.

Getting the vaccine doesn't guarantee you won't die of COVID-19. No one has ever said that. It's like saying 'wear a seatbelt' an you won't die in a car accident.

It's risk mitigation.

And risk is incredibly mitigated for a bad outcome for the virus. Most people will be not get the virus, some will be asymptomatic, some will get mildly sick, and very few would die.

You see the stats right now in the US, where over 99% of deaths now, are from the unvaccinated.

What I don't understand is why this simple concept is so difficult to understand for such a large minority of people.

Are you from the southern United States or live there?

I know people that won't get a vaccine because it's "not FDA approved." That's astounding in its stupidity. But they are not my life. And not all of them are fake president believers.

I'm on a steroid, for the second time in a month, to clear up an inner ear infection I've had since early June. I know steroids, especially what I am taking, are not good for me, somewhat based on experience. Given the long term issues I could face, with and without, and knowing that the duration of steroid I am taking - it's beyond worth the risk.

The very near future will be interesting.

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GasLightStreet

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treaclefingers

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GasLightStreet

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bleedingman

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Hairball
Vaccinated Calif. man gets breakthrough COVID case after trip to Las Vegas, spreads to family

Coronavirus

Fruit, who has a history of sinus infections, was sick in bed. "I had never felt pain that bad in my head in my life. With my medical history, I'm pretty confident that if I hadn't had the boost from the vaccination, I might not be standing here talking to you right now," he said.

Except that he got sick because he trusted the vaccine to keep him safe. Had he not been vaccinated, he wouldn't have gone to Vegas, wouldn't have taken off the mask, and wouldn't have gotten himself and his family sick.

True. Some people are 'whatever' having been vaxxed.

But.

Had he not gotten vaxxed... can you pinpoint this as for all? No. But. Time will tell if that happens.

Getting the vaccine doesn't guarantee you won't die of COVID-19. No one has ever said that. It's like saying 'wear a seatbelt' an you won't die in a car accident.

It's risk mitigation.

And risk is incredibly mitigated for a bad outcome for the virus. Most people will be not get the virus, some will be asymptomatic, some will get mildly sick, and very few would die.

You see the stats right now in the US, where over 99% of deaths now, are from the unvaccinated.

What I don't understand is why this simple concept is so difficult to understand for such a large minority of people.

Are you from the southern United States or live there?

I know people that won't get a vaccine because it's "not FDA approved." That's astounding in its stupidity. But they are not my life. And not all of them are fake president believers.

I'm on a steroid, for the second time in a month, to clear up an inner ear infection I've had since early June. I know steroids, especially what I am taking, are not good for me, somewhat based on experience. Given the long term issues I could face, with and without, and knowing that the duration of steroid I am taking - it's beyond worth the risk.

The very near future will be interesting.

...and once it's "FDA approved", I wonder if there'll be a rush of people getting vaccinated?

Likely not. They're just using it as the excuse d'jour and will come up with some deep state conspiracy that had the vaccine approved without proper protocols.

And I do believe your question was rhetorical...but no, not from the southern US!

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treaclefingers

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GasLightStreet

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treaclefingers

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GasLightStreet

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Hairball
Vaccinated Calif. man gets breakthrough COVID case after trip to Las Vegas, spreads to family

Coronavirus

Fruit, who has a history of sinus infections, was sick in bed. "I had never felt pain that bad in my head in my life. With my medical history, I'm pretty confident that if I hadn't had the boost from the vaccination, I might not be standing here talking to you right now," he said.

Except that he got sick because he trusted the vaccine to keep him safe. Had he not been vaccinated, he wouldn't have gone to Vegas, wouldn't have taken off the mask, and wouldn't have gotten himself and his family sick.

True. Some people are 'whatever' having been vaxxed.

But.

Had he not gotten vaxxed... can you pinpoint this as for all? No. But. Time will tell if that happens.

Getting the vaccine doesn't guarantee you won't die of COVID-19. No one has ever said that. It's like saying 'wear a seatbelt' an you won't die in a car accident.

It's risk mitigation.

And risk is incredibly mitigated for a bad outcome for the virus. Most people will be not get the virus, some will be asymptomatic, some will get mildly sick, and very few would die.

You see the stats right now in the US, where over 99% of deaths now, are from the unvaccinated.

What I don't understand is why this simple concept is so difficult to understand for such a large minority of people.

Are you from the southern United States or live there?

I know people that won't get a vaccine because it's "not FDA approved." That's astounding in its stupidity. But they are not my life. And not all of them are fake president believers.

I'm on a steroid, for the second time in a month, to clear up an inner ear infection I've had since early June. I know steroids, especially what I am taking, are not good for me, somewhat based on experience. Given the long term issues I could face, with and without, and knowing that the duration of steroid I am taking - it's beyond worth the risk.

