CR: COVID-19 --Political Talk

[JimmyJames 12271]

2 hours ago, elfenix said:

holy shit the daily trumper version of this thread has canceraids

Yeah it’s totally out of control.

Was in college station over the weekend. Yeah they be spreading the COVID in that place. 

[HenryJames 66038]

 

[Bookman 4638]

Wow Abbott actually fucking said that.

[Anastasis 23464]

41 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

 

Osterholm strikes again.  This guy made some really great calls early in the pandemic, but he latest round hasn't been so spot on. He definitely knows what he is talking about, but has gone a bit too far to the doomer scariant end of the spectrum. I hope he is wrong, but consider seriously everything he says. 

[Doc Sam Beckett 5792]

3 hours ago, elfenix said:

holy shit the daily trumper version of this thread has canceraids

Alright, I haven't been following this shit as closely as before. Why do they have such a hard on for Fauci? 

[jimmyjazz 45893]

1 minute ago, Doc Sam Beckett said:

Alright, I haven't been following this shit as closely as before. Why do they have such a hard on for Fauci? 

The current GOP strategy seems to be to reject any and all perspectives that are endorsed by mainstream science and education.  That's the only angle I can imagine.

[Anastasis 23464]

1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

The current GOP strategy seems to be to reject any and all perspectives that are endorsed by mainstream science and education.  That's the only angle I can imagine.

Many of the people with the signs in their yard promoting "In this house we believe in science" actually don't.  They believe in politicized science.  I know I know, bothsides.  

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

17 minutes ago, Bookman said:

Wow Abbott actually fucking said that.

 

 

[jimmyjazz 45893]

18 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Many of the people with the signs in their yard promoting "In this house we believe in science" actually don't.  They believe in politicized science.  I know I know, bothsides.  

Do you have some basis for this assertion?  I'm not saying you're wrong, I don't talk to my neighbors about their signs (or pretty much ever).

[Biff Tannen 45666]

51 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Many of the people with the signs in their yard promoting "In this house we believe in science" actually don't.  They believe in politicized science.  I know I know, bothsides.  

I’d be more worried about the people with confederate flags in their yards. 

[Anastasis 23464]

39 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

I’d be more worried about the people with confederate flags in their yards. 

I've never lived next to any of those folks, but I have lived next to a bunch with the "In this house" signs that didn't believe in vaccines, or mainstream cancer treatments, or science when it didn't prop up their political views.  The added kicker were the ones with STOP WAR NOW signs that suddenly disappeared with changes in administration. 

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

25 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

I've never lived next to any of those folks, but I have lived next to a bunch with the "In this house" signs that didn't believe in vaccines, or mainstream cancer treatments, or science when it didn't prop up their political views.  The added kicker were the ones with STOP WAR NOW signs that suddenly disappeared with changes in administration. 

We have a mat in front of the door that says 'Welcome,' we're just trying to stay somewhere on the spectrum between "Have You Seen This Cat?"  and "Lawn of the Month" signs.

[Anastasis 23464]

29 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

We have a mat in front of the door that says 'Welcome,' we're just trying to stay somewhere on the spectrum between "Have You Seen This Cat?"  and "Lawn of the Month" signs.

I think Biff lives in my old hood, so he knows what I am talking about, in particular the STOP WAR NOW signs. 

[PsychMike 1547]

dp

Edited April 13, 2021 by PsychMike
caught a hanger

[PsychMike 1547]

4 hours ago, HenryJames said:

 

"Abbott: “I don’t know what herd immunity is, but … it looks like it could be very close to herd immunity.”

"Your Honor, move to strike that comment due to the fact that it's utter bullshit!"

"Sustained. The court reporter will strike that entire statement from the record except, 'I don't know what herd immunity is.'"

[PsychMike 1547]

On 4/10/2021 at 6:00 PM, Anastasis said:

 

McClellan lab got this man. It's time to remember how to act like humans again. 

 

This seems like it doesn't suck.

[Anastasis 23464]

Just now, PsychMike said:

This seems like it doesn't suck.

What starts here changes the world. 

[HenryJames 66038]

 

[Brisketexan 105082]

Great.  Swell.  Awesome.

