Category Archives: Covid-19

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forecasted Wednesday that there will be a big drop in COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in the next four weeks.

Per CNN, the CDC forecast suggests there will be 740,000 to 762,000 total reported deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19 by Nov. 6. This would be a decline for the third straight week.

Hospitalizations are expected to drop, too. The CDC predicted about 500 to 10,100 new confirmed COVID-19 hospitalization by Nov. 5, which will represent a decline for the fifth straight week, according to CNN.

In September, the University of Washington released a forecasting model that predicted another 100,000 people could die from the novel coronavirus by the end of 2021. When the model was released, 663,913 had died so far. This would suggest close to 764,000 people will die from COVID-19 by the end of the year.

A model from the University of Washington was a little more conservative compared to the CDC prediction, putting COVID-19 deaths close to 762,000 by the beginning of November.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on the Today show at the time of the University of Washingtons prediction that vaccines can bring about the end of COVID-19.

Similarly, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director for the CDC, said the U.S. will avoid another COVID-19 surge if vaccination rates climb.

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CDC COVID predictions: Whats next for COVID in the US? - Deseret News

BALTIMORE (WJZ) Maryland reported 871 new COVID-19 cases and 5 new deaths, according to state health department data released Sunday morning.

The percentage of people testing positive decreased slightly by 0.25% to 3.44%.

Doctors say the new cases are fueled by dangerous strains targeting the unvaccinated. During an August press conference, Gov. Larry Hogan said the Delta variant, a strain that is reportedly two to four times more contagious than the original virus strain, accounts for nearly every new confirmed case in Maryland.

The vaccines are without a doubt our single most effective tool to mitigate the threat of COVID-19 and the surging Delta variant, and Marylands vaccination rate continues to outpace the nation, Hogan said.

More than 3.96 million Maryland adults are fully vaccinated.

Hospitalizations decreased by 10 to 681. Of those hospitalized, 500 remain in acute care and 181 are in the ICU.

Since the pandemic began, there were 550,550 total confirmed cases and 10,476 deaths.

There are 3,964,072 Marylanders fully vaccinated. The state has administered 8,196,251 doses. Of those, 4,017,857 are first doses with 1,770 administered in the past 24 hours. They have given out 3,656,119 second doses, 3,162 in the last day.

Thanks to the millions of people who have rolled up their sleeves, Maryland continues to be one of the most vaccinated states in America, said Governor Hogan of the eight million milestone mark. We have achieved these numbers with strong public health outreach, innovative lottery and scholarship promotions, and a relentless focus on equity.

The state began to administer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine again in April after the CDC and FDA lifted their pause on the vaccine due to a rare blood clot found in some women.

A total of 307,953 Marylanders have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, 263 in the last day.

On September 24, after the CDC granted final approval for Pfizers booster, Gov. Hogan announced the immediate authorization of the booster shot for Marylanders who have received their second Pfizer shot at least six months ago. Hogan had already approved use for vulnerable populations in early September.

The state has administered 214,322 additional or booster vaccine doses, 7,247 in the last day.

The state reported 85.2% of all adults in Maryland have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

In August, the state launched a post-vaccination infections dashboard that is updated every Wednesday. There have been 25,476 total cases among fully vaccinated Marylanders as of last Wednesday, October 13.

Less than 0.71% of fully vaccinated Marylanders have later tested positive.

Of those cases, 1,842 vaccinated Marylanders were hospitalized, representing 10.8% of all Covid cases hospitalized in the state. 233 fully vaccinated Marylanders have died, representing 8.36% of lab-confirmed Covid deaths in the state.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES:

Heres a breakdown of the numbers:

By County

By Age Range and Gender

By Race and Ethnicity

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COVID-19 In Maryland: More Than 800 New Cases & 5 Deaths Reported Sunday - CBS Baltimore

Robert Durst, seated with attorney Dick DeGuerin, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday without chance of parole for the murder of Susan Berman more than two decades ago. Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via AP hide caption

Robert Durst, seated with attorney Dick DeGuerin, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday without chance of parole for the murder of Susan Berman more than two decades ago.

