A Third Wave of COVID-19 In Arizona Is The ‘Pandemic Of The Unvaccinated’ – Governor Ducey Is Doing Nothing (Updated)

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Coronavirus infections are rising dramatically all over the U.S. as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads.

The Washington Post reports, CDC warns this is a ‘pivotal moment’ in fight against delta variant:

Top Biden administration officials on Thursday said that a hyper-transmissible variant of the coronavirus is posing new challenges for the nation’s health system, urging millions of unvaccinated Americans to get shots to protect themselves and their communities.

The delta variant, first detected in India, now represents more than 83 percent of cases circulating in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People infected with the variant appear to carry a viral load that is more than 1,000 times that of those infected with earlier forms of the virus, allowing the virus to spread rapidly among unvaccinated people, scientists have found.

“The delta variant is more aggressive and much more transmissible than previously circulating strains. It is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of and that I have seen in my 20-year career,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters.

“We are yet at another pivotal moment in this pandemic, with cases rising again and some hospitals reaching their capacity in some areas,” Walensky added. “We need to come together as one nation, unified in our resolve to protect the health of ourselves, our children, our community, our country and our future with the tools we have available.”

The daily average of confirmed coronavirus cases has roughly quadrupled during July, from about 13,000 per day at the start of the month to 43,243 now, according to The Washington Post’s seven-day average of infections. The virus is spreading most rapidly across the South and Midwest, in states with low vaccination rates, and hospital officials there say they are reeling from a new surge of patients, driven by the delta variant.

For instance, coronavirus-related hospitalizations in Alabama have more than doubled this month, with 213 patients in intensive care units, up from 79 on July 1, according to The Post’s tracking. Only 34 percent of Alabama residents have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

“If you have not been vaccinated for #COVID19, now is the time,” the Alabama Hospital Association exhorted on Twitter on Tuesday. “Cases are on the rise and the vaccine could save your life.”

When asked what more could be done to encourage Alabama residents to get their COVID-19 vaccinations amid the latest spike in infections, Gov. Kay Ivey (R) had run out of ideas for how to persuade people in a state with the lowest vaccination rate in the nation.

“I don’t know. You tell me,” the governor told a reporter in Birmingham on Thursday. “Folks [are] supposed to have common sense.”

She did, however, have one message for her state: “It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.”

Pointing to the nearly 10,000 new cases of the coronavirus in Alabama over the past two weeks, Ivey blamed the latest infections solely on the state’s unvaccinated population.

“Almost 100 percent of the new hospitalizations are with unvaccinated folks. And the deaths are certainly occurring with the unvaccinated folks,” she told reporters at an event for a tech company. “These folks are choosing a horrible lifestyle of self-inflicted pain.”

Governor Ivey is echoing Utah Governor Spencer Cox from last week. From the Deseret News:

Anti-vaccination ‘propaganda’ dangerous

Utah’s Republican governor also had some harsh words for the anti-vaccination rhetoric sweeping through conservative circles. Last weekend, there was applause at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas for the federal government’s inability to hit its vaccine goals.

While he’s not aware of any hard data proving what he called “propaganda” as having a significant impact on vaccination rates, Cox said he thinks “it’s harmful. It’s certainly not helpful. And it does concern me deeply. I agree with some who have said it’s ridiculous.”

Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans should be taking credit for Operation Warp Speed, which developed the vaccines in record time, “one of the greatest advancements of medicine in human history,” the governor said.

“But I don’t think we can take credit for getting the vaccine and then tell people there’s something wrong with the vaccine and you shouldn’t get it. That just doesn’t make sense to me,” he said, adding that “we have these talking heads who have gotten the vaccine and are telling other people not to get the vaccine.”

That message, Cox said, “is ridiculous. It’s dangerous. It’s damaging. And it’s killing people. It’s literally killing their supporters and that makes no sense to me.”

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney recently used the term “moronic” to describe the politicization of COVID-19 vaccines, saying “if Trump and his supporters take credit for developing the vaccine, why the heck won’t they take advantage of the vaccine they received plaudits for having developed?”

Thursday, the Republican senator tweeted: “The #COVID19 vaccines are safe, effective, and free. We must all do our part to increase the confidence folks have in these vaccines and I urge all eligible Utahns to receive them without delay.”

