President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

A friend of mine who lives in The Villages is in her second mandatory quarantine, both because of contact tracing. People she knows and spent time with got Covid. She is vaccinated, tested negative the first time and is awaiting the result of the second test. The Villages, despite being largely Republican, had relatively low Covid numbers, but they are rising quickly over the past month or so, according to what she tells me and what I've read. DeSantis is a whack-a-doodle.

 

Listened to a fascinating Q&A yesterday with the head physician who chairs the infectious disease and immunization group at the Class 1 hospital in northeast Georgia. She said the first wave of COVID showed a peak and downturn after about five weeks. If that's the case with Delta, she said Gainesville and our area should hit peak around Labor Day or soon after, even though fewer than a third of the population is fully immunized.

HOWEVER, based on Delta's more aggressive rates of infection, its quicker spread, the lower rates of immunity for people who have already had the initial virus, breakthrough cases and wider range of potential targets, she's seeing data that pushes the peak well out past the end of September -- particularly since she feels Labor Day could result in a super-spreader event.

Of the 202 people currently hospitalized with COVID, 172 were unvaccinated. Of those in ICU, only four were breakthroughs and none of those are on ventilators. ICU holds 48 people -- I counted all the rooms when Gwen was in there -- so the math is not good. The average age of a patient on a ventilator there has dropped to 60.

In addition, the chances of being a long hauler have increased substantially with Delta, particularly with younger, previously healthy patients.

So if DeSantis and his team of quacks are hoping to outlast Delta because it worked -- somewhat -- the first time, Florida is in for a very rude awakening this fall. The North Georgia doc said they're far from herd immunity because the variant throws traditional tallies out the window.

We are ready to spend another winter here at the cabin if need be.

 

I talked to my little brother yesterday. He's a respiratory therapist in a Covid ICU at a hospital in San Antonio. It amazes me how calm and matter of fact he is about going in and doing his job day after day through all of this. I understood it better after he explained. There are 24 people on his ward, 22 on a vent and the other two on a somewhat simpler breathing assist, something on the order of a high grade CPAP, wearing a mask instead of being intubated. All the rooms have sliding doors, so they are largely contained, although none are under negative pressure.

He wears a full hospital grade N95 mask that is custom fit as well as full PPE. He's been doing this so long that basically he's similar to a worker on a nuclear reactor. All the safety precautions are so habitual that they are ingrained, step by step. It's just all in a day's work, no biggie.

He also does not have to deal with sick people denying that they have Covid, any of the nonsense that the ER people and others earlier in the process have to deal with. By the time they get to him, they have a trach tube sewn into their neck and they're on a vent, so he does not have to deal with any BS. This is not a ward where the families can come visit, so that source of nonsense is also eliminated.

He and his wife both wear N95's under a face mask any time they go out, where I just wear a KN95. I suspect that he knows more than I do, so I'm pricing a couple for us. He uses the ones with an exhalation valve as they dump CO2 better.

https://www.grainger.com/search/saf...?tv_optin=true&searchQuery=n95&searchBar=true

 

My county is at 644 active cases as of today. I don't know an exact number, but if memory serves, at July 4th we were down to maybe a dozen or even single figures.
Then the last week of July, it was county fair time followed by the start of school the following week.

 

I hope it monsoons for about half an hour, and then they can marinate in max humidity and mud until tonight. They're in the least vaccinated city in the least vaccinated state and there's not a mask in sight.

Fuggem.

 

I miss Glastonbury.

 

We don't believe in no tornado warnings ... just smarty pants kollege boys tellin us whut ta doo ....

 

All that book-larnin' be for the sissies.

 

That she is. Completely unqualified. If she didn't have her current job she'd be the Karen in every Walmart complaining about masking up and brown people.

 

“SPC” and “cow pasture.” What did the poor cow pasture to deserve this word association?

 

If I was providing a wall cloud art to my tornado textbook, my job is done.