I don’t think case numbers are really apples to apples with 2021 numbers at this point. Not saying we are in a wave or anything but PCR testing has to be way down vs a year ago. More comparable to a couple of months ago, but, even since then I think some states stopped reporting. Around here, most/all the community PCR testing has closed up shop over the last three months.
Yeah I consider the case numbers pretty useless for comparison to past waves. Wastewater surveillance seems better, and current case numbers can indicate trends but the ascertainment bias has to be massive.
Of the dozens of folks I know that have had COVID lately, exactly zero would be in any official case count. People just take home tests when they poz and nobody is calling the county department of health afterwards.
covid slowly making a comeback in the Czech Republic.
Why? Well, school started a week ago.
Government says we won’t have updated vaccines until the end of this year.
My understanding is that the bivalent shot is only approved as a booster, which means you need to take two doses of the original vaccine first to be eligible?
A LOT of children have still never been vaccinated, and a lot of new unvaccinated children are being born every single day. So assuming the bivalent booster actually is a marked improvement we are still going to be in this weird spot where a lot of children would need to take a series of the original vaccine to be eligible for the bivalent one.
The right wing media machine has been pushing a narrative that there has been A LOT of excess death in younger cohorts due to heart disease, and implying mRNA vaccines are the cause. As evidence they normally point out life insurance data showing a huge spikes in claims in the last couple years. As others have pointed out, the way they calculate life expectancy even a small increase in younger people dying will cause the curve to go down significantly.
The mainstream machine has been mostly silent so far in acknowledging or refuting these claims. Unless we see a huge rebound in life expectancy, at some point the mainstream machine will have to address this issue and try to determine what is going on.
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This doesn’t seem markedly different from other vaccines kids get. A lot of them have multiple doses.
In Canada this is the case because the only trial data that Moderna has on the efficacy of the bivalent shot is as a booster. If/when they test the bivalent shot on unvaccinated people, they may find that it is also perfectly effective as a first vaccination. We won’t know until we know.
Multiple doses of the same vaccine, with established and understood efficacy.
Not, you have to take two doses of this vaccine we know doesn’t really work well anymore (and maybe never did much in the first place in very young cohorts), to get to a third shot that may work better, but we aren’t sure yet.
Trying to figure out pediatric procedures on the fly, especially for a disease that is so mild in this population it is hard to determine any efficacy at all, is definitely a novel situation.
What is “A LOT”? “Excess” compared to what? What are “younger cohorts”?
Sure but it’s harder to get people to be terrified of something that has been happening for a long time. The newness of COVID allows conservatives and anti vaxxers more broadly to push FEAR buttons in people’s brains because people fear new things.
COVID infection has been linked to increases in cardiovascular events, even post relatively mild cases, so not surprised that after mass COVID infection we are seeing more heart related deaths.
FWIW no one really seems to be denying there was a giant jump in non Covid excess mortality that started around the end of 2021. The issue seems to be trying to figure out why this happened and whether it is was just a blip or something we should expect to continue moving forward.
**And obviously “non-Covid” should come with a disclaimer we dont know whether this is in fact a downstream effect of Covid
I can’t read that article because it’s paywalled. I know that in 2020 there was a large jump in non-COVID death claims resulting from heart disease (I’m an actuary and my profession has literally billions of dollars at stake that depend on us modeling mortality as well as possible). The fact that there was a large jump in non-COVID heart and stroke deaths in 2020 is well known and we also know that it wasn’t from vaccines. It was from other factors, mostly loss of access to health care in 2020 when everything shut down. It is not a surprise that this persists into 2021 and will probably continue to persist into the future. Across all causes of mortality that were mitigated by regular health care treatment and examination pre-2020, the implications of people missing out on a lot of preventative health care in 2020 is going to influence mortality rates for years.
Or, possibly, mRNA vaccines administered in 2021 were filled with time travelling nanobots that started a trend in mortality rates in 2020. I think you’re on to something, you should go inform QAnon.
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This is utter horseshit and simply false. Pediatric procedures haven’t been figured out on the fly, they’ve had prospective RCTs. Covid isn’t a mild disease for pediatrics if you’re comparing it to other pediatric diseases we vaccinate for as well. It’s only mild if you’re comparing it to adults, which would be really dumb
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I’m sorry but what? This is bullshit. There’s no evidence to support that vaccines have caused any sort of mortality increase in anything
Um, that’s gonna need some real cites or GTFO.
Edit: real cites that correlate with when vaccines were available, for most younger folks that’s mid 2nd quarter of 2021.
Looks like that might take a few months, based on the moderation actions thread.
I read it. It seems they are attributing the cause to a backlog in the medical system, plus the strain of the ongoing pandemic. People haven’t been going to the doctor, whether because they can’t (have to wait months for appointment), or are afraid.
this rings true to me personally, having just had to wait a year and a half for a surgery for an extremely painful condition I had.
btw the wsj is actually worth a sub imo. their op eds are pure unadulterated trash, but I guess even the people that work for wsj hate the op eds. everything else is ok, at least what I’ve seen, I use it for general news and financial stuff nowadays
Oh good, Kelhus is here. This should be fun.
I’m actually legit curious about his response here now that his “point” has been addressed. Is he gonna take the L, or is he gonna go down with the ship. Stay tuned.