In Arkansas, Governor Asa Hutchinson to Start Statewide Tour To Answer Questions About COVID-19, Vaccinations: “It starts with a conversation with communities,” he said. “It does come down to individual responsibility. I’m the leader of this state. I want to do all I can. It would be easier for me to sit back and say, ‘I’m weary of this COVID conversation.’ I’m sure everybody in this room is. But that’s not leadership. Leadership is saying, ‘Let’s plow on…. let’s get through this. Let’s see if we can do a little bit better.’”

Take another look at the map above. In Arizona, our “Wimpy Kid” governor, who signed legislation from our anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-vaxxer MAGA/QAnon Trump death cult legislature prohibiting mask requirements and even COVID testing in schools, has been conspicuously silent about vaccinations.

Doug Ducey is a failed governor who should have resigned long ago because of his abject failure in managing the Coronavirus pandemic in Arizona, Hundreds, perhaps thousands, have died as a direct consequence of his gross negligence and incompetence.

The Tucson Weekly reports, Poll shows Arizonans aren’t concerned about COVID-19, despite rising cases:

Although the percentage of those unwilling to take a COVID-19 vaccine has remained unchanged since May, Arizonans are showing less concern about the risks, according to a new survey by OH Predictive Insights.

The online opt-in panel survey of 1,000 adults, conducted from July 6-11, found that 42% of Arizonans were “slightly or not at all concerned” about the deadly disease, whereas 35% of Arizonans were “extremely or moderately concerned.”

“The data showed no statistically meaningful change from May in the number of Arizonans unwilling to take the COVID-19 vaccine (21%), while those who reported already taking the vaccine rose by 8%,” according to the survey. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The decrease in “pandemic panic” comes at a time when the Arizona Department of Health Services’ daily curve showed an uptick in COVID-19 cases in the past week. Earlier this month, the daily number of new cases exceeded 1,000 for the first time since February. Arizona has recorded more than 18,100 deaths since January 2020.

Health experts say immunization is the best way to fight the Delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which quickly became the dominant strain in Arizona.

“By and large, it is a surge among the unvaccinated,” said Dr. Joshua LaBaer, executive director of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, in a media briefing Wednesday. “The important take-home message is that the vaccines do work against this Delta variant.”

[A]ccording to the Arizona Department of Health Services, the state has had more than 911,000 cases of COVID-19, and over 3.6 million Arizonans have received at least one vaccine dose. The percentage of Arizona residents vaccinated against COVID-19 is 51.2%.

“Things are definitely accelerating, and if we stay on this trend, we could definitely see a new surge,” LaBaer said.

Vaccine hesitancy could be a potential roadblock to achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 in Arizona, according to Mike Noble, OH Predictive Insights’ chief of research.

“As the lack of concern among the unvaccinated continues, coupled with the fact that nearly all COVID deaths in the nation are now among the unvaccinated, I echo CDC Director Dr. Walensky’s quote from the White House COVID briefing: ‘This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,’” Noble said in a news release Wednesday.

[H]ealth experts have also noted a pattern of new COVID-19 cases arising primarily in unvaccinated people.

“Areas with lower rates of vaccination are most susceptible to the spread of COVID-19, which is an increasing concern with the more-contagious Delta variant becoming more common around Arizona,” Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, said in a blog post last week.

And yet this political stooge of our “Wimpy Kid” governor will not do what her medical training dictates that she do: call for mandatory vaccinations and everyone to continue wearing a mask and to observe social distancing. We wouldn’t want to upset our anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-vaxxer MAGA/QAnon Trump death cult legislature, now would we?

There should be no more coddling of the so-called “vaccine hesitant” — a big chunk of them are actually militantly anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-vaxxer MAGA/QAnon Trump death cult members, enough to get us to herd immunity if they were all vaccinated. They hate America so much that they are willing to kill themselves, their family and friends, their coworkers, and their fellow American citizens.

Many of them will be attending a COVID-19 superspreader event this weekend, the “Loserpalooza Summer Tour” in Phoenix.

If only we could limit this disease to this ignorant cult, I would say “go ahead, knock yourselves out” until you manage to kill all of yourselves, fulfilling your death wish. Good riddance. But this disease does not discriminate. It can infect innocent children and can infect even the fully vaccinated with “breakthrough” infections, those who have done everything required as responsible citizens.

