 424 community members have died due to COVID-19. In the past two weeks, deaths have increased by 7%. In the same time period, hospitalizations have decreased by 38% and the intensive care unit (ICU) stays are down by 12%.
As of this week, 71,851 county residents have been vaccinated. Of those, 50% are fully vaccinated.
Everyone get vaccinated who can!!! If your crazy Q following uncle on Facebook says there are 5G chips in the vaccine he is wrong (and an idiot).
Again with the name calling...
VOR - oh please.  Why do you rush to defend those who hope for the violent overthrow of our government? Do you get mad when people call Al-Qaeda followers names?
VOR got triggered - must have hit close to home.
I don’t follow the Q loons and don’t have any in my family (that I know of), they have been wrong about everything and quite frankly I think many of them have some serious mental issues. I’m still not getting the vaccine.
420722 - Why are you refusing to get the vaccine? If you're still holding parties and all around flaunting your disregard for any and all safety measures, why then do you also refuse to do the one thing that might actually protect you and your family? How do they feel about you making these choices for them?
Move to Florida or Texas - the governing Neanderthal will welcome you open sasquatch arms.
more name calling again, I guess Trump wasn't the problem....
Some people instinctively react negatively to anything sensible.
VOR - I'll apologize to Q followers if you apologize to every criminal and terrorist you've praised. Deal?
3:03 - who's reacting "negatively?"
GT- nah, my family has deep roots here, I think I’ll stay but thanks for the offer. SAC, My family knows I’m not getting it and half them aren’t either and we’re ok with that because we all respect each other’s decisions.
GT- I forgot to mention, those Neanderthals in TX and FL have booming economies and their kids are in school and have better test scores. CA has ranked near the bottom for quite some time. 
I'll start:...
420722 - yeah, yeah most families respect each other's decisions, but WHY are choosing to refuse the one thing that would allow you to continue your parties, maskless gatherings, and all the other defiant activities you've boasted about over the past year?
VOR - Please write your apologies on appropriately themed stationary. I'll follow suit.
Sac-what makes you think I’m not going to continue doing everything I’ve been doing just because I don’t get vaccinated. If you are vaccinated why are you so concerned that I’m not? You’re “safe” now right? Nothing can get you now because you got your feel good shot and you wear your feel good mask right?
I think this vaccine is truly an individual choice. Our public health officials have made it clear, the vaccine will not prevent you from getting COVID or from transmitting COVID. The hope is that it will prevent you from having a severe case. Getting the vaccine can therefore only protect you, and no one else. That’s why the government says you have to continue wearing your mask and living in isolation after you get the vaccine. That being the case, why does it matter what choice other people make? If someone doesn’t want the vaccine, it won’t have any impact on anyone else. Why can’t we all take a big step back and let everyone make their own individual decision?
CHIP - Wrong. It's pretty common knowledge that the vaccination helps reduce transmission of the virus (lower viral load, lower risk of transmission). With a global pandemic, it's everyone's moral duty to do what they can to protect themselves and those around them. Flaunting lock down and mask rules throughout the course of the pandemic and now refusing to get vaccinated is an "individual decision," yes, but it is s selfish one, that may lead to further deaths even while the rest of society is trying to prevent illness and death.
If the vaccine protects others, why do our government officials continue to claim that we need to keep wearing masks and living in isolation after we are vaccinated? That would not be necessary if the vaccine reduced virus transmission. I have a question for you Sac, do you plan to stop masking and living in isolation at some point in the future, and if so what is your criteria for determining when that would be safe and appropriate?
CHIP - I never said, and nor did anyone, that this is 100% effective, thus the masks and continued caution. Why do you refuse to take measures that even are 80-90% effective?
And yeah, I will stop wearing a mask in public once the science and medical community says we're at a level where that is safe. I'm getting the vaccine when I can and still wearing a mask and avoiding certain situations, but I'm by no means "living in isolation." Why must it always be all or nothing with you people? I will do whatever is reasonably deemed necessary by the scientific and medical experts to help protect my family, friends and neighbors. It's not all about me.
VOR defending Q would indicate she's a follower.
My kid has been in school since January. Yours probably went back this past week. Maybe things aren't as bad as you claim them to be. The numbers are justifying Florida and Texas and California to open more. That's a good thing, right?
That's funny Chip - the first thing I see on the CDC website says "Studies show that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at keeping you from getting COVID-19....." And then goes on to say or will help to prevent from getting a severe case. Words matter.
I can't wait until there is a youth vaccine and your kids can't go to public school unless they have it.
Now you're wishing ill will on someone else's kid! That's beyond low GT.
Sac, I was curious whether you were planning to continue with masking and isolation/distancing in the post-COVID era. My thinking is tens of thousands used to die every year from the flu. I don’t think anyone has been able to quantify how effective masks and isolation measures have been in reducing virus transmission yet, but assuming these measures are reasonably effective then continuing with masking and isolation measures on a permanent basis should save thousands or even tens of thousands of lives every year. Within a 10 years time, the number of flu deaths prevented by masking and isolation measures might exceed the death toll from Covid. Why not perpetuate our new public safety measures in order to save countless thousands of lives from the flu and other viruses in the years ahead?
CHIP - no, because I, like every other educated person on this planet, knows the covid is different from the flu.
Now, will you answer my question? Why are you refusing to get a vaccine?
Not wishing ill at all. Most reasonable educated parents will get the vaccine for their kids (unless there is a medical issue). So they will likely be back in school - and if not they can go to private school. The whining of the sausage fingered armchair epidemiologists will be enjoyable though.
Chip too many don't use the flu vaccine. If they did the numbers would decrease tremendously. Can't really reason with people who follow Jenny McCarthy for medical advice though......
Sorry, that comment was directed at 3:03 PM.
5:10 PM - Continued masking and hand washing would indeed be a good policy for reducing deaths from influenza. Since influenza is not as contagious as SARS-CoV-2, social distancing could be left out. But, you're dealing with a significant fraction of the populace that is ignorant enough to resist doing so.
 Seems pretty simple. I don't think anyone is going to stop handwashing. And truth be told, I haven't isolated in months and months. My kid has been in school, in person, since September. I like frequenting a couple of (very) local restaurants and bars on the weekends. Knock on wood, haven't had so much as a cold since last March. Basic measures work for almost everything. Once I am able to be vaccinated, then bonus. It will never mean that I will stop washing my hands or being conscious of the environment, and people, around me. If you think that carelessness is part of the agreement of being vaccinated, you are sorely mistaken.
Masking plans in the post-COVID era: yes. I can say, pretty effectively, that I will now always wear a mask on an airplane. I don't know why it never occurred to me before - but several times over the last decades I traveled at Thanksgiving, ended up in a row in front of someone coughing, and got sick.
I already distance during cold/ flu season - by avoiding the gym unless going somewhere where I can reasonably distance - like a class with it's own dedicated equipment, or the pool. I used to have regular meetups for exercise pre-COVID, and if one of us is sick, we don't go. Also, if one of my friends is sick and still willing to show up for the potluck, I sit at the other end of the table and don't eat their food.
Finally, I have a couple of coworkers from Asia who commonly wear masks in the winter if they are feeling under the weather.
Red is bad, right? I wonder why the Public Health officials wanted to reinvent the color wheel to make red good? Maybe that was considered reddist behavior?
Basically, unless you are around the people you live with, or other groups of known v