Even countries celebrated for their handling of the pandemic are seeing a resurgence in Covid-19 cases.
The renewed outbreaks serve as a stark warning to global leaders of how quickly an apparent success story can unravel. https://t.co/fBG1w8ce3X
— CNN (@CNN) August 4, 2020
The U.S. will need to bring its daily coronavirus case count down to 10,000 by September to gain some level of control over the pandemic before fall, Dr. Fauci says. https://t.co/Zjwr88omNM
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 4, 2020
36 states are now coronavirus #hotspots — based on cases and positivity rates increasing, or meeting specific thresholds.
That means ~76% of the U.S. population is now living in a hot spot.
Dig into our criteria in the state data dashboard: https://t.co/3ww4dGJLvT pic.twitter.com/6GIquqcxT0
— KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) (@KFF) August 3, 2020
I suspect I’ll be reposting this link during prime time, once I’ve had a chance to read the whole essay, but here’s a heads-up now that it’s out (and *not* behind a paywall):
If your emotional reserves are strong this morning, read this amazing piece by @edyong209. If they are not, do what you need to do to take care of yourself. https://t.co/s1XynGO9EW
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) August 3, 2020
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More than 18 million confirmed cases in 188 countries – where are the world's coronavirus hotspots? https://t.co/cFaWoa8h3y
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 3, 2020
Philippine capital returning to lockdown as #coronavirus cases surge throughout Manila and surrounding provinces. A strict quarantine will be imposed starting Tuesday for two weeks https://t.co/ifwW2fqQeW via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 3, 2020
Coronavirus: Melbourne police rebuke 'sovereign citizens' for breaking rules https://t.co/AEFGbi8b4w
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 4, 2020
The number of deaths from Covid-19 in Iran is nearly triple what the Iran govt claims, a BBC investigation has found.The govt's own records appear to show almost 42,000 people died with symptoms up to 20 July, vs 14,405 reported by its health ministry. https://t.co/9dPg6JrhR0
— Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) August 3, 2020
Germany already dealing with second coronavirus wave: doctors' union https://t.co/8K1hm2W3W5 pic.twitter.com/WRYsAW40BH
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 4, 2020
Spain is seeing a second wave of coronavirus infections as young people socialize and families go on summer vacations. The surge is threatening to derail hopes of a rebound in tourism. https://t.co/NgoEmQsxSa
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) August 3, 2020
Latin America breaks through 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, @Reuters tally shows https://t.co/66n8Qet499 pic.twitter.com/oGGLB2WGNy
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 4, 2020
Brazil reports 16,641 new coronavirus cases, 561 new deaths https://t.co/StMD9N9kaN pic.twitter.com/TSrax9Hs36
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 4, 2020
Norwegian cruise ship company Hurtigruten halts trips, apologizes for errors after coronavirus outbreak hits one ship and 40 people test positive. https://t.co/WRsFS2oYBv
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) August 3, 2020
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Yes, PCR tests can detect “the COVID virus” https://t.co/ocueelCtAS
— ɪᴀɴ ᴍ. ᴍᴀᴄᴋᴀʏ, ᴘʜᴅ ?????? (@MackayIM) August 4, 2020
Britain has hardly been first-in-class in COVID response, but here’s one more indicator of how disastrously bad US response has been. They’re working to get from avg 24-hour testing response down to 90 minutes. Here, you’re lucky if you get it in a week.https://t.co/tTo6asp7S2
— Brad Lander (@bradlander) August 3, 2020
The #vaccine race is going into hyper-drive. On Aug12 Russia will register the world's 1st #SARSCoV2 #vaccine, "developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Inst & the Russian Direct Investment Fund…may be approved for civilian use w/in 3 to 7 dys of registration"https://t.co/sM5TNuU9OJ
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 3, 2020
When you're counting on something for a rescue, bail-out, it's best to have healthy skepticism. That's the perspective from @nataliexdean, with this clear-eyed essay on a vaccine for #SARSCoV2 https://t.co/HpU3kIazvR @nytopinion pic.twitter.com/mOveKTGWVR
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 3, 2020
"We must resist the desire to rush out a product. Creating vaccines is hard, and we should be prepared for the reality that some promising ones will not meet the F.D.A.’s criteria." — @nataliexdean injects a dose of reality into the #Covid19 projections. https://t.co/fw3FsbNT4T
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) August 3, 2020
“A senior administration official refused to promise that any emergency approval of a vaccine would be vetted through the Food and Drug Administration’s outside advisory panel of experts.” https://t.co/9XRKYGStGg
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 3, 2020
I’ll believe that Jared Kushner is growing into his role as a White House staffer when he stops viewing ethical conflicts of interest as a good thing. https://t.co/9XRKYGStGg pic.twitter.com/92mXdowRUy
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 3, 2020
States are told by the National Governors Association to get going on planning to deploy #Covid19 vaccines. https://t.co/oOMbo8IXQQ
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) August 3, 2020
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America's essential workers & #COVID19 risk:
"Using 2018 data, an estimated 40% of US adults would be categorized as essential workers during the current #pandemic, with 13% living in high-risk households."