The very near future will be interesting.

...and once it's "FDA approved", I wonder if there'll be a rush of people getting vaccinated?

Likely not. They're just using it as the excuse d'jour and will come up with some deep state conspiracy that had the vaccine approved without proper protocols.

And I do believe your question was rhetorical...but no, not from the southern US!

The same anti-vaxxer idiots will say don't trust the FDA. The only way these people will take the vaccine is if the US does what France has done or what is happening in the Philippines. There is a higher likelihood they will die of Covid than take the vaccine.

Louisiana's latest Covid-19 surge features more unvaccinated people in their 30s and 40s

[www.cnn.com]

(CNN)For Dr. Frank Courmier, the latest Covid-19 surge hitting his Louisiana hospital is different from the three preceding waves -- the people now getting sick are younger.

"We're getting people in their third and fourth decades, otherwise healthy with no real preexisting conditions coming in, unvaccinated and very sick, very fast," Courmier told CNN. "We see almost no vaccinated patients."
The younger patients have meant that Courmier, the medical director for pulmonary and critical services at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette, has had to have difficult conversations with their children.
"Something new that I'm having to struggle with is now having to tell four-, five- and nine-year-olds about their loved one and not being able to get them home or be able to see them," he said with a catch in his throat. "That's difficult. And I don't want to go through that over and over again."
"I have children of my own," he later added, "and it's just very difficult to imagine if my kids had to go through the same issue."
Courmier was one of several Louisiana-based health experts who spoke to CNN this week about the rise in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations over the past couple weeks. Their experiences are similarly being seen across under-vaccinated parts of the US, including much of the Deep South, where the coronavirus, led by its transmissible Delta variant, has continued to prey on the unvaccinated.

About 36% of people in Louisiana have been fully vaccinated, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- the fifth-lowest rate of any state.
Adjusted for population, Louisiana also has the fifth-highest number of new Covid-19 cases over the past week, CDC data shows. The tally has been growing, too. The number of new Covid-19 cases has increased for the past 28 days and is increasing in all nine regions of the state, the Louisiana Department of Health said Tuesday. Since early May, 94% of the state's 19,200 cases have been among people not fully vaccinated.

Still, deaths from Covid-19 remain at lows not seen since March 2020. An increase in deaths could still come, as a rise in cases generally translates to more deaths over time. Or it may not at this point in the pandemic, given that older people, who are more susceptible to the illness, have been vaccinated at much higher rates.
In any case, the rise in cases and hospitalizations has been difficult for Dr. Courmier and Lafayette's Our Lady of Lourdes hospital, which has the highest number of Covid-19 patients in the state.
"We're going to witness more stress on the system," Courmier told CNN. "More stress on us as we're having to take care of these patients. Once they arrive they're in the hospital for weeks and months."

St. Francis Medical Center In Monroe, in northern Louisiana, currently has the second-highest number of Covid-19 patients in the state. Dr. John Bruchhaus, the co-director of the intensive care unit, said the hospital is expanding its capacity for patients by turning what had been a post-surgical ICU into a Covid-19 unit.
He said he has primarily seen patients in their 30s and 40s who are unvaccinated arrive for care. Most of them are mildly ill but about 15% to 20% require hospital admission, Bruchhaus said. He offered a warning to those who have remained skeptical of the vaccine.

"Over the next few weeks, it's partly up to you of how you're going to gain immunity: Whether natural immunity by obtaining the Delta virus or by getting the vaccine," he said. "And the smarter choice would be to get the vaccine to prevent the disease."
That's the challenge for Katie Barber, who runs the Covid-19 vaccine program at the St Francis Medical Group in Monroe. She said they administered about 25 vaccine doses one recent day, well below the 350 to 400 daily doses at the peak of the effort.

"I feel like the people who believe in our health care and the people who want a vaccine have received them," she said. The challenge is "alleviating and educating those who currently don't and being able to reach that population."
She said she hoped over time more and more people will come around to see the benefits of the free and safe vaccine.
"Seeing people, seeing their loved ones, seeing other people that they know and trust receive it, and seeing that they are perfectly fine. I think that's what it really takes, is making it personal," she said. "Or someone in their family becoming very sick then makes it a priority."

It's really sad the subset of people who refuse to get vaccinated. One of the my oldest, dearest friends is one of those, and so is his wife. Yes, they support the former President. I guess you can get them to believe anything, as long as it's what they wanted to hear to begin with.

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24FPS
It's really sad the subset of people who refuse to get vaccinated. One of the my oldest, dearest friends is one of those, and so is his wife. Yes, they support the former President. I guess you can get them to believe anything, as long as it's what they wanted to hear to begin with.

