Pandemic of the Vaccinated and the Masked

[XLFD]

The most recent statewide statistics indicate two things:  1) the ten states with the highest vaccination rates have higher Covid-19 case rates than the ten states with the lowest vaccination rates, and 2) states with ongoing mask mandates have higher Covid-19 case rates on average, than those without. 

This seems to go against the narrative stridently echoed in the media, commercials, and other literature purporting to tell us that what we are experiencing is a 'pandemic of the unvaccinated' or that 'wearing masks will prevent Covid spread'.   The conclusion naturally offered by them is that governments, schools, and workplaces should impose mask and vaccine mandates, because it's what will save lives.  The data does not reflect that, in fact they indicate the reverse:  regarding Covid-19, wearing masks and getting vaxed is hazardous to your health.

The data used in this article comes from two CDC sources, another was used to find current mask laws:

1) the CDC's current (11-19-21) community transmission by state data (map below) 

2) the CDC's current (11-19-21) vaccine distribution tracker

3) Littler's current (11-18-21) statewide facemask orders

Vermont is for Vaccination

Combining data from the first two CDC sources, we look at the top ten vaccinated states with vaccinated rates over 64%, and then the bottom ten states with less than 50% vaccinated and get the following lists after we look on the interactive map for the current case rate statistics:

1. Vermont
Number of people fully vaccinated: 450,749
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 72.24
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 362.7

2. Rhode Island
Number of people fully vaccinated: 761,791
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 71.91
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 265.9

3. Maine
Number of people fully vaccinated: 964,009
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 71.72
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 347.1

4. Connecticut (M)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 2,550,060
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 71.52
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 133.7

5. Massachusetts (M)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 4,863,781
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 70.57
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 269.8

6. New York (M)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 13,198,426
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 67.85
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 218.2

7. New Jersey (M)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 5,977,160
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 67.29
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 142.8

8. Maryland (M)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 4,042,361
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 66.86
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 102.1

9. Washington (M)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 4,910,855
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 64.49
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 185.5

10. Virginia (M)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 5,481,307
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 64.22
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 124.5

The ten states with highest vaccination rates range from between 102.1 to 362.7 in case rates, averaging 215.23 in that category.  The seven states on this list between rank 4 and 10 all have at least indoor mask mandates, which explains the '(M)'. 

West Virginia is for Without Vaccination

Let's look at the least vaccinated ten states:

42. Georgia
Number of people fully vaccinated: 5,216,907
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 49.14
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 77.6

43. Tennessee
Number of people fully vaccinated: 3,355,930
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 49.14
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 126.7

44. Arkansas
Number of people fully vaccinated: 1,473,064
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 48.81
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 136.3

45. Louisiana
Number of people fully vaccinated: 2,250,994
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 48.42
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 69.3

46. North Dakota
Number of people fully vaccinated: 368,413
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 48.34
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 446.2

47. Mississippi
Number of people fully vaccinated: 1,387,438
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 46.62
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 85.6

48. Alabama
Number of people fully vaccinated: 2,237,829
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 45.64
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 63.6

49. Wyoming
Number of people fully vaccinated: 260,997
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 45.1
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 412.1

50. Idaho
Number of people fully vaccinated: 800,023
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 44.77
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 210.4

51. West Virginia
Number of people fully vaccinated: 743,319
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 41.48
Case rate (cases in last 7 days/100K): 308.1

The case rates range between 63.6 and 446.2, with sparsely populated North Dakota and Wyoming showing very high cases rates indeed.  Yet, the average case rates for the least vaccinated states is a modest 193.49.  None of these states are among the 17 states that have longstanding mask mandates.

The USA average of case rates at this time (found in the first CDC source) is 198.7, illustrating that the ten least vaccinated states fall below average at 193.5, and that the ten most vaccinated states, at 215.2, are nearly 10% over the national average of case rates.  Despite what you hear from Big Media or Big Medical, Covid-19 spread is significantly more prevalent in highly vaccinated states.

Additionally, among the ten other states with mask mandates (none of those mandates recently imposed with the intent of stopping viral spread) you find none among the 15 states with lowest case rates.  High vaccination rates go with mask mandates and both go with elevated case rates.  When one looks at those ten states, their ranking in vaccination rates and their current case rates we see this: 13. Oregon 156.9, 14. New Mexico 550.6, 15. Colorado 383.9, 16. California 84.5, 19. Delaware 235.8, 20. Illinois 240.8, 22. Hawaii 54.8, 31) Nevada 178.1, 34. North Carolina 141.1, 36. Kentucky 260.5.

Those ten states have a 228.7 average case rate, that's more than 15% above the national average.  Despite what you hear from Big Media or Big Medical, Covid-19 spread is significantly more prevalent in states with longstanding mask mandates.

