Thank you for being realistic about this. I know many, many people in my area suffer through all types of illnesses and death the past year. And they all had nothing to do with COVID 
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Over here they say itās no different, children donāt get serious illness anyway, which is why they currently have no plans to vaccinate under 18s - they would prefer to send vaccinations to countries that need them so they can get their vulnerable people vaccinated. But I read the other day there are 10,000 kids with long covid here.
I donāt think they know yet, because the vaccination rate in India was so low. Hopefully the UK can get us some data, but itās still pretty recent for them. And Iām not sure if itās exactly an apples-to-apples comparison even then since they wonāt have J&J data and also their two-dose vaccination schedule was a bit different.
That NPR report also discussed Australia w/ continued lock-downs, low cases (3?) but less than %5 of pop is vaccinated. They know they canāt eliminated it, but the citizens are fine w/ lock downs until they can get vaccinated.
Yeah, I donāt exactly regret going to Disney, but if I could get a do-over, I would have chosen a different destination.
It just never ONCE crossed my mind prior to mid-May that they would relax the safety protocols that soon and that dramatically.
The fact two of caught colds there, even with being masked and endless hand sanitizer, really makes me feel like we dodged a bullet unnecessarily.
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and when you went the crowds were NOT like they are today. It was CRAZY crowded today!!!
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I volunteered as a certified child passenger safety technician for well over a decade. This means that I took a four day class to learn crash dynamics and best practices to assist caregivers in installing and using child restraints (car seats) in vehicles. I was actually the only volunteer technician in the Philadelphia area for many years, everyone else did it as part of their regular job.
I know far more about vehicle safety and crash dynamics than the majority of the general poplulation. 
That means that I take the safety of both myself and my family very seriously. We all wear seat belts, every trip. Our vehicles all have air bags, both the standard front air bags as well as those that protect against side impacts. When my kids were younger, they were in appropriate child restraints harnessed rear-facing and then forward-facing far longer than their peers and only moving out of belt positioning booster seats once they were tall enough to fit in the vehicleās seat belt system.
All of that to say, we drive but take our safety seriously. We take the steps that are available to us to reduce the risks of severe injury or death while driving/riding in vehicles.
When it comes to COVID we had to wait until there were options for us to reduce our safety risk. We needed to wait until we knew more about the virus and how it is spread. We had to wait until there were vaccines available, and then for them to be available for us and our teens. Just as we do w/ driving, we mitigated our risks. We wore masks (and may yet again), social distanced, and got our vaccines when it was our turn. While I am still concerned about variants, I am less concerned that my immediate family will suffer from severe illness or die since we are fully vaxed.
I do get upset when our community members are screaming about civil rights and demanding that all of the young children in our schools (and now summer camps) can now go mask free since āthe numbers are low and they donāt get sick.ā They can and do. Our local numbers of those that are ill are almost all in the unvaccinated group and skewing younger and younger. 
I am grateful that my (fully vaxed) 15yoās summer camp is ignoring the ārecommendationsā and requiring masking of everyone indoors, but making it optional outdoors. His camp is run by the private school he attended this year. The school had ~85 students/~50 staff & teachers and were in person almost for the whole school yearā¦with not one case!! I trust them to make the right decisions to keep everyone safe.
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COVID cases with delta variant double in week, may be ātip of the icebergā
COVID-19 cases caused by the highly contagious delta mutation have nearly doubled in Orange County in the past week, the countyās top health official said Monday.
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Hey didnāt this come up as a topic of conversation earlier? This is good news, right?!?
- CNBC breaks down new data suggesting that mixing Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots provides a strong immune response . In a U.K. study, alternating doses of the two vaccines was found to induce high antibody levels in recipients when given four weeks apart. This was true for when the Pfizer vaccine was given first and AstraZeneca second, as well as when AstraZeneca was given first and Pfizer second. Combining the two vaccines was found to generate a stronger immune response than the standard AstraZeneca vaccine, which also requires a longer time interval of eight to 12 weeks between doses. These new findings will help provide flexibility to vaccination drives around the world.
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Meanwhile in Canadaā¦ at the end of April, in Alberta we had over 2400 cases in a day, the positivity rate was 12%, and vaccine supply was low. Less than 2 months later, 31 cases reported today. 71.7% 12+ have at least one dose. 38.6% are fully vaccinated. As of today, Iām considered fully vaccinated 
Vaccines work.
All restrictions & mask mandates will be lifted July 1. Although, donāt think people quite realize that businesses can still require them 
We had to wear a mask long before it was actually mandated in many businesses.
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I think it reached 104 in Tacoma today. Itās a real problem when Seattle-Tacoma get that hot because few residences have AC. Luckily we do. However, Iām currently in Scottsdale, AZ where it is much easier to cope with 100+. Tomorrow should be much better. Predicted high in Tacoma of 88.
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Looks like it will be about 10 degrees cooler in AZ today than yesterday. Should feel nice!
Iām actually headed to LA today for work.
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Wow, thatās amazing progress in a short period of time!!! 
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I was also quite surprised at the sudden changes. We were there the same time as you and all four of my kids came home with colds too! Oneās cough was bad enough we tested her for covid but she was negative.
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YLE has been keeping a really detailed spreadsheet about the status and performance of all the different vaccines. A couple of her recent updates I found of particular interest.
Pfizer, Moderna, and AZ are all providing really good protection against severe disease from Delta, including a good amount even after 1 dose. Protection against infection in general is lower with AZ than the other two (~60% vs ~80-90%).
Still no data on J&J against Delta. (This makes sense, since it is not in widespread use in the areas that have the highest Delta prevalence. But this is my vaccine so Iām impatiently waitingā¦)
Then thereās this regarding immunity acquired from infectionā¦
āPreliminary evidence is showing that natural immunity not working against Delta. But our confidence is low; we need more studiesā
I chased the links back to the related underlying Public Health England information:
Apparently itās still early findings, but if you know anyone thatās been relying on the protection from naturally acquired immunity and taking a āwait and seeā approach to getting vaccinated, now might be a really good time to go ahead and get it, prior to Delta becoming the predominant variant here.
And Iād go with Moderna or Pfizer (at least until they get data on J&J). If you text your zip code to 438829 It tells you the nearest vaccination sites and which vaccines they have available. There is also information there on getting a free uber/lyft and childcare if needed.
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Thank you for pulling all this GREAT information together for us!!!
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Iām so thankful for YLE. Sheās done such a great job of trying to parse through and find the most relevant data and make it understandable AND help tease out the nuances.
Saw this on Facebook yesterday. I think it could be the rally cry for most of us on this threadā¦
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Thank you again. This is very helpful. I need to look up that FL vaccination map by zip code again. There are parts of FL w/ less than 10% vaccinated. My doc puts me at high risk, filled the form so I could get vaxed early, before āall otherā cat.
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