Yes. Not good when people have their minds made up and then seek out info to back their beliefs, while shunning all info to the contrary. Scarily common.

It is more than politics. It is stupidity. These people won't take a vaccine approved by scientists but will take "immunization pellets" made from a quack wanna be doctor. Really?

Homeopathic doctor sold fake vaccine cards and 'immunization pellets,' prosecutors say

Bryan Pietsch
,
The Washington Post
July 15, 2021
Updated: July 15, 2021 7:07 a.m.

A California homeopathic doctor who was arrested Wednesday has become the first person to face federal fraud charges related to allegedly selling fake vaccines and cards.

Juli A. Mazi, 41, sold "immunization pellets" that she claimed would provide "lifelong immunity" to covid, telling customers the purported treatments contained trace amounts of the disease, according to the Justice Department. She falsely claimed the coronavirus vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration contained "toxic ingredients," U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday.

Mazi, a resident of Napa, Calif., also allegedly sent several clients vaccine cards that made it look like she had administered Moderna doses to them. Other customers were instructed to fill out their own cards, investigators said.

It was not clear if Mazi had legal representation. A message left with her office was not immediately returned.

The Moderna lot numbers used on the cards were genuine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to federal investigators. But the CDC and the California Department of Public Health have no record of Mazi receiving or administering FDA-authorized vaccines.

"Even though it's more than an ethical stretch that I'm happy about, I am just stepping up to the plate to offer these," Mazi said in a recorded phone call, according to investigators.

Mazi "allegedly defrauded and endangered the public by preying on fears and spreading misinformation about FDA-authorized vaccinations, while also peddling fake treatments that put people's lives at risk," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.

"Even worse," Monaco added, the counterfeit vaccine cards allowed customers to "circumvent efforts to contain the spread" of the virus.

Federal authorities learned of the alleged scheme in April from a person whose family members had purchased homeoprophylaxis immunization pellets from Mazi, the complaint said.

The remedy, which involves exposure to small amounts of a disease to try building immunity, is "very different" from standard models for immune development like approved vaccines, according to a 2015 article in the medical journal Paediatrics & Child Health.

Mazi provided the tipster's family members with vaccine cards and instructed them to write that they received Moderna shots on the date they ingested the pellets, according to prosecutors. She did not administer doses of the three U.S.-approved coronavirus vaccines to those people.

After the tipster bought pellets over the phone from Mazi for $243, the homeopathic doctor allegedly said the same dosage of pellets could be used for babies, adding they could be used to help circumvent other school vaccine mandates in California.

Prosecutors allege Mazi gave the tipster's family members a letter about the pellets, which stated that "because this is an energy medicine, people can sometimes experience an energetic response, like a mild immune response similar to those symptoms which the disease might provoke."

It also warned against touching the pellets, "as the medicines can rub off on your fingers."

Between January 2020 and May 21, 2021, Mazi received $221,817 in payments on Square, a digital payment processor, investigators found. While most of the transactions did not specify what the payments were for, 25 transactions totaling $7,653 were noted as payments for covid treatments.

Articles on Mazi's website promote how "herbs and spices" can be used to help treat liver ailments. The website presents her as a primary care provider who treats conditions from ear infections to ADHD to autoimmune disorders.

The owner of a bar in California's Central Valley was arrested in May on state charges including alleged identity theft and the forging of government documents.

Fraudulent vaccine cards have also been spotted on online platforms like eBay. Though several countries around the world have issued digital "vaccine passports," paper cards remain the main proof of vaccination across much of the United States.

Yankees Game Postponed After Positive Coronavirus Tests

by Tyler Kepner
July 15, 2021

[www.nytimes.com]

For those in L.A., the mask is back.....................

Mask mandate: New LA County health order requires face coverings indoors as COVID cases spike

The MASK

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Citing continued increases in transmission of COVID-19, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is re-implementing a mandate requiring residents to wear masks while indoors, regardless of their vaccination status. The county previously only recommended mask-wearing indoors. The new mandate will take effect at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, officials announced. The announcement was made during a virtual briefing on Thursday afternoon. It comes exactly one month after California dropped its statewide mask mandate for vaccinated people. Some exceptions will apply, health officials said, similar to masking requirements that were in place before June 15. Additional details about those exemptions were not immediately disclosed.

The L.A. County Health Officer, Dr. Muntu Davis, said the new health order will be published in its entirety on the website covid19.lacounty.gov no later than Friday. Davis said the county is "not where we need to be" in terms of vaccinations against the virus, as evidenced by seven straight days of new cases numbers that topped 1,000. On Thursday, the county reported 1,537 new infections, the highest number since early March. Asked what additional restrictions health officials might take if the rise in COVID-19 cases worsens, Davis said: "Everything is on the table."

