I suppose we should all be elated but I am more pissed than anything at how long it took to get to this point. The IB finally agreed to end all CV restrictions as of May 28, except that the mask mandate will stay in effect until July 1st, assuming we are at a 70% vaccination rate by then. I can only imagine what ludicrous statements he made in announcing his benevolent move, allowing the slaves a slight amount of the freedom they were always entitled to. Yassuh, Massa Tim, we suh ah grateful to you. Don’t kid yourself, that is exactly the kind of gratitude he expects from his subjects. It has been a horrifying perversion of democracy for one pathetic little man to exercise this kind of power for over a year; shutting businesses, closing schools, preventing elderly people near death from seeing friends and families, keeping children from normal social activities and purporting to order citizens, even family, to not gather with each other. When political sanity returns, if ever, the Minnesota legislature and every other state legislature must eliminate this kind of emergency power. It is and was completely unnecessary and it resulted in bad decision making and awful decisions.
When I screw up the courage to listen to the press conference, probably after a few drinks, I will bring a fuller report. In the meantime I will only note how desperately he clings to the mass(k) delusion, as we still have not fallen below the number of cases that occurred before he ordered the mask mandate. It will be the last thing to go because it is his little fetish, his talisman of obedience and compliance to his every whim.
And speaking of masks, if you think they don’t have environmental impacts, as well as potential chemical harms for wearers, read this study. (WR Article) It notes the chemicals in a typical face mask that can leach into the environment. We have all observed the high levels of mask litter. Those same chemicals can also leach into you when you wear the mask.
This study covered household transmission in England following vaccination. (CID Study) It should be noted that the pre-vaccination rate of transmission in households is an astoundingly low 17%, according to the authors’ review of the research. For a supposedly super-transmissible respiratory virus, among people in close quarters, it strongly suggests some immune system factor precluding infection. The researchers examined whether people who had received at least one dose of vaccine but became infected within 60 days after vaccination, were more or less likely to transmit in their household. The results indicated that vaccinated people were half as likely to transmit to someone, suggesting that they were less infectious.
This study is the latest to suggest that hospital outcomes improved over time. It came from the Yale hospital system and covered a long period during the epidemic. While outcomes, particularly mortality, remained the same in LTC residents, it dropped for other persons. (Medrxiv Paper)
This study found that prior infection among LTC staff and residents led to a durable and strong antibody response and led to resistance to both reinfection and to lack of transmission in a facility. (Medrxiv Paper)
If you like variant terrorism, you will love this study. It claims that the B1617 variant has mutations that allow it to evade antibodies from natural infection and vaccination, although just to a moderate degree. What about T cells? Sounds just like the early studies freaking out on B117. I am not saying it isn’t possible, but so far every one of these variant scare has been a false alarm. (Medrxiv Paper)
Early on in the epidemic and still at times, people freak out because some infected people don’t seem to generate a strong or lasting antibody response. The T cell arm of adaptive immunity is looked at less frequently. This study examined persons who appeared to not have an antibody response. (Medrxiv Paper) They did have a T cell response, and the absence of an antibody response and presence of a T cell one appeared associated with less severe disease.
Another T cell study found that people with T cells prompted by MMR vaccination or TDAP generated more of an immune response to CV-19 and endured less severe infection. (Medrxiv Paper)
The PA IB pulled the same 70% vaccination rate out of thin air for his mask ‘ruling’ at roughly the same time frame. Wolf’s about to get nurtured on May 18th with proposed changes to our constitution getting rid of the one man rule structure. I’d be shocked if it didn’t get the votes it needs. Sounds like he’s trying to get ahead of it so he can claim that removing restrictions was his decision, not the people’s will. Jackass ….
No one will pick up mask litter! National Panhandler Radio ( my wife’s alarm, not mine) was “ all India panic, all the time” Pathetic.
With all the talk about India…is it my imagination, or are there many places in Central and South America doing even worse? The ability of the government to test and report doesn’t seem any stronger in South American than it would be in India (in fact, I’d guess India would have a stronger bureaucracy and better reporting).
7-day Average Cases/million (source: ourworldindata, May 6)
Uruguay = 728.53
Sweden = 487.21
Argentina = 444.54
Costa Rica = 412.58
Columbia = 306.49
Paraguay = 293.93
Chile = 285.9
France = 284.57
India = 282.46
Brazil = 277.49
South America = 268.8
That means Uruguay has over 2.5 times the number of cases per day per million as India.
Chile is especially interesting, since it has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, but it’s mostly the nearly-worthless Sinovac.
You are right, India is singled out only because it is so large. They haven’t yet hit the per capita case rates the US had in the fall/winter. Big problem in India is relatively low level of health capacity
Public health care policy from a former school teacher with a bulldozer personality. Laughable and tragic.
Out-state Minnesota can’t wait for the elections to send him packing. He has to know it’s “one and done”.