“It’s a very clear result. It leads to a basic conclusion: Who’s left to catch COVID-19? People who are unvaccinated.”
Jeff Duchin, Chief health officer, Seattle
We are divided by politics. We are divided by who is now left to get COVID. They are related.
In Seattle, Washington 96.7% of COVID cases take place among the people who are not vaccinated. In Bend, Oregon, it is 98% of the cases. In Oregon, 54% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated, and another 9% are "in progress," meaning they have had one shot and are scheduled for a second. Some counties have far greater vaccination rates than others.
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| Eligible Vaccination percentage as of June 5 |
Since we are dealing with large numbers of people, and since vaccinations are registered with health authorities, epidemiological data is available about who is getting sick. During a period when King County, Washington was crossing into 50% of the local population being vaccinated, the county examined 15,397 cases of people positive for COVID; 14,895 were from people who were not fully vaccinated. Looking at the entire state of Washington, the percentages stayed the same: 63,751 cases among unvaccinated people; 1,358 "breakthrough" cases among the vaccinated.
“We’re getting to the point where it’s a tale of two societies," Umar Shah, Washington's health secretary, told the Seattle Times. "It’s throughout the country that you’re seeing this split. You have one society that is protected fully and is starting to go about its business … and another that is still at high risk of transmission and infection."
Bend, Oregon's St. Charles hospital serves a rural Central Oregon region. Hospital officials told local TV station KTVZ that they had 41 active COVID patients in the hospital, five in the ICU, three on ventilators. That was a greater number than in the Portland's Oregon Health and Science hospital. Of the 500 COVID patients they reported since March 1, 98% were among the unvaccinated.
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| 2020 Presidential vote |
Urban areas get vaccinated more than rural areas. Biden voters are more likely to be vaccinated than Trump voters, and it may be that vaccination is primarily driven by Trump support. There is a partisan swing that exaggerates on the extremes. Portland voters outperformed for Biden beyond their vaccination rates. Ranch and timber Oregon outperformed for Trump. Still, the relationship between Biden-supporting counties and higher vaccination rates is clear.
County Vaccinated Biden vote
Multnomah (Portland) 59 80
Lane (Eugene-University) 55 61
Marion (Salem) 49 49
Benton (University) 64 69
Lincoln (OR coast) 60 57
Jackson (Medford) 44 47
Deschutes (Bend) 60 53
Douglas (timber) 36 30
Harney (rural) 36 20
Umatilla (wheat)) 36 33
The partisan skew on vaccinations may be driven primarily by media.This morning Fox News stories focused on principled objections to vaccinations, with a story on the outrage of teenagers attempting to get vaccinated over the objections of their parents and of businesses attempting to inquire about one's personal health decisions regarding vaccination. In each case, the hero of the story was the person blocking vaccination. Meanwhile, across the media aisle, CNN news carried a banner on the bottom of the screen measuring COVID vaccination "progress" toward a vaccination number that would allow all restrictions to come off. The GOP attitude is not a celebration of "warp speed" and Trump's initiatives and risk-taking in beginning manufacturing of the vaccine simultaneously with its testing. That could have been the story: Trump's unappreciated triumph. It isn't. It is of heavy-handed government and businesses pressuring you to get vaccinated when it is your God-given right to be left alone.
Left alone to get and spread COVID, but that isn't the story.
2 comments:
The Republican politicizing of vaccinations has cost an untold number of lost lives and prolonged the economic effects. Ironically, it is the loss of their own, and innocents they continue to infect.
Another head shaker is the simultaneous promotion of "Warp Speed" - which would have happened regardless - which displays an uncanny ability to hold two conflicting ideas at the same time, cognitive dissonance, which in this case is both morally and intellectually bankrupt.
Moreover, it shows Republican utter lack disregard for their followers. Another example are the Republicans who are brazenly taking credit for the relief bill they voted against. They are confident their voters are too stupid to pay attention.
It was inevitable. By embracing a dangerous anti-science agenda disparagement of government health authorities it was only a matter of time before we would face a challenge like COVID. We can be thankful. It could have been much, much worse.
Locally, cases are trending down, around 20 cases a day. Last year at this time it was 10 a week. Be reminded that at that time reporting was not as accurate as it is now.
It's not over.
Some of them will get very sick and say they were wrong. Fox media and followers will ignore these disloyal RINO patients. They will hold on to their ignorance as if their life depended on it. They like their ignorance as it helps them believe whatever they are told to believe. They are the willing puppets.
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