About the Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID graphs as of January 1, 2021.) The coronavirus pandemic has affected all aspects of our lives, and club social activities are no exception. We continue to monitor the situation for current Florida-specific information and are taking action to adjust to this new reality. As social interactions resume, considerate and responsible individuals should maintain practical, yet sensible, social distancing actions as part of the new "normal." This requirement will likely remain for many months. Virtual Activities In the meantime, until we resume conventional in-person social events, we continue to host virtual activities and video conferencing to exchange Tesla and club-related information. These events are a lot of fun and involve sharing Tesla experiences and information in a casual and relaxed atmosphere. I remain in communication with Tesla Corporate and local Tesla leaders. We continue to work with Tesla to host Virtual events. These Virtual Meetups will be open to club members only. If you are not a member and would like to join us for virtual activities, please click on the Join Us link above. In-Car Activities We continue to organize In-Car activities. These activities involve meeting for parades, scenic drives, race track events, etc. Participants remain in their cars during most of the events and wear face masks with strict social distancing to maintain safety. Outdoor Activities In September, we started Outdoor activities with strict COVID-19 protocols in place. Click on the Events menu item to view them. When Will We Resume Conventional In-Person Social Activities? As we mentioned, we resumed "in-person" Outdoor activities in September. These activities require wearing face masks and strict observance of social distancing requirements. There will be no indoor group activities, and group social interactions will be severely limited. We don't expect to resume indoor activities until sometime next year at the earliest. Conventional In-person interactions without some form of COVID-19 measures, realistically, may not happen until 2022, even with vaccines. Vaccine News: National Summary: (As of December 30, 2020.) The Federal Government had hoped to have vaccinated 20,000,000 Americans by the end of 2020. As of December 30, 2020, 12.4 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been distributed to the states and only 2.8 million people received their first dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Federal health officials said in a news conference on December 30, 2020, that they did not have a clear understanding as to why only a fraction of the doses that had shipped have not been administered. If this slow rollout were to persist it would take several years to inoculate the population at the current rate. Florida is the third U.S. state to announce it has a case of the more contagious coronavirus strain that first emerged in the United Kingdom. The strain is 50 to 70% more transmissible when face masks and social distancing are not being practiced. There is no evidence to suggest the variant is more deadly, or impervious to the vaccines that are being administered. _________________________________________________________________________________ Developments Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have received Emergency Use Authorization and began to distribute their vaccines in December 2020. The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca was close to asking for FDA approval in December. However, dosage mistakes made that impossible for USA approval even though the United Kingdom has recently approved this vaccine. At a press conference on December 14, 2020, the chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed said that the first efficacy readout of AstraZeneca's vaccine could come in the second half of January. He estimated the company could potentially file for emergency use later in February. He also stated that Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, which would require a single dose, could also be reviewed by the FDA in late January for emergency use authorization. Each vaccine has different storage and transportation requirements. Pfizer has the most stringent temperature storage requirements. Oxford/AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson can be stored in standard refrigerators and have the least strict requirements. Moderna falls in between. Many billions of dosages will have to be produced and distributed. In addition, at least 70% of the United States population will have to agree to take it for adequate herd immunity to be achieved. On December 26, 2020, the New York Times reported: In polls by Gallop, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Pew Research Center, the portion of people saying they are now likely or certain to take the vaccine has grown from about 50 percent this summer to more than 60 percent, and in one poll 73 percent — a figure that approaches what some public health experts say would be sufficient for herd immunity. Of course, the pandemic is global, and it is not sufficient to merely adequately vaccinate Americans. To resume conventional interpersonal relations in the USA with minimal risk of new outbreaks will require a global solution. According to Bill Gates, an expert in this area, with distribution of the vaccines, infections may start to abate by June 2021, but it is likely, that the resumption of conventional interpersonal relations will not occur until sometime in 2022. Florida Vaccination Plan Summary (As of January 9, 2020.) According to the CDC as of January 9, 2020, 1,355,775 dosages were distributed to Florida, and 402,802 vaccinations were given. So, 30% of number distributed were administered and 1.9% of the Florida population have been inoculated. __________________________________________________________________________________ Developments On December 23, 2020, Governor DeSantis issued Executive Order 20-315. It prioritizes the first phase of vaccinations as:
Hospital providers, however, also may vaccinate persons who they deem to be extremely vulnerable to COVID-19. According to the New York Times, as of December 30, 2020, Florida was allocated a total of 1,218,300 doses from the federal government. 783,600 dosages were distributed to Florida, and 176,729 vaccinations were given. Florida health records, show 80% of the vaccinations were given to persons under 65. The number 65 and over is expected to increase as more vaccines are distributed. The governor said he expects Florida to get between one and a half to two million doses in January. He estimated that vaccines might become available in February for Florida's general population. He says the choice to take the vaccine will be optional in Florida. COVID-19 Home Testing On December 15, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first over-the-counter (OTC) fully at-home diagnostic test for COVID-19. The Ellume COVID-19 Home Test.
