Worst of US pandemic likely behind us but we can't drop our guard, experts say

[marmar]

(Guardian UK) The number of new Covid cases and deaths in the United States has been in a steady decline since early September, prompting many infectious disease experts to conclude that the worst impacts of the pandemic in America are probably in the past.

But in the same breath, those experts also caution that it’s not yet safe to abandon safeguards against the virus. That’s because parts of the US population and much of the world remain unvaccinated, which could allow for outbreaks and dangerous new variants of the virus to emerge.

“My most optimistic assessment is that if we keep vaccinating, sometime during late fall, into the winter, the pandemic phase of Covid will be substantially reduced over much of the United States,” said William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

He added: “We could move from pandemic to endemic, and endemic means that the virus remains in the community, akin to influenza, smolders along, keeps being transmitted, but the rate of disease that occurs is profoundly diminished, and the impact on individuals and health systems is very much controlled.” ............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/25/us-covid-coronavirus-pandemic-experts

[Johnny2X2X]

1. Vaccinations are going well

Too much attention is paid to the anti vaxxers, well almost 80% of the eligible population has gotten at least 1 shot in the US. So almost 4 in 5 people are not the problem. Vaccine mandates are working, more people are getting the shot, children will be eligible very soon and that will boost us even further. Right now 2 in 3 people in the US have had at least 1 shot.

We're getting there, for most of this year, 99% of the people dying from Covid are just Right Wing nuts, that number will hold going forward as the rest of the country moves on.

[luv2fly]

9. Where do you get 80 percent, or even 2 of 3?

I can't find such an optimistic number anywhere. Mid 50s here in Wisconsin and creeping up ridiculously slowly. Dane County, where Madison is, is in the 70s last I heard but it's a liberal outlier.

[Johnny2X2X]

10. NY Times and Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/

Shows the total US population is 66.4% vaccinated with 1 shot.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-19-vaccine-doses.html

Shows 12 and up (this is the eligible population) at 78% with at least 1 shot.

So we're really talking about 1 in 5 Americans as anti vax. The 4 in 5 that are at least partially vaccinated don't make any headlines.

[luv2fly]

11. Thank you for the links n/t

[Ms. Toad]

2. I think we've heard this story before.

At least this time they are recommending people stay on guard.

If they had done that in May, instead of giving everyone tacit permission to pretend it was all over, we might have avoided this last surge.

[Hugin]

6. I've lost any sort of forecasting ability.

With respect to the COVID pandemic.

Outside of a few TV shows who still display responsible masking, distancing, and crowd measures, there's barely anything on regular teevee to indicate it is not normal.

No news on the global nature of what is happening. Are there outbreaks of any new variants? Where are they?

Many of us saw Delta coming and it was blown by lifting the restrictions. (what few there were at that point)

Money is so interested in getting back to making more money we're being put at risk.

I'm in a bubble waiting for the All's Clear which will never come. I've learned quite a bit from this experience. Mostly, that I was very naïve about Americans in general and their ability to work together. Also, it has strengthened my post-Mutually Assured Destruction cynicism that I've lived in all of my life that YOYO (You're On Your Own) is the order of the day.

[Orrex]

3. No-mask assholes hear this as "the pandemic is over. In fact, it was never that big a deal at all."

[dalton99a]

5. Yeah, no more weird new strains

[MineralMan]

7. Get your booster, folks!

Please. It's free. It will return you to a high level of protection from infection and disease.

[Hugin]

8. As of four days ago, I qualified.

In the meantime, I went in for the flu shot.

There's other hideous diseases out there!

[Dial H For Hero]

13. Getting mine tomorrow.

[MineralMan]

14. Yay!

[Ms. Toad]

16. 65th birthday on 9/26, 6 months from 2nd Pfizer 9/28

Booster 9/28. (Late only because I was traveling on 9/27).

Now I just have to get my spouse her Moderna booster. (Because she did Moderna, she is just now eliglble).

I also have to figure out if my daughter is eligible. Her doctor seems to think that being on a biologic (which suppresses the immune response in her gut) makes her eligible - but I haven't been able to find anything formal to support that.

[marble falls]

12. Like Yogi Berra once said.