SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

Surely republican voters average much older than democrat voters. Which would explain that finding.
I would say older, not much older though. Vaccine rates between the two groups are grossly different which is surreal as one would think that an older set of people would want to do whatever it could to ensure survivability. They were swayed by the disinfo, propaganda, etc.

Both facts are at play.
 
It’s because the number of antivax morons is so high amongst their idiot base.

Maybe? Age has always been the biggest driver of bad outcomes due to covid. For young people a vaccine is rarely the difference between life and death. More likely the difference between a week in bed and a head cold.

The only thing I’m not sure about is the average age of red vs blue voters. And average could be misleading. You really want to know which has the highest number of 60+ voters. In the Uk/Ireland that would most definitely be conservative/right wing parties.
 
Maybe? Age has always been the biggest driver of bad outcomes due to covid. For young people a vaccine is rarely the difference between life and death. More likely the difference between a week in bed and a head cold.

The only thing I’m not sure about is the average age of red vs blue voters. And average could be misleading. You really want to know which has the highest number of 60+ voters. In the Uk/Ireland that would most definitely be conservative/right wing parties.

From the article:

“In 2018 and the early parts of 2020, excess death rates for Republicans and Democrats are similar, and centered around zero,” the study said. “Both groups experienced a similar large spike in excess deaths in the winter of 2020-2021. However, in the summer of 2021—after vaccines were widely available—the Republican excess death rate rose to nearly double that of Democrats, and this gap widened further in the winter of 2021.”

The study attributes this to the vaccine uptake disparity between Republicans and Democrats, which has been widely documented as more Republicans refused to take the vaccine; the most vocal anti-vax voices were Republican politicians and some conservative news outlets: “The gap in excess death rates between Republicans and Democrats is concentrated in counties with low vaccination rates and only materializes after vaccines became widely available,” the study notes.
 
From the article:

“In 2018 and the early parts of 2020, excess death rates for Republicans and Democrats are similar, and centered around zero,” the study said. “Both groups experienced a similar large spike in excess deaths in the winter of 2020-2021. However, in the summer of 2021—after vaccines were widely available—the Republican excess death rate rose to nearly double that of Democrats, and this gap widened further in the winter of 2021.”

The study attributes this to the vaccine uptake disparity between Republicans and Democrats, which has been widely documented as more Republicans refused to take the vaccine; the most vocal anti-vax voices were Republican politicians and some conservative news outlets: “The gap in excess death rates between Republicans and Democrats is concentrated in counties with low vaccination rates and only materializes after vaccines became widely available,” the study notes.

:lol: That’s gas. The amount of times I’ve sneered at people for posting about a tweet without actually reading the linked article. Hoist by my own petard!

In my defence, I’ve just got back in from the pub. Couldn’t possibly go the whole nine yards and actually read something like that. All I’ve got is hot takes and one liners.
 
Age, propensity to be anti-vax, anti-mask and anti-other preventative measures along with a greater likelihood of engaging in high risk behaviors due to their political leanings and their impact on their perception of COVID 19 would be a good summary of contributing factors.
 
I got symptoms for the very first time on Christmas Eve and by Christmas day i knew i had it (did a test a few days later and confirmed it). Had no cough strangely enough, just a horrible sore throat, lethargy and alternating between being too cold and too hot.
 
I got symptoms for the very first time on Christmas Eve and by Christmas day i knew i had it (did a test a few days later and confirmed it). Had no cough strangely enough, just a horrible sore throat, lethargy and alternating between being too cold and too hot.
Lucky. The dry, non-productive cough was horrible for me.
 
Just in case anyone has anti-vax friends or colleagues throw this in your face, remember that is a good example of why vaccines are so safe. The ongoing monitoring of safety picks up even the smallest risks to health and the regulators and manufacturers share that information as soon as it comes to hand. And the bigger the number of doses received the better we are at picking up these sort of safety signals. With covid vaccines we’re talking absolutely enormous numbers.
 
Just in case anyone has anti-vax friends or colleagues throw this in your face, remember that is a good example of why vaccines are so safe. The ongoing monitoring of safety picks up even the smallest risks to health and the regulators and manufacturers share that information as soon as it comes to hand. And the bigger the number of doses received the better we are at picking up these sort of safety signals. With covid vaccines we’re talking absolutely enormous numbers.
Exactly right but you'll never convince ant-vaxxers
 
Especially with an article from that leftist ‘news’ shop Reuters. Can’t wait to show this to my antivax colleagues & see if they will badmouth Reuters like they always do.
I work in medical publishing and can read, if not really understand, most of the science that's been published, but I have in-law relatives that won't have it!
 
I work in medical publishing and can read, if not really understand, most of the science that's been published, but I have in-law relatives that won't have it!

