From my earlier postings-

"Houston, we have a problem. Reported covid cases, an indicator more of the severity of the current rate of infection more than anything else, but, a number that has been trending downward for the better part of a year, have shot up from 52 to 130 in the period of one week. It is concerning for many reasons. First, the report, incomplete as it now is since you can no longer quick click to historical data, rendering it impossible for someone who isn't computer savvy to get to it, like me, was delayed by 24 hours, moving it out of today's news cycle and essentially burying it for 24 hours, or in this case, until Monday. Since Scott Barker is the primary reporter of covid in Knoxville, his Friday summation is the go to for updated covid information. Mayor Jacobs oversees, by law, the Department that was responsible for this information being delayed. Should this delay prove to be intentional, and this spike be something more than an anomaly, it is vital to remember that Glenn Jacobs has all the final says that Dr. Buchanan used to have and all the oversight powers of the former Board of Health. People that think there was no method to this madness were wrong. Glenn Jacobs is, from a bureaucratic standpoint, Knox County's Chief Medical officer. He can do more damage by not doing that job in a pandemic surge, than someone who actually attempts to do something, and does it poorly.
Hospitalizations are a lagging indicator, thus far in the pandemic, about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. Preventions and treatments of covid have gotten to the point though, where if being properly utilized, high rate of vaccines, real monitoring for outbreaks, education, ongoing updating of public HVAC systems (not only for breathing clean air, but as emnergency shelters during heat emergencies) and the like, you know the stuff responsible normal adults do when holding office, hospitalizations are virtually non-existant or at least less than ten consistently fora town our size. We have had twelve for the last couple of weeks, after getting below ten for a while, I think (I have to do this from memory, the Mayor cut off my data). We don't know yet if this spike will affect hospitalizations or not. Responsible government would indicate a plan be in place in the event there was another covid outbreak. I wonder what it is?"

Vaccinated people have mild cases and ride them out. Not reported. But still spreaders.

Paxlovid is keeping others out of hospitals. I guess they are reported cases, because doctors, prescriptions, etc. But still spreaders.

I'd like to know more about confirmed cases, where they are coming from, how they got it, etc., to help determine best precautions.

I guess surveillance and contact tracing and whatnot are quaint, obsolete notions, though, because freedom and commerce.

I got my second bivalent booster yesterday, I expected to have a sore arm and be sluggish, as I was with my first one, a little over 10 months ago. I feel really good this morning. I'm somewhat surprised.

As someone who was involved in youth sports at a level that barely earned me a starting spot, some years, on some teams, I learned not to run my mouth on the field if I didn't want to draw attention to myself. I didn't want to jinx myself. This is my sixth covid vaccination/booster. One of my lifelong friends and his wife are both scientists. The wife has been working with genetic research (DNA and RNA stuff) her whole career. He developed a cancer drug that has made it to trial. (Thats considered a highly successful career in the scientist field). I've gone all in with the science. I just never wanted to jinx myself by telling folks I've never had covid.

Yup. Haven't had it and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the vaccination was the reason. Early on it worked because we got everyone (well, 60% of us, a significant majority) to get vaccinated. Mayor Jacobs launched a huge propaganda campaign, strictly to advance his political power, among his cult and was able to thwart the medical communities efforts, to some extent. That effort has led to the death of an extra thousand people over comparable communities that launched real mitigation and publiuc health measures for their own communities. (I used Dane Co. Wi. home of Madison) as the comparable. Slightly bigger population, liberal city, conservative county yada yada yada. Compare with any number of comparable communities and see for yourself.)

The point is this. I've lived a normal life ever since my first booster. Aside from donating way too much of my time to my unpaid work advocating for covid intervention and mitigation and the personal abuse I have subjected myself to as a result, my life has been as normal as it ever was. Yet, only 8% of our population in Knox County has even bothered to get the bivalent booster. Their first bivalent booster. I got mine because I wanted to play bridge tonight and go to the Motley Crew luncheon on Friday. I really like the people at that luncheon and didn't want to spread covid to them while I was there. They are my friends, at least they act like it, I'm sure a few think I'm crazy.

