Recap of yesterday’s #COVID19 statements:
WHO Director General: “The worst is yet to come”
CDC Principal Deputy Director: “This is really the beginning”
White House Press Secretary: “We’re aware that there are embers that need to be put out.”
— Craig Spencer MD MPH (@Craig_A_Spencer) June 30, 2020
With about 40,000 new cases being reported a day, Dr. Anthony Fauci says the U.S. is “going in the wrong direction” in some regions, putting the country at risk. If things don't turn around, Fauci says he wouldn't be surprised to see 100,000 cases a day. https://t.co/muJhUKd7eL
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 30, 2020
Another record high #COVID19 tally in the US today: 46k new cases.
Fourth time in the past week with a new single-day record.
And 8 states – Alaska, Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas – reported single-day records.https://t.co/mCmcW9Ffp7
— Craig Spencer MD MPH (@Craig_A_Spencer) July 1, 2020
Pew asked the same people in March and June if they approved of Trump's job performance as president.
Over that period 1-in-6 of those who'd approved of Trump switched their views of him. 45% of that group lived in areas hardest-hit by covid. https://t.co/nbu92rwSu6
— Philip Bump (@pbump) June 30, 2020
Here's a 2007 CDC pandemic plan warning that erratic social distancing rules would cause economic and social damage without containing the disease https://t.co/Ak8xWcSQWb pic.twitter.com/F9eLhAUz9N
— Emily Kopp (@emilyakopp) June 30, 2020
The U.S. public health system was left ill-equipped to fight #covid19. A @KHNews @AP investigation finds more cuts are underway. @LaurenWeberHP @laura_ungar @MRSmithAP @hannah_recht @annabarryjester. [STATE MAP https://t.co/J6OP2UiGkC ]
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 1, 2020
COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on military recruiting, shuttering U.S. enlistment stations around the country and forcing thousands of recruiters to woo potential soldiers online. https://t.co/fpIY2c3mUx
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 30, 2020
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Coronavirus-related fatalities continue to pile up as the world passes half a million deaths https://t.co/YsnVVzgeLy pic.twitter.com/CtFvZgxBHl
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 1, 2020
BREAKING: The European Union announces that it will reopen its borders to travelers from 14 countries, but most Americans have been refused entry for at least another two weeks due to soaring coronavirus infections in the U.S. https://t.co/ynZliK5MDm
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 30, 2020
Sweden starts critical look at its pandemic response https://t.co/RsbZu6AL0K pic.twitter.com/NssOCM7ack
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 30, 2020
40% of #coronavirus carriers in the Italian town of Vo showed no symptoms, according to a newly published study. Vo, population 3200, recorded Italy's 1st #COVID19 death in late February. Vo was placed in a 2-wk lockdown at which time 85% of Vo was tested https://t.co/rECkCyy99d pic.twitter.com/b5Nnni6vm0
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 30, 2020
Coronavirus: Czechs hold party to 'farewell' pandemic https://t.co/Ze0XaG8xMB
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 1, 2020
“The virus is out there, still circling like a shark in the water." Boris Johnson urged caution as a local outbreak forced authorities to lock down a city in England, but the British prime minister also called for a "New Deal" to kick-start the economy. https://t.co/hJy4JbD8r9
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) June 30, 2020
Tokyo confirms 67 new cases of coronavirus infection Wednesday: NHK https://t.co/GQVee3oqaq pic.twitter.com/88IKQFnqzN
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 1, 2020
Australia to lock down 300,000 in Melbourne suburbs after coronavirus spike https://t.co/BfnaIif2FL pic.twitter.com/V92ua4y2ux
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 1, 2020
Terrible numbers out of #Brazil:
– 1,271 deaths in 24 hours
– total of 59,656 deaths
– 1,408,485 confirmed cases
– 37,997 new cases in 24 hourshttps://t.co/fYeQucQLDQ>— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) July 1, 2020
Mexico registers 5,432 new coronavirus cases, 648 more deaths https://t.co/eMMlNOzlD4 pic.twitter.com/A97OjX9mC6
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 1, 2020
Canada extends COVID-19 international border closures, mandatory quarantine order https://t.co/Zd3bLyfoLW pic.twitter.com/d9h4GEPtkx