The following are Graphs and Analysis. |
The graph below shows actual daily confirmed cases in Florida since the beginning of the pandemic through January 1, 2021. |
The graph above shows the first peak of less than 1,300 new cases occurred on April 4, 2020. The second all-time peak of over 15,000 cases occurred on July 11, 2020. The all-time peak of over 21,000 occurred on December 31, 2020. |
The graph above represents the situation in early May, just before Phase 1 relaxing restrictions was implemented. It shows that before the easing of restrictions, there was a negative growth rate following the first peak. If the restrictions could have been maintained for a few more weeks, that negative growth rate would have resulted in near-zero daily cases by early June. |
The above graph shows daily confirmed cases since the outbreak of coronavirus through to January 1, 2021. It illustrates that outbreaks in cases occurred directly following the various Phases which relaxed restrictions. On May 4, the Governor initiated Phase 1 relaxing restrictions while Florida was still at high infection rates. That was followed by Phase 2 on June 6, which further removed restrictions. Following those actions, daily new cases were no longer trending downward, as shown in the previous graph. Instead, they started to exponentially trend upward, culminating with an all-time peak in July. The Governor further removed restrictions when on September 25, when he enacted Phase 3. Again that was immediately followed by another exponential increase in cases which continues through the end of the year. Experts have repeatedly cautioned that we may experience a "peak on a peak" during the holiday season with families tending to gather more frequently and that is what has happened with a new all-time peak of over 21,000 cases occurring on December 31, 2020.
After reaching over 15,000 cases in July, the number of cases trended lower during August. This decline in cases was not indicative of a real decrease in infection rate. During this period, testing was down by 75%. Refer to the next graph.
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The above chart shows daily tests to date since the outbreak of coronavirus through January 1, 2021. As can be seen, despite having made excellent progress in initially ramping up testing through the middle of July, following that there was a significant downward trend in testing. Therefore, most of the decline in daily cases in August shown in earlier graph was caused by a significant reduction in testing and was not due to a substantial drop in infection rates. Some of the increases in cases that followed during September and beyond was due to partially resuming the number of daily tests particularly around Thanksgiving. However, the infection rate was also increasing as shown in the following graph. |
To figure out whether changes in daily confirmed cases are due to changes in infections, or merely due to fluctuations in testing, we measure the daily infection rate. (Refer to the graph directly above.) The infection rate is also referred to as Positivity Rate. The Positivity rate is the percent of tests that come back positive. Because the Positivity rate is a percentage of tests, it is an accurate indicator of the level of infection that is independent of the number of tests conducted. The graph shows that the infection rate peaked at in mid-August, but then declined during August. Following that the rate leveled off and is now continuing to trend upward. The World Health Organization has an extensive list of public health criteria to consider before reopening a community. Among them is a positivity rate of less than 5 percent in the previous two weeks. The Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FCAAP) also recommends following this positivity guideline. |
An all-time record of 277 deaths occurred on August 8, 2020. Since then there was a downward trend in deaths during August. In September new death leveled off and averaged about 100 daily deaths. In November the death rate began trending upward again and continues in December. The trend in death rate is an accurate measure to determine whether we are controlling the virus because it is independent from fluctuations in the testing rate. However, it is a lagging indicator and generally spikes in deaths follow spikes in cases by a few weeks. |
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Model for Florida Daily Deaths (As of December 31, 2020.) The IHME model makes multiple projections based on several different scenarios with varying assumptions. Current projection (What the modelers think will most likely happen)
Mandates easing (Based on actions taken to date, this scenario best matches Florida's situation.)
This scenario is forecasting a peak of 256 by February 25, 2020, and then begin declining. Universal masks
This scenario is forecasting a peak of 147 by January 10, 2020. and then begin declining. Rapid vaccine rollout
This scenario is forecasting a peak of 179 by January 24, 2020, and then begin declining. No vaccine
This scenario forecasts a peak of 191 by January 27, 2020, and then begins declining. Below is the current IHME model displaying actual and projected deaths per day. |
Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). COVID-19 Projections. Seattle, WA: IHME, University of Washington, 2020. Available from https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections (Accessed December 31, 2020). Dr. Christopher J.L. Murray, Institute Director. |
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