Todd S

The Possibility of COVID-19 after Vaccination: Breakthrough Infections What We Know about Vaccine Breakthrough Infections Vaccine breakthrough infections are expected. COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing most infections. However, like other vaccines, they are not 100% effective.

Wouldn't any mandatory boosting only be until pandemic => endemic?

Todd Allen, you seem to be implying that people who don't suspect that they have a comorbidity should avoid being vaccinated against COVID-19 -- because doing so would increase risk to others. Have you found any paper or scientist that has come to a similar conclusion? The paper you linked says, "In summary, even as efforts should be made to encourage populations to get vaccinated it should be done so with humility and respect." [my emphasis] I only looked at the third one of the subsequent references from that paper, but it included: "3. If you get infected, being vaccinated helps. The good news is that among Israel's serious infections on Thursday of this week, according to Health Ministry data, the rate of serious cases among unvaccinated people over age 60 (178.7 per 100,000) was nine times more than the rate among fully vaccinated people of the same age category, and the rate of serious cases among unvaccinated people in the under-60 crowd (3.2 per 100,000) was a little more than double the rate among vaccinated people in that age bracket. The bad news, doctors say, is that half of Israel's seriously ill patients who are currently hospitalized were fully vaccinated at least five months ago. Most of them are over 60 years old and have comorbidities. The seriously ill patients who are unvaccinated are mostly young, healthy people whose condition deteriorated quickly." Instead of drawing conclusions from just 'cases per 100,000 people' (both vaccinated and unvaccinated), I think it would be preferable to draw conclusions from 'cases per 100,000 of vaccinated people' compared with cases per 100,000 of unvaccinated people. Or better yet, comparing such numbers specifically for serious cases.

Todd Allen, While acknowledging the attempt at humor, the analogy is poor. Unvaccinated people likely increase the risk to others, whereas not wearing a lifejacket primarily affects risk to one's self (and secondarily to potential rescuers).

Thank you Dean! Accumulated earwax has been an ongoing issue in my left ear for many years. This new tool works great! --Todd

Mike, Do you happen to know the most common cause of death of these folks -- and how old an age they generally live to?

Dr. Seheult explains in Update 106 that he thinks that the death certificates of those 6% were incorrectly filled out -- and that COVID-19 should never be listed as the only cause (or proximal cause) of death.

I watched the livestream event -- thanks Gordo for letting us know about it. Right at the beginning, Musk indicated that the primary purpose of the event was to help in recruiting engineers. I think it was likely effective for that purpose.

Ron wrote: "asymptomatic" means someone who is not secreting and spraying fluids, by definition? I don't know where you got this "definition", but my understanding is more along the lines of what Wikipedia says: "In medicine, a disease is considered asymptomatic if a patient is a carrier for a disease or infection but experiences no symptoms. A condition might be asymptomatic if it fails to show the noticeable symptoms with which it is usually associated." "Knowing that a condition is asymptomatic is important because:" " ... It may be contagious. ..."

I buy natto from a local japanese market (Nijiya). I also buy Trader Joe's Steamed Lentils [ lentils, salt ,and essential oils (cloves, laurel, thyme, pepper, and garlic) ]. I combine the two together and distribute the combination into small plastic containers that I (freeze or just) refrigerate -- and consume with dinner over the subsequent week. I find this to be an enjoyable way to consume natto

Mccoy, Mike's September 14, 2019 post about the DREEM 1 band was "I tried the 1st one and found it to be totally useless. I returned it after using it for thirty days. I had no problem getting a refund, so Giving it a try makes sense." He didn't indicate what his expectation was in trying it that was not met.

It is reasonable to do a search and find a Feb 2018 commentary, but why not at least look at the DREEM website for scientific references? The Dreem 2 is an FDA Registered Class II device. For clinical validation, they claim "Extensive trials and 15 peer-reviewed articles and publications in leading journals."

Yes, it has been tested for accuracy. You can find the relevant research papers on their website. And it is now an approved medical device -- even in the U.S.

And Ron, Better yet -- look at the "Daily New Deaths in the United States" chart to see the many daily values -- and optionally the 3-day or 7-day averages.

Ron, You said, "Here is a screeshot of Worldometer today. 452 deaths is sad, but ..." Are you aware that you quoted a value (452) which represents only a small portion of the day's total? Perhaps you haven't used worldometer very much -- or else you would have been aware of this. You can look at the "Yesterday" value to see an actual day's total.