Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #97

[ringbearer]

Thanks. Not at all what I imagined from the original post. "The people they had to use on the news to advertise who received a shot on-site were from Canada."
In fact, they showed several people getting shots and one couple were Canadian. With the reason they got them while in Arizona being that they had a longer waiting time in Canada due to vaccine shortages. "When presented an opportunity to get the shot, he jumped at it".

The impression I had was that these people hopped over the border, and posed for vaccinations to advertise the vaccination centre.

Sorry. What I meant to convey was that the site was so deserted with Americans from the state it was in, that the news article featured a Canadian couple.

The video does show a bunch of people getting shots, but a lot of them are obviously not at this site. There was the one woman with the black mask from the beginning of the, and maybe another woman with a blue shirt on, and the Canadians. The rest are random shots from elsewhere. You can tell by the national guard uniforms in some shots (the NG wasn't at this site) and the surroundings (trees and houses that you wouldn't see in AZ). You can also see how empty the place was. It was set up for thousands a day, and they were lucky if they got 100. There were always way more volunteers than people getting shots. You can also see it in this photo from another article. It was deserted the entire time it was up. Which was about 4-6 weeks iirc. It was run by CIGNA and the State.

Arizona Opens Another Mass Vaccination Site, But Demand Is Slowing

 

[nhmemorymaker]

The problem is that the enrollment period to renew insurance is coming up in a few months. Under PPACA, states regulate the insurance exchanges. All the insurance companies need to do is drop out of the ACA exchange in every state where COVID related health care expenses have grown. There's no law that requires insurance companies to offer plans in the exchanges.

In Ohio, PPACA plans are dominated by "managed care" plans which have much more flexibility to limit patients' access to health care. They have restrictive networks and prescription formularies. If you get sick with COVID and show up to the ER unable to breathe, they will treat you, but your ACA plan may not cover it. It's also nearly impossible to get same-day doctor appointments with these "junk" plans because many health care providers are allowed to limit the number of ACA patients they provide services to every day. Then, under the bronze plans, patients have to spend over $3,000 to $5,000 out of pocket before the insurance coverage kicks in. That max out of pocket expense and other restrictions will probably increase drastically during the upcoming enrollment period.

PPACA was written by insurance company executives.

https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/he20210521.101267/full/

We need Medicare for All, the upgraded version to include dental, hearing, eyeglasses, etc. Everybody in, nobody out.

JMO

Yes we do. Another American lost cause...........
makes me so angry...

 

[ringbearer]

How is that family going to get their second doses?

As someone mentioned, maybe they got the one dose shot. If not, they could probably just stay here if they were working remotely anyway. It's pretty cheap to find a place here once it starts getting hot.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

More and more, I am thinking that masking is going to be a part of our lives, in the United States, and other places.

I remember the pure joy I had, of flinging my mask across the room when we no longer were under restrictions to wear a mask.

I bought a pack of 50 re-useable masks on Amazon the other day. Sigh.

I "SEE" the visual quite distinctly!

 

[nhmemorymaker]

And I'm afraid our days of dining in restaurants may be over for the foreseeable future. It was nice while it lasted (a few months). We live in NC in an area where vaccination rates are relatively high, but with students returning to college this month, kids returning to schools soon, and Delta spreading.... well. We are both fully vaccinated but our second Pfizer shot was in early February, so it's been six months, and I fear our immunity is fading quickly. We are in our 70s. I do not want to get Covid under any circumstances and will get a booster as soon as it's available.

I have an ol ol friend who lives in Mitchell County.... he has forever been telling me that "everyone" there believes people are getting deathly ill FROM the vaccine. And this week he tried to tell me that "no one in Mitchell County leaves and no one comes in"....so all is safe for them. Sigh....

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I agree. That's very true, although that would affect those who opted to get the vaccine as well as those who didn't.

If they choose to sell policies within a state, however, they'll have to accept everyone--or the PPACA rules will need to be changed. Charging higher premiums might be a solution.