[wildcat09 29348]

I have no good take on whether this is the best or worst of a set of terrible choices, but I'm pretty sure there was no actual good choice available here.

[kevwun 15769]

Right now it looks like it is only happening in women.  So the best path forward is if they can narrow it down to a particular subset of women, then exclude them from the vaccine.  Then start giving out the shot again.

[LurkingHorn 1066]

11 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

I have no good take on whether this is the best or worst of a set of terrible choices, but I'm pretty sure there was no actual good choice available here.

Totally disagree. The public perception damage has already been done with regard to this particular vaccine. And now people like my mom have that much more ammunition to be stubborn about getting vaccinated. 1 death in nearly 7 million doses vs. Covid death rate...

[wildcat09 29348]

8 minutes ago, LurkingHorn said:

Totally disagree. The public perception damage has already been done with regard to this particular vaccine. And now people like my mom have that much more ammunition to be stubborn about getting vaccinated. 1 death in nearly 7 million doses vs. Covid death rate...

I think that damage would probably be worse if they did nothing and the media started picking up and sensationalizing the instances of adverse effects.

[Anastasis 23464]

19 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

I have no good take on whether this is the best or worst of a set of terrible choices, but I'm pretty sure there was no actual good choice available here.

Yeah, FDA is in a jam on this one.  A short pause, followed by an adcomm meeting that probably restricts JNJ in younger women seems like the right move.  If they don't do the pause they potentially undermine people's confidence in assessing safety signals, if they do the pause they feed into the anti-covax narratives. Really really really wish that they woudl have pushed PFE and MRNA to include a one dose arm so we had some definitive data on one shot regimen.  

[hookemATL 11707]

I really do not feel like any amount of scientific/anecdotal evidence will convince/assuage the insanity of a certain segment of the population that is intent of coloring the vaccine as "fake"/"unnecessary"/"government intrusion".  They will use any data point that enforces their vaccine hesitancy, however insignificant, to justify their selfishness and back up their muh rights worldview.  They are broken people. Unfortunately they have the potential to fuck things up for everyone else that is following science and doing the right thing to take care of each other. 

Fuck them to death.  They should be shamed into dank caves, where they can fuck covid into each others rancid assholes without impacting people with common sense/decency.

[wildcat09 29348]

5 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Yeah, FDA is in a jam on this one.  A short pause, followed by an adcomm meeting that probably restricts JNJ in younger women seems like the right move.  If they don't do the pause they potentially undermine people's confidence in assessing safety signals, if they do the pause they feed into the anti-covax narratives. Really really really wish that they woudl have pushed PFE and MRNA to include a one dose arm so we had some definitive data on one shot regimen.  

Don't we have some data, maybe from the UK, that one shot of those isn't nearly as effective against some of the variants as two? I thought I saw that somewhere.

[Aqua Buddha 14582]

J&J was only a small number of vaccines in the US, especially after they had to toss millions of doses.  We already have a glut in some states.  J&J was only ever icing on the cake.  

[jimmyjazz 45893]

My 29-YO stepdaughter won't get the vaccine, and this just fuels her warped perspective.  It's not like I had any chance of convincing her otherwise, as the giant fucking argument we had two nights ago proved.

My 18-YO college freshman daughter, however, IMMEDIATELY jumped to the correct questions:  "wait a minute, 6 out of 6.8 million people showed blood clotting issues post-vax?   How common are those issues in the general public, regardless of vaccine?"

I was very proud.  (And yes, I did point out that the female-only angle does change the calculus a bit.  Still, when an 18 YO psych major has a much clearer read on risk, causation, and correlation, well . . .)

[Anastasis 23464]

11 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Don't we have some data, maybe from the UK, that one shot of those isn't nearly as effective against some of the variants as two? I thought I saw that somewhere.

You may be referring to this study from a few days ago out of Israel?  It doesn't really get at vaccine efficacy since it is a case control study. Either way, having some one dose data on the mrna shots back in November would have been informative.  There is a huge demand for one dose regimen, and now that demand is likely going to be curtailed, no matter what action the FDA takes.  

