(Update-Dave is putting together a new version of this chart that tries to remove the case dump and make the lines easier to follow.). This is a new chart Dave Dixon put together. I thought it would be interesting to see if there is a difference in the rate of change in cases by age group over the weeks of the epidemic. If there were, it might suggest that a new strain, i.e., that dreaded Delta (I thought we put that on double secret probation?), is having a disproportionate impact on one or another age group. What is really interesting in looking at the chart is that there isn’t much difference at all in rates of change, and that is despite vaccination rates being quite different. And we certainly don’t see that Delta is affecting the younger age groups more, in fact if anything it is the oldest age groups. That mid-March blip in older groups is that massive case dump DOH did then. Not from those days but earlier, but no way on the weekly report to figure out when.
Something seems to be going on with the effectiveness of the vaccine and the current strain of the virus. A couple in our small group at church went on an Alaskan cruise in late July, both recovered from Covid-19 in mid-winter. The husband had his second vaccine shot June 1 time frame and the wife made the decision not to get vaccination. A number of people came down with Covid-19 from the cruise, I was told out of 54 people the couple knew 22 got sick and they were all fully vaccinated, 1 or 2 required hospitalization. The husband of the couple that recovered from Covid-19 and was fully vaccinated got Covid-19 and the sickness was worse than his first go around. The wife had little issue with taste, so she figures she there might have been a slight infection. For me I would love to know the total number of people on the cruise, age of the people, etc. The couple I reference above on in their early sixties. I thought all along we have to learn to live with this like any other thing floating around.