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

China's policy, no vaccination, no admittance to the hospital. I wouldn't go that far but mandating vaccinations like what France is doing would be better than what is currently being done in the US.

[www.cnn.com]

Hong Kong (CNN)Unvaccinated residents in parts of China will be banned from accessing public services including hospitals, schools and nursing homes, as the country targets an inoculation rate of at least 80% against Covid-19.

Over the past week, dozens of county-level governments in at least eight provinces have published notices warning citizens they have until late July or early August to be fully vaccinated with two doses.
"Everyone is responsible for the prevention and control of the epidemic, and vaccination starts with me!" said one notice issued by Dingnan county in Jiangxi province, home to about 220,000 people.
The push by local governments to boost vaccination rates comes as the ruling Communist Party outlined its goal of achieving so-called "herd immunity" -- the point at which enough people have either been infected or vaccinated to end community transmission -- by December this year.
Shao Yiming, an epidemiologist with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told state media that given the protection rate of Chinese vaccines is below 100%, China will need to fully vaccinate 80% to 85% of residents, equivalent to 1 billion of the country's 1.4 total population, in order to meet the December deadline.
With China having largely contained the virus' spread, many residents initially saw little need to get vaccinated. A history of safety scandals involving domestic vaccines also contributed to public hesitancy. However, several recent local outbreaks, including in the northern Anhui and Liaoning provinces, and Guangdong in the south, have fueled fears of infection, prompting a rush to get vaccinated in affected regions.
And across the country, the vaccination rate has accelerated in recent months, with more than 10 million shots administered per day on average. As of Wednesday, the Chinese government had administered 1.4 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses, according to state media estimates, though it remains unclear as to the total percentage of the population who have received two shots.
The all-out campaign has seen government workers descending on neighborhoods in efforts to convince people to get vaccinated, with vaccination sites offering benefits, ranging from shopping vouchers to free groceries and ice cream.
But experts cautioned that many residents who have yet to receive a single dose would be harder to reach, especially in rural areas, leading local governments to take more drastic measures to ensure herd immunity.
"All those strategies they used to entice people to get their vaccine ... may not work in this next stage of vaccination efforts," said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Making it mandatory may be the only workable solution to the problem," he added.
Bans on entry
In the first two weeks of July, at least 50 counties across 12 provinces in China issued notices warning of strengthened measures to encourage unvaccinated citizens to get their shots, adding that "not being vaccinated will affect life and going out."
To date, notices of new measures have been posted in Sichuan, Fujian, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Anhui, Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Zhejiang and Inner Mongolia.
Most of the areas imposing the measures are relatively small by Chinese standards -- the largest is Zaozhuang City in Shandong province, which has a population of 4.2 million people. The first of the measures was announced on July 8 and as of Wednesday new notices were still being posted.
The policies vary greatly from place to place -- in 33 of the counties, the authorities said vaccination records will be checked on entry to public facilities, including administrative buildings and health facilities, and citizens who have not received their shot will be encouraged to do so.
But in 19 counties, the local governments have explicitly warned that within weeks, unvaccinated citizens could be banned from a wide range of public places and services.
"Starting from July 17, in principle, people who have not been vaccinated ... are not allowed to enter key places such as inpatient departments of hospitals, nursing homes, schools, libraries etc.," said a notice posted in Sichuan's Jingyan district, adding it would make an exception for those with a legitimate health reason for avoiding the vaccine. The notice also said unvaccinated supermarket employees and market stall owners would be barred from their jobs.
In a few counties the measures are even more extreme. In Guangxi, two cities -- Guiping and Beiliu -- both said students would not be allowed to go to school unless both of their parents were fully vaccinated. After vocal opposition on social media, the notices were deleted although it is unclear if the restrictions will still apply.
And in Tanghe county, in Henan province, state media reported that local government agencies would stop paying employees, or workers at state-owned enterprises if they refused to get vaccinated.
Test balloon or official pressure?
Chinese officials are not alone in ordering vaccinations for certain key workers, or banning access to those who haven't received shots. French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered all health workers to get vaccinated at the risk of losing their jobs, while proof of two shots will be required to enter hospitals, restaurants and some forms of transport in France from early August.
Similarly, the Australian government has mandated all aged care workers must have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot by mid-September.
But these are the first such measures in China, leading to criticism, with some worrying the restrictions are a forerunner to nationwide mandatory vaccination.
Writing in the state-owned China News Weekly, Shen Kui, director of the Research Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Peking University Law School, questioned the legality of the measures, which he likened to de facto mandatory vaccinations.
"Unvaccinated people will face various barriers in living and working under the policy. The only way to avoid these obstacles is to get the vaccine. If it's not force-vaccination, what can it be?" asked Shen.
"Before mandatory Covid-19 vaccination becomes a legal requirement, there is no legal basis to enforce such restrictions," he added.
An editorial about the new measures for schoolchildren in Guiping, posted on the popular online news site Sohu, said ignoring citizens' right to not take the vaccine was a "betrayal and abuse of people's trust."
"As a local administrative department, it should respect the people, advance and retreat with the people, and build a united epidemic prevention front," the editorial said.
To date, China's central government has not formally mandated vaccination against Covid-19. Jin Dongyan, professor of precision medicine at Hong Kong University's School of Biomedical Sciences, said the policies were likely the result of local government officials under extreme pressure to deliver on Beijing's vaccination goals.
Under the Chinese government's top-down administrative structure, policy edicts are often laid out by the country's leadership and then left up to local officials to decide how to implement them. Failure to meet the policy targets could cost local politicians future promotions or even their jobs.
"They have to deliver and they will use all means at their discretion and they will try all available options," said Jin.
But Council on Foreign Relations' Huang questioned whether the new policies were the overzealous work of local government officials under pressure to deliver on vaccination targets, or a test balloon being floated by the Communist Party in Beijing.
The Chinese government has a long history of trialing potentially controversial initiatives at a local level before introducing them nationally to see how it will be received by citizens, said Huang.
"Maybe this is a central government initiative," he said.
Huang added if Beijing wanted to make sure China could maintain herd immunity, it might have to make the vaccine mandatory whether it was a popular measure or not. "For any vaccines with efficacy rates lower than 80%, you need to have the entire population vaccinated," he said. "Simply asking people to get the vaccine is not going to achieve that."
China has approved five domestic vaccines for use -- two developed by state-owned Sinopharm, and others from Sinovac, CanSino and Anhui Zhifei -- with the majority of the population receiving either Sinopharm or Sinovac shots.
So far, trials show Sinopharm and Sinovac have a lower efficacy against Covid-19 than their mRNA counterparts. In Brazilian trials, Sinovac had about 50% efficacy against symptomatic Covid-19, and 100% effectiveness against severe disease, according to trial data submitted to the World Health Organization. Sinopharm's efficacy for both symptomatic and hospitalized disease was estimated at 79%, according to the WHO.