Neither of those sources will ever combine that data and make the same observation-- to the contrary they keep trying to tell us all that the current surge in cases across the country is because of the sins of the unvaxed and the unmasked.  In reality, those states that are not using masks and not getting the jab in large numbers are significantly outperforming those that have embraced those prophylactics.  

The current epidemic appears to be buoyed by the vaxed and masked, according to the latest CDC stats.

[Freedom Seeker]

RK, you skewed my comment.  The compromised should have the option of getting vaccinated, quitting their jobs or working from home (which many did, compromised or not), wear a mask, the strongest possible, wear a shield on top of that if they so choose, and go into a bubble like bubble boy if they want.  Not to be calloused toward their disability (I happen to have weak immunity). the 97-98% of non-compromised regular-immune-population (according to you) and children should not have to go to more than minimum procedures (unproven, unauthorized vaccines that are now proving not to work in triple-vaxed people), wearing internal germ collecting masks that interfere with God-given right to breathe as intended.  Your arguments are only stirring sentiments that I did not voice before because of ignorance and fallacy and crazy logic. Now before you tie my comments into greater skewed knots, however, please know that I do believe in proven and effective vaccines that have saved our nation and most of the world from many diseases.  I am not even against the unauthorized covid vaccine and I think Trump did a great service pushing buttons to get the redtape on vaccines going, I just believe in Liberty of choice on this issue.  If the (any) vaccine is mostly effective, then let those who choose not to get it suffer or build up their own immunity of their own choosing and let the compromised be careful.

[RK Hubbard]

FS, I "skewed" your comment purposefully in order to view it from the opposite perspective, from people who are much more susceptible to getting sick through no fault of their own, even when taking precautions. Please tell us about the "unauthorized Covid vaccine?" There are three authorized Covid vaccines available in the US, all of them tested and approved. And BTW, masks are SUPPOSED to collect germs and viruses so that you don't spread them to other people. In your view, are Typhoid Mary laws constitutional or not? Disregarding legalities and mandates, do you feel any moral or ethical responsibility to help protect others in the face of a pandemic that has already killed 800,000 of your fellow citizens? 

[Freedom Seeker]

Good questions RK about the "constuitionality" of Typhoid Mary laws.  My mostly uneducated opinion (I admit that a lot of this topic is above my degree and pay grade) is that maybe all asymptomatic healthy people who refuse to quit making frozen peach icecream desert and serving it to others should be jailed until they die in jail.  Meanwhile, the sick, weak, immune compromised can then fly to Uganda at their pleasure and freedom.  I morally believe in self-quarantine while sick, yes.  Regarding the "unauthorized" vaccine, I skewed my comment and term to maybe present  a confusion of Emergency Use authorization of the covid19 vaccine.   Mary Malone would still be a carrier if vaccinated by all three at the same time.  And since you have such interesting comments, doesn't the fact that many city sewers on the west coast of Michigan go through the filtering system and back into our drinking water source concern you or do you know that all viruses are killed by those processes and added chemicals we drink?  Imho, it may be a crap shoot--and think about this:  will God protect the just or unjust in the Great Plagues to come or just those who do the morally right thing in protecting their fellow human beings by self-quarantine and quitting their jobs as cooks?  I think we need 95 to 5 government controllers to enforce Typhoid Mary Laws, and  put the greater population in jail.

https://www.ucpress.edu/blog/50058/controlling-typhoid-mary/

[Freedom Seeker]

The correct spelling of "Typhoid Mary" should have been Mary "Mallon" not "Malone".  Here's another interesting article from National Geographic. 

 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/typhoid-mary-tra...

[Willy]

Good information FS. You made your points very well, not only regarding the science but the common sense involved with basic reasoning. I did not know the story behind "Typhoid Mary". It's odd how the same thinking that locked up Mary is alive and well in today's Leftist ideology. The Left are the same people who want us to think that Slavery is still an issue in the U.S. and they are seeking reparations for slave descendants.  While the Covidites want mandates to force the wearing of masks and forced vaccinations. The Constitution plays no role in their decision making. Freedoms and rights be damned.

 

[RK Hubbard]

Your answer is an example of oversimplification and exaggeration, two mistakes common in debating. The technique is to reduce an argument to the point where only two absurd answers are possible, then dare the opposition to pick one. The Covid pandemic is a complicated and worldwide phenomenon that cannot be solved by simple solutions. Medical science is neither exact nor immutable. Masking works, however imperfectly (As do seat belts. You wear them not because they are perfect, but because they are better than nothing.) Masking is the best solution to slow the spread of Covid until worldwide vaccinations can produce herd immunity, as we have done with polio, smallpox and many other diseases. Most vaccines work most of the time, but there are always exceptions. If you care about your fellow citizens, most people think the moral thing to do is accept the facts that scientists and medical professionals have found so far, as research continues, and follow their current recommendations: Mask up in public and get vaccinated. 