LOS ANGELES New York real estate heir Robert Durst, who days ago was sentenced in a two-decade-old murder case, has been hospitalized after contracting COVID-19, his lawyer said Saturday.

Defense Attorney Dick DeGuerin said he was notified that Durst was admitted after testing positive for the coronavirus. DeGuerin said he didn't know Durst's condition and was trying to find out more details.

The Los Angeles Superior Court said in a statement Saturday that the court was notified someone present for the sentencing hearing Thursday had tested positive for COVID-19.

"As a result, the Court will follow CDC and LA County Department of Public Health guidelines for assessing close contacts of the infected individual," the statement read.

No additional COVID-19 cases have been reported.

Durst, 78, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without a chance of parole for the murder of his best friend more than two decades ago. Durst, who has numerous medical issues, sat in a wheelchair with a catatonic stare during much of the sentencing hearing.

"He was very, very sick in the courtroom," DeGuerin said Saturday.

He was convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court last month of first-degree murder for shooting Susan Berman point-blank in the back of the head at her home in December 2000.

The killing had been a mystery that haunted family and friends for 15 years before Durst was arrested in 2015 following his unwise decision to participate in a documentary that unearthed new evidence and caught him in a stunning confession.

DeGuerin said Thursday that Durst will appeal.

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Lawyer: Robert Durst is in the hospital with COVID-19 - NPR

There have been at least two dozen lawsuits filed around the U.S. demanding hospitals give ivermectin, a deworming drug, to COVID-19 patients, The Associated Press reported.

The lawsuits follow much of the same format; families have gotten a prescription for the drug, but hospitals refuse to use it on the patients, many of whom are on a ventilator, close to death, the news outlet noted.

Many of the lawsuits are filed byRalph Lorigo, an attorney in Buffalo, N.Y. who says doctors "are not gods because they wear white jackets," adding that he takes issue with the choice not to useivermectin on patients, according to the AP.

He also said hospital administratorsare the only ones able to make the decision.

"Im not accepting that as a rule of law for us, he told the AP.

Lorigo filed his first of many ivermectin casesin January afterthe family of an 80-year-old woman in the hospital on a ventilator came to him for help.Another lawsuitcame later that month, this time for a hospitalized 65-year-old woman. In both cases, the judges ruled to give the women ivermectin as their families wanted. Both survived their hospital visits.

While the drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat tiny parasites in people, the administration, state health departments and even the drugs leading manufacturer,Merck,have all warned against using it for COVID-19.

The FDA also warned that taking it in large doses can cause harmful side effects, such as vomiting, seizures and even death. However, Lorigo said his clients have not asked for those types of doses.

Nevertheless, other judges have refused to order hospitals to administer the drug. Hospitals have argued their standards of care will not allow doctors to give patients a drug not yet approved for COVID-19, adding that it could potentially cause harm, the AP reported.

Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics at New York Universitys Grossman School of Medicine, said he is also concerned that allowing laypeople and judges to overrule hospitals is a dangerous road.

The way medicine works is, they are the experts, the doctors and ... the hospitals, he said, according to the AP. When you go there, youre not going to a restaurant. You dont order your own treatments.

You cant have a medical field thats subjected to having to practice according to patient demand backed up by court orders," he added. "That is positively horrible medicine."

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Dozens of lawsuits seek to force hospitals to treat COVID-19 with ivermectin | TheHill - The Hill

Throughout the pandemic, media outlets and online dashboards have provided constant updates on the number of people who have died from COVID-19. Far less prominentbut just as strikingare the tallies of those left behind.

According to an estimate published recently in the journal Pediatrics, at least 140,000 American children had lost a parent or caregiver because of the coronavirus by the end of Junemeaning that one of roughly every 500 children lost one of the most important adults in their life. Susan Hillis, a co-author of the study and an epidemiologist at the CDC, told me that as of earlier this month, the total had reached at least 170,000.

