Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara County Public Health Department
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department remains vigilant in the assessment of the increase in COVID-19 cases and the impact of the Delta variant within the county. The Delta variant is labeled as a variant of concern by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is known to have increased transmissibility.
“As we now approach the two week period following the 4th of July holiday weekend, we are seeing the expected increase in cases due to extensive traveling and mingling,” said Henning Ansorg, County Health Officer. “It remains critically important that we continue to practice safety guidelines such as staying home if feeling ill, wear a mask in public indoor settings, avoid crowded events, and practice good hand hygiene.” For now, Santa Barbara County will be following the State guidance on masking.
Breakthrough cases, which refer to those who have contracted the virus despite being fully vaccinated, are happening now with the Delta variant. However, those who are vaccinated do not get more serious disease symptoms which require hospitalization. “We have a method of preventing severe illness and hospitalization from the COVID-19 Delta variant which we know is effective, and that is getting vaccinated. If you are eligible and have not yet been vaccinated, it is critical to get your first shot as soon as possible,” states Van Do-Reynoso, County Public Health Director.
The COVID-19 vaccines available broadly in the United States are highly effective, and free of cost to every eligible community member. Persons that have received their first dose of a two-dose vaccine are urged to receive their second dose in order to gain optimal protection against Delta.
For COVID-19 updates, along with information about testing and vaccination sites, please visit https://publichealthsbc.org.
Public Health Officer Urges Community to Stay COVID-19 Vigilant
By Dr. Henning Ansorg, M.D., FACP, Health Officer County of Santa Barbara, Department of Public Health
If you and your family are fully vaccinated, congratulations! You have taken a huge step in protecting yourselves from serious COVID-19 illness.
Breakthrough cases, which refers to those who have contracted the virus despite being fully vaccinated, are happening now with the Delta variant.
Fortunately, vaccinated persons do not get more serious disease and do not require hospitalization. Whereas virtually every hospitalized person with COVID is unvaccinated and most of them state they regret not getting vaccinated and urge their families and friends to do so as soon as possible.
What should you do to protect yourself?
If you are vaccinated or not, don’t let your guard down. If you are indoors in public places, wear a mask. Avoid crowds and sick people. Remember to wash your hands frequently.
COVID is a preventable disease. Getting vaccinated is the best way to prevent getting seriously ill from the delta variant.
Everyone 12 years of age and older are approved to receive the vaccine.
Santa Barbara County, offers many locations to obtain the free vaccine. Walk-ins are welcome.
Please visit: www.myturn.ca.gov/ to make an appointment, or visit: https://publichealthsbc.org/vaccine/ for more information.
LA county has already reinstated its indoor mask requirements. It looks like we can soon add “if you get vaccinated you can live normally again” to the long list of broken promises from our public officials.
Public officials tell the public what they want to hear whether or not it is true or makes sense. Corona Virus mutates too fast and variably for vaccination success. Period. An eternal series of experimental boosters and or masks, distance, hygiene and a healthy lifestyle, is where we are. I chose the latter and eschew the former. Gotta love biotech labs and the fruits that they grace society with.
You mean that fully debunked right wing conspiracy theory that covid originated in the wuhan bat coronavirus laboratory next door to wet market? I have to say, it’s really amazing how effective our public officials in conjunction with our big social media companies were in suppressing the lab leak story as long as they did.
Getting vaccinated is the key to protecting yourself and those around you.
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/16/1017002907/u-s-covid-deaths-are-rising-again-experts-call-it-a-pandemic-of-the-unvaccinated
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/16/world/covid-variant-vaccine-updates
Cry me a river
Those dying of Covid right now are primarily the unvaccinated.
Are we returning back to square one less than a year after the vaccines debuted and we were supposed to return to normal? I hope not. Is it time to return to the traditional approach to vaccine design? Perhaps. Should we be working on a universal vaccine rather than focusing exclusively on the spike protein? Absolutely!
Since the delta variant is relatively new to the US, it’s best to look at countries that have been dealing with high numbers of difficult variants for some weeks now. That would be Israel and England. It’s quite clear that the vaccines are just not showing the same effectiveness against the delta variant as they did against the wild-type virus and its early variants. Israel is putting the effectiveness against the delta variant at 64% (Ref. 1). With regard to other difficult variants such as the South African variant (B.1.351), an Israeli study published in Nature Medicine (Ref. 2) states, “a significantly higher proportion of B.1.351 was observed in dose2 cases versus unvaccinated controls (McNemar OR of 8:1; one-sided exact McNemar test, P = 0.02).” This means that vaccinated people were eight times more likely to have been infected with the South African variant than unvaccinated people. Public Health England has been tracking the delta variant for some time, and has published several technical briefings over the past month (Ref. 3). Of the number of people who have died of the delta variant in England, 35.8% were unvaccinated while 45.9% were fully vaccinated and 17.5% had at least one shot (0.8% were unknown).
