The Coronavirus, not the beer

The Delta variant was the main reason that people decided to get vaccinated against Covid-19 this summer and why most say they will get boosters when eligible, according to the latest monthly survey on vaccine attitudes by the Kaiser Family Foundation, released on Tuesday morning. But the survey indicated that nearly three-quarters of unvaccinated Americans view boosters very differently, saying that the need for them shows that the vaccines are not working.

Another takeaway from the Kaiser Family Foundation survey: For all the carrots dangled to induce hesitant people to get Covid shots — cash, doughnuts, racetrack privileges — more credit for the recent rise in vaccination goes to the stick. Almost 40 percent of newly inoculated people said that they had sought the vaccines because of the increase in Covid cases, with more than a third saying that they had become alarmed by overcrowding in local hospitals and rising death rates.

“When a theoretical threat becomes a clear and present danger, people are more likely to act to protect themselves and their loved ones,” said Drew Altman, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s chief executive.

Sweeteners did have some role in getting shots in arms. One-third of respondents said that they had gotten vaccinated to travel or attend events where the shots were required.

Two reasons often cited as important for motivating those hesitant to get a vaccine — employer mandates (about 20 percent) and full federal approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (15 percent) — carried less sway.

Seventy-two percent of adults in the survey said that they were at least partly vaccinated, up from 67 percent in late July. The latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are even higher, reporting 77 percent of the adult population in the United States with at least one shot. The sharpest change in this month was in vaccination rates for Latinos: a jump of 12 percentage points since late July, to 73 percent, in the number of Latino adults who had received at least one shot.

With the vaccination racial gap narrowing, the political divide has, by far, become the widest, with 90 percent of Democrats saying that they have gotten at least one dose, compared with 58 percent of Republicans.

Perhaps reflecting pandemic fatigue, about eight in 10 adults said that they believed Covid was now a permanent fixture of the health landscape. Just 14 percent said that they thought “it will be largely eliminated in the U.S., like polio.”

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/09/28/world/covid-coronavirus-vaccine
 
So the super sciency folks that they threatened with losing their assets to government mandated unemployment and got the jab tonight have to wait 2 weeks to work again right?

They don’t have immunity immediately.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jaw
So the super sciency folks that they threatened with losing their assets to government mandated unemployment and got the jab tonight have to wait 2 weeks to work again right?

They don’t have immunity immediately.

we're sending them to work in hospitals in Alabama for those two weeks
 
FAVItITWEAMUtoI
 

This is a great graph. I've seen a similar version somewhere else. It shows Florida in a much better light. They have a lot of deaths, but they have a lot of old people. This kind of adjustment allows you to see how well they've done in light of age profile of their population. Texas otoh. And it confirms what the plain vanilla data have shown about Mississippi and Vermont and many of the states in between.

Btw when you look at excess deaths data you can look at the number of excess deaths or the percent of excess deaths (over what is the norm). When you use the percent it is akin to doing an adjustment for the age profile. So much better to work with that than the absolute number (which obviously will be high both before and after covid if you have a lot of old people).

The graph looks like it is for covid deaths for both 2020 and 2021. I suspect Florida (even after adjusting for age) would look pretty bad just for 2021. Texas has been horrible both years. They have a demographic profile that skews young and in spite of that have had a lot of deaths.

There is a lot to work with. A lot of covid data for graduate students working in various fields to do a decent dissertation on. For example, the graph above doesn't address differences in reporting practices among states. I think a quick and easy fix is to simply use excess deaths (but in the form of a percentage above what is normal). Texas has always looked pretty bad in that regard, but has flown under the radar because people got used to looking at the other data. Florida is I think a tale of two years. Good in 2020, bad in 2021. The old people are vaccinated by now, but a lot of younger people have died in Florida this year.

What's amazing about Mississippi is they were largely spared in the first wave, when everyone was flailing around. But even with the accumulation of knowledge and technology (vaccines and other treatments) they have had very poor outcomes in every subsequent wave.

The 10 states at the bottom (best performers) all are at a northern latitude (except for Hawaii) and have a low population density, providing confirmation those are "natural advantages" against covid. Well the northern latitude part might be an artifact of other things. But by now I think it is pretty certain that having a low population density is a big advantage. Which raises the question of why the Dakotas are not closer to the bottom.
 
