Dave Dixon and I thought it might be interesting to look case rates in different parts of Minnesota and compare to vaccination rates. While there can be confounding factors like rates of prior infection, it is interesting that the vaccination rate is inverse to the case rate. This is pretty strong evidence that while the effect may wane, the vaccines do protect against infection.
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Overcast
PocketCasts
Radio Public
Stitcher
Anchor
RSS - Posts
It is correct to conclude that except for the Metro (M), Rochester (SE) and Duluth (NE) areas, the vaccination rate for the rest of Minnesota is below 50%?
So, said differently, the majority of much of out-state MN is unvaccinated.
yes, but remember there is a chunk of the population that can’t yet be vaxed, so the rate is a little better than it appears
“better” or “higher”?
At what point are we finally going to admit that sticking every man, woman, child and xim xer with this needle IS, NOT, GOOD.
The value in your analysis is that there is reason to be optimistic about the vaccines ability to limit symptoms even if it does tend to degrade over time. We should expect this since it is not a true sterilizing vaccine…it’s a fancy Thera Flu in layman’s terms.
I have not gotten the vaccine and have had COVID twice. The first time, over a year ago, was the most miserable nasty virus I have ever had to deal with. This latest round was much milder the body aches lingered longer ( I think ) but the loss of smell was weird…although I think it happened before it was just not on my list of symptoms to remember since the others were so terrible.
I believe the vaccine has value but I also believe it should not be a one size fits all remedy. I think they are playing with fire right now.
Ric…both infections confirmed with test?
Husband believes he had it because he was pretty sick for 10 days (I had nothing) in March 2020 with no test to prove it. Then in late August this year, for his new job, he rode in the cab with a vaccinated person for a week and acquired this dry, bothersome cough and the occasional bout of night fever for about two weeks. He wasn’t telling me this stuff, because the man he rode with was smoking and he thought it was a dry cough from that, and it was August, so he thought he was “sweating” because he was just hot.
Before we realized we were infectious, we brought it to our children and our grandchildren who ALSO were not vaccinated. They weathered the storm very well but we didn’t. Pneumonia for me and a lingering, nearly constant cough for him. I took him to the clinic where he got tested positive and a very DUMB PA who was nearly running in clinic while wearing some serious PPE, recommended he take antihistamine to stop the coughing….so he took the maximum dose. For 3 days. He emerged from that like a zombie. The entire nonsense lasted for a Month with us glad we weren’t hospitalized. I visited the ER because of secondary issues that are slowly righting themselves. Ironically, I thought my pneumonia was a significant symptoms for Cv-19 but in recent conversations with people, I’ve come across a very significant amount of people in various age groups reporting pneumonia in their lifetime from things as innocuous as a cold.
I want to note here, that I did have moments while I was sick where I wondered if I’d had been better off chancing the vaccine, but my Husband and kids all agreed that we’d made the right decision. I have a family of 10, adults and kids. My youngest daughter and her husband were the 2 who got vaccinated because they have a special needs child. She got shingles 5 days after her first shot effectively turning their already stressful household upside down. Thankfully my son in law got zero side effects.
And now that I am on the other side, and I’ve realized that life is a gamble in the best of situations, I’m not getting the vaccine or a booster until I re-eval at age 65.
The hubs and I are metabolically healthy 54 years young kids.