Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

I really should read my own blog.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Saturday/Sunday, August 15-16

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Saturday/Sunday, August 15-16

by | 59 Comments

This post is in: ,


From a longer thread:

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Laboratories of democracy, and other stuff:

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  1. 1.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily numbers. 25 new cases. Nine cases from local infection. Seven Malaysians: five in Kedah from the Tawar memorial-service cluster, one in Penang state from the Tawar cluster, one in Sabah detected in pre-surgery screening; two non-Malaysians, detected in random screening at a restaurant in KL.

    16 imported cases, a bumper crop. 11 Malaysians, returning from Thailand, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia (three), Yemen, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, and Lebanon; five non-Malaysians, arrivals from Indonesia, India (two), Japan, and the UK. Cumulative reported total 9,200 cases.

    28 more patients recovered and were discharged. Total 8,859 patients recovered, 96.3% of the cumulative reported total. A slight decrease in active and contagious cases being isolated/treated in hospital to 216 patients; seven are in ICU, two are on respirators.

    No new deaths since 31st July. Total remains at 125 deaths, 1.36% of the cumulative reported total and 1.39% of resolved cases.

  2. 2.

    Brachiator

    Bolivia has gone insane:

    A bill legalizing a form of toxic bleach as a miracle cure as a COVID-19 treatment has been approved by the lower house of Bolivia’s legislature.

    According to local media reports, the country’s Legislative Assembly approved the bill, which had already passed the Bolivian Senate.

    It allows for the “production, commercialization and supply of chlorine dioxide solution to prevent COVID-19 and as a treatment for sick patients.”

    Chlorine dioxide is a type of industrial bleach commonly used as a disinfectant, or to bleach paper products. In recent years a movement of conspiracy theorists and alternative medicine advocates have hailed it as a miracle cure capable of curing virtually any illness.

    They call it “Miracle Mineral Solution,” or MMS.

    The movement is fast gaining influence in Latin America, where countries including Bolivia are struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

    Earlier this week, a key MMS advocate, US citizen Mark Grenon, was arrested in neighboring Colombia on allegations that he has been selling MMS as a COVID-19 cure.

    Bolivia’s own ministry of health has warned against taking the substance. In a June statement it said that medical regulators in the country had not approved the substance as a treatment for COVID-19 or any other illness.

    The statement warned that chlorine dioxide “puts the health of the population that consumes or intends to do so at serious risk.”

  3. 3.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 4 new domestic confirmed cases and 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region. 9 cases are currently in critical condition, and 25 in serious condition. There are currently 401 total confirmed cases at Ürumqi, and 128 asymptomatic cases (127 in Ürumqi, 1 in Changji Prefecture). 39 confirmed cases at Ürumqi (plus the 2 confirmed cases at Kashgar and Xinjiang Construction Corps) yesterday and were released from hospitals, 3 asymptomatic cases were released from medical quarantine, 3 critical case improved to moderate conditions. There are 10,450 close contacts remain under quarantine and medical observation. The Ürumqi outbreak seems to be winding down, and there is talk that the lock downs can end by the end of the month in most of the city.

    For the 7th consecutive day, Dalian in Liaoning Province did not report any new cases, confirmed or asymptomatic. 4 confirmed cases has recovered and were released from hospital, and 1 asymptomatic case was also released from medical quarantine. 29 cases are currently in the hospital, and 4 asymptomatic cases remain under medical quarantine. All of Dalian are now deemed Low Risk areas and all residential compounds and facilities have exited restricted access management.

    Neither Shenzhen nor Shanwei in Guangdong Province reported any new cases, despite the mass screening that is ongoing.  According to Guangdong Provincial Health Commission, the Province has tested employees (6,675 individuals) and the environment (1,574 samples) of 37 Freshippo (also known as HEMA Freshmart) stores and 12 related food processing facilities at Shenzhen, Guangzhou and surrounding regions, no positive results, other than the initial 2 asymptomatic cases at the same store as the confirmed case exported to Shanwei. The province has also tested 5,068 produce markets and super markets and 77 cold chain logistics companies (especially the imported frozen meat and seafood products), 747.6K individuals and 78.5 environmental samples in all. Only 3 samples of frozen chicken wings imported from Brazil have tested positive. There may not be an outbreak, after all.

    The Xinfadi Wholesale Produce Exchange in Beijing has just reopened.

