‘The war has changed’:

Internal CDC document urges new messaging, warns delta infections likely more severe. The internal presentation shows that the agency thinks it is struggling to communicate on vaccine efficacy amid increased breakthrough infections.

The delta variant of the coronavirus appears to cause more severe illness than earlier variants and spreads as easily as chickenpox, according to an internal federal health document that argues officials must “acknowledge the war has changed.”

The document strikes an urgent note, revealing the agency knows it must revamp its public messaging to emphasize vaccination as the best defense against a variant so contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus, leaping from target to target more swiftly than Ebola or the common cold." NY Times

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"Nationwide, there are about the same number of new Covid-19 cases reported each day as there were at this time last year, but they’re rising quickly right now instead of falling as they were last year, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

The United States recorded an average of about 67,000 new Covid-19 cases each day over the past week, compared to an average of more than 65,000 cases each day in the last week of July 2020."

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One Year Ago Today https://pbase.com/britestar/image/170918775

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“A third of the white-tailed deer tested in four states during a federal study had been exposed to the coronavirus, in yet another indication of the unpredictable nature of the disease. The percentage was highest in Michigan, where 60 percent of the animals tested positive.

The presence of the virus in wild deer is not just a curiosity for scientists. The virus has shown it can jump from one species to another, and in the worse case, it could become established in a common animal species, creating a reservoir from which the virus could spill back into humans.” NY Times

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“In yet another unexpected and unwelcome twist in the nation’s pandemic, fully immunized people with so-called breakthrough infections of the Delta variant may spread the virus to others just as easily as unvaccinated people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report published on Friday.

Learning just how different the Delta variant is from the original virus is “just jarring,” he added. “The brain doesn’t like to keep being jerked around like this.”

Studies of outbreaks have shown that Delta is much more contagious than the original virus or the seasonal flu and as contagious as chickenpox, according to the internal document circulated within the C.D.C. Breakthrough infections among vaccinated people were always anticipated, but until the Delta variant arrived, vaccinated Americans were not expected to be sources of new infections.” Washington Post

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“The Covid-19 vaccination effort has become so polarized in Missouri that some people are responding to the state’s Delta-driven surge by trying to get shots in secret, a doctor there said. Some people, are “very concerned about how their people that they love, within their family and within their friendship circles and their work circles, are going to react if they found out that they got the vaccine.” Missouri’s vaccination rate is lagging. “ CNN

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“Kansas City metro daily average for new COVID-19 cases surpasses peak from summer 2020.
The latest rise in numbers has officials at the Kansas City Health Department worried.” KANSAS CITY STAR

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“COVID-19 surge strains Kansas City-area hospitals ahead of 'worse' month.

KANSAS CITY, Mo — August is projected to see a high number of new COVID-19 cases – possibly higher than any previous wave the Kansas City metro has experienced – based on current infection rates, according to public health officials.”

Dr. Erica Carney, KCMO's EMS medical director said the surge in cases is overwhelming health care systems. "That means there's nowhere to put patients right now," Carney said. "EMS ambulance transfers out of the hospital are taking hours." KSHB News

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Based on how bad things have become locally and today’s CDC announcement, we are now returning to our “safer-at-home” precautions. Even with being vaccinated, we never stopped wearing a mask out in public. Still, we have now decided that we need to again avoid all unnecessary person to person contact with those outside our home.

Sadly, only 30% of those where we live are vaccinated. That low number creates a danger for even the vaccinated. Many of these unvaccinated brag about their personal “freedom” to do whatever they want. Meanwhile, these same very selfish individuals have taken away our freedom to do what we really want & also to still remain safe. The unvaccinated have deprived the vaccinated (and the autoimmune compromised) of their "safe" freedoms. Something is very wrong with that.

This new wave of an even worse variant of COVID didn't have to be. We did our part to try to stop the virus, but we're now little better off than we were a year ago. The unvaccinated have put us in this position. Even after a "light at the end of the tunnel" (which meant freedom from the virus) was offered to all, so many chose not to follow the light. As a result, the unvaccinated succeeded in stealing freedom away from the vaccinated. The unvaccinated endanger everyone.

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Photo above is an decaying hibiscus bloom. Even at its worst, some beauty remains.