I would read a 3,000-word story on how this tweet came about https://t.co/7wLU4gS4Gm
— Blake News (@blakehounshell) July 20, 2020
Trump says he is bringing back the daily coronavirus briefings starting tomorrow because they got good ratings. “I was doing them and we had a lot of people watching, record numbers watching in the history of cable television, and there’s never been anything like it,” he says.
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) July 20, 2020
And yet *this* was the worst coronavirus-related tweet of the day:
Gov. Mike Parson: “These kids have got to get back to school…. And if they do get COVID-19, which they will — and they will when they go to school — they’re not going to the hospitals…. They’re going to go home and they’re going to get over it.” https://t.co/yEtHbYf3sZ pic.twitter.com/SzoieUGPOh
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch (@stltoday) July 20, 2020
The US reported +546 new coronavirus deaths today, bringing the total to 143,834, and pushing the 7-day moving average back above 800/day. pic.twitter.com/MosEkM6IHX
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) July 21, 2020
Only 2 of the top 5 in the world are still ascending right now. Only 1 is off the chart, again. pic.twitter.com/g7Cs61yiNz
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) July 20, 2020
Is the sharp rise of #Covid19 cases in the U.S. a result of more testing, as the president claims? @sxbegle did the math — a lot of math. In most states, increased cases can't be explained away by increased testing.
Increased cases = more disease. https://t.co/6QlQs7UrjK— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) July 20, 2020
======
Tracking the spread of COVID-19 https://t.co/S4sLTOWmRb pic.twitter.com/njaB7lyO0g
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 21, 2020
Incredible scoop and one so revealing about the Kremlin system. https://t.co/0nAWkwK65i
— Ben Judah (@b_judah) July 20, 2020
India coronavirus: How Kerala's Covid 'success story' came undone https://t.co/2RQDn9iX4t
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 20, 2020
France makes face masks mandatory following new coronavirus outbreakshttps://t.co/4E3TdZekSd
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 20, 2020
“They didn’t ask me who I had been with”: With a virus resurgence in parts of Spain, it appears Catalonia and other regions have not prepared to trace new infections in what was supposed to be an early detection system to prevent a new cascade of cases. https://t.co/0fJd3f1ynW
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 21, 2020
This meeting without face coverings is *high risk* because a) indoors, b) not physically distanced, c) high numbers of people, d) lots of talking, e) looks like windows are shut, f) people at the meeting are coming from different parts of the country.https://t.co/4XLxcTbqws
— Trisha Greenhalgh ?? #BlackLivesMatter (@trishgreenhalgh) July 20, 2020
Breathtaking #coronavirus numbers in S. Africa strongly suggest normal life still a long way off. WHO reports 350,879 cases. S. Africa ranks 5th in the world for COVID19 behind the U.S., Brazil, India and Russia https://t.co/UsU29EZ2oc
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) July 20, 2020
Coronavirus cases are rising sharply in Latin America, with spikes in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Peru
So what are the trends in the region?https://t.co/ooPcGWzIz7— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 20, 2020
Mexico reports 5,172 new coronavirus infections and 301 more deaths https://t.co/lk9X5kcaDT pic.twitter.com/K92J95m4XM
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 21, 2020
======
BREAKING: An experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in people, scientists at Oxford University say. https://t.co/FzO4O4xJjA
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 20, 2020
Three companies issued Phase 2 #COVID19 #vaccine results showing their products appear safe, and induce antibodies. That has stock markets going bananas.
But Phase 3 is the key — studies of use in 30,000+ people of varying age groups.https://t.co/IOifgsnX0E— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) July 20, 2020
#Covid19 vaccine data is coming fast and furious today. @matthewherper, @damiangarde & I report on data out today on the Oxford-AstraZeneca Phase 1/2 & the CanSino Phase 2. https://t.co/CDBrT5tssH
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) July 20, 2020
Chinese phase 2 trial finds vax is safe & induces an immune response. The clinical trial of an Ad5 vectored #COVID19 vaccine candidate was conducted in China by CanSino. Details published in The Lancet https://t.co/qVWfQ8zeUD via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) July 20, 2020
Tomorrow pharma executives are appearing before a congressional committee to talk about #Covid19 vaccine development.@damiangarde & I outline 6 questions the committee members should put to AstraZeneca, J&J, Merck, Moderna & Pfizer. https://t.co/t19dnhHtEY
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) July 20, 2020
======
New from me: Trump’s visa ban couldn’t’ve been worse timed for hospitals expecting a new crop of residents. Consulates refused to stamp visas for weeks (in many cases, until we asked State what was up ??)—creating a staffing crisis that’ll last into fall. https://t.co/Zmqoaa1mWj
— Dara Lind (@DLind) July 17, 2020
Just now:
White House pool reporter @meridithmcgraw: 'Pence said the outbreaks across the sunbelt are “serious” but we are meeting this moment….'
