#antivaxlivesDONTmatter

:D

Just saw a stat that's pretty mind-boggling. San Francisco has roughly the same population as South Dakota, but (as of today) there have been 4 times as many COVID deaths in SD than in SF. In fact, across the board Bay Area counties had fewer deaths than states of equivalent size.

San Francisco (pop. 874K) 559 deaths ---- South Dakota (884K) 2,039 deaths
San Mateo (767K) 583 deaths ---- North Dakota (762K) 1,532 deaths
Santa Clara (1.928M) 1,703 deaths ---- Nebraska (1.934M) 2,262 deaths
Alameda (1.671M) 1,270 deaths ---- Idaho (1.787M) 2,165 deaths
Contra Costa (1.154M) 821 deaths ---- Montana (1.068M) 1,674 deaths
Sonoma (646K) 323 deaths ---- Wyoming (578K) 751 deaths

No doubt. Also remarkable considering the density of these Bay Area counties in comparison to these states, as well as the fact that the Bay Area was one of the first places to get hit by COVID, and thus didn't have the luxury of waiting to respond.

Good case study for urban areas that can get close to that 80% vaccination threshold.

https://www.ncsl.org/research/health...tate-laws.aspx

I count 36 that do not have "philosophical" exemptions which I equate with "personal belief" exemptions.

As for religion, you'd have to read the law in each state but can people have their own religion that says there is no God but vaccination is the Devil's work? Very few organized religions actually oppose vaccination so very few people can actually have a valid religious objection that amounts to more than personal belief but whether they can get away with that amounts to a fine point of law.

I also said restrictions are getting tighter: In 2019, for example, Maine and Washington removed personal belief exemptions for a number of school vaccinations. In 2020, Colorado tightened up both religious and personal exemptions and in 2021 Connecticut eliminated religious exemptions.

Given who the people in the military are--young people disproportionately from rural, Southern and midwestern backgrounds--I would normally expect vaccination rates to be very low as long as it was voluntary. 58% is actually remarkably better than I would have guessed (and remember, I was a military doctor for 26 years, 6 of those in a clinic serving a recruit training facility and 2 as a Marine Regimental Surgeon).

Has even one of these children died?

As a reminder, about 150 US children died of Influenza in the 2019 Influenza season. I don't recall camps closing down due to that

I get the sense that doctors and the rational scientific community (sans germaphobes like our in house Howard Hughes wannabe Pedestrian) are growing vocal and more fed up with the media and their obsession over non-events like viral mutation, and their effort to turn each and every variant into a sequel movie to spook the public.

I heard a physician last night on PBS (as far from Conservative media as you're going to get) basically telling the public that if you're vaccinated, you're fine, and to basically chill about the Delta variant.

Of course she's right, but there are a few OCD people whom you can't convince. We just need to take the microphone away from them. Or just stop watching.

I honestly think it's people that have too much time on their hands at this point. I am basically back to living a normal life... Well, new normal in the sense of being a digital nomad, and I love it. It's not healthy to keep worrying about what this virus is doing halfway across the country in another state. The vaccines are working, the technology has proven itself, and Pfizer is already working on boosters.

Get off the computer and go do something fun that involves being around lots of people without masks on. Trust me, it will help you in your mental health.

Ontario, the last bastion of lockdowns in North America, is opening indoor dining this Friday with no capacity limits as long as tables are 6 feet apart. Places that want to be classified as bars or clubs (I think having a dance floor is the key qualifier) can operate at the lesser of 25% capacity or 250 people. Yet they are claiming masks are required in a bar/nightclub :haha:. I can understand putting a mask on as you move through the common areas of a restaurant, perhaps limiting spread of possible droplets to different tables that you pass. If you're letting us all congregate in a nightclub, we are going to be breathing in each others air no matter what makes any overzealous public official feel better.

I'm for sure testing this out on Friday to see if places are actually going to enforce standing around with a drink, taking your mask off, taking a sip, and putting it back on. What a stupid rule.

^ Just what I've been waiting to do with a mask on....dancing in a crowded nightclub

I've seen a vaccination center inside a shopping mall without appointment.
Here it's empty because it's a closing. I imagine it's been busy especially after yesterday's government announcements.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...67312d88_c.jpg
4 Temps La Défense, centre de vaccination by Minato ku, sur Flickr

With the development of the delta variant, the loosening of the population and the drop in the number of appointments for vaccination, it was decided that a health pass would be needed for frequenting restaurants, bars, café, shopping malls, cinema theaters, to take trains (urban/suburban public transportation not included), planes and other activities from August.

I wish we'd do that. You don't HAVE TO get vaccinated unless you want a life beyond your home and the outdoors.

This is exactly the stuff that QAnon conspiracy theorists say will happen. "Let me see your papers." You basically would need a passport to leave your house. Some people seem to want to prove these lunatics right.

Honestly, I don't care of what Qanon or other conspirationists may think.
What matters is fighting the virus without closing the economy.
Nobody is barred from being vaccinated. It's free and there are vaccination centres everywhere.

Everybody can do a test and they are avaible everywhere. It's free until October in France.

Where I live, I've never seen so many surprise shortages of various consumer items.

I mean, we all remember the run on toilet paper in the spring of 2020, but since then I've seen multiple instances of more stuff than ever simply not being available.

In the past you'd see that with popular toys around Christmas time (Cabbage Patch Dolls, Star Wars action figures) but nothing on the scale of what I've seen in the past year.

For example, since the start of the summer where I live there has been a shortage of all sorts of pool and spa equipment.

Not just: we're all out but we're getting more later this week.

Rather: we're all out and not sure when we'll be getting more; might not have any before the end of the season.

I don't know if this is due to increased demand due to the pandemic that traditional supply chains didn't account for, or if it's because the pandemic disrupted traditional production in some way.

But it's very noticeable in a bunch of areas.

It's typically just anything recreational that people have been desperately buying up. Golf clubs? Everyone took up golfing when it was the only sport allowed and if you want to order a fitted club you're probably looking at a 3-4 month back order. Boats, Bikes, hell you couldn't even find a dog to adopt around this time last summer.

Canada is now the only country in the G7 with an R-Value less than 1.0 (i.e. cases are still falling between 20 and 30% a week with 4 provinces and territories covid free)
Covid is rapidly being stamped out in Canada

https://i.postimg.cc/gJ0Yhm6Y/corona...xplorer-45.png

:previous: As has been mentioned earlier, 99.7% of cases in the US are now amongst the unvaccinated. If you're fully vaccinated, you've got nothing to worry about. If you're not vaccinated, you've made your choice and can deal with the consequences.

If cases are only rising for the unvaxxed, then what exactly is the problem?

Where did i mention anything in my last post about the US