Delta variant will be interesting. Although it's nothing new, it's really bringing out the liars.

it will be... interesting. Look to mid-September/early October.

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GasLightStreet
Delta variant will be interesting. Although it's nothing new, it's really bringing out the liars.

it will be... interesting. Look to mid-September/early October.

When you consider infection rates went down (naturally?) last summer with more things happening outdoors, yet this year rates are going up during the same season in many places (without high vaccination rates), it certainly does not bode well for the fall.

The low uptake in vaccination rates in many jurisdictions is baked in the cake...people won't change in the short term, if at all.

It could get really ugly therefore this fall and then the oft-used term 'pandemic of the unvaccinated' will really become evident.

UK now back up to over 50,000 daily cases for the 1st time since January. 4,000 in Hospital and growing. This is not over unfortunately.

[www.bbc.co.uk]

The DELTA variant is a LOT more infectious. It travel fast among young people and kids. Even if 50% are vaccinated, the DELTA variant will spread like a wild fire among the rest of the non-vaccinated. In short, DELTA will slow any larger tours and crowds for a while.

Meanwhile, new variants will appear as most of the world is still not vaccinated. Africa, the Middle East, South America, East Europe, parts of Asia, are still very low on vaccination. Also, many with easy access of vaccine think they don't need it. You either get the vaccine, or covid-19, eventually.

Bjornulf

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grzegorz67
UK now back up to over 50,000 daily cases for the 1st time since January. 4,000 in Hospital and growing. This is not over unfortunately.

[www.bbc.co.uk]

Damn....it's not getting any better here in the states either - in fact it's going from bad to worse.

Covid-19 cases are rising in all 50 states for the first time since January, data shows

Coronavirus

For the first time since early January, Covid-19 cases are rising in all 50 states, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU). The United States recorded an average of 26,448 new Covid-19 cases each day over the past week – up 67% from the week before. Among states, the week-over-week change ranged from a 5% increase in Montana to more than a 100% increase – or doubling – in Vermont (155%), Alabama (142%), Michigan (137%), Massachusetts (127%), Kentucky (120%) and Iowa (113%). The last time new cases increased over than the week before in all 50 states was on Jan. 5 – just a few days before the US reached its peak of more than 251,000 new cases each day, JHU data shows. At that time, only about 5 million people had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, and less than 1 million people were fully vaccinated, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, Covid-19 case rates are highest in states that have lower vaccination rates. Among states that have fully vaccinated less than half of their residents, the average Covid-19 case rate was 11 new cases per 100,000 people last week. But among stats that have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents, the average case rate was four per 100,000 people.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

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Hairball

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grzegorz67
UK now back up to over 50,000 daily cases for the 1st time since January. 4,000 in Hospital and growing. This is not over unfortunately.