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.06.21254882v1.full.pdf

 

[Longhorn_Fan68 33867]

15 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Many of the people with the signs in their yard promoting "In this house we believe in science" actually don't.  They believe in politicized science.  I know I know, bothsides.  

that's bullshit and you know it.

[Bama Chick 28596]

Meh. This same cohort - women of childbearing age - take millions and millions of birth control pill and hormones with a higher risk of blood clots every single day.

This is the stuff that gets discovered in clinical trials and by the time the drug/vaccine hits the market this becomes one of the long list of precautions or contraindications.

But the media and crazy paranoid people love a good freak out panic.

If I hadn’t already been vaccinated, I’d take the J&J vaccine after making sure I’m not prone to blood clots. And I’m in the danger age zone - just barely but still.

[SizzleChest 8283]

23 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

My 29-YO stepdaughter won't get the vaccine, and this just fuels her warped perspective.  It's not like I had any chance of convincing her otherwise, as the giant fucking argument we had two nights ago proved.

My 18-YO college freshman daughter, however, IMMEDIATELY jumped to the correct questions:  "wait a minute, 6 out of 6.8 million people showed blood clotting issues post-vax?   How common are those issues in the general public, regardless of vaccine?"

I was very proud.  (And yes, I did point out that the female-only angle does change the calculus a bit.  Still, when an 18 YO psych major has a much clearer read on risk, causation, and correlation, well . . .)

I know three 20 something women (relatives and friends of relatives) with zero critical thinking skills.  This will not only enforce their anti-vaxx mentality, it's going to make them more vocal about it.  Fortunately, the idiots that will listen to them are all in the same anti-vaxx boat, so the micro-effect is neutral.

[Francisco 2.0 32389]

I don't wish death on anyone, but maybe it's time I revisit my position.

 

 

[yoladu 4092]

2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

My 29-YO stepdaughter won't get the vaccine, and this just fuels her warped perspective.  It's not like I had any chance of convincing her otherwise, as the giant fucking argument we had two nights ago proved.

My 18-YO college freshman daughter, however, IMMEDIATELY jumped to the correct questions:  "wait a minute, 6 out of 6.8 million people showed blood clotting issues post-vax?   How common are those issues in the general public, regardless of vaccine?"

I was very proud.  (And yes, I did point out that the female-only angle does change the calculus a bit.  Still, when an 18 YO psych major has a much clearer read on risk, causation, and correlation, well . . .)

is she redheaded?

[JimmyJames 12271]

40 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

I don't wish death on anyone, but maybe it's time I revisit my position.

 

 

When trump was the president I actively wanted him to drop dead because by being alive as the president he was killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Now that he’s out of office and reduced to merely trolling and actively killing anyone stupid enough to listen to him I no longer am actively rooting for him to die, I’ll just be happy when he does. This changes if he runs for president again. 

[wildcat09 29348]

29 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

When trump was the president I actively wanted him to drop dead because by being alive as the president he was killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Now that he’s out of office and reduced to merely trolling and actively killing anyone stupid enough to listen to him I no longer am actively rooting for him to die, I’ll just be happy when he does. This changes if he runs for president again. 

I'm still rooting for him to shit himself to death.

[DigglerontheHoof 21183]

As someone who has had a PE, I’m not exactly champing at the bit to get one , now.

 

[Neonmoon 38129]

My status of wishing him a painful death has not diminished. The courtesy of refraining from wishing one's enemies death was derived from a sense of honor and respect for humanity. He has neither. He can fucking rot. 

[Biff Tannen 45666]

17 hours ago, Anastasis said:

I think Biff lives in my old hood, so he knows what I am talking about, in particular the STOP WAR NOW signs. 

More Stop Hammertime and Stop Collaborate and Listen signs in my hood.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33867]

47 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

My status of wishing him a painful death has not diminished. The courtesy of refraining from wishing one's enemies death was derived from a sense of honor and respect for humanity. He has neither. He can fucking rot. 

[Bama Chick 28596]

“You ate a possum because someone named Lugnut told you to!” took me OUT.

[HenryJames 66038]

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

 

[Anastasis 23464]

 

[MoJames 8244]

Getting there

[JimmyJames 12271]

Man. Over on the DT safe space thread they sure do hate them some masks. Also I’m pretty sure Fauci is the devil himself.

