DeSantis for the win
- Thread starter Tsing Tao
- Start date
‘Burning through the population’: Delta fuels Florida’s worst COVID wave
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article253297163.html
In a matter of weeks, the highly contagious delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 has fueled the worst spike in new infections since the pandemic began in March 2020, according to an el Nuevo Herald analysis of state-level data.
Florida’s COVID-related hospitalizations have broken daily records for10 days in a row, according to data published daily by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, with many hospital administrators moving to cancel elective procedures in order to save space and ensure staff and resources are available to care for the flood of new patients. The state has also shattered single-day records for new cases four times in past two weeks.
Unlike the past surges of COVID-19 cases, where the elderly made up the majority of severe cases, this new wave is increasingly affecting younger populations as well. In terms of the number of children hospitalized with COVID-19, Florida has ranked among the two worst states in the nation and hospitals have been sounding alarms.
“This delta variant is burning through the population,” said Jason Salemi, an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida who has tracked the state’s COVID data since the beginning of the pandemic. “It’s infecting a lot of people very, very rapidly.”
Salemi also attributes this dramatic increase in cases to high numbers of individuals in Florida not being protected through vaccination (around eight million who are eligible), relaxation of measures that lower the likelihood of transmissibility, the summer heat driving people indoors and tourists.
New cases increased almost eightfold during the month of July and have more than doubled in the past three weeks, according to a Herald analysis using seven-day rolling averages of daily Florida Department of Health (DOH) case data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
‘There’s a lot of unknown’
The CDC tracks more than 18 lineages of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States, with the delta variant making up more than 85% of samples the agency sequenced during the last two weeks of July. Variants may carry mutations that make a virus more contagious or cause more severe symptoms or that evade the effectiveness of therapies and vaccines.
Data collected over a four-week period and published by the CDC suggest that through July 17, out of almost 4,000 positive tests collected in Florida sequenced, 65% were delta. Sequencing refers to studying a virus as it changes.
Recent studies also suggest that the delta variant is now the leading cause of infections in Miami-Dade County, making up more than 90% of infections among patients hospitalized at Jackson Health System and the University of Miami Health System, according to UM researchers and doctors tracking mutations of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Dr. David Andrews, a pathologist and UM professor leading the effort to sequence the virus in Miami-Dade, said the rapid takeover of the delta variant as the predominant strain circulating in South Florida is a hallmark of its increased contagiousness.
Andrews said scientists with the CDC and other health agencies around the world have been trying to measure just how contagious the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is, with some comparing the ease of spread to chicken pox.
DOH has never published information on variants, but under threat of a lawsuit from the Herald and a consortium of other news organizations, DOH now shares data on variants once a month.
That data, Salemi says, is problematic because it doesn’t provide enough context to understand how prevalent any one strain is at any given time, since the data do not state when the samples were sequenced or how many of them went through the sequencing process.
What is clear from CDC data is that delta is the dominant COVID strain in Florida and across the United States.
“The degree of contagiousness and rate of transmission for the delta variant is completely off the charts compared to all the previous variants,” Andrews said. “It is absolutely unprecedented.”
Mary Jo Trepka, an epidemiologist and professor at Florida International University, says that while the high case counts of the current wave are comparable to the surge in January, that prior wave was driven primarily by a rise in test volumes from people preparing for the holidays.
But last month saw a 670% increase in Florida’s seven-day rolling average of new cases from July 1 until the 31st, according to DOH data published by the CDC and analyzed by the Herald. During that same time, tests performed, as reported by the CDC, saw only a 118% increase in its seven-day rolling average, indicating the increase in new cases cannot be explained by an uptick in testing alone.
(More at above url)
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article253297163.html
In a matter of weeks, the highly contagious delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 has fueled the worst spike in new infections since the pandemic began in March 2020, according to an el Nuevo Herald analysis of state-level data.
Florida’s COVID-related hospitalizations have broken daily records for10 days in a row, according to data published daily by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, with many hospital administrators moving to cancel elective procedures in order to save space and ensure staff and resources are available to care for the flood of new patients. The state has also shattered single-day records for new cases four times in past two weeks.
Unlike the past surges of COVID-19 cases, where the elderly made up the majority of severe cases, this new wave is increasingly affecting younger populations as well. In terms of the number of children hospitalized with COVID-19, Florida has ranked among the two worst states in the nation and hospitals have been sounding alarms.
“This delta variant is burning through the population,” said Jason Salemi, an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida who has tracked the state’s COVID data since the beginning of the pandemic. “It’s infecting a lot of people very, very rapidly.”
Salemi also attributes this dramatic increase in cases to high numbers of individuals in Florida not being protected through vaccination (around eight million who are eligible), relaxation of measures that lower the likelihood of transmissibility, the summer heat driving people indoors and tourists.
New cases increased almost eightfold during the month of July and have more than doubled in the past three weeks, according to a Herald analysis using seven-day rolling averages of daily Florida Department of Health (DOH) case data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
‘There’s a lot of unknown’
The CDC tracks more than 18 lineages of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States, with the delta variant making up more than 85% of samples the agency sequenced during the last two weeks of July. Variants may carry mutations that make a virus more contagious or cause more severe symptoms or that evade the effectiveness of therapies and vaccines.
Data collected over a four-week period and published by the CDC suggest that through July 17, out of almost 4,000 positive tests collected in Florida sequenced, 65% were delta. Sequencing refers to studying a virus as it changes.