(How serious does the WH think they are? Read the report they didn't release: https://t.co/YvLmfZ5MQv) @publicintegrity
— Liz Essley Whyte (@l_e_whyte) July 20, 2020
Per capita case growth in five Crisis States. Some possible sign case growth is stabilizing, albeit at very high levels. pic.twitter.com/Rc8OyJB9AO
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 20, 2020
Florida had >10k new cases today
California had >8k
Texas had >7k
Louisiana had >3k
Georgia had >2k
11 others states (AL, TN, AZ, NC, SC, MS, OH, IL, KS, PA, WA) had >1k eachNorth Carolina today became the 11th state with over 100,000 cases total. pic.twitter.com/hRdFxk0q0l
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) July 21, 2020
Because they know it's a tremendous failure- one could say historically so- and their president/party are 99% responsible for it. So of course they want to talk distract & talk about anything but. https://t.co/6F7O4udJj9
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) July 19, 2020
California reports nearly 12,000 COVID cases, biggest increase since pandemic started https://t.co/Sm03hPYT4x pic.twitter.com/zCT5IBukOF
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 21, 2020
A Florida teachers union sued Governor Ron DeSantis and other officials in an effort to halt next month's planned restart of classroom instruction, as the state reported more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases for the sixth day in a row on Monday https://t.co/RUCfxUhfWf pic.twitter.com/uUA3LwQ8kK
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 21, 2020
US military medical teams dispatched to California hospitals hard-hit by Covid-19 https://t.co/eAzBi5JdhV
— Guardian World (@guardianworld) July 20, 2020
NotMax
FYI.
rikyrah
Thanks for the information
I will keep it real. Don’t know if I trust an American made vaccine. Give me one from a country that handled COVID-19successfully
NotMax
@rikyrah
Not to throw a wet blanket on vaccines at all but one thing to keep in mind with any initial ones is rate of effectiveness. Keep in mind that when it comes to flu vaccines, an effectiveness rate of 50% is rated a good year.
Point 1: coronavirus is not influenza virus, so parallels are by their nature sketchy
Point 2: Not to say there couldn’t be greatly more effective vaccines, just that any such may be several years away from wide distribution.
/layman’s perspective
NotMax
@NotMax
Follow-up for informational purposes.
Over the last decade, flu vaccine effectiveness has ranged annually from a high of 60% to a low of 19%. Source
Of course, there’s a clinical difference between designing a vaccine ahead of time for anticipated flu strains versus designing one for an existing, ongoing novel coronavirus.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily numbers. 15 new cases. 11 cases from local infection: 10 Malaysians, one non-Malaysian. Five cases from imported infection: Malaysians returning from the UK, Saudi Arabia, and the Netherlands, one non-Malaysian returning from Indonesia. Cumulative total 8,815 cases.
DG of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said his ministry is concerned that the uptick in cases from local infection over the past few days suggests that Malaysians are starting to get complacent; he reminded everyone they needed to keep their guard up.
Seven more patients recovered and were discharged. Total 8,562 patients recovered, 97.1% of the cumulative total. 130 patients with active and contagious cases are in hospital for isolation/treatment; four are in ICU, one is on a respiratory device.
No new deaths. Total remains 123 deaths, which is 1.4% of the cumulative total of cases and 1.42% of resolved cases.
In related developments, the Government is phasing out home quarantining because of non-compliance by a few people. Mandatory 14-day quarantine orders will from this week have to be served at quarantine centres with the quarantined person bearing the cost. Also the Government is about to make it compulsory to wear a mask in public, according to Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaacob. Up to now mask wearing has been strongly encouraged but not mandatory.
Frankensteinbeck
Trump has been reminded that his polls went up briefly when he first started daily briefings and told reassuring lies. Forget it. He can no longer control himself for any length of time. The mask will be off and he’ll be denying again in days, if not immediately. Trump fucks up EVERYTHING.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
If ever there were a way to guarantee skirting of compliance, that’s it.
Barbara
@NotMax: Experts have to anticipate which flu strains will predominate in the coming year, which is the main reason the effectiveness of flu vaccine varies so much. They sometimes miss a circulating strain, so you aren’t actually getting a vaccine at all for that strain. Vaccines do not always confer immunity, but I wouldn’t assume the vaccine for Covid will be hampered in the same way.
