since peak on 25 AUG. Hospitalizations are down statewide 23% and every region has seen a significant drop in hospitalizations.
Of course the media continues to focus on only the negative news, which is deaths. They lag and they are still high. Curiously we are seeing a tighter lag between case peak and death peak in the Delta surge but need more data for that to play out before trying to have even a basic understanding of why.
Like every surge before this, this one appears to have started up due to factors beyond our control and it came down due to factors beyond our control (Farr's Law - if you don't know that at this point you don't know jack about COVID-19).
The one thing that it appears could have been controlled is more at risk people could have been vaccinated, which would have helped reduce critical hospitalizations and deaths. More unhealthy and obese people could have also taken care of themselves better over the last 18 months, which would have helped reduce critical cases.
But the idea that any combination of masking, vaccines, vaccine passports, school quarantines, obesity control, or anything else could have prevented Delta surge from happening at all is not supportable at all. Until we have the humility to accept our limitations in controlling COVID-19 we will continue to engage in painful and wasteful measures.
And if you are a member of the media reading this, know that omitting half of the story constitutes engaging in falsehood by omission. If you don't tell people what is actually happening - bad or good - you are not reporting.
Tell the whole story. People need to be informed, not behaviorally controlled by your reporting.
Of course the media continues to focus on only the negative news, which is deaths. They lag and they are still high. Curiously we are seeing a tighter lag between case peak and death peak in the Delta surge but need more data for that to play out before trying to have even a basic understanding of why.
Like every surge before this, this one appears to have started up due to factors beyond our control and it came down due to factors beyond our control (Farr's Law - if you don't know that at this point you don't know jack about COVID-19).
The one thing that it appears could have been controlled is more at risk people could have been vaccinated, which would have helped reduce critical hospitalizations and deaths. More unhealthy and obese people could have also taken care of themselves better over the last 18 months, which would have helped reduce critical cases.
But the idea that any combination of masking, vaccines, vaccine passports, school quarantines, obesity control, or anything else could have prevented Delta surge from happening at all is not supportable at all. Until we have the humility to accept our limitations in controlling COVID-19 we will continue to engage in painful and wasteful measures.
And if you are a member of the media reading this, know that omitting half of the story constitutes engaging in falsehood by omission. If you don't tell people what is actually happening - bad or good - you are not reporting.
Tell the whole story. People need to be informed, not behaviorally controlled by your reporting.
