What is your anxiety level about catching COVID?

[Caracal]

I live in a state with an approximately 60% vaccination rate and a county with moderate cases.  We are now urged but not required to mask indoors. Much of my life and social life is lived outdoors and will be for a few more months, and family are all vaccinated. So fairly low risk there.

Most of my courses are online but I am concerned about the fall. There is no vaccination requirement for employees though I suspect most of us are vaccinated. If there is a six-month dwindling of effectiveness it will begin in another 4 weeks for me. I would definitely take a booster if available as I am in a high-risk age range though otherwise a healthy hiker.

Important to remember that we don't really know that much yet about whether effectiveness actually dwindles. Antibodies are only part of the immune system. I'm far from an expert, but the people I pay attention to who are, seem to think that its likely the broader spectrum of immunity is likely to remain pretty durable.

Yes, and good to keep in mind. One troubling thing, though, is the absence of data on breakthrough illness that doesn't result in hospitalization or death. My understanding is that is where the effectiveness is most likely to wane, and complications can still be serious.

Yeah, it doesn't seem like there's any good data. Sometimes breakthrough infections aren't even really illnesses. People can test positive but be asymptomatic and very unlikely to spread the disease because their immune system basically surpasses the virus at a very early point. Hard to know to what extent vaccination reduces the risk of longer term complications for people who do get symptomatic covid.

[FishProf]

Moderate.  B/C while I am vaccinated and MrsFishprof is, Smolt cannot be.  And that still worries me.

[Langue_doc]

Went up to high from moderate because of a combination of low vaccination rates and the non-enforcement of the mandatory masking policies in subways.

As of today, only 54.9% have been vaccinated. Vaccines have been available for anyone older than 12 for months now.
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data-vaccines.page

Several subway riders weren't wearing masks last week when I had to take public transportation for a couple of medical appointments. Although subway and bus riders in Manhattan are more compliant than people in the outer boroughs, I had to shout at a woman in the bus who was wearing a "chin diaper". The woman who didn't seem to have a subway pass wasted everyone's time by going through all her belongings for the duration of two traffic light changes while the few passengers in the bus were getting visibly impatient. Finally, the driver asked her to get behind him so that he could start driving. I was so angry that I shouted at her to put on her mask. Three of the women sitting near me nodded in agreement and one of them commiserated with the driver who was probably too scared to ask the offending passenger to put on her mask.

The map suggests that some of the low-vaccine rate areas are those that saw a spike in cases in April because of the refusal to practice safe distancing or wear masks. These are not the conventional "vaccine refusal" demographics. Our politicians are too dysfunctional to even address the low rates hence my concern. They must be aware of the data but have been going around patting themselves on their collective backs on how life is back to normal.

So yes, my anxiety levels are going up. It didn't help to see a fellow patient in the doctor's waiting room with his nose exposed. It also turns out that the employees in the city hospitals are not only not vaccinated, but their union just protested the city requirement that they get vaccinated by September or be tested every week.

[downer]

My anxiety level is increasing as I hear about more people I know directly who have been vaccinated and who have been put out of action for weeks and even hospitalized due to catching COVID. And as the new semester approaches, and dept chairs don't know what masking policy and social distancing rules are for the fall because the administration hasn't said. Having a policy up on the webpage from May or June isn't reassuring.

[Caracal]

My anxiety level is increasing as I hear about more people I know directly who have been vaccinated and who have been put out of action for weeks and even hospitalized due to catching COVID. And as the new semester approaches, and dept chairs don't know what masking policy and social distancing rules are for the fall because the administration hasn't said. Having a policy up on the webpage from May or June isn't reassuring.

Everyone has to stop trying to extrapolate from what they've heard. It's a kind of innumeracy. When people hear that the vaccine is 80 percent effective, they think that's fine, but when they hear that some person they know had a breakthrough case and also their friend's brother's friend, they decide that must mean they are more at risk and completely forget about the denominator. We know a lot of people and if you add in second level connections, that gets to be hundreds and thousands of people. In fact, the vast majority of cases are happening in unvaccinated people. https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/covid-19-vaccine-breakthrough-cases-data-from-the-states/
The second chart there lays it out pretty well.