Fully grasping this complicates some of the standard narratives about the tragedy of the pandemic. It is not only the number of lives cut short by COVID-19 that should mark the scope of our losses, but also the millions of people who had a loved one die. And it is not just older Americans who suffereven if kids are less vulnerable to the virus itself, they are no less vulnerable to the loss it causes.

In a typical, non-pandemic year, many children lose a parent, but globally, an additional 1.5 million children were estimated to have lost a parent or caregiver from March 2020 to April 2021. And in the U.S. alone, the number of people who have lost a close relativewhether a child, sibling, spouse, parent, or grandparentto COVID-19 is thought to be about 6.5 million.

Read: 4 numbers that make the pandemics massive death toll sink in

For children in particular, the death of a caregiver is tremendously destabilizing. It essentially shatters kids assumptions about the world when their parentsthese figures who are supposed to provide a sense of security and safety and meet basic needsdie, Tashel Bordere, a professor of human development and family science at the University of Missouri, told me. Many kids who lost a parent during the pandemic will continue living in the same home, but some will move in with another family member or close friend. Others will enter the foster-care system or become homeless.

The racial disparities among this group are stark. According to the Pediatrics study, Hispanic children have been almost twice as likely as white children to lose a caregiver because of the pandemic, Black children have been more than twice as likely, and American Indian and Alaska Native children have been more than four times as likely. Hillis told me that these inequities reflect the facts that Americans of different races have died of COVID-19 at different rates and have different fertility rates.

Bordere said that the way children respond to a death can vary based on their developmental stage, gender, and personality, among other factors. But in general, children who lose a parent tend to be at higher risk of experiencing physical- and mental-health problems, housing instability, academic and behavioral issues, and sexual abuse. They are also more likely to enter povertyfor many, a parents death means a loss of income.

The passing of a sole caregiver whos a grandparent can be especially hard, because it represents a double loss, after the earlier death of or separation from a parent. (Approximately 10 percent of American children live with a grandparent in their household; that rate is higher for Black, Hispanic, and Asian children.)

A caregivers death during a pandemic presents unique challenges for grieving kids. Job instability and general stress may have depleted the abilities of other adults in their lives to support them. And they have to live with constant reminders, in the media and daily life, of why their parent is gone. [The] replaying of an event can retraumatize children, Bordere said. The masks, the numbers that were updated onanything related to COVID will be a trigger for a child who has dealt with a loss.

Not every child even gets room to process their emotions. Bordere told me that Black children are frequently penalized in school for perfectly normal reactions to a death, such as crying, distractedness, and fatigue. This punishment can impede their grieving process. In a study from before the pandemic, Black Americans were found to be more likely than white Americans to have experienced a death in their family during childhood.

And children in general may struggle more than adults with how inexplicably the virus arose and with not getting to be present for the end of their parents life. Children are imaginative, particularly younger children, Bordere said. Theyre left with [mental] images that may be far worse than what actually happened in their parents final days.

What would help these children? Weve learned that programs that target one type of vulnerable child (e.g., an AIDS orphan or COVID orphan) can be highly stigmatizing and inefficient, Rachel Kidman, a social epidemiologist at Stony Brook University, wrote to me in an email. Instead, she suggested anti-poverty initiatives and additional resources for counseling in schoolsprogramming that is more universal, but still sensitive to the needs of these children.

These children dont match the oversimplified portrait of a typical COVID-19 victim: an old person near the end of their life. But the coronavirus can also have awful effects on people at the very start of their lives, even when they themselves dont get sick. For every surge in COVID cases, until we have widespread, adequate vaccination, there will be a surge in COVID deaths, Hillis told me. And for every surge in COVID deaths, there will be a surge in COVID orphanhood.

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The Children Who Lost a Parent to COVID-19 - The Atlantic

RAY: Well, Id suggest you turn off recirculate, Jim.

There are two buttons on the left side of your air conditioning control panel. One has a diagram of air (represented by an arrow) coming into the car from outside the front windshield. Thats the fresh air setting.

The other button shows the air in a circle, recirculating inside the car. Dont press that one.

