Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Dr. Scott Gottlieb says U.S. is ‘vastly underestimating’ level of Covid delta spread

Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday he believes the U.S. is significantly undercounting the number of Covid delta infections, making it difficult to know whether the highly transmissible strain is causing higher-than-expected hospitalization and death rates.

“We don’t know what the denominator is right now,” Gottlieb said in an interview on “Squawk Box.” “I think we’re vastly underestimating the level of delta spread right now because I think people who are vaccinated, who might develop some mild symptoms or might develop a breakthrough case, by and large are not going out and getting tested. If you’ve been vaccinated and you develop a mild cold right now, you don’t think you have Covid.”

Coronavirus cases in the U.S. have been rising due to the delta variant, with the seven-day average of new daily infections standing at 26,448, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. That’s up 67% from a week ago. The weekly average of new daily deaths is up 26% from a week ago, to 273, according to CNBC’s analysis.

“There’s no clear evidence that this is more pathogenic, that it’s causing more serious infections. It’s clearly more virulent, it’s clearly far more contagious” than earlier virus strains, said Gottlieb, who serves on the board of Covid vaccine maker Pfizer.

If younger Americans are becoming sick with the delta variant at higher levels compared with previous points in the pandemic, it’s because “younger people remain unvaccinated,” Gottlieb contended. “When people who are vaccinated do get infected, and there are breakthrough infections, they don’t get as sick. They have protection against severe disease.”

Delta is now the most-common coronavirus strain in the U.S., making up more than 57% of cases in the two weeks from June 20 to July 3. That’s the latest available window on the CDC’s website.

U.S. health officials have sounded the alarm for weeks about the variant’s potential to cut into hard-earned progress in reducing infection rates, which plummeted in the spring as America’s vaccination campaign hit its stride. As of Friday, 48.3% of the country’s population was fully vaccinated and nearly 56% had received at least one dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Covid vaccination coverage is higher among the most-vulnerable group of Americans: the elderly. More than 79% of people age 65 and up are fully vaccinated and nearly 89% have had at least one dose, according to the CDC.

The vast majority of U.S. counties with high infection rates right now — defined as at least 100 new cases over the last seven days per 100,000 residents — have vaccinated under 40% of their residents, according to a CNBC analysis completed earlier this week.

In Los Angeles County, officials on Thursday responded to an uptick in cases by reinstating an indoor mask mandate, even for fully vaccinated people. LA County, the nation’s most populous, had lifted its previous mask requirement about a month ago, in conjunction with the state of California ending most of its remaining pandemic restrictions.

Gottlieb said he does not expect many other state or local governments to follow LA County and begin putting in place already-lifted mitigation measures “because there’s not going to be a lot of support for mandates at this point.”

“People who are worried about Covid have largely been vaccinated. I realize not everyone has been able to get vaccinated, but most people have been vaccinated who are worried about this infection,” said Gottlieb, who led the FDA from 2017 to 2019 in the Trump administration.

“People who remain unvaccinated aren’t worried about the infection and don’t want to be wearing masks either. Now, the bottom line, that means this is just going to spread through the population,” he added.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/16/dr-scott-gottlieb-says-us-is-vastly-underestimating-level-of-covid-delta-spread.html


NIH director ‘most worried’ about Missouri’s COVID-19 spread compared to any state

Missouri is the spot on the map raising alarms for federal officials as the COVID-19 delta variant surges in the Midwest and South.

“When I look at the map Missouri actually jumps out as the place that I’m most worried about because there’s a lot of cases now happening very rapidly,” Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, told McClatchy in an interview Thursday.

“This is a variant, this delta variant, that’s highly contagious. And so as it starts to spread, anybody who’s not vaccinated is in a danger zone… The chances of getting infected in Missouri are getting really high and that means potentially serious illness or even death,” said Collins, whose agency is the federal government’s primary medical research arm.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) is now reporting an average of nearly 1,200 confirmed new cases each day, compared to fewer than 400 a month ago. The state is behind only Arkansas in its per-capita rate of new cases, according to data compiled by The New York Times.

At the same time, Missouri continues to struggle with low vaccination rates in many areas. It has the 13th worst vaccination rate among all states.

