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Covid Contraction in Michigan is Increasing

run75441 | January 2, 2022 5:35 pm

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Georgia beat up Michigan Football and Coach Jim Harbaugh badly this last weekend. It was not even close. Michiganders take their football seriously, more seriously than contracting Covid.

Hospitalization for Covid increased dramatically in Michigan. According to the CDC, it is the delta strain impacting the unvaccinated Michiganders. The Republican dominated Senate and House shut down the Governor and Michigan Health Director’s ability to restrict public gatherings. This was before the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. And the state is in trouble.

CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky; While much of the world is focused on the new omicron variant, first identified in South Africa, delta is still a threat as “over 99 percent of sequenced cases in the United States continue to be from” the delta strain.

Stated at a Tuesday White House Covid-19 Response Team briefing.

Having the highest hospitalizations in the US when adjusted for population, Michigan’s hospitalizations are up 70 percent since Nov. 10. In the neighboring states of Indiana and Illinois, hospitalizations have almost doubled.

In Michigan, 3 of 4 hospitalized Covid patients are unvaccinated, according to Chelsea Wuth, an associate public information officer at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Unvaccinated people make up 87 percent of Covid patients who are in an intensive care unit in the state, she said, and 88 percent of Covid patients who are on a ventilator are unvaccinated. More than 70 percent Michiganders age 16 and older have had at least one shot of a Covid vaccine, she said.

Dr. Matthew Sims, a physician and director of infectious disease research at Beaumont Health (Michigan’s largest health care system):

“almost all the Covid patients coming in are unvaccinated. Roughly 600 patients are sickened with Covid across the system as of Tuesday, noting the staff is exhausted.
We’ve been doing this for so long. It does get tiring to the nurses, the doctors, everybody when we see this huge number of patients that are all coming in that are not vaccinated.”

Meanwhile in the richest county consisting of 99% white residents in Michigan (where I used to reside), the county sheriff turned over a complaint to the county prosecutor for this comment.

“Hey Twitter, I’m back. I’d like you to meet Nurse Rebecca Skoczylas, who like Holly Austin also spread misinformation at the Brighton BOE meeting. I’m calling her Nurse E.Coli b/c she’s full of (you fill in the blank). @stjoes_health I believe she’s on your staff?)”

Apparently, the nurses in question were advocating mask-less student attendance at the local schools. Their claim was the masks do not work.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

If you’re fully vaccinated and are in an area with a high number of new COVID-19 cases, the CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public and outdoors in crowded areas or when you are in close contact with unvaccinated people. People who haven’t been fully vaccinated should wear face masks indoors and outdoors where there is a high risk of COVID-19 transmission, such as crowded events or large gatherings. The CDC says that surgical N95 masks should be reserved for health care providers. Respirators such as KN95s and non-surgical N95s can be used by the general public when supplies are available.

The point is, no one really knows who is vaccinated or not. This is part of the problem which exists today. And it happens to exist more frequently in Republican parts of the country. Livingston County is Republican and has been for 27 years I know of. Early in December, less populated Livingston County’s with its ~190,000 residents had a higher contraction rate of Covid per 100,00 than the 8 times more populated Wayne County where Detroit is located.

Republican sheriff, Republican prosecutor, Republican judges; what more could I say. The cards were stacked against the person doing the calling out. Figuring there was not much of a case to go upon, they decided not to go to court.

6 states account for more than half of the country’s recent Covid hospitalizations (nbcnews.com)

Covid hospitalization hot spots across the U.S., in five charts (msn.com)

CDC: How well do face masks protect against coronavirus?

Wayne County, Michigan (MI) – COVID Vaccine & Risk Tracker – Covid Act Now

12 Comments

Terry says:

January 2, 2022 at 9:13 pm

First, it was a bad matchup for Michigan. Alabama beat Georgia through the air and Michigan relied on its running game all season. And the Georgia quarterback had a career first half, that being said, northeast Indiana is very much like Michigan outside the cities— very low vaccination rates, full hospitals with Delta, Omicron waiting in the wings and the GOP doing everything it can to undercut public health including fomenting school board violence.
- run75441 says:
  
  January 2, 2022 at 11:40 pm
  
  Terry:
  
  I believe the Wisconsin win over Michigan State kind of bumped Michigan out of the way for Wisconsin to go to the 1994 Rose Bowl. When Wisconsin beat UCLA, I was doing temp work at a silk-screener who I had given work to as a Purchasing Agent who was laid off. We were listening to the announcer on the radio when Wisconsin beat Michigan a game earlier. Some woman made a remark. The announcer responded back; “What, we are not supposed to win?”
  
  I laughed.
  
