14 Comments
User's avatar
Sue Lander's avatar

vaccine rate in Arizona? I'd love to see a comparison of RSV/flu/covid vax rate and illness in Arizona.

Expand full comment
Jeremy Faust, MD's avatar

Might be able to look. But vax rates are so low for Covid, it’s hard to interpret without patient-level data. I’ll see what I can find out!

Expand full comment
Henry Warren's avatar

Might seasonal returning snowbirds explain some of the Arizona number? Very interesting!

Expand full comment
Jeremy Faust, MD's avatar

Yeah that’s definetly one possibly. But we aren’t seeing it in Florida, another snowbirdie place. I think it might be that plus how big the fall and summer wave was.

Expand full comment
Sheri Karobonik's avatar

You have all seemed to have totally missed something we call the Trump Bump in this house when it comes to Covid. Historically every time that Trump had a rally in Arizona with in 2 weeks there was an unexplained surge in hospital cases. I am not a doctor or scientist but a fiber artist. As an artist I look keenly at the world around me. The one major difference between the parties is that the Democrats tends to follow good health practices. The Republicans on the other hand were mostly unvaccinated, gathered in very large crowds, did not mask up, were more tightly packed in than cattle, came even if they were sick.

So the only real question that needs to be answered here is the time frame and location between when the Trump events occurred and the locations of the hospital admissions. As an artist this is not in my wheelhouse but maybe you know someone who can lay this issue to rest.

Expand full comment
Nurse Jenny's avatar

Very, very TRUE!! All the republican friends I have, are not vaccinated for anything, including their kids. They don’t mask and are always sick!! It’s pretty scary! Ugh

They are the exact opposite of my Democrat friends.

Expand full comment
Nurse Jenny's avatar

Also, many of those Republican friends all suffer now from long covid-19. Sad. And they still don’t get it!

Expand full comment
Harold Fisher's avatar

Where is Florida in this list? Do they not collect wastewater?

Expand full comment
jmoore's avatar

What are your thoughts on flu antivirals? Tested for Flu A (vaccinated) and I can’t find Zofluza as our pharmacy does not have it. So I am doing the “Mom” treatment, hydration, Motrin and rest. It’s a booger!

Expand full comment
Nancy Westvan's avatar

For all of the data and knowledge re: respiratory infections, and the fact that we are now four years post the Omicron surge of January 2021, it boggles my mind that we are still not seeing much in the way of proclaiming that Covid is indeed airborne. In fact, the CDC took out the language about that. We’ve done nothing in the way of focusing on cleaning the indoor air in schools, hospitals and other public places. Patients are going into hospitals and basically are being forced to breathe infected air that staff or other patients are exhaling. I’m old enough to remember when nosocomial infections were something that was feared by hospital administrators and tracked by Joint Commission. We see the CDC now saying that N95s are no longer needed and that surgical masks are fine even for healthcare workers, despite the fact that Covid is designated at the same biohazard risk status as TB (level 3). The fact that Trump would not acknowledge the truth about the dangers of COVID and that he himself would not wear a mask when he had it has played into the problem of half of the country being anti-vaxxers and anti-mask. God help us if bird flu goes the way of human to human transmission. As I write this, I am thinking of my nephew in his 40s who had his 3rd bout with Covid in January, 2021. He is mostly disabled except for going to medical appointments and has been on oxygen ever since. He is trying to delay as long as possible the lung and kidney transplants that he needs and just had his hip replaced due to long term steroid use. All since age 45. To quote Donald Trump: SAD. Ok, off my soapbox.

Expand full comment
John Fontaine, Phm's avatar

I was wondering about the demographics of those in AZ as noted by H. Warren.

Those who frequent AZ differ from those returning to Florida. Those seasonal & local residents of AZ also frequent Mexico, so I have been told anecdotally.

Expand full comment
Henry Warren's avatar

An added variable might be that the immediate origins of snowbirds going to AZ might be different from those fleeing to Florida. Soon we’ll need AI to analyze this situation.

Expand full comment
Gigi's avatar

So many snowbirds are from the Midwest. Could this be part of the issue?

Expand full comment
Henry Warren's avatar

The recency of vaccination could be important.

Expand full comment