First and foremost, all three available vaccines are highly effective in preventing a person from getting seriously ill or dying from COVID-19 if fully vaccinated. Does that mean a person could still get COVID-19 after getting fully vaccinated? Yes, but a fully vaccinated person is protected from getting extremely sick with COVID-19. Furthermore, if the fully vaccinated does contract the virus, he or she is usually asymptomatic but could still spread it; although, ‘experts say the risk is low, but are still studying how well the shots blunt the spread of the virus. That is why it’s still very important and highly advised for people to continue to wear masks when around unvaccinated people or in public.
Unfortunately, people like Tucker Carlson and his wing nut followers do not grasp this concept.
In regards to Texas:
Experts point out that vaccination is ramping up, many businesses are still requiring masks and there are unique factors impacting individual metrics — like a drop in demand for testing that is driving down raw case numbers.
They also emphasize that, especially at this point in the pandemic, a stabilization of such metrics, or even a modest decline, is not exactly cause for celebration.
“I think we could’ve been even lower at this point in time,” if not for Abbott’s latest decisions, said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an infectious disease specialist at UTHealth’s McGovern Medical School in Houston. “The fact that we’re sort of stable is not necessarily good news — because we’re stable at a very high level. It’s like everybody saying you’re at a stable cruising speed — but at 100 miles per hour.”
Texas Tribune:
On CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci responded to Tucker’s stupidity.
