Fun with MA COVID-19 Reporting 23-Jun-2021 Edition

  • Cases continue to fall but slower and slower.
  • Deaths continue to fall but far too slowly and we have yet to see a single day where 0 people have died.
  • Number of hospital beds used is declining still but we're still only seeing single digit reductions per day with last week being a 3 week low in those reductions.  ICU bed use and intubations also continue to decline slowly.  Currently about 30 ICU beds are being used and steadily 1.8 people leaving the ICU on average since April 12.  Intubations are a little lower in both counts with 15 people intubated currently and relatively consistently about 1.2 people being taken off Intubation since April 12.
  • New hospitalizations were continuing to fall through last week, though the decrease from the week of June 7 to the week of June 14 was barely anything (15.6 new hospitalizations vs 13.4 new hospitalizations) and it's too soon to really draw a conclusion from this week's counts (averaging 13.7 for the 3 days so far).

Ok, so, today's rant topic.  We're blaming the unvaccinated for the current spread.  This is both fair and unfair.  

Yes, there are many who are vaccine-hesitant for a variety reasons, but...  There are plenty of kids that are unvaccinated because they're not yet eligible (there are also plenty of kids who just aren't getting vaccinated... in MA, as of last Thursday, only 46.7% of children 12-15 years old had received at least one dose).  There are lots of people who are unvaccinated because they have health concerns.  There are lots of people who have health complications that cause the vaccines to be less effective (and many of them are getting the vaccine anyway).

But also, to blame the unvaccinated for the spread is to ignore the fact that vaccinated people still can spread COVID-19 and we've all but eliminated our practices to suspend that spread.  I see plenty of parents and children in my walks who are going around maskless.  I see see parties where there are hoards of people crammed into a small park with no social distancing and no masks.  Yes, the vaccines make you virtually immune from hospitalization and death... though there are breakthrough cases.  But here's the thing... studies have shown that vaccinated people still have the potential to spread COVID-19, though there's a decreased chance.  The more we pretend that there's no potential for spread, the more spread there will be, it's really just that simple.  We need to stop pretending that spread among vaccinated doesn't happen and stop the victim-blaming that the narrative of declaring that the issue is solely within the unvaccinated community insinuates.  We also need to stop pretending that kids don't spread COVID-19 too, but that's a rant for a different day. 

Stay safe. Stay sane. Stay informed.

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