27 vaccinated people test positive for Covid on a Carnival cruise ship

27 vaccinated people test positive for Covid on a Carnival cruise ship: Twenty-seven vaccinated people aboard a Carnival cruise ship that docked in Belize tested positive for Covid-19 this week. Only one of the positive cases was a passenger; the remaining 26 were crew members. All 27 people are experiencing mild or no symptoms.

I'm wondering what this means--are these breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, who have contracted the Delta variant?  Does the cruise ship require proof of vaccination among passengers?  Given the events of the past 10 years, I tend to think of cruise ships as floating petri dishes.  Looking at the infection rates in New York City, perhaps we are going to live in a less dense future.  However, Hong Kong has had 212 deaths.  Someone needs to write more about this.

When the Delta Variant Came to Provincetown - The Atlantic

When the Delta Variant Came to Provincetown - The Atlantic

 from July 3 to July 17, the per-day COVID-19 case rate among residents spiked from zero per 100,000 people to 177 per 100,000 people. Among Massachusetts residents who tested positive there, three-fourths were fully vaccinated, and among those vaccinated people, 79 percent—274 individuals—experienced symptoms, mild in most cases. These numbers, along with numbers gathered elsewhere, suggested that breakthroughs were turning out to be more common and more serious than the CDC previously expected. The shots still reduce the severity and deadliness of infections, but compared with the original coronavirus, the Delta variant increases the chance that, if infected, vaccinated people can transmit the virus.

A Doomsday COVID Variant Worse Than Delta and Lambda May Be Coming, Scientists Say

A Doomsday COVID Variant Worse Than Delta and Lambda May Be Coming, Scientists Say: The Delta outbreak is going to get much worse, warns Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist who leads the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "The number of intensive-care beds needed could be higher than any time we've seen," he says. He adds that his team's analysis shows that almost every single one of the 100 million unvaccinated Americans who hasn't had COVID-19 yet will likely get it in the coming months, short of taking the sort of strong isolation and masking precautions that seem unlikely in the vaccine-hesitant population.

I've been on vacation for two weeks. I highly recommend camping at the beach on the Oregon coast, but dress warm as the wind on the beach gets nippy when it is only 60 degrees outside.

With a mutating Covid, perhaps all of our vacations will be socially distanced in the future.

The Delta Variant Will Still Kill You

 Idiots on Instagram spread disinformation

Experts pointed out that lower case fatality rates would be expected, simply because so many people have been vaccinated in recent months, whereas the original coronavirus had time to spread and cause severe disease long before vaccines became widely available.�

Maybe we should have criminal penalties for behavior that kills people. Just a thought.

An email I wrote but decided not to send

[redacted], but realized that would just create an endless email chain that wouldn't really solve anything, so rather I'm sending it to you, to think about but hopefully not worry about.  I apologize for placing this minor burden on you, but I guess when it comes right down to it I just need to vent and you have made the terrible, terrible choice of being kind and accommodating.

I realize this is all speculative, and have no idea what to do, but as we move to in-person courses this is something to consider. I understand that online courses are not making, and there's a need for in-person sections.  If (so many IFs) the Delta variant heats up, the school may need to go online for a couple of weeks. 

• Do in-person classes switch to Live Streaming at that point? 
• What if students decide they don't want to come to class because of virus fears?  
• What if students decide they don't want to come to class and blame virus fears?  
• What if I'm teaching in person--do I just not visit my 80-year-old mother for a semester--because even after vaccination she has the antibody levels of an unvaccinated 50-year-old Trump supporter.  

The important thing to keep in mind is that I'm anxious, and thanks to the miracle of the internet I can quickly transfer those anxieties to you.  Thanks!

“I could foresee that in certain parts of the country, there could be a reintroduction of indoor mask mandates, distancing and occupancy limits” in the coming months, said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law.

He said he fears there will be “major outbreaks” in the U.S. this fall, especially in states with low vaccination rates.

“We are heading for a very dangerous fall, with large swaths of the country still unvaccinated, a surging delta variant and people taking off their masks,” Gostin added.

Americans will need masks indoors as U.S. heads for 'dangerous fall' with surge in delta Covid cases (cnbc.com)

One of Utah's proud achievements is being on the top five sites for the spread of the Delta variant:

Utah

Officials have already identified more than 1,100 Delta cases, according to state government data.

"I want to be very, very clear about what everyone of our staff has told me and that is this is not over," said Kencee Graves, the chief medical officer for inpatient services at the University of Utah, in a briefing. "Vaccine is important, is what we need to end this, but the COVID-19 pandemic is not over."

Delta Variant Spreads Fast in 5 States Amid Fourth of July Weekend (businessinsider.com)

Covid: Here's what you need to know the lambda variant

Covid: Here's what you need to know the lambda variant The Lambda variant is mostly in South America and the Chinese vaccine may not work that well against it. Other than that, who knows?

Why The Delta Variant Is So Contagious: A New Study Sheds Light : Goats and Soda : NPR

Why The Delta Variant Is So Contagious: A New Study Sheds Light : Goats and Soda : NPR It finds that the variant grows more rapidly inside people's respiratory tracts and to much higher levels, researchers at the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported. On average, people infected with the delta variant had about 1,000 times more copies of the virus in their respiratory tracts than those infected with the original strain of the coronavirus, the study reported. More evidence for wearing a mask, even if you're vaccinated.