[www.bbc.co.uk]

Damn....it's not getting any better here in the states either - in fact it's going from bad to worse.

Covid-19 cases are rising in all 50 states for the first time since January, data shows

Coronavirus

For the first time since early January, Covid-19 cases are rising in all 50 states, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU). The United States recorded an average of 26,448 new Covid-19 cases each day over the past week – up 67% from the week before. Among states, the week-over-week change ranged from a 5% increase in Montana to more than a 100% increase – or doubling – in Vermont (155%), Alabama (142%), Michigan (137%), Massachusetts (127%), Kentucky (120%) and Iowa (113%). The last time new cases increased over than the week before in all 50 states was on Jan. 5 – just a few days before the US reached its peak of more than 251,000 new cases each day, JHU data shows. At that time, only about 5 million people had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, and less than 1 million people were fully vaccinated, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, Covid-19 case rates are highest in states that have lower vaccination rates. Among states that have fully vaccinated less than half of their residents, the average Covid-19 case rate was 11 new cases per 100,000 people last week. But among stats that have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents, the average case rate was four per 100,000 people.

Yep, in Europe the Dutch are competing with the British on which country scores the highest increase in infections. It looked like the Dutch were "winning" just a few days ago, but noooo today, as grzegorz67 mentioned, the UK knocked the Dutch back (percentage wise) with over 51 thousand leaving the Dutch with 11 thousand. Even the Russians (dreadful for quite a while) can't keep up with them.
And the politicians? They continue to appologise for yet another "misjudgement" ...
Thanks Hairball, for all the reports from the US. The latest data are indeed very worrying!

I'm a GHOST living in a ghost town

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georgie48

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Hairball

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grzegorz67
UK now back up to over 50,000 daily cases for the 1st time since January. 4,000 in Hospital and growing. This is not over unfortunately.

[www.bbc.co.uk]

Damn....it's not getting any better here in the states either - in fact it's going from bad to worse.

Covid-19 cases are rising in all 50 states for the first time since January, data shows

Coronavirus

For the first time since early January, Covid-19 cases are rising in all 50 states, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU). The United States recorded an average of 26,448 new Covid-19 cases each day over the past week – up 67% from the week before. Among states, the week-over-week change ranged from a 5% increase in Montana to more than a 100% increase – or doubling – in Vermont (155%), Alabama (142%), Michigan (137%), Massachusetts (127%), Kentucky (120%) and Iowa (113%). The last time new cases increased over than the week before in all 50 states was on Jan. 5 – just a few days before the US reached its peak of more than 251,000 new cases each day, JHU data shows. At that time, only about 5 million people had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, and less than 1 million people were fully vaccinated, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, Covid-19 case rates are highest in states that have lower vaccination rates. Among states that have fully vaccinated less than half of their residents, the average Covid-19 case rate was 11 new cases per 100,000 people last week. But among stats that have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents, the average case rate was four per 100,000 people.

Yep, in Europe the Dutch are competing with the British on which country scores the highest increase in infections. It looked like the Dutch were "winning" just a few days ago, but noooo today, as grzegorz67 mentioned, the UK knocked the Dutch back (percentage wise) with over 51 thousand leaving the Dutch with 11 thousand. Even the Russians (dreadful for quite a while) can't keep up with them.
And the politicians? They continue to appologise for yet another "misjudgement" ...
Thanks Hairball, for all the reports from the US. The latest data are indeed very worrying!

A friend over there has a young son in school. No cases prior to Monday. 3 of 19 classes had positive tests on Monday. These quarantined those classes. Tuesday it was 11 of 19 and Wednesday they closed the school with all classes having cases. His son caught it, his wife caught it between shot 1 and 2 and he got his 2nd shot Monday. Not sure of his status yet and wasn't sure he had side effects from shot or has Covid.

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bv
The DELTA variant is a LOT more infectious. It travel fast among young people and kids. Even if 50% are vaccinated, the DELTA variant will spread like a wild fire among the rest of the non-vaccinated. In short, DELTA will slow any larger tours and crowds for a while.

Meanwhile, new variants will appear as most of the world is still not vaccinated. Africa, the Middle East, South America, East Europe, parts of Asia, are still very low on vaccination. Also, many with easy access of vaccine think they don't need it. You either get the vaccine, or covid-19, eventually.

