67 thoughts on “Latest COVID figures from Sanford Health for Jan. 18”

    1. …Roughly 60% of South Dakotans are vaccinated. Roughly 30% of the hospitalized are vaccinated. You understand how this continues to support the efficacy of the vaccine, right?

      My god, idiocracy is real.

  3. it now turns out you can have covid plus other viruses like RSV and influenza all at the same time. Usually interferon prevents multiple viral infections. Not any more.
    How many of the people who are currently hospitalized with covid have something else, too?

      1. Exactly. These are the pinheads who did not show up for school, rarely did their homework & actually believe they know more than the highest educated people in the world. Arrogance like no others. As CO Gov. Jared Polis said, “… “If you haven’t been vaccinated, that’s your choice. I respect that. But it’s your fault when you’re in the hospital with COVID.” The SD legislature should pass a bill that says those who are unvaccinated will not receive intensive care beds in our public hospitals. And, parents who choose to not vaccinate their children should be charged with child endangerment. The second child under 10 has now died due to irresponsible parents.

        1. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The SD legislature should pass a bill that says those who are unvaccinated will not receive intensive care beds in our public hospitals.

          You betcha. Then we kick out the cancer patients who smoked all their lives, and the drinkers dying of liver disease, and the diabetics who can’t seem to follow a strict diet.

            1. Doesn’t matter, those people are taking beds away from people who really really need care and are being denied by selfish people who want to drink, smoke, and overeat.

            2. Anon 10:19 Smokers cause secondhand smoke which can cause cancer in others. And drunk drivers kill and main many others. And heavy drinking can cause the need for a liver transplant, thus denying someone else a needed liver.

              Btw, officials in the CDC have said that fully vaccinated persons can and do transmit covid to others, also they say about 50% of those in the hospitals with covid are actually filling a bed for other reasons.

        2. Child endangerment? So we need to take millions of children away from their parents? I find it absolutely insane that people including those in the legislature and courts, thinking they can arbitrarily define what makes an ideal parent. Boneheaded comment.

          1. Is it any different than taking kids away for being, native, or being a marijuana user? We have done bad things in the past, lets keep it going! War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.

            1. I agree that the state has unjustly and unconstitutionally stripped parenting rights from people because a “judge” feels it’s “I’m the child’s best interest”. That’s just a fairy tail term that justifies dehumanizing parents.

        3. Anonymous at 8:21 and Me at 9:26…

          From public health official figures I’ve seen, around half of covid cases in hospitals were admitted for unrelated reasons and tested positive, even though they had no symptoms. But they get counted as covid patients, and the hospitals get a nice bounty.

          As for the under-10 deaths, one child was an infant, who are always vulnerable to respiratory illness, and who in this go-round can’t benefit from immunization. The age of the second child hasn’t been released.

          As for the “most educated people in the world,” these people are so smart that they discarded all the wisdom of the previous 100 years and charted an entirely unique and destructive course for an illness that isn’t a threat to 99.9 percent of the population. In other words, these epidemiologists ignored the most sacred saying in medicine: “Do no harm.”

          2. Clif Hadley, exactly how old was the infant who died?
            Just today I heard of a 5 month old who has been diagnosed.
            The problem with infants being too young to be vaccinated, is that back on June 18, 2021, the CDC published an article about how pregnant women should be vaccinated. The DOH has been running an ad on TV about how a mom was vaccinated during pregnancy and her baby was born with antibodies..

            So any child under 6 months of age could have been protected, if his mom had been vaccinated before he was born.

            1. At issue is whether the vaccine is a good trade-off, as child deaths from covid are vanishingly rare, and in any event the jab doesn’t prevent illness but may make it less severe. Each of us has to decide what’s right for us.

        4. Children do not catch the virus nearly as easily as adults, unless something has changed. Even if they do, they virtually never die from it unless they have some other problem like diabetes. Perhaps you should also check VAERS about children suffering consequences from the jab before you tell a parent he should do something he does not believe is good for his child.

        5. Ridiculous and offensive comment. My son is fully vaccinated due to being in the military and is still sick on day 9 as of today. I am not vaccinated and have Covid as well. I’m on day 5 and recovering quite nicely. No matter how much you try to shame people and repeat what you’re told, it doesn’t override the facts. Everyone is seeing that the vaccinated are getting sick just like the unvaccinated. So tell me again why I would shoot myself with unproven, experimental poison?

          1. “unproven, experimental poison”

            Who told you this? Can you read the chart above? How many have died from this “poison” vaccine? Do you know how many have died from Covid? How many vaccines have you already had in your life? Who do you think approved them? Is it OK to infect others with a deadly virus?

            Where is your common sense?

  4. We often hear that “the average age of those dying of covid is 80”

    But that does not tell the whole truth. The average person dying was UNVACCINATED and 80.

    More recent deaths are younger on average. The last time I saw a South Dakota breakdown (January 14th) it was:

    40-49 (1); 50-59 (1); 60-69 (6); 70-79 (4); 80+ (3)

    But, if your reckless behavior gets someone killed, you should feel guilty… regardless of the age of your victim.

    1. Elk at 7:24…

      No one should feel guilty. No one can control airborne viruses.