It would be interesting to see the numbers for those who obtained natural immunity, as they would be producing polyclonal antibodies that target several epitopes against COVID. This is the basis for a “universal” vaccine that should afford much better protection than the current formulations, which target only a portion of the spike protein. I think rather than pushing a third dose of the same old same old, vaccine makers should work on developing a universal vaccine using a traditional approach of using transgenic hosts (such as plants) to express several epitopes, then purify out these proteins for use in vaccines. This would allow for broader coverage and minimize the concerning side-effects observed in the RNA/DNA vaccines.
Ref 1) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/science/Israel-Pfizer-covid-vaccine.html
Ref 2) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01413-7
Ref. 3) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/investigation-of-novel-sars-cov-2-variant-variant-of-concern-20201201
Time to consider Macron’s approach in France. Punish the people who are refusing to get vaccinated, not the people who have got the shots. If not an explicit mandate, make it very hard for them to do anything and go anywhere. I am 100% in favor of a vaccine passport.
Just more FUD from Dok Elmer. The three approved vaccines have strong efficacy against all the variants so far, especially against illness and death, rather than just asymptomatic infection. Vaccinated individuals show antibody titers up to 1000x those seen in people who have merely been infected, but not vaccinated, because natural immunity is so variable from person to person.
Heed the advice of the healthcare experts rather than random sociopathic commenters on social media. Vaccination is the answer to protecting you and those around you.
CHEMICALSUPERFREAK:
The people dying in the ICUs are all unvaccinated. Those of us who have got vaccinated are extremely unlikely to become deathly ill, even if we catch the Delta variant.
The unvaccinated adults and teens, at this point, are stupid, belligerent, and selfish. By refusing immunization, they are enabling variants., attenuating this crisis. They are The Problem.
Punitive measures need to be taken. I am tired of coddling these fools. They have demonstrated, over and over again, that they are anti-social sociopaths. We need to make their lives miserable by restricting their movements and activities.
LOOSECANNON: Do you have actual numbers that back up your statement? I provided you a reference to Public Health England numbers, which backs up mine.
Regarding the Israeli Study:
“This suggests the vaccine is less effective against the South African variant, compared with the original coronavirus and a variant first identified in Britain that has come to comprise nearly all COVID-19 cases in Israel, the researchers said.”
However, the researchers note in their conclusion that they “can only cautiously speculate” on the vaccine’s effectiveness against the South African strain due to the small sample size of the study (which has not yet been peer reviewed) and the fact that it “was not intended to deduce vaccine effectiveness against either variant”.
“Our results emphasise the importance of tracking viral variants in a rigorous framework and of increasing vaccination, which we conclude is the safest and most effective means of preventing the onwards spread of [the South African strain] and other possible future variants of concern.”
England Study – fact check:
“It is important to understand the whole context to avoid misunderstanding data,” said Dr Shamaila Anwar, science communicator at Team Halo (teamhalo.org/).
Speaking to Reuters, she noted the importance of accounting for the demographics of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, especially as Britain’s inoculation programme has prioritised those who are older or clinically vulnerable.
Anwar added that data currently shows the number of infections is “much less” in the vaccinated population, which indicates that “vaccination is working”.
https://www.reuters.com/article/fact-check-covid-england/fact-check-englands-covid-19-death-statistics-do-not-suggest-vaccines-arent-working-idUSL2N2OJ1ET
CSF – No offense – if you look at the links I posted the authors of the Israeli study and Public Health England disagree with your assessment of their studies.
Mr. FUD isn’t interested in what’s factual, he’s just trying to scare people away from vaccination. He’ll take random facts out of context from studies that do not support his conclusions and add his own twist, trusting that most readers won’t follow the links.
I agree with most of what you say. But we don’t know enough about Delta. It’s obviously a big issue. I’m fully vaccinated and will wear a mask in the grocery store.
Time, even a little, will provide more information.
Sorry, still looking for the original link. Feel free to dismiss the information.
The very researchers of the study argue against the claim that CSF made tough guy. Take your far-right BS and put it in hell with the rest of the fascists.
Mountain Man4865, VAERS accepts reports from anyone!
I will not give credence to such an open forum, just as I won’t believe anyone on this site.
And I will explore sources who site VAER Covid vaccine death results, just as I’ll be skeptical of any and all claims of any type without further information.