[Francisco 2.0 32389]

Of all the shit ass things Trump did, this is his legacy.  People who refuse to take a fucking shot even though he took one himself.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/17/us/vaccine-hesitancy-politics.html

 

Quote

About 31 percent of adults in the United States have now been fully vaccinated. Scientists have estimated that 70 to 90 percent of the total population must acquire resistance to the virus to reach herd immunity. But in hundreds of counties around the country, vaccination rates are low, with some even languishing in the teens.

 

Quote

The disparity in vaccination rates has so far mainly broken down along political lines. The New York Times examined survey and vaccine administration data for nearly every U.S. county and found that both willingness to receive a vaccine and actual vaccination rates to date were lower, on average, in counties where a majority of residents voted to re-elect former President Donald J. Trump in 2020. The phenomenon has left some places with a shortage of supply and others with a glut.

 

Spoiler

For months, health officials across the United States have been racing to inoculate people as variants of the coronavirus have continued to gain a foothold, carrying mutations that can make infections more contagious and, in some cases, deadlier. Vaccinations have sped up and, in many places, people are still unable to book appointments because of high demand. In Michigan, where cases have spiraled out of control, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, recently urged President Biden to send additional doses.

But in more rural — and more Republican — areas, health officials said that supply is far exceeding demand.

In a county in Wyoming, a local health official asked the state to stop sending first doses of the vaccine because the freezer was already stuffed to capacity with unwanted vials.

In an Iowa county, a clinic called people who had volunteered to give shots to tell them not to come in because so few residents had signed up for appointments.

In a county in Pennsylvania, a hospital set up a drive-through in the park, stocked with roughly 1,000 vaccine doses. Only about 300 people showed up.

And in interviews with more than two dozen state and county health officials — including some who said they were feeling weary after a year of hearing lifelong friends, family and neighbors tell them that the virus was a hoax or not particularly serious — most attributed low vaccination rates at least partly to hesitant conservative populations.

“I just never in a million years ever expected my field of work to become less medical and more political,” said Hailey Bloom, a registered Republican and the public information officer for the health department that covers Natrona County, Wyo., which Mr. Trump won by a wide margin last year.

The health department, Ms. Bloom said, set up a clinic in a former Macy’s at the local mall and was prepared to give 1,500 shots a day, four days a week. But it has never been able to fill all the slots, she said; usually, 300 or 400 people show up.

Ms. Bloom, like many other county officials, said she feared that reaching herd immunity might not be possible in her community. “It’s terrifying to think that this may never end,” she said. “So much hinges on these vaccinations.”

About 27 percent of Natrona County’s adult residents have been fully vaccinated, and the federal government has estimated, based on Census survey data, that about 32 percent of its residents may be hesitant to get a shot.

The relationship between vaccination and politics reflects demographics. Vaccine hesitancy is highest in counties that are rural and have lower income levels and college graduation rates — the same characteristics found in counties that were more likely to have supported Mr. Trump. In wealthier Trump-supporting counties with higher college graduation rates, the vaccination gap is smaller, the analysis found, but the partisan gap holds even after accounting for income, race and age demographics, population density and a county’s infection and death rate.

When asked in polls about their vaccination plans, Republicans across the country have been far less likely than Democrats to say they plan to get shots. Most recently, on Wednesday, Monmouth University and Quinnipiac University polls indicated that almost half of Republicans did not plan to pursue vaccinations. Only around one in 20 Democrats said the same.

Using survey data collected in March, the federal government recently created new estimates of hesitancy for every county and state in the United States. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services modelers used demographic factors and state-level responses of adults who said they would “probably not” or “definitely not” get a Covid-19 vaccine from the Household Pulse Survey, then used Census data to estimate the share of residents who might say that in every county.

In more than 500 counties, at least a quarter of adults might not be willing to get vaccinated, according to the estimates, and a majority of these places supported Mr. Trump in the last election.

In the 10 states where the government projected that residents would be least hesitant to get a Covid-19 vaccine, voters chose Mr. Biden in the 2020 election. Mr. Trump won nine of the 10 states where the most residents said they would probably or definitely not get the vaccine. (He did not win Georgia, which is among those states.)

