What has changed from a year ago?

saltydog

saltydog

New Member
Location
Northern California
I find it interesting that just a year ago, in my state of California, the governor was locking down everything; including schools, all business, beaches, parks, hiking trails, and making shelter in-place mandatory. Our state was in a total panic mode.

Now, exactly one year later, even though the daily numbers of new coronavirus cases and deaths, on most days, are double what they were exactly one year ago, our governor has opened up everything. The news media now encourages people to go out and enjoy the beaches, hiking, parks, restaurants, as if covid-19 vanished.

The only difference between last year and this year is money. Our state needs to reopen schools, businesses, and outdoor activities because of tax revenue, not because it’s more safe.

I also believe the vaccine is not a game changer. It’s still in the experimental stage. No one really knows for sure what it’s going to do, and giving people false hope leads to recklessness.
 

What's different? For starters:

1. Masking and distancing protocols.
2. Vaccines - whether or not you personally believe they are a game changer, their existence is definitely a big difference from 13 months ago. As of today, 40.6% of Californians have received at least one vaccine dose (over 24 million doses administered to date).
https://www.latimes.com/projects/ca...king-outbreak/covid-19-vaccines-distribution/
3. A year's worth of worldwide research, investigation and data on this virus, including learning how to treat it.
 
StarSong said:
What's different? For starters:

1. Masking and distancing protocols.
2. Vaccines - whether or not you personally believe they are a game changer, their existence is definitely a big difference from 13 months ago. As of today, 40.6% of Californians have received at least one vaccine dose (over 24 million doses administered to date).
https://www.latimes.com/projects/ca...king-outbreak/covid-19-vaccines-distribution/
3. A year's worth of worldwide research, investigation and data on this virus, including learning how to treat it.
Click to expand...
Mandatory masking and social distancing were in place in California a year ago. My concern, as I'm seeing evidence of it now, is that people will stop practicing these proven methods, believing the vaccine is all that's needed. I also believe that rushing back to a pre-coronavirus lifestyle too quickly, could possibly create another enormous spike, in new cases and deaths, like we experienced a few months ago.
 
It's very difficult to know the right thing to do anymore, @saltydog. I don't disagree with your fear that we'll see another spike if we return to 2019 behaviors too quickly, but many people are beyond their ability to maintain the levels of 2020 isolation and precautions. :confused:
 
IMO things HAVE to change because it isn't only about masks and distance and vaccines. People have lost their businesses, their jobs, and their homes, kids are getting substandard education and states are losing billions in tax revenue. We can't keep doing this; can't keep just letting it happen.
 
If you're vaccinated, you're not very likely to get covid-19. The CDC reports about 5,800 cases of covid-19 out of the 77 million people who have been fully vaccinated. So you're far more likely to be struck by lightening than to get covid-19 after you've been vaccinated. And if you do get it, except for the unfortunate few, it won't mean hospitalization or serious illness any more so than the flu. Without the vaccine, if you catch covid-19, you stand a 1.7% chance of dying from it.

As far as scientists not knowing what the vaccine will do long term, they've developed corona vaccines in the past and just modified what they had to be effective against the novel corona virus. They didn't have to start from scratch. That's why they were able to develop it so quickly.

I'm fully vaccinated, and it feels like a load has been lifted. I'm no longer worried if someone I don't know breathes around me.
 
Last edited:
Irwin said:
If you're vaccinated, you're not very likely to get covid-19. The CDC reports about 5,800 cases of covid-19 out of the 77 million people who have been fully vaccinated. So you're far more likely to be struck by lightening than by getting covid-19 after you've been vaccinated. And if you do get it, it won't mean hospitalization or serious illness any more so than the flu.

As far as scientists not knowing what the vaccine will do long term, they've developed corona vaccines in the past and just modified what they had to be effective against the novel corona virus. They didn't have to start from scratch. That's why they were able to develop it so quickly.

I'm fully vaccinated, and it feels like a load has been lifted. I'm no longer worried if someone I don't know breathes around me.
Click to expand...
I think the numbers are about the same for people who had the virus, too. Some can get it again, but like with the vaccine, it's not severe.
 
Murrmurr said:
I think the numbers are about the same for people who had the virus, too. Some can get it again, but like with the vaccine, it's not severe.
Click to expand...
That would make sense, since your body's immune system developed the antibodies to fight it, which is what the vaccine does.

I know several people who got covid. It's not something I'd want to experience.
 
Irwin said:
That would make sense, since your body's immune system developed the antibodies to fight it.

I know several people who got covid. It's not something I'd want to experience.
Click to expand...
My daughter-in-law had it. She didn't need to be hospitalized but it laid her low, that's for sure. My son had it too. Had the sniffles for a couple days. o_O
 
The biggest difference between last year and now is how much has been learned about the virus over the past year beyond vaccine development such as vitamin D supplementation, asymptomatic hypoxia leading to lung damage before shortness of breath, monoclonal antibody treatments. We needed the initial strict measures to give scientists time to learn.

In regards to schools, we've learned there as well. As early as 21 Oct 2020, NPR reported that in many cases, reopening K-12 classes did not have the dire outcomes predicted at the beginning of the school year. Numbers showed that to be true here in Mississippi. After delaying school in most locations by several weeks, most schools followed a hybrid reopening plan in order to reduce classroom size. When state Covid-19 stats began to decline from the summer peak, schools moved to full class sizes and state numbers still continued to decline. The lowest numbers we had over the past year were the months of September and October when kids had been back in school for weeks/months.
 


Back
Top