3 fully vaccinated Texas Democrats in Washington, D.C., test positive for Covid
Source: nbc news
"This is a sober reminder that Covid is still with us, and though vaccinations offer tremendous protection, we still must take necessary precautions," the group's caucus chairman said.
00:14 /03:10 July 17, 2021, 1:16 PM CDT / Updated July 17, 2021, 1:39 PM CDT
Three fully vaccinated members of the Texas House delegation in Washington, D.C., tested positive for Covid-19, the state's House Democratic Caucus said Saturday.
The first positive test result came Friday night, when a member informed the caucus they had the coronavirus.
"Caucus Members and staff took a rapid test, all of which were negative," the caucus said in a statement.
But two additional fully vaccinated members reported positive test results Saturday morning. The names of the three people have not been released.
The caucus said it will follow current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that state fully vaccinated individuals who are exposed to the virus do not need to take any extra precautions unless they start to show symptoms.
"The House Democratic Caucus is following all CDC guidance and protocols," Chairman Chris Turner said in a statement..................................
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/3-fully-vaccinated-texas-delegation-members-test-positive-covid-n1274278?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
Lordy lordy. I do hope all will be OK. --and hoping the people they came in contact with will be OK also.
Link to tweet
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**EDIT to insert statement from Texas Dems:
View this email in your browser
July 17, 2021
STATEMENT: Fully Vaccinated HDC Members Test Positive for COVID
https://mailchi.mp/796bcaecf08e/failure-to-lead-refusing-medicaid-expansion-1675011?e=d906063289
(WASHINGTON D.C.) – Friday night, a Member of the Texas House Democratic Caucus tested positive for COVID. The Member, who is fully vaccinated, immediately informed the caucus. Caucus Members and staff took a rapid test, all of which were negative. The caucus also consulted current CDC guidance, which says that fully vaccinated people who had been exposed to someone who tested positive do not need to take any additional precautions unless they are showing symptoms.
Saturday morning, two additional Members, each of whom are also fully vaccinated, tested positive on a rapid test.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Chris Turner issued the following statement:
“The House Democratic Caucus is following all CDC guidance and protocols. This is a sober reminder that COVID is still with us, and though vaccinations offer tremendous protection, we still must take necessary precautions. We are in touch with public health experts in Texas to provide additional guidance. Our caucus will follow all recommendations from public health experts as we continue our work.”
The HDC will, and ask others to, respect the privacy of Members and their personal health. The caucus will provide updates as warranted.
The following is the CDC guidance the HDC is currently following:
Fully vaccinated people with no COVID-like symptoms following an exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.
Most fully vaccinated people with no COVID-like symptoms do not need to quarantine, be restricted from work, or be tested following an exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19, as their risk of infection is low.
However, they should still monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 for 14 days following an exposure.
Exceptions where testing (but not quarantine) is still recommended following an exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 include:
Fully vaccinated residents and employees of correctional and detention facilities and homeless shelters.
###
The Texas House Democratic Caucus, which is composed of all Democrats in the Texas House, serves as the group’s membership services and logistical arm, and works to support House Democrats with communications, policy, and legal resources. Chaired by Rep. Chris Turner (D – Grand Prairie), the Caucus is focused on fighting for real solutions for all Texans.
For questions regarding the information in this release, please contact Phillip Martin, Executive Director for the Texas House Democratic Caucus, by email at philliptxhdc@gmail.com.
= new reply since forum marked as read
(tl/dr- 95 percent effective)
Masks, vaccines, isolating when sick.
A good mask is *necessary*, but not *sufficient*. And short of the highest biosecurity buildings, there's a non-zero chance of contageon.
The fact that nearly every entity and authority gets it wrong, in that a mask doesn't protect the *wearer*, but instead the people the wearer comes in contact with doesn't help either
?quality=90&strip=all
She's rock solid in her field. She's not sensational and highly respected. She's not about her brand at all. She's like Dr. Peter Hotez, in that respect. Public health and epidemiology are their lives. It's highly informative and based on the current assumed facts. Basically, delta may spread faster due to it being infectious sooner at much, much higher levels. Maybe? It's not peer reviewed yet. Grain of salt and all that. But, the more we know.
Hi, I don't think you know me. I'm immunocompromised, I'm in a study to see how people like me, truly high risk people post vaccine, respond with antibodies. I didn't do so well post two Moderna vaccines, but apparently I'm doing better with a J&J booster. Kind of, maybe? Time will tell. I hope I help other people like me who are now all living a terrifying reality. This is extremely personal to me and facts are my lifeblood at this moment. I know I may seem harsh, but this is literally my life, and the life of others like me, I'm fighting for here. I've literally had people here tell me I was lucky to have the medical care I'm currently have... um, I'm highly likely to die from this virus and am (most definitely) lucky to be in this study, but it came with life threatening risks at the point I joined it.
I'm a huge fan of follow the verifiable science and ignore the background noise for a reason.