 

Federal government estimates of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy

Estimated share of adults who may be hesitant to get the vaccine

10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

 

Dr. Jean Stachon, the health officer in Sweetwater County, Wyo., where federal officials have estimated that about 31 percent of residents may be reluctant to receive a vaccine, said her department has made the tough philosophical decision to prioritize getting shots to the willing. At least once, that has meant opening a vial even when there were not enough interested people to use up all the doses in it.

“It pains me to think that the governor of Michigan is begging for vaccines,” she said. “And we’ve got vials and vials in our freezer.”

Dr. Stachon, who has been both a registered Democrat and Republican in the past and considers herself politically independent, said she had not given up hope. Sweetwater has fully vaccinated about 29 percent of its adult residents. Mr. Trump won the county by a margin of more than 50 points last year.

In Grant County, N.D., home to about 2,400 people, the federal government has estimated that 31 percent of the population may not be willing to get a shot. Mr. Trump won the county by a wide margin last year.

“People tell me, ‘I would like to wait’ — it’s the No. 1 thing I’m hearing,” said Erin Ourada, the administrator for Custer Health, which serves Grant and four other counties. “I keep seeing Grant County sit at the bottom of the list. It makes me sad.” About 13 percent of adult residents there have been fully vaccinated.

Actual vaccination data has revealed a pattern similar to what polling and the federal estimates have shown. The Times analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Census Bureau and found a party split that was significant, though smaller.

In counties where a majority of residents voted for Mr. Trump in the 2020 election, adult vaccination rates were lower, on average, than in counties where a majority of residents voted for Mr. Biden. The rate was especially low in counties where Mr. Trump dominated, falling below 1 in 4 residents in counties where the former president won by a margin of 50 or more points.

The divide in vaccination rates remained even after accounting for a variety of factors, including infection rates, population density and educational attainment.

The vaccination data may not match the split predicted in the polling data because of the way the rollouts have been organized in the United States, with all states giving preference to older Americans early on and with younger adults in many states qualifying only recently. A recent poll showed that older Republicans were less resistant to becoming vaccinated than younger Republicans.

The rate of full vaccination for older adults in Republican-leaning counties was 5 percent lower than the national average, the Times analysis found, but the rate for younger adults was 18 percent below average. It is an indication that the partisan divide in vaccinations may actually grow wider as younger people become eligible for the vaccine nationwide.

It’s possible that some of the differences in vaccination rates are driven by distribution issues and eligibility rules, said Jed Kolko, the chief economist at Indeed.com, who has studied partisan aspects of the pandemic. But as eligibility becomes more universal, “the more the differences will be about hesitancy alone,” he said.

The share of vaccine doses that each state uses may provide clues about how hesitancy will unfold going forward.

At the beginning of March, all states were able to administer a similar share of doses delivered to them. But now, some states are lagging. On average, the 10 states where residents were least hesitant to get the Covid-19 vaccine, according to federal estimates, have administered 82 percent of the doses that they have received. The 10 states where residents were most hesitant have used 72 percent.

Dr. Lisa Cooper, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, said she was not surprised that conservative-leaning people might be less likely to want a vaccine.

“These are people who were fed untruths about how this virus wasn’t real,” Dr. Cooper said. “I think it is carrying through in the vaccination realm, too.”

To be sure, there are counties that supported Mr. Trump in the last election and now have above-average vaccination rates.

Some officials in those counties said their rates have lately plateaued.

In Tama County, Iowa, where Mr. Trump won by a wide margin last year and the vaccination rate is above the national average, the health department runs a clinic a few days a week at a former juvenile correctional facility.

Until recently, staff and volunteers were regularly giving shots to about 120 to 150 people in a day, according to Shannon Zoffka, the executive director of the department and a registered Democrat. When the state expanded its eligibility rules to include all adults, she expected the phones to be ringing off the hook. Instead, she said, about 120 people made appointments for the entire past week.

“When you hit that saturation point, you don’t realize it’s coming,” she said. “It just happens.”

Likewise, some counties that supported Mr. Biden are now lagging in vaccination efforts. In Hudson County, N.J., which supported Mr. Biden by a wide margin last year, about 25 percent of adult residents have been fully vaccinated.