Recent studies also suggest that the delta variant is now the leading cause of infections in Miami-Dade County, making up more than 90% of infections among patients hospitalized at Jackson Health System and the University of Miami Health System, according to UM researchers and doctors tracking mutations of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Dr. David Andrews, a pathologist and UM professor leading the effort to sequence the virus in Miami-Dade, said the rapid takeover of the delta variant as the predominant strain circulating in South Florida is a hallmark of its increased contagiousness.
Andrews said scientists with the CDC and other health agencies around the world have been trying to measure just how contagious the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is, with some comparing the ease of spread to chicken pox.
DOH has never published information on variants, but under threat of a lawsuit from the Herald and a consortium of other news organizations, DOH now shares data on variants once a month.
That data, Salemi says, is problematic because it doesn’t provide enough context to understand how prevalent any one strain is at any given time, since the data do not state when the samples were sequenced or how many of them went through the sequencing process.
What is clear from CDC data is that delta is the dominant COVID strain in Florida and across the United States.
“The degree of contagiousness and rate of transmission for the delta variant is completely off the charts compared to all the previous variants,” Andrews said. “It is absolutely unprecedented.”
Mary Jo Trepka, an epidemiologist and professor at Florida International University, says that while the high case counts of the current wave are comparable to the surge in January, that prior wave was driven primarily by a rise in test volumes from people preparing for the holidays.
But last month saw a 670% increase in Florida’s seven-day rolling average of new cases from July 1 until the 31st, according to DOH data published by the CDC and analyzed by the Herald. During that same time, tests performed, as reported by the CDC, saw only a 118% increase in its seven-day rolling average, indicating the increase in new cases cannot be explained by an uptick in testing alone.
(More at above url)
"DeSantis for the win" -- He continues to push his alternate reality where COVID does not exist and is not an emergency. The "emperor" is fiddling while Rome is burning.
CNN confirms ventilators were sent to 'overwhelmed' Florida after DeSantis claims 'I did not know about that'
https://www.rawstory.com/florida-ventilators/
CNN confirms ventilators were sent to 'overwhelmed' Florida after DeSantis claims 'I did not know about that'
https://www.rawstory.com/florida-ventilators/
The Nick Leeson of governors.
The bs that Covid Deniers are posting has reached new levels of absurdity. Let's look at yesterday's data :
Covid Deaths : Canada 5, US without any data from Florida 657.
That's a lot of extra people dying never mind the many people who encounter chronic health problems on top of that. Yet we have the same circus of idiots on here pretending for well over a year that it's not a problem.
Covid Deaths : Canada 5, US without any data from Florida 657.
That's a lot of extra people dying never mind the many people who encounter chronic health problems on top of that. Yet we have the same circus of idiots on here pretending for well over a year that it's not a problem.
Florida is incapable on managing or reporting accurate daily data on COVID. This is deliberately due to DeSantis undermining the Florida Department of Health.
Florida is ablaze with COVID-19—and its case data reporting is a hot mess
However you look at the data, Florida is seeing record-high cases and hospitalizations.
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...19-and-its-case-data-reporting-is-a-hot-mess/
With the hypertransmissible delta variant on the rampage, Florida has become the epicenter of transmission in the US. The state is experiencing its largest surge of COVID-19 cases yet in the pandemic. Hospitalizations have reached record levels, and deaths are on the rise.
But instead of focusing on the response to the dire public health emergency, state officials appear to be squabbling over pandemic data and health measures.
On Monday night, Florida's health department blasted media outlets for reporting the state's most recent daily COVID-19 case counts—as the counts were relayed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC, which gets its data from Florida's health department, reported that the state had recorded all-time highs of nearly 24,000 new cases on August 6 and over 28,000 daily new cases on both August 7 and August 8. But the health department, which doesn't actually publish its own daily case numbers, disputed the CDC's numbers. According to the health department's Twitter account, the state had only logged 21,500 cases on August 6, 19,567 cases on August 7, and 15,319 on August 8. The health department claimed that the CDC had split three days' worth of new case totals across only two days in error.
Federal response
On Tuesday, the CDC updated the case counts for the disputed days—but the counts were still higher than what the Florida health department claimed on Twitter. The CDC still reports that Florida recorded nearly 24,000 new daily cases August 6, but only 21,487 on August 7 and 19,584 on August 8. The CDC now also reports that the Sunshine State had 15,322 new cases on August 9.
Overall, the new numbers adjusted the CDC's calculation of the state's seven-day rolling average of new daily cases on August 8 from roughly 22,500 to 20,000. Those averages are still all-time highs for the state.
As many people on Twitter pointed out, this dust-up could have been avoided if Florida simply reported its own daily data. The state stopped doing that June 4, as cases were on the decline and vaccines had become readily available.
Though the state of the pandemic has changed dramatically, things (besides the sluggish data reporting) in Florida haven't. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is still battling with local leaders and businesses over his bans on vaccination passports and mask mandates in schools.
While several Florida school districts have gone ahead with plans to mandate masks for staff and students—who are largely unvaccinated—DeSantis has fired back. On Monday, he threatened to withhold pay for superintendents and school board members who defied his mask mandate ban.
Superintendents and school board members are already fighting back. After officials on Florida's Broward County school board voted 8 to 1 Tuesday to keep a mask mandate, one board member told DeSantis to "bring it."
In a White House press briefing Tuesday, Press Secretary Jen Psaki suggested that any pay withheld from school officials for instituting mask mandates could be compensated with federal funds. She also addressed DeSantis directly, echoing a point made by President Joe Biden earlier, saying: "If you're not interested in following the public health guidelines to protect the lives of people in your state... then get out of the way."
You know Florida could solve this problem if the state simply reported its COVID daily data. Tell us why DeSantis is not having Florida report COVID data each day in middle of the state’s biggest surge yet. What is DeSantis trying to hide?