"Breakthrough" (post-vaccination) COVID cases showing up in Florida, news says

[mom2rtk]

I agree. It's not fear-mongering, it's just proof that we need to keep the dang masks on and keeping dining outside for a while yet. Just more of the same. Not fun, but after a year, it ain't remotely scary.

How long? If you're saying until everyone who wants a vaccine can get a vaccine, I'm all in. Longer than that? I'm out (so to speak since I'll follow local requirements).

My parents celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary this week by eating out for the first time in a year. Both breakfast and dinner. It was the best thing I'd heard in a very long time.

 

[sam_gordon]

That's true enough, and yes, argument is always weakened by using too broad a brush, but what if we amend, to something like ...
Wrapping your car around a tree @ 30mph while wearing a seatbelt = $5K in damages and some nasty bruises.
vs.
Wrapping your car around a tree @ 30mph not wearing a seatbelt = $5K in damages + a $40K hospital bill, if you are lucky enough to not die.

That's a much tighter analogy, and it holds in this situation.
We still have restricted vaccine access here for a couple more weeks. Our local task force head did a news conference yesterday in which he went over the local statistics of the hospitalized population compared to those of the vaccinated population. He noted that the overall number of hospitalized cases was way down, and that the percentage of hospitalized patients over age 60 had dropped dramatically, but that the percentage of hospitalized patients under age 50 had suddenly *increased* dramatically. The drop in older patients relative to the overall number was explained by vaccination rates in that cohort, but there was only one thing that could explain the sudden increased percentage among younger patients whilst the total number was still dropping: relaxed caution.

I happened to drive the same route in mid-afternoon on 2 nice days 3 weeks apart recently; the last time this past Sunday. I passed a somewhat hipster brewhouse restaurant with a lot of outdoor seating that is visible from the street; an area of about 100 seats. The first day that I passed by, 3 weeks ago, the majority of the people seated outside enjoying sunshine (mostly a young and kind of fashionable crowd; fit-looking bunch) were wearing masks. When I passed again 3 weeks later, there was a not a single mask in sight. Unless there has been some kind of hipster tour to get vaccines in another state, most of those folks could not yet have been vaccinated, yet there they were, same seating as before, but no masks. IT. IS. TOO. SOON. FOR. THAT.

I don't think it holds because you're still saying the worst will happen.

If you go for a drive and don't wear your seatbelt, the odds are nothing will happen. There are even some accidents you can get into that the seat belt still doesn't come into play.
If you go for a drive AND don't wear your seatbelt, AND get into a serious accident, you will wish you wore a seatbelt.

If you leave your home and go into a restaurant/store/work and don't wear a mask, the odds are nothing will happen. Even if you are exposed to Covid, for most, it is a minor case.
If you leave your home and go into a restaurant/store/work AND don't wear a mask AND get a severe case of Covid, then you can have serious symptoms, possible hospitalization, and possible death.

You can't say "If you don't wear a mask and catch Covid you will die" just like you can't say "If you go in car and don't wear a seatbelt you will die." And yes, people, officials and non, have at least implied the former if not flat out said it.

ETA: I'm not saying masks don't work, people shouldn't wear them, vaccines don't work, people shouldn't get the vaccines, or that covid isn't serious. I'm just complaining about those who (at least the way I read it) ARE "fear mongering".

 

[Keli]

Yep, I have a coworker that got covid a month and a half after her 2nd vaccine. Her husband also got it but he had only had the 1st vaccine two weeks or so before. She seemed to be pretty sick with it, not sure what constitutes a mild/moderate/severe case though. Thankfully she is recovering. Her husband is as well but he suffered a lot more complications due to preexisting health conditions.

 

[NotUrsula]

How long? If you're saying until everyone who wants a vaccine can get a vaccine, I'm all in. Longer than that? I'm out (so to speak since I'll follow local requirements).

My parents celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary this week by eating out for the first time in a year. Both breakfast and dinner. It was the best thing I'd heard in a very long time.

I'm going to go with keeping the mask on in proximity to non-family and trying to avoid indoor dining until either 70% of the US population is vaccinated or there are no hospitalized cases in the area for 2 weeks, whichever comes first. I'm confident that one or the other should happen before the end of 2021.

I do dine out outdoors, and have since restaurants reopened at the end of the first lockdown early last summer. However, I wear a mask or cover my mouth with a napkin for most of that time, except when I'm actively wielding a fork or sipping a drink. I've also been to WDW 3X since the pandemic started, shared Christmas with our adult child, taken 8 domestic flights, been to zoos and museums, and regularly grocery shop in person. My DH's office hasn't been closed a single day, though mine switched to remote work. My kids still participates in a team sport with multiple practices a week. We live as "normally" as possible except for the precaution of wearing masks when not in our cars or at home without guests, and washing our hands more frequently than we used to. I'm now vaccinated, and DH will be soon, but we don't plan to change our precaution levels based on our own vaccination status.

