My guess----it IMPLIES that 1/2 the population has been vaccinated and doesn't show up to get tested, leaving the unvaccinated in the test line----1/2 as many tests but many more positives..... Just a guess.

I hope these "travelers" don't have the dreaded South African variant which rampaged through Brazil. There could be new variants also, it's hard to keep up.

Anti-vaxxers, hesitant-vaxxers, religious conscientious objector-vaxxers have their fingers in their ears while they chant la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la so loudly to drown out any information that they either do not agree with or are afraid of. You can't fix stupid. There, is said it finally. I've been waaaaaaaay too nice about this crap.

I haven't been tested at all, not from the day the first tests became available to the present.

I spent the entire last year just flat out assuming that I'd been exposed to it, due to the nature of my job at the time (working in Publix before masks were required, while masks were required but unenforceable by employees, and out in the parking lots where masks were also not required). No need to have proof that you were exposed to something, if you just go ahead and assume you were exposed to it.

I had no symptoms throughout so either I was never exposed and therefore not able to have caught COVID, or I was exposed and either didn't catch the disease, or was asymptomatic.

*I* wore a mask, so *I* did *my* part in minimizing the risk that everyone else might catch it from me, if I was actually infected but asymptomatic.

Now that the vaccine is here, I'm fully vaccinated and willing to get the booster if the CDC ends up recommending it. Hopefully they'll decide within the next couple of months so we can get it in time for it to be as effective as Pfizer says it should be.

Bring on the booster. I want to cruise!

Sure, like that is going to convince anyone to get their vaccination.

Too judgmental, IMO. I chose to be vaccinated due to my age bracket. I don't really care about those choosing not to get the vaccine. Their choice and they will live with any adverse consequences. And, for younger generations, the risk of adverse consequences is minimal.

Have you ever considered that we might be the ones that turn out to be stupid. After all, the vaccines are still only experimental having only been approved for emergency use. No one yet knows if there are any long term effects. I'm hoping not but I still understand there's that risk.

:popcorn:

No one is stopping you now. Cruise ships have been leaving port in Florida.

So you are saying the tests are weighted to people that are not vaccinated, and that would account for the higher percentage of testing positive.

That is a very good answer. Thank you. I will have to scratch my head for a while to see if the bias adds up, but the first impression is you are right.

(Oh darn, sorry, I didn't mean to agree with you again - people are going to start taking!)

You two stop being so nice to each other.:boxing2:

Actually, no, I have my entire life put science first in my life. So, I put my trust in scientists that spend their lives learning about pandemics and doing that for that old fashion, an out-of-style thing called "helping mankind".

Sure there are some scientists that have sold their souls to big corporations and make statements like "Camel Cigarettes are GOOD for your cough". And they are part of the reason for the anti-science so prevalent today.

And then there are the charlatans that sell their snake oil to those that will buy it.

But, those down in the trenches, not looking for fame and riches, do doing the hard work and publishing in peer review journals. I trust them. I think NOT trusting them would be a bad idea.

July had the lowest death rate by Covid in over a year, almost two years. In Florida, of the total deaths in July was less than 6% Covid related.
Most of those refusing the Covid vaccination are either young or minorities. That's a fact according to the demographics table on the CDC site.

Who or what determines "respectability"? Everything, including science, has become extremely politicized so it's almost impossible to be objective. Therefore, the general public will naturally be skeptical of the "experts" and take their "respected" opinions with a grain of salt.

Happy healthy children who were successfully inoculated against smallpox. Routine vaccination for smallpox ended in 1972, after smallpox was eradicated from the planet thanks to vaccinations.

When the choice is a medical conspiracy website that sells supplements that don't do anything, or Tucker Carlson, or Sean Hannity, or the President - who is also not a scientist or doctor of any kind...

I'll pick the actual scientists who have spent their lives studying virii for a living.

Ah, but they also are influenced by outside sources. You seem to want to deify scientists but they can be corrupt just like everyone else, haha.

My daughter was an immunologist - not a virologist, but close enough. She worked for research labs in the U.S. and Europe. She usually worked under the umbrella of a hospital or university so it depended on who was providing the funding for their research and that could skew results (especially if pharmaceutical companies were involved). Hate to burst your bubble!

Actually no, science has not become politicized. The mainstream scientists are still the same, are still publishing and being peer-reviewed, and still practicing science.

There certainly has been an attempt to politicize it, but for the most part that is not the case.

See this doesn't help. No one is Deifying anyone. Scientists are human. Scientists make mistakes. Scientists can be influenced.

But, a Vet giving advice on Pandemics is not science. A politician saying they are smarter than scientists is not helpful.

Why does it seem it is always necessary to exaggerate the opposition's position to make ones point.

You aren't bursting my bubble. One example to pain all scientists seems a bit unfair.

Are you saying that unless all scientists are saints, that they are are unworthy?

My reply wasn't directed at you unless you and Orange Blossom Baby are one in the same. there's too much reliance on science as if it isn't fallible, especially regarding the vaccines which are new and experimental so its effects and results are still evolving and not engraved in stone.

And to say science hasn't become politicized is untrue. I can think of two glaring examples aside from COVID but don't want to veer off topic and get the thread closed down.