The recirculate button reuses all but 5% to 10% of the air inside your car. Its useful when you want to cool the car quickly, because youre not continually introducing new, hot, humid air from outside.

The fresh air setting will introduce much more new air, and thats what you want. Im guessing you want to minimize the amount of passenger air youre breathing. And to be fair, your passengers probably want to do the same since for all they know, you just got back from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and Group Hug.

So even better -- regardless of the AC settings -- open at least two windows. Open your drivers window and the window diagonally opposite that, on the passenger side in back. You dont have to open them all the way, but even by opening them a quarter of the way, youll usually create a cross current and move air through the car. Even better, crack all of the windows a quarter of the way, if your passengers are amenable.

That doesnt mean you have to forgo the air conditioning (or heat). You can run those anyway, even with the windows open, and make the in-car temperature more comfortable.

And if I were you, Id explain to your passengers exactly what youre doing and why. Id say: For your safety and for mine, too, Im following safety recommendations and keeping several windows ajar. Is that OK with you?

Most people will say of course and be grateful for your consideration. Unless youre picking them up from the hair salon, Jim.

Cash in on trade-in value and enjoy the newest safety features

Dear Car Talk:

I own a 2011 Lexus ES350 with 150,000 miles. The car has been dealer maintained from day one and has never given me a problem. Its the best car (reliability) I have ever owned.

The missus thinks I should trade it in for a 2021 model because of the enhanced safety features. I feel the 2011 is safe enough and paid for! What say you? -- Jesse

RAY: Is this dealer open today, Jesse?

Your wife is right. The deployment of new safety equipment over the past decade has been revolutionary.

Cars today have what are essentially self-driving technologies. Through increased processing power and miniaturization, we now have computers and sensors in cars that really can prevent or minimize accidents.

Theyll stop the car when youre not paying attention. Theyll nudge you back into your lane when you drift out of it. Theyll keep you from changing lanes when theres a UPS truck in your blind spot. Maybe your wife has noticed that you can use a little help in some of those areas, Jesse?

The truth is we all can. Computers are just better at some of this stuff than we humans are. And a computer never gets distracted by a text message or a spouse making the case that you need some help with your driving. For older drivers, these things are even more helpful, as our reflexes inevitably slow down.

You got 150,000 trouble-free miles out your Lexus ES350. Go get a new one. Get a hybrid and, in addition to the safety enhancements, youll get 44 miles to the gallon.

Youll also be pleasantly surprised at how much you can get for your 2011. With the computer chip shortages caused by the pandemic, used car prices have gone way up. So cash in, use that as a down payment, keep your wife happy and make both of you safer. Enjoy the new car, Jesse.

P.S. Youre miffed that you wrote to me now, arent you?

Got a question about cars? Write to Ray in care of King Features, 628 Virginia Drive, Orlando, FL 32803, or email by visiting the Car Talk website at http://www.cartalk.com.

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Adapting your cars air circulation in the age of COVID-19 - Hamilton Journal News

BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) CEO Uur ahin thinks that new COVID-19 vaccines could be needed by the middle of 2022.In this Motley Fool Live video recorded on Oct. 6, Motley Fool contributors Keith Speights and Brian Orelli discuss ahin's reasoning and how vaccine stocks could be affected if he's right.

Keith Speights: Speaking of BioNTech, the company's CEO, Uur ahin, told The Financial Times earlier this week that a new COVID-19 vaccine could be needed by the middle of next year. What was his reasoning behind this prediction, and if he's right, how would this potentially shake up vaccine stocks?

Brian Orelli: The theory is that mutations in the virus will develop that allow it to escape the immune system's reaction to the vaccines. I'm not really sure I buy this argument.

The coronavirus isn't the next influenza virus because they change in a different way. Coronavirus mutates primarily through point mutation. While it's copying its DNA or RNA, it creates some mutations. Some are negative and that molecule ends up not being viable. Some don't matter at all, and some end up being positive and that's how we end up getting variants. But their changes are one at a time.

