45 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

I think we would find differently if we took away the masks and went back to business as usual. 

I am not advocating that at this point in time.   I based my opinion mainly on the premise/hope that the actual number of people who have had COVID is  from 2 to 10 times more than the number of "reported cases."   When you factor this in with the number of vaccinations, you are getting close to the percentage of the population thought to be required to attain herd immunity.   BTW,  I had my second shot on Feb. 8 and I still wear a mask and social distance.  The disease has my respect especially as it affects older people.

4 minutes ago, tcjkbt said:

I am not advocating that at this point in time.   I based my opinion mainly on the premise/hope that the actual number of people who have had COVID is  from 2 to 10 times more than the number of "reported cases."   When you factor this in with the number of vaccinations, you are getting close to the percentage of the population thought to be required to attain herd immunity.   BTW,  I had my second shot on Feb. 8 and I still wear a mask and social distance.  The disease has my respect especially as it affects older people.

Yeah I wasn't saying that you were advocating for that, just was using that as an example of how I don't think it's even close to herd immunity levels. Do I think more people have had it than we think? Absolutely, but not close to herd immunity. 

I think we are a little out from hitting the clinical definition of herd immunity, but I think we are relatively closer - given the drop in cases/deaths and increase of vaccines - to achieving what we perceive to be a herd immunity status to where life can (somewhat) return to normal. That make sense?

19 minutes ago, bugatti said:

I think we are a little out from hitting the clinical definition of herd immunity, but I think we are relatively closer - given the drop in cases/deaths and increase of vaccines - to achieving what we perceive to be a herd immunity status to where life can (somewhat) return to normal. That make sense?

Yes!

Encouraging signs with cases going down.  Teachers getting vaccinated is paving the way for school's to reopen more regularly as per today's announcement as well (which will be good since that leaves another 12-13 weeks of the calendar for a strong end to things).  Easy to start seeing a brighter light at the end of this dark tunnel.

5 hours ago, Beechwoodfan said:

I agree also.

Friend of mines wife got Covid last week.  He didn't have any symptoms whatsoever but does have the antibodies.  We are thinking he has probably had the antibodies for quite sometime as 4 of us all had it back in November.  He never had symptoms or tested positive in the past other than the antibody test this week.

16 hours ago, sportsfan41 said:

Friend of mines wife got Covid last week.  He didn't have any symptoms whatsoever but does have the antibodies.  We are thinking he has probably had the antibodies for quite sometime as 4 of us all had it back in November.  He never had symptoms or tested positive in the past other than the antibody test this week.

 Yes I have heard stats that around 20% of people who tested postive were asymptomatic, meaning they never had noticeable symptoms.

On 2/24/2021 at 3:12 PM, Voice of Reason said:

 Yes I have heard stats that around 20% of people who tested postive were asymptomatic, meaning they never had noticeable symptoms.

Makes me wonder how many asymptomatic positive people who are out there and have never been tested.  I hope a lot.

To get herd immunity we need at least 80% exposure through infection or vaccine.  Currently we have 20 million or so Americans vaccinated. We are approaching 20 million Americans infected and recovered. There is probably some overlap there but let's assume 40 million Americans are either vaccinated or had COVID. US population is about 330 million. That puts us at 12% herd immunity.  To get to 80% we need 264 million Americans with immunity.  At 1 million vaccinated per day it is going to take us another 224 days to get to 80%. That is another 7 months. Obviously we need a major increase in the vaccination numbers to get close to herd immunity even by this summer.

The more disappointing information is many people are not getting vaccinated. Because of that many experts think it will be tough for the US to get above 60% immunity.

1 hour ago, Voice of Reason said:

To get herd immunity we need at least 80% exposure through infection or vaccine.  Currently we have 20 million or so Americans vaccinated. We are approaching 20 million Americans infected and recovered. There is probably some overlap there but let's assume 40 million Americans are either vaccinated or had COVID. US population is about 330 million. That puts us at 12% herd immunity.  To get to 80% we need 264 million Americans with immunity.  At 1 million vaccinated per day it is going to take us another 224 days to get to 80%. That is another 7 months. Obviously we need a major increase in the vaccination numbers to get close to herd immunity even by this summer.

The more disappointing information is many people are not getting vaccinated. Because of that many experts think it will be tough for the US to get above 60% immunity.

I think it's very likely the vaccination supply will increase very soon.  Supposedly Pfizer and Moderna will have 600 million vaccines distributed by July not to mention Johnson and Johnson hopefully getting approved as soon as today.  If that's correct everyone that wants one should be able to get one by the end of the summer.  As you mentioned, the major issue is getting the vast majority of people to get the vaccine or else we may be dealing Covid much longer than we should.

1 hour ago, Voice of Reason said:

To get herd immunity we need at least 80% exposure through infection or vaccine.  Currently we have 20 million or so Americans vaccinated. We are approaching 20 million Americans infected and recovered. There is probably some overlap there but let's assume 40 million Americans are either vaccinated or had COVID. US population is about 330 million. That puts us at 12% herd immunity.  To get to 80% we need 264 million Americans with immunity.  At 1 million vaccinated per day it is going to take us another 224 days to get to 80%. That is another 7 months. Obviously we need a major increase in the vaccination numbers to get close to herd immunity even by this summer.

The more disappointing information is many people are not getting vaccinated. Because of that many experts think it will be tough for the US to get above 60% immunity.

Hopefully it is a little less than that but I hear you VoR.

Was told today at work we will be given the opportunity to get the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine next week.  Been trying to find some information about taking Aleve for my herniated disc, and whether/when I should stop taking it prior to getting the shot.

This thread has been open for almost a year.  It is interesting reading through it.  I don’t think any of us would have predicted that we would still be dealing with this virus so long.  I didn’t take the virus seriously at the beginning at all.  Couldn’t have been more wrong.

29 minutes ago, Beechwoodfan said:

This thread has been open for almost a year.  It is interesting reading through it.  I don’t think any of us would have predicted that we would still be dealing with this virus so long.  I didn’t take the virus seriously at the beginning at all.  Couldn’t have been more wrong.

Crazy, isn't it? What is most interesting is tracking how few cases there were and the snowball effect from there. I skimmed through some of the pages and read one post that said "25 new cases in Kentucky today" and it listed the counties these cases were located. Now we can all probably name 25 people that have had COVID-19. There was so much uncertainty and anxiety at first.... and rightfully so.

Wife and I got our vaccinations (Pfizer) on successive days.  Happy to have that process under way.