In my last COVID-19 post in May I mentioned that it may or may not be my final post, but I would not longer be providing monthly updates. Over the summer the COVID situation continued to improved during May/June and case counts even fell to under 250 new cases per day in Utah. This meant that we were finally able to go and do many of the activities we love mask free this summer. Especially since both Shantel and I are fully vaccinated and with so few cases, we were less worried about our kids.
Here are a few of our summer events that felt pretty much like normal: the parade of homes, hanging out with friends, kids baseball and parades!
The only time we really had to wear masks through most of the summer was on the airplane to see Bruce and then on our train ride to the summit of Pikes Peak.
However, even when we went to see Bruce, the case count had started to climb again, nothing concerning yet, but the trend had started to reverse. By the end of July, we had started wearing masks at church again (we were literally the only ones though) and by August, stores and most places were now encouraging or requiring masks again. The reversal has been to two primary factors. 1) The "Delta Variant" of COVID-19 is a super contagious variant of COVID-19 that has now become the dominate strain of COVID in the US (more than 80% of cases). 2) Vaccination rates have slowed and only about 60% of adults are fully vaccinated with lesser amounts for kids 12-18 and none for kids under 12 as it is not available to them. Unfortunately that is not enough to create a herd immunity and without social distancing measures or mask wearing, the virus has started to spread much faster. Given that there are a lot of vaccinations, I don't think we'll reach a peak like we did in January last year, but we likely will have this with us for much longer due to many people choosing not to be vaccinated.
Some day, when we read about this, it will probably sound crazy that we prayed for help and had a miracle that a vaccine was developed so quickly and yet, many chose not to do it. A couple of notes on this. First, it was developed quickly and so it is certainly appropriate to have some initial hesitation and about the vaccine and to want to make sure it is safe. However, if you wait on the vaccine, you have to be responsible which means you should be wearing a mask. Unfortunately, most of the people who refuse to wear masks, also don't want to get vaccinated. The real reason that people don't want to get vaccinated is purely a political line and driven by social media. It is not based on any logic, just following social media posts from random people and to stand on some supposed party line. It is disappointing to see something not political at all be turned into all about politics.
When Shantel and I decided we better start wearing masks again we really did so for 2 reasons. First to protect our children, even though we are vaccinated our children are not. However, we could not ask our children to wear masks if we weren't (especially when so few others were). Second, while the vaccine significantly reduces your changes of getting COVID, its main benefit is that you don't get a severe case or need to be hospitalized. However, we could get COVID and then pass it to someone who was not vaccinated. We felt the best way for us to love our neighbor is to protect them, even if it was their choice not to get vaccinated. We were the only ones wearing masks at church and that was not comfortable, but we knew it was the right thing to do. Fortunately, the next week, two more families joined us and that made it a little easier (especially for Lydia since two of her friends joined).
Sorry, that was a bit long winded, but hopefully it makes sense. It is hard to capture in a few paragraphs all that is happening. Here are a few statistics (yes - sorry, back with the stats).
Nationwide cases have spiked to a 7 day average of 130,000 cases per day after hitting rock bottom on June 20, 2021, the 7 day average was about 11,000 per day, the lowest mark since March 26, 2020. However, it took until March 26, 2020 to November 12, 2020 to get an average count above 130,000. However, from June 20, to August 15 (less than 2 months) the count went up above 130,000 cases per day on average. Clearly the difference is that so few states or areas a following any preventive measures.
As you can see, 62% of adults are fully vaccinated, but only 50% of all ages. Vaccination has slowed, but hopefully more will continue to get the vaccine.
In Utah you can see a similar trend line, although honestly not as bad as nationally. We peaked around a 7 day case count of 3,300, and are right now around 850.
However, the Delta variant is particularly rough and we are still seeing lots of hospitalizations and the Utah hospitals are reporting being at capacity again.
Just this week, President Nelson and the first presidency urged everyone to get vaccinated and wear masks and that made a big difference at church this week as most people were vaccinated. I'm grateful for the prophet.
From a more personal perspective, Shantel and I both recently did go to get tested for COVID-19. Shantel was sick after our trip to see Bruce and we were going camping with her family and decided she should get tested.
Unfortunately she wanted quick test results so she had to get the nasal swab again. Her test was negative which was so nice so we could go camping with her family.
I was super sick the last week. Our kids have been sick with various things off and on over the last 3 weeks and I was up on Saturday night all night with Caleb who was throwing up. My body finally gave in and I got sick on Sunday and was really tried and sick and Monday and Tuesday. I only worked a half day Monday, but still worked on Tuesday. I was still sick on Wednesday so I decided I should sign up for a test and make sure it is not COVID. I went to the same place as Shantel (there was no one in line when I got there). I did not need a result right way so I opted for the Saliva test.
So I went and parked and spit into the tube. Here is my test, and then I drove back around and had to drop off my test and there was a much longer line then.
Thankfully, my test also came back negative.
I think that sums up where we are with COVID. It is still here unfortunately. The real question comes when school starts and how that impacts things. No schools in Utah are requiring masks right now and many parents will send their kids without masks and we don't know what will happen at that point. I am so grateful that we have the opportunity thanks to Shantel to homeschool our kids and not have to worry about that this fall.
I am so grateful for the vaccine that was miraculously provided. I'm hopeful that things will improve soon.