Rural Missouri, in particular, has lagged in vaccination rates, a trend that has also been persistent in other states. In Pulaski County, for example, only 14.3 % of people have received their first dose of the vaccine, according to state health data. CDC data shows that nearly 40% of residents have received at least one dose, however, likely because of vaccinations conducted at a military base in the county.

“I grew up on a farm and I appreciate people in rural counties tend to be pretty independent-minded and that’s good. And maybe therefore do have less access to medical care and less likely to depend on it, maybe a little more suspicious about messages coming from governments or from the big city,” said Collins, who was raised on a farm in rural Virginia.

“But boy this is the case where this virus doesn’t really care whether you’re in a rural community or city community. And people in rural communities in Missouri and elsewhere are now getting sick and large numbers.”

Southwest Missouri is the epicenter of the latest wave, and rising hospitalizations are pushing medical providers in Springfield to the breaking point. Local officials on Wednesday asked DHSS and the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to fund an alternative care site as COVID patients begin to overwhelm the city’s two major hospitals, CoxHealth and Mercy.

The facilities are treating more virus patients than they did during Missouri’s previous pandemic peak this past winter. As of Thursday morning, CoxHealth had 139 COVID-positive patients and Mercy had 129. Mercy Springfield Chief Administrative Officer Erik Frederick tweeted that 16 virus patients at the hospital have died so far this week.

“We went from virtually zero patients to about 100-plus in about seven months in the first couple waves, and in this wave we went from, at least at Cox, about 14 patients seven weeks ago to about 130 today,” CoxHealth CEO Steve Edwards said at a Wednesday news conference. “So the ramp up time has been accelerated, almost triple.”

Late Wednesday, DHSS spokeswoman Lisa Cox said in an email that DHSS is working with SEMA and local officials “to determine how we will best meet the current health care needs of the community.”

COMBATING MYTHS

Collins pointed to myths about the vaccines that have circulated on social media as a driving factor in deterring people
from getting vaccinated.

“Some people were worried the vaccine might cause infertility. There’s been a lot of stuff on the internet about that,” Collins said. “There’s absolutely no evidence for that in men or in women. We now have tens of thousands of pregnant women who have been immunized and we have no indication that that’s causing any problem with the pregnancy.”

During Thursday’s White House briefing, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said that online misinformation was costing lives and called for social media companies to enforce stronger content moderation standards to curb the spread of inaccurate claims about vaccines and the virus.

In an interview later in the day, Murthy pointed to Missouri as a state where President Joe Biden’s administration was steering resources to increase vaccinations and slow transmission rates.

“Arkansas, Missouri, Nevada and other states in the Midwest and the mountain region of our country are now struggling with a rising number of cases, rising number of hospitalizations,” Murthy told McClatchy.

"This is what delta will do. It will continue to spread. It’s the most transmissible version of COVID-19 that we have seen to date,” Murthy said. “But what we do know, and the good news is that, the vaccines work against the delta variant. So that’s why it’s so important that we get people vaccinated, especially in parts of our country where vaccination rates are still low.”

Collins said some people have avoided vaccinations because they already had COVID, but he said these people still need to get vaccinated, especially to protect against variants.

“The vaccine gives you even a better shot at avoiding getting reinfected with this delta variant. Simply having COVID before is not nearly as reliable as having COVID plus the vaccine,” Collins said.

Collins emphasized the spread in southern Missouri poses a threat to Kansas City and St. Louis as well.

“What we’ve seen in every other surge — and we’ve had way too many of them — is that the things that are nearby geographically are at highest risk and people move around and they bring the virus with them, so nobody in that general vicinity should feel as if this is just a problem for some people in the rural community,” Collins said.

"This is a problem for the whole area. This is a problem for the whole nation,” Collins said. “Basically, somebody once said, we had a division in the country between vaccinated and unvaccinated. Or maybe we have a division between people who are vaccinated and people who are sick, because that’s the direction we’re going.”

Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt lamented Missouri’s low vaccination rate during a news conference Wednesday.

“We’re in a fight now, here and throughout the world frankly, where it’s sort of vaccine versus variant. The way you don’t have all these new strains is you don’t give the virus anywhere to live and become more resilient,” said Blunt, who comes from Springfield where the virus is surging.

