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COVID-19 roundup

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* Washington Post story on the delta variant

Then came delta — B.1.617.2. It had spread rapidly in India, but in the United States, it sat there for months, doing little as the alpha advanced. As recently as May 8, delta caused only about 1 percent of new infections nationally.

Today, it has nearly wiped out all of its rivals. The coronavirus pandemic in America has become a delta pandemic. By the end of July, it accounted for 93.4 percent of new infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. […]

Hospitals in states with low vaccination rates are struggling to cope with a flood of patients. At the same time, vaccination rates are jumping as the reality of the pandemic and the efficacy of the vaccines overcome fear, inertia and disinformation. […]

The flip side is that the delta surge is expected to peak faster. A more contagious virus finds susceptible people quickly and burns through that “fuel” faster. This may explain why the United Kingdom and India have both experienced surprisingly swift drop in cases after recent delta surges.

Hope is not a plan, but keep your fingers crossed anyway.

* Illinois State Fair

Ticketholders in the grandstand track area (also known as Standing Room Only) will be required to provide a print or digital copy of personal Vaccine Card, Vaccine Record, or Negative COVID-19 test within the 72 hours preceding the concert.

* The Center Square

Illinois state fair concerts to require vaccine proof or negative test and masks

Grab the mask and your vaccination card, or be ready to prove you don’t have COVID-19, if you plan to attend the concerts at the Illinois State Fair starting Thursday in Springfield.

That’s just a ridiculous over-statement. I sure hope newspapers are actually reading this freely supplied content before publishing it.

* WICS TV

DCFS not included in state’s new mask requirements

Gov. JB Pritzker announced sweeping mask and vaccine requirements for multiple state agencies Wednesday, but one was notably left off the list: the Department of Children and Family Services.

Yes, DCFS was indeed included in the state’s mask requirements last month. Private organizations run the agency’s congregate care facilities, which probably explains the lack of a vax mandate there.

Do better, teevee.

* WGLT

Long-term care facilities were among the hardest hit by COVID-19 in McLean County last year. Nursing home employees also were put at the front of the line to receive COVID vaccines when they became available in late 2020.

But many nursing home employees have passed on getting the vaccine.

Records recently posted online by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) show three long-term care facilities in McLean County — Bloomington Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, Luther Oaks and Arcadia Care of Bloomington — have staff vaccination rates of less than 25% as of July 25. […]

An advocate for nursing home residents said facility operators need to figure out why some staff members are reluctant to vaccinate. Angie Baker, regional ombudsman with the East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging, said unvaccinated staff pose health risks to nursing home residents as the Delta variant fuels a new wave of coronavirus infections.

The data is here.

* Don’t be this guy

Andy Ray must have repeated it to himself a hundred times, especially in the minutes before caregivers at HSHS St. John’s Hospital leaned his head back and inserted a breathing tube down his windpipe to keep COVID-19 from killing him.

“I kept thinking, ‘If I had gotten that shot, I wouldn’t be here,’” Ray, 52, told The State Journal-Register Thursday. “That’s all I could think of.”

Before going on a ventilator that would help him breathe for five of the 23 days he spent in the Springfield hospital in May and June, the rural Mount Sterling farmer’s thoughts also dwelled on the close family friend who succumbed to COVID-19 in the fall, before vaccines were available.

Once in the hospital, Ray, who lives about 65 miles west of Springfield, asked whether he could get a COVID-19 shot but was told it was too late for the vaccine to do any good. His wife couldn’t be at his side because she, too, had contracted COVID-19 by that time, though she didn’t need to be hospitalized.

* More…

* Vaccination milestone: 70% of Chicago adults have gotten at least one shot, city says

* Will County awards $138,000 in grants to help increase vaccination rate

* An uptick in mild breakthrough COVID infections in Illinois has some feeling they’re no longer ‘untouchable,’ but doctors say the vaccines are working

* CPS, Chicago Teachers Union trade barbs in dueling letters as talks for fall reopening sputter 3 weeks before the start of school: About 82% of CPS teachers have been vaccinated, according to district data. Meanwhile, 52% of Chicago kids aged 12 to 17 — whether they attend CPS or not — had received their first shot as of Wednesday, city data shows.

* Kids sick with Covid are filling up children’s hospitals in areas seeing spikes

* As Delta Variant Spreads, Florida Hospitals Race to Find Open Beds

* Austin warns of ‘catastrophe’ as Texas again becomes center of pandemic

* Pharmacists Fight Off COVID Truthers Demanding Horse Medicine Ivermectin Instead of the Jab

* Anti-Vax Insanity

* 2021 Illinois State Fair: Find out how to get a refund for grandstand concert tickets

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 11:43 am

Comments

  1. – Will County awards $138,000 in grants to help increase vaccination rate –

    They are going to need 100X that much money to counter what a county board member is doing. As a board member is also the VP of Moms For America, millions are being spent to advance vaccine hesitancy propaganda.

    This same person is also on the county public health and safety committee.

    It wasn’t until the state finally stepped in with the mass vaccination site that vaccination rates in the county even got off the ground, as the county had no actual plan. Even at this phase, multiple times a week the health department facilities aren’t even open to give vaccines to anyone.

    At what point does negligence become criminal.

    Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 12:04 pm

  2. That guy is also this guy https://apnews.com/article/health-coronavirus-pandemic-mississippi-bd4ee962b36e679a980da5b6f37d1084

    Comment by Jane Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 12:07 pm

  3. “this freely supplied content”

    They’re overcharging.

    Comment by Flying Elvis'-Utah Chapter Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 12:19 pm

  4. And then there’s ex Cub Rizzo, mr. I’m still looking at the data so I’m not getting the vaccine, who was just given a positive test result for the virus. good thing he’s not in Chicago because the hospital where he visited kids in the cancer ward just mandated vaccines for employees and volunteers. he is a poster child for bad information because right now so many people think because he is a cancer survivor that cancer survivors cannot get the vaccine. just a terrible example.

    Comment by Amalia Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 12:28 pm

  5. Having big rock festivals and big presidential birthday parties isn’t a good idea right now.

    Comment by Wanderer Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 12:34 pm

  6. === Having big rock festivals and big presidential birthday parties isn’t a good idea right now.===

    You forgot Sturgis… or did you?

    Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 12:35 pm

  7. I’d like to feel sorry for Andy Ray, but I have to be honest in saying I don’t have sympathy for you if you get a bad case of COVID when there are proven methods to prevent it. Woulda coulda shoulda isn’t a good medical philosophy to live by.

    Comment by Steve Rogers Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 12:59 pm

  8. Party till you die…that’ll show ‘em?

    Comment by Dotnonymous Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 1:14 pm

  9. ==Do better, teevee.==

    Emmy-award winning “journalism” at its finest from the kids on Channel 20. They must have fun “playing TV” on there.

    Comment by EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 1:29 pm

  10. The constitution has the line “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. It is important to note that life is the first word in this line. If you aren’t alive you don’t get to the other two.

    Comment by illinifan Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 1:30 pm

  11. = The constitution has the line “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. =

    Actually, it doesn’t. That’s the Declaration of Independence.

    Comment by JoanP Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 3:35 pm

  12. Rich needs to go back to posting the number of deaths per day data from the IDPH to make people realize what the true effects are.

    Comment by Han’s Solo Cup Monday, Aug 9, 21 @ 5:10 pm

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