  For years Wisconsin was the welcome mat at the front door for Michigan to wipe their feet on. Barry brought Wisconsin a team that could win with the right coaching.
  
  Michigan deserves better than what a snooty Harbaugh has to offer. They have all the resources and support, Wisconsin never had until Barry.
  
  It is unfortunate Michigan can not apply as much of their energy to beating any form of Covid as they do Michigan football.
  - EMichael says:
    
    January 3, 2022 at 12:06 pm
    
    Harbaugh is like his mentor, Bo Scembechler, who is the most over rated CFB coach of all time. In all of his years at Michigan, he never once had a season with a winning record over teams that finished the season ranked. And that includes both polls back then. His “success” was totally due to the schedule, which allowed his 3 yards and a cloud of dust to work against bad football teams.
    - run75441 says:
      
      January 3, 2022 at 12:44 pm
      
      EM:
      
      Harbaugh like Covid exists because of Michigan’s residents. They would rather have the hype than reality. They would rather die than submit to the wearing of masks, social distancing, and vaccination. In both cases, they are getting their wish although they are not #1 in college football.
      
      Michigan football will still have its fan base minus a few fans due to Covid.
      
      It will be interesting to see how the new realignment of congressional districts will play out as done by a citizen’s committee. Less packing and Gerrymandering.
Fred C. Dobbs says:

January 3, 2022 at 9:06 am

Back to Covid for a moment…

When Three Shots Are Not Enough

NY Times – Jan 3

People with compromised immune systems are getting unapproved fourth or fifth Covid-19 shots, despite uncertainty about their safety or effectiveness.

… The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are in charge of determining when additional doses should be administered, but some patients and their doctors feel that federal agencies have acted too slowly to protect the most vulnerable. …

… the C.D.C. updated their guidelines in late October to say that immunocompromised groups would be eligible for a fourth dose six months after a third. For those who followed the rules, the earliest eligibility for a fourth would be in late February. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  January 3, 2022 at 10:26 am
  
  As Omicron surges, so, too, do fear and frustration for immunocompromised people
  
  Boston Globe – Jan 2
  
  … As word spreads that the Omicron variant appears to cause only mild illness in most people, doctors have cautioned that this soothing notion does not apply to the estimated 7 million with weakened immune systems, who do not respond to vaccines as robustly as healthy people. They include transplant recipients like Nucci, as well as cancer patients and people with certain chronic illnesses and autoimmune disorders.
  
  “I don’t think that even the possibility that [Omicron] is more benign is very hopeful,” said Dr. Dorry Segev, a professor of transplant surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who has studied the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in transplant recipients. “If you’re immunocompromised, you’re the one for whom it’s not going to be benign.”
  
  Studies of earlier variants have shown that a third vaccine dose provides additional protection, but for about half of transplant patients, it’s not enough, Segev said. And Omicron spreads even more readily than previous variants. …
  - Fred C. Dobbs says:
    
    January 3, 2022 at 10:30 am
    
    On Christmas Eve, John Nucci invited two sons and three grandchildren to visit him and his wife at their East Boston home. Everyone tested negative for COVID-19 beforehand. Everyone had been vaccinated, except the children, who are too young. John wore a mask throughout the visit.
    
    This layering of precautions might sound a tad paranoid, but it was the most risky thing Nucci has done in two years — two years of going nowhere except for his daily walks, no restaurants, parties, or visits to his office at Suffolk University, where he is senior vice president of external affairs.
    
    Nucci, 69, lives on a different plane of risk than most: He is a kidney transplant recipient who must take medications that suppress his immune system, to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ. As a result, his body might not be able to fend off the virus even though he has received three shots. …
rjs says:

January 4, 2022 at 4:51 am

it’s really quite amazing how quickly Omicron makes everything i post on it old news…

Setting a global record, US tops 1 million Covid-19 cases in 24 hours

More than 1 million people in the U.S. were diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday as a tsunami of omicron swamps every aspect of daily American life.

The highly mutated variant drove U.S. cases to a record, the most — by a large margin — that any country has ever reported since the pandemic began more than two years ago. Monday’s number is almost double the previous record of about 590,000 set just four days ago in the U.S., which itself was a doubling from the prior week.

America’s daily case count on Monday was more than twice the number seen in any other country at any time. The highest number outside the U.S. came during India’s delta surge, when more than 414,000 people were diagnosed on May 7, 2021.

The stratospheric numbers being posted in the U.S. come even as many Americans are relying on tests they take at home, with results that aren’t reported to official government authorities. This means that the new record is surely a significant under-estimate.

i have a Michigan update for you too:

Michigan COVID-19 cases skyrocket, hitting record seven-day average of 12,442 – mlive.com

Michigan reported 61,235 new, reported coronavirus cases in the five days through the New Year’s holiday and crushed a pandemic record.