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 30, 2020
Airbus says it may be 2025 before air travel rebounds from the coronavirus pandemic. To survive the thin years ahead, the European aircraft manufacturer is quickly eliminating 15,000 jobs, mostly in Europe. https://t.co/oSn83y0NIp
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) June 30, 2020
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#COVID19 causes 'hyperactivity' in blood-clotting cells, according to researchers at Univ of Utah Health Sciences. Changes in blood platelets can contribute to the onset of heart attacks, strokes & other serious complications. Report in the journal, Blood https://t.co/xVWcWAJrf3 pic.twitter.com/cIFl7YR3ZI
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 30, 2020
FDA will require a covid-19 vaccine be at least 50 percent more effective than a placebo https://t.co/tNkrNvmPga
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 30, 2020
U.S. health officials are pushing a new pooling approach to boost screening for the coronavirus — run tests in batches instead of individually.https://t.co/31XF0GzPm3
— AP Health & Science (@APHealthScience) June 30, 2020
So… what happens if another country develops a successful Covid-19 vaccine first? I am sure this won't be forgotten! https://t.co/DqH0fRksz2
— Alexandra Sifferlin (@acsifferlin) June 30, 2020
FBI: Beware of scammers selling fake #COVID19 antibody tests. FBI said fraudsters are also trying to get people's personal information, such as names, birthdates & Social Security numbers as well as Medicare and/or private health insurance info https://t.co/91qNlMeDvt
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 30, 2020
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Analysis: More coronavirus tests are coming back positive, contrary to what Trump and the House Republican leader claim https://t.co/XEm1DrRVZO
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 30, 2020
New cases of the coronavirus are now on the rise in 39 states.
Here's the latest data: https://t.co/s93ZEpm0vL
— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) June 30, 2020
"Many politicians seem to rationalize reopening decisions in alignment with the cabin fever of their constituencies." — Data, not how fed up people are, have to drive decisions on when and how much to reopen, @DrRichBesser warns. https://t.co/TIVmy7bv8B
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) June 30, 2020
The "we're in trouble list" of states today, with extremes of positive tests, still led by Arizona pic.twitter.com/2XRMWSpsjv
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) June 30, 2020
2 govt reports: Most people w/ positive #coronavirus tests aren't sure how they caught it. In the1st study only 27% of 360+ Coloradans knew of a contact 2 wks before testing positive. 2nd study, 46% of 350 people were certain who may have infected them https://t.co/GsBIy5Jgmf
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 30, 2020
There were 6975 new cases reported in Texas as of 5pm — a record. Things are getting worse not better. Do not listen to the White House spokeswoman who says only a few embers need to be put out. A firestorm of #COVID19 cases is already burning across the country. https://t.co/56RpXpvaqI pic.twitter.com/eKPI8MdcQA
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 30, 2020
Cool, cool. Sorry Texans, you're on your own. https://t.co/pS8cQllyGK
— Dr. Tara C. Smith (@aetiology) July 1, 2020
"We’re not the problem": Texas bar owners sue over governor’s shutdown order https://t.co/ONzHEuLi0p
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 30, 2020
Mary G
God these idiots are going to get a couple of million Americans killed and drop the economy into the toilet for a decade.
The Thin Black Duke
@Mary G:
“Everything Trump touches dies.” — Rick Wilson
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily numbers. One new case, the lowest number reported since the second wave here began on March 27. It’s an imported case: a Malaysian returning from Turkey. Cumulative total 8,640 cases.
At today’s media briefing, still in progress as I type, DG of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah says it’s a landmark achievement to have zero cases from local infection. He congratulates us Malaysians on our self-control and discipline in observing the new norms, but reminds us that we need to keep it up because the virus is still out there in the world.