Blunt’s strong exhortations to get vaccinated are in stark contrast to fellow Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, who has offered a mixed message in recent weeks and panned the Biden administration’s vaccination outreach efforts.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that she couldn’t make an assessment about why rural Missouri had fallen far behind the rest of the region in vaccination rates. But she called for elected officials to avoid polarizing the issue.

“We need to be clear and direct about our messaging. There is misinformation out there. Sometimes that’s traveling on platforms. Sometimes that’s traveling, unfortunately, out of the mouth of elected officials,” Psaki said Wednesday.

“So, it’s really case by case, but the most important thing we can do is not see this as a partisan issue because, certainly, the virus is killing people, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans.”

https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article252806518.html

Missouri Covid-19 Hospitalizations Reach Levels Not Seen Since Winter
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/missouri-covid-19-hospitalizations-reach-levels-not-seen-since-winter/article_5b13ac28-fdd7-519f-baa5-f311f21f9434.html

New Florida COVID-19 cases nearly double over last week; positivity rate jumps
https://www.fox13news.com/news/new-florida-covid-19-cases-nearly-double-over-last-week-positivity-rate-jumps

After teen daughter hospitalized with Covid, mom regrets saying no to vaccine
"It's heartbreaking. I wish I would've made better choices for her," said an Arkansas mother of her 13-year-old daughter, hospitalized with Covid-19
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/after-teen-daughter-hospitalized-covid-mom-regrets-saying-no-vaccine-n1274227

[Jack Nessan]

These experts have been all over the board about the virus from the beginning which brings to mind the saying about the most feared words in the English language.

"I am from the US government and I am here to help you"

There are endless stories of people in everyone's community having huge problems with the vaccination. There seems to be a huge allergic reaction to it with the least being sick for a few days.

 A female of child bearing age would be a fool to get the shot. Maybe you have forgotten the "Morning Sickness Pill" of the 60's that affected the ability of the next generation to have children and the problems with the children after the birth. There is no way these companies have any idea of the real net effect of the shot. The shot should just be a personal choice knowing the risks. If someone feels safe, based from having been vaccinated, then there should not be any concern about having contact with someone who is not vaccinated. By the time the vaccine was available wasn't half the country already exposed to the virus?

Why is it there seems to be no credit given for someone who has had the Covid. That in itself seems very strange in this great push to give everyone a shot.

[Rick Plant]

Here's a woman who thought COVID-19 was 'just like the flu". Now why would she think that? It isn't like she just woke up one day and said "this virus isn't very serious it's just like the flu".

No, she had to have heard it from somewhere. Where did she hear it from? Yeah, you guessed it, the lying right wing media, especially Faux Propaganda that masquerades as a news network. This bogus network is just like North Korean state run media, except it's state run media for Criminal Donald and Qanon conspiracy theorists which also includes Russian media talking points.

All last year, we heard from the liars at Faux that COVID was "just like the flu" and there was "nothing to be worried about". Right wing hack Geraldo Rivera said "it is the plain old flu". We also had the rest of the network hacks attacking Democrats for wanting to get the virus under control from the beginning. They accused Democrats of "liberal panic" and trying to 'take away their freedoms" making it a political issue and angering their mentally challenged base.   

Right out of the gate, the corrupt lying Trump administration, the GOP, and the right wing media made this virus political. They turned their base against wearing masks, social distancing, washing their hands, and taking the virus seriously. They encouraged their followers to refuse to wear masks and treat the virus as a joke.

As a result, all the sheep that follow them treated COVID-19 as a joke which made this pandemic even worse. Their refusal to follow orders allowed the virus to spread nationwide and millions of them ended up getting sick and hundreds of thousands died.

Now the lying right wing media is on an anti vaccine campaign to kill more of their viewers as the sheep still swallow each and every lie. People are believing this anti vaccine disinformation and they are dying becuase of it. Now this woman has her young daughter on the verge of death because she listened to all the Faux Propaganda lies about the vaccine. Sadly, more right wingers will be in the same predicament as she is.

Another lie these right wingers spread was young people and children are "immune to the virus". That is totally bogus because children can always get sick from a virus just like this teenager did. And these right wing Faux hacks were screaming to open up all the schools during the worst part of the pandemic so more kids and families could get infected and the sheep viewers who watched parroted all their talking points. Yes, the right wing cult is a death cult, they have no regard for human life.