You're right, the insurance companies wrote the rules and the way to get away from the problems (JMOO) is to kick the insurers to the curb and implement a true single-payer system.

My niece who runs her own yoga studio purchases insurance through the marketplace, and she has the Bronze plan. Her deductible is almost $7,000 per year, and like she told me--she only goes in for the covered things, like the flu shot, but if she gets sick, she'll stay home because she can't afford the deductible.

What ever happened to the "affordable" part of the Act?

Well.... we pretty much do know what happened to that.

 

[LadyL]

It will be awhile before the FDA grants emergency approval for a booster, and then it's going to take time to distribute the booster shot, assuming it's a different vaccine, and then implement the injections. But people are going to get an additional shot on their own, often lying about whether they've had the regular 2 shots.

The wave is about to hit, so really too late to avoid masks. August is going to be bad, IMO.

[bbm]

how can they lie? do they not have to show i.d.? here in Canada we show our health card - I know you don't have that there but is it not regulated somehow??

 

[Betty P]

San Francisco is allowing people who got J&J got get a second shot of Pfizer or Moderna.
"Individuals who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccination will be offered a “supplemental” second dosage of either Moderna or Pfizer by the San Francisco Department of Health, but the move should not be deemed a booster shot."
Those who received the J&J vaccine can get a second shot of Moderna or Pfizer at a San Francisco hospital. | The Washington Newsday

That's great and a good idea. People were anxious to get vaccinated and I can't blame anyone for taking the J&J vaccine when it was all that was available in their area. Even J&J at the time said it wasn't as powerful as Pfizer and Moderna, but anything was better than nothing. I feel a little better this time around that the vaccines are being made now in the US, so we don't have to worry about getting it from some overseas manufacturer.

If everyone gets vaccinated, I think we can get ahead of COVID 19, eventually. I'm staying optimistic, but cautious.

 

[musicaljoke]

How is that family going to get their second doses?

Canada will vaccinate anyone with warm blood. One doesn't need to be a citizen or resident, neither is a health card necessary. You don't need any ID, although without ID I don't know how the vaccination is documented. You don't need to have had your first shot in Canada.

I know this because I've been working at the mass clinics since March.

The goal is to vaccinate everyone, and by doing so, we are all safer.

 

[SouthAussie]

More and more, I am thinking that masking is going to be a part of our lives, in the United States, and other places.

I remember the pure joy I had, of flinging my mask across the room when we no longer were under restrictions to wear a mask.

I bought a pack of 50 re-useable masks on Amazon the other day. Sigh.

Masks are here 'to stay' in South Australia. We have had zero new community cases for 5 days now.

I was at aquafit yesterday (masks to be worn until you get into the water, and once you get out of the water - not during the socially spaced class) and they told us that from now we wait in our cars until 5 mins prior to class, then we enter the premises. It is an inside pool.

Our Premier said at the end of our recent lockdown that we all had to get used to wearing masks. Not seeing a fuss about it anywhere here.

 

[jjenny]

Canada will vaccinate anyone with warm blood. One doesn't need to be a citizen or resident, neither is a health card necessary. You don't need any ID, although without ID I don't know how the vaccination is documented. You don't need to have had your first shot in Canada.

I know this because I've been working at the mass clinics since March.

The goal is to vaccinate everyone, and by doing so, we are all safer.

Maybe we should head up there for boosters?

 

[anneg]

That's great and a good idea. People were anxious to get vaccinated and I can't blame anyone for taking the J&J vaccine when it was all that was available in their area. Even J&J at the time said it wasn't as powerful as Pfizer and Moderna, but anything was better than nothing. I feel a little better this time around that the vaccines are being made now in the US, so we don't have to worry about getting it from some overseas manufacturer.

If everyone gets vaccinated, I think we can get ahead of COVID 19, eventually. I'm staying optimistic, but cautious.

Quoting a local retired MD I respect:
"If EVERYONE in this country wore a mask around other people, stayed socially distant, and got fully vaxxed, we could stop this by the end of the year.

