Michigan's Covid-19 crisis could be a sign of what's to come for the US, expert says

[brooklynite]

CNN

(CNN)As the US races to vaccinate more Americans, Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are rising, predominantly among younger people who haven't yet gotten a shot.

Some experts worry this might only be the start of what's to come in the next weeks. Michigan is already in the middle of a violent surge, and one epidemiologist says other states should be paying close attention.


"Michigan is really the bellwether for what it looks like when the B.1.1.7 variant ... spreads in the United States," Dr. Celine Gounder told CNN on Sunday. "It's causing a surge in cases and it's causing more severe disease, which means that even younger people, people in their 30s, 40s and 50s are getting very sick and being hospitalized from this."

The B.1.1.7 variant, first spotted in the UK, is now the dominant strain of the virus in the US. Experts say it's more contagious, may cause more severe disease and may potentially be more deadly. And it's rapidly spreading across the country.

[Raven]

1. Do the vaccines protect against this?

[Takket]

3. Yes. Get vaccinated as soon as humanly possible

[LisaL]

7. Of course.

Israel vaccinated a lot of people and their covid cases dropped.

[Raven]

16. I'm referring to the variant.

[progree]

2. "if we don't vaccinate that last 30% or so, we're still going to have to live with this virus for a

Last sentence of article:

"Because if we don't vaccinate that last 30% or so, we're still going to have to live with this virus for a very long time."

[LisaL]

4. Well, then we are up the creek without a paddle.

I don't see last 30 % (Trumpers) getting vaccinated.

[Takket]

5. Correct

What is going to happen is these slobs that not only won’t vaccinate but make a point if not masking and gathering in huge groups just to “own the libs” are going to keep the virus circulating in the populace until one of these variants gets lucky and comes out immune to the vaccine. Then we go ALLLLLLL the way back to square one of the pandemic.

We desperately need to get to herd immunity and completely stamp out the virus before that happens. Good luck convincing drumpf supporters. Our best hope is they all get it and become immune by virtue of having been sick before a variant our antibodies and vaccines can’t stop shows up.

[LisaL]

6. We can get immunity through vaccination, and they can get immunity through infection.

Their choice. If they will assemble in large groups, they will get infected sooner rather than later.
So I don't believe we need to convince them to get vaccinated (it's impossible) to get to herd immunity.

[intrepidity]

9. The difference, of course, is that their path to immunity

gives the virus billions of more opportunities to mutate into something worse for all of us.

Plus, the potential long-term health consequences of having contracted Covid19 will impact our health care system.

If the consequences were confined to them, I'd shrug off their foolishness.

[Klaralven]

11. Globally, the vaccination rate is now up to 2.2%

Covid-19 will continue to thrive in the global unvaccinated population, continue to mutate, and continue to reinfect the developed world.

Achieving eradication, per smallpox, is very highly improbable.

[brewens]

8. I was just starting to let myself go through some of my food stockpile. I slammed in about

a four month supply last March before the hoarding started, then I kept replacing what I used if I could. Now it looks like it might be a good idea to max things out again.

There were still shortages of some items in stores all along, which should have been an indication to most people that we still had major problems that we don't want to make worse. I couldn't get green bell peppers last week and our Walmart still doesn't have them. I use the online order and pickup service. No honey crisp apples either. That's not good. Two big sellers out of stock. No one lets that happen unless we have trouble. That's millions in sales being lost.

I'm ten days and four hours away from by second Pfizer dose. I was really looking forward to being in the clear by summer. Looks like i'll plan to stay on lockdown until we know some variant isn't going to be a real danger.

[roamer65]

10. Vaccination is the way out of Trumps mess.

This is his mess.

[speak easy]

12. Gov. Whitmer has gone full GOP

Relaxed restrictions Mar. 2. Covid exploded. Now is asking for 'voluntary' restraint. Meanwhile Covid cases have gone up 10x.

Today is blaming the Feds. We needed more vaccine. Fail.

[catbyte]

14. What do you mean by that? "gone full GOP?"

From the NYT:

Ms. Whitmer, whose administration rolled back restrictions last month when virus cases were relatively low, pressed President Biden in a Thursday night phone call for extra vaccines to address the surge. Mr. Biden declined, and the administration said on Friday that it would continue allocating vaccines based on adult population.

A state official with knowledge of the call, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation, said the president expressed concern about loosened restrictions in Michigan but seemed to have inaccurate information about what restrictions remained in place. The official said Ms. Whitmer explained to Mr. Biden that capacity remained limited at restaurants, gyms and social gatherings, and masks were still required.

snip

“If we were to get to a point where the health care system says, ‘We are overwhelmed and we cannot take care of Covid patients in addition to our regular patients that we see,’ then we may have to talk about further restrictions,” Ms. Hertel said in an interview.

Yet even county health officials, who have been pleading for more than a year that the public wear masks and practice social distancing, have not been pushing Ms. Whitmer to institute new restrictions.

snip

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Even though my full immunity kicked in from my two Pfizer vaccines around April 1, I'm still taking every precaution I can. Everyone in my area is masking up, social distancing, and the lines I've seen at the 2 drive-thru vaccine sites I know of are massive. We're all exhausted. The spike is terrifying but it still isn't close to the hospital crisis we had last spring and fall. I still trust her and her administration to do the right thing.

[Initech]

13. Well get used to the virtual world, because we're not going to be seeing the real one for a while.

[greatauntoftriplets]

15. One of my great-nephews was exposed last week at his university in WI.

The university gave him the choice of going home or putting him up in a local hotel. His mother drove up to Milwaukee yesterday to bring him home to quarantine. Ironically, it was the same day he had his first vaccine shot.