White House and Pelosi aides test positive for coronavirus amid Texas lawmakers' D.C. visit

[SheltieLover]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/pelosi-aide-tests-positive-coronavirus-after-contact-texas-lawmakers-n1274483

Both aides had been fully vaccinated, and Pelosi's staff member had been in contact with the Texas lawmakers, her spokesman said.

White House and Pelosi aides test positive for coronavirus amid Texas lawmakers' D.C. visit
Both aides had been fully vaccinated, and Pelosi's staff member had been in contact with the Texas lawmakers, her spokesman said.

WASHINGTON — A White House staffer and a senior communications aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have tested positive for Covid-19 after being fully vaccinated, a White House official and a spokesman for the California Democrat confirmed Tuesday.

Pelosi's aide received the diagnosis after coming in contact with members of the Texas Legislature last week, the speaker's spokesman, Drew Hammill, said.

More at link.

[Nevilledog]

1. Scary

[Blue Owl]

2. The Slobfather's Superspreaders

They should be held accountable!

[Hekate]

3. The speed with which it is spreading among people we know to have been vaccinated is scary..

Is this the Delta variant? Are they going to have light cases? Are they going to live?

[lagomorph777]

5. Almost certainly mild or asymptomatic cases. But everybody should be masking;

I suspect they are not. That's a mistake. At this point, we must mask and vax.

[Larissa]

9. All bets are off

These Covid variants are on steroids. I've been wearing my masks again even though I am fully vaccinated. Take nothing for granted. Just like the scene in "The Andromeda Strain" when the scientists realize that the "thing" is growing, morphing. Only this real life nightmare is far worse than any sci-fi flick I can think of. Masks on, people!

[lagomorph777]

10. I never took the mask off.

Despite being fully vaxxed since May.

[Ms. Toad]

4. But . . . but . . . but I was just told that the chance of a vaccinted person

passing COVID on to anyone (let alone another vaccinated person) was neglible.



I wish the CDC would pull its head out of the sand.

[mucifer]

6. If 80% of the population was vaccinated this would not be much of a problem.

[Ms. Toad]

14. Tell that to the 15% of the population being viewed as expendable.

15% of the population are under the age of 12 and cannot be vaccinated.

Obviously, vaccinated people can both catch COVID and can spread it to other vaccinated people. Children who are not vaccinated at all are at even greater risk.

Obviously - since this thing infected more than 10% of a 55 person delegation that was fully vaccinated, and they transmitted it to two people we know of - those 80% vaccinated people in your theoretical world will pass it on to a significant number of the 15% who are not yet eligible for even this imperfect protection.

[mucifer]

17. 80% is considered heard immunity that's why I used that number. That's what the scientists had hoped

for. This would include small children.

[Ms. Toad]

18. That was before Delta

Herd immunity is connected to how infectious a disease is. The more infectious, the higher the vaccination percentage required. So the 80% was the goal, but it was based on a much less infectious version of COVID.

For example, measles - a highly infectious disease - requres 95% vaccination. It is about 80% for the less infectious polio.

From what we are seeing recently, I suspect Delta is as (or more) infectious than the measles.

[Treefrog]

19. Thank you!

And I don’t know if I’ve said, but I really appreciate, and have followed, your posts on this for some time. You’ve been spot on.

I’m afraid we’re really in for it.

[Ms. Toad]

21. I really hope I'm not accurate this time.

But this is really scary stuff.

Doing tons of processing, working out scenarios, etc. is my coping mechanism for all things medical. Glad you find it useful as well.

[Treefrog]

22. Seeing Fox encouraging the vaccine speaks volumes.

Frightening.

[Ms. Toad]

23. Agreed. n/t

[Meowmee]

24. Yes ty so much to Ms Toad and others here who are continuing to give us valuable information

I was attacked when I said the new mask recommendations etc. were a mistake. All they had to do was wear good masks and any transmission would be cut down drastically as well as to keep sd up. In addition it would help to stop possible new variants developing. They have given up controlling this and it will prolly largely depend now on how many more people are vaxed. Dropping the masks was not an incentive to many to get vaxed. We continue to mask & sd and never stopped after vaccination with pfizer. I will get a booster when it is available and continue to do what I can to never be infected with c19 again. My county's risk level was raised from medium to high about 2 weeks ago.

[clementine613]

7. This is entirely the fault of the Texas House Rethugs

By forcing the Democrats into exile, they have further spread COVID. Every one of them should be held accountable both criminally and civilly.

[SheltieLover]

8. This!👆

Apparently none of the infected aides had been in contact with Joe or Nancy.

[Treefrog]

20. Erm, I think that's a bit of a stretch.

These folks voluntarily got into a bus unmasked, got into a plane unmasked, and presumably have been going around unmasked. No one MADE them leave the state, or run around unmasked.

[Hortensis]

11. Unfortunate. But chances are good all will be okay.

Each is much less likely to get it because each is vaccinated. And any who do are very likely to have a mild course because they're vaccinated.

[Maru Kitteh]

12. I think it's possible we may have a new variant coming out of Texas - or

at least a new (other than Delta) variant that may have originated elsewhere but is now spreading out of Texas.

My reason is anecdotal to be sure, but I am in CDC region eight, where delta is sitting at 80% of all known coronavirus infections. I have not yet seen a positive coronavirus patient who infected a vaccinated close contact. While delta is spreading among the many unvaccinated like wildfire here, it is not as of yet causing infections among the vaccinated population. I have tested many vaccinated persons who had a spouse or other close contact infected with the Delta variant. All of the vaccinated persons I tested were asymptomatic, and negative for the virus.

What we are seeing out of Texas are vaccinated persons infecting other vaccinated persons with coronavirus. That has not been my experience with the Delta variant thus far at all. This is what leads me to believe it may be a different variant.

[leftstreet]

13. This makes sense

could clear up some confusion

so when you test, do your results show you which variant it is?

[Maru Kitteh]

15. No, I don't have the ability to sequence in house but we do send

samples to the state which does sequencing. I can tell you it seems to be reasonably easy to tell Delta from Alpha and other previous variants on symptoms. Less loss of taste/smell with Delta. More sore throats, VERY sore with Delta and your nose turns into an open faucet. Less showing of early high fever, less early showing of shortness of breath with Delta. Those things come, but they come later.

This is our experience only, I can't speak for more generalized, scientifically compiled data.

[Deminpenn]

16. Some info about the PCR test for SARS-CoV2

From the Cleveland Clinic: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/21462-covid-19-and-pcr-testing

Are there downsides to a COVID-19 PCR test?

Because the test is able to detect very small amounts of virus material, it can continue to detect fragments of SARS-CoV-2 virus even after you’ve recovered from COVID-19 and are no longer contagious. So you may continue to test positive if you have had COVID-19 in the distant past, even though you can’t spread the SARS-CoV-2 virus to others.