21 more patients recovered and were discharged, total 8,375 recovered or 96.9% of the cumulative total. That leaves 144 active and contagious patients in hospital for isolation/treatment; four are in ICU, two of them on ventilators.
No new deaths. That’s 17 days in a row with no fatalities from Covid-19. Infection fatality rate is 1.4%, case fatality rate is 1.42%.
Gvg
I haven’t seen it mentioned specifically, but I don’t see how any military units can remain uninfected. Soldiers and sailors live and work in large groups. They seem like sitting ducks in virus conditions. I don’t see how to get around that.
Amir Khalid
I think there’s a generic version of remdesivir, which is available only to developing nations. I don’t know if Malaysia still counts as one, but Dr Noor Hisham said today there are only nine Covid-19 patients here for whom it might be suitable.
terben
From the Australian Dept of Health:
‘As at 3pm on 1 July 2020, a total of 7,920 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Australia, including 104 deaths and 7,063 have been reported as recovered from COVID-19.
87 new cases today, 1 reclassified for a net increase of 86. 14 cases in NSW, all in quarantine. 73 cases in Victoria, which is doing it tough at the moment. At this time NSW has not closed the border to Victoria, (it would be logistically difficult anyway) but they are promising massive fines for any Victorians from the designated lockdown zones who think it might be a good idea to visit.
The Victorian outbreak seems to have started in a quarantine hotel, when security staff became infected and then spread it among their families. In my state, quarantine security is being done by police rather than private contractors. There are lessons to be learned everywhere.
Amir Khalid
@Gvg:
I’m surprised that the US military’s only widely known outbreak was aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Kirk Spencer
While TMC says there is enough bed space for another couple weeks at this rate, several news reports last night said local hospitals are transferring patients out to other sites so as to make room.
terben
@Gvg: Worldometers has a separate category for US Military. The current number is 17,116. US DoD site here.
Amir Khalid
In other news, Education Minister Dr. Mohd Radzi Mohamad Jidin announced today that school will reopen for all remaining grades this month. Fifth formers and sixth formers in Semester II, the grades sitting for critical public exams, are already back in school. Semester I sixth formers, first, second, third and fourth formers, and children in year 5 and year 6 go back to school on the 15th. Years 1 to 4 go back on the 22nd. Schools are subject to standard operating procedures drawn up with the Health Ministry’s input.
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G:
Some perspective here – at least 10s of millions of non-voting selfish shithead children (of all ages) didn’t have to live through 4 years of having (whiny voice) “Ewwww Hillary!” as President. Because they used their votes to tell her to fuck off. So hooray for them.
mrmoshpotato
On the subject of fighting with experts like a moron:
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, Beijing reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases, and no new suspect and asymptomatic cases. One of the case had been identified as a close contact of a previous confirmed case, and was placed under centralized quarantine, since 6/19. Another case has several coworkers and family members with connection to the Xinfadi wholesale produce exchange, had dinner with a previous confirmed case; the case was identified as a close contact on 6/26, and was placed under centralized quarantine. The final had shopped at Xinfadi on 6/11. She went into self-quarantine for 14 days. On 6/21 she developed mild symptoms (headache, nausea and loss of smell), but did not seek treatment. On 6/25, she felt that she had completed her self-quarantine without incident, and went out to hang out with friends. She tested positive on 6/30. We may see some of her friends join the infected list in the coming days.
Overall, I think the Xinfadi outbreaks has been brought under control. It was discovered adequately early, and the authorities responded quite quickly and with abundance of caution, and the testing campaign in Beijing has been truly massive. Given the initial epicenter, this outbreak had the potential to quickly spread across Beijing and Northern China, a slow response like Wuhan in mid-Jan. (never mind the likes of the US and Brazil) would have been catastrophic.
YY_Sima Qian
Saddam Hussein had “Baghdad Bob”. Any catchy monikers for the current and past White House Press Secretaries?
