- Rancho Las Positas Elementary School known cases on site: 9
- Livermore cases: 6,476; eligible vaccination rate: 81.6%
- Alameda County cases: 114,592; deaths: 1,397; eligible vaccination rate: 84.6%
- U.S. cases: 46,268,000+; deaths: 749,000+; eligible vaccination rate: 68.2%
Still over 1,000 people a day dying from COVID in the U.S. This has been ongoing since mid-August after a lovely lull that started about April and reached a nadir in early July. It’s currently trending downward; hopefully it stays that way. Last year at this time we were climbing our way back up to a new high. I’m not optimistic about the winter. Still too many irresponsible people who refuse to be vaccinated, refuse to wear masks, and refuse to modify their behavior in any way to reduce spreading the virus. Multiple safe, effective, freely-available vaccines have been readily available nationwide for at least 5 months, and the nationwide vaccination rate of eligible persons hasn’t even topped 70%. What an unnecessary loss of life.
Pfizer’s vaccine received Emergency Use Authorization for children 5-11 this week. The above “eligible” rates are still for age 12+ as the reporting websites haven’t added a 5+ category yet. We should see the overall eligible vaccination rate take a hit now that millions more have become eligible, but haven’t had time to be vaccinated yet.
Our girls have an appointment for Nov 11 to get their first dose. They’ll receive their second dose Dec 2 and be considered fully vaccinated Dec 16. Hooray! There are still stupid people saying things like, “kids don’t need to be vaccinated, COVID hardly even affects them.” Yet, the CDC has recorded 620 deaths of children 0-17 from COVID-19. I would prefer my children not be added to that list of the unlucky few–or the 4,325 kids hospitalized or the unknown amount of kids with lingering long-term effects. Especially when a safe and highly-effective vaccine is freely and readily available.
Updated guidance made me eligible for a booster shot due to lower efficacy of the Janssen vaccine compared to the mRNA vaccines. I got a Pfizer booster shot on Nov 3. Other than mild fatigue I didn’t have any side effects (unlike my Janssen shot).
The Lab, following Federal requirements, has moved from vaccination-or-testing to vaccination required (or medical/religious exemption which will likely require regularly testing). The original deadline was to be fully vaccinated by Dec 8, but it looks like that deadline got pushed to Jan 4.