David Drumeler, the deputy county administrator and a registered Democrat, said that there was not enough supply to meet the demand and that many residents, some of whom do not have cars, were having difficulty getting to mass vaccination sites elsewhere in the state. Mr. Drumeler said that the county was strictly policing a residency requirement in the county to make sure its supply was reaching its intended target.

“It’s so frustrating to be so low on the percentage of folks getting vaccinated when all our shots are getting into arms,” Mr. Drumeler said. “But hesitancy is not a hurdle we are encountering yet.”

The situation is quite the opposite in Potter County, Pa., where Mr. Trump won by a wide margin, and where a recent drive-through vaccine clinic failed to draw large crowds.

Kevin Cracknell, who has spent 13 years as a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at the local hospital, said his biggest fear was that very few people in the area would get vaccinated and, as a result, waves of infection would continue to sweep through the community for years to come.

Mr. Cracknell, a registered Democrat, recalled a time this past January when patients with the virus — people he knew from town — began to fill the beds in his hospital.

“It’s like no other virus I’ve seen in my life,” he said. “The damage it does to the lungs.”

Mr. Cracknell let out a long breath. “Most of my patients supported Trump,” he said. “I love them to death. I want them to succeed. I want them to be healthy.”

So far, only about 15 percent of adults in the county have been fully vaccinated.

 

 

[UDontKnow 10442]

3 hours ago, JimmyJames said:

Man. Over on the DT safe space thread they sure do hate them some masks. Also I’m pretty sure Fauci is the devil himself.

I don't think anyone enjoys masks, but it's a matter of doing the right thing (no Russell Peters) and being considerate of your fellow Americans. 

“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

Americans have become too goddamn their selfish for their own literal survival. But then again the above quote was spoken by a devil Democrat, so it holds no weight.

[Brisketexan 105082]

Of all the shit ass things Trump did, this is his legacy.  People who refuse to take a fucking shot even though he took one himself.
 
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/17/us/vaccine-hesitancy-politics.html
 

About 31 percent of adults in the United States have now been fully vaccinated. Scientists have estimated that 70 to 90 percent of the total population must acquire resistance to the virus to reach herd immunity. But in hundreds of counties around the country, vaccination rates are low, with some even languishing in the teens.

 

The disparity in vaccination rates has so far mainly broken down along political lines. The New York Times examined survey and vaccine administration data for nearly every U.S. county and found that both willingness to receive a vaccine and actual vaccination rates to date were lower, on average, in counties where a majority of residents voted to re-elect former President Donald J. Trump in 2020. The phenomenon has left some places with a shortage of supply and others with a glut.