The wife and I did our PhD work on a respiratory pathogen and our lab was involved in vaccine work for said pathogen. We had family and (now former) friends who would argue with us and cite Facebook posts as evidence. Had that happen on here too which is why I self imposed a COVID ban on myself.
 
The wife and I did our PhD work on a respiratory pathogen and our lab was involved in vaccine work for said pathogen. We had family and (now former) friends who would argue with us and cite Facebook posts as evidence. Had that happen on here too which is why I self imposed a COVID ban on myself.
I banned my step daughter from our house, she's not anti-vaxx but wouldn't have the COVID ones because she said they weren't tested properly and she wasn't being a guinea pig, that's not a wholly unreasonable argument but I disagreed and she was banned!
 
I banned my step daughter from our house, she's not anti-vaxx but wouldn't have the COVID ones because she said they weren't tested properly and she wasn't being a guinea pig, that's not a wholly unreasonable argument but I disagreed and she was banned!

Except they were tested properly. The original EUA was followed up by official clearance by the FDA. Ok, I am going back into exile.
 
Except they were tested properly. The original EUA was followed up by official clearance by the FDA. Ok, I am going back into exile.
The normal turnaround for vaccine approval is a lot longer than what happened here, there's no getting away for that fact, whether that really matters is a different discussion because the question should be why do they normally take so long to be approved
 
The normal turnaround for vaccine approval is a lot longer than what happened here, there's no getting away for that fact, whether that really matters is a different discussion because the question should be why do they normally take so long to be approved

The approvals were essentially no different. The shorter time frames didn't mean anything was skipped. Just that there was a greater imperative to speed up the purely administrative combined with the unusual situation of there being so many infected people to test on.
 
I banned my step daughter from our house, she's not anti-vaxx but wouldn't have the COVID ones because she said they weren't tested properly and she wasn't being a guinea pig, that's not a wholly unreasonable argument but I disagreed and she was banned!

It is a ludicrous argument and well done making such a hard call.
 
The wife and I did our PhD work on a respiratory pathogen and our lab was involved in vaccine work for said pathogen. We had family and (now former) friends who would argue with us and cite Facebook posts as evidence. Had that happen on here too which is why I self imposed a COVID ban on myself.

I was in Perth on holiday this week and when trying to avoid shopping with my wife and SIL I was acosted by and "alternative news" idiot. She was one of those loons who was calm despite drinking the coolaid. I tortured her with fact, logic and data for 30 mins before she ran away. Best fun I've had in ages.
 
I got the bivalent booster this week, jab number 5 for me. The vaccination centre has now been downgraded to a smallish building, and there were only a handful of people there. In fact, the doctor and nurse were standing there waiting for me.

I know anecdotally from talking to people in the village that some people stopped after the first booster, or even after the initial two jabs. I think they only got the vaccine because you were basically banned from everything and anything here if you hadn't completed the initial course. That's no longer the case, so people have just moved on.

I think it's a mistake.
 
I got the bivalent booster this week, jab number 5 for me. The vaccination centre has now been downgraded to a smallish building, and there were only a handful of people there. In fact, the doctor and nurse were standing there waiting for me.

I know anecdotally from talking to people in the village that some people stopped after the first booster, or even after the initial two jabs. I think they only got the vaccine because you were basically banned from everything and anything here if you hadn't completed the initial course. That's no longer the case, so people have just moved on.

I think it's a mistake.
For most people under 50, the risk of severe disease if you've had three doses is very low.

I think we're at the stage where targeting the message, and the provision, towards people who really will get major benefit is the crucial thing. If we need it annually, I'd like it to become routine, like flu boosters etc in the priority groups (and typically offered at the same time/place).

It might be in a couple of years a new variant (or a completely new infectious disease) comes along where we really need everyone to jump into action, but that's a different thing.
 
I got the bivalent booster this week, jab number 5 for me. The vaccination centre has now been downgraded to a smallish building, and there were only a handful of people there. In fact, the doctor and nurse were standing there waiting for me.

I know anecdotally from talking to people in the village that some people stopped after the first booster, or even after the initial two jabs. I think they only got the vaccine because you were basically banned from everything and anything here if you hadn't completed the initial course. That's no longer the case, so people have just moved on.

I think it's a mistake.

In addition to what @jojojo said the vast majority of those will have got (or will get soon) a ‘natural booster’ from catching covid. A lot of them without even realising it, due to asymptomatic illness. The pool of people who’ve never been exposed must be tiny at this stage.
 
In addition to what @jojojo said the vast majority of those will have got (or will get soon) a ‘natural booster’ from catching covid. A lot of them without even realising it, due to asymptomatic illness. The pool of people who’ve never been exposed must be tiny at this stage.

I think I'm in that boat, I had Sputnik and then Moderna as my second dose.

Before the third dose was offered to my age group I caught Covid and have just had a second Covid exposure 2 months back.
 