Home site:
https://vaers.hhs.gov/
VAERS Report Page:
https://vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html
Report an Adverse Event to VAERS
Doctor consulting patient on how to report to VAERS
Click here for guidance to healthcare providers on reporting adverse events to VAERS after COVID-19 vaccination
VAERS is a passive reporting system, meaning it relies on individuals to send in reports of their experiences. Anyone can submit a report to VAERS, including parents and patients.
“Never argue a fool..
for they are doing the same”.
Yeah, just let people spew nonsense as though it’s fact. What could go wrong with that?
786 is correct; I reported my adverse reaction, and received a follow up response a week later from VAERS asking for more information. I went on to have the second shot (Pfizer) with no reaction other than a headache. According to the very patient nurse at the Goleta Cottage Hospital vax site, “Everyone is different, and can react differently to the shot.” But it is safe, effective and necessary to protect yourself and others.
If one is looking to travel outside of the borders of the U.S., being vaccinated is a must. Canada has been closed for 16 months but may open in August for vaccinated Americans.
Nothing could go wrong with that..as long as each person uses their own ability to discern, evaluate & or critically dissect what is presented.
Again on the subject of the SARS-CoV-2 mutation rate. It’s not that the virus mutates particularly quickly, the problem is that so many people are unvaccinated and infected.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02544-6
“But sequencing data suggest that coronaviruses change more slowly than most other RNA viruses, probably because of a ‘proofreading’ enzyme that corrects potentially fatal copying mistakes. A typical SARS-CoV-2 virus accumulates only two single-letter mutations per month in its genome — a rate of change about half that of influenza and one-quarter that of HIV, says Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Basel, Switzerland.
Other genome data have emphasized this stability — more than 90,000 isolates have been sequenced and made public (see http://www.gisaid.org). Two SARS-CoV-2 viruses collected from anywhere in the world differ by an average of just 10 RNA letters out of 29,903, says Lucy Van Dorp, a computational geneticist at University College London, who is tracking the differences for signs that they confer an evolutionary advantage.”
The facts of the last few weeks show that Covid is ticking upwards. The facts show that almost all those being hospitalized are unvaccinated. The facts show that if you are vaccinated and do contract Covid it is much less severe. Do your part and get vaccinated, wear a mask, wash your hands, we don’t want to be locked down again. It’s not all about YOU, it’s about US.
If the Santa Barbara County supervisors and two unelected public health officials (one of whom is not even a medical doctor) reinstitute lockdowns/curfews/masks, they will face major pushback in this county, including removal from public office and employment.
Citizens who question the official narrative are providing an important public service and are not to be dismissed or marginalized.
5:14 (ad nauseum) – Yes, they provide a concrete example of how stupid some people are, especially the noisy freedumb crowd.
FREEDUMB! Especially for COVIDIOTS.
The social media looniness just gets worse and worse. mRNA vaccines are not gene therapies, and have been developed over decades, and have proven to be singularly safe and effective. To say otherwise is just dangerous disinformation.
Wacko anti-vaxxers are just too chicken to innoculate themSELVES and take a free ride from the rest of us. All of their crackpot psuedo-science is just rationalization for their childish phobias and shirking of responsible citizenship. And yes they are undermining the country and are directly responsible for the consequences. That’s all you really need to know despite all their propaganda about so-called ‘plandemix” etcetera ad nauseum. Disguating the lengths they go to avoid stepping up[ to the plate.
CHANNELFOG:
Let me disperse some of the brain fog clouding up you reasoning faculties.
So far, the rate of mutation is not eliminating vaccine efficacy. All of the main vaccines have proven to be highly effective against the delta variant.
I am not suggesting that people be forced to get vaccinated, wear armbands, march into gas chambers, etc. This is hyperbolic nonsense.
The people who are refusing the vaccines are enabling variants, putting themselves and others at risk.
They want their “sovereignty” respected? Fine. Go to school unvaccinated? No. Travel on a plane, rail or bus? No. Check into a hotel? No. Go to a concert? No. A sports event? No. Measures like these are already taking force in Europe. I don’t see fascism there. I see it right here in the United States.
Private businesses have every right to refuse service to anyone who refuses to wear a mask (when there is a mask mandate); presumably, they have an equal right to deny goods and services to people who can’t show proof of vaccination.
To those of you who are in thrall to stupid conspiracy theories and have no faith in science, I say, fine, go live in the cave of your stupidity, ignorance and intransigence. When the virus comes to get you, don’t come crying to the rest of us, looking for assistance from a community you have spurned.
