I just tried a white pumpkin mocha. It was a lot. Tasty, but a lot.

While I was in Michigan, I wore my mask inside in public spaces and went maskless inside with vaccinated family. It’s the same protocol I’m following in NC, as infection rates are pretty similar.

I made my inaugural trip to Dunkin' Donuts this morning for Pumpkin Cold Brew and apple Cider Donut

FALL!!!

apple Cider Donut

You bet your ass I'm getting a cider donut from the One True Apple Cider Donut place in Vermont (Cold Hollow Cider Mill).

Exactly! BTW, I also got an Apple Cranberry Refreshed off the Flavors of Fall menu because I am extremely suggestible and also thirsty (in the literal sense) but it doesn't taste much like apple or cranberry to me, it mostly just tastes like sugar.Which I suppose I should have expected but did not.

ETA I have never gone to the place I am told is the One True Apple Cider Donut place in my area because it's too long a drive to wait in such a long line for me, so I can be catholic in my donut consumption

Happy belated birthday, flea!

No-cancer-ma, Pix.

I overslept my alarm this morning, so today has been off-kilter despite not being particularly busy so far.

In short, if you're vaccinated and wearing a mask indoors a breakthrough is still very unlikely even with Delta (1 in 5,000). Also, the emphasis on the higher viral load in Delta was somewhat misleading in that while it does make it more transmissible to unvaccinated people, if you are vaccinated you are still very protected.

My anecdotal problem is I know as many people who have gotten breakthrough infections as who got covid pre-vax. None of them have been seriously ill, but it does make me want to retreat back into my house again. (Although I did go to the movies last weekend.)

Cold Hollow Cider Mill

Sticker shock! Half gallon of sweet apple cider for $11.95? Wow. Locally pressed here [link] it is $7.95, and I thought *that* was high.

My other problem is that they're not counting (obviously) undiagnosed cases of covid, but you can still get long covid with an asymptomatic infection.

I edited an article last week that looked at Covid transmission in an elementary school in Belgium. (The usual disclaimers are as follows: you can't really extrapolate from one small study in Belgium to the rest of the world; the study had ~60 people, which is way too small to make any kind of conclusion; and, of course, we're still learning about Covid, so what this study showed might not mean a goddamn thing.)

Now that I have the disclaimers out of the way, what the study found was: (1) kids tested positive for Covid at more or less the same rate as adults (~23%); BUT (2) out of the group of adults and kids who were positive, 13% were asymptomatic but *46%* of kids were; and (3) they could pretty reliably trace transmission through asymptomatic kids back to their parents/other household members.

We need to get a vaccine for kids approved FUCKING NOW. Because we're going to hit a point (if we aren't there yet) where they're the biggest vector, and damn near half of them are asymptomatic.

(Reminder about the disclaimers above. Maybe this is all very specific to that one school in Belgium.) (But I honestly don't think it is.)

Yeah definitely having unvaxxed kids in the house is a problem.

My anecdotal problem is I know as many people who have gotten breakthrough infections as who got covid pre-vax. None of them have been seriously ill, but it does make me want to retreat back into my house again.

Jesse I feel about the same but am telling myself all my friends are vaccinated so of COURSE I’m hearing about vaccinated people with breakthrough infections?

The Washington Spirit (women’s soccer) just had to cancel a game against the Portland Thorns because they had 4 cases of covid….turns out at least 8 of the players are not vaccinated! I’m aghast that they flew to Portland and THEN discovered this? Yikes. A few other teams have said they’re all vaxxed, some I didn’t see data on. But geez…