 
Spoiler

For months, health officials across the United States have been racing to inoculate people as variants of the coronavirus have continued to gain a foothold, carrying mutations that can make infections more contagious and, in some cases, deadlier. Vaccinations have sped up and, in many places, people are still unable to book appointments because of high demand. In Michigan, where cases have spiraled out of control, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, recently urged President Biden to send additional doses.
But in more rural — and more Republican — areas, health officials said that supply is far exceeding demand.
In a county in Wyoming, a local health official asked the state to stop sending first doses of the vaccine because the freezer was already stuffed to capacity with unwanted vials.
In an Iowa county, a clinic called people who had volunteered to give shots to tell them not to come in because so few residents had signed up for appointments.
In a county in Pennsylvania, a hospital set up a drive-through in the park, stocked with roughly 1,000 vaccine doses. Only about 300 people showed up.
And in interviews with more than two dozen state and county health officials — including some who said they were feeling weary after a year of hearing lifelong friends, family and neighbors tell them that the virus was a hoax or not particularly serious — most attributed low vaccination rates at least partly to hesitant conservative populations.
“I just never in a million years ever expected my field of work to become less medical and more political,” said Hailey Bloom, a registered Republican and the public information officer for the health department that covers Natrona County, Wyo., which Mr. Trump won by a wide margin last year.
The health department, Ms. Bloom said, set up a clinic in a former Macy’s at the local mall and was prepared to give 1,500 shots a day, four days a week. But it has never been able to fill all the slots, she said; usually, 300 or 400 people show up.
Ms. Bloom, like many other county officials, said she feared that reaching herd immunity might not be possible in her community. “It’s terrifying to think that this may never end,” she said. “So much hinges on these vaccinations.”
About 27 percent of Natrona County’s adult residents have been fully vaccinated, and the federal government has estimated, based on Census survey data, that about 32 percent of its residents may be hesitant to get a shot.
The relationship between vaccination and politics reflects demographics. Vaccine hesitancy is highest in counties that are rural and have lower income levels and college graduation rates — the same characteristics found in counties that were more likely to have supported Mr. Trump. In wealthier Trump-supporting counties with higher college graduation rates, the vaccination gap is smaller, the analysis found, but the partisan gap holds even after accounting for income, race and age demographics, population density and a county’s infection and death rate.
When asked in polls about their vaccination plans, Republicans across the country have been far less likely than Democrats to say they plan to get shots. Most recently, on Wednesday, Monmouth University and Quinnipiac University polls indicated that almost half of Republicans did not plan to pursue vaccinations. Only around one in 20 Democrats said the same.
Using survey data collected in March, the federal government recently created new estimates of hesitancy for every county and state in the United States. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services modelers used demographic factors and state-level responses of adults who said they would “probably not” or “definitely not” get a Covid-19 vaccine from the Household Pulse Survey, then used Census data to estimate the share of residents who might say that in every county.
In more than 500 counties, at least a quarter of adults might not be willing to get vaccinated, according to the estimates, and a majority of these places supported Mr. Trump in the last election.
In the 10 states where the government projected that residents would be least hesitant to get a Covid-19 vaccine, voters chose Mr. Biden in the 2020 election. Mr. Trump won nine of the 10 states where the most residents said they would probably or definitely not get the vaccine. (He did not win Georgia, which is among those states.)
 
Federal government estimates of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy

Estimated share of adults who may be hesitant to get the vaccine

10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

 