That seems to be the key, whether or not a person has any concern whatsoever about the rest of the human race. Those that believe everyone should has the fundamental right to live get vaccinated for the benefit of their fellow man as well as themselves. They have weighed the risks and done what's right for them and for us. And I appreciate those folks. It's also only eight percent of us. At an eight percent participation rate, saying the vaccine doesn't work becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. A vaccine won't stop the advancement of a pathogen throughout society at eight percent. In fact, the protection it offers those who get it drops dramatically. That's just how vaccines work.

The Republican Party has begun a massive pushback campaign, once again, against the vaccine. They will lie, harass and intimidate people into not getting the vaccine and booster strictly to advance their own political agenda. Let me repeat that. To the detriment of the citizenry, knowing that their action will be responsible for the deaths, murders by the Republican Party against those bowing to their tactics strictly to advance their political agenda. That's the purpose of this propaganda campaign. Funny thing is, they're killing more of their own people than they are those that defy them. I've never seen a political movement dependent on the human sacrifice of its own participants before. For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would participate in a political movement like that. I don't see the upside. They might sacrifice my friend instead of me? I just don't get it.

I'll lay a tad low today and be back to normal, looks like tomorrow. I will continue to live a normal life, including grieving for those poor brainwashed souls who have convinced themselves that Glenn Jacobs lies are the truth. I really feel lucky I had him pegged as a liar and charlatan from the outset of his little attempt at a beer hall putsch here in our fair town. Get boostered. Live your life. Stand up with the truth to the Knox County governments propaganda and brainwashing campaign. Peace.

...COVID-19 cases in Florida increased by more than 23% in the most recent Weekly Situation Report, published July 21.

Cases rose from 7,741 for the week beginning June 30 to 9,547 for the following week and 9,942 for the week beginning July 14, the report shows.

The number of cases has increased for eight of the last 10 weeks...

According to the CDC, COVID-19 indicators, including hospital admissions, emergency department visits, test positivity and wastewater levels tracking are increasing nationally.
...
“U.S. COVID-19 rates are still near historic lows after 7 months of steady declines,” CDC spokesperson Kathleen Conley said in a statement to CBS News. “The U.S. has experienced increases in COVID-19 during the past three summers, so it’s not surprising to see an uptick.”

The weeks numbers are in. Cases and hospitalizations are both up, but the jump was not as severe as last week. If these indicators hold true, the curve is flattening. It's too early to say we dodged a bullet, but I'll take a slowdown of the spread over an uncontrolled case saturation any day. Deaths remain steady. Vaccinations ticked up, a little. Our hospitalization numbers are still a ways away from telling us much, but this weeks rise would seems to indicate a higher incidence than the numbers from 2-3 weeks ago would indicate. It remains to be seen if hospitalizations are being driven by a more severe strain, which would send people to the hospital more quickly, or the saturation level of this surge. At any rate, these numbers don't look as alarming as last weeks. They would indicate the curve is flattening. If hospitalizations can stay down, we have a shot here. There, of course, is a flip side. If doctors are advising those who call in with covid to stay home, the won't get a covid test that would count against the case count. Still, a rise of 30 cases is better than a rise of 78 cases, no matter how one looks at it.

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I apologize to all concerned. I underestimated the effect this covid surge would have on our hospital system. I figured a range of between 22 and 36 and went with the smaller number, primarily due to all the people screaming that covid was over. Our case number reflects more of a plateau than a drop or major increase. We are at the edge of having to cut back our hospital use. Prepare to postpone anything not immediately necessary. Staffing issues will be prevalent in the near future. That will likely look like overtime (and hopefully time off after to to recover from stress and exhaustion) if you're one of the workers assigned to handle this. At this point, with this plateau, not knowing how long a typical hospital stay is with covid, I'd say we could go to 50 patients. I believe that will put a major strain on our local medical infrastructure. I saw the thirty six though and thought, nah, we'll never get back there again. Better than 600, but we don't have the staffing capacity for 600 extra patients anymore. Remember, they had to call on the National Guard to keep our hospitals open then, it's not a state of emergency anymore. We'll just have to eat it and hope it doesn't get worse. Please get vaccinated There was an additional death last week and I'm worried I may have underestimated deaths as well.