[Willy]

Amazing RK. You're a debating expert? Oversimplification and exaggeration are two common debating mistakes? You do understand they only apply when debating Leftist because it's very important to make statements "simple" so simple minds can understand what is being stated. As far as exaggeration is concerned, any truth revealed to a Leftists is by their own definition an exaggeration.

Your correct, the Covid situation is complicated. So why would you think that a thin piece of cloth is going to stop it's spread?  Because Fauci told you so? Comparing seat-belts to masks is a truly foolish statement. I have never heard of anyone flying out of a car and being crushed by a truck tire because they did not wear a mask. 

Also there was no herd immunity for polio and smallpox. If that had occurred, half the World would have been paralyzed or dead. It was the vaccine that provided protection from those afflictions, not herd immunity.

Your statement "If you care about your fellow citizens, most people think the moral thing to do is accept the facts that scientists and medical professionals have found so far, as research continues, and follow their current recommendations" 

You don't seem to understand that most people except the facts of science but we except truth in science not the propaganda spread by the controlling Left in science, Government, media and entertainment. You, on the other hand, are the product of intensive indoctrination by the Left so I suppose your complete lack of understanding as to how we are being manipulated can be overlooked but remaining ignorant seems to be one of your main faults. Your final sentence proves that.

"Mask up in public and get vaccinated."

Both should be voluntary not manditory

[RK Hubbard]

"Also there was no herd immunity for polio and smallpox." --Willy

These are the vaccines required of children to go to school in the US.

• 4 doses of DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) vaccine.
• 1 dose of Flu vaccine each year.
• 2 doses of Hepatitis A vaccine.
• 3 doses of Hepatitis B vaccine.
• 3 doses of Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) vaccine.
• 1 dose of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine.

Neither polio nor smallpox vaccines are necessary today because we have essentially eliminated them in the US. This IS herd immunity. Eleven diseases are on that list. Should all these vaccines be voluntary? Some of them? Or none of them? Because if you believe that all vaccines should be voluntary/parental choice, we would still be having polio and smallpox outbreaks, chiefly because people like you try to convince others that they are being manipulated by their government instead of being protected. And if you believe that any of these vaccinations should be mandatory, then we are only arguing about whether or not we should add one more, Covid, to the list. 

[Willy]

I was referring to natural herd immunity as compared to vaccine induced immunity.

You're comparing apples with oranges. The Polio vaccine [a requirement for Michigan school children] and other  vaccines are required for school children to help prevent serious illnesses and deaths. However these are mandatory only if a child attends schools.  Home schooled children or sects such as the Amish are not required to be vaccinated. Natural herd immunity is not practical with some diseases because of the high death tolls so vaccine immunity is used as a substitute. As far as Covid is concerned, children are not seriously affected by it, so vaccinating them is totally unnecessary as is the mandatory masking requirement. Either way, there is no law that makes vaccines or masking mandatory. 

As I stated before mandatory vaccine and mask requirements are anti Constitutional and they  negatively affect our liberties and freedoms. 

I'm not trying to convince anyone that they are being manipulated by their Government. All anyone has to do is check the facts and research, find the truth and it will become obvious that what is happening with Covid is not for our protection. It's to control us. You obviously can't understand that. You would rather give up your rights and freedoms while under the illusion that what is happening to us is for our own good.

[Freedom Seeker]

"Death rate for vaccinated 80+ year olds is similar to the rate of death in unvaccinated Americans of all ages.
Vaccinated, 80+ Unvaccinated, 80+ Vaccinated, all ages Unvaccinated, all ages."
DEATHS PER 100,000 PEOPLE

NPR's own study shows that the death rate of age 80-plus vaccinated people is as high as unvaccinated younger people (9.1 and 9.5 per 100k). 

NPR is saying that the death rate of vacinnated younger/healthy population of less than 80 y.o. is .7 per 100k but vaccinated 80-plus is 9.5 per 100k (if I read that 4-line chart correctly). That is a sad statistic for our age 80-plus population, and says to me that the vax may be failing that group after time (thus probably the push for the booster) as the rate is similar to the younger unvaccinated 9.1. 

However unvaccinated 80+ rate is 55/100k.  So older vulnerable people should take the risk of a vaccination by these stats, unless they take the option to see heaven sooner.

[Willy]

Excellent work X. Very interesting indeed. Like you said it's hard to believe anything the Government or it's agencies tell us. We have been lied to more than can be measured. Like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.

[RK Hubbard]

Add another football about about the Big Lie that Trump actually won the election?