As the virus infection numbers keep dropping….
And…
Virus vaccinations numbers go dropping….
State’s have begun to cut back their requests for virus vaccines….
Washington Post….
In the past week in the U.S. …
Among reported tests, the positivity rate was 4%.
The number of tests reported fell 14% from the previous week.
Since Dec. 14, more than 257,347,000 doses of a coronavirus vaccine have been administered in the U.S.
More than 112,626,000 people have completed vaccination, or about 33.92% of the population.
Read more in our vaccination tracker.
New York Times….
| AVG. ON MAY 8 | 14-DAY CHANGE | TOTAL REPORTED | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cases | 42,097 | –29% | 32,713,671 |
| Tests | 1,109,433 | — | — |
| Hospitalized | 39,078 | –14% | — |
| Deaths | 675 | –6% | 581,056 |
State of the virus
Update for May 4
- The country’s case numbers are starting to drop again after a month of stagnation.
- Outbreaks are subsiding in the Upper Midwest. Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois are all reporting drops in new cases.
- The pace of vaccination has slowed somewhat in recent weeks.
NY Times…. Link….
States ARE cutting back on virus vaccinations….
States asked the federal government this week to withhold staggering amounts of COVID-19 vaccine amid plummeting demand for the shots, contributing to a growing U.S. stockpile of doses.
From South Carolina to Washington, states are requesting the Biden administration send them only a fraction of what’s been allocated to them. The turned-down vaccines amount to hundreds of thousands of doses this week alone, providing a stark illustration of the problem of vaccine hesitancy in the U.S.
More than 150 million Americans — about 57% of the adult population — have received at least one dose of vaccine, but government leaders from the Biden administration down to the city and county level are doing everything they can to persuade the rest of the country to get inoculated.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Friday that the federal government has dedicated $250 million for community organizations to promote vaccinations, make appointments and provide transportation….
It’s time for Biden to take off the mask when outdoors or in small gatherings in the White House where all have been vaccinated.
By continuing to wear a mask at all times,he is fueling the “virus spreaders” in their urging that getting the vaccine is neither important nor in any way getting back to normality.
Take it off Joe!
Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said in an interview on Sunday that the United States is “turning the corner” in its battle against the coronavirus.
“Six weeks ago, Dr. [Anthony] Fauci said that we were at the corner in the pandemic. Since then, the U.S. has vaccinated more than 60 million people. Daily cases fell almost 40 percent in the last month. Has the United States turned the corner?” host Jake Tapper asked Zients on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I would say we are turning the corner. We now have, as of this morning, 58 percent of adult Americans with at least one shot, over 110 million Americans fully vaccinated,” Zients responded….
More…
…
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said Sunday that the U.S. is unlikely to see a surge of COVID-19 infections over the fall and winter like it did last year, pointing to the widespread availability of vaccines as a “game changer” that would prevent future surges.
“Well, the fact that we have vaccines right now, Chuck, is really a game changer,” Fauci told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I mean, if we get, which we will, to the goals that the president has established, namely if we get 70 percent of the people vaccinated by the Fourth of July, namely one single dose, and even more thereafter, you may see blips. But if we handle them well, it is unlikely that you’ll see the kind of surge that we saw in the late fall and the early winter.”…
More…
I don’t believe for a second that if Biden takes off his mask, that the virus spreaders will suddenly decide to get vaccinated.
I don’t know all of what is needed to get back to normal, but I do know that the number of new variants is increasing, and so “getting back to normal is still a ways away. The new Indian variant is believed to be more contagious than the English variant. Until the case load falls to more acceptable levels, it seems inappropriate to me to criticize people for being overly cautious. Thousands of people are still dying every week from COVID-19 and some of these people were vaccinated.
Biden took the vaccine, but that doesn’t mean he is now safe. No one has argued that the vaccines are 100% effective – especially to the new variants. And if Biden does contract COVID19 (which is a very plausible event), how will that affect”getting back to normal”?
The CDC is correct to differentiate between high risk activities and relatively low risk activities, but a low risk activity is not the same as a no risk activity, and we should not pretend that it is.
We have as many US deaths from COVID-19 now as we did Back in late March 2020 when we first closed down the office. And although some people at the time claimed otherwise, we weren’t ready to get back to normal then either,
Lot of people ain’t going back to work in small cubicles….
Lot of companies are gonna keep having their employee’s work from home thus saving a boat load of money and issues….
You ARE right Z….
While a lot of things ARE reaching for normal…
But?
The long term normal will be different than post virus times ….
My nephew has developed long haul COVID. He got Covid when his son returned from sports camp last year with the virus. My nephew recovered, but afterwards some debilitating symptoms returned and he now can’t get rid of them. The rest of the family is now fine – including his son.
Incredibly, my nephew and his family were living in Shanghai in late 2019 and returned to the US when he saw the high death rate in China – even though China was trying at the time to keep to keep the outbreak silent.
Sorry to hear about your nephew, Zreebs.
I hope that — with or without some medical intervention or discovery — he recovers as soon as possible.
Thanks Dave
Hope ur uncle gets better Z…
James,
All of my uncles are now dead. If any were alive, they would likely be older than you!