Not really kept up with covid since everything’s been open occasionally look at a few topics here and then.

Recently been hearing about the long term damage the virus is capable of with T-Cells and just the immune system in general.

This just conspiracy people or is there some real science to this as it’s interesting also coincides with Scarlett fever and strep in children being more prevalent etc. been away from it for so long i can’t separate the truth from fiction.

Just found it interesting, probs a load of crap.
 
Not really kept up with covid since everything’s been open occasionally look at a few topics here and then.

Recently been hearing about the long term damage the virus is capable of with T-Cells and just the immune system in general.

This just conspiracy people or is there some real science to this as it’s interesting also coincides with Scarlett fever and strep in children being more prevalent etc. been away from it for so long i can’t separate the truth from fiction.

Just found it interesting, probs a load of crap.

Probs a load of crap. And even if there's a grain of truth to then it's most likely a shared feature with a bunch of other viruses we've been living alongside for generations. The uptick in Strep A isn't even that dramatic. It's just happening earlier than usual, which could be for all sorts of reasons. Plus I'm convinced that a lot of the "increase" in resp illnesses in general is because everyone is so much more on edge and bringing sick kids to see doctors when they would have previously let them sweat it out at home. This in turn means much more cases being reported, even if the true incidence isn't much different.

What's interesting about this particular 'conspiracy' is that it's being driven by completely different set of people to the earlier conspiracies about 5G and vaccines etc This time it's a cohort who seem determined to overplay, rather than underplay, the risk the virus poses.
 
Not really kept up with covid since everything’s been open occasionally look at a few topics here and then.

Recently been hearing about the long term damage the virus is capable of with T-Cells and just the immune system in general.

This just conspiracy people or is there some real science to this as it’s interesting also coincides with Scarlett fever and strep in children being more prevalent etc. been away from it for so long i can’t separate the truth from fiction.

Just found it interesting, probs a load of crap.
The people who study the stuff say that our immune systems are responding pretty much how they always do. After clearing an infection, the system needs a bit of recovery time, which can make you vulnerable to the next cold in line.

Scarlet fever etc are more prevalent in the sense that we had less of it around when people were in various stages of lockdown and social distancing and that means a lot of kids are catching it for the first time. Some diseases look like we're getting the (didn't catch it in) 20/21, 21/22 hospitalisations on top of the "scheduled" 22/23. But for now at least, it doesn't seem to be more profound than that.
 
In addition to what @jojojo said the vast majority of those will have got (or will get soon) a ‘natural booster’ from catching covid. A lot of them without even realising it, due to asymptomatic illness. The pool of people who’ve never been exposed must be tiny at this stage.
You're no doubt right (and @jojojo). I haven't had Covid as far as I know, I was feeling unwell last week but tested negative.

I'm happy to take the boosters when they're offered to my age group, but I reckon this may be the last one that's available for the rest of this year.
 
Cheers guys, I try and stay away from most of it now the worlds negative as it is and some of the science papers are written in such a way it means nothing to anyone outside of that particular expertise.
 
I banned my step daughter from our house, she's not anti-vaxx but wouldn't have the COVID ones because she said they weren't tested properly and she wasn't being a guinea pig, that's not a wholly unreasonable argument but I disagreed and she was banned!
Good on you. I don’t even care about the views or the science Vs her view . I’ll be honest my view is much more basic. We all took a risk to get society moving again. Many people who took the vaccine probably had some fear or questions but we did it. Yet you have a small % of the population who refused to take it but they still enjoyed all the benefits of a vaccinated majority population. It really would have been good if there was long lasting travel ban, entry to events on the unvaccinated
 
Good on you. I don’t even care about the views or the science Vs her view . I’ll be honest my view is much more basic. We all took a risk to get society moving again. Many people who took the vaccine probably had some fear or questions but we did it. Yet you have a small % of the population who refused to take it but they still enjoyed all the benefits of a vaccinated majority population. It really would have been good if there was long lasting travel ban, entry to events on the unvaccinated
Personally I have an advantage over most people regarding the science, I work in the medical publishing world (in a technical capacity) so have access to a lot of the research and scientific discussions
 
Personally I have an advantage over most people regarding the science, I work in the medical publishing world (in a technical capacity) so have access to a lot of the research and scientific discussions
You’re at an intellectual advantage and must be even more annoyed at people like her. For the average person, many probably had the same questions and fears as your step daughter, only natural. The most rational would probably be “what if I’m the one in a million (figurative stat) who has a bad reaction or whatever “ then you also have others who might have thought eg “has it been thoroughly tested, seems rushed etc” reasonable questions / fears for people not in that industry.

But they used common sense, took the vaccine and within very short space of time we over the worse it. Imagine where we would be if everyone who had the slightest doubt or fear didn’t take it.
 