SFAW
@NotMax:
But the preznit says it’s the “China* Flu,” so game, set, and touchdown/checkmate, libtard!
* He wanted to use a different word than “China,” but Scavino/Bongino/whothefuckever told him it was a bad idea, even though only one letter would be changed.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
When they quarantine you in a centre, they can make you pay up before they let you go.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
And if you’re unable to pony up the costs?
Amir Khalid
@Frankensteinbeck:
Trump’s ratings will not go up after the resumption of Covid-19 briefings if he’s the one giving them. They’ll just be full of his lies and bullshit and empty bragging, and people are already sick of that.
Robert Sneddon
@NotMax: Coronavirus is not like an influenza virus, it’s more like (but not THAT much like) a cold virus. The variable effectiveness of flu vaccines is mostly because the flu virus hybridises from season to season and any vaccine produced and stockpiled for a given season is playing catch-up with whatever actually comes along. COVID-19 isn’t the sort of virus that hybridises although it does mutate.
The first COVID-19 vaccines with even limited effectiveness will hammer the R0 figure downwards, there will be fewer susceptible targets for the spread of the virus and hence lower rates of onward transmission which is a great benefit. There will be other vaccines that will reach production later, better and more effective which will replace the early vaccines as more is learned and the lessons being learned today are absorbed. It’s not something people are really thinking about but this virus will be around for years or even decades to come, infecting and sickening people. The job on hand is to minimise that infection rate as much as possible.
What we are getting out of this pandemic is a lot of knowledge on how to respond to a world-wide outbreak of a serious easily transmissible disease and the scientific tools to react quickly and develop future vaccines and treatments for such cases. It’s a great time to be a biotechnical researcher or an epidemiologist.
SFAW
@NotMax:
“My vaccine — I call it the ‘Trump Vaccine,’ because I created it — will have the mostest highest effectiveness of any vaccine ever created. Something like 200 percent effective. It will even cure people who don’t take it. Joe Biden tried creating one, and it was something like minus-300 percent effective, and Obama created something to kill white Americans.”
I’ll bet a beer that he tweets or says something not-too-far removed from the above, within the next two months.
terben
From the Australian dept of Health:
As at 3pm on 21 July 2020, a total of 12,428 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Australia, including 126 deaths, and 8,541 have been reported as recovered from COVID-19.
Victoria continues to have big numbers of new cases (374) and 3 deaths, with a minor contribution from NSW. No new cases in the other 4 states and 2 territories.
NotMax
@Barbara
Attempted to address that with the follow-up in #4.
Frankly, I would expect initial effective vaccines to be aligned to treating infection rather than preventing it. Better medicines will follow.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
Good question, and the Government has not addressed it.
NotMax
@Robert Sneddon
No disagreement, we’re entirely on the same page.
rikyrah
@Frankensteinbeck: I
don’t show them live. If anything of note happens, then play that clip on the news shows
Mary G
The OC is better if not good. Percent of tests positive down to 13.2, ICU is steady with 40% capacity unused. New cases much lower, though Mondays often are. After hearing about the train wreck that was Twitler’s Fox interview yesterday, I’m glad he’s starting up again. I won’t be watching.
Dan B
@terben: I read that some of the new infections in Victoria State were from guards having sex with the people in quarantine they were guarding. Crickey!
NotMax
Anecdotal, but have heard rumblings that some few B&B owners in the state, chafing at imposed rules, are issuing 180-day leases now and finding “reasons” to cancel the leases after “tenants” stay one or two weeks.
Aleta
1.
2.
Aleta
3.
There go two miscreants
@rikyrah: While emotionally I agree (I strive to never hear Dump’s ugly voice ) I think this has been a weakness of the media coverage. He can sound coherent for short stretches, and by just broadcasting the coherent clips, the (non-Fox) media is helping to hide his stupidity and ignorance from the general public.
NotMax
@SFAW
“For efficiency, I’ve signed an executive order granting exclusive distribution and sales right to BeautifulIvankaCure.com.”
//
prostratedragon
Top 10 counties by new cases, July 20, 2020:
County, State total new
1 Los Angeles, California, US 159045 3128
2 Miami-Dade, Florida, US 87035 2797
3 Dallas, Texas, US 42292 2070
4 Broward, Florida, US 40976 1695
5 Harris, Texas, US 57071 1328
6 Riverside, California, US 29983 1288
7 Maricopa, Arizona, US 96711 1240
8 Clark, Nevada, US 31312 880
9 Ector, Texas, US 2403 828
10 Kern, California, US 9234 787
Population ratios coming later.
