17 Replies to "PANDEMIC UPDATES: Weekly check-in #5, 8/8/2021"

• psps August 8, 2021 (10:45 pm)

  As this shows, Washington isn’t immune from the this new wave of the virus any more than anyplace else.  The inexplicable haste to adopt the “it’s all over, back to normal” regimen will just keep this going and largely negate what progress had been made over the last 18 months. “Masks optional,” honor system, etc., is just more of the denial nonsense.

  • West Seattle Mad Sci Guy August 9, 2021 (12:18 am)

    From one of the linked articles “Across all recent outbreaks, most cases occurred in people who were unmasked. Vaccinated individuals who tested positive reported mild symptoms. All hospitalized cases exposed at social events have been among unvaccinated individuals, with no deaths identified.”After coming back home from another part of the country with mandatory mask mandates everywhere, I can tell you people here are way above average on mask precautions / compliance. Add in our much higher rate of vaccination, and…All I can say with certainty is that I’d rather ride this wave out here as it is than be where I just was. Thankful I don’t have to travel for more than a month. It’s easy to get down on the state of things here but see how bad it is elsewhere (and I just came back from a purple area of a very blue state…)

  • East Coast Cynic August 9, 2021 (10:57 am)

    I was in a downtown area on the eastside yesterday and the overwhelming number of people I saw walking the streets, shopping in the stores and sitting in the cafes were unmasked!!!  I think the infection rate will soar a great deal in the coming weeks from all this overconfidence with not just the delta lurking around, but the just as, if not more, infectious lambda variant making its way up north.

    • DavidB August 9, 2021 (12:31 pm)

      Why would people be wearing masks outdoors?

      • momosmom August 9, 2021 (1:04 pm)

        Because do you think the Virus dissapears once you are outside?

        • bill August 9, 2021 (10:00 pm)

          The virus dilutes greatly in freely circulating air outdoors. That’s been evident from the start. Even the Former Guy’s red-hatted outdoor raves did not set off massive infection incidents. Stagnant indoor air is where the virus accumulates and where it makes sense for everyone to wear masks.

      • westwood August 9, 2021 (1:32 pm)

        “shopping in the stores and sitting in the cafes were unmasked”

• Flivver August 9, 2021 (6:55 am)

  WSB. Does the Sealth site give “molecular” tests? That’s what Canada is requiring for entry. 

  • WSB August 9, 2021 (9:39 am)

    Good question. You’d have to go looking through the UW Medicine site (which is linked) for more granular details on how they operatel

• MW August 9, 2021 (9:01 am)

  Hi- I’m not sure if I’m interpreting/understanding the numbers correctly but when I followed the link for the King County dashboard then accessed it on a mobile friendly site link they provide it says that there have been two deaths in 14 days. Above it says six deaths. Thanks for any help with understanding!

  • WSB August 9, 2021 (9:37 am)

    The *number* from Friday (on Sundays, the newest data is from Fridays, as PHSKC has stopped updating on weekends) is six more than *the number* from the *preceding* Friday (which in turn was down 2 from the previous week). I do not use the 14 days/percentages/etc. numbers, only the same basic stat so it can be tracked. Covering this for a year and a half, that’s all I can tell you – we consistenty use the same set of numbers, daily and now weekly. This number for macro reference is 16 more than the number from July 11th, when we launched weekly updates (all of which are in our archive to https://westseattleblog.com/category/coronavirus ). – TR

    • MW August 9, 2021 (10:16 am)

      Thanks for this info! Appreciate it and all you’re doing to cover the pandemic. 

• Mellow Kitty August 9, 2021 (9:21 am)

  The saddest part of all of this is that it was preventable. A virus doesn’t give two s***s what political party you belong to. Absolutely senseless. 

  • Stickerbush August 9, 2021 (12:21 pm)

    Does it make you feel better to blame “the other”? The delta variant is ravaging every country in the world including China, the country that has taken the most radical approach to stopping spread of the virus. You are in fantasyland if you really believe that it was preventable here.

    • Foop August 9, 2021 (1:43 pm)

      We(USA) have by far the highest rates of vaccination and vaccine availability. We could have prevented it from becoming this severe, and more than a blip. We could not have prevented some of the deaths.

    • bill August 9, 2021 (10:13 pm)

      Actually the countries taking the most radical approach to stopping the virus are Australia and New Zealand. They’ve done quite well. Their willingness to isolate behind vast oceans and trace-and-quarantine approach to containing outbreaks has worked. Note those countries share the Anglo-Saxon-derived political philosophies of individual liberty, consent of the governed, and government constrained by law. We have not been willing to do what was necessary to contain virus, whether at the individual level or national.

    • James August 10, 2021 (5:58 am)

      Does it make you feel better to blame “the other”? The delta variant is ravaging every country in the world including China, the country that has taken the most radical approach to stopping spread of the virus. You are in fantasyland if you really believe that it was preventable here.

      Wrong, Stickerbush. “The other” is very much to blame here.

      • PBS News Hour: Obama team left pandemic playbook for trump administration, officials confirm
      • The Atlantic: All the President’s Lies About the Coronavirus
      • Forbes: Fauci: Trump’s Covid-19 Response ‘Very Likely Did’ Cost Lives

      Trump actively downplayed the virus, and because of his and his staff’s incompetence, they sabotaged systems and protocols to the point where they made the virus worse.

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