    Yesterday, China reported 15 new imported confirmed cases, 11 imported asymptomatic cases, and 1 suspect case:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 5 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from the UK, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, the Philippines and Canada
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 3 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese National returning from Bangladesh and 2 from Saudi Arabia; 5 asymptomatic cases, 3 Chinese nationals returning from Saudi Arabia and 2 from Ecuador
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 3 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Singapore and 1 from Kazakhstan: 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the UAE
    • Tianjin Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Uzbek National coming from Tashkent and 1 Filipino crew member off a cargo ship 
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), a Chinese nationals returning from the Philippines;
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed and 1 asymptomatic cases, Chinese national each returning from the Philippines
    • Quanzhou in Fujian Province – 1 suspect case, a Chinese national returning from the Philippines
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 3 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Singapore
    • Chongqing Municpality – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese National returning from the Philippines

    Today, Hong Kong reported 74 new cases, 70 from local transmission, 20 of whom do not have clear source of transmission. Another 20 cases are preliminarily confirmed.

  4. 4.

    MagdaInBlack

    One of the synonyms for impressive is “stunning” so there you go.

    Also too: “breathtaking.”

  6. 6.

    mrmoshpotato

    From a longer thread:

    Click on Andy’s tweet.  Read his thread.  It will lift your spirits.

  7. 7.

    Cermet

    If the stupid would stop, well, being stupid the rapid developments could help stop this virus and we could start to get back to a more normal world far faster.

  8. 8.

    mrmoshpotato

    Putin personally declared them “safe.” Russian health officials skipped safety testing, however

    This is going to cause mass death in the Russian population.

  10. 10.

    Frankensteinbeck

    It was always overwhelmingly likely COVID would create serious resistance and a vaccine would be found, but it’s very nice to see the evidence start coming in.

  12. 12.

    Martin

    I’m reading reports that part of the USPS backing down on removing postal boxes may involve removing their schedule for pickup. So the box remains, people can put ballots in it, but it will never be picked up. I’m not sure the reports are correct, but in a way it makes a lot of sense. Separate from the removal schedule would be a change to the pickup schedule.

    So, this might actually be worse than what we had the other day.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    The Arizona teachers’ refusal to return to their classrooms while it remains unsafe for them and for the children is righteous and brave.

  14. 14.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Brachiator:

    A bill legalizing a form of toxic bleach as a miracle cure 

    Wow.  I guess death does cure you from getting sick from COVID-19.

  16. 16.

    JPL

    @Martin: They would have to be locked and sealed so mail cannot be dropped in.   If not, that is a blatant violation of the law and the local postmaster could be charged.     imo

  18. 18.

    Anne Laurie

    @mrmoshpotato: This is going to cause mass death in the Russian population.

    I’m not sure that Russians trust Putin enough to try his untested vaccine, unless under coercion (IIRC, it was tested on civil service ‘volunteers’ — teachers & health workers).   Lots of people in the hard-hit countries where it is being so ‘generously’ donated, on the other hand… Brazilians, Vietnamese, Indians…  those are the ‘unexplained deaths’ I’ll be keeping an eye out for.

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Anne Laurie: I wouldn’t put it past him to force the “vaccine” on the population so he could boast that he’s vaccinating his country.

    He’s in office until 2026(?) anyway.  And Russki elections aren’t known for being free and fair.

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    Every day Donald Trump makes a convincing case against his own reelection, especially when he’s talking about Covid-19.

  21. 21.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Anne Laurie: I can understand why the Brazilians, the Indians and the Filipinos (or rather, their incompetent leaders) might be willing to sign up for the risky Russian vaccine, I do not know why Vietnam would. They seem to have kept the lid on COVID-19 so far, so they should be able to wait for a properly tested vaccine, even if they are not willing to take a Chinese one for political reasons.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Amir Khalid: from the Havasu News:

    “It’s easy for people who don’t work or who are retired from work to say, ‘If everybody would just do their part, we could get rid of this,’ and there’s no evidence to suggest that,” Cohen said. “At some point, we are going to have to come up with an acceptable casualty rate, and nobody wants to have that conversation.”