The reason why we need to have influenza vaccines every year is because the influenza virus changes by recombining with other influenza viruses. Someone gets infected with two different influenza viruses and then they recombine to make a new virus. That's the reason why the influenza virus is constantly changing and the reason why we have to constantly get it a new booster vaccine every year.

If the coronavirus vaccines create good enough memory B cells, maybe a three-dose regimen, so two and a booster are able to protect us against the slow mutation rates and we're creating antibodies from those vaccines that don't just bind to one spot on the virus, they bind to a whole bunch of different spots in the virus. One mutation on one part of the virus isn't necessarily going to escape the immune system.

In theory, maybe you get enough mutations and maybe there's one that escapes. But for the most part, I think as long as people are getting vaccinated, I don't think this is going to be a major problem and I'm not 100% convinced that we're going to need annual boosters and we're going to need to change the vaccine every year to keep up with the virus.

That said, if he's right and I'm wrong, then the impact on the vaccine stocks is obviously going to be pretty large. If they can sell, let's say 10 billion in annual sales, and I think Moderna's (NASDAQ:MRNA) looking at 20 billion right now so if they can cut that in half, I think that can justify the current market caps, especially BioNTech, which is around 60 billion and maybe even getting into Moderna's, which is more double than that. But obviously, they have a larger percentage of the vaccine that they're taking home and profits.

Speights: Any time I hear a prediction from a CEO of one of these companies, in this case BioNTech, but it could've been Pfizer's or Moderna's CEO as well, two things go through my mind. One, when they make a prediction, they're the CEO of a company, and they want that company's revenue to go up. It's usually going to be that prediction is in favor of what will benefit the company.

But the second thing that does come to my mind is, admittedly, these individuals have more access to some data that the public doesn't have yet and maybe they can have some things that we don't know yet. But there are two conflicting things going on here when you see a prediction like this.

Orelli: In theory, maybe he knows something that we don't but I agree with you. I think that you have to balance that with the fact that he obviously wants to sell more vaccine because that's the way their company is making money right now.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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Will New COVID-19 Vaccines Be Needed in 2022? - The Motley Fool

Sarah Ostrowski was convinced to finally get vaccinated after reading numerous stories on Reddit's r/HermanCainAward of unvaccinated people dying from Covid-19.

Courtesy of Sarah Ostrowski

For most of the pandemic, Sarah Ostrowski went to her full-time gas station job in Indiana, accepting the risk of being unvaccinated. Many times a day she interacted with customers and even cleaned up the public bathroom with no protection beyond her mask.

Ostrowski doesn't believe Covid-19 is a hoax. She takes it seriously. But she had reasons for not getting the shot.

She was concerned about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine causing blood clots, as had been reported in a few recipients. She was hesitant about the mRNA technology used to develop the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. She also worried about potential side effects forcing her to take time off work.

And then there were her parents, who were constantly spouting anti-vaccine rhetoric, warning her that she would die if she got the shot.

"You care about what your parents think of you and whether or not they think that you're making a good decision or the right decision," Ostrowski said. "It's almost like a groupthink kind of thing. Even though you know the answer is wrong you're still going to say it just to fit in or conform."

That all changed last month. Ostrowski, who regularly scrolls through her feed on social media site Reddit, stumbled upon the forum r/HermanCainAward. It's a grim section of the app dedicated to showing visitors the real-life consequences of being unvaccinated and catching the coronavirus.

Reddit users upload screenshots multiple times a day of people who previously posted anti-vaccine comments and content on Facebook only to end up getting sick with Covid-19 before dying. The name of the subreddit refers to former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who died from Covid-19 in July 2020, after refusing to wear a mask and attending a Donald Trump re-election campaign event.

"Nominees have made public declaration of their anti-mask, anti-vax, or Covid-hoax views, followed by admission to hospital for Covid," the page description reads. "The Award is granted upon the nominee's release from their Earthly shackles."

Since the subreddit's creation in September 2020, it's expanded to more than 375,000 members, with the top posts garnering thousands of user interactions.The forum has been the 10th fastest-growing subreddit over the past 30 days, according toFrontPageMetrics.com, which tracks Reddit usage.