Patricia Kayden
mrmoshpotato
Rethuglicans wanted their death panels…
YY_Sima Qian
For sample pooling to work, overall COVID-19 prevalence needs to be relatively low. Taking Utah’s 10% positive rate, pooling a batch of 5 samples to be tested together, 40% of the batches would return positive and require retesting the individual samples. Taking Arizona’s 25% positive rate, 75% of the batches would produce positive results that would require retesting of the individual samples. If one has to frequently retest high risk groups (EMS, police, firefighters, medical staff, nursing home staff, service staff, etc.), then sample pooling might make sense.
With low prevalence, sample pooling can quickly achieve extraordinary testing capacity. Its value has been demonstrated by Germany and China (in Wuhan and Beijing).
Kirk Spencer
@Kirk Spencer: I should correct and clarify my post. TMC says it has enough beds, true. But they expect to exceed phase 1 beds after tomorrow. Phase 1 is ICU beds in standard configuration. Phase 2 is still intensive care beds, but reorganized and reconfigured t almost double. What is not expected over the next two weeks is phase 3 which is using non intensive care beds
So yeah, at roughly 1% of Houston infected, things are about to get interesting here.
Brachiator
@Patricia Kayden:
I thought that Oklahoma narrowly approved the Medicaid expansion initiative. Did the vote count change?
mrmoshpotato
@YY_Sima Qian: “Lying (add your preferred curse words here)”
randy
Dear Kay,
When you talk about the low priority of primary and secondary schools of America in this covid crisis, I hear urgency, anger, and even desperation. Those were my own feelings in the late eighties to early nineties in the face of a home schooling failure on the Afro side of my family. Urgency is good all the way, but sometimes anger and desperation, as valid as they are, don’t help find the better way forward when taken as guidance instead of motivation. It took me time to learn that even a failed home schooling can help students grow more peaceful and well adjusted. Somehow destitution and often boyfriend trouble did not keep my sister from giving her three black sons enough emotional reassurance and intellectual stimulation to overcome that academic weakness later on. The oldest leads a world-wide team of software engineers. After being fry cook and camp boss on every dig site, the next has begun work on a masters in anthropology. And the youngest I thought would always be a stoner mechanic executed a 4.0 tour de force of industrial design and went straight into law school.
The lessons I take for our current schooling dilemma are three-fold.
Let us work toward classroom effect, but not at deadly risk.
Let us spend freely on families, communities, and broad proliferation of intellectual stimulation.
Finally, although you have reminded us that the new at-risk population is similar to the old, let us be alert and inquisitive to new winners and unexpected losers. Failure shall not be allowed, even if covidian civilization must redefine success and failure.
randy
Kay
I’m optimistic about the election but I think the idea that Trump doesn’t “want” a second term is flat-out delusional.
We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars he gifted the very wealthy with those tax cuts. There is an enormous amount of money at stake. And that doesn’t even take into account that he gutted environmental regulations, essentially ended tax collections enforcement, gutted worker safety and product regulations, and on and on.
They’re not going down without a fight. It’s just now dawning on them that they might actually lose. There is a going to be a ferocious response. These assholes aren’t returning the billions and billions Trump handed them without all manner of sleazy tricks and skullduggery. They also have a completely corrupt AG in their corner and we already saw that the FBI is politicized when they intervened on Trump’s behalf in 2016. Remember that? The FBI snowflakes were pissed off that BLM activists thought police should stop murdering people so the FBI blatantly backed Trump? What’s changed about that? Nothing.
Kay
@randy:
That’s great randy but in my district only half the students go on to college as it is and they had school every day. In our district, the single best predictor of success after high school for low income students is attendance. Showing up. There are always exceptions, but they are the exceptions. In a smaller school you can count those exceptions on one hand. What is much more common in our school is when low income students are given extra supports in a directed, planned way many, many more of them succeed. We don’t leave it to chance because if we did the vast majority of them wouldn’t succeed. Some would! But not nearly as many.