The Arizona Mirror warns, Spike in COVID cases among unvaccinated could bring third surge in Arizona:

Approximately 99% of those who have passed away from the COVID-19 virus since the start of this year were unvaccinated, and 92% of all cases in June came from unvaccinated Arizonans as experts warn that the state is seeing signs of a third wave of infections.

“Things are definitely accelerating,” said Dr. Joshua LaBaer, executive director of Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute in a call with reporters Wednesday, adding that the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus is now becoming the dominant strain in the Southwest.

Arizona has been seeing an increase in COVID cases, and in a blog post Wednesday, Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ strongly encouraged vaccination against the virus as a means to combat the growing trend in cases.

“As you can see on the dashboard’s daily curve, there has been an uptick in COVID-19 cases lately,” Christ said, referring to metrics tracked on the ADHS website.

Arizona is now averaging 1,103 new cases per day, compared to 543 two weeks prior.

In her post, Christ shared that of June’s 12,911 reported COVID-19 cases, about 92% of them were from people who were unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated. Approximately 95% of the 16,910 cases from May were from the same population.

“All this points to a fundamental truth: Vaccines are demonstrating their effectiveness at preventing serious cases and deaths from COVID-19 and providing the strongest possible argument for the benefits of vaccination,” Christ wrote.

Areas of the state that have some of the lowest numbers of vaccinations are showing signs of surging cases as well.

Mohave County, which has a vaccination rate of 39%, is reporting nearly 30 cases of COVID per 100,000 residents, and has the highest positive percentage of COVID tests than anywhere else in the state.

“This whole surge is largely a surge among the unvaccinated,” LaBaer said, adding that a large majority of those not receiving vaccines are also among younger populations who believe they do not need one.

[In] the past two weeks, intensive care unit beds in use by COVID patients have seen a 46% increase in Arizona and in-patient beds in use by COVID patients have seen a 53% increase. In the same timeframe the number of vaccines administered by state-run sites has decreased by 58%.

But LaBaer doesn’t think that Arizona hospitals will be inundated if a third surge occurs like during Arizona’s previous two surges.

“Right now, under the current circumstances, the hospitals don’t look like they are threatened but that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t,” LaBaer said.

LaBaer said hospitals in rural areas of the state are in far greater danger and likely will have to send intensive care unit COVID patients to city centers.

Over 80% of all hospital beds in the state are currently in use, with many now beginning to fill with COVID patients, according to data from ADHS.

[In] Missouri and Arkansas, where the Delta strain has been hitting rural communities hard, hospitals have surpassed the peak from the previous winter surge.

Arizona reported 1,043 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 new deaths on July 21, according to ADHS data. As of July 21, more than 911,000 have been infected with COVID-19 and more than 18,000 people have died from the virus.

Anyone seeking a vaccination can find vaccine information online for Maricopa County here and statewide here.

UPDATE: Our “Wimpy Kid” governor is still “Do Nothing Doug.” An “oh bother, do I have to?” weak response to the third wave of COVID-19.

Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, is ignoring Ducey’s “no masking” for kids mandate.





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3 thoughts on “A Third Wave of COVID-19 In Arizona Is The ‘Pandemic Of The Unvaccinated’ – Governor Ducey Is Doing Nothing (Updated)”

  1. UPDATE: The Washington Post reports, “‘Patience has worn thin’: Frustration mounts over vaccine holdouts”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/23/anger-targets-vaccine-holdouts-delta-surge/

    Seven months after the first coronavirus shots were rolled out, vaccinated Americans — including government, business and health leaders — are growing frustrated that tens of millions of people are still refusing to get them, endangering themselves and their communities and fueling the virus’s spread.

    “I think for a lot of leaders, both in government and in business, patience has worn thin,” said Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist. “There is an urgency that might not have been there a month ago.”

    Meanwhile, exhausted health providers say they are bracing for case spikes that are largely preventable, driven by the hyper-transmissible delta variant. “We are frustrated, tired and worried for this next surge — and saddened by the state we find ourselves in,” said Jason Yaun, a Memphis-based pediatrician, who said his colleagues are grappling with an “accumulation of fatigue” since the outbreak exploded in March 2020.

    [A]fter months of careful cajoling, a growing number of Democrats and Republicans are venting about the sheer number of Americans who remain unvaccinated, particularly as hospitals are becoming overwhelmed in states with low vaccination rates.