Make sure to watch the video below the article. It details all the lies these Faux hacks were spewing about COVID-19 teaching their viewers not to take the virus seriously and making it a political issue instead of the dangerous health disaster that it is.

If everybody was on the same page taking this virus seriously, working to defeat the pandemic by wearing masks, and getting vaccinated, the virus wouldn't have been so devastating and it would have been pretty much under control by now. Instead it's still killing people and starting to get worse again with a more deadly variant for the unvaccinated.

The only people to blame are these right wingers hellbent on keeping this virus around, especially Faux Propaganda that lies each and every single day.

They are the fake news media and their lies are killing their own viewers. All of those hacks on that channel should be personally sued for millions of dollars and the FCC needs to revoke their broadcasting license. Yes, they have the free speech to broadcast vile hateful anti American rhetroic, but they don't have the free speech to purposely spread disinformation and kill people. That is called murder and that's what they are doing to their own viewers.                                     
     

This mother thought COVID-19 was ‘was just like the flu’ – now her unvaccinated teenage daughter is struggling to survive

A vaccine-skeptical Arkansas mother is begging other parents not to make the same mistake as she.

Angela Morris decided against vaccinations for herself and her 13-year-old daughter because she doubted the severity of the coronavirus, but she's learning a hard lesson now that her child has been hospitalized with an infection, reported KTHV-TV.

"I just had a false sense of security that it was just like the flu and it wasn't that serious," Morris said. "Obviously, it is that serious and it was that serious -- now I can see."

Her daughter, Caia Morris Cooper, first experienced flu-like symptoms before the infection became worse, and the girl has spent 12 days in the hospital breathing with the help of a ventilator.

"We've had perfectly healthy children who end up in the hospital, in the ICU, with COVID-19 infection," said Dr. Jessica Snowden, chief of infectious diseases at Arkansas Children's Hospital. "So it is definitely something that could impact anyone."

The hospitalized children all have one thing in common, she said.

"All of the children we have admitted who are seriously sick with COVID-19 are either too young to get vaccinated, or haven't been vaccinated yet," Snowden said.

Morris hopes her experience encourages other skeptics to get themselves and their children vaccinated.

"It's very hard to see her in this situation," Morris said. "It's very hard not knowing if she's really going to come home anymore or not. It's heartbreaking. I wish I would've made better choices for her."

[Rick Plant]

These experts have been all over the board about the virus from the beginning which brings to mind the saying about the most feared words in the English language.

"I am from the US government and I am here to help you"

There are endless stories of people in everyone's community having huge problems with the vaccination. There seems to be a huge allergic reaction to it with the least being sick for a few days.

 A female of child bearing age would be a fool to get the shot. Maybe you have forgotten the "Morning Sickness Pill" of the 60's that affected the ability of the next generation to have children and the problems with the children after the birth. There is no way these companies have any idea of the real net effect of the shot. The shot should just be a personal choice knowing the risks. If someone feels safe, based from having been vaccinated, then there should not be any concern about having contact with someone who is not vaccinated. By the time the vaccine was available wasn't half the country already exposed to the virus?

Why is it there seems to be no credit given for someone who has had the Covid. That in itself seems very strange in this great push to give everyone a shot.

You must be connoisseur of right wing media. You're helping to spread vaccine disinformation with bogus right wing anti vaccine propaganda.   

The experts have not been "all over the board". They made it very clear from day one that people need to wear masks, social distance, wash your hands, and avoid large groups of people (especially indoors) until we had a vaccine. It was the criminal Trump Administration, GOP politicians, and the lying right wing media that's been "all over the board" spreading lies and purposeful disinformation since day one.       

Actually, it's very easy to get vaccinated. President Biden made it easy for ALL Americans to get vaccinated. All you have to do is walk inside your local pharmacy and you will get a shot. Most counties had vaccination sites open daily for people to get a shot. But a lot of them aren't in operation now since right wingers refuse to get vaccinated.

The CDC has always clearly indicated that some people will have mild side effects from the shot. Would you rather have the full and deadly side effects of COVID-19 dying in the ICU on a ventilator instead?