An entry this week included a screenshot of an Aug. 12 post from a man who put a meme out to his followers: "I heard the government is putting chips inside of people. I hope I get Doritos."

A friend of the man later wrote on his feed that he was asking for prayers because the man and his wife had both been hospitalized with Covid-19. The wife had to have an emergency C-section to deliver their baby over 10 weeks early.

A following post came from the man's wife: "The world lost an amazing daddy, husband, brother, son, and friend today. My heart is in a million pieces."

Ostrowki said she'd eventually seen enough. On Sept. 12, she got her first shot.

"If dad thinks I'm an idiot because I fell for the government and I'm a sheep, so be it," Ostrowski said. "I clean a public restroom for Christ's sake. I deal with some really gross stuff. So no, I was done playing."

During the pandemic, social media sites turned into a haven for misinformation and conspiracy theories, whether related to masks, the vaccines or advice from public health experts. Facebook, in particular, has struggled to weed out false content, with users sharing misinformation even in the comments section of posts from authoritative sources, according to internal company documents reviewed last month by the Wall Street Journal.

With multiple vaccines having been available for months for anyone 12 or older, vaccine resistance has become the central challenge to ending Covid-19. President Joe Biden said as recently as last month, "This is a continuing pandemic of the unvaccinated."

Only 57% of the country has been vaccinated, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 22% of Americans self-identify as anti-vaxxers, according toan academic study published in May. Experts, including White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said the U.S. will need as much as 90% of the population to get vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity.

US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters on the South Lawn upon return to the White House in Washington, DC on October 5, 2021.

Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

Since hitting the U.S. in March 2020, over 722,000 American have died from Covid-19. Ostrowski said the harrowing stories of death among the unvaccinated have had a major impact on her.

"It really hits home when you literally see yourself in these people," she said.

Reddit still has plenty of anti-vaccine content across its site, which reaches over 50 million daily active users. As it gears up to go public, Reddit recently took steps to remove several subreddits that were being used to share misinformation. But numerous subreddits are still surfacing such content with names like r/Conservative, r/Ivermectin and r/FauciForPrison.

A Reddit spokesperson said the company has policies in place to remove inaccurate posts on Covid-19 vaccines.

"Our Content Policy prohibits many kinds of harmful content, including health-related disinformation and other forms of manipulated content," the Reddit spokesperson said in a statement. "We have experienced teams dedicated to detecting and actioning content that violates our policies. As a result of these teams' efforts, we remove 99% of violating content before a user sees it."

Chana Joly visits r/HermanCainAward with regularity. She said she does it for her dad.

Despite losing her brother to Covid-19 in January, Joly's dad has refused to get vaccinated. She said he's been radicalized in the past few years by misinformation and anti-vaccine conspiracies.

"I think it's especially sad with my dad because he is an educated person," Joly said. "He's not unintelligent. He just believes people he shouldn't."

Joly scrolls through the Reddit forum to gather stories that she can send her dad. When he gets defensive and disputes the posts she shares, she tells him to prove her wrong.

"You find me these stories on social media," Joly said, describing what she tells her dad. "These people dying in their own words from the vaccine. Find me these stories and you show me as many of those as I'm showing you of these. Or even a tenth of them."

Reddit user Chana Joly visit r/HermanCainAward to gather stories of real anti-vaxx people who die from Covid-19 that she can send to her dad, who has yet to get vaccinated.

Courtesy of Chana Joly

Reddit user Rockets9495 of Houston is a medical doctor who works in an emergency room. He uses r/HermanCainAward for anecdotes that he can share with nurses, technicians and patients who may be on the fence.

He agreed to speak with CNBC but didn't want to disclose his name publicly to maintain his privacy. He showed CNBC his hospital badge.

"Misinformation is so goddamn dangerous, especially after this last president," the doctor said. "This is not a game. This is not a joke. You don't live in a Tom Clancy novel. This is real."

He said that scientific evidence hasn't been effective for him in trying to convince people about the safety of the vaccines.

"But this seemingly weaker evidence word of mouth, anecdotal 'All these people are dying' seems to hit people way harder," the doctor said.