At least 11% have no health insurance.https://t.co/RUbCDVXiKP pic.twitter.com/1GfPtZOSgk
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 3, 2020
NY has #COVID19 under real control — one of only 8 states to have managed it. But the cost in human lives, jobs and the economy have been very steep. Horrible. https://t.co/FjFxOOSPl7
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 3, 2020
A Michigan state senator who has pushed back against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s efforts to fight the coronavirus has tested positive, leading to a temporary shutdown of the state Legislature. https://t.co/WAAxHPLZnl
— AP Central U.S. (@APCentralRegion) August 3, 2020
Asked by @Acosta to explain why members of the task force are correcting his coronavirus misinformation, Trump responds by spreading more coronavirus misinformation pic.twitter.com/AenZx7yI56
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 3, 2020
I guess I need to say this again: Navarro is the President’s trade advisor and has no expertise on the pandemic and media should not ask him about it. He also has no expertise on trade policy, but that’s a different story. https://t.co/nI6TkWEQ9S
— Sean Ehrlich (@SeanDEhrlich) August 3, 2020
.@jonathanvswan: “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.”@realdonaldtrump: “You can’t do that.”
Swan: “Why can’t I do that?” pic.twitter.com/MStySfkV39
— Axios (@axios) August 4, 2020
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s numbers today are encouraging. Just one new case, half the number reported yesterday; the case is from local infection, a Malaysian in Perlis. Zero cases from imported infection. Cumulative total 9,002 reported cases.
16 more patients recovered and were discharged. Total 8,684 patients recovered, 96.5% of the cumulative total. Active and contagious cases being isolated/treated in hospital declined to 193 patients; no Covid-19 patients are currently in ICU.
No new deaths. Total remains at 125 deaths, 1.39% of the cumulative total and 1.42% of resolved cases.
Amir Khalid
Trump’s flailing in that Axios interview is excruciating to watch.
mrmoshpotato
September 2021 under 7 months of a Biden presidency?
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
True. Saw that last night. Just tuned in to Morning Joe to see their take on it.
I hope there are close-ups of the coronavirus bar charts Trump was waving at Jonathan Swan. They looked like Chapter 0 of PowerPoint for Dummies, “Your First Graph.”
Frankensteinbeck
@Amir Khalid:
And he really has convinced himself that testing causes the disease. That the numbers are what matter, and if he can point to a good number that’s literally all that matters. I don’t know which is worse, the unequalled stupidity or the lack of caring even slightly that people are suffering.
JPL
@Steeplejack: I’m watching now and it’s horrifying that our president had his staff come up with a way to make it look like we are number one.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: I don’t hate myself enough to watch Axios’s “interview.”
Is it really an interview when all of the answers are steaming piles of bullshit?
mrmoshpotato
@JPL: Well, by one metric, we are #1 – entirely preventable deaths.
Steeplejack
I suspect something is wrong with the site cache. Comments every few minutes since 6:00 a.m. EDT, now nothing for 20 minutes?
MomSense
@mrmoshpotato:
I couldn’t sleep after watching the clip linked above.
rikyrah
But, all his interviews should look like this. Every so-called journalist should question him the same.way.
sanjeevs
That Australian interviewer if Trump was good. Pushed back on his bullshit.