Well, there is the belief by some that vaccinations could be driving the variants (at least if I understand the below correctly):

There are four major risks associated with high numbers of infections. These are an increase in hospitalisations and deaths, more ‘Long-COVID’; workforce absences (including in the NHS); and the increased risk of new variants emerging. The combination of high prevalence and high levels of vaccination creates the conditions in which an immune escape variant is most likely to emerge. The likelihood of this happening is unknown, but such a variant would present a significant risk both in the UK and internationally.

SAGE 93 Minutes 07/07/2021

England’s lifting of Covid lockdowns is a danger to the entire world, experts warn

Coronavirus


LONDON — Global scientists have criticized the U.K. government’s plans to ease almost all Covid-19 restrictions, calling it unethical and dangerous for the entire planet. Gathering at a virtual summit on Friday, leading scientists and government advisors from all over the world warned that Britain was heading for disaster by removing most of its remaining restrictions on Monday. The event came as more than 1,200 scientists backed a letter to the Lancet medical journal, in which U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans were dubbed “dangerous and premature.” England will see most of it last remaining restrictions, including mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing, removed on Monday, which Johnson has said will be an “irreversible” move. Johnson has fiercely defended his new strategy and has argued that now is “the right time to proceed,” before the weather turned colder and as “the natural firebreak of the school holidays” approached. “It is absolutely vital that we proceed now with caution … we cannot simply revert instantly from Monday to life as it was before Covid,” he said at a press conference Monday.

Speaking on Friday’s panel, Christina Pagel, director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit of London’s UCL, warned that there was potential for a new variant of Covid to emerge this summer. “Any mutation that can infect vaccinated people better has a big selection advantage and can spread,” she said. “And because of our position as a global travel hub, any variant that becomes dominant in the U.K. will likely spread to the rest of the world — we saw it with alpha, and I’m absolutely sure that we contributed to the rise of delta through Europe and North America.” Michael Baker, a professor of public health and a member of the New Zealand Ministry of Health’s advisory group, said he was “amazed” by the British government’s plans to lift almost all restrictions on Monday. Baker suggested the U.K. government seemed to be reverting to a “herd immunity approach,” which he dubbed “completely unacceptable,” arguing that the strategy had “failed dismally around the globe.” New Zealand has widely been seen as successful at suppressing the coronavirus within its borders, and life in the island nation has returned to a state of relative normalcy. The country currently has 48 “active” cases, all of which were found in people entering the country, and nine of which were reported in the last 24 hours. There are zero cases within the community, according to New Zealand’s Ministry of Health.

‘Disaster’ policy

William Haseltine, a U.S. virologist and chair and president of ACCESS Health International, told the panel at Friday’s summit that the world had “always looked to the U.K. for great, sensible policies.” “Unfortunately, that has not been the case for the Covid pandemic,” he said. “What I fear is that some of the worst impulses in many of our states will follow the U.K. example.” Haseltine slammed so-called herd immunity strategies — where populations are allowed to build up natural immunity to an illness through exposure to it — as “murderous.” “I think that’s a word we should use, because that is what it is. It is knowledge that you are doing something that will result in thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands of people dying,” he said. “It is disaster as policy, it’s been clear that that’s been the case for some time, and to continue to espouse that policy is unconscionable.” Jose M Martin-Moreno, a professor of public health at the University of Valencia in Spain, echoed Haseltine’s concerns about other parts of the world following the U.K.’s lead. “We cannot understand why this is happening in spite of the knowledge that (the U.K.) has,” he said, cautioning that other countries may begin to “mimic” British policies. “If we remove the tools that contain the transmission — this is it,” he added.

‘Everybody is affected’

Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute and founder of the World Health Network, said that now was the time for governments to act — but in the opposite direction of British lawmakers. “Opening up when the pandemic is still propagating doesn’t make sense for protection of the public,” he said. “Everybody is affected once the pandemic is out of control.” Meanwhile, Shu-Ti Chiou, founding president of Taiwan’s Health and Sustainable Development Foundation, said it was unethical to “take the umbrella away from people without a raincoat while it’s raining very hard.” She also raised concerns that with children unable to be vaccinated, they would be “left behind” due to the high prevalence of “long Covid” among young people. However, there were also warnings that even those who were fully vaccinated would feel the impact of high transmission rates. Meir Rubin, a lawyer who advises the Israeli government on risk management, warned that “even the best vaccines are only a tactic and not a strategy.” In one region of Israel, he noted, more than 80% of the population had been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, but there had still been a “serious outbreak” of Covid. Rubin told the panel that without eliminating the virus, even a vaccinated population could “collapse under the next variant.” “An infectious carrier of the delta variant will infect his family even when they are fully vaccinated. If you live with a child who is a delta carrier, he will infect the parents,” he said, adding that Israel was seeing serious cases and hospitalizations even in fully vaccinated patients. Haseltine also noted that vaccines alone would not bring an end to the pandemic. “Even if you are fully vaccinated, you must follow serious efforts and control to try to eliminate, not just mitigate, the problem. Policies that open up the country in the midst of a growing wave of infections are counterproductive in the most extreme,” he warned. “The U.K. policy doesn’t just affect us, it affects everybody — everybody has a stake in what we do,” she added. Clinical epidemiologist Deepti Gurdasani, who also attended the summit, agreed, saying on Twitter before the event that “the world is watching the current avoidable crisis unfold in the U.K.”