The state had never surpassed 10,000 cases – it reached a peak last week with 8,402 a day – but hit 12,442 a day in the week ending Monday, Jan. 3. In August, moving into the fall surge, the state was reporting that many cases per week.

Michigan also recorded 298 deaths, a seven-day average of 91 a day from Thursday, Dec. 30, to Monday. (?)

A week ago, after the Christmas holiday, Michigan reported an average of 6,663 new, reported cases a day and 95 deaths.

There have now been 1,568,573 cases and 27,286 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

As of Monday, there had additionally been 207,292 probable cases and 2,056 probable deaths, in which a physician and/or antigen test ruled it COVID-19 but no confirmatory PCR test, which detects the presence of a virus, was done.

The average percentage of positive tests in the last week was about 30%, also a pandemic record.

i don’t follow football close enough to intelligently comment on it, but i would note that everytime the football or soccer crowds are shown on the tube, no one is wearing a mask..
- rjs says:
  
  January 4, 2022 at 5:01 am
  
  the silver lining of a million cases a day is that we’ll be over with it in less than a year because it will run out of people to infect..
  - rjs says:
    
    January 4, 2022 at 5:58 am
    
    on the other hand, there’s a downside to our ‘let ‘er rip” policy, too..
    
    Texas Children’s reports COVID cases more than double in one week with 12 babies in ICU — Texas Children’s Hospital reports an alarming surge in the number of children being hospitalized with COVID-19, primarily with the omicron variant.
    At a news conference Monday, the Houston hospital reported 70 pediatric patients are currently hospitalized with COVID. A week ago, TCH had 30 young COVID patients. The week before that, they had 15.
    More than one-third of patients hospitalized in recent days are younger than 5 years old, according to Dr. Jim Versalovic, who leads TCH’s COVID-19 Command Center. Unlike adults, Versalovic said it’s too early to say whether the variant is milder for young children.
    “We are seeing cases of viral pneumonia and respiratory distress, serious lung infections in children even under two years of age,” the doctor said. “There’s no question that omicron is making a real impact in the youngest of children.”
    The patients include several babies who are very sick from the virus.
    “Just last week, we had 12 babies in the ICU with COVID,” TCH spokesperson Natasha Barrett said. “It’s heartbreaking what we’re seeing in the halls of our hospital right now.”
rjs says:

January 4, 2022 at 2:39 pm

just remembered i have a Michigan Covid story from a couple weeks ago…they plan to hire school bus drivers as substitute teachers cause so many teachers have been calling in sick:

Michigan legislature passes bill that would keep kids in schools without teachers — A bill has passed the Michigan state legislature which would allow any school district employee with a high school diploma or equivalent to act as a substitute teacher through June 30, 2022. It now requires the signature of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, to become law.If Whitmer signs it, substitute teachers across the state will no longer be required to have a teaching certificate, nor a 2-year, 60-credit Associate’s Degree from a college or university, nor any personal knowledge or experience whatsoever in the subjects they are teaching.The State Senate passed the bill by a margin of 23–13, with the yes votes of 19 Republican senators and 4 Democrats.While clearly representing an attack on the right to high-quality public education, the legislation is most of all a blatant attempt to undermine teachers’ recent successful efforts to force the closure of schools to stop the spread of COVID-19, a situation which superintendents and state officials now refer to dishonestly as a “teacher shortage” .According to the legislation, any school district employee with a high school diploma will be allowed to serve as a substitute teacher. Whitehall District Schools Superintendent Jerry McDowell told the Detroit Free Pressthat bus drivers could teach in between their morning and afternoon routes! This would represent the complete transformation of schools from institutions of learning into nothing more or less than holding pens for working class youth and cesspits of infection and community spread of SARS-CoV-2.
run75441 says:

January 4, 2022 at 4:08 pm

Delta v Omicron

After accounting for other risk factors, the rate of person-to-person spread of the virus to fully vaccinated people was roughly 2.6 times higher in Omicron households than in Delta households, the researchers reported on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Booster-vaccinated people were nearly 3.7 times more likely to get infected in the Omicron households than in the Delta households, they found.

Looking only at Omicron households, however, booster-vaccinated people were 56% less likely to become infected compared to vaccinated people who had not received a booster.

And overall, when booster-vaccinated people were the ones who first brought home the virus, they were less likely than unvaccinated and vaccinated-but-not-boosted people to pass it to others. Boosters Reduce Risk of Omicron Household Transmission (medscape.com)