    After spending 35 years working in an industry where getting hurt comes with the territory and death is not exactly a stranger, I can say unequivocally that the only acceptable casualty rate was always 0, as in zero, zip, ninguno. Everything I did has at least a half dozen applicable OSHA regs, all with the soul single intent that everyone goes home alive and in one piece. We’d always bitch about them incessantly, and then follow them anyway. When a serious accident happened and an investigation was implemented (nobody bothers with the minor accidents) it is invariably found that somebody screwed up and didn’t follow the regs because they were lazy/in a hurry/forgot/not properly trained/did what the bosses said to/wasn’t given the proper gear etc etc. On the exceedingly rare occasions where it is found that nobody screwed up, a new regulation is born because the only acceptable casualty rate is always 0, as in zero, zip, ninguno.

    Apparently, for some people anyway, that standard should not apply to schools in the age of covid, which is a little strange to me. I mean, nobody likes carpenters (we get paid too much) but I thought everybody likes teachers (who don’t get paid near enough).

  25. 25.

    Ken

    Russian health officials skipped safety testing, however

    Given that it’s Russia, this could have meant that they’ve skipped the production safety steps, like cleaning the reaction vessels or purifying the product. Clicking through, it’s just that they’ve approved the vaccine without doing the equivalent of a stage 3 trial. Production horror stories still may come later.

  26. 26.

    YY_Sima Qian

    One of my team members at Shenzhen had a scare over the weekend. He lives in the Luohu District, where the Freshippo with the confirmed and asymptomatic employees is located (though several kilometers away). He called me up and said he was suffering from diarrhea and low grade fever, which are COVID-19 symptoms. We agreed that he should visit a fever clinic immediately. He and another colleague had visited a customer in Shantou late last week, taking the high speed rail, and Shanwei is a stop along the way. The doctor inquired about his recent travel history. As soon as the doctor heard he had visited Shantou, he was asked to go to a small room to be isolated and wait to be tested. It took a couple of hours of waiting before a nurse finally showed up to take blood samples and an oropharyngeal swab. I told him not to worry too much, that the probability of him being infected is extremely.

    “Fortunately”, the doctors looked at the blood panel and assessed that he is suffering from acute gastroenteritis, and prescribed antibiotics. He was advised to go home and self-quarantine until the RT-PCR results come in, which will take 2 – 3 days.

    He told me that there are huge lines of people waiting to take RT-PCR swabs in Shenzhen, with lines going kilometer long and the wait up to several hours. Cases at fever clinics received higher priority.

    I was supposed to join a couple of colleagues from the Shenzhen office to visit a couple of customers in Shanghai next week. One of the customers already asked us to reschedule, but the other one would still receive us. If Shenzhen had reported a few more cases yesterday, I am sure the trip would have been cancelled altogether.

  27. 27.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I just spent the past week visiting the mountainous Enshi Prefecture in western Hubei Province with my family, to take respite from the oppressive summer heat at Wuhan. Hundreds of thousands of middle class families from Wuhan and other cities in central Hubei have purchased condos in this area as summer properties.

    Masking rate is still 100% on public transportation, per government regulation. However, at the regional cities it falls to < 50%, and < 10% in the towns and villages. The entire Enshi Prefecture only had 252 case throughout the entire epidemic, and has had none for several months. The remote towns and villages have not had any cases. Public signs urging vigilance against COVID-19 are everywhere, but in the remote areas, it is not on anyone’s mind. Locals were curious to learn of our experience with COVID-19 epidemic at Wuhan.

    Hubei provincial government has made entrance into all public parks free until the end of the year, to promote tourism. Nevertheless, tourist volumes are way down, which is painful on all the people whose livelihood depend on the tourist trade. It made the experience at the parks more pleasant, as they would normally be jam packed with people in the summer months. However, many of the key attractions are closed for maintenance, which was a bummer. A large limestone cave in a national park in neighboring Wanzhou (of Chongqing Municipality) that we visited is closed indefinitely, due to a large bat colony in residence. :-O

  28. 28.

    Yutsano

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    I do not know why Vietnam would. They seem to have kept the lid on COVID-19 so far, so they should be able to wait for a properly tested vaccine

    Paranoia. Vietnam is still a Communist dictatorship even though that tends to be ignored in the media. The government needs to show it’s taking care of the people even if that means taking a risk on an early vaccine as opposed to waiting for one. I agree it’s not rational but as we have seen especially in the US rational sometimes isn’t a consideration.

  30. 30.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Brachiator: I’m thinking the sentient Gaia idea is beginning to sound more and more likely. Faced with unsustainable human population growth, human created pollution, climate change and other threats to her future, she created a virus to encourage reductions in industrial activity and population numbers.

    Finding this insufficient for her needs, she is now inducing people into self destructive decisions and actions.