[Sigh] Data from Johns Hopkins.
WereBear
We won’t have a clear picture until after January, Odin willing and we don’t get cheated, again. I’ll feel less stress after the election if we do well, of course, but right now I’m imagining him ranting about nuking one of those liberal cities to kill the virus and these pustules do not even rise to the level of Nixon’s crew.
And that Kremlin tweet is going to happen HERE.
WereBear
@NotMax: Exactly why a functioning government would prop us all up and keep the economy going. Zero Income encourages people to cheat, and endanger us all.
Robert Sneddon
Interesting data from the Office of National Statistics here in the UK — the number of deaths from all causes including COVID-19 is now running about 6% UNDER the five year average. During the (first) peak of infections and deaths from COVID-19 in April we had a death rate of 25,000 people a week compared to the five-year average of 10,000 deaths a week, with about three-quarters of those extra deaths being confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The dip below the average happening now is attributed to elderly and infirm people in the population who were likely to die around this time of the year but they caught the disease and died in April and May instead.
Mousebumples
Radiolab (a WNYC podcast) had an interesting Coronavirus episode this week – https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538884/radiolab
Dispatches from 1918
It’s largely about the lessons we should take from 1918 flu strain – including how things have changed (and how parts of that virus currently circulate annually as the seasonal flu ). And unless I’m mixing up my podcasts l, i think Fauci was on at the end too. (i listen to lots of podcasts while I work and sometimes the guests on each get mixed up – Fauci has been on A LOT of my podcasts as of late!)
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, China reported 8 new domestic confirmed and 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all in Xinjiang. 7 of the confirmed cases are at Urumqi, and 1 reported by the Xinjiang Construction Corps (XJCC). This brings the total cases from the Urumqi outbreak to 55 confirmed (53 in Urumqi, 1 in Kashgar, 1 in XJCC) and 51 asymptomatic (50 in Urumqi and 1 exported to Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province). 2 cases are in severe condition.
It is certainly the case that the authorities is being less transparent with the Urumqi outbreak, still no case summaries being published, so no idea whether the cases are being identified while under quarantine or developing symptoms first and being sent to fever clinics or ER. Urumqi and rest of Xinjiang also appear to be less targeted with the lock downs. Whereas Beijing classified risk levels at subdistrict levels, and implemented customized policies at the community and residential compound levels. In Urumqi, both Tianshan and Saybag Districts are deem ed High Risk, while Toutunhe, Xinshi and Shuimogou Districts are Medium Risk. All residential compounds in the city has been closed off (for 7 days initially), while a number of cities in the rest of Xinjiang are doing the same, though most of them do not have any cases.
The Xinjiang Construction Corps is a relic from the early days of the PRC, when a People’s Liberation Army Corps was sent to Xinjiang to reassert central authority over the region and take over from the local Kuomintang governor, at the end of the Chinese Civil War. The soldiers settled and married Han (or other non-Turkic ethnic groups) Chinese sent to Xinjiang, and became a quasi-colonial farmer-militia organization that Chinese empires often employed on the frontiers. To this day, the XJCC has retained its militia function, although it basically operates as an agribusiness conglomerate. The XJCC largely developed new settlements from oases that dot the periphery of the Tarim Basin, rather than displacing the indigene our Uighur and other Turkic peoples, and it has been there for seven decades. Therefore, relations between the Uighur population and the XJCC historically has not been as strained as the new migrants from the rest of China. The XJCC functions as a quasi-provincial authority within the Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region, with its own public services. I am not sure how much authority the Regional government in Urumqi actually has over the XJCC, Nevertheless, the COVID-19 cases have been reported through the Xinjiang Health Commission. No idea in which of the numerous XJCC settlements was the confirmed case found.
China also reported 3 imported confirmed and 1 imported asymptomatic cases:
Shanghai Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, one a Chinese student returning from the US, another a Chinese tourist returning from the Philippines (having been stuck there for months due to the travel restrictions)
Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case, reported as asymptomatic on 7/19, a Chinese national returning from Zambia
Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Hong Kong resident
Hong Kong reported 61 new cases today, 58 from local transmission. 25 of the local cases do not yet have source of transmission identified. There seems to be community spread at numerous hot spots across the city, and the city appears to be reaching capacity for quarantine and testing. Shenzhen based BGI has established one of its turn-key Fire Eye RT-PCR testing labs in the territory.