Dr. Jean Stachon, the health officer in Sweetwater County, Wyo., where federal officials have estimated that about 31 percent of residents may be reluctant to receive a vaccine, said her department has made the tough philosophical decision to prioritize getting shots to the willing. At least once, that has meant opening a vial even when there were not enough interested people to use up all the doses in it.
“It pains me to think that the governor of Michigan is begging for vaccines,” she said. “And we’ve got vials and vials in our freezer.”
Dr. Stachon, who has been both a registered Democrat and Republican in the past and considers herself politically independent, said she had not given up hope. Sweetwater has fully vaccinated about 29 percent of its adult residents. Mr. Trump won the county by a margin of more than 50 points last year.
In Grant County, N.D., home to about 2,400 people, the federal government has estimated that 31 percent of the population may not be willing to get a shot. Mr. Trump won the county by a wide margin last year.
“People tell me, ‘I would like to wait’ — it’s the No. 1 thing I’m hearing,” said Erin Ourada, the administrator for Custer Health, which serves Grant and four other counties. “I keep seeing Grant County sit at the bottom of the list. It makes me sad.” About 13 percent of adult residents there have been fully vaccinated.
Actual vaccination data has revealed a pattern similar to what polling and the federal estimates have shown. The Times analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Census Bureau and found a party split that was significant, though smaller.
In counties where a majority of residents voted for Mr. Trump in the 2020 election, adult vaccination rates were lower, on average, than in counties where a majority of residents voted for Mr. Biden. The rate was especially low in counties where Mr. Trump dominated, falling below 1 in 4 residents in counties where the former president won by a margin of 50 or more points.
The divide in vaccination rates remained even after accounting for a variety of factors, including infection rates, population density and educational attainment.
The vaccination data may not match the split predicted in the polling data because of the way the rollouts have been organized in the United States, with all states giving preference to older Americans early on and with younger adults in many states qualifying only recently. A recent poll showed that older Republicans were less resistant to becoming vaccinated than younger Republicans.
The rate of full vaccination for older adults in Republican-leaning counties was 5 percent lower than the national average, the Times analysis found, but the rate for younger adults was 18 percent below average. It is an indication that the partisan divide in vaccinations may actually grow wider as younger people become eligible for the vaccine nationwide.
It’s possible that some of the differences in vaccination rates are driven by distribution issues and eligibility rules, said Jed Kolko, the chief economist at Indeed.com, who has studied partisan aspects of the pandemic. But as eligibility becomes more universal, “the more the differences will be about hesitancy alone,” he said.
The share of vaccine doses that each state uses may provide clues about how hesitancy will unfold going forward.
At the beginning of March, all states were able to administer a similar share of doses delivered to them. But now, some states are lagging. On average, the 10 states where residents were least hesitant to get the Covid-19 vaccine, according to federal estimates, have administered 82 percent of the doses that they have received. The 10 states where residents were most hesitant have used 72 percent.
Dr. Lisa Cooper, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, said she was not surprised that conservative-leaning people might be less likely to want a vaccine.
“These are people who were fed untruths about how this virus wasn’t real,” Dr. Cooper said. “I think it is carrying through in the vaccination realm, too.”
To be sure, there are counties that supported Mr. Trump in the last election and now have above-average vaccination rates.
Some officials in those counties said their rates have lately plateaued.
In Tama County, Iowa, where Mr. Trump won by a wide margin last year and the vaccination rate is above the national average, the health department runs a clinic a few days a week at a former juvenile correctional facility.
Until recently, staff and volunteers were regularly giving shots to about 120 to 150 people in a day, according to Shannon Zoffka, the executive director of the department and a registered Democrat. When the state expanded its eligibility rules to include all adults, she expected the phones to be ringing off the hook. Instead, she said, about 120 people made appointments for the entire past week.
“When you hit that saturation point, you don’t realize it’s coming,” she said. “It just happens.”
Likewise, some counties that supported Mr. Biden are now lagging in vaccination efforts. In Hudson County, N.J., which supported Mr. Biden by a wide margin last year, about 25 percent of adult residents have been fully vaccinated.
David Drumeler, the deputy county administrator and a registered Democrat, said that there was not enough supply to meet the demand and that many residents, some of whom do not have cars, were having difficulty getting to mass vaccination sites elsewhere in the state. Mr. Drumeler said that the county was strictly policing a residency requirement in the county to make sure its supply was reaching its intended target.
“It’s so frustrating to be so low on the percentage of folks getting vaccinated when all our shots are getting into arms,” Mr. Drumeler said. “But hesitancy is not a hurdle we are encountering yet.”
The situation is quite the opposite in Potter County, Pa., where Mr. Trump won by a wide margin, and where a recent drive-through vaccine clinic failed to draw large crowds.
Kevin Cracknell, who has spent 13 years as a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at the local hospital, said his biggest fear was that very few people in the area would get vaccinated and, as a result, waves of infection would continue to sweep through the community for years to come.
Mr. Cracknell, a registered Democrat, recalled a time this past January when patients with the virus — people he knew from town — began to fill the beds in his hospital.
“It’s like no other virus I’ve seen in my life,” he said. “The damage it does to the lungs.”
Mr. Cracknell let out a long breath. “Most of my patients supported Trump,” he said. “I love them to death. I want them to succeed. I want them to be healthy.”
So far, only about 15 percent of adults in the county have been fully vaccinated.
 

 

We continue to commit national suicide, and our weapon of choice is empowered stupidity. And it’s hardcore empowered stupidity - with a 50 round mag and a bump stock.

We could fucking end this thing, but we’re gonna stall when we hit the wall of stupidity.

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3 hours ago, JimmyJames said:

Man. Over on the DT safe space thread they sure do hate them some masks. Also I’m pretty sure Fauci is the devil himself.

The problem is the messaging. The CDC was running ads saying if we want to get back to normal you need to wear a face covering. Then it was get the vaccine. Now you have people with the vaccine which is supposed to be getting us back to normal saying you really shouldn't do anything normal yet. That's not going to help people who are hesitant about getting the vaccine be moved to getting it. Neither is pausing a vaccine option because 6 out of 7 million people got blood clots. A segment of society is tuning this out because the goalposts keep moving over and over. I'm not going to isolate inside when my 2nd dose is received next Tuesday. If I was, why did I bother getting the vaccine in the first place?