    It’s the only explanation that makes sense

  31. 31.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Yutsano: Well, if the Russian vaccine is proven to be ineffective, or has severe side effects on certain demographics, the blunder of signing up for that vaccine would negate the so far exemplary response by the Vietnamese government to date, and all the enhancement to the its legitimacy accrued from the response.

  32. 32.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @WereBear:

    They have nothing to lose.

    They have everything to lose if they fail.  Their money, their freedom (from jail), their power, and the literal and metaphorical stranglehold of white supremacy are all at risk.

  33. 33.

    WereBear

    @Frankensteinbeck: Precisely. The only thing that will save them is to stay in power, and they will do ANYTHING for it.

    Which is why we must be prepared for ANYTHING. They have nothing to lose by being their most depraved and law-flouting inner selves.

    All chips shoved into the middle, they are.

  34. 34.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @WereBear:

    they will do ANYTHING for it.

    My only argument against that is that they will be willing to do anything.  No morals will stop them, and they are desperate.  Stupidity, laziness, cowardice, and the things they most want being beyond their physical ability – like a military coup – drastically curtail them.  Thank goodness, because they do have zero scruples and you are right that we will have to be on watch everywhere and push back hard.

  36. 36.

    prostratedragon

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Somewhere today (was it in one of the links here?) I saw that over 900 U.S. health workers have died during the pandemic. What non-military occupation, and in war zones at that, would have such a rate be considered acceptable? Imagine that many policemen being killed over a 7-month period.

  37. 37.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @germy:

    As in ‘we cannot afford to lose’ or ‘we are guaranteed to win’?  I’m guessing the former, because a Biden administration sure as Hell WILL crack down on the police brutality we’ve been seeing, and as we’ve also seen the police consider not being allowed to murder and brutalize at whim a nightmare.  The latter would not surprise me, though.  Trump lies constantly, even when his obvious public panic and depression make it clear he knows he’s losing.

  39. 39.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @WereBear:

    We have sadly learned how resilient our institutions are.

    Remarkably.  Our system was not designed to handle 40% of the population deliberately voting fascists into control of the presidency and senate.  I don’t think any system can be designed to handle that.  The amount of things that Trump has failed to do are astonishing.  Among many other things, Biden’s son is not even facing fake evidence of corruption, just a lot of whining.  And Republicans have failed to negate the last three years of elections, some of which they desperately wanted to.  This is some bad, shit, though.  We have got to remove that strain.

    Now we will discover how resilient our people are.

    Signs of the past three years point to ‘when push came to shove, the American people are finally, finally ready to shove back.’

  41. 41.

    WereBear

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Signs of the past three years point to ‘when push came to shove, the American people are finally, finally ready to shove back.’

     
    Good point about the 40%, and I keep hoping that in the final analysis, it will fall closer to 27% in the actual crunch.

    And we have a long tradition of being ornery MFers.

    Which is a problem when it comes to herding us together, but also gives us an advantage the Weimar Republic Germans did not have. They came from generations of obedience to authority.

  42. 42.

    germy

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    It’s personal for trump.  To be beaten by Obama’s VP and a Black running mate would be a humiliation.  He ran for president to stomp out every last bit of Obama’s legacy.  No way he will accept losing to Obama’s right hand man.

  45. 45.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Another reason to stop bad habits: Can cigarette smoking and e-cig vaping transmit #coronavirus in secondhand smoke/vapors? Doctors say the answer is probably, ‘yes.’ Flu studies years ago had shown that flu viruses were transmitted via cigarette smoke

    Smoking alone can explain lot of the vary mortality rates between cities. Like San Fransisco has smoking pretty much banned an a next to nothing death rate from the virus.

  46. 46.

    Skepticat

    The Bahamas is seeing an upsurge in cases (1,252) with 17 deaths, though we remain under curfew and weekend lockdowns. Thus far, our little desert island (no commercial development, only houses and an airstrip) hasn’t seen any, but I know there are Floridians coming in with faked COVID-19 test results. I’m planning to return to the States for a couple of months a week from tomorrow, as the heat is intolerable for this old New Englander (we’re on day 349 without power), but I’m not looking forward to the drive up the entire East Coast with three cats.

  47. 47.

    taumaturgo

    @Brachiator: An expedited way of the elites getting rid of the pesky indigenous population. Think of the Trail of Tears w/o the forced relocation.

  50. 50.

