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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Friday/Saturday, September 5-6

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Friday/Saturday, September 5-6

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Reminder: No update posts this weekend — see y’all Tuesday!


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Trump’s MyPillow crony forestalled (for the moment):

… The unusual, toxic cocktail of pandemic-era stresses that degrade sleep is so strong that physician Abhinav Singh, director of the Indiana Sleep Center, coined a mnemonic to explain it: “FED UP.” The letters stand for financial stress, emotional stress, distance from others, unpredictability, and personal and professional concerns…

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Reader Interactions

53Comments

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily numbers. Six new cases. Two cases from local infection, both Malaysians: one in Kedah from the Telaga cluster, one in Sabah screened with severe acute respiratory infection. Four imported cases: two Malaysians, returning from Angola and Pakistan; two non-Malaysians, arriving from India and Bangladesh. The cumulative reported total is 9,391 cases.

    21 more patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 9,113 patients recovered — 97.04% of the cumulative reported total. Active and contagious cases currently being isolated/treated in hospital fell to 150 patients; five are in ICU, three of whom are on respirators.

    No new deaths since 1st September, and the total remains at 128 deaths — 1.36% of the cumulative reported total, 1.39% of resolved cases.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Take your break Anne, you’ve earned it. Of course, if you took what you earned we wouldn’t hear from you again until the 2nd year of Biden’s presidency and we’d all have a big sad from missing you.

  6. 6.

    raven

    COVID-19 followed many University of Georgia students when they returned to Athens in August.

    The big migration has pushed up the county’s rate of new COVID-19 infections to one of the highest in Georgia. It’s also driven Clarke County school officials to despair over when public school students might be able to safely return to class.

    “We were really on a good downward trend, and then things spiked back up when the students returned,” said interim School Superintendent Xernona Thomas.

    Clarke public schools have tentatively adopted a metric for when students can safely return to class, based on World Health Organization recommendations: a rate of less than 5% positive in COVID testing, and a case rate of less than 100 cases per 100,000.

    “It’s hard for me to see how realistic those numbers are (to attain),” school board President LaKeisha Gantt said after hearing the school district’s nursing director, Amy Roark, share data on the progress of the coronavirus pandemic in Clarke County.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Covid-19 Vaccine Developers Prepare Joint Pledge on Safety, Standards

    Several drug makers developing Covid-19 vaccines plan to issue a public pledge not to seek government approval until the shots have proven to be safe and effective, an unusual joint move among rivals that comes as they work to address concerns over a rush to mass vaccination.

    A draft of the joint statement, still being finalized by companies including Pfizer Inc., PFE -0.11% Johnson & Johnson JNJ -0.64% and Moderna Inc. MRNA -3.45% and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, commits to making the safety and well-being of vaccinated people the companies’ priority. The vaccine makers would also pledge to adhere to high scientific and ethical standards in the conduct of clinical studies and in the manufacturing processes.

    The companies might issue the pledge as soon as early next week, according to two people familiar with the matter. The statement would join a growing number of public assurances by industry executives that they aren’t cutting corners in their rapid testing and manufacturing of the vaccines.

    “We believe this pledge will help ensure public confidence in the Covid-19 vaccines that may ultimately be approved and adherence to the rigorous scientific and regulatory process by which they are evaluated,” the draft statement says.

    Translation: “The trump admin has FUBARed so many regulatory processes so often that we are well and fully cognizant of the fact that nobody in this country trusts them to not screw this up too. So please, trust us, we won’t let them fuck you up. We want you alive for as long as possible so that you are subject to our predatory pricing schemes.”

    How fucked up is it that we are now in the position of having to trust the same people who gave us Oxycontin?

  8. 8.

    Sloane Ranger

    I’m with Baud, I assumed you would have a three day short break.  Have a relaxing weekend and thanks for the unexpected update.

  11. 11.

    raven

    @NotMax: We were lucky here when the virus hot while the students were gone and we’re not so lucky that 30,000 of them came back last week.

  13. 13.

    Aleta

    @OzarkHillbilly: “The vaccine makers would also pledge to adhere to high scientific and ethical standards in the conduct of clinical studies and in the manufacturing processes.”  So if they don’t adhere, or if the shots turn out unproven, they will assume liability?  (I think not.)  And I notice they don’t specify or quote the actual standards they will adhere to.   ‘High standards’ seems to me more flexible in interpretation than ‘highest standards.’  The administration  created a problem for them by undermining trust in their product months ahead of time, and they need to counter quickly.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Aleta: Yeah, the words “trust” and “pharmaceutical companies” should only appear in the same sentence with a negative connotation.

  15. 15.

    WereBear

    @Aleta: The administration  created a problem for them by undermining trust in their product months ahead of time, and they need to counter quickly.