So I don’t think it’s acceptable to just hope people find their way and all become ace homeschoolers, or if they don’t become ace homeschoolers (as in your case) the students somehow persevere and overcome that. No other developed country is taking this laissez-faire approach to public education in a pandemic. I guess it could work but what you’re betting here is 50 million children. That’s who we’ll be conducting this experiment on. They had nothing to do with our political and governmental collapse. They are the LEAST responsible for this mess we find ourselves in.
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: To be blunt, I’m not a fan of the Pulling Myself Up By My Own Bootstraps theory of empowerment, especially when the hucksters who peddle this bullshit inherited a shoe store.
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
I’m on a school committee in a small town and we have these success stories every year. A disadvantaged kid who is bright and bored in school so cuts their own path and succeeds. But they’re so much the exception they inspire individual anecdotes. MUCH more common is where the school intervened – planned, specific actions- and took a much larger group from “poor” to “hopefully middle class”. We can’t do this one by one anymore than we can control the virus one by one. There are 50 million of them.
Sab
@Kay: My stepdaughter’s step- oldest was “home- schooled” ( i.e. not schooled) for most of her elementary school. Basically she stayed home and watched the babies. We got her into the public schools when she was due for junior high school. She graduated from high school a couple of years ago with an ACT in the top 5%. No way she could have done that from home.
Kay
@Sab:
I don’t know if she would or wouldn’t have but there are extraordinary people – no one doubts that. But that’s not the point of a generalized public education system- the point of a generalized public education is to move big numbers of kids in a general direction.
There are people with extraordinary immune systems, or really good genes where they smoke or whatever and live to 102. No one designs a health care system around those people. Not taking anything away from them! But they’re not what we’re doing with this.
America better be really damn exceptional because they’re abandoning their entire public education system – unlike every other developed county in this crisis- and hoping it works out. It’s not going to. It will be a disaster. I would bet my house on it.
Kay
@Sab:
I also think if we’re going to say “we follow the science!” we can’t just blithely ignore the academy of pediatrics who put out a really strong (and supported) statement urging schools to open.
That’s science too. You don’t get to just discard the parts you don’t like.
Sab
@Kay: Don’t. You need your house.
Obdurodon
@YY_Sima Qian: COVID Kayleigh?
Sab
@Kay: Some of my step-in-laws have hired teachers to do their day care. Setting up their own little professional day-care/nursery schools. They aren’t trusting their government. Their parents survived China’s cultural revolution. They are glad to be Americans but wary of government competence.
Kay
@Sab:
Oh, God, no I don’t. I spent all these decades getting real estate and paying it off and now I can’t fucking wait to unload it. What I would like is a newer mobile home closer to my grandchild – so I can essentially stalk her :)
My daughter is going to put her in some hippie school, I just know it. She sends me these links- “the woods school”. OMFG. They’re not going to teach her to read, I just know it.
randy
@Kay:
Everyone has a chance to be exceptional if they get enough support. If it’s the only safe way, I say commandeer buildings until every four or five have their own room, but also think outside the classroom. Think big. Pay students to study. Pay parents to teach.
Uncle Cosmo
@YY_Sima Qian: Sourah Hucksterbot Slanders? Cruelly McInanely? Usw.
Obdurodon
My school district just sent out their “blueprint” for reopening. 60 pages. Measures include a week-in/week-at-home cohort system, fewer/longer classes to reduce each student’s number of contacts per day, various measures to reduce encounters in hallways, distancing, PPE, frequent cleanings, HVAC audit and possible upgrade (for already-pretty-modern systems). There is a fully remote option, but needs-based and requires approval. It’s about as good as one could expect, but as I read it I kept noticing how practically every measure is possible only because we’re an affluent suburb. Poorer city schools are going to have a hard time with even the most basic improvements. I don’t know how – we can’t undo the legacy from years of inequitable funding in just a couple of months – but we need to do better.