Of course not. Because they have their fingers in their ears. LOL.

What time frame are people concerned about regarding "long term effects"? Is it one year, five years, 20 years? We know NOW what effects Covid causes and that includes those pesky long haul effects right up to death. Why worry about the unknown of a vaccine when it is very possible there will be no long term effects with the vaccines at all.

Vaccination history has proven that long term effects from any vaccine ever developed and used in humanity has not caused long term effects beyond the amount of time that has already lapsed for these mRNA vaccines that have already been administered. Very good chance there will not be long term effects from these Covid vaccines.

That seems to be the most popular excuse used by anti-vaxxers and hesitant vaxxers. They need to start singing a different tune if you ask me.

I'm aware. I follow the Cruise Critic forums very closely. As avid cruisers, hubby and I are still waiting it out. Too many "surprises" going on with the protocols changing at the drop of a hat. This Delta variant is waaaay too contagious for us to get on a ship right now. Oh well.

No one seems to know how long the immunity conveyed by the vaccines lasts. they estimate 6-12 months. They did the trails for the Pfizer in July 2020 and tested the participants in January 2021 and they still had strong antibodies. Maybe it never goes away? That wouldn't be a good thing, either. With traditional vaccines, they are broken down by your cells over time, but we don't know what to expect with these mRNA ones.

Okay, you can think of Two examples. I said in my reply some have attempted to. I can provide literally thousands of examples of scientists that have not been politicized so, what does that prove?

My understanding with these mRNA vaccines is that they train the immune system to recognize the pathogen, this being the Covid virus spike protein. Even if antibodies have waned to an undetectable level, the body's immune system T Cells and B Cells will spring into action and neutralize the virus, thus stopping the infectious process in its tracks. That is where the protection is derived from the vaccine.

GE.......any comments? I think you already told me that this is a correct understanding of how these mRNA vaccines work. Do I have that right?

This gives no T cell immunity......not a sterilizing vaccine, just B cell. To go full T Cell immunity an actual virus (dead) needs to be used, not a shape protein. It is impossible to have T cell immunity....vaccine is just a band aid, no different from Tylenol....gives protection of symptoms only and not the virus . :MOJE_whot::MOJE_whot:

If someone REALLY wants to see the anti-vaxxer movement in operation. Just watch the 1st 5 minutes of the wonderful "Tuckums" show every night at 8 PM on conTV (con for conspiracy)!

That post "cuts to the core". And drives away the clouds of MISINFORMATION that are sweeping through the US from the dark sections of the web.

Fauci's resume is impeccable. He is a legend in his field. History will remember him, not that self-promoting VETERINARIAN!

We need a vaccine against conspiracy theories and misinformation Then maybe we could get a normal America back?

It is not going to end well for Fauci....He is a phony hack.

The US blew a BIG opportunity to finish off or nearly finish off CV in the US in April and May. We could have then worked to help out the world by opening up more vaccine-producing facilities in the US and worldwide. US citizens worked basically toward one goal in WW2 - to save the world from tyranny. Now in World War CV (WWCV), as a country, we have NOT been EVEN able to SAVE ourselves (from ourselves). Today, we do NOT seem like The United States - we seem united in CHAOS only - multiple different factions and tribes are pulling the US apart, not together. How does this movie end? I wonder if the Roman Empire felt like this as it began to crumble. If a VIRUS were smart enough to laugh, it would mock our feeble attempts to irradicate it.

Oh, you mean the knuckle-dragging white supremacist hillbillies who call it a "plandemic" and think George Soros, Bill Gates and Obama are behind the whole thing at China's direction?

Well, you'd be wrong. Those refusing to get vaccinated are not right wing nutjobs nor Tucker Carlson/Fox News lovers but minorities - black and Latinos - who distrust the government that takes care of them, cradle to grave. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

These are supposed to be their peeps and they have pooped on their vaccination agenda! They've offered them money, incentives, in California the idiot governor is on TV spinning the lottery wheel where newly vaccinated folks are entered, they've done outreach, special vaccine clinics at parks and shopping malls. Latino men, still full of the old-school machismo, think it will make them impotent or sterile. Blacks think it's another Tuskegee experiment at their expense. And then there's the young. Well, they're supposed to be stupid, right? Full of bravado, thinking they're invincible and nothing can hurt them.

Maybe you shouldn't be so self-righteous, judgmental, sneering, and stereotyping, and realize this pandemic is all about FEAR. Fear of the virus, which I see plenty of on this forum, and fear of an experimental vaccine and its possible, unknown side effects. Both reactions are normal and human so stop trivializing and mocking other people's pain and anxiety.

After almost 2 years , nobody really knows

I would read a link on that!

It is still possible to be "objective". For example, 97% of all medical Doctors have received CV shots. That fact makes a BIG impression on me. Still, in today's strange, dark media mess, some are still shilling for no vaccines and no masks. Yes, I am looking at you........Tuckums.

According to this article, mRNA vaccines do induce memory T Cell response.......

Do mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines induce memory T cell response similar to natural infection?

That's good news, if correct but it said the article hasn't been peer-reviewed yet.