I may well be masking and social distancing for the rest of my life if people mistakenly assume vaccines don't make a big enough difference and continue to forego them. That's how we reach herd immunity and make people like me, people who are vaccinated and currently being hospitalized, safe.
Peace and love to you. I think you're reading me all wrong. 
A new study by Li and colleagues is out on Virological that provides some insight:
Viral infection and transmission in a large well-traced outbreak caused by the Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant
Viral infection and transmission in a large well-traced outbreak caused by the Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant Baisheng Li1,2#, Aiping Deng1,2#, Kuibiao Li3#, Yao Hu1,2#, Zhencui Li1,2#, Qianling Xiong1,2,4…
https://virological.org/t/viral-infection-and-transmission-in-a-large-well-traced-outbreak-caused-by-the-delta-sars-cov-2-variant/724
There's been a lot of breathless news coverage about delta and it's mostly focused on increased transmissibility (and maybe pathogenicity).
VOCs aren't just inherently more transmissible (or more pathogenic). There must be a mechanism that underlies increased transmission.
Some hypothetical mechanisms include:
-Increased fitness (more shedding)
-Increased infectivity (better at infecting host cells ie tighter receptor binding)
-Longer period of contagion (shed virus for longer)
-Increased environmental stability (more tolerant to temp/humidity/etc)
This study attempted to address this in quarantined close contacts of confirmed cases. These people were tested daily by PCR, which allowed the investigators to determine the course of infection: longitudinal viral loads and time from exposure to positivity and symptoms.
The findings are quite striking. This shows that:
-People infected with delta test positive more quickly following exposure, suggesting more rapid viral growth.
-The viral loads (by PCR Ct) are 1000 times higher in delta when first detected.
This suggests that the delta incubation period is reduced compared to the prior viruses. Also, people infected with delta are shedding a shit-ton more virus than those from earlier variants.
This certainly explains delta's increased transmissibility.
If people are shedding 1000X more virus, the probability that a close contact will be exposed to an infectious dose is much higher.
If people become contagious more quickly after exposure, they can have more opportunity to infect others.
Now, I've also seen a lot of 🚨DELTA IS MORE AIRBORNE!!!!!1!!!🚨 commentary, which is neither helpful nor accurate. A virus is a physical structure that still has to obey the laws of physics. It can't become "more airborne"...and I'm not even sure what that means.
They also did some excellent molecular epidemiology as part of this study, and that was coupled with robust contact tracing and phylogenetic analysis. In this cohort, delta was transmitted both via direct contact & "indirect" transmission (most likely aerosols & not fomites).
So, delta is not more transmissible by the aerosol route than other variants. Primary modes of transmission continue to be a mix of inhaled aerosols and direct contact. Delta hasn't learned how to fly or morphed into an ACE2-seeking virus missile. It's not "more airborne."
This study suggests that the mechanism behind delta's increased transmissibility is just that there's a lot more of it, sooner. If there's more virus around, it's going to be easier to spread.
This is also consistent with the vaccine data that's been reported for delta.
Unvaccinated people are most vulnerable.
Partially vaccinated people are slightly less vulnerable but not robustly protected.
Fully vaccinated people are very protected.
Unvaccinated people have no defense against delta. It's easy for delta to gain a foothold with higher exposure.
Partially vaccinated people have low levels of neutralizing antibodies. It's easy for delta to overcome the antibodies they do have just by strength in numbers.
But fully vaccinated people have high titers of neutralizing antibodies and mature memory B and T cell responses. It's a lot harder for delta to overwhelm these defenses by just throwing more virus at them.
It also explains breakthrough infections. No vaccine is perfect, and a high enough dose of virus can overcome vaccine-induced defenses enough to cause an infection, though vaccine-induced immunity will limit disease severity in most cases.
All this suggests we can control delta with interventions we already have at our disposal:
-Get fully vaccinated
-Consider adding other interventions too, at least when spending time with people outside your household (mask, avoid crowds, limit gatherings, ventilate, etc)
Also I'm adding here that nothing is known about whether delta is more pathogenic. Despite observations that's the case, we should wait before coming to that conclusion. That was suggested for alpha based on epi data, but it wasn't borne out in animal models.
More transmissible VOCs may appear to be more pathogenic based on just infecting more people, who may be uniquely vulnerable. But I'm reserving judgment until I see mechanistic data demonstrating that a VOC has the means of producing more severe disease.
Also, let me add that despite op/eds arguing that higher doses mean more disease, there is very little evidence that dose correlates with disease severity, from both animal models and epi studies. I'll be surprised if delta is more pathogenic just because there's more of it.
My guess is that the route of transmission probably matters a lot more than dose, except at the extreme ends of the spectrum. But that remains among the many questions about delta that need to be addressed experimentally.
In short:
-Delta may be more transmissible because there's more of it, more quickly after exposure
-Vaccines still work against delta
-Taking other precautions (masks, distancing, limit crowds, stay outdoors, ventilation, hand washing, disinfection, etc) will further reduce risk.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1415672461111271424.html