     
    They wanted to undermine trusted authority and create a toxic cloud of FUD that filled the sky.

    What are they complaining about?

  17. 17.

    Anne Laurie

    @SiubhanDuinne: Enjoy your vacation!

    Oh, I’ll be around — I’m just not doing these update posts for the next few days!

    (Which I hope will give me the time & mind-space for some of the other topics I want to cover.)

  19. 19.

    gkoutnik

    @Baud:   Me too.  Pleasantly surprised.  Enjoy the weekend, AL!

    I guess I need to take issue with the argument that since socialization is a natural part of the college experience, we should not see the outbreaks as the result of inappropriate or unwise student behavior (i.e. parties).  Self-preservation is a natural part of the human experience, yet we put it aside and go to war when faced with a threat that we feel requires us to act in a way that exposes us to injury or death.

    They couldn’t have put “socialization” aside for a semester?  Or even for a few weeks, out of four years, in the face of a global pandemic, a threat of enormous global and personal proportions?  There are many ways to socialize that will not endanger your health or the health of those you’re socializing with, and, as noted, these alternate socialization strategies would only be necessary for a very short time.

    And now they’re at home, in their childhood bedrooms or their parents’ basements, doing that physically distant kind of socializing until at least January.

    I am sure that YMMV.

  20. 20.

    Central Planning

    My kid’s university is doing COVID waste water testing for the dorms. The one where he works part time just noticed a spike in the sewage so he got a test yesterday. No classes or work until you get a test, not until you get the result (up to 48 hours). SMH.

    ETA – typo

  21. 21.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m still shaky about having gotten the flu shot so early. The CDC hasn’t changed it’s recommendation that August is too soon for old people but the pharmacies were pushing it.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I don’t blame you. I had been planning on getting my shots as soon as they were available but thanx to you and your story I am waiting till October.

  25. 25.

    JPL

    @raven: Ask if you can get another flu shot in January or February.   Last year I was told that most of the flu shots are only effective for four or five months.

  26. 26.

    Barbara

    @gkoutnik: Agreed. I don’t like these “boys will be boys” justifications for conduct that endangers the entire community. Among other things it papers over the indifference of the partiers to whether others get sick or have only limited means to cope with the consequences. Like a lot of college, it’s infantilizing and entrenching unjustified privilege.

  28. 28.

    raven

    I knew if I dug deep enough I’d find something positive!

     

    It can be hard for medical experts to predict when the flu season will start and peak, and that’s exactly why Michelle Barron, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, says the most important thing to remember about flu shots is to just get one in general. Even though there’s evidence that the immunity might diminish over time, having it in your system in general is better than not and can still keep you safe. “Let’s say you got your flu shot in August or September and the flu doesn’t start circulating until December. Even though there may be a theoretical reduction in the protective immunity of the vaccine, you still have immunity and it’s still less likely that you’ll get the flu,” Dr. Barron tells me. “If you do still get the flu, it will be a milder case and you’ll be less likely to be hospitalized than if you hadn’t received a flu vaccine at all.”

     

  29. 29.

    Gvg

    @raven: I personally think we will be in lockdown by the normal peak of flu season which will effectively stop flues from spreading.  In addition, by later in the year infection rates will be higher and you won’t want to go out to a doctors office or pharmacy to get a shot. I think this year, early is fine. It’s just something to remember for a year that is normal.

  31. 31.

    Gvg

    Flu season is likely to be less this year anyway because all the social distancing and hand washing are cutting it’s transmission rate. I haven’t heard if the masks held for flu too, but I suspect it does.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @gkoutnik: @Barbara: I’m going to weigh in here.

    His point is merely that expecting young adults to act like adults when they still have the hormones of a teenager running rampant in their bodies is kind of silly. It’s like asking water to not be wet or the sun to not be hot. Sure, some of them will in fact be adult in their behavior but those few are far outnumbered by those for whom the closest they have come to death is the funeral of a grandparent who had a heart attack.

  34. 34.

    raven

    @Barbara: Reposting from a local writer.

     

    How is a college kid going to view this situation? In a perfect world, the altruistic thing would be to put your personal comforts aside and think about the larger picture, your obligation to society and your fellow humans. I have no doubt that some college students are doing this, and I commend them for it. But considering how many adults are having trouble doing that very thing, blaming college students for not having “the world outside myself” being the first thing on their mind every morning seems narrowly punitive. I suspect that most college kids, with their college kid lizard brains, are making the following calculation:

    I am not in a risk group for this virus. No one I see on a daily basis is in a risk group for this virus. The people I know and care about who might be in a risk group for this virus are not people I see regularly. The virus is bad. I hope I do not get it. But I only get to go to college once. And I do not want to look back at my college experience and think, “I didn’t get to have any fun in college at all because I was being responsible.” I have my whole life to be responsible! Do not ask me to be responsible now.

