> the goal here is to increase the vaccination rate
The goal is to avoid overloading the hospital system. Vaccinated people spreading the Delta variant amongst each other is not going to do that. Unvaccinated people getting sick will.
The goal is to avoid overloading the hospital system. Vaccinated people spreading the Delta variant amongst each other is not going to do that. Unvaccinated people getting sick will.
UK just peaked (https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/); Does NYC have significantly worse vaccine coverage in vulnerable populations or worse capacity?
My friend, a plastic surgeon, was drafted to tend to an entire floor of folks on ventilators. No other doctors. Occasionally, an exhausted nurse. He spent the last twenty years doing face lifts. I think some patients were in doctor’s offices.
We also halted surgeries and cancer patients’ visits and hosts of other stuff to keep the strained system from going New Delhi.
Yes, because exactly that happened in March and April of 2020, leading to tens of thousands of deaths. Here's your evidence[1][2][3].
[1] https://abc7ny.com/nyc-hospital-queens-coronavirus-news/6070...
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/us/brooklyn-hospital-coronavi...
[3] https://www.foxnews.com/health/nyc-hospitals-overwhelmed-by-...
[1] https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data-trends.pag...
NYC's hospitalizations dipped to ~18 admitted/day citywide in June and are up to ~50 now. But that's a long way from 350 over winter and far away from hitting 1700 in the initial surge.
The UK government realized that even with their high case spike (to winter level) that vaccination ensured that hospitalizations would not come close, so they ended restrictions at what in retrospect was their peak cases. Their admission rate hit maybe a quarter of their winter rate even though case rate peak was similar. (vaccine cut hospitalization rate per case by 75%).
To my point, unless we're substantially different from the UK, it doesn't look like hospitalization capacity should be a concern with this wave.
We have inconclusive data on the protection past infection affords with respect to the Delta variant. We have decent data showing the mRNA vaccines work. We also have inconclusive but pointed data about the Delta variant being more problematic for younger people [1].
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/health/covid-young-adults...
This is clearly not the goal -- there have been no additions to hospital capacity since the pandemic started in earnest 17 months ago.
If that's the goal we need to decide what things are ok to go to the hospital for and what aren't. A lot of hospital visits could be prevented if we took the obesity epidemic seriously - I imagine the CFR of covid would be way down if America was not so obese.
And if we're ok with mandating vaccines, we should definitely be ok with mandating a healthy bodyfat %. The health gains from the latter would dwarf that of the former.
That's a lovely multi-generational idea and we should work towards it in the coming decades. Meanwhile, as 400 Americans die of a preventable illness every single day, we should prioritize reducing the hospitalization rate. Florida became the most recent state to halt surgeries at some hospitals... again.
They make themselves more vulnerable to a number of viruses - not just covid. Healthier immune systems reduce transmission.