2) ➡️The US government should begin rolling out COVID-19 booster shots for:
▪️people who are immunocompromised
▪️adults aged 60 and older
▪️racial and ethnic minority groups
▪️health care workers
▪️other essential workers
▪️people experiencing homelessness
▪️incarcerated people
3) the best way to help developing world is to NOT waste any doses!
4) But it’s clear breakthrough cases in those vaccinated over 6 months ago are occurring and increases across all ages! Not just the elderly. In fact it’s actually somewhat higher in younger! Israel 🇮🇱 MOH data.
5) How serious is the vaccine efficacy drop issue with #DeltaVariant? This serious. It went from 95% in May, to 64% in June, to 40% in July in Israel 🇮🇱 with 2 dose Pfizer as #DeltaVariant grew in dominance.
6) The good news is that efficacy against hospitalization is good. But it too is waning against #DeltaVariant — it’s not 99% anymore for protection against hospitalization. It dropped to 93% in June to then 88% in July.
📍“Zero ICU beds left for children” judge @clayjenkins says. "That means if your child's in a car wreck, if your child has something & needs an ICU bed, or more likely if they have COVID and need an ICU bed—we don't have one. ➡️Your child will wait for another child to die” 😢 🧵
2) 2The judge added no ICU beds have been available for children for at least 24 hours. The Texas Department of State Health Services told CNN the shortage of pediatric ICU beds is related to a shortage in medical staff. abc13.com/dallas-county-…
3) "Hospitals are licensed for a specific number of beds and most hospitals regularly staff fewer beds than they are licensed for. With the increase in COVID cases, hospitals are experiencing a shortage of people to staff the beds that they are licensed for”
⚠️DISTORTING DEATH TREND—Florida changed how it reports #COVID19 deaths. Result? Fewer recent “new deaths”. While deaths looks like going “down”—in actuality—deaths are going up in the more common reporting method, by taking advantage of delays. Lowdown—🧵 sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl…
2) “Just as a highly contagious new delta variant sent Florida into a vicious COVID-19 surge, the state Department of Health changed the way it reports cases and deaths attributed to the virus.
The result: Florida no longer provides a real-time picture of how COVID is impacting”
3) The most dramatic example is that Florida’s daily death count had been trending upward since the end of June, but with the recent adjustments, the number of deaths due to COVID appeared to decline dramatically over the past week. At least on paper. ⚠️
📍BATTLE HEATING UP—After Florida threatened to withhold funds from schools that try to mandate masks to slow #COVID19—President Biden’s Education @SecCardona rebukes @GovRonDeSantis, saying FL cannot withhold school funding, & offers to **send schools direct federal money**—Wow!
2) why is he so crazy? “DeSantis has raked in campaign cash by attacking Biden and his administration’s coronavirus response, going so far as to single out Anthony Fauci, by selling “Don’t Fauci My Florida” campaign merchandise as Covid cases began rising. politico.com/news/2021/08/1…
3) DeSantis campaign adviser and executive director of the Republican Party of Florida says... “Gov. DeSantis doesn’t care what those in the D.C. bubble think or say, he only cares about Florida’s safety and success all the while protecting individual liberties.”
⚠️Worried—Skyrocketing ~800%⬆️ in nursing homes with #COVID19 in 1 month in Texas. Even scarier—nearly half of TX nursing home staff are unvaccinated! Texas ranks 46th for vaccinated nursing home residents & 33rd for vaxxed nursing home staff. @GovAbbott?🧵texastribune.org/2021/08/13/cor…
2) Nursing home residents were among the hardest hit by COVID-19 last year as the virus tore through facilities at an alarming rate. >400 Texas nursing home residents died during a single week in August 2020; since the pandemic began, 9,095 have died after contracting COVID-19
3) “But after seeing infections remain relatively low in recent months, the state’s more than 1,200 nursing homes are seeing a new wave of infections as COVID-19 cases explode around the state, driven by the highly contagious delta variant:
BREAKING—CDC experts vote overwhelmingly to recommend an additional dose of #COVID19 vaccines for some immunocompromised individuals. @CDCDirector is expected to give final approval within hours—allowing 3rd Pfizer or Moderna shots as soon as this weekend. washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08…
2) Breakthroughs happen, especially in the elderly and immunocompromised. But don’t let anti vaxxers use it as an excuse not to vaccinate. 👇
3) Here is why immunocompromised people need more protection from #COVID19. Much more risk of severe disease, lower neutralization, have prolonged illness, and **more likely to transmit to others**! cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/…
📍Dilemma—if a #DeltaVariant public health emergency now forces Congress to goto remote voting, ➡️then should our kids goto remote learning? Lots of difficult school questions. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know kids need high filtration KN95/KF94 & air disinfection.
3) my sinking feeling too. Oy. This sucks. But kids lives more at risk now than any time ever during this pandemic. The only way I’d send my kid to school is at least with masks — and a premium high filtration mask.