"Why? When we get to a high enough level of immunization, the virus won't be able to take hold (or mutate). What is that level? We'll know it when we get there and not before. 70% may be too low, 95% will not be too high.

"What happens if we continue to act like morons? We should expect SuperCovid: a lethal virus that is resistant to vaccines."

Unfortunately, it's hard to believe everyone will get vaccinated. There are too many people who apparently would rather get Covid, be hospitalized, and die than get a safe and effective vaccine. Many of them are terribly misinformed and believe all kinds of lies about Covid and the vaccines. So sad.

 

[LadyL]

My local paper, Central West, New South Wales, Australia

It's behind a paywall.

Seems older people are struggling, or don't know how to use the QR codes so are opting just to stay home.
I'm guessing some don't have a mobile phone and are still using landlines.

'I just don't go out': QR code concerns making it difficult for some

I don't understand this. What's a QR code?

 

[SouthAussie]

<RSBM>
"Why? When we get to a high enough level of immunization, the virus won't be able to take hold (or mutate). What is that level? We'll know it when we get there and not before. 70% may be too low, 95% will not be too high.

They are modelling and remodelling and remodelling the vaccination rates required here, at the moment.

I was reading yesterday that if Australia opens up at a 70% vaccined rated, we can expect 1,900 covid deaths - which would be MASSIVE for Australia and quite unacceptable to our society.

So we can expect low level restrictions to stay in place, even when we reach a 70% vaccined rate.
With low level restrictions, they think we would reduce the deaths to perhaps 16 covid deaths.

Although phases B, C and D bring gradually looser COVID rules, the Doherty Institute said that keeping even those “low-level restrictions and optimal TTIQ” would reduce those numbers by 100-fold; down to 16 deaths and 2700 infections.
The COVID rules Australia will have to learn to live with

(TTIQ = test, trace, isolate and quarantine)

 

[SouthAussie]

I don't understand this. What's a QR code?

A contact tracing tool. We check in on an app every time we enter a venue. Then each state can find out who else was there, if an infected person was there.
Every venue has its own QR code.

 

[LadyL]

When they say help you sign in I think they mean help you first to sign in on your phone. Then a last resort is that they sign you in, since they took the paper sheet away.

sign in to what?
I'm quite a few pages behind - sorry if this has been answered

 

[LadyL]

View attachment 307329

A contact tracing tool. We check in on an app every time we enter a venue. Then each state can find out who else was there, if an infected person was there.
Every venue has its own QR code.

wow that's extreme - people here would riot lol

 

[Cubby]

Forgive me if this has been answered.

If, as reported, the delta variant virus is shedding at the same rate in vaccinated and unvaccinated people, what prevents mutation?

Vaccination prevents severe illness, hospitalization and death, in those vaccinated.

But, what exactly is going to prevent mutation if asymptomatic vaccinated persons are shedding the virus at the same rate non vaccinated persons are shedding the virus? Aside from the obvious masks......

With so many variants it seems nearly impossible to think we'll ever reach herd immunity.

Masks may become a permanent thing, if we can get people.to wear them.

 

[SouthAussie]

wow that's extreme - people here would riot lol

It takes about one nano-second to check in. I think people here understand that it is part of what is keeping us as safe as possible.
All they get is your phone number, so they can reach you if you are at risk.

We are all pretty freaked out when we think of covid spreading throughout Australia, or that we have been in the same venue at the same time as a covid-positive person.
We have been watching what is happening and are trying our hardest to minimise the damage here.
No big inconvenience, or breach of privacy.

The QR code info drops off the state Health Dept's database after 28 days. It can't possibly hold all the QR code data for more than that, there is so much of it.

 

[LadyL]

More and more, I am thinking that masking is going to be a part of our lives, in the United States, and other places.

I remember the pure joy I had, of flinging my mask across the room when we no longer were under restrictions to wear a mask.

I bought a pack of 50 re-useable masks on Amazon the other day. Sigh.

reusable? so you wash them or disinfect them?