226 New COVID-19 Cases and 6 Deaths

Yes they do contact tracing, the majority of infections are due to gatherings. Large and small. There have also been several workplace outbreaks, lately the majority have been in office buildings.

Ahchooo, tracing is a great idea, but in practice it failed in our county, and likely in the state and nation as well. Clearly our healthcare professionals are taught the guidelines and practice these daily, yet their positive cases are increasing nevertheless. Therefore I believe your last suspicion is true and they are also falling ill despite all the precautions. This is, as I've illustrated countless times with peer-reviewed journals that masks are only effective 90-95% for influenza, and SARS-CoV-2 is considered more contagious.

Wait, so masks don’t work? (shocker!)

VOR: The masks, even the best, are only 90-95% effective. Only thing 100% is Level 4 biohazard suits. I'm currently trained and and have clearance to for blood borne pathogens level 2 and routinely spend my days with my arms in a biosafety cabinet class II with laminar air flow. I work with cancer cells, pathogenic bacteria, and viruses, which are largely attenuated. I know a little about this stuff, despite what Mr. Keystone Dok likes to suggest.

Thanks for the info, Chem. It makes me feel a bit better knowing that many/most of the infections were likely preventable.

I don't think that's what he's saying Ahchoo, people are falling ill despite all the precautions. I guess yes, many/most of the infections were preventable if everyone wore Level 4 biohazard suits, and everyone used them correctly, but we can't even use paper masks correctly soo....

90-95% effective is not "doesnt work" VOR

its still 90-95% effective

Per CFM, for the flu....., covid is more contagious. It being airborne would be a good explanation why we're getting so much spread with so many masks. If masks we're 90-95% effective for covid we would not still be in a pandemic.

I realize we can’t be 100% sure of how each person was infected, and even good masks, worn properly, can’t guarantee safety. But if I’m not gathering with anyone, not working in an office with others, etc, I can feel some hope for my own safety. Some people seem to be saying “masks don’t work, you can’t stay safe,” and I think Chem’s info indicates the opposite. If *I* follow all the guidelines, maybe even wear glasses to protect my eyes when I’m shopping, I’ll have a chance.

Yes, particularly if your concerned adhering to proper mask protocol is a wise move (no touching!). Remember, the whole premise of masks is they protect others if you are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic. For the "others" I believe that UNLESS you very strictly follow mask protocol and NEVER touch it, that masks may do more harm than good. You're at the grocery store, touching things, maybe contaminated things, then you touch your mask. Well, unlike if you touched your cheek (if you had no mask) now you just put the contaminate on a piece of cloth you're breathing through that the rest of your outing, seems like a great way to get the virus into your airway as the pores in the cloth are WAY bigger than the virus, it'll pass right through. Another concern with masks, goggles, and other PPE that aren't used perfectly, it gives people a false sense of security and they engage in activities that aren't as "safe" as they may think. And for these reasons, that is why I believe masks have not had a significant impact stopping the spread of coivd.

The public health department includes the contact tracing results on their dashboard.

A fair percentage of the cases (slightly less than 1/3) are "unknown" because people don't answer the phone.

Of the people who respond to PHD, approximately 62% are close contact/ known contact with people who tested positive. There are a few travel cases. The remaining 37-38% are "community spread" - meaning either (1) we don't know exactly where they picked it up in the community - grocery store, restaurant, work, whatever or (2) the people aren't being 100% honest about their goings-on. (Meaning, maybe they went to a party or an indoor dinner but don't want to admit it to the contact tracers.)

Community close contact: 8675
Prison: 1078
Travel: 168
Community transmission: 5463
Unknown: 10384
Under investigation: 1987

It's really hard to say if people are being smart or not, but I see enough on IG to know that some people simply aren't being smart and are gathering. Masks aren't 100% effective, but they also aren't zero - so it's a continuum. I have two close relatives who have had COVID. One of them was not being careful at all (still gathering). The other literally only left the house to walk the dog since March - except for a single trip to the post office, and that's where they got it. (Living in a state where most were refusing to wear masks.)

Let Me go, I think a good portion of the "community transmission" are actually close contacts. If there is asymptomatic transmission you wouldn't know you got it from a close contact.

@VOR, I agree that a fair % of community transmission is likely close contact. We don't know for sure on the community transmission though - partially because people don't ACTUALLY know that there's close contact (except in cases like at work, where they will contact you). But also because people aren't necessarily 100% truthful.

Still worth the minuscule effort to put one on, even if they are only 50% effective. That would mean that they work 50% of the time. I'll take those odds any day when it comes to Covid.

LCP112233 - exactly. This is why I'm so baffled and outraged at those who refuse to wear masks! Yeah, we all know they don't cure the virus, but they are PROVEN to be at least pretty effective. You have to be a special kind of rotten to refuse to even try to slow the virus down.

It’s kinda like sensible weight-loss diets: they work, but only if you do them correctly, consistently.

MountainMan, that's sick, but unfortunately a true story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serratia_marcescens#Role_in_biowarfare_testing

BTW, that's really cool that you took microbiology. May I ask what was your major in college, and how old you are? Microbiology is generally an elective these days, though maybe not when or where you took it. I never took micro, and have largely learned on the job. I wish I had time in college. It's similar to trigonometry these days. It's also an elective, though I did take that one and it helped me a lot in calculus for those weird derivatives and integrals.

Yep. So thirty years of knowing that this sort of stuff was going on.... I have thirty years of questioning what is going on now....

Always question. Nothing wrong with that. The worst is that you're just wasting your own time. Now I see why you check the numbers. I'm the same way, and that comes naturally to me as a I've always be inquisitive and maybe that's why science came easy to me.

Attaining the status of Professor doesn’t automatically confer the status of sanity.

Fauci?

thats not fun, nor relevant.

It's totally relevant.

We have our very own Norm. (Cheers)