    I think this is wrong. I think they are being selfish and blinkered and reckless. But I understand.

    And I cannot say with anything approaching 100 percent certainty that, were I in their position, at that age, that I would not do the same thing. I did many stupid things back then. Who am I to say, now at age 44, that this would not be another of those stupid things? I can wag my finger and cluck my tongue at them all I want. That’s what old people do, after all. We tell them to get off our lawn … because we know what a lawn costs and the sacrifices we made to have one, dammit. If they thought like 44-year-olds with children and older parents, they wouldn’t be college students anymore.

    One of my vows as this pandemic has gone along is not to be a shamer. This is an impossible time for everyone, and I have no right or authority to be walking around obsessed with how other people are doing everything wrong and I’m doing everything correct. Yes, wear a mask, distance, use common sense, please do all those things, but I cannot let myself be consumed by those who don’t, no matter how much they may be the reason this continues on and on and on and on. I can just take care of me and my people and just hope everybody else does the right thing. College students in this college town are going to do the wrong thing, and they are going to do the wrong thing in mass quantities in the town I live in and love, and they are going to do it very soon. I can’t do anything about it. And I can’t say I was any different … even if the worst stakes I faced was a boring Shakespeare correspondence course. Youth may be wasted on the young. But the thing about youth is that you’re supposed to waste it. You’re supposed to be foolish. It doesn’t make it OK. But it does make it very, very human.

  35. 35.

    Barbara

    @OzarkHillbilly: Not buying it. If there is blame it is the mixed messaging sent by school administrators who don’t want to or don’t know how to stand up to vested interests.

  36. 36.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 0 new domestic confirmed cases and 0 new domestic asymptomatic case.

    At Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region, there are currently 14 confirmed and 4 asymptomatic cases, with no cases in serious condition. 2 confirmed cases recovered yesterday and were discharged from hospitals, 2 asymptomatic cases were released from medical quarantine. There are 129 close contacts remaining under quarantine and medical observation.

    Yesterday, China reported 10 new imported confirmed cases, 8 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 3 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from the Philippines, 1 Indian national coming from New Delhi
    • Kunming in Yunnan Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese and 1 Myanmese nationals coming from Myanmar; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Myanmar;
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the US; 1 asymptomatic cases, a Chinese national returning from Côte d’Ivoire
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from South Africa
    • Qingyuan in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese national returning from the Philippines
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Turkey
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Saudi Arabia (via Baku)
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed cases, a Chinese national returning from France
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese National returning from the Philippines; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese nationals returning from the US
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Indonesia and the US

    Today, Hong Kong reported 7 new cases, all from local transmission, 3 of whom do not have clear sources of identification.

  37. 37.

    gkoutnik

    @OzarkHillbilly:   Very true.  It’s not something we expect in normal times.  But these are not normal times.

    My father was in his late 20s when he went off to fight in WWII, but many (most?) of the men he fought with were college age – hormones, unformed brains and all.  They managed, for the most part, to put that all aside – including self-preservation – and do something magnificent (and I don’t believe it was because they were “The Greatest Generation” – any generation would have risen to the challenge).

    With a President who is trying to normalize  times, of course, one could probably forgive young people for not understanding what is at risk, and not rising to the challenge.

  38. 38.

    Gvg

    @gkoutnik: That isn’t what we should take from this discussion. Recognizing a set of facts that had been overlooked can lead to smarter decisions and solutions. Recognize the truth in the story and then move on to “what do we do about it?”.
    my 6th grade nephew is doing a virtual school. His mom is a hospital doctor so there was no chance she was risking him. He loves socializing not school work but school friends. He is starting a new school, middle school because the private he went to was only elementary. Because his mom gets exposed, he is at his Grandparents and rarely gets to see his mom or anyone else. Recipe for depression or loneliness right? Well his school district keeps the class discussion areas open for quite awhile after class and let’s the kids keep talking about whatever. I’m not clear how it works. They must have more time between classes and only 4 classes but my mother reports he has made new friends and always stays in these chats till the end. It helps. The school must have recognized the need. Also the chat group from his last years class is still up and working with the former teacher still cheering up those students.

    i don’t know the solutions. I just started thinking about it after reading that article. The point is, ignoring it definitely won’t find a solution.

  39. 39.

    Ken

    I can’t help but see these as related stories:

    Today is the first day the US deaths/day dropped below 1,000 in nearly 7 consecutive weeks

    The U.S. paid — in #Covid19 cases & deaths — for Memorial Day weekend parties. Tony Fauci is warning the country not to repeat the mistake this Labor Day weekend,

  40. 40.

    raven

    @gkoutnik: And there is little relationship between this situation and WW2. Did half the people in the world think it was a hoax? I don’t think so.

