Get Vaccinated, we hear it and see it everywhere.  According to data from a New York Times article called Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count, "More than 55,000 coronavirus patients are hospitalized nationwide, far fewer than in September but an increase of more than 15 percent over the last two weeks. The current outbreak continues to be driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant. Scientists in several states have detected cases of the Omicron variant in recent days."

The charts and maps and graphs they have in the article are impressive a little daunting but very interesting. Over the last couple of weeks, Idaho, Wyoming, Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia have had a fall in daily positive COVID cases.

Idaho, according to New York Times is 45 percent fully vaccinated (although I have seen that number vary a bit depending on the source). According to Newsweek that followed up on the New York Times Article, "Idaho has seen average cases fall by 24 percent over the last two weeks to 347 per day with a 9 percent drop in COVID hospitalizations during that time."

The study goes on to describe similar scenarios for the other four states listed that also happen to be, like Idaho, some of the least vaccinated states in the country.

Dr. Ellie Murray, assistant professor in epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health, told Newsweek: "Even when people don't get vaccinated surges do come to an end and it's largely because once there starts to be a certain amount of illness and death in a community people change their behaviors. Vaccination helps by firstly decreasing the number of hospitalizations & deaths during a surge; and secondly hopefully reducing transmission enough that surges are smaller, further apart, or even don't happen at all."

The first case of the latest spreading COVID-19 variant Omicron was confirmed in the U.S. in California this week. A few other states believe to have cases of it too and other countries as well.

It is not my intention to sway anyone one way or another on the subject and I typically don't write articles about the pandemic but I found this too interesting not to share.

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