Breakthrough Infections, Bill Maher, Yankees: Dr. Rick Bright, CDC Restart Viral Sequencing

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sun May 23, 2021, 08:17 PM - Edit history (1)

- 'Do breakthrough COVID-19 infections seen in the Yankees & Bill Maher mean vaccinated people should still wear masks?' MarketWatch, *May 15, 2021.

The same week that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed mask recommendations for Americans fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a couple of high-profile cases of breakthrough infections among vaccinated people have raised some questions about whether it’s safe to remove masks indoors just yet.

HBO host and comedian Bill Maher revealed Thursday that he tested positive for the coronavirus despite receiving the vaccine. And this comes on the heels of 8 vaccinated New York Yankees members also testing positive for COVID.
Most of these cases are asymptomatic, which suggests that the vaccines are doing their job: reducing the severity of COVID illness if one does get infected, as well as lowering that person’s risk of spreading it to others.

But some people have expressed concern on social media that perhaps the CDC was premature in recommending that vaccinated people don’t have to wear masks inside. “Now we learn Bill Maher has COVID? He is fully vaccinated. This is why I will still wear a mask,” reads one tweet that has been “liked” more than 1,000 times....

More, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/do-breakthrough-covid-19-infections-seen-in-the-yankees-and-bill-maher-mean-vaccinated-people-should-still-wear-masks-11621026068

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- Dr. Rick Bright is now out of government and serving as senior vice president of pandemic prevention and response at the Rockefeller Foundation.
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- 'Breakthrough infections in people who have gotten their COVID-19 shots are very rare. But here’s why Rick Bright wants the CDC to restart the sequencing of all viral strains.' MarketWatch, May 23, 2021. - Ed.

Rick Bright is no stranger to pandemics. The virologist and immunologist has worked under 4 presidents, in different leadership roles at the CDC, the NIH, and most recently as the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority, which is responsible for giving federal dollars to ramp up production of COVID-19 vaccines & treatments. In that role Bright alleged retaliation from Trump administration officials after he resisted efforts to make unproven COVID-19 treatments like hydroxychloroquine available to Americans, according to a whistleblower complaint filed last spring. (The case is still pending.)

A year later, he’s at the Rockefeller Foundation, running a new pandemic prevention institute. Bright’s got positive things to say about the Biden administration’s handling of the pandemic — he was part of Biden’s COVID-19 task force — but he also has concerns about some of the latest policies put forth by the CDC, particularly about how the public-health agency is monitoring breakthrough infections among the vaccinated. “Those are, in my opinion, the most important viruses that we should look at,” Bright said, during an interview on May 11, “because those are the viruses [that] are infecting people who are supposed to be protected.”

Beyond those immediate concerns, Bright wants to see a better strategy for getting rid of the virus altogether. “We don’t have to let it become endemic,” he said. -- MarketWatch: How would you rate the current genomic surveillance strategy in the U.S.? -- Rick Bright: I’ve worked in pandemic response for decades. Every time something bad happens, we just never seem to appreciate that it’s going to happen and how bad it’s going to be. Every time we get through it, we always say, ‘we’re going to do all these things and make it better [and] make sure it never happens again.’ And we don’t do it. There’s this cycle of panic, and then regret, and then forget. What's struck me as I’ve worked through these responses in the past, to MERS, Zika, SARS, Ebola and SARS-CoV-2, is we never know when to start.

We never have a good starting signal. Because we’re not doing enough surveillance. We have the capability now to do the [genomic] sequencing, but we’re just not doing enough of it, and we’re just not doing it smartly...

More,
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/breakthrough-infections-in-people-who-have-gotten-their-covid-19-shots-are-very-rare-but-heres-why-rick-bright-wants-the-cdc-to-restart-the-sequencing-of-all-viral-strains/ar-BB1gRS7h

[Hoyt]

1. Yes, CDC was premature, but it's too late to take it back now. Yesterday I sat out in the parking

of a large store waiting for someone. Less than 20% were wearing masks. Up until this week, that store and most others in my rube area required masks.

Unfortunately, that was not CDC's first big mistake since early 2020.

[appalachiablue]

3. What a dangerous mistake with serious impacts.

How disappointing to hear about the stores & human behavior in your area.

'America the illiterate,' and brainwashed...

[Warpy]

2. No one is 100% sure what is going on

What they might be positive for is viral debris left over from an infection that didn't go anywhere because they're immune to it.

Breakthrough illness is what is vanishingly rare, people getting ill with Covid after they've been vaccinated. It seems to be at about the same rate as people who had Covid once getting ill with it again. Some people just have immune systems that don't recognize this bug, and that's why the rest of us need to be vaccinated to keep them safe.

My guess is that it's viral debris unless he's actually ill. A better guess says he's enjoying an unexpected vacation and is milking it for all it is worth.

[appalachiablue]

4. I've come across the viral debris explanation

for some cases in reading, it's too bad and certainly plausible.

On Maher, his health and integrity I'd like to think he's being true. But his time off, wow I've never seen a show host take as many vacations, he's always gone the full month of January and other spells. (A self-described libertarian. lol).

Time away could be related to his 'tour performances' although I've never heard him mention it. I don't watch much 'late night' programming to know other hosts' vacay time. And Bill's been so erratic and weird I rarely watch anymore.

[IbogaProject]

5. Risky behavior

My intuition says risky behavior like frequenting prostitutes, who could be incubators for resistant strains are what we are seeing. I hate to diss athletes, even if Yankees. But Bill Maher seems like a sleezeball.