Millions of women have already been vaccinated that are of child bearing age and they barely had any side effects. Would you rather have millions of women of child bearing age die from COVID 19? Because unvaccinated women of child bearing age are dying from COVID-19 this very minute.     

People come into contact with strangers everyday and there is no way of knowing who is vaccinated or not which is why we have more new cases spreading in unvaccinated areas.

A vaccinated person can still get the virus but the side effects will be very mild. So, the vaccinated person can give the virus to the unmasked unvaccinated person that might end up killing them.

Just because a person already had COVID doesn't make them immune to getting it again. They need to get vaccinated so they don't end up getting the virus again and dying from it.

Until everyone gets vaccinated we will never be able to get COVID 19 under control. These unvaccinated morons will continue to spread COVID and we will keep having more outbreaks which will allow the virus to mutate into a more deadly variant. We already have that now with the Delta variant and scientists are worried that the Delta variant will mutate into an even more deadly variant where the vaccine won't have any effect on it.         

Most people that got COVID got it because they were careless and they don't deserve credit for that. They will get it again being unvaccinated and they may not survive it this time. Have you had COVID?     

Do some research on the vaccine since you are so misinformed and lay off the right wing media, they spread nothing but lies and are killing their own viewers. 

[Jack Nessan]

Some states choose to stop reporting COVID-19 "recoveries" because there was no uniform definition. But there are enough data sources to estimate the national recovery numbers.

The growing problem seems to be with "Long COVID" sufferers ( Link ), those "recovered" but who have symptoms like fatigue, loss of smell, etc.

    "In January 2021, a study in the UK reported that 30% of recovered
     patients were readmitted to hospital within 140 days, and 12% of
     the total died. Many patients had developed diabetes for the first
     time, as well as problems with heart, liver and kidney problems."

The new variants are stronger and affect the young more so than the original COVID-19.

"New Long-Haul COVID Clinics Treat Mysterious and Ongoing Symptoms", Scientific American, Jun30-2021 ( Link )

One seems to avoid the risk of "long-haul" COVID-19 symptoms by simply getting the vaccine:

    "While long COVID is observed after COVID-19 infection, it has not
     been reported after COVID-19 vaccination, with over 100,000 partici-
     pants included in vaccine trials as of December 2020." (Wikipedia)

But even those with full vaccination and the "fully-recovered" (if there is such a thing) can contact or harbor the disease and unwittingly spread it to the unvaccinated. That's why--if your area is experiencing a "hot spot" or increase in infections--it's a good idea to mask in public and unmask in a small "bubble". Patriotic even!

I could care less what the news media thinks, left or right. This disease has been around long enough for all of us to have personal knowledge of how it works and how it effects others. We all know people who have had terrible reactions to it and stories from medical friends about the vaccinations and the reoccurance of the disease.

I have had covid and my pregnant daughter and wife both had their sense of smell and taste impaired and their senses are still impaired. I know of people who basiclly isolated themselves only to have one contract the disease and the other did not. There are many stories of Families where some get the disease while others in the same household do not. The experts are learning as they go just like the rest of us. Masks are a great example of how the experts are all over the board. Another would be ventilators, originally the shut down was to be for 6 weeks to let them build ventiltors. Now to be put on a ventilator is considered a death sentence.

Most of us figured out a long time ago there had to be different variants around because of how severe some peoples reactions were compared to others. Most of us figured out like the flu there is no end to it. The vaccination has gone from being a six months immunity to it is good for ever but maybe it will take booster shots. Oh and it might be good for the Delta variant or maybe it will not. Nobody knows about all the other variants.

Now the same question. How can the vaccination be better than having actually had the disease and your body actually having fought off the disease? Over half the population was estimated to have been exposed. I would think having had the disease would be better than the vaccine.

[Rick Plant]

White House to Fox: Why isn't your 'biggest concern' the number of people dying from vaccine misinformation?

Fox News' Peter Doocy pelted White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki with extremist conspiracy theory questions on Friday related to a study released this week finding just 12 people on Facebook are responsible for 65% of all coronavirus and COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.

His questions were so contrived and baseless Psaki at one point was forced to ask why the Fox News correspondent's "biggest concern" wasn't the increased numbers of Americans dying from coronavirus disinformation, which also happens to be the very disinformation he and his network are spreading.

