COVID-19 Thread [V2.0]

[MrTPlush]

I think they knew it was rather unnecessary to wear a mask after being fully vaccinated, but waited for a lull in vaccinating to give that guidance. It gives people a potential motivation to go get vaccinated.

 

Call me dumb, but they should have just given people stimulus checks to go get it. Vaccinations jumped 25%+ in Ohio after they started their little lotto game. Can you imagine if you were guaranteed $1K in your bank account if you went and got it? I think I recall some politicians floating the concept, but it didn't gain traction. I know I know, people should just get it for free, but that just is not reality.

[jerichoholicninja]

So the people who have been refusing to wear masks and are now refusing the vaccine are being incentivized by the government to get the shot by telling them they don't have to wear a mask if they get the shot. Sounds about right for government work.

[jerichoholicninja]

I think they knew it was rather unnecessary to wear a mask after being fully vaccinated, but waited for a lull in vaccinating to give that guidance. It gives people a potential motivation to go get vaccinated.

 

Call me dumb, but they should have just given people stimulus checks to go get it. Vaccinations jumped 25%+ in Ohio after they started their little lotto game. Can you imagine if you were guaranteed $1K in your bank account if you went and got it? I think I recall some politicians floating the concept, but it didn't gain traction. I know I know, people should just get it for free, but that just is not reality.

 

Pretty sure that would go against medical ethics and is probably illegal anyway.

[adambr2]

Totally agree with Plush. Don't think it's illegal, it was being discussed at the federal level. No doubt it's a gray area, both ethically and legally, but this is a global pandemic. There are a lot of ethical and legal gray areas being crossed.

 

We've been giving away tax dollars for the last 15 months anyway. This one will pay for itself with herd immunity. Many people who aren't vaccinated aren't necessarily against it, they're just apathetic. An extra grand in their bank account will change many minds.

[Machu Peach]

The vaccine will reduce the intensity of symptoms and lower the possibility of spreading the virus, but doesn't eliminate it.

It does functionally eliminate the spread of the virus from vaccinated individuals. It's not impossible, but it is rare to very rare.

[PeaveyFury]

Common sense hasn't worked so far, why would it start working now?

 

I wish this post wasn’t so spot on....

[CheezWizHed]

The vaccine will reduce the intensity of symptoms and lower the possibility of spreading the virus, but doesn't eliminate it.

It does functionally eliminate the spread of the virus from vaccinated individuals. It's not impossible, but it is rare to very rare.

 

Can't be that rare. Someone (vaccinated) who works for me caught it from his wife (vaccinated), who caught it from their nanny (unknown). He said both he and his wife didn't show symptoms but were tested because of the nanny.

[MrTPlush]

How can they tell people to keep their mask on vaccinated, but in the next month loads of pro teams will have 100% capacity of unknown vaccinated/not vaccinated strangers packed like sardines cans.

[Machu Peach]

The vaccine will reduce the intensity of symptoms and lower the possibility of spreading the virus, but doesn't eliminate it.

It does functionally eliminate the spread of the virus from vaccinated individuals. It's not impossible, but it is rare to very rare.

Can't be that rare. Someone (vaccinated) who works for me caught it from his wife (vaccinated), who caught it from their nanny (unknown). He said both he and his wife didn't show symptoms but were tested because of the nanny.

Anecdotes are just anecdotes. There's simply no possible way to prove that your coworker got it from his wife or even that his wife got it from the housekeeper. You're making assumptions that cannot be be proven either way, and basing your conclusion on an N of 1.

 

The data on the issue are clear; it is rare.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

So odd to read posts of places where everyone wears a mask. At peak pandemic, we were maybe at 50%, we are damn near zero now. I stopped wearing it a couple weeks ago. Target, Walmart, etc., near zero. Costco by me probably 25%. School lifted the requirement starting Monday.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

The vaccine will reduce the intensity of symptoms and lower the possibility of spreading the virus, but doesn't eliminate it.

It does functionally eliminate the spread of the virus from vaccinated individuals. It's not impossible, but it is rare to very rare.

 

Can't be that rare. Someone (vaccinated) who works for me caught it from his wife (vaccinated), who caught it from their nanny (unknown). He said both he and his wife didn't show symptoms but were tested because of the nanny.

 

The stated risk in the studies I've seen have it somewhere around .05% if fully vaccinated. It's rare. It wouldn't be much of a vaccine if what you're suggesting was accurate.

[homer]

Anecdotes are just anecdotes. There's simply no possible way to prove that your coworker got it from his wife or even that his wife got it from the housekeeper. You're making assumptions that cannot be be proven either way, and basing your conclusion on an N of 1.

 

The data on the issue are clear; it is rare.

 

The other thing to note is that the vaccine isn't a forcefield. The virus still gets inside your body. You would know better than me but it's possible there's a very small window of time after you are exposed and before your antibodies kick in that you are technically "contagious" which would lead to the aforementioned rare instances that it gets passed along to someone else.

[PeaveyFury]

Mask compliance is astoundingly geographical. I’m in Chicago this weekend, and the city lifted its mandate last Tuesday. 80% of people on the street just walking and 99% of people inside are still wearing masks.

