Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston, Cambridge, Newton: how much, home, living)

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by lrfox

All of "this" is speculative worst case scenario. And remember where were last year? Last year at this time, we were in the midst of the Pandemic's largest surge (it didn't even peak until January). We didn't have vaccines yet and even with many major restrictions still in place, we were in the middle of what would be come the deadliest wave of cases to date. Hospitals were already at capacity in many places, the projections were much more dire, we were reverting back to many restrictions that were in place in March/April 2020, and the vaccine rollout still was on the horizon.

Today, we do have effective vaccines available for almost everyone. We've had most restrictions largely lifted since May/June, Delta emerged in July, and we still have not seen anything approaching the surge in cases and deaths we were experiencing at this point last year. The vast majority of the hospitalizations and deaths that are taking place now are among the unvaccinated. Meaning, if you're vaccinated, you're in much better shape than you were last year. Of course it's not perfect and we're not completely out of the woods, but there's no way anyone can objectively look at where we are now vs. where we were back then and not say we haven't made a ton of progress.

Nobody is denying that there has been progress, but we are dealing with a very different situation now.

You and some others seem to be:

• seriously underestimating Delta
• overestimating the current protection from April vaccinations
• not understanding the hospital situation with the flu and staff shortages

Nothing I wrote was speculative. And we are not in a better position this year.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by redplum33

Nobody is denying that there has been progress, but we are dealing with a very different situation now.

You and some others seem to be:

• seriously underestimating Delta
• overestimating the current protection from April vaccinations
• not understanding the hospital situation with the flu and staff shortages

Nothing I wrote was speculative. And we are not in a better position this year.

Who is overestimating 7 month ago jabs or Delta? The Israeli data came out in mid-July when they were getting hit by Delta. I dropped on Amazon and bought a ton of N95 masks and have been using them ever since. If you have Moderna instead of Pfizer, 6 months is less of a concern since the dosage is 3.5x higher and the efficacy at 6 months is considerably better.


In Suffolk County, 8% of ICU beds are COVID-19 cases. 1% of inpatient beds are COVID-19 cases. Looking county by county, the ICUs are pretty full but it's not with COVID-19 patients. Patients delayed their health care and are sicker than usual.



Every hospital in the country has staffing problems. Most Massachusetts hospitals at least don't have the uninsured and lousy Medicaid payment problem that is crushing rural hospitals in the red states. A whole lot of hospitals are going to go bankrupt.

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Patients delayed their health care and are sicker than usual.

Which is nutty since it was only like a month or two where the hospitals were full with covid patients too.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

Which is nutty since it was only like a month or two where the hospitals were full with covid patients too.

Not really so nutty. Hospitals canceled anything optional for months. My dentist pushed my normal dental hygiene visit out 6 months, for example. People with chronic health problems weren't getting treated so their condition got worse.

[redplum33]

"The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported on Thursday eight additional COVID-19 deaths and 3,196 new cases."

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by redplum33

"The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported on Thursday eight additional COVID-19 deaths and 3,196 new cases."

I'm going to be a heretic and say that case counts are almost irrelevant at this point. It's about preventing hospitalizations and deaths, and I expect that the employer mandate (if the OSHA rule passes muster) will go a long way towards finally getting us to herd immunity.

[rach5]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

I'm going to be a heretic and say that case counts are almost irrelevant at this point. It's about preventing hospitalizations and deaths, and I expect that the employer mandate (if the OSHA rule passes muster) will go a long way towards finally getting us to herd immunity.

In RI on Nov 16 2021: 21 covid patients in ICU, 14 on a vent. 107 hospitalized
In RI on Nov 16 2020: 28 covid patients in ICU, 14 on a vent. 348 hospitalized
https://ridoh-covid-19-response-hosp...ub.arcgis.com/

[sawyer2]

Anyone over the age of 18 is now eligible to get a booster six months after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or two months since receiving a Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.


https://www.wcvb.com/article/massach...d-up/38289454#

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by rach5

In RI on Nov 16 2021: 21 covid patients in ICU, 14 on a vent. 107 hospitalized
In RI on Nov 16 2020: 28 covid patients in ICU, 14 on a vent. 348 hospitalized
https://ridoh-covid-19-response-hosp...ub.arcgis.com/

And I know 2 acquaintances in RI, 44 and 51, both apparently healthy, who caught and tragically passed away from Covid. However--and this is my point--both were unvaxxed.

If we were to get to the 85-90% level of vaccination similar to measles, the virus and its variants would be snuffed out for practical purposes.

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

If we were to get to the 85-90% level of vaccination similar to measles, the virus and its variants would be snuffed out for practical purposes.

MA is pretty much there for 12+.