US States that eased restrictions faring better

[Lammchen]

The data is showing that the states within the US that have eased restrictions are faring better than the states that have tighter restrictions. Numbers are going down, deaths are REALLY low and there is no true pattern of them being a warm state or receiving more vaccine than anybody else. It's interesting to see how the numbers are when comparing states like Texas to California.

 

[Gibby]

California now has lowest covid case rate in the US

 

[Ozzy47]

Here is a State by State COVID policy tracker,

COVID-19 State and Local Policy Dashboard

Resources on the state and local government response to COVID-19.

www.multistate.us

 

[Deleted member 324]

Updated every couple of days, interactive stats.

U.S. states with the highest COVID rates 2023 | Statista

As of Mar. 2023, two U.S. states had COVID rates higher than 42 cases per 100 population. Maryland had the lowest rate of cases.

www.statista.com

 

[Martee]

I can't talk about it from a US perspective as I'm a Brit but whilst I agree the tight restrictions have their use (As we in the UK saw the benefits of over January/February) I think long-term it just annoys and pushes people to the point they're more likely to just say screw the rules and break it more often. In turn, that could lead to more COVID spread as people don't care. If you've been able to generally live your life (in the US states with less restrictions), you're probably less inclined to take the mick when living your life during COVID.

 

[Harry]

It would be dangerous to think that vaccination will cure everything. Last day they were talking about for variant which is new and a combination of 2 existing variants. There were reports that vaccination itself has gone wrong with some people causing disastrous after-effects. Even if you are immune, there is a good chance that you might infect others as you still carry it.

 

[Martee]

My take on things is that yes, vaccines are not the 'cure all' approach that will end COVID but at some point the world will have to keep on turning and getting back to as close as what can be called normal. Again, from a UK perspective where we've dosed up nearly 75% of all adults with at least one dose (I think we're at 40% odd with two doses?), I'd like to think we're close to that pathway before the so called Indian variant reared its head up north. Even so, it's caused a rise in cases but that hasn't yet matched up with hospitalisations/deaths (although there is a time lag from infection for that) and those that are in hospital, I think they said only 5% had two jabs, so the vaccines seem to be doing their job and keeping that death/hospitalisation down.

For me (and I'm sorry if its callous) there is an 'acceptable' death rate, and yes, it's very sad whenever someone dies. We had 1000+ people dying per day in January, we locked down, started injecting people and now were in the 7-10 per day territory yet we're still talking about delaying domestic normality. I'm not expecting full 2019 vibes but at some point I think we've just got to put our masks on, sanitize away and crack on with life.

 

[Harry]

How long before another variant surface and calls itself a new name. The whole idea of people living in fear and sometimes fear of death is horrible. And even after 15 months or so since we first heard of this difficulty, there is a lot of uncertainty around the whole subject. Governments do not want themselves in a bad light, citizens want a cure overnight. The public, in general, wants to take a part of the supermarket home. This is the exact reason why such situations happen to us. There is no care but blind belief in a party, administration or a govt.

 

[Martee]

Well in the time we've had the so called 'Indian' variant in the UK - I've heard of at least three more that have reared their head and are being investigated by our authorities. Viruses mutate, it's what they do and what they are always going to do. Unlike last year though, the virus has even less people to burn through and bounce around so you can only hope that we've severely limited it's ability to infect people. It's got to get back to normal soon, otherwise I can see things flaring up very badly both here and across the world - in fact, I know it already has in some places.

 

[Deleted member 324]

Viruses mutate

These "variants" all have the same spike protein all SARS viruses rely on. Which is also the target of the vaccines. Any virus using that spike protein can't infect immune people no matter how much more infectious or deadly it's said to be. Until it ceases use of the spike protein it's not a threat if you're immunized.

 

[Martee]

These "variants" all have the same spike protein all SARS viruses rely on. Which is also the target of the vaccines. Any virus using that spike protein can't infect immune people no matter how much more infectious or deadly it's said to be. Until it ceases use of the spike protein it's not a threat if you're immunized.

That's certainly my understanding and I think the data over here is showing that - in our current hotspot (where the variant seemed to appear), it's a deprived city where authorities mentioned that a lot of people refused the vaccine. In addition, it's a city where multiple-generations live in one house, so if one person gets it, it'll be a lot easier to spread through that house. I think for us in the UK anyway, the issue lies in that we're so close to our so called "Freedom Day" and people think anything but declining cases means we should lockdown again. If we're opening things up, cases are going to go up.

As long as we don't go from 3k (our current average) to like 20/30k in the space of a few weeks or something, I don't see any problem. The vaccine is doing it's job, and doing it damn well.

 

[Deleted member 324]

The vaccine is doing it's job, and doing it damn well.

In my part of the US we have been only getting single-digit new daily cases for the last several weeks. Only five reported today. We're virtually free of it.

 

[Martee]

In my part of the US we have been only getting single-digit new daily cases for the last several weeks. Only five reported today. We're virtually free of it.

It's basically the same here for my city. In my hyper local part of the city, there is no reporting because there are no local cases. On a citywide level, we're only at 47 cases in the last seven days (and that's gone down 21% week on week). For a tightly packed city of 350k with very large international student populations, it's very good. I really think it's starting to wind down in both our countries due to the vaccination program.

 

[Deleted member 324]

It's basically the same here for my city. In my hyper local part of the city, there is no reporting because there are no local cases. On a citywide level, we're only at 47 cases in the last seven days (and that's gone down 21% week on week). For a tightly packed city of 350k with very large international student populations, it's very good. I really think it's starting to wind down in both our countries due to the vaccination program.

We never had it all that bad here where the buffalo still roam and where we have gobs of land area sparsely populated. One city in the region has a population of 190,000 with a metro area adding another 50,000 or so, spread out on land area of around 200 square miles. There's probably not even 350,000 people in our entire region.

We were able to send around 100 of our nurses to areas harder hit around the country.

 

[WhippedCream]

I feel like restrictions have been pretty much lifted all over the place now that vaccines are so widely available now.

It's weird to see so many people going back to normal after what has happened the past year and a half.

 

[Lammchen]

Numbers are low but my church still forces members to wear masks and not be able to sing! I know they're an older congregation so I stay home and watch the videos they post of the service.

But it's good to see numbers drop and yet in some areas the numbers are rising again because of the Delta Plus Variant. It's now an endemic instead of a pandemic, right? It's time to get back to normal and take care of our health so we can fight any type of virus.