[LouisEly]

Mask compliance is astoundingly geographical. I’m in Chicago this weekend, and the city lifted its mandate last Tuesday. 80% of people on the street just walking and 99% of people inside are still wearing masks.

Don't know where you were, perhaps a super-liberal area (Belmont Ave?), because the outdoor % that I've seen is more like 20%, but the indoor is spot-on. It's because they shut everything down and took so much away from us (even common sense stuff, like the outdoor walking/running/biking paths, and enforced it with police) that people don't want it taken away again.

[PeaveyFury]

Streeterville, actually. Though now that the weekend crowd has flocked in, it’s more like 40/60 outdoors.

[nodakfan17]

Piggly Wiggly was about 50% masks today (possibly less).

 

Down from 66% last week and 99% last month.

 

I’m starting to feel like a bank robber when I walk into some places.

[Hopper]

I have yet to go maskless out in public at stores, etc.

I'm in the minority, that's for sure.

[homer]

I went out for my first group dinner in over a year this weekend. It felt great. Was a little weird wandering around without a mask but that's to be expected I suppose.

[Hopper]

I went out for my first group dinner in over a year this weekend. It felt great. Was a little weird wandering around without a mask but that's to be expected I suppose.

 

Closest we have came was eating at Culver's outdoors.

It's coming though, we have a Mexican restaurant we love with no outside seating.

That will be first on our list once we take the plunge.

[jerichoholicninja]

The Yankees had an outbreak of COVID positive, fully vaccinated coaches. Lots of fully vaccinated MLB players are testing positive. It may be rare but there certainly are enough instances just in MLB to prove that it is happening.

[Machu Peach]

This discussion earlier, if that's what you're referring to, was not about whether vaccinated people can get infected, but rather the likelihood of vaccinated people becoming infected and then spreading the disease to others. There's no reason to suspect that the Yankees outbreak was spread from a vaccinated individual or that the other MLB infections are spread from vaccinated individuals.

[CheezWizHed]

The stated risk in the studies I've seen have it somewhere around .05% if fully vaccinated. It's rare. It wouldn't be much of a vaccine if what you're suggesting was accurate.

 

Did you have a link for that? I've not seen the CDC, the vaccine companies, nor any credible medical source stating this. It is assumed to be true since the viral load is lessened, but I've not seen any numbers.

[Fear The Chorizo]

The Yankees had an outbreak of COVID positive, fully vaccinated coaches. Lots of fully vaccinated MLB players are testing positive. It may be rare but there certainly are enough instances just in MLB to prove that it is happening.

 

I think the hangup is that it's probably quite common for a fully vaccinated person to get COVID...but it's quite rare for that person to have a severe symptomatic response to it (where all the 90+% efficacy stats are generated from), and it's also exceedingly rare for a fully vaccinated person that gets COVID to transmit the virus to others based on extremely limited viral load. Aside from instances where testing is still conducted no matter what on people (i.e., businesses, sports teams, etc) as part of protocols, the only other instances where fully vaccinated people are being subjected to COVID testing when they aren't showing symptoms is if it's part of a contact tracing request if they have been in close contact to a person who developed symptomatic COVID....that's how my fully vaccinated mother found out she had COVID a few weeks after being considered "fully vaccinated".

 

This should also be the item fully vaccinated people can lean on in order to incinerate their stockpile of masks with a clear conscience, btw...

[CheezWizHed]

Aside from instances where testing is still conducted no matter what on people (i.e., businesses, sports teams, etc) as part of protocols, the only other instances where fully vaccinated people are being subjected to COVID testing when they aren't showing symptoms is if it's part of a contact tracing request if they have been in close contact to a person who developed symptomatic COVID....

 

Yes, this is how my co-worker found out. His wife was out for a weekend with friends and one of the friends informed them that she had COVID after the fact. When his wife tested positive, then he did a test and tested positive. Yes, anecdotal evidence and perhaps they were exposed another way. Or maybe it was exactly as they said...

 

Regardless, the articles I've read just talk in generalities about "should reduce" or "make it rare to spread", but don't quote any actual studies or evidence (sorry - I'm an engineer and critical thinker... Show me the numbers! ).

 

Frankly, I expect to see the reduction, but find it a bit hypocritical that we suddenly unmask vaccinated people without being able to cite those studies (and after 6 months, I'd be surprised if we don't have something by now). If the overall numbers are down, no one needs to mask. So vaccinations should drive us that way anyway.

[PeaveyFury]

I think the hangup is that it's probably quite common for a fully vaccinated person to get COVID...but it's quite rare for that person to have a severe symptomatic response to it (where all the 90+% efficacy stats are generated from)

 

I think this definition of the efficacy reporting is incorrect. Most of the vaccines have been reporting efficacy numbers, which are widely noted, but also separately reporting a 'prevention of hospitalization and death' number. For example, J&J's vaccine data reports 66.6% efficacy, defined as "prevention of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness." Separately, it reported 100% prevention of hospitalization and deaths.