The subreddit also includes some stories with happy endings. Those posts get labeled IPAs, or Immunized to Prevent Awards, and are given to users who show pictures of their vaccine immunization cards on the channel as proof that they got their shots.

A Reddit user with the handle lovelylady227 achieved the label.

"This subreddit was what fully convinced me, after waffling back and forth," she wrote on Sept. 22, adding that she's "officially out of the running" for the award that gave the channel its name.

Her post got tagged with the IPA label and received more than 7,000 upvotes and 380 comments. She posted her immunization card on Reddit after getting her second dose.

Lovelylady227 is a woman named Hannah. She asked to have only her first name published because she hasn't told her anti-vaccine family members about her decision.

Hannah received her first dose of Moderna's vaccine in August, but became fearful of getting the second shot after hearing her parents and her sister, who works in health care, discuss their concerns about the vaccines. Her family members would show anti-vaccine content on their phones to one another, and they believe that people who are vaccinated are shedding the virus.

Hannah went to Reddit in search of information. She started at r/CovidVaccine. There she found numerous posts from people complaining about the side effects they'd experienced after getting their second shots. Some described trembling, and others said they'd suffered heart attacks.

"It just really freaked me out," she said.

Hannah's continued browsing on Reddit eventually brought her to r/HermanCainAward. What she found struck a nerve.

She read stories that start with people mocking the vaccine and end with their spouse asking friends to contribute to a GoFundMe page because of the hospital bills or the funeral expenses.

"You don't really realize how bad it is to be in the hospital with Covid until you see these people who are somehow giving you a play-by-play," Hannah said. "When you get those first-hand experiences from a Facebook profile, and you see the people experiencing regret, it's just like, 'Oh man, I really need to take this seriously. I can't put it off anymore.'"

Hannah said she's hoping to wait until three months after her vaccine before casually bringing it up with her family. At that point, she can show them that no harm has been done.

"The fact that they won't have noticed anything different is one of my main hopes," she said.

In the meantime, she's grateful for the positive reaction she received on Reddit after posting her vaccination card.

"I know you don't need other people to tell you you did the right thing, but it sure helps when there's a bunch of people saying, 'Hey, good job,'" she said. "Because it's not coming from my family, that's for sure."

Ostrowski, the gas station manager, also received an Immunized to Prevent Award for posting her vaccine card.

"Late to the party but finally fully vaxxed," she wrote on Oct. 4. The post received more than 2,000 upvotes and more than 100 comments.

She said she's hoping to encourage more people to acknowledge they were wrong and that they can still change directions.

"I finally came around and made the right decision," she said.

WATCH: Facebook whistleblower slams company in '60 minutes' interview

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Reddit channel posts stories of anti-vaxxers dying of Covid, scaring fence-sitters into getting the shot - CNBC

The University of Oregon isseeingan increase in COVID-19 cases in students and staff since classes returned for fall term.

Casenumbers first started going up again two weeks before the start of term, during the week of Sept. 13when the UO saw 17 new cases, according to its case tracking dashboard. The following week, there were 28 new cases.

The first week of schoolsaw a major jump to 46new cases. Last week, the week of Oct. 4, cases jumped to57.

The vast majority of these cases are in off-campus students, followed by on-campus students and employees. In the first two weeks of classes, nearly 76% of thecases were identified in students living off campus.

Theweek of Sept. 27, when classes started, 37 cases were identified in students living off campus.There were six cases of on-campus student cases and three cases in employees.

The majority of off-campus cases continuedto grow the week of Oct. 4, with 41 cases. Fourteen students living on campus and two employees also tested positive that week.

(Story continues below)

The dashboard is updated with weekly data every Monday, the website states.

The UO is requiring all employees and students to be vaccinated to participate in in-person classes, with few exemptions. Out of21,775 students, 96.3% are vaccinated. Of the5,205 employees, 95.3% are vaccinated, according to the UO's dashboard.

Those who are unvaccinatedand live in the residence halls must submit to weekly COVID-19 testing.

