The latest data from the military show that roughly 30,000 active-duty service members remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, despite a Defense Department mandate issued in August and deadlines that have passed.
We're all about the charts around here, so let's render this in chart form:
Sigh. If we could do this well for the whole country the pandemic would be over.
It looks like the latest wave may be cresting in the earlier hit areas, e.g. NY and IL. Hospitalizations are up, but some of that comes from people being hospitalized for other issues, and not because of Covid, but testing positive in the hospital. Covid deaths are not rising nearly as much with hospitalizations--and may even be cresting too (waning of the delta wave?).
Ok, might just be a bump in the data and wishful thinking. Masking still needed, and covid hospitalizations still almost all due to un-vaccinated, so please get vaccinated.
As for the military, you'll hear the rants of those National Guard units refusing to get vaccinated in the news--not so much from the majority who did their duty.
They're actually starting to discharge the holdhouts, so I imagine that number will shrink even further in coming weeks as their minds are focused on whether or not they're willing to end their careers over a stupid shot in the arm.
"The pandemic would be over"? Are you sure, Kevin? I remember the days when the "pandemic would be over" if 70% of people would be vaccinated and/or had developed immunity by catching Covid. In France 91% of adults are now fully vaccinated (93% have had one dose), and that should be enough to reach herd immunity against any ordinary pandemic. Add the percentage of people who caught the disease in the recent past and France is easily in the >95% range where even the measles fizzle out.
And yet France has TRIPLE the number of cases it had at its previous peak. To be sure they are less severe. But the term "pandemic" doesn't have to do with mortality. Only with transmission, which apparently has never been higher.
I'm all for vaccination and am vaxxed myself but saying it will stop the pandemic is sooooo 2020.
You are somewhat wrong about the term pandemic or epidemic from which it comes . Although seems the definition is often different depending on who is using it or in what context, deaths are commonly part of the definition , not just number of infections.
The cdc definition, which precisely is for flu but has often been extended to covid , is when over 7% of deaths at a time are attributable to that flu . So cdc uses only deaths not infections. Based on that " standard " definition, we have been out and back in the covid epidemic a few times . And I would guess and hope we will be put for good maybe in March this year re reported deaths, or mid February for actual death date , or late this month for date of infection that caused the death. Note approx 10,000 or so die a day so around 700 covid deaths is the cutoff.
Of course, cdc might be using flu deaths as a proxy for flu infections and really basing epidemic on number of infections. But, if that were true, and applied to covid , the number of needed deaths would be much higher as covid ifr is higher to get to same infections. And then we have only been in pandemic period for covid for brief periods if at all. Which does not feel right .
In actual real life , pandemic is probably more defined by perception than reality. When the general public feels the threat is low enough to live their lives normally in most ways and accept the risk . So maybe then fla will never have been in pandemic and California will never be out of it?
And then there is the definition I have heard often enough from Republicans that it is no longer funny. That a pandemic is just a dem in middle of panic . God the spelling of the word is almost like it was deliberate chosen for a political point.
The Coronavirus is the... Inscrutable Chinavirus.
Except for the Navy Seals, who dodge bullets every other day, but are apparently terrified of a little vaccine that my 7-year-old twins just took without breaking a sweat.
Except for some of the Navy Seals…
The Seals who don't take their orders from the Navy but do whatever they dam well please, and then accept their pardons from Trump.
Nope. This is a global pandemic. Had the country hit the 98% mark, we'd be wide open despite the pandemic, and still, we'd get hit by Omicron with nearly 100% breakthrough infections.
What we would have achieved is vastly fewer deaths and significantly lower hospitalizations. As a result, GDP would be higher and Joe Manchin wouldn't have bothered to play along with "negotiations" on the BBB.
LA Times online headline: Thousands of US troops defy COVID-19 vaccine order
LA Times paper headline: Vaccine divide in US military
Kevin Drum headline: The US military is now 98% vaccinated
Which one of these is not like the others?
"Thousands" sounds like a lot, doesn't it? So that makes a good headline, doesn't it?
On the other hand, a reader might have to look up (or simply ask the guy who knows everything, Mr. Google), how many active duty military personnel there are. Then that reader would discover that there are about 1.4 million active duty personnel. And that doesn't even count the additional million reserves and National Guard. So that scare headline wouldn't seem so scary, would it.
Which is why "Thousands defy" makes a better headline.
"Thousands" sounds like a lot, as Mr Rhodes points out, but is negligible compared to the total military population. In a similar vein, stories about how the military has been discovered to waste x million dollars needs to be compared with its annual budget, of near $800 BILLION.
$One million: $1,000,000.
$800 billion: $800,000,000,000.
Petty cash, on that scale of spending. Less significant than dropping a penny on the ground.
So, Kevin, are there no more COVID infections among the military?
Back in September, "military’s COVID-19 mortality rate (was) just over 0.02" -- the Military Times. As opposed to 2% for the general population.
What is the point of this comment, Rick? You used to make informative contributions to this forum. What happened?
Who ever suggested that vaccination eliminated infection? Especially novel variants? You used to be a data guy. Look at the data. How is the military faring compared to comparable-aged population in getting hospitalized or dying from COVID?