      The vaccines appear to do the most good for people who still have functioning immune systems — people under 60. As we age our immune systems become less effective at warding off bugs and pathogens. If many of the people over 80 don’t take the jab, why is that your concern?

      As for your age distribution, 13 of the 15 are over 60, and it’s likely the six deaths in the 60-69 group rounds up to near 70. So the average overall for the week is…. 80. Keep trying.

      1. Oh, so now if you are over 60, you are expendable. Got it.

        We have a difference of opinion on that one. I am actually pro-life.

        1. Elk, it’s hubris to think you can add one day to anyone’s life. I’m being realistic.

          My point above is that the ages for the one week you highlight is exactly what it’s been for two years, all averaging out to 80.

          And by the way, I’m 65 with a heart aneurysm, mild asthma, and high BP. A perfect candidate for covid issues. I did the one-shot vaccine last June prior to an operation. Not for one minute have I ever worried about myself getting covid. Nor have I ever expected you or anyone else to care about my health. How morbid.

          1. Cliff notes: “Elk, it’s hubris to think you can add one day to anyone’s life.”

            Vaccines and surgery. Exercise and eating a balanced diet. All of them put the lie to your theory.

            It’s not “hubris”. It’s medicine and common sense. God gave us both… should we choose to use them.

            1. Elk at 10:22…

              I was responding to your statement that not getting vaccinated is “reckless behavior [that] gets someone killed.” That’s hubris. No one can predict who will get sick nor how they got sick.

              1. “But, if your reckless behavior gets someone killed, you should feel guilty… regardless of the age of your victim.”

                That is what I said.

                If by now, you didn’t get vaccinated or take any reasonable precautions and you get Covid, pass it on and kill someone… feel guilty. Very guilty. You’ve been warned a hundred times.

                You knew better.

                1. Elk, you use words and numbers dishonestly, then attempt to shame anyone who diverges from your wisdom. I only respond to you not to change your mind, but to provide facts about the time-honored and realistic way free societies have managed other pandemics and to recommend to others to reject your sophistry.

                  I’m guilty of nothing. And I’m glad you’re not in charge of anything meaningful.

                  1. I wrote… “If by now, you didn’t get vaccinated or take any reasonable precautions and you get Covid, pass it on and kill someone… feel guilty.”

                    What part of that do you disagree with, Cliff? You think you have zero responsibility to protect those around you?

                    I have vulnerable neighbors, relatives and friends. Don’t you?

            2. “Vaccines and surgery. Exercise and eating a balanced diet. All of them put the lie to your theory.

              It’s not “hubris”. It’s medicine and common sense. God gave us both… should we choose to use them.”

              And all it takes is one accident……

  5. All part of South Dakota’s BIG Medicine machine. A running front man for Fauci, authoritarianism and profit. Just what we don’t need associated with the Reoublican Party !

    1. Authoritarianism?

      Just ask some of our fellow Republicans if they’d rather have a President Biden or a Dictator Trump. I have. You’ll find about half of them support authoritarianism. But… they sure do like to wave the flag real high.

      Asking you to wear a damn mask is not authoritarianism. And vaccines have been mandated for decades.

      America, we have a problem.

      2. The vaccines that have been required for decades have been proven to work.
        Covid vaccines, not so much.

      3. Dictator Trump? Who is doing mandates, Biden or Trump? Who is forcing Black people to lose their jobs because of not being vaxxed, Biden or Trump? Who is looking to federalize elections, Biden or Trump? Who is trying to force extreme taxes upon the people, Biden or Trump? Who is making it impossible for truckers to do their jobs, Biden or Trump?
        Yes, America, we have a problem. In about 9 months, we will be able to put a monkey wrench into the problem. In about 2 years and 9 months we will be able to finish it off. Let’s go Brandon!

        1. It’s funny the people who constantly use the lines like “follow the rules and you won’t get hurt” are having a very hard time “swallowing the pill” of wearing a mask or taking a vaccine. I just hope you still have this same feeling the next time a republican proposes criminalizing marijuana or some other arbitrary item that minorities use. Part of the reason why so many people are pushing this crap is that it is a taste of your own medicine, you reap what you sow.

          1. Um, yes. In a dictatorship, the “leader” imposes laws without using the legislative branch. Sorta like what your fearless leader is trying to do now.

            1. Pandemic policies meant to keep the public healthy do not quite rise to that level. Not even “sorta” qualify as dictatorship.

              That is real lame.

        4. Masks and vaccines during a pandemic? Really? You think that is like a dictatorship?

          Let’s Go Snowflake.

        5. Let’s go duggersd! with a ‘u’ that is. Let’s see if Biden encourages ‘patriots’ to spread sh*t on the walls of the United States Capitol.

  6. Wonder if we can get more mandates or brow beating from Senator Schoenbeck. No mask mandates in the senate this year. Those darned vaccinated hospitalizations are starting to make up a significant sample size of the pie. Looks like genetics or healthy lifestyle choices might be a bigger indicator than getting the vaccine.

    1. as the percentage of the vaccinated population rises, the number of breakthrough cases will rise. If we ever get 100% of the population vaccinated, 100% of the cases will have been vaccinated.