In contrast, Lane County as a whole is seeing a steady decline in cases after experiencing its worst surge of cases since the start of the pandemic. It peaked Aug. 15 with a seven-day average of 267 casesand has been decreasing since.

Lane County Public Health reported three deaths and 80 confirmed or presumptive cases of COVID-19 on Friday, raising the death toll to 293 and the countywide case count to 27,003.

There were519 people considered infectious, a 5% decline from Thursday's 549.

There were 51 hospitalized inLane County on Thursday, a 18% decrease over Thursday's62, with 15in intensive care and eight on ventilators.

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University of Oregon sees rise in COVID-19 cases with fall term start - The Register-Guard

The Daily Item

Pennsylvania Health Department officials recorded zero COVID-19-related deaths for the second consecutive Saturday, but added 4,485 new infections, pushing the states October total to 76,669.

The deaths report ended a string of four consecutive days with 80 or more. Last week, the state reported no new deaths on Saturday, Sunday or Monday, but despite that the last seven-day period still included almost 100 more deaths 511 compared to 419 than the previous week, according to Health Department data.

There have been 1,018 COVID-19-related deaths in the first 16 days of October. There were 1,165 in all of September and 670 in all of October 2020.

The new infection total ends a streak of three consecutive days with 5,000 or more infections. There were 83 new cases in the Valley, including 52 in Northumberland County, the fourth consecutive day with 50 or more in the county. There were also 13 more in Montour County, the fourth consecutive day with 13 or more. Union County added 12 cases and Snyder added six.

All 67 counties in Pennsylvania are reporting high levels of community transmission of COVID, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which means they are all seeing at least 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over the previous seven days. Nationwide, 87.7 percent of counties have high transmission rates, down .8 percent from Friday.

According to state data, more than 13.2 million COVID vaccine doses have been administered in Pennsylvania and 70.1 percent of residents 18 and older are fully vaccinated, including 88,346 in the Valley. The state did not update its vaccination statistics on Saturday.

Bucknell University had a dozen active cases on campus, including seven staffers and five students. Susquehanna University reported nine active cases, six staffers and three students. Both schools updated their data on Friday.

As of noon Saturday, there were 2,978 patients in Pennsylvania hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms, up 32, ending a streak of two consecutive days of decreases.

Of those hospitalized, 682 were being treated in intensive care units (ICUs), down five, and 389 were being treated on ventilators, down five.

According to data provided by the state, there were 95 patients undergoing treatment in Valley medical facilities for COVID-19 on Saturday. There were 19 patients in intensive care units at Geisinger in Danville up one from Friday eight at Evangelical Community Hospital near Lewisburg up two for the second day in a row and none at Geisinger-Shamokin.

Geisingers Danville location was also treating five on ventilators, three fewer than the day before. Evangelical was treating one patient on a ventilator.

At Geisingers main campus in Danville, there were 51 COVID-19 positive patients, two fewer than reported on Friday. There were 36 patients at Evangelical and eight at Geisinger-Shamokin.

There were eight active staff cases at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) in Coal Township as of Saturday. There were 98 staff cases statewide, down six. There were 78 active inmate cases statewide an increase of 40 but none at Coal Township.

There were seven active cases at federal prisons in Union County, including three inmate cases at the low-security unit in Allenwood and one staff case at the medium-security prison, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. At the U.S. Penitentiary (USP) in Allenwood, there were three cases, two staffers and one inmate. There were no cases at USP Lewisburg.

The state Department of Human Services (DHS) was still reporting 13 active cases among staffers at the Selinsgrove Center on Saturday. There were less than five cases among persons receiving services. The DHS does not specify numbers when they are fewer than five to avoid identifying patients.

There were six staff cases and less than five client cases at Danville State Hospital for the fifth consecutive day on Saturday.

There were less than five youth cases at the North Central Secure Treatment Unit (NCSTU) for girls on Saturday. There were no staff cases in the unit and no cases in the NCSTU boys unit.

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State records 4,485 new COVID-19 infections; 83 in Valley - Sunbury Daily Item