Sab
@Kay: Akron schools just released their plan. I am happy. Everyone (teachers and pupils) in masks. Kids partly in class and partly at home to keep class size down. Special needs kids high priority to get more in class time.
Sab
@Kay: Tiny house?
Obdurodon
@randy: It might seem a bit cynical, but I’m pretty sure there will be a lot of commercial real estate that will be empty for a while because the occupants went out of business. We could commandeer some of that space, possibly offering later tax breaks as recompense. Managing many such spaces would be a logistical nightmare so I’m not sure it would actually work, but the resource is there.
Sab
@Kay: Plus all of the students come from anti-vaxx families.
ETA: My college roommate teaches at a Waldorf Steiner school. Parents are amazing, and not in a good way. Forget discipline.
Robert Sneddon
Nicola Sturgeon, our First Minister here in Scotland is currently biting lumps out of PM Boris Johnson after his fatuous statement in the House of Commons about how there would be no quarantine restrictions at the Scottish border because “one nation” and all that.
Right now Scotland is doing better than England in getting its COVID numbers down. Since health is a devolved issue then requiring English visitors to Scotland to have to undergo some kind of quarantine is entirely within the remit of the Scottish government. There’s no quarantine at the moment but the way England is approaching the end of initial lockdown in a laissez-faire manner it’s not inconceivable that the decision to require quarantine might well be made.
Sab
@Robert Sneddon: One nation but two countries?
Robert Sneddon
@Sab: It’s the other way round, Britain (or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) is one country but Scotland is a nation within that Union as is England (Wales is a Principality). It has a national assembly, the Scottish Parliament which has devolved powers over things like health in Scotland.
Quiltingfool
I live in the Lake of the Ozarks, MO, region. I am puzzled by our Covid numbers – ranks about the low middle range for all MO counties (60 cases, 1 death) – I thought it would be higher considering the huge number of people coming here for Memorial Day weekend (remember the pictures of crowded lake bar swimming pools?).
Two things that I can think may have bearing on these numbers: people come here for outdoor activities – boating and drinking/eating outside, and these folks go back home – and take infection with them. Tourists mingle with other tourists – locals generally stay away from restaurants, bars, and to some degree, the lake, during summer weekends. We leave that to tourists. The folks who have lake homes may go to lakeside bars (easy to get to by boat), but they may be entertaining family at home.
I don’t know. You’d think we would be a hotspot, but no so far. And that’s the key word – so far. I wear a mask, want to protect the workers who are surrounded by people all day long.
randy
@Obdurodon: u not cynical. mi cynical.
Thanks for help in brainstorm. I’ve helped solve these thorny patches keeping an open mind, persisting, etc. Not so nearly under threat of death those times.
randy
@randy: How about:
Visiting teacher comes in the bookmobile, starts the lesson, pays parent a pittance to finish it and supervise homework?
Lacuna Synechdoche
AP Europe via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Every time I see a picture of Boris Johnson, I wonder how could someone who looks that ridiculous become Prime Minister of the UK … and then I remember I’m American and who our president is.
Lacuna Synechdoche
AP via Anne Laurie @ Top:
The number of increasing infections is already baked in for the next 3 weeks, which means our numbers will continue soaring for at least 5 weeks. The EU should have announced an at least 6 week delay in admitting people from the US, and frankly even that’s optimistic.
Another Scott
Nobody could have predicted…
https://reut.rs/38j5DST
Cheers,
Scott.
Bill Arnold
@Obdurodon:
Masks/face coverings?
(Meals and cracking down on general non-compliance would be a problem but even 80 percent mask usage would help a lot.)
Royston Vasey
New Zealand
0 new cases for the second day running.
0 new deaths (total = 22)
22 active cases (all returning NZers from overseas)
including 1 in hospital (non-critical)
The total number of confirmed cases remains at 1178, with 350 probable cases, for a combined total of 1528.
In other news, paid parental leave was increased from 22 weeks to 26 weeks.
RV in NZ