Hoosier

These not-quite-in-time stories are sad. There's even a guy who got the first Pfizer, contracted covid shortly after, and then died before having a chance to get the 2nd shot. The final insult: Some dying of COVID while awaiting vaccine https://apnews.com/article/immunizations-coronavirus-pandemic-coronavirus-vaccine-veterans-d43aade61cf70abe1f9de070a8d1280b

You could say they are both in the interest of public health, but I do look at the passport issue differently than masks.

Can we ultimately get those top 2 age groups to 80-85%? Not looking for an answer but just wondering out loud lol

The wave is trying to build, but is getting beaten back by increasing vaccinations and seasonal changes, particularly in the southern US. Getting hospitalizations to drop under 30k has become like a hamster running on a wheel. Hopefully better luck with that number later this month or next.

Some of those guys are reportedly pretty ill too... not just mild or asymptomatic.

Over 3.3 million people died in the United States in 2020, and there was a massive increase from recent years.

I guess it wanted to beat the HRRR to the punch.

For those in favor of vaccine passports -- and in this instance, "passport" is referring to having one to just be able to attend concerts, sporting events, other activities, etc... not international travel -- is this something that you favor for the next few months (until basically everyone who really wants a vaccine will have had an opportunity to get one) or continuing for the rest of the year and into 2022, 2023?

That is a top 5 case day for Michigan for the entire pandemic.

Probably

I glanced at that OpenVAERS link. They claim they are using the data from VAERS, just in a more user friendly way. The data itself may not fabricated. The one time I tried to use the actual VAERS site, I found it to be pretty clunky. Was on my phone so not sure if that had anything to do with it.

I generally don't comment on specific posters, but it seems like the discussion about Stebo may go on endlessly at this rate. I have probably known him on these boards for longer than most of the people posting about him, and I can say that his style has not really changed over the years. I'm not always a fan of it. I'm sure his feeling of frustration with certain posters is genuine, but the forum is not run according to Stebo. It never has been and won't be as long as he is not on the staff. My advice... learn to coexist, people.

Everything is valuable to look at. Cases (or maybe more importantly the trends in case numbers) give you some idea of how much virus is floating around in a particular area. While a large percentage of vulnerable people in older age groups have been vaccinated, that is not necessarily the case yet in the middle age and younger age groups.

For the record, I threw a huge bash when I cracked 40,000. Had to turn down a plethora of local media requests too.

I don't like them either. Really gets annoying after hours of wearing it. But the way I look at it is that sometimes in life you do things that you don't like doing. I have mild asthma. I don't need an inhaler or anything and it generally doesn't affect me in day to day life, but when masked, I start to feel it sometimes. Probably could've cut the vaccine line because of that but opted not to since it's mild, plus I wanted to wait it out a little bit longer. Very much looking forward to the days of not wearing a mask, but will continue doing so until fully vaccinated.

Cabrera homering in the snow is kinda cool, no pun intended

Somehow managed to top virtually every terrible post that has been made in this thread. Congrats.

Is there some kind of official declaration of the end of the pandemic and when it's considered an endemic virus? Just wondering because the WHO came out and called it a pandemic a little over a year ago.

This trended higher

Although March 2021 was warmer than avg, here's a reminder of the ridiculousness of 2012

No wonder why I was having trouble... "Almost 100,000 people made an appointment to get a vaccine in Indiana before noon Wednesday." https://wsbt.com/amp/news/local/coronavirus-cases-and-hospitalizations-ticking-upwards-in-indiana

I'm not certain but I think states are generally only sequencing a portion of samples. So when you hear about X number of variant cases in a state, the actual number would be higher. I'm sure variants are playing a role in the dramatic hospitalization increase in MI, but even with "original" covid, it was not that rare for people in their 30s/40s to be hospitalized. A huge percentage of hospitalized people in their 30s/40s survive though. If some of these variants are more deadly, then working backwards logically would suggest that they would be more likely to cause hospitalization as well.

The average age of hospitalized patients being younger now is a plus, but other than that, not great to see a tripling of hospitalizations in only 3 weeks. Been keeping an eye on # of ventilated covid as well. That number has more than doubled.

That is something. There were virtually no documented covid deaths in Jan/Feb so almost all of that 345k occurred in 9-10 months. I know there were times when covid was the #1 cause of death since cancer and heart disease tend to have more consistent levels throughout the year without the big peaks and valleys. I think I saw a report that more people died in the United States in 2020 than any other year on record. Of course population growth plays a role in that.

I wonder what was ultimately determined in the autopsy of the Utah woman. It sounds like there was some kind of fatal liver failure... question is why. I guess it may be up to the family to disclose anything. The father himself got the vaccine afterwards so not like he is out there with an agenda to undermine the vaccine.