No Near Normal

For about two and one-half months, Dane County did not require masks indoors. On June 2, 2021 the local public health department allowed the then in-place order to run its course. This, was a few weeks after CDC guidance had suggested that mask wearing was no longer required.  Although the CDC continued to recommend that the non-vaccinated wear a mask. I am not sure how many non-vaccinated would follow such guidance, unless they have a health issue prohibiting them from getting the vaccine. As of Thursday, August 19, 2021, masks are once again required indoors in Dane County. The near normal is now more distant than it was a couple months ago. 

The recent mask indoor requirement came a few weeks after CDC guidance suggested that all persons should wear masks indoors, in higher risk areas. For probably a week or more Dane County, has been in a high risk area.  It is interesting, in that in Dane County over 70% of residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine. Of course, the percent of those eligible for a vaccine would be higher. than 70%.  As more and more persons who are fully vaccinated encounter the Delta variant, they get ill, although the level of illness is said to be not as great as those who did not get the vaccine. My spouse and I have been wearing our mask indoors since the August CDC guidance came out.

Dane County, WI Covid Dashboard, 8/16/21

The mRNA vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, which required two shots, will be requiring a third shot at eight months from your last shot. The one shot J&J vaccine, which received emergency approval later, is still under study. A recent news report stated that the Delta variant is as present in a vaccinated person as in a non-vaccinated person. That means that the vaccine, while helping you perhaps not get as sick, the disease is as present in a vaccinated as non-vaccinated person. Meaning, it is as spreadable from a vaccinated person as a non-vaccinated person. That is why even vaccinated individuals were asked, and now in Dane County ordered, to wear a mask. To avoid spreading it to the non-vaccinated.  Besides wearing masks, my wife and I try to limit our exposure by avoiding indoor places unless essential. I was surprised how long it took Dane County to make it mandatory. In another piece of news today, while not giving numbers, the story indicates that break-through cases have more than doubled in Wisconsin between February and July. A break-through case is where one is fully vaccinated and they still get the virus. The public, beyond elderly and health care workers, were generally not eligible for the vaccine until probably late March. I had heard that at one point the CDC was not tracking break through cases. I would hope they have changed their mind. The State is also now starting to provide Covid numbers by vaccinated and non-vaccinated.  Just over 53% of Wisconsin residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine. As of July 2021, data (per 100,000 persons) from 8/18 about 125 cases of Covid were for those vaccinated, and 369 for those not fully vaccinated. Hospitalization rates for the not fully vaccinated track slightly higher than the case count, with 4.9 for those vaccinated compared to 18.2 not fully vaccinated. You are ten times more likely to die, per the stat, if you are are not fully vaccinated, as compared to a person fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated is two weeks after your last shot (for two dose shots).

July Case Count in WI (per 100,000 persons)

The funny thing is the individuals who have refused to get vaccinated are those who probably promote a certain level of individualism. They have, in part, made it so those those of us who are vaccinated should (in Dane County now required) wear a mask indoors--to protect the non-vaccinated. Per the CDC announcement earlier this month this action was taken to help protect the non-vaccinated.  I find some irony in this situation. Many leaders, including Pope Francis, recognized the importance of the vaccine.  In January of this year the Pope said, "I believe that morally everyone must take the vaccine. It is the moral choice because it is about your life but also the lives of others." At the same time, the Pope had this to say about those not wishing to receive the vaccine: "There is a suicidal denialism that I would not know how to explain but today people must take the vaccine" (Quotes are from this article.) 

What I was really hoping for, last spring, was that by this time of the year we would be at the old normal, being able to eat-out inside a restaurant, not having to wear a mask indoors. Not having to worry about what you touch. Yet, now with a combination of the Delta variant, the decreasing efficacy of the vaccines, and the those who have chosen to not get vaccinated, we are going backwards. Case counts are increasing. For example, Dane County now has many more persons infected with Covid than last year August when my son got married in a small 16 person attended wedding last August. Fortunately, today, so far, Dane County does not have limitations on gatherings as they had last year at this time (25 persons for outdoors).  That they do not have limits on indoor or outdoor gatherings is probably due in part to those of us who have been vaccinated, and Covid fatigue.  

At this point, unless Covid starts to burn itself out, I wonder if we are nearing a new normal of masks and regular shots. I would say herd immunity, but I am not sure how herd immunity works with all the variants that pop up. Then there are those that refuse to get vaccinated, who make reaching herd immunity (if it is possible) difficult to reach. Never before, as far as I know, that vaccines have so quickly been created, and here we are with almost half the population hesitant about getting vaccinated. I don't really hear talk about reaching herd immunity anymore. The supposed worst variant, lambda, from Peru, is in the United States, and (according to a study from Chile) is said to evade vaccine antibodies; hence the vaccine is not effective against lambda. Hopefully, the booster shot will be designed to better protect us from the lambda and other likely to come variants. In the meantime, I am waiting out, once again, the no near normal.