You’re at an intellectual advantage and must be even more annoyed at people like her. For the average person, many probably had the same questions and fears as your step daughter, only natural. The most rational would probably be “what if I’m the one in a million (figurative stat) who has a bad reaction or whatever “ then you also have others who might have thought eg “has it been thoroughly tested, seems rushed etc” reasonable questions / fears for people not in that industry.

But they used common sense, took the vaccine and within very short space of time we over the worse it. Imagine where we would be if everyone who had the slightest doubt or fear didn’t take it.
Not so sure about in the US, there are large swathes where the take-up rate is still low - mainly rural - I'm expecting some kind of spike again in the near future
 
I banned my step daughter from our house, she's not anti-vaxx but wouldn't have the COVID ones because she said they weren't tested properly and she wasn't being a guinea pig, that's not a wholly unreasonable argument but I disagreed and she was banned!
I am not an anti-vaxx to begin with but the more info that I have gathered the more this whole thing stinks, I have had the mRNA shots from Pfizer 3x so it's not that I was against it but now when the dust has settled more and more questions have been raised about the nature of these vaccines and also the side affects of them. We were told these vaccines would work and we'll they didn't, when you get vaccinated it makes you immune to that disease this certainly didn't as all of us have seen and many of us have had severe COVID infections after being vaccinated.

The people who didn't trust this were thrown aside as nutters but why would anyone really trust Big Pharma ? Their records aren't show white by any stretch and it caused a huge divide between people, people should've asked questions and not been thrown to the wolves for asking them.

I also got COVID and was absolutely floored by it while my wife who had one jab of Astra Zeneca didn't feel a thing as did my kids. The vaccination of kids and young people who never had any real problems with COVID was just ridiculous and made little sense from a medical point of view.

What I am saying is that the mass hysteria helped to create an environment where no one deared asking about this and the masses all fell in line to get our dose of what was available to help create herd immunity that never came. Something here just doesn't sit right. Hope you and your step daughter are back on good terms though.
 
I am not an anti-vaxx to begin with but the more info that I have gathered the more this whole thing stinks, I have had the mRNA shots from Pfizer 3x so it's not that I was against it but now when the dust has settled more and more questions have been raised about the nature of these vaccines and also the side affects of them. We were told these vaccines would work and we'll they didn't, when you get vaccinated it makes you immune to that disease this certainly didn't as all of us have seen and many of us have had severe COVID infections after being vaccinated.

The people who didn't trust this were thrown aside as nutters but why would anyone really trust Big Pharma ? Their records aren't show white by any stretch and it caused a huge divide between people, people should've asked questions and not been thrown to the wolves for asking them.

I also got COVID and was absolutely floored by it while my wife who had one jab of Astra Zeneca didn't feel a thing as did my kids. The vaccination of kids and young people who never had any real problems with COVID was just ridiculous and made little sense from a medical point of view.

What I am saying is that the mass hysteria helped to create an environment where no one deared asking about this and the masses all fell in line to get our dose of what was available to help create herd immunity that never came. Something here just doesn't sit right. Hope you and your step daughter are back on good terms though.

That’s just not true. How can you still think this? From the day the first results came out the most important measure of effectiveness has always been how vaccines keep people from getting severe disease (i.e. ending up in hospital, in ICU, or dead)

You say you were floored by covid. Did you end up in hospital? If not, you didn’t get severe covid. That might have happened to you without being vaccinated but you’re definitely not an example of a vaccine failing to be effective.
 
Whats with the rise of Anti - vax content on twitter? There’s a video of the pfizer CEO being heckled during WEF and a lot of anti vaxxers are retweeting as some sort of ‘told ya’. Can someone please summarise whats the allegation about and whats the truth?
I am not an anti-vaxx to begin with but the more info that I have gathered the more this whole thing stinks, I have had the mRNA shots from Pfizer 3x so it's not that I was against it but now when the dust has settled more and more questions have been raised about the nature of these vaccines and also the side affects of them. We were told these vaccines would work and we'll they didn't, when you get vaccinated it makes you immune to that disease this certainly didn't as all of us have seen and many of us have had severe COVID infections after being vaccinated.

The people who didn't trust this were thrown aside as nutters but why would anyone really trust Big Pharma ? Their records aren't show white by any stretch and it caused a huge divide between people, people should've asked questions and not been thrown to the wolves for asking them.

I also got COVID and was absolutely floored by it while my wife who had one jab of Astra Zeneca didn't feel a thing as did my kids. The vaccination of kids and young people who never had any real problems with COVID was just ridiculous and made little sense from a medical point of view.

What I am saying is that the mass hysteria helped to create an environment where no one deared asking about this and the masses all fell in line to get our dose of what was available to help create herd immunity that never came. Something here just doesn't sit right. Hope you and your step daughter are back on good terms though.

Wouldn’t agree with the bold either as a lot of people in their twenties and thirties also died especially during the delta wave.