Reminds me of W getting one of his first tough interviews from an Irish journalist. The foreign journalists can’t be bought off so easily with promises of future access or whatever
MagdaInBlack
@MomSense:
I took some small comfort in noting the reporters foot jiggle, which indicated ( to me) he wanted to kick the babbling fool square in the teeth.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
I agree. The media have a duty to interview public officials so that the officials answer to the public. The officials have a duty to answer questions about how they are serving the public. It’s not supposed to be about the officials wanting to look good, or the media currying favour with the officials to maintain access.
IETA: I’m sure my American friends miss having a president who liked to know what he was talking about.
TS (the original)
@mrmoshpotato:
Yes. I got halfway through. Had to stop.
TS (the original)
@JPL:
Least number of deaths per number of cases. (in the world – if the stats are correct ). Which indicates just how many cases there are, given the very high number of deaths.
What a statistic to be proud of & what a set of sycophants who gave him the pictures. No statistics, just colored bar charts.
Mousebumples
Well we are number one in NOT containing the outbreak. I’d just rather be like #180 by that metric.
Amir Khalid
I wonder if anyone in the US is thinking about establishing a counterpart to Britain’s National Health Service — a USHS.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Just wait until he takes his Sharpie to it!
WereBear
@rikyrah: Exactly. We must get at least one thing from all this horrible suffering. Ripping off the veil that any of this is “normal” and we should just sit back and take it.
Barbara
The Swan clip was nauseating. Someone gave Trump kindergarten style graphs that highlighted the out of context “good” news that we have lower death rates. Evidently, the vastly higher number of dead people is of no consequence. But good for Swan for pushing back.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland’s daily report — 23 new cases reported overnight, again no new deaths. The outbreak centred around a pub in Aberdeen is now up to 27 known cases of infection spread. Fifteen of today’s new cases are in the Grampian health board region which encompasses Aberdeen but they’re not yet confirmed as resulting from the pub outbreak. The numbers of cases in this cluster are expected to rise though. Hospitalisations and ICU occupancy across the country are up slightly.
The National Records of Scotland report for the previous week regarding deaths in Scotland where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate will be released tomorrow (Wednesday). This figure is separate to the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths reported and has been about 6 to 10 people over the past few weeks.
Amir Khalid
@TS (the original):
The US is not doing outstandingly well in Worldometer’s global Covid-1 league table on that or any other metric. In fact, it is below the average on most of them.
TS (the original)
@Barbara:
From what I understood, trump is saying the US has lower death rates per number of people infected but the reporter was saying but the US has the much larger death rates per number of people in the population as compared to most other countries.
Amir Khalid
Has anyone else noticed the Balloon Juice server hamsters running out of puff? I’m experiencing intermittent 522 errors.
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, China reported 30 new domestic confirmed cases and 9 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region reported 28 new confirmed cases, and 9 new asymptomatic cases. 6 case in critical condition, and 21 in serious condition. There are currently 590 confirmed cases (586 in Ürumqi, 2 at Kashgar, and 1 each at Changji Prefecture and Xinjiang Construction Corps), and 116 asymptomatic cases (114 in Ürumqi, 1 each in Changji Prefecture and Xinjiang Construction Corps), plus 1 asymptomatic case exported to Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province. 12 confirmed cases have recovered and been released from hospitals, 11 asymptomatic cases have been released from medical quarantine. There are 15213 close contacts under quarantine and medical observation.
Dalian in Liaoning Province reported 2 new confirmed cases, 1 of which was previously designated as asymptomatic, and no new asymptomatic cases. The outbreak in Dalian has a total of 89 confirmed cases: 2 serious cases, 74 moderate cases and 13 mild cases; 39 are workers from the import seafood processing plant, 13 are their close contacts, 20 are residents of Dalian Bay sub-district, and 16 are close contacts of confirmed/asymptotic cases not directly connected to the plant, 1 has unclear source of transmission. The city also has 26 asymptomatic cases: 16 are workers from the import seafood processing plant, 2 are their close contacts, 6 are residents of Dalian Bay sub-district, and 2 are close contacts of confirmed/asymptotic cases not directly connected to the plant. Additionally, 6 confirmed and 9 asymptomatic cases exported to the rest of China. Dalian is in the process of mass screening all residents of the hot spot Dalian Bay District for the 3rd time, 839K individuals were tested on 8/3 alone. 24 communities and villages, as well as 80 residential compounds, medium and high risk areas are placed under lock down.
