Coronavirus dashboard for June 23: And so, it (the delta wave) begins
Coronavirus dashboard for June 23: And so, it (the delta wave) begins
[Note: New home sales will be reported later this morning, and I will post on that report afterward.]
There is now more evidence that the “delta” variant of COVID is taking hold in the unvaccinated regions of the country, and case counts are increasing accordingly.
Below are the 5 States that have all seen unequivocal increases in new cases over the past 2 to 4 weeks:”
*All* of these except for Nevada are among the lowest 1/3rd of States for vaccinations. Arkansas, at 33% fully vaccinated, is the 3rd worst. Oklahoma and Utah, at 37%, are tied for 8th worst, and Missouri, at 38%, is tied for 12th worst. Only Nevada, at 41%, is closer to the middle of the pack.
As an aside, the 2 worst States for vaccinations, Mississippi at 29% and Alabama at 32%, almost certainly are in worse shape than their “official” new case counts. Although I won’t post graphs, both are among the 10 worst States for the rate of testing, and both are among the 10 highest States for the rate of positive test results (along with 4 of the 5 States above experiencing new outbreaks). Their rate of positivity hasn’t started significantly increasing – yet.
Because I am not a DOOOMsayer, I want to contrast this with the case of Colorado, which has a good full vaccination rate at 50%, is nearly surrounded by States doing poorly, and yet has case counts that have continued to decline, albeit from high levels:
Colorado will make a very good bellwether for whether high levels of vaccinations will slow or stop the delta spread.
The “delta” and “delta plus” SARS-CoV-2 variants appear to be more contagious among the unvaccinated, both here and abroad. I’ve attached a link with the latest. Looks like the mRNA vaccines and the AstraZenica adenovirus vaccine provide significant protection against the delta variant:
“But there is hope that those who are fully vaccinated are reasonably protected against serious disease. According to data from PHE, Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine is 96% effective, and the AstraZeneca vaccine 92% effective against hospitalizations after two doses. These, PHE says, are comparable to efficacy against the Alpha variant.
This also means that getting a large part of the population fully vaccinated is crucial for countries where the Delta variant is prevalent. For countries like the US, where nearly half the population is fully vaccinated, scientists suspect a varied impact of the Delta variant. “I would expect some breakthrough infections and transmission happening even in highly vaccinated areas in the US, but would not expect a spike in hospitalizations and deaths,” Mukherjee says.”
https://qz.com/india/2024190/how-dangerous-are-covid-19-delta-and-delta-plus-variants/?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cfas&utm_content=newsletter&fbclid=IwAR10GJaGQJ1A7PrH2ejg25oguF9ecrpwf7NeIeueQxzKkY_MrfFKwlIDpgI
new cases in the UK have increased fivefold over the past 5 weeks, where the Delta mutant is now said to be dominant (replacing their home grown Alpha)…yet the vaccination rate in the UK is comparable to ours…so what gives? are UK vaccines failing, or is something else in play over there?
rjs:
A large percentage of the English have had one dose of vaccine as planned. One dose was thought to be less than half of immunity. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55274833
run, that BBC article says “So far, almost 44 million people have had a first vaccine dose – more than 80% of the adult population – and 32 million have had a second.”
so i figure more than 58% of Brits have had two doses..
from the CDC, i read that 65.9% of US adults have at least one dose, and 56.5% have two.. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations
so that makes it appear that the UK is a bit ahead of us on getting vaccinated..
maybe they have fewer red states…
And maybe they finished two doses sooner than the UK which was prone to do 1 dose to get more inoculated.