In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 08 Apr 2021 10:59:10 -0500, Jim Joyce
wrote:

On Thu, 8 Apr 2021 08:10:52 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Thursday, April 8, 2021 at 10:29:07 AM UTC-4, Shadow wrote:
On Thu, 8 Apr 2021 06:22:48 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Thursday, April 8, 2021 at 2:54:21 AM UTC-4, Bod wrote:
A feature of coronavirus that emerged early in the pandemic was its
tendency to inflict serious illness and death on predominantly elderly
people or those with pre-existing health conditions.

Young and otherwise healthy people were left largely unscathed, with
many experiencing such minor symptoms – or none altogether – that they
didn’t even realise they were infected.

But the emergence of new mutations of COVID-19, dubbed ‘variants of
concern’ by epidemiologists, has changed all of that.

Dodging sickness and even death are no longer are safe bet for young
people, as countless examples internationally have shown.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...6685f4f7787826

The good news here is that while the media keeps harping on about a new surge,
for the US as a whole, so far there has only been a small blip back up and it doesn't
look like the beginning of the two previous surges. There are 5 states that are having
serious new surges, but the rest must be declining or at least not increasing.

Speaking of the media harping about the terrible new surge, that puts an end to the
Trumpets claims that the media was only covering Covid last year, making a big story
of it, to try to screw Trump.

Given where we are at, I think the US will not see a significant new surge, because
the vaccine is winning, thanks to responsible people getting it. About 160 mil doses
have been given, over 200 mil have been shipped. NJ here, about 40% have been
vaccinated. Those are serious numbers that are having an ever increasing effect.
If there was a mistake, maybe it was to not vaccinate the 20 year old dummies sooner,
because it looks like they are the ones aggressively spreading it.
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

Only 19.3% of the American population has been FULLY
vaccinated.
Stay safe.
[]'s


Yes, but good data out of Israel showed that the Pfizer vaccine was 90% effective
three weeks after the first shot. Nothing much happened in the first two weeks,
then in the third week immunity ramped up. to 90%. The second shot just boosted it a
bit more. Moderna is likely similar. So a lot more than 19% have a good deal of
protection. And with the above numbers rolling out and supply increasing further
the job is rapidly getting done. I doubt we're going to have the widely talked about
third surge wave here, but we'll see. I think by June or so we may have more vaccine
then people willing to get vaccinated.

After applying two places and being ignored for months, I got an
invitation on a Monday for any day that week, from a private, large
hospital. Then they were running 5 days a week at 3 locations, but now
I think it's down to two days a week, half a day, at one location.

Then about a month later I got an invitation to go to the State
Fairgrounds. Out of curiosity I checked if they still had open slots
(Walgreens still sends me email and usually by the time I open the page
there are no slots in all of Maryland.) Well in the case of the county
(using the state fairgrounds) the invitation came on Monday or Tuesday
for two days later. I checked slots and the morning** was pretty
full, but starting at 2PM, there were 19 or 21 empty slots for most time
slots, each 2 minutes long. (Some slots only had 3 or 4 or none,
especially 4:30 iirc, when people who get off work at 4 can arrive.)

So it came to about 1000 empty slots for the day i was invited for.

I chacked the following afternnon and it was down to about 800. Early
the next morning, the day of the invitation, and about 800 then also.

I wondered if they would close the webpage, stop making appts. at 8AM or
9. But they sensibly kept it open all days and even at 4 that afternoon,
there were about 750 enpty slots. I felt like going again.

Now I suppose for every slot that goes unfilled, they save the vaccine
until tomorrow, and they wouldn't have so mnch vaccine, so many
available slots on Thursday every slot on Wednesday had been used.

So maybe this says little about vaccine availabilty but it sure seems to
say somehting about people's urgency. AFAIK there aren't many jobs
where they won't let you take off 2 hours to get a shot, if the
alternative is your coming to work sick. Most people in Balt. county
have cars or friends with cars, or taxis, and thee is even a light rail
station right at the fairgrounds. if you have to take public
transportation, at most 90 minutes to get there.

**That's what I thought, but later I think I learned they didn't open
until noon, so that's why no morning slots were listed.

The state fairgrouneds location in Md. was run by Balt. County, but I
think the state took over about a week ago. From a distance, I haven't
seen any change in operation however.


That remains a serious problem, about half
of Republicans say they won't get it and there are plenty of other anti-vaxers too.

What a difference a competent Presidential administration makes. Imagine
where we'd be if the previous Prez had been reelected.

I hate to think about it. Although the advantage woulud be tha the
problem would have been over by last February. Just ask him.