Yesterday, China reported 6 new imported confirmed cases, 12 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect cases:
Today, Hong Kong reported 80 new cases, 75 from local transmission, 32 of whom do not have clear source of transmission. Another 50 cases have tested positive, awaiting confirmation.
TS (the original)
@Amir Khalid:
I still think the most devastating thing about the US statistics and actions is that until this pandemic much of the world depended on the US Government to lead the way with guidelines and rules for reducing cases and deaths, with support of WHO, with sending teams to 3rd world countries to help them etc etc. Now they are not even able/willing to support their own people in fighting this virus.
How things have changed in just 3.5 years.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
I haven’t had errors, but I have noticed suspicious gaps of no comments that don’t jibe with usual traffic.
YY_Sima Qian
I never could make it through more than a couple of sentences of anything Trump utters, be they speech or interview. I could actually feel my brain cells explode and my sanity departing.
greenergood
@Robert Sneddon: I live in an area about 30 miles west of Glasgow. Access is by one narrow road, an hourly bus service and a ferry that normally makes 8-9 return trips daily, with no service on Sundays. Since lockdown, the bus is on a two-hourly schedule, and the ferry two return trpis per day and none onwe weekends. The cases of COVID-19 here can be counted on one hand, and no deaths. Last week, restrictions were lifted, the local pub reopened its outdoor drinking tables (it had been filling orders for takeway meals on the weekends during lockdown), and the ferry timetable was reinstated. On Saturday, the weather was lovely and the outdoor drinking area was chock-a-block – no distance, no masking – a whole bunch of guys had come over on the ferry from one of the worst-hit areas in Scotland – so now we wait to see if our little protected bubble will burst …
That Atlantic article by Ed Yong was spine-chilling – among all the facts he chronicled, one that leapt out at me was that in March, the DHHS suspended nursing-home inspections – would love to know what reason they gave for that.
Amir Khalid
@TS (the original):
Excellent point.
cmorenc
Trump is a huckster salesman whose only goal (other than ultimately self-enrichment) is saying whatever he thinks will provoke the emotions of enough marks to buy whatever he is selling and convince them of the illusion that there are actual facts underneath his slick razzle-dazzle. He has no interest in learning actual technical details below the level presented in a slick brochure designed to sell more than to actually inform. But Trump is not merely a knowing fraudster – as President, he’s gotten high on his own stash of bullshit, and has lost whatever ability he may once have had to discriminate bullshit promotion from actual fact.
YY_Sima Qian
@TS (the original):
One could say the same about aviation safety. The FAA was always viewed as the leading authority, and all aviation authorities around the world followed its lead. The Chinese Civil Aviation Authority was modeled after the FAA and was trained by the FAA, much as the Chinese CDC was modeled after the US CDC and was trained by them. FAA had embedded personnel in the Chinese CAA, just as the US CDC had embedded personnel in the Chinese CDC. Then the 737Max crashed happened, and the Trump FAA worked to protect Boeing from embarrassment and financial hit. The Chinese CAA was the first major aviation authority in the world to ground the plane, followed quickly by Europe, Brazil and the rest of the world. The FAA was the last to do so. Yet another area where the US unquestioned leadership has been squandered, and the loss of soft power along with it.
Van Buren
@mrmoshpotato: The last time I saw someone flail that badly was in Civil Procedure the first week of Law School.
Elizabelle
Is it the case that the USA is doing the most tests? And if so, how is that helpful with a weeklong wait for results?
Watched the Jonathan Swan/Axios interview. It truly is trying to have a discussion with your Tea Party uncle who only trusts information from his Facebook email chains.
I did not understand why Swan did not point out how badly the US lags in testing and response time with test results.
Robert Sneddon
@greenergood: The idea behind bubbling of families and communities was to get time to get test and trace up and working while pushing cross-infection levels way down. It’s sort of worked here in Scotland, a few outbreaks like the call centre in Motherwell and the Aberdeen pub cluster can now be hammered with the full might of a national-level effort to test and trace rather than having the teams running around trying to deal with a dozen simultaneous breakout events and failing to suppress most of them.