YY_Sima Qian
Wuhan, and every other city in China, has been conducting daily random checks of environmental samples taken from various settings. For example, on 7/20 2812 samples have been tested, taken from 3 hospitals, 9 supermarkets, 17 produce/wet markets, 1 public bus, 1 metro station, 17 public restrooms, 4 express delivery locations, 10 restaurants, 14 factories and worker dormitories, 113 foodstuff (including 35 from beef and lamb). All samples tested negative. Samples from sewage is also checked periodically, the most recent being 7/18. Urumqi has also tasted sewage, without detecting SARS-CoV-2, indicating the outbreak there is not yet widespread.
Meanwhile, Beijing has reduced its Epidemic Response Alert Level from 2 down to 3. Only 1 sub-district is still at Medium Risk. My colleagues based in Beijing have been able to go on business trips starting from this week. Most jurisdictions in China are willing to accept travelers from Beijing with only a green health code, but the businesses generally still require negative RT-PCR and antibody test results within 7 days to grant access into their facilities. With a rapid and intense response, the potentially problematic Xinfadi outbreak only resulted in 355 confirmed cases (plus < 50 asymptomatic cases), with localized and targeted restrictions lasting just over a month.
Uncle Cosmo
Why in the world would you expect that?
IIUC, vaccines do not directly fight an infection; they introduce attenuated or killed or fragmentary versions of the pathogen to stimulate the body’s immune system to generate antibodies (etc.) to attack it. But someone who’s infected already has the pathogen in their system. If its presence isn’t already eliciting an immune response, how is a dose of vaccine going to help?
What (if anything) am I missing here?
terben
@Dan B: I think that I mentioned that some time back in one of my posts. People returning from overseas were being quarantined in city hotels, which were guarded by private security. In Victoria, as we are now discovering, these security people were recruited via WhatsApp messages and told to provide their own PPE. Stories are emerging that they received no training in hygiene procedures and fairly quickly a number had Covid-19 and were taking it home to their families.
YY_Sima Qian
@terben: That is pretty baffling. Who dropped the ball here? The State government, or the contract security company?
In China, all personnel at quarantine hotels are provided full protective gear, nearly the same level of PPE as medical personnel working in COVID-19 wards. All people under quarantine are confined strictly to their rooms, and the workers at the quarantine hotels minimize their face to face contact with the people under quarantine, the typically only when they come around collecting swab samples, accompanying specifically trained nurses. Any item to be delivered is left at the door, and the person under quarantine is not to open the door until the worker has left the floor. There are nurses and doctors on site to assess and treat anyone developing symptoms. Fraternization is unthinkable.
Uncle Cosmo
Talk about saying the quiet parts out loud. This is closer to shouting it from the steepletop.
And this (IMO) is the obscenity at the heart of all proselytizing belief systems: They cannot stop until everyone they come in contact with believes exactly as they do – because they’re terrified they might be wrong & the only way to squash that heresy is to prevent it from existing. Until then, the world must be divided into us and them – and whoever of them can’t of won’t be converted, or is otherwise contumacious** with respect to their “authorities,” really doesn’t count as a human being.
——–
** Popular word in Catholicism in the days when the One True Church was riding high – one of a handful of now-obscure terms I took away from years of Saturday mornings with the
Confraternity of Christian DoctrineConfabulation of Catholic Dogma en route toConfirmationGoyisch Bar Mitvah & apostasy soon after.WereBear
@terben: In other words, Trump Business Practices.
terben
@YY_Sima Qian: There is a judicial inquiry trying to get to the bottom of it. My best guess, and it’s only a guess, is that one or more of the security companies will wear the blame in the end. They tend not to employ people directly, but to subcontract.
Jerzy Russian
@YY_Sima Qian: Thanks for the detailed reports every day. The differences between the number of cases, the testing procedures, responses, etc. between here and there is staggering.
Also too;
Ewwww!
YY_Sima Qian
@Jerzy Russian: Hahaha, “tested”. I hate the MacBook Pro keyboard and the autocorrect!
laura
@Amir Khalid: We could use the practical straight talk of a Noor Hisham Abdullah, instead we have Agolf Twitler.
Jerzy Russian
@YY_Sima Qian:
Yes, “testing” would still get an “eww”, but with fewer Ws.
My MacBook Pro keyboard is starting to produce two letters for every keystroke. I am not sure if that is hardware or software. It will be a major ordeal to go to the Apple store to find out.
Amir Khalid
@laura:
You do have Dr Fauci among others. Americans value his expertise, honesty and forthrightness over Trump’s bullshit. But Trump, who sees him as a rival for the spotlight, refuses to let him speak, or to hand him and his fellow experts the lead.
mrmoshpotato
Thank you for these daily posts. I’m sure it takes a lot to sift through everything.