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

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terraplane

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bv
The DELTA variant is a LOT more infectious. It travel fast among young people and kids. Even if 50% are vaccinated, the DELTA variant will spread like a wild fire among the rest of the non-vaccinated. In short, DELTA will slow any larger tours and crowds for a while.

Meanwhile, new variants will appear as most of the world is still not vaccinated. Africa, the Middle East, South America, East Europe, parts of Asia, are still very low on vaccination. Also, many with easy access of vaccine think they don't need it. You either get the vaccine, or covid-19, eventually.

Well, there is the belief by some that vaccinations could be driving the variants (at least if I understand the below correctly):

There are four major risks associated with high numbers of infections. These are an increase in hospitalisations and deaths, more ‘Long-COVID’; workforce absences (including in the NHS); and the increased risk of new variants emerging. The combination of high prevalence and high levels of vaccination creates the conditions in which an immune escape variant is most likely to emerge. The likelihood of this happening is unknown, but such a variant would present a significant risk both in the UK and internationally.

SAGE 93 Minutes 07/07/2021

Almost.

The key sentence is indeed the one you emboldened but it's a multi-factor thing, not just vaccinations...

The combination of high prevalence and high levels of vaccination creates the conditions in which an immune escape variant is most likely to emerge.

"High prevalence" refers to the vast numbers of cases. When there are huge numbers of cases, then there are huge numbers of viruses replicating, and from time to time, mutating. More cases = more chance of a mutation. Fewer cases = fewer chances of a mutation.

"Vaccination" refers to the fact that for a mutation to survive in a (human) body that has had a vaccine it has to mutate a bit. Eventually, with enough mutation, the mutated virus becomes immune to the vaccine.

Put these two together (ie UK) , and you have the nightmare that Boris is taking the UK into any day now.

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Captain Corella
60 Years a Fan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-07-17 09:33 by CaptainCorella.

I am now of the opinion that I would, perhaps, prefer the current measures and carry-on, instead of this great unlocking on the 19 July. It’s not so bad, presently: bars and restaurants are operating fine and, generally, I feel most are content with this. What would be disastrous is this: another lockdown!

What does give some hope is that most large outlets will still insist on a covering and London Transport is mandating the requirement, also. I won’t be wearing one in the pub, though. It does seem daft to not have to wear one at the table, yet you’re required to when taking a bathroom break. The 19 July is going to be a interesting day. I must admit: I am quite looking forward to standing at the bar once more

50k cases per day, likely 1% infection rate nationwide, hospital admissions doubling roughly every three weeks and the clowns in government in the uk are ditching social distancing and masks on Monday
Utterly ridiculous.
Fast track to more restrictions in autumn, and a load of avoidable illnesses and deaths in the meantime
Keep your mask on, keep your distance and get your jab

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yorkshirestone
50k cases per day, likely 1% infection rate nationwide, hospital admissions doubling roughly every three weeks and the clowns in government in the uk are ditching social distancing and masks on Monday
Utterly ridiculous.
Fast track to more restrictions in autumn, and a load of avoidable illnesses and deaths in the meantime
Keep your mask on, keep your distance and get your jab

Like watching a car crash in slow motion (sorry for the tired metaphor).

I'm watching the numbers and the way they are streaking up every day in UK and can't understand why the politicians, who have access to even more info, are unable or unwilling to do anything. They have to know they'll ultimately be held accountable...are they hoping for some divine intervention?

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. [Sigh]

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yorkshirestone
50k cases per day, likely 1% infection rate nationwide, hospital admissions doubling roughly every three weeks and the clowns in government in the uk are ditching social distancing and masks on Monday
Utterly ridiculous.
Fast track to more restrictions in autumn, and a load of avoidable illnesses and deaths in the meantime
Keep your mask on, keep your distance and get your jab

Well, that's why I think it'd be far better to keep things as they are. Another lockdown, and...

On the local news they reported that currently 100% YES 100% of the patients hospitalized with Covid in Los Angeles County are unvaccinated. That means 100% of the deaths will be among the unvaccinated. For those who have problem with simple math. Vaccinated people are not getting very sick and dying, unvaccinated are. For those who refuse to wear a mask, you are just improving your odds of being a statistic. Have fun.