"Okay so these 12 people who you have on a list, 12 individuals. Do they know that somebody at the Surgeon General's Office is going through their profile?" Doocy asked.

The information the White House shared came from this study by a group that is not a part of the federal government, and was published in countless news reports.

"Our biggest concern here, and I, frankly, think it should be your biggest concern, is [the misinformation] leading them to not take a vaccine. Young people, old people, kids, children – this is all being, a lot of them are being impacted by misinformation," Psaki said.

Doocy refused to address that, but went on the claim that the "big concern though, I think for a lot of people on Facebook is that now this is big brother watching you."

Minutes earlier he had falsely claimed that the Biden administration was "spying" on Americans' Facebook profiles.

Psaki did not respond to that falsehood – again, the information comes from a study of Facebook pages that are public on the social media platform, but slammed Doocy for prioritizing a conspiracy theory over Americans dying.

"They're more concerned about that than people dying across the country because of a pandemic where misinformation is traveling on social media platforms? That feels unlikely to me," she said. "If you have the data to back that up I'm happy to discuss it."

Doocy also fired up the old attack on Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said at the start of the pandemic that masks were not necessary – which at that point was based on the general scientific belief guided by the number of cases and what was known at the time, coupled with the dire lack of PPE for medical first responders.

"There are videos of Dr. Fauci from 2020 before anybody had a vaccine and he is out there saying there's no reason to be walking around with a mask and so is the administration going to contact Facebook and ask them to take that down?" Doocy asked.

Psaki refused to entertain that old conspiracy theory other than to remind Doocy that "science evolves" and "information evolves," but then slammed those who are spreading a false claim about the vaccine.

"I have never seen any data such as suggest that, that the vaccines cause infertility, that is information that is irresponsible," she said.

https://www.rawstory.com/vaccine-misinformation-2653818815/

[Rick Plant]

I could care less what the news media thinks, left or right. This disease has been around long enough for all of us to have personal knowledge of how it works and how it effects others. We all know people who have had terrible reactions to it and stories from medical friends about the vaccinations and the reoccurance of the disease.

Obviously, you have no clue about the disease because you're parroting the same  disinformation that comes from the right wing media. A slight fever is not a "terrible reaction" and it's a lot better than a 104 temperature dying from Covid in the ICU being hooked up to a ventilator.     

I have had covid and my pregnant daughter and wife both had their sense of smell and taste impaired and their senses are still impaired. I know of people who basiclly isolated themselves only to have one contract the disease and the other did not. There are many stories of Families where some get the disease while others in the same household do not. The experts are learning as they go just like the rest of us. Masks are a great example of how the experts are all over the board. Another would be ventilators, originally the shut down was to be for 6 weeks to let them build ventiltors. Now to be put on a ventilator is considered a death sentence.

And being unvaccinated will allow you to get sick all over again with even worse symptoms. The whole point of the vaccine is not to be put in that situation again to where you can die from it.     

Most of us figured out a long time ago there had to be different variants around because of how severe some peoples reactions were compared to others. Most of us figured out like the flu there is no end to it. The vaccination has gone from being a six months immunity to it is good for ever but maybe it will take booster shots. Oh and it might be good for the Delta variant or maybe it will not. Nobody knows about all the other variants.

 

There were no "other variants" around before. The reason the Delta variant started is because it mutated from the serious COVID crisis in India and it eventually spread to America. The reason we will need booster shots is because of these anti vaxx idiots who refuse to get vaccinated and the Delta variant will mutate into another more deadly variant so a new booster shot will be needed to combat that strain. If everybody got vaccinated we will reach herd immunity which is why health experts, doctors, and Democrats are trying so hard to get people vaccinated. But with all the vaccine disinformation, especially the nonsense you're parroting it will be more difficult to obtain.           

Now the same question. How can the vaccination be better than having actually had the disease and your body actually having fought off the disease? Over half the population was estimated to have been exposed. I would think having had the disease would be better than the vaccine.

I already answered your ridiculous question and I can't believe you are even asking something like this.

The vaccine prevents you from dying from COVID-19 and the more deadly Delta variant. If you happen to get COVID and you are vaccinated the symptoms will be extremely mild and you won't die.

