Delta’s rise is fuelled by rampant spread from people who feel fine

Delta’s rise is fuelled by rampant spread from people who feel fine:

Cowling and his colleagues analysed exhaustive test data from 101 people in Guangdong who were infected with Delta between May and June this year, and data from those individuals’ close contacts. They found that, on average, people began having symptoms 5.8 days after infection with Delta — 1.8 days after they first tested positive for viral RNA. That left almost two days for individuals to shed viral RNA before they showed any sign of COVID-19.

And yet my school doesn't require masks.  Ugh.

South Dakota Covid cases quintuple after Sturgis motorcycle rally

South Dakota Covid cases quintuple after Sturgis motorcycle rally

They went from 644 cases to 3,000+ and seven people died.  

Highly Vaccinated Israel Is Seeing A Dramatic Surge In New Cases : Goats and Soda : NPR

Highly Vaccinated Israel Is Seeing A Dramatic Surge In New Cases : Goats and Soda : NPR: After reviewing data on breakthrough infections in Israel, the U.S. announced a booster shot campaign beginning in late September for anyone eight months after their second shot. The U.K. has promised boosters soon, and Turkey is offering Pfizer shots to those immunized with the Sinovac vaccine to help citizens planning to travel, since some countries will not recognize the Chinese vaccine. Israel has lowered the minimum age for boosters to 40. "The triple dose is the solution to curbing the current infection outbreak," Anat Ekka Zohar of Maccabi said in a statement. Boosters are not being offered in the Palestinian territories yet, and the World Health Organization has called on countries to stop giving COVID-19 booster shots in order to help poorer countries get vaccinated.

Vaccination is the answer.  Distancing is the answer.  Everything is fluid, and the uncertainty is exhausting.  I guess we will all either learn to get comfortable with chaos or develop chronic addiictions to food, drugs or Netflix to numb the anxiety.

How The US is Getting a Crash Course in Scientific Uncertainty Due to the Pandemic - The New York Times

How The US is Getting a Crash Course in Scientific Uncertainty Due to the Pandemic - The New York Times:

Federal agencies have an unenviable task: Creating guidelines needed to live with an unfamiliar and rapidly spreading virus. But health officials have not acknowledged clearly or often enough that their recommendations may — and very probably would — change as the virus, and their knowledge of it, evolved.

“Since the beginning of this pandemic, it’s been a piss-poor job, to say it in the nicest way,” said Dr. Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard.

Leaders in the United States and Britain have promised too much too soon, and have had to backtrack. Health officials have failed to frame changing advice as necessary when scientists learn more about the virus.

Let's watch as the entire country discovers that science is a sloppy mess, and that authority is slowly constructed over time, like a Jenga tower.

The Delta Variant requires a higher quality mask

N95 masks and delta variant: What you need to know - The Washington Post:

because the delta variant is much more easily transmissible than previously circulating strains of the coronavirus, “we really need highly protective masks along with everything else,” Marr said. “Where a simple cloth mask was helpful before, it’s not helpful enough now,” particularly for people who remain unvaccinated.

My work held an in-person meeting recently and was handing out N95 masks, the cool black ones.  I filled my satchel with them.

Delta Has Changed the Pandemic Endgame - The Atlantic

Delta Has Changed the Pandemic Endgame - The Atlantic:

Delta’s extreme transmissibility negates some of the community-level protection that vaccines offer. If no other precautions are taken, Delta can spread through a half-vaccinated country more quickly than the original virus could in a completely unvaccinated country. It can even cause outbreaks in places with 90 percent vaccination rates but no other defenses. 

This is disheartening.  Also, science writer Ed Yong is a national treasure.

Dramatic video shows alligator attacking trainer before visitor jumps in to rescue her - CBS News

Dramatic video shows alligator attacking trainer before visitor jumps in to rescue her - CBS News: One of the guests, later identified as Donnie Wiseman, yelled "We've got trouble in here!" before jumping into the water and climbing on top of the reptile.

This has nothing to do with the Delta variant, but this guy jumped into an alligator pool to rescue the trainer from the animal's jaws.  He's a freaking hero.