[downer]

I had actually looked at that page earlier. What struck me was this para:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently monitors hospitalizations and deaths, from any cause, among fully vaccinated individuals with COVID-19, but not breakthrough infections, which it stopped monitoring as of May 1. CDC presents this data in aggregate at the national level but not by state, and there is no single, public repository for data by state or data on breakthrough infections, since the CDC stopped monitoring them.

I have heard other reports of it being difficult to breakthrough cases to the CDC. It certainly gives the impression that they don't want to know the data. Given that I personally know someone recently hospitalized with COVD pneumonia who said they were vaccinated, (which that KFF page says is extremely rare), I'm wondering whether to believe the person I know or think that breakthrough cases of illness are being underreported.

Certainly the vaccines help reduce the seriousness of cases, but there may well be underreporting of breakthrough cases. Generally people forget the tenatitive and changing nature of the "latest" knowledge.

The greatest hope comes from the UK where the dip in delta cases has "baffled" the scientists.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02125-1

[Langue_doc]

Reports of vaccinated people getting and/or transmitting the virus add to the anxiety.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/vaccinated-counties-delta-hotspots/?itid=mr_health_2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/07/delta-variant-covid/

[Caracal]

I had actually looked at that page earlier. What struck me was this para:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently monitors hospitalizations and deaths, from any cause, among fully vaccinated individuals with COVID-19, but not breakthrough infections, which it stopped monitoring as of May 1. CDC presents this data in aggregate at the national level but not by state, and there is no single, public repository for data by state or data on breakthrough infections, since the CDC stopped monitoring them.

I have heard other reports of it being difficult to breakthrough cases to the CDC. It certainly gives the impression that they don't want to know the data. Given that I personally know someone recently hospitalized with COVD pneumonia who said they were vaccinated, (which that KFF page says is extremely rare), I'm wondering whether to believe the person I know or think that breakthrough cases of illness are being underreported.

Certainly the vaccines help reduce the seriousness of cases, but there may well be underreporting of breakthrough cases. Generally people forget the tenatitive and changing nature of the "latest" knowledge.

Well those aren't CDC reports. It is data from states. It might not be perfect, but it's better than relying on anecdotal reports.

You don't need to disbelieve the person you know or the data! Rare things happen all the time. Earlier this summer I was walking down a street in a touristy town and a nail went through my shoe and into my foot. (It didn't go deep, I was fine, it was good I wasn't wearing sandals) Does that mean that beach towns throughout America are filled with nails and nobody should venture out in one without heavy duty boots? Of course not, it just means I stepped on a nail. I don't need to revise my opinions on the prevalence of nails based on one chance event. Most people who are ending up in the hospital with Covid right now are unvaccinated. The person you know is an exception. Somebody has to be in that five percent.

[lightning]

Even with my university's slipshod Fall 2021 COVID-19 response, I'm not anxious. The pandemic is now mostly a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Yes, there are those that were vaccinated who have caught COVID-19, but those numbers are too small for me to worry about.

Let's get back to normal and let the Delta Variant rip through MAGA.

[histchick]

Not looking for advice here, just replying to the question asked. 

My anxiety level is moderate to high at the moment.  We started classes last week, and our university system is not requiring masks this year for anyone (we were shocked that they were required last year), and Faculty / Staff Convocation had to be held in person.  Given that I'm in a rural part of the South, where less than 35% of the population is vaccinated, and few students are wearing masks in class), I'm concerned for the people around me. 

[downer]

I had actually looked at that page earlier. What struck me was this para:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently monitors hospitalizations and deaths, from any cause, among fully vaccinated individuals with COVID-19, but not breakthrough infections, which it stopped monitoring as of May 1. CDC presents this data in aggregate at the national level but not by state, and there is no single, public repository for data by state or data on breakthrough infections, since the CDC stopped monitoring them.