No one in my immediate family has contracted COVID; we have gotten pretty lucky, but I'm 100% sure that the precautions we do take have helped us with that luck. I don't feel caged as long as there is no actual declared lockdown where I am, and I'm fine with maintaining this precaution level for as long as health experts tell me that it is prudent to do so. I just don't find it particularly onerous, because it really isn't. Annoying and tedious? Sure, but enough to incite reckless abandon? Nope.

 

[GreatLakes]

Yep, I have a coworker that got covid a month and a half after her 2nd vaccine. Her husband also got it but he had only had the 1st vaccine two weeks or so before. She seemed to be pretty sick with it, not sure what constitutes a mild/moderate/severe case though. Thankfully she is recovering. Her husband is as well but he suffered a lot more complications due to preexisting health conditions.

Referring to the bold, I'm not sure it is a set definition, I think it is relevant to what you would have had without the vaccine with the outliers that still get the same complications regardless of their vaccination status.

At the end of the day it will be a combination of the vaccine and your lifestyle that dictates your reaction to future exposure. If you are otherwise healthy without any of the comorbidities and are vaccinated your odds are likely about the same as the flu which is the goal.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I read it that the "sniffles and headache" were the "flu" and "death, $100K, job loss" was "covid".

I understand that you are saying that this is what you see, but this is not what is being communicated.

 

[sam_gordon]

I understand that you are saying that this is what you see, but this is not what is being communicated.

Apologies for not reading it correctly.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Referring to the bold, I'm not sure it is a set definition, I think it is relevant to what you would have had without the vaccine with the outliers that still get the same complications regardless of their vaccination status.

At the end of the day it will be a combination of the vaccine and your lifestyle that dictates your reaction to future exposure. If you are otherwise healthy without any of the comorbidities and are vaccinated your odds are likely about the same as the flu which is the goal.

Whelp, I'm going to answer in case someone sees this who is on the fence. I am decidedly in that outlier group so I don't think the Immunology community thinks this is true, at least not the fancy group taking care of me. All sorts of immune issues in play so a vaccine isn't a walk in the park for me, and yet the Dr's are imploring me to stay on the course so I am not deviating. I suspect these very very smart people (big hospitals make recommendations in a pack) are leading me towards vaccination because there is a clear benefit to me and the benefit is enough to counter the risk. Normally no-one wants to trigger a big response from me and most of the time it's all about quieting my body down and yet, apparently, in this case the goal is stir things up. From what I understand the fact it can trigger a flare indicates how necessary this is for me because otherwise I wouldn't make it and so I go in blind faith. Outliers like me need every advantage we can get.

Apologies for not reading it correctly.

Thank you for being kind, I tend to agree with your point of view on most things so maybe I wasn't as clear as intended.

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm going to go with keeping the mask on in proximity to non-family and trying to avoid indoor dining until either 70% of the US population is vaccinated or there are no hospitalized cases in the area for 2 weeks, whichever comes first. I'm confident that one or the other should happen before the end of 2021.

I do dine out outdoors, and have since restaurants reopened at the end of the first lockdown early last summer. However, I wear a mask or cover my mouth with a napkin for most of that time, except when I'm actively wielding a fork or sipping a drink. I've also been to WDW 3X since the pandemic started, shared Christmas with our adult child, taken 8 domestic flights, been to zoos and museums, and regularly grocery shop in person. My DH's office hasn't been closed a single day, though mine switched to remote work. My kids still participates in a team sport with multiple practices a week. We live as "normally" as possible except for the precaution of wearing masks when not in our cars or at home without guests, and washing our hands more frequently than we used to. I'm now vaccinated, and DH will be soon, but we don't plan to change our precaution levels based on our own vaccination status.

No one in my immediate family has contracted COVID; we have gotten pretty lucky, but I'm 100% sure that the precautions we do take have helped us with that luck. I don't feel caged as long as there is no actual declared lockdown where I am, and I'm fine with maintaining this precaution level for as long as health experts tell me that it is prudent to do so. I just don't find it particularly onerous, because it really isn't. Annoying and tedious? Sure, but enough to incite reckless abandon? Nope.

Of course I'm going to follow local rules and guidelines. But personally I won't be mentally waiting around for anti-vaxxers to decide they'll get the shot. Once everyone has a chance, I'm hoping for things to open up and move back much closer to normal.

 

[VandVsmama]

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/cov...ses-extremely-unlikely-experts-153902708.html