“Then I see the disinfectant which knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside for almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.”
“So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn’t been checked but you’re gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some other way.”
Climb aboard our Irony cruiseliner.
Memories. My memory is flawed. So, I appreciate daily reminders from Mark Stuffabird.
For instance, this pandemic update from last year.
February 17, 2021 Hernando has 10,807 cases and 383 deaths. 383. That’s up from 372. Like late night vote dumps. No vaccines here. “It’s the Feds’ fault.” Especially no vaccines today. “It’s the weather’s fault.” An average of 51 cases per day reported in Hernando County, a 25% decrease from two weeks ago. Cause to celebrate for sure. But still stay in your house. Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 1 in 18 residents have been infected, a total of 10,745 reported cases. In a world of stray bullets, granted, fewer bullets is a good thing. The old man was a large target, albeit a legend at dodgeball. Kent Elementary (’55-’56). New York. You can look it up. So, he still went grocery shopping weekly and counted the unmasked.
That was then, this is now. Here’s the news from February 16, 2022. Hernando County, Fla. Case Details. The average number of new cases in Hernando County was 130 yesterday, about the same as the day before. Since January 2020, at least 1 in 5 people who live in Hernando County have been infected, a total of 40,951 reported cases.
Forty-five (45) deaths reported last week. At least 1 in 192 people have died. Total dead, 1008.
Note: No new cases were reported in Hernando County yesterday. This may be due to a lapse in reporting of cases and does not necessarily mean that no people were infected yesterday. [In Florida, under-reported data is issued once a week, late on Friday maybe.]
Extreme Covid-19 risk if unvaccinated. And 43% of eligible county residents remain unvaccinated.
Note: Your risk is lower if you are vaccinated.
1008. Schools open. Bars open. No mandates. Freedumb.
Good morning. We have an update on the “red Covid” story.
When you live in a localized version of The Dark Ages – don’t say Gay Maus – it’s all fun and games until you fear for your own life and that of the wife.
Stupidity is contagious and there’s no vaccine.
RED COVID IS NOT A HOAX
February 18, 2022
By David Leonhardt for The New York Times
Still growing, more slowly
Ocean County, in central New Jersey, is a mixture of beach towns like Barnegat Light and exurban towns like Toms River and Lakewood. Household income in the county exceeds the U.S. average.
Yet Ocean County is among the least vaccinated places in the Northeast. Only 53 percent of residents have received at least two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine (or one dose of Johnson & Johnson). Only 26 percent have received a booster shot.
The large number of unvaccinated residents in Ocean County has led to a horrific amount of Covid illness and death. Nearly one out of every 200 residents has died from the virus. That is worse than the toll in Mississippi, the U.S. state with the largest amount of Covid death per capita, and worse than in any country except for Peru.
What explains the vaccine skepticism in Ocean County? Politics, above all. The county is heavily Republican. Donald Trump won it by almost 30 percentage points in 2020, and many Republicans — including those who are older than 65 and vulnerable to severe Covid illness — are skeptical of the vaccines.
This partisan divide has led to the “red Covid” phenomenon that I have described in previous newsletters. Today, I have an update.
Blue, then red First, some background: In the pandemic’s initial months, Covid cases and deaths were higher in Democratic areas, probably because they are home to several major international airports. The virus entered this country on the West Coast and in the Northeast. But it didn’t stay there. By the end of Covid’s first year in the U.S., the virus had swept across the country, and there was no significant partisan divide in deaths.
Only after the vaccines became widely available, in early 2021 — and liberals were much more willing to get shots than conservatives — did Covid become a disproportionately Republican illness. By the summer of 2021, the gap was soaring:
As the chart makes clear, the toll has been even worse in counties where Trump won by a landslide than in counties that he won narrowly.
This phenomenon is an example of how the country’s political polarization has warped people’s thinking, even when their personal safety is at stake. It is a tragedy — and a preventable one, too.
A new study by four Harvard epidemiologists estimates that 135,000 unvaccinated Americans died unnecessarily in the last six months of last year. The Texas Tribune recently profiled a young unvaccinated couple: She spent 139 days in intensive care; he asked, “Was this my fault?” They have both since been vaccinated.
Don’t say Interspecies Gay Maus. And where does it end?
Natural immunity
There is one big new development. When I last wrote about red Covid, in November, I told you that the month-to-month partisan mortality gap might be peaking, for two main reasons.
One, the availability of highly effective post-infection treatments, like Pfizer’s Paxlovid, has been expanding; if they reduce deaths, the drop may be steepest where the toll is highest. Two, red America has probably built up more natural immunity to Covid — from prior infections — than blue America, given that many Democrats have tried harder to avoid getting the virus.
Sure enough, the partisan gap in Covid deaths is no longer growing as fast it had been, as you can see from the new closeness among these lines:
In Trump and Biden counties, one candidate won at least 70 percent of the vote; in swing counties, both won at least 45 percent. During the Omicron wave, deaths have risen less in red counties than in blue or purple counties. The most likely explanation seems to be that the number of Trump voters vulnerable to severe illness — which was still very large earlier last year — has declined, because more of them have built up some immunity to Covid from a previous infection.
But don’t make the mistake of confusing a gap that’s no longer growing as rapidly as it was with a gap that is shrinking. The gap between red and blue America — in terms of cumulative Covid deaths — is still growing. The red line in that second chart is higher than the blue line, which is a sign that more Republicans than Democrats or independents have needlessly died of Covid in recent weeks.
Another point to remember: Even in deeply blue counties, an outsize number of deaths are occurring among people who are unvaccinated or unboosted. The vaccines offer incredible protection from a deadly virus, yet many Americans have chosen to leave themselves exposed.
“I don’t need the numbers to double because of one ship.”
Hernando County, Florida. “The Nature Coast.” [But don’t wait too long.]
1008. That’s 625 deaths in Hernando County in 365 days.
Our Covid numbers are worse than Ocean Beach. Worse than Mississippi. The Governor has obviously been shooting for the most vulnerable of his citizens and herd immunity means what exactly – the old and slow, they just die off. Strengthens the herd and reduces pension liability simultaneously.
No way Florida can catch up with Peru, despite the best efforts of our state Surgeon General.
Too many kleptocrats with breezy estates and great health insurance.
My body, my choice. Figure I served four years in the military to defend my right to wear a mask just because I believe in science. And, of course, Dr. Fauci.
Leaving yourself exposed exposes all the rest of us.
My four vaccinated offspring, the ones who take all precautions, caught Covid; my four unvaccinated, who take few precautions, caught Covid.
Nobody liked it.
Nobody likes being old and slow either.
But I am getting used to it and would like to stay this way for a while.