  8. The graph above says it all. You have seen it week after week. And we know that vaccines are safe and effective.

    But… no! Some of you just keep jabbering on and on about how you shouldn’t have to recognize this reality. To you, the freedom to not do the responsible thing outweighs the life of others.

    Nine died again today. When will you learn?

    1. People die every day of smoking, over eating & drinking. Save all the people and be consistent at least.

        1. Elk,

          A cloth mask and the vaccine don’t stop you from getting covid or transmitting it to other people.

          That’s a fact.

          1. An N-95 mask isnt 100% effective either. But the vaccine DOES reduce transmission rate and severity of symptoms.

            That’s a fact.

            1. Please link me to this evidence.

              It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that you can’t prove how someone will react to covid so for you to say the vaccine reduces symptoms is pure b.s.

              You also can’t prove it reduces transmission.

              1. “Please link me to this evidence”?

                Uhh. Hmmm. Let me think. Where could you find that?

                Oh yes. There it is. There’s a big blue box – above the comments here.

                1. There is not one study that can say it reduced symptoms because the study can’t prove what the symptoms would have been without the jab.

                  This isn’t rocket science elk.

    2. “And we know that vaccines are safe and effective.” That’s cartoonish thinking. In the first place, the vaccines are not just “safe” in general. For example, young males are far, far more likely to get myocarditis from the 2nd/3rd doses of Moderna than from Covid. Young males are also somewhat more likely get myocarditis from the Pfizer vaccine than from Covid. (See the big British study released in Nature recently, which was also covered by Vinay Prasad). This is why some other nations, which actually try to have rational public health policies rather than ones based on dogma and liberals’ magical intuitions about how fight Covid, have changed their rules and recommendations concerning young males and vaccination.

      So to say “vaccines are safe” reflects either ignorance or tunnel vision. There are risks and benefits that must be weighed based on individual circumstances, as usual. For some people vaccines are the obvious way to go. But not for others.

      Same goes for “effective.” Define “effective.” If a vaccine reduces transmission and symptom severity only moderately, is it “effective”? Since “effective” is the premise of your browbeating and also things like restricting people’s ability to move about and engage in life (i.e., under vaccine mandate and passport rules), you and the other pushers of strong measures and social pressuring ought to define that term clearly. It seems rather debatable whether people should be forced to take a vaccine that is only moderately “effective.”

      1. Vaccines are safe and effective. Says virtually everyone who has expertise in the field. Are you one of them… Ted?

    3. “Nine died again today.” The average year-round is seven a day, and we’re at the winter spike for respiratory viruses.

      1. The seven-deaths-per-day average is for all causes. Most deaths at this time of year are elderly people succumbing to that last gust of wind that gets us all. So it’s not nine deaths on top of seven other deaths on average. The point: Highlighting covid-related deaths without context is dishonest and deceiving.

  10. Kudos to the state of Massachusetts for being more honest about Covid vaccine failure than most blue states – or the Centers for Disease Control, which rolled out more nonsense numbers about vaccine effectiveness today.

    Unlike most states, Massachusetts provides raw numbers for infections in vaccinated people, instead of hiding them and offering only “adjusted rate ratios” that claim to compare infection risks in the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

    On Thursday, Massachusetts reported 85,000 infections, 900 hospitalizations and 170 deaths in vaccinated people for the week ended Jan. 15 – almost half of all Covid deaths over that period.

    Even more importantly, Massachusetts also acknowledged those figures underestimate the real totals in the vaccinated because its reporting systems miscount some of them as unvaccinated.

    As the report explains:

    The number of cases in vaccinated people may be undercounted due to discrepancies in the names and dates of birth of individuals, resulting in an inability to match records across systems. Hospitalization data is likely also undercounted as identification and reporting of hospitalized cases relies on that information being obtainable by case investigators through patient interview.

    Massachusetts’s admission helps explain why the United States reports relatively fewer deaths and hospitalizations in Covid-vaccinated people than other highly vaccinated countries with more complete immunization registries and national health care systems.

    BTW Pat,

    Why won’t you post my link to the CDC Website?

  11. interesting that the fact the vaccines are not 100% effective is given as a reason to refuse to be vaccinated.
    Should we use that logic to refuse other medical treatments? If something isn’t 100% effective should its use should be abandoned? Birth control? Cancer treatment? Name something else people shouldn’t do because it’s not 100% effective.
    There isn’t anything that’s 100%. effective. Some things aren’t even 50 % effective, and people go nuts when their insurance companies refuse to pay for them.
    For example, your odds of survival if you require intubation are pretty poor, latest I saw was 43% of people who are intubated don’t make it. So maybe nobody should be intubated, because mechanical ventilation is only effective 57% of the time.

    1. It doesn’t seem like the vaccine is effective at all on contracting or passing it on. Your text made no sense.
      This is all a conversation for the patient and their Dr. It’s what HIPPA was put in place for. It’s a experimental drug that didn’t work the way it was intended. Product liability was waved for the benefit of drug companies.
      Countries are starting to drop all this and it will be treated shortly like the flu.

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