    “Vaccinated America has had enough,” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/vaccinated-america-breaking-point-anti-vaxxers/619539/, former Republican speechwriter David Frum declared in The Atlantic on Friday.

    Despite the growing anger, including from some GOP officials, a number of prominent Republicans and conservative media voices continue to shower vaccines with skepticism, and social media disinformation continues largely unabated.

    The acrimony is only likely to intensify in coming months as vaccine mandates take effect at hundreds of colleges and universities, following a federal judge’s refusal this week to block Indiana University’s mandate. The Food and Drug Administration also is expected to fully approve the vaccines by fall, which is expected to embolden more employers to require the shots.

    The challenge is particularly acute in GOP-led states, where the virus is now surging, but protection against it remains disproportionately low.

    [A] new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 80 percent of Americans who remain unvaccinated said they probably or definitely will not get the vaccine. The survey also found 64 percent of unvaccinated Americans have little-to-no confidence in the vaccines working against variants, despite evidence showing otherwise.

    Public health experts have defended the growing push for vaccination-related requirements, saying that the personal choice to get vaccinated should not be prioritized over community health.

    “We do have personal freedom in the United States,” said Brian Castrucci, head of the de Beaumont Foundation. “But those freedoms and the choices people make are not without consequences for them or others they may impact.”

  2. UPDATE: Howard Fischer reports, “Arizona’s governor disses ‘the lockdown lobby’ as COVID cases rise”, https://tucson.com/news/local/arizonas-governor-disses-the-lockdown-lobby-as-covid-cases-rise/article_1a827202-ebd9-11eb-9f04-1f57dd24b9ad.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1

    Republican Gov. Doug Ducey is doubling down on his refusal to reimpose mitigation measures to help slow the increasing spread of COVID-19.

    And Ducey stooge, Dr. Cara Christ, agrees that mandated protections, ranging from wearing masks to occupancy limits at businesses, are not appropriate at this time — even if the GOP-controlled Legislature had not just voted to remove them as options.

    Instead, both Ducey and Christ said Friday they are relying on people getting the vaccine as the primary way to address the fact that new infections are now back to where they were in the middle of February. And while daily deaths generally remain in the single-digit range, there has been an upswing in the number of Arizonans hospitalized with the virus.

    Ducey, in prepared statements, said Friday he is focusing on the availability of the vaccine as the method of curbing the spread.

    “We will not be listening to the lockdown lobby,’’ he said. “Businesses will stay open, students will be able to attend school. There will be no mask mandate.’’

    “Please get the vaccine,’’ he said, though he repeated he will never make that a mandate.

    [T]he governor’s position goes beyond refusing to mandate the use of masks. His press aide C.J. Karamargin said Ducey remains convinced that public schools, community colleges, universities and local governments should also be barred from imposing mask requirements, regardless of local conditions.

    Instead, it should remain a personal option, Karamargin said.

    “Any Arizonan can wear a mask if they choose,’’ including students in schools, he said.

  3. Doug Douche doesn’t care about anyone. His eviction moratorium was a joke as myself and toddler daughter were removed from our home without notice because I guess corporations don’t have to follow the laws and serve eviction papers. They also don’t take Gov Douche eviction papers along with the constable that gave usan entire 15 minutes to pack up and leave a home I just paid off 1 year prior. We have been homeless for a year now and not one department in the state of Arizona knows what to do or who’s jurisdiction this falls under so I have been ignored by the Governor, Senators, Representatives from both sides. If they cared about COVID19 then we would be safe in the home I owned instead of my Jeep. Unfortunately now with eviction on file and since I worked from home I no longer have a job no one will rent to me. I have signed up for every program abd still after a year I’ve either never heard back or still on a wait list. I worked hard my entire life and saved 40 years to become independently free of a mortgage only for a corrupt company to steal our home, belongings, job and my daughters childhood and no one cares. Why? What is happening that not one person or agency isn’t outraged this happened to a residents of Arizona that followed the rules and paid taxes. I have to wonder if this is happening everywhere and some how with COVID19, the election, the Insurrection that this isn’t being discussed. I had a team do an investigation that proves they never sent me eviction papers and submitted false evidence to sway the judge not that he gave me mor than 30 seconds of his time before evicting every one. What a joke. Proof that these people broke the law stealing everything from us and possibly our lives since we were thrown out in the middle of a Pandemic and now live in unsanitary conditions and not to forget this is our 2nd summer homeless in Phoenix.

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