Already having COVID does nothing to protect you from not getting it again. That's why you need to get vaccinated so you won't die from the more deadly Delta variant. People who already had COVID are getting it again and dying from the Delta variant.

Lay off the right wing vaccine disinformation.     

[Rick Plant]

People unvaccinated against Covid-19 risk the most serious virus of their lives, expert says

With vaccination rates still not at the threshold needed to stop the spread of Covid-19, most Americans who are unprotected will likely contract the rapidly spreading Delta variant, one expert said.

"And for most people who get this Delta variant, it's going to be the most serious virus that they get in their lifetime in terms of the risk of putting them in the hospital," Dr. Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration during the Trump administration, told CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday.

Delta is the most transmissible Covid-19 variant yet, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN. And experts say it is exacerbating the rise in cases among unvaccinated Americans.

In Los Angeles County, the rate of new Covid-19 cases has increased 300% since July 4, the county health department said. Covid-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled from the previous month.

And 48 states are now seeing new case numbers surge at least 10% higher than the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

That is concerning, Murthy said, because often a rise in cases and hospitalizations is followed by a rise in Covid-19 deaths. Experts are particularly worried about the unvaccinated populations, as 99.5% of the deaths from Covid-19 occur among people who have not been vaccinated, Murthy said.

The only way to stem the rise in cases is vaccination, Murthy told CNN's Dana Bash Sunday.

The fight to increase vaccinations is transitioning to the hands of local leaders, Murthy said. Springfield, Missouri, Mayor Ken McClure told "Face the Nation" he hopes community leaders will convince people to get vaccinated before it is too late.

"So it gets down to the community leaders, the community institutions that people trust saying you have to get vaccination. That's the only way that we are going to emerge from this," McClure said.


Delta variant sends younger people to the hospital

The Delta variant might spread faster than other strains of coronavirus because it makes more copies of itself inside our bodies at a faster pace, researchers found.

In research posted online, scientists examining 62 cases of the Delta variant found viral loads about 1,260 times higher than those found in 63 cases from the early epidemic wave in 2020.The Delta variant is also sending younger and previously healthy people to hospitals -- the vast majority of which have not been vaccinated, say doctors in several states suffering surges.

"This year's virus is not last year's virus," said Dr. Catherine O'Neal, an infectious disease specialist at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

It's attacking our 40-year-olds. It's attacking our parents and young grandparents. And it's getting our kids," O'Neal said. She said her Covid-19 unit now has more patients in their 20s than previously during the pandemic.

In the face of rampant misinformation about the virus and the vaccine, McClure urged people to use trusted sources and to "make sure people have good information."

Misinformation "takes away our freedom," Murthy said, adding that the inaccurate information inhibits people's power to make educated decisions about the health of themselves and their families.

And with the virus' disproportionately higher impact among people who aren't vaccinated, the consequences can be severe.

"All this misinformation that's floating around is having a real cost that can be measured in lives lost, and that is tragic," Murthy said.


11 people show up to three-hour vaccination event

In Alabama, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the US, a three-and-a-half-hour vaccination clinic at a church outside of Birmingham Sunday yielded little progress as only 11 people showed up.

MedsPlus, the health care provider on site, has been holding clinics at churches, business and community centers, in hopes of partnering with local leaders that people trust. But according to Alabama Public Health Department's dashboard, the number of vaccines administered in the state has dropped off in a steep decline since the peak in March and April.

According to data from the CDC, just 33.7% of Alabama's residents were fully vaccinated as of Sunday.

Since April 1, 529 people have died in Alabama from Covid-19. According to the Alabama Public Health department, about 96% of them were unvaccinated.

Shuntasia Williams, 15, said she got her first dose of vaccine at the event because she wants to be protected when school starts next month. She told CNN she's proud of her friend group for being vaccinated, but she has also seen rumors online that her peers are falling for.

"I seen somebody that said their arm got so swollen, it had to get amputated off," Williams said. "That is the most crazy thing. One thing about vaccines is they start spreading rumors about it, but you have to get out and see it for yourself."

Williams said these are not first-hand accounts by people, but rather misleading posts and articles that continue to be shared.

"Take it from me. I'm 15 years old. Go get the vaccine. It's not shocking. My arm is not swollen. I'm not getting my arm amputated. I'm actually feeling great," she said

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/19/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html