I am looking at LA, and the re-imposition of the mask mandate and I am dreading the return of it here. That is an infringement on my sovereignty. I hope the public authorities shift the focus away from universal mandates, which make us all miserable, and focus laser-like on making the lives of the intransigent anti-vaccers miserable instead.
How about an AHA-LIGHTBULB moment: for those who feel sick and/or are sick stay home- If you are “tested” + , self-quarantine! For those who are covid-centric, keep wearing your masks! But for those of us who are healthy and/or feel our immune systems are doing their jobs, keep on living your lives!!!
How many times did you press that button, BMKLOU?
GENERALTREE, you are 100% correct! While there ARE people who are vaccinated getting sick, the ones in the hospital and dying are almost all unvaccinated.
LOOSECANNON, I am in favor of this too. I’m so sick of stupid people, far right cultists and conspiracy nuts ruining it for everyone else. Bring it on! Let’s get tough on the fight against this virus. Isreal did a vaccine passport. It clearly worked well.
We need a new No More Mr. Nice Guy approach to this problem. This nonsense has gone on long enough. My patience with the vaccine hesitant, conspiracy theorists and anti-vacc’ers has come to an end. The gentle persuasion approach clearly isn’t working. There need to be sanctions, punishments and exclusions in place for the refuseniks.
It was true at the time, but anti-vaxxers, disinformers, liars, and others of your ilk effed it up for everyone.
The origin of the virus is still unknown and there is not sufficient evidence to conclusively support either the lab leak or wet market hypothesis (there is, however, adequate evidence to rule out an intentionally created virus). Much of the reason for the lack of evidence is China’s lack of openness. Another cause for the uncertainty and dispute is that tRump employed xenophobia against the Chinese to obscure his own responsibility, which led many people to reactively push back against the lab leak hypothesis since so much of what came out of the mouths of tRump and his supporters were blatant lies. However, this is an example of the “fallacy fallacy”–the erroneous notion that the conclusion of fallacious argument must be false. https://effectiviology.com/fallacy-fallacy/
Absolutely LooseCannon. Covid is the final nail in the coffin for our antiquated concept of civil rights and limited government. We need to take the shackles off of our government and empower our courageous leaders like Chairman Newsom to take the steps they deem necessary to keep us safe whether we consent or not.
Why are idiots newsworthy?
Really, just stop with the invermectin lies from social media, although now you at least spell it correctly. It has shown no clinical efficacy, and a large scale trial was recently stopped after a very short period because of adverse outcomes. It’s primarily a veterinary drug, also used on humans as a last resort for parasitic worm infestations.
Oops! No, you’re not. It’s ivermectin.
You really live in a fantasy world crafted by credulity and social media. All of our experiences over the last several months show that the mRNA vaccines are both very safe and very effective.
Getting vaccinated may be a hassle, a little scary, and you may get a reaction with the first shot (I did). At this point in the pandemic it is free, and fairly easy to find, and allows some peace of mind. It may not be a perfect solution, but is safe, and the best we have. Why put yourself and your loved ones at risk?
Israel has vaccinated a large fraction of their population, so now their cases are vastly reduced, and of course some will have been vaccinated. Their illness, however, will be quite mild, except in those who are immunocompromised. Really, you will parrot back the most inane stuff in your quest to save us from modern medicine and rational behavior.
Actually a lot of it was also the passionate hate of anything/everything Trump… which encompassed anything and everything he said. He was a horrible president (and seemingly horribly person) but the far left (in responding to Trump) went insanely far and were passionately and righteously 100% against and everything he said. It was racist to attribute any blame on China. We’ll never know the exact and true origins because China did everything possible for many months to hide anything and everything they could…but that in itself is worth a ton of blame.
Funny how we have the same issues as nearly 100 years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/om68vz/cartoon_from_the_1930s/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Repeating lies does not magically make them true.
I guess you didn’t read the report, which specifically stated that it was a small sample size and not meant to measure vaccine efficacy. But you keep spreading lies, as it’s apparently something you have a compulsion for.
To quote from your article, which has since been retracted by the authors, by the way:
“Many studies included were not peer reviewed and a wide range of doses were evaluated. Currently, WHO recommends the use of ivermectin only inside clinical trials. A network of large clinical trials is in progress to validate the results seen to date.”
Those trials were the ones recently cancelled.
I’m sure you can find lots of articles on twitter. That doesn’t imply any connection to reality.
But if malicious people are trolling by putting disinformation out there, it is important for people to be given accurate info. Otherwise we are just giving up the web to the trolls. Especially on sites like this that can be accessed by all types of people.
Where is VOICE OF REASON on all this? Is he still around? Hope he’s OK!