16 Replies to "CORONAVIRUS: Friday 5/21/2021 roundup"

• Joseph May 22, 2021 (12:20 am)

  How are the numbers not coming down dramatically yet? This time last year it was abnormal to see positives greater than 100, and yet here we are with vaccines and vaccinated people in the 70th percentile and we still have more than 200 people getting infected per day? This is more than disheartening. Shouldn’t we be seeing numbers going down by now? What’s going on?

  • WSB May 22, 2021 (12:56 am)

    Dr. Duchin was asked that at yesterday’s briefing. Simple answer: The cases are among the unvaccinated, of which we still have hundreds of thousands.

    • Kim J May 22, 2021 (8:23 am)

      There is an interesting report in the Washington Post yesterday about that exact topic. Cases are going up among the unvaxxed now that we have more freedom. They actually featured WA State numbers as the lead in for the story. This is a paywall site, but sharing in case you subscribe: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/covid-rates-unvaccinated-people/

  • G May 22, 2021 (5:31 am)

    I’m sure the number is much larger of those infected than just 200 per day but those are the numbers from people who are actually getting tested.

  • West Seattle Mad Sci Guy May 22, 2021 (6:31 am)

    Last year at this time testing wasn’t fully and freely available quite yet IIRC. That took til mid June.Look at hospitalizations vs tests. They were very high on hospitalizations vs positives back then relative to the other peaks later in 2020.

  • Smittytheclown May 22, 2021 (7:23 am)

    Just a guess, but I think testing is way more accessible than it was a year ago and travel patterns – especially flights – have increased tenfold(if not more).  Lots of people traveling to states that require a negative test.  I’d love to see how many of the ~200/day are asymptomatic and were identified this way. Although I doubt that data is collected.  

• JJ May 22, 2021 (5:36 am)

  Joseph- This time last year behaviors were different. More people were isolating, and schools were closed. People realized this was airborne and masking then too. Now, everything’s open and we still have many people unvaccinated, including kids, immune compromised, and hesitant folks. The new variants could also be more infectious. Only the breakthrough cases that are hospitalized count now, so we are not seeing the transmission among the vaccinated here. We can’t get to zero in this condition. Hopefully we’ll have more cases drop in the summer, when schools are out, even more people are fully vaccinated, and you can’t keep folks indoors.

• Masks? May 22, 2021 (5:49 am)

  I was surprised to see some shoppers in an admiral supermarket without masks. Is that official for Seattle? It’s optional as the CDC advises

  • WSB May 22, 2021 (9:59 am)

    Don’t know which supermarket you’re referring to but we reported earlier this week that Metropolitan Market and PCC both changed their policies re: shoppers, and Met re: staffers too.
    https://westseattleblog.com/2021/05/coronavirus-sunday-5-16-2021-roundup-including-our-weekly-west-seattle-trend-check/

    • CAM May 22, 2021 (2:29 pm)

      I have been busy this week and haven’t had time to read everything so you may have already mentioned this elsewhere, but Whole Foods also has a sign up making masks optional which is just so frustrating that there isn’t anywhere left to go where you can escape people who likely are unvaccinated and antimask and have no concern for others. 

      • What Do I Know May 22, 2021 (3:47 pm)

        At the beginning of the pandemic those who who most at risk of serious illness or death from the virus (e.g., elderly, immuocompromised) were advised to order their groceries online, still an option if not comfortable going in stores now.

• anonyme May 22, 2021 (12:57 pm)

  Who will the anti-vaxxers have to blame once Darwinism runs its course?  Will there be enough of them left?

  • Coreen May 22, 2021 (5:49 pm)

    You’d be surprised to know that so-called “anti-vaxxers” are thinking the same thing about you right now. Everyone is on pins and needles waiting to see how your experiment turns out. 

    • anonyme May 23, 2021 (6:36 am)

      Actually, that would not surprise me at all.  Nor would it surprise me to learn that they believe the earth is flat, or that Trump won the last election.

• Wseattleite May 22, 2021 (7:37 pm)

  You can think of all positive tests as immunizations because that is exactly what they are. Over 200 immunizations.  Sorry for the Darwinism idea, totally off on that theory.  Unless you buy into the irrational paranoia that everyone who gets COVID dies. (Wrong) It is only making people immune and stronger.  

  • For your consideration May 22, 2021 (9:08 pm)

    Thing is, there is a vaccination now which can help people avoid being sick with covid and not have to gamble with possibly having a more severe case or long term impacts, which is happening for many people.

    Also, fyi, and some may not be aware of this, but the amount of virus you are infected with (viral load) impacts your future immunity level and can vary when you get sick with covid. The vaccines provide a measured dose and are considered to be more reliably protective than natural immunity for this reason.

    It is not ‘only making people immune and stronger.’ Some people have had their health wrecked by covid, and millions of people are dying from it. Have you considered how aggravating these kinds of comments must be for those who have suffered with this disease?

    Is there a reason you don’t instead advocate for people to get vaccinated and better protect themselves from covid?

Sorry, comment time is over.