The sort of hard lockdown the UK underwent back in late March could not be sustained for more than a couple of months, it was understood that people just wouldn’t comply with the restrictions especially after they saw the numbers coming down from the initial high maximums. The original models from Imperial College London even anticipated this social effect on the epidemiology with predictions of second and subsequent “waves”.
As for the stopping of care home inspections, I can see at least one rationale for that — there were only a few inspectors, each of which would be required to visit a number of care homes each week. What happens if the inspector catches the virus on a visit to one care home and then goes on to spread it around a dozen more? The inspectors weren’t trained or tasked to test for coronavirus in all the care homes they visited, they were sent in to monitor staff levels and training, cleanliness and hygiene, provision of care etc.
The care homes in Scotland and across the UK were a disaster waiting to happen in a pandemic and the disaster duly happened. I’m not sure what could have been done better, there will be investigations and reports after the battle is done but remember there was a lot of pressure from ordinary folks to keep things open, to permit visits from friends and family, to allow outings and travel of the residents etc. even while COVID-19 was rampaging through the homes and the community at large.
Chief Oshkosh
@TS (the original): Exactly. Comparisons among countries is fine, but they do not take into account previous responses. If the US had taken the lead in responding, as it has for every potential pandemic in the last several decades, then we’d be discussing hundreds of deaths, not hundreds of thousands.
Shalimar
Having the lowest percentage of deaths per confirmed cases is a really bad thing when you have 3 times as many deaths as any other country except Brazil. It means you did fuck-all to contain it and the virus is everywhere.
Edit: Mexico has the 3rd-most deaths now. I haven’t been following numbers daily for a few weeks now and did not see that coming.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That “you can’t ask that” is a line from by Tea Bagger uncle. This something they say to each other when one of them starts thinking?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Mexico’s president is another virus denier like Trump.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@cmorenc: Yes, that’s the odd thing about Trump, he seems to be more interested in BSing himself than anyone else.
laura
@Van Buren: ya, well, you try and explain personal jurisdiction/subject matter jurisdiction with errrbody looking atcha!
Our current president couldnt possibly be stupider on the virus and watching him flail and spin to win the argument of being number one best because we test…I cant even. Not one iota of empathy or concern for the sick, the dying, the dead or those who are left in the wake of an avoidable catastrophic disease.
Alex
A sitting Michigan legislator has died, and a prominent former legislator too. Two more House members tested positive months ago. But they were all Democrats. Now a Republican senator has tested positive, and maybe they will take it seriously and require masks and testing. But I’m afraid he will have a mild case and they’ll just be like “see, nothing to worry about.”
The Pale Scot
Wow, go to 1:20 in the last Trump video, remember he’s under TV filming lights, that’s me at a Dead show.
Barbara
@TS (the original): Right. Trump is looking at “rate” of death as a function of number of infections, as opposed to rate of death as a function of total population, which is just another way of saying that we have A LOT more cases and therefore A LOT more deaths, even if deaths/cases is lower than in some other countries (there were no more than five bars on that graph, no doubt cherry picked to highlight those that were worse than us).
The Pale Scot
@Shalimar:
That’s the US health system in one paragraph, reactive
Elizabelle
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I know. “You can’t ask that” is rather childlike, no? Or, his crack staff did not prepare him adequately for these mean, lying reporters.
Who, like, read things and pay attention to data from other countries.
TS (the original)
@YY_Sima Qian:
I’m sure there are many other examples out there – the trust & expertise isn’t going to be rebuilt any time soon.
Barbara
@Elizabelle: “You can’t ask that because it makes me look bad.”
frosty
@Amir Khalid: I can’t watch it. I’m thankful for AL’s roundup so I don’t have to listen to him. It’s depressing enough to read about it.
J R in WV
@greenergood:
I would expect that the DHHS inspectors were afraid of dying of the Trump Plague, and told their bosses to piss up a rope if they expected the inspectors to sacrifice their lives for nothing.
Alternatively, perhaps the DHHS bosses realized that Trump Policy was that all nursing home residents are expected to die anyway, who cares if it’s Covid-19 or food poisoning?