    Sloane Ranger

    Latest UK figures posted 5 minutes ago. As Robert Sneddon hasn’t checked in as yet, I’ll give the Scottish figures as well as the other Home Nations and he can give them context and more detail if he arrives later.

    There were 1040 new cases today broken down as follows, England 952; Scotland 43; Northern Ireland 27; Wales 18. Much of the North West remains under lockdown as do parts of Leicester.

    All households in my own town of Wellingborough (and possibly others in Northamptonshire, which has seen rises) had leaflets delivered reminding us of Government advice and threatening that if we don’t pull up our socks and comply with it, we may be returned to lockdown as well.

    There were 5 new deaths, but this is using the recent criteria of not counting anyone who manages to survive for longer than 28 days after receiving a positive test. No idea where they occurred as no information given.

    The North West remains the most heavily hit Region (basically Lancashire) with a rate of 679.8, with Yorkshire and the Humber closely following with a rate of 622.1. The South West (Devon and Cornwall) the least with a rate of 246.8.

    The usual warning about weekend figures apply. Some offices responsible for processing data are closed so there will be a spike over the next couple of days as they process the data.

    In other news, the Government is apparently unhappy with the way Public Health England has been dealing with the English response and is talking about abolishing it and moving its functions over to the newly created NHS Test and Trace scheme, which, over the course of its short existence has, of course gained a great reputation for efficiency and effectiveness – NOT!

  51. 51.

    sdhays

    @germy: I have maintained a neutral position on whether Snowden was actually a Russian asset or a lone actor, but this pretty much screams “he was/is a Russian asset”.

  53. 53.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy: Pardoning Snowden is like firing Comey–the dopes there probably think it will win them a huge chunk of liberal votes, because we like Snowden, right? It probably will get them a few Greenwald-fan “leftists” who were never going to vote for a Democrat.

  54. 54.

    Matt McIrvin

    @YY_Sima Qian: There was a paper that just came out about the typical order of symptoms–diarrhea tends to be one of the late ones, after the respiratory symptoms, not a first indicator. But of course there are cases with very mild symptoms overall, so no guarantees.

  55. 55.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @mrmoshpotato: This is going to cause mass death in the Russian population.

    There’s no way to say that with any degree of certainty. It might not work very well (low seroconversion rate like the first shingles vaccine) &/or it might make a lot of folks rather sick for a few days (also like the first shingles vaccine) &/or it might do neither.

    But I think we can be fairly confident that if it’s not particularly effective &/or causes bad side effects,

    1. Vlad the Paler’s thugs will cover it up – & the body of anyone who says otherwise will be found beneath a 7th-floor balcony (with fingerprints pressed into the railing);
    2. And if by chance credible reports of bad stuff do come out, Vlad will take a page out of Stalin’s playbook by prosecuting (and perhaps executing) selected low-level vaccine development staff for the 2020 equivalent of “wrecking;”
    3. While his Mafiya droogs slink off to launder the rubles they looted from the Russian treasury by forcing the developers into “rushin'”** the stuff into production….

     

    ** Ладно, я вижу, что ты тут делаешь. :^D

  57. 57.

    JaneE

    We started having maybe 75% of the people on the streets not wearing masks.  There were even signs one the highway warning tourists that we still require masks in public.  Shutdown again will probably come Monday.  If the state hadn’t put a moratorium on changes we would have been there already.  That is what happens when you go from less than 2 percent positive tests to over 8.  Now all the people crying to open up will be crying about being shut down again, when a lot if it is because they just wouldn’t enforce the rules.  If nothing else, we have a much better idea of which businesses care about their customers and which just care about their money.

  58. 58.

    MoCA Ace

    When I look at that national map my local sticks out like a sore thumb… deep red in a sea of yellow.  Thanks parents of recent graduates and tavern dwellers!

    Now I am off to try and convince my 84 YO father that attending his grandsons wedding indoors with 150-200 other relatives is a bad idea.  I don’t have much hope for success.  All of my siblings are attending and, if not encouraging him to attend, refuse to recommend a sane course of action.

  59. 59.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Matt McIrvin: Not sure I agree with the conclusion of the paper. I have  read too many case reports That indicate gastrointestinal response before (or even in the absence of) respiratory response. Yes, anecdotal evidence, I know. There may be a weak statistical correlation, but I am not sure it is that useful as a diagnostic tool.

    In any case, my team member got the RT-PCR result in 24 hours, came back negative.

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