My bad….
Your nephew…
Sorry about that!
Ok – thanks
Pfizer shots approved for 12 to 15 year olds…
Republican anger with Fauci reaches new heights
David Knowles·
Senior Editor, Yahoo! News
Mon, May 10, 2021, 4:17 PM·
Republican rage directed at Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser on the coronavirus pandemic to Presidents Trump and Biden, seemed to reach new heights over the weekend, with former Trump administration trade adviser Peter Navarro claiming the renowned physician and scientist has likely “killed millions of Americans.”
“For whatever reasons, Fauci wanted to weaponize that virus, and he is the father of it. He has killed millions of Americans if that thing came from the lab. Now it’s 99.999 percent sure it did,” Navarro told former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon regarding an unproven theory that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, that had received funds from the National Institutes of Health, where Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci listens during a press briefing at the White House where he spoke about a pause in issuing the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine on April 13, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Dr. Anthony Fauci during a press briefing at the White House on April 13. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
For the better part of the past year, every time Fauci has spoken on the pandemic, some Republicans have taken to social media to decry him. On Sunday, his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” sparked just such a reaction. Asked if Americans might need to wear masks seasonally to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19, Fauci responded, “You know, that’s quite possible.”
Kelli Ward, chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, quickly fired off a response to that suggestion.
The escalation of Navarro’s rhetoric against Fauci has been especially notable. In a March interview with Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo, Navarro seized on the unproven theory that the coronavirus had originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“This is the building that Tony Fauci built,” Navarro told Bartiromo. “He took American taxpayer money and funneled it, laundered it through NIH, and gave to this lab so it could conduct the kind of research that led basically to the virus, if Bob Redfield [former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] is right.”
Navarro, whose antipathy for Fauci is well documented, was referring to $600,000 in U.S. funding that the Wuhan Institute of Virology received between 2014 and 2019 to study coronaviruses originating in bats. The National Institutes of Health awarded the nonprofit group EcoHealth Alliance a $3.4 million grant in 2014. Of that money, $600,000 went to the Wuhan lab.
A March report by the World Health Organization found the theory that the coronavirus had been leaked from the Wuhan lab to be the least convincing for the origin of the pandemic, and that a much more likely explanation was a naturally occurring jump from animals to humans. The report, however, has failed to satisfy critics of Fauci and the Chinese government who believe, without evidence, that a plot is afoot to hide the true origins of the virus. …
https://news.yahoo.com/republican-anger-with-dr-fauci-reaches-new-heights-201740818.html
There is no accounting for Republican hate,although their particular obsession with Fauci is particularly irrational.
Personally I find this a case of knowing a man by his enemies.
Anyone who is viciously attacked by the likes of Rand Paul,Jim Jordan,and the plainly psychotic Peter Navarro can’t be bad at all!
He, he, he…..
The guy IS iconic but probably a bit overexposed …
Bless him…..
Republican White Nationalist Tucker Carlson ,a mainstay over at the Republican propaganda organ FoxNews ,is calling for a criminal investigation of Fauci.
And Rand Paul has attacked him again.
The Republican Party, which increasingly operates sort of like the old Soviet Union Communist Party, is apparently developing a”party line” now and has selected Fauci as their latest victim.
He has embarrassed Dear Leader by doing his job (reducing suffering and death) — this cannot, must not, and shall not be tolerated…
And when Dear Leader wanted to look the other way?
He would NOT Shut Up…
So true DSD….
It appears that the CDC is moving to decrease face mask usage for vaccinated Americans…..
One would think that this will push general mask usage down also….
Of course, some people WILL continue to use masks in close indoor situations shot or not….
Are you still going to wear a mask James?
Are you vaccinated?
In NY U wear a mask inside period….
Only eating means u take it off…
Masks are still required in planes, trains and buses despite the loosened CDC guidelines
Fully vaccinated people traveling in buses, trains and airplanes must continue to wear a mask, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, even as it said they could go without one in most other indoor settings.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the agency is continuing to review its travel policies, but she did not explain the reasoning during a briefing Thursday on the new recommendations.
“Right now for travel we are asking for people to continue to wear their masks,” she said….
More…
In addtion?
CDC ‘guidelines’ are just that….
State and local laws and reg’s are the rules….
And of course people deciding to wear masks outside even after having shots also
With the CDC guidance out today, all state and local mandates are going to be quickly ending, as they should at this point. Private businesses have the right to set their own rules, but they are likely to stop requiring masks as well as a business decision.
Trust the science. Vaccines work.
NY and LA will take the new CDC mask suggestions under advisement only ….
Explain to me why a vaccinated person who has about a 1 in 30000 chance of contracting symptomatic COVID should wear a mask ,James.
Because the state they are in requires it….
Because the feel more comfortable with it on…
Because they are in a bus, train or airplane.
Because they are in a crowded jam packed situation
Jack?
I’m SURE U saw that Pelosi STILL requires mask wearing in the House?
The CDC might ask for what they want
But some people are not so fast…
Jack, are those questions (by now) rhetorical ?