The CDC seems to be backing off of a specific number to say we've achieved herd immunity. They'll say we've reached it if/when infections and deaths hit a valley and stay there. About 58% of Americans are fully vaccinated.
We're seeing a surge in _cases_ in areas of Ontario also - but with pop. 14.5 million and 85 % 12+ fully vaccinated - - just 200 in hospital 130 in ICU. John T.
"Unvaccinated Vermonters are still the people getting sick and being hospitalized at the highest rates."
Interesting how sick you have to be to get a hospital bed in Canada.
65% are in the ICU. That is usually 20-30% here. I guess we put more people in hospitals if they have the staffed bed space. An empty hospital bed is like an empty airplane seat. You are not making any money there and you still have most of the costs. ;-)
And I say "so what"? They spun the wheel and took their chances. It is like people who ride bikes without helmets. It is the cost of freedom.
Originally herd immunity was the gold standard. Now, since it seems to be unachievable, the official sights have been lowered somewhat.
Like the original non-utility of masks so there would be enough for the medical people.
And they wonder why we seem to have no faith in "science".
FWIW, I just got my Moderna booster. Since I never get sick I figured my immune system could handle COVID just fine on its own, but I assumed the shots were statistically harmless and got them just in case.
Because "science" isn't what happens in the government nor in the media. It barely qualifies as engineering.
Cindy Hamilton
It is unfortunate but bad government is making many lose faith in science.
The president and congress are the last people that should make technical decisions.
Seems like even the news reporters are getting into the act. One group says get the shots for young people, another says more die from the shots than covid.
They both have doctors to back up what they are saying.
Don't pack 30 students in a class room with out a mask, but let 50,000 go to a sporting or other event.
Let in thousands of people from the border with Mexico without testing. Don't let a few hundred come over in an airplane without testing.
Doctors aren't scientists.
Cindy Hamilton
I think in fact most physicians are scientists.
No, but they have practical experience. Do they compare notes on some website? Do we have any idea yet how likely a person who is vaccinated but still gets Covid is to catch it again?
After reading this, I would change from "most" physicians to "some" physicians:
The good ones are. Witch-doctoring works with some illnesses, but not all.
It's a combination, and the older I get the more I believe that 'quality' depends most on the intelligence and attitude of the doctor. Not an awful lot of those, and I suspect they burn out pretty frequently.
Somebody had to be in the bottom 25% of his med school graduating class. I've met a couple of those.
Friend's daughter went through Caltech in biology and then to UCSD for med school. She became an ER doc because the hours were regular. I would like to have had HER for a doctor.
Most clinical physicians are no more scientists than most engineers are scientists.
Few of them have statistically significant samples.
Cindy Hamilton
Precisely. There are a number of professions that use scientific principles that are not scientists. 'Science' has become a shibboleth among people who can neither understand or or interpret science. When a talking head who may or may not have made it through a journalism school demands us to 'follow the science' I know I'm dealing with someone who couldn't follow a trail of hundred dollar bills to a whorehouse.
Many medical doctors are burdened with a completely unwarranted god complex.
The most obnoxious, arrogant colleagues I ever met tended to be in the upper quartile of their medical school class. They were most likely to have the attitude that they were "better" than almost everyone else and didn't take well to being challenged, even by far more experienced and competent colleagues. This was especially true with regard to graduates from certain ivy league university medical centers who disdained almost all colleagues who didn't share their pedigree. There's more of a dilemma when a doc with a lousy, know-it-all attitude towards patients and/or colleagues happens to be highly capable technically, but has no social intelligence. When I went through medical school in the 1960s, there were no classes in "bedside manners" or resources offered to those who might benefit from counseling. Hope it has changed by now.
I listen to Hollywood celebrities. They know what is best.
I like the football players for the best information. They must know something because they can get 50,000 people to go to the games . Hard telling how many on TV watch. And they get paid millions for only about
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