Tracking Delta breakthroughs -- Part 3 (Mitigation via distancing)

Last update: Monday 9/6/21

This is the third in a series of notes on this blog that briefly summarize what every health conscious U.S. resident should know about the Delta variant.  Part 1 discussed Delta's most disruptive properties. Part 2 discussed masks. This third part discusses distancing, the most effective way that individuals can help to mitigate the spread of Delta to those who have not been vaccinated yet and to those who need a booster shot to achieve full immunity. 

Tracking Delta breakthroughs -- Part 2 (Mitigation via masks)

 Last update: Friday 8/27/21

This is the second in a series of notes on this blog that briefly summarize what every health conscious U.S. resident should know about the Delta variant. Part 1 discussed Delta's most disruptive properties. This second part focuses on the most visible way that vaccinated persons can help to mitigate the spread of Delta to those who have not been vaccinated yet and to those who need a booster shot to achieve full immunity. 

Tracking Delta breakthroughs -- Part 1 (Three disruptive properties)

Last update: Sunday 8/22/21

This is the first in a series of notes that will briefly summarize what every health conscious U.S. resident should know about the Delta variant. It focuses on three properties of Delta that are disrupting the efforts of the U.S. and other nations to employ highly effective vaccines to manage the pandemic in ways that minimize severe illness and death: (1) Delta is far more transmissible than previous variants of the virus, (2) Delta can infect people who have been vaccinated, and (3) These "breakthrough" cases are highly contagious.
 

Undetected breakthroughs spreading Delta everywhere

Last update: Saturday 8/17/21

In March 2020, Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for President Trump's coronavirus task force, vehemently opposed the suggestion that people who were not healthcare professionals wear cloth masks. Her opposition was based on two judgement calls: first, cloth masks provided no protection against the coronavirus for their wearers; and second, cloth masks might give their wearers a false sense of protection that might cause them to neglect more powerful mitigations, like social distancing. Her pessimistic judgements were soon cast aside; nevertheless in mid-2021 her judgements may prove to be accurate predictions as a result of the most recent flip-flop in CDC guidance. 

Delta breakthroughs cancel herd immunity

 Last update: Thursday 8/12/21

Hotspots are everywhere. At this point every highly vaccinated state, county, city, town, or neighborhood contains hotspots, i.e., smaller communities in which the percentage of people who are not vaccinated is much higher than the percentage within the highly vaccinated surrounding area. Indeed, if you are not vaccinated and you somehow find yourself in a highly vaccinated area for work, dining, or entertainment, you are a hotspot.

Is the CDC misguiding us again, this time with regards to Delta breakthrough infections???

Last update: Friday 8/13/21

The CDC's Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People (7/28/21) declares that "Infections happen in only a small proportion of people who are fully vaccinated, even with the Delta variant." Let's ask ourselves the crucial question: how would the CDC know that the proportion of Delta breakthrough cases is small?