Last edited:

That's a really interesting graph. I'd like to see what some of the commonalities are that are causing high or low rates. At the bottom you have a lot of low population density states which makes sense. At the top are states with very dense population areas with high public transportation use and states that probably have higher than average underlying health conditions.

One thing you might be seeing with this graph are areas that have been hit harder with the Delta wave vs areas that are yet to be hit but will be. The seasonality of the virus is pretty interesting and not yet fully understood.
 
This is a great graph. I've seen a similar version somewhere else. It shows Florida in a much better light. They have a lot of deaths, but they have a lot of old people. This kind of adjustment allows you to see how well they've done in light of age profile of their population. Texas otoh. And it confirms what the plain vanilla data have shown about Mississippi and Vermont.

Btw when you look at excess deaths data you can look at the number of excess deaths or the percent of excess deaths (over what is the norm). When you use the percent it is akin to doing an adjustment for the age profile. So much better to work with that than the absolute number (which obviously will be high both before and after covid if you have a lot of old people).

The graph looks like it is for covid deaths for both 2020 and 2021. I suspect Florida (even after adjusting for age) would look pretty bad just for 2021. Texas has been horrible both years. They have a demographic profile that skews young and in spite of that have had a lot of deaths.

I wonder what could be happening in Texas above all other states that would make it difficult to manage the amount of active infection within their state boundaries.
 
That's a really interesting graph. I'd like to see what some of the commonalities are that are causing high or low rates. At the bottom you have a lot of low population density states which makes sense. At the top are states with very dense population areas with high public transportation use and states that probably have higher than average underlying health conditions.

One thing you might be seeing with this graph are areas that have been hit harder with the Delta wave vs areas that are yet to be hit but will be. The seasonality of the virus is pretty interesting and not yet fully understood.

population density is the variable that seems to be pretty robust regardless of how you slice the data
 
I wonder what could be happening in Texas above all other states that would make it difficult to manage the amount of active infection within their state boundaries.

I think Texas will eventually be something that is closely studied. They have a lot of Latinos. Afaik Texans are not especially obese. They do have some very large cities. The density variable for a state might be misleading for a state like Texas where there is a lot of land but also a large part of the population lives in big cities. Plus they have Abbott, who I didn't think was so bad last year but has gone nuts this year.
 
I think Texas will eventually be something that is closely studied. They have a lot of Latinos. Afaik Texans are not especially obese. They do have some very large cities. The density variable for a state might be misleading for a state like Texas where there is a lot of land but also a large part of the population lives in big cities.

It may have something to do with a wide open border from countries that have **** medical systems and have unregulated spread (not necessarily a bad thing) throughout.

But I'll ask again - What are your thoughts on having an open border during a pandemic which we aren't even requiring the apprehended portion (<25%) to be vaccinated?
 
So the super sciency folks that they threatened with losing their assets to government mandated unemployment and got the jab tonight have to wait 2 weeks to work again right?

They don’t have immunity immediately.

If this were about health, then sure.

But we know better than that. Nothing better than coerced medicine.

Do we think this is the end of the mandates?
 
It may have something to do with a wide open border from countries that have **** medical systems and have unregulated spread (not necessarily a bad thing) throughout.

But I'll ask again - What are your thoughts on having an open border during a pandemic which we aren't even requiring the apprehended portion (<25%) to be vaccinated?

doubt it...but maybe someone will take a careful look at it and produce something of interest

but as a matter of policy we should test and vaccinate everyone who crosses the border
 
doubt it...but maybe someone will take a careful look at it and produce something of interest

You seriously doubt that?

Man - Is there any part of your worldview that isn't shaped by your hatred of western white society?

But feel free to answer my earlier question I've posed on numerous occasions to you. We are in a pandemic afterall where people are getting fired from their jobs for not begin vaccinated.
 
If this were about health, then sure.

But we know better than that. Nothing better than coerced medicine.

Do we think this is the end of the mandates?

Hopefully Sleepy Joe lets us have Christmas if we get to that 98% number. I swear I thought just this summer it was 50%, but just like Sleepy Joe my mind may be failing me.
 
Back
Top