COVID-19 Psychic

Posted on by Thor

In America the surge of Delta COVID-19 cases is trailing off, but what will happen as we head into the winter months? Americans vaccinations have come to a virtual stand still and many people prefer to believe that the pandemic is over.

The virus will return and it will once again peak. Scientists are baffled to explain it’s continuing prevalence around the world. The best weapon against continued hospitalizations and deaths is to get vaccinated.

The New York Times reported that cases are rising in five northern states, Vermont, New Hampshire, Colorado, Michigan and Minnesota. This like the 2020 surge as the weather got colder.

There are about 80,000 cases a day in the United States. The U.S. is also not doing a great job of testing and contact tracing so those numbers are likely low. We are averaging 1,560 deaths a day. In the US over 50,000 people have died since that start of the Delta surge which began in June 2021. They did not need to die. A simple vaccine could have saved most if not all of those lives.

We can learn much about what might happen in the United States by watching trends around the world. Around the world there is declining activity. Europe however is seeing the highest number of cases and deaths in more than five months. Eastern Europe is particularly bad. Vaccine acceptance is particularly low in these countries. In Russia only 33% of residents are vaccinated. They don’t trust the government. Does that sound familiar? The death toll is likely under reported in Russia. The virus is not done with humanity. There are plenty of people that it can continue to burn through.

 

Endemic

Posted on by Thor

We are in the midst of the worst of the Delta wave of the pandemic right now, but there is talk of learning to live with the virus. Endemic means, “in the population, restricted or peculiar to a locality or region.

Unlike Ebola which was contained, this virus has been allowed to rage out of control. It is likely that everyone will at some point be infected by COVID-19. Herd immunity is impossible with so many people unvaccinated. People have the choice to be vaccinated before they are infected which protected from severe illness and death,  or get infected without getting vaccinated. A vast majority of the people dying from COVID-19 in southern hospitals right now are unvaccinated.

Professor Andrew Pollard of the Oxford Vaccine Team has said that it is clear that vaccinated people can become infected and they can spread the virus around though they are more than 90% protected from hospitalization or death. Only 50% of fully vaccinated individuals however will be protected from infection. This will make achieving herd immunity near impossible. You will at some point come in contact with the virus. Nothing available stops the transmission of the virus. More infectious variants are possible in the future. A winter wave is inevitable.

Viruses spread where there are enough susceptible individuals and in America there are plenty of people who have refused to get vaccinated and they are ample fuel too keep the virus burning. The virus will not disappear on its own. The hope is that enough people will gain immune protection from vaccination and from natural infection such that there will be less transmission and much less COVID-19-related hospitalization and death, even as the virus continues to circulate.

If everyone will be infected then mass testing becomes a mute point. Instead, testing might only be done on a clinical basis. German chancellor Andrea Merkel is ending free testing starting October 11, 2021. It will be less important to record every case of COVID-19 as the virus becomes endemic. In the future, testing might be limited to people who are sick enough to go to the hospital. For unvaccinnated individuals that is often too late.

The 1918 Spanish Flu took about 3 years to become endemic, but outbreaks flared up again in 1968 and 2009. Like COVID-19 the Spanish Flu had a tame first wave which built complacency, and then much more deadly subsequent waves. In America 675,000 died from the 1918 Spanish Flu. To date 653,265 Americans have died from COOVID-19, so it looks like we will exceed the number of deaths from the Spanish Flu. New modeling shows that the virus is spreading from older adults to younger children as COVID-19 becomes endemic. COVID-19 may behave like other common-cold coronaviruses, affecting mostly young children who have not have been vaccinated or exposed to the virus.

Younger Pool of Vulnerable Hosts

Posted on by Thor

Children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. Hospital admissions are ticking up all across America thanks to the Delta variant which is 60% more transmissible than previous variants of COVID-19. It is spreading easily because people have dis-guarded masks, are crowding into indoor spaces, have resumed travel, and are resisting vaccinations.

Florida now accounts for 20% of the new cases of COVID many of those cases being the Delta Variant. Governor DeathSantis is not likely to reinstate any forms of health mandates to help stop the carnage. He has his eye on a presidential bid and needs the support of conspiracy theory believing MAGAts.

ICUs are filling with younger patients, in their 20s, 30s, and 40s,  many with no underlying health problems. Since the elderly are vaccinated the virus is burning its way through the unvaccinated population. Nearly all COVID related deaths are unvaccinated. Florida has less than 50% of its citizens vaccinated.

What is frustrating is that all this disease and death is entirely unnecessary. Misinformation first promoted by the former president is killing Americans. Many patients don’t realize their mistake until it’s too late. Doctors and nurses exhausted after more than a year of battling the virus are now becoming overwhelmed again by the needless death. They end of resenting the patients who are extending the pandemic needlessly. There is no cure once you are sick enough to need admission into the hospital.

675,000 Americans died in the in the U.S. 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. As of July 19, 2021 there have been Spanish Flu.  It would be nice to think that we as a nation had learned something in the 100 plus years since that tragedy. However history is repeating itself and stubborn and misinformed people are willingly going to slaughter. They believe until their dying breath that COVID is not real.