I have heard other reports of it being difficult to breakthrough cases to the CDC. It certainly gives the impression that they don't want to know the data. Given that I personally know someone recently hospitalized with COVD pneumonia who said they were vaccinated, (which that KFF page says is extremely rare), I'm wondering whether to believe the person I know or think that breakthrough cases of illness are being underreported.

Certainly the vaccines help reduce the seriousness of cases, but there may well be underreporting of breakthrough cases. Generally people forget the tenatitive and changing nature of the "latest" knowledge.

The greatest hope comes from the UK where the dip in delta cases has "baffled" the scientists.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02125-1

So it turns out that the person I know gave a false impression. They were not vaccinated. So theirs was not a breakthrough case. This explains why it was so serious.

[mahagonny]

Missed the voting deadline. I'm a little worried for myself, but the worry is offset by my growing worry that I'm going to live too long. No one gets to stay here.
I wonder how many Americans believe it is their duty to God to hang around as long as possible? I don't, but I can see where one might be, given the peer pressure.

[lightning]

I had actually looked at that page earlier. What struck me was this para:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently monitors hospitalizations and deaths, from any cause, among fully vaccinated individuals with COVID-19, but not breakthrough infections, which it stopped monitoring as of May 1. CDC presents this data in aggregate at the national level but not by state, and there is no single, public repository for data by state or data on breakthrough infections, since the CDC stopped monitoring them.

I have heard other reports of it being difficult to breakthrough cases to the CDC. It certainly gives the impression that they don't want to know the data. Given that I personally know someone recently hospitalized with COVD pneumonia who said they were vaccinated, (which that KFF page says is extremely rare), I'm wondering whether to believe the person I know or think that breakthrough cases of illness are being underreported.

Certainly the vaccines help reduce the seriousness of cases, but there may well be underreporting of breakthrough cases. Generally people forget the tenatitive and changing nature of the "latest" knowledge.

The greatest hope comes from the UK where the dip in delta cases has "baffled" the scientists.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02125-1

So it turns out that the person I know gave a false impression. They were not vaccinated. So theirs was not a breakthrough case. This explains why it was so serious.

There's also nothing, at first, to stop an un-vaccinated person from lying about their non-vaccination status, when they check themselves into the emergency room. If a medical professional asks an un-vaccinated patient straight up if they have been vaccinated against COVID-19, do you really think most of them would tell the truth, when they are desperate for good and caring medical care?

[mamselle]

There's also nothing, at first, to stop an un-vaccinated person from lying about their non-vaccination status, when they check themselves into the emergency room. If a medical professional asks an un-vaccinated patient straight up if they have been vaccinated against COVID-19, do you really think most of them would tell the truth, when they are desperate for good and caring medical care?

That's what I've been calling, "Don't mask, don't tell," and it's why I didn't try to give outdoor historic tours this summer.

M.

[fast_and_bulbous]

I share an office with four others, we each have our own space walled off, so think large cubicles. None of us wants to go back to the office, we've all adjusted to working from home (we are not teaching faculty, just researchers). But, our institution is telling us to come back. They finally updated their old work from home policy and now you can request to work from home officially, but only part time. And they have done work with the HVAC etc. and air filtration. It's a start. However I suspect most of us will just continue to work from home since our supervisors are mostly hands off. But, who knows. If we start getting "hall monitors" it's gonna get ugly fast. I just can't see that happening but nothing really would surprise me anymore.

I just see no reason to unnecessarily expose myself or others to a known danger when we all have shown that we can be just as effective working from home. At least until this delta shit is done ripping its way through. I wear a KN95 or N95 when I mix it up with humans indoors. But all of this is subject to change. If numbers start to plummet again I'd actually look forward to being in the office again, at least part time.