I decided recently to publish my pandemic articles (over 300) into a series of books. I expect them to provide an eye-witness account of the daily accounts of living through a pandemic. This is not planned as a best-seller but merely an account from one person to provide insight twenty or more years from now.
I plan to compile, chronologically, over 300 articles I have written since the pandemic started. Today, I decided to write about each state and how its citizens are coping with the ups and downs of different variants and their capacity to handle each. No one was prepared for the first six months of 2020 to handle an unknown virus.
Vaccines and other drugs were being tested, and we were promised (sort of) that getting 100% of the American population vaccinated would stop coronavirus. That forecast appeared good for a few months. However, it is not the case today.
Vermont Status
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/vermont/. A quick review of the viral invasion of Vermont shows that the early phase (March-May 2020) had little impact on Vermont. All numbers reported herein are seven-day moving averages.
New cases rose to 25-30/day for a month and then dropped to single digits. Daily deaths peaked at five/day and averaged around two/day for most of a month. November 2020 through May 2021 saw a significant surge in new cases of COVID-19 averaging over 100/day for most of that time and almost approaching 200/day. Daily deaths peaked from early December into mid-January, averaging two deaths/day.
The Delta variant surge appears to have started in July 2021 and continues to trend upward into late October 2021. The post-winter 2020-21 saw new daily cases of COVID-19 drop to single digits through most of June and July. Since then, a steady increase in new daily cases of the pandemic virus rose to around 200/day for most of September and October. However, daily deaths have remained at one per day or less from May through September and have increased slightly to two/day since then.
The good, the bad, and the ugly are evident when reviewing the history of new cases of COVID-19 and daily deaths. The good is that daily deaths appear static at a rate less than that of the long winter of 2020-21, even though new cases of COVID-19 are still escalating to record highs.
The bad is that new cases of coronavirus are still escalating. The ugly is that there are few unvaccinated people left in Vermont. They proudly claim a nearly 90% vaccination rate, one of the highest in the country. Yet, the vaccinations appear to be lacking in protection.
Vermont Surge
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/vermont-covid-record-infections/2021/10/20/id/1041357/. The unvaccinated were a major portion of last winter’s surge. However, that cannot be applied equally to the current surge. We know that the Pfizer mRNA vaccine’s potency to protect against infection degrades after six months.
Last winter, the vaccines were not available, and many unvaccinated people became infected. However, some of the vaccinated people (90%) are becoming infected and being hospitalized. Is it the tenacity of the Delta variant or the degradation of the vaccine? Probably a bit of both.
Vermont Hospitalizations
https://vtdigger.org/2021/10/20/vermont-reports-107-new-covid-cases-and-2-new-deaths-recent-record-of-55-hospitalizations/. Each state tracks pandemic hospitalizations a bit differently, and it isn’t easy to compare one state to another sometimes. Most states do not collect and report pandemic-related hospitalizations of fully vaccinated people. Why? I do not know.
COVID-19 hospitalizations never exceeded 40/day at the beginning of the pandemic. However, from mid-November to mid-April, the daily hospitalization average was above 100/day. After that, several days had average hospitalizations over 170/day. From mid-July 2021, the hospitalization rate for new COVID-19 patients is escalating – from single digits to over 200/day with occasional daily individual reports of over 300/day.
https://www.rollcall.com/2021/09/22/breakthrough-covid-19-cases-expected-to-become-more-common-in-coming-months/. Vermont does not track breakthrough hospitalizations or breakthrough deaths. Countries like Ireland and Israel track breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths. Recently over half of the hospitalizations and deaths in both Ireland and Israel were from fully vaccinated people.
My best guess is that the vaccine’s effectiveness is the same regardless of which country is using it. If over half the new hospitalizations in Ireland and Israel are breakthrough cases, then half the new hospitalizations in the United States are probably breakthrough cases. The vaccine appears to effectively reduce severity and deaths from COVID-19 but not infection after six months.
https://vtdigger.org/2021/10/08/vermont-reports-283-new-covid-cases-and-4-deaths-updates-breakthrough-and-outbreak-stats/. This link shows how the degradation of the mRNA vaccine has higher percentages of fully vaccinated people now than months ago. Six months ago, less than one percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations were vaccinated people.
The same link shows that unvaccinated COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization are trending downward as fully COVID-19 vaccinated patients are increasing. The first week of October 2021 shows 43% of hospitalizations for COVID-19 are fully vaccinated people.
Conclusion
Vermont is my first state-level review for my future book compilation. I plan to write about each state before the end of 2021. Vermont happened to have a headline of interest, and that is why I started with Vermont rather than another state first. The next state – Maine.
Live Longer & Enjoy Life! – Red O’Laughlin – RedOLaughlin.com
“…unvaccinated COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization are trending downward as fully COVID-19 vaccinated patients are increasing…” What a bummer – sort of debunks the “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated” theory!! Wonder what’s next?!?!?