  42. 42.

    Barbara

    @raven: I am not going around obsessing about how other people are behaving.  Not. At. All.  But then, it’s not my job to keep everyone safe.  My office administrator, on the other hand, exercises iron control over who gets to go into the office.  No one in my office even considers violating the rules.  The only bit of wiggle room here for the people who are fucking up the future of everyone they know because they are prioritizing a little bit of fun that they believe they are entitled to is that their administrators have not threatened the kind of harsh consequences that they deserve.  The difference, I gather, between you and me, is that when I went to a party school par excellence I knew that no one would ever hire me on the strength of my fraternity or sorority connections and never even tried to scratch that itch.  Those are the people I worry about, the people who aren’t going home to an affluent parent who is going to continue coddling their immaturity.

  44. 44.

    Barbara

    @gkoutnik: And I am sure there were people in WWII who flouted various restrictions, who participated in the underground market for rationed goods and so on.  Of course there were.  But they mostly had to keep it secret because they knew that they could face serious repercussions.  Imagine someone who insisted on keeping their lights on during a blackout because “they have rights.”  But mostly, I don’t understand why so many feel so compelled to defend people who will spare no effort to defend themselves no matter how indefensible their conduct.  They don’t need my help.  When I read these apologies what I infer is that the writer is mostly defending the administrative decision makers who now look like idiots.

  45. 45.

    Sloane Ranger

    No Robert Sneddon today so I’ll give the full UK figures. Usual warning about the unreliability of weekend figures here in the UK due to closures of admin offices.

    There were a total of 1,813 new cases reported today. Of these, 1,477 were in England; 118 in Northern Ireland; 1412 in Scotland and 77 in Wales. The trend continues upwards but slowly.

    There were 12 new deaths, 11 in England and 1 in Wales.

    Wales continues to be the hardest hit home nation with 579.9 cases per 100,000 population. In England, the hardest hit regions are in the north west, Yorkshire and The Humber.

  47. 47.

    Evil_Paul

    I think placing the blame on “students acting irresponsibly” is misplaced in the (majority?) cases where the “adults” (school administrators, public health agencies, city/county/state governments) are acting just as irresponsibly.  I mean, we got this story above about South Dakota eagerly hosting a State Fair hot on the heels of Sturgis, but if anything goes wrong it’s the fault of “those damned kids!”

    No.  Fuck that.  “The kids” are just following the example of their leaders.  They just happen to have less money, power and influence so it’s easier to blame them than anyone else.

    There are schools that are doing things right.  They’re testing aggressively, setting very clear policies about distancing and mask-wearing, and expelling students who break the rules.  You get an outbreak in a place like that and it’s fair to blame the students since the standard was set and clearly communicated, and they had the means available to follow the rules.

    But the colleges who are re-opening just to support their football program (or other financial reasons)?  The only blame I got for students is for not recognizing that they were being taken advantage of by a pack of greed heads.

  48. 48.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I even see this in people older than teens and have for decades.

    People like the person who didn’t have anyone he knew die until he was in his 40s. My first relative passed when I was 6 yrs old and the progression has been rather linear since.

    BTW the temp right now 10:09 is 99 and is going to warm up to 113. Today and tomorrow. What with shitforbrains sitting on top of the pile of shit he’s created we are now cooking ourselves. Fun times.

  49. 49.

    Ruckus

    @gkoutnik:

    I was older than a lot of the people in my boot camp company. Not a  lot older 2-3 yrs and there were others my age, but we were gramps, geezers in comparison. But in the military it is much more difficult to get away with acting like a moron and being congratulated/cheered on for it in the same way as at college.

  50. 50.

    Ruckus

    @Ken:

    Too late. Selfish people and self centered people need a lot of time and effort to affect their behavior. And who is the most selfish and self centered person in the country at this moment? Yes, I call him shitforbrains.

  52. 52.

    Barbara

    @Evil_Paul: This is really not a morality tale.  It is about how you can be the agent of fortune, your own and for others. Yes, many are acting irresponsibly and they all deserve blame.  But some of those acting irresponsibly by the nature of their status and their actions are the fulcrum that triggers negative consequences for themselves as well as others.  A person who refuses to wear a mask is wrong and a bad example.  A person who refuses to wear a mask inside a nursing home is a menace.  They might both be evil on an abstract scale but the practical consequences of the actions of the latter are much more significant for those around them.  It isn’t fair that the governor of South Dakota hasn’t dropped dead from Covid-19, but rational people can see that their own conduct doesn’t give them the same kind of immunity from consequences.  Otherwise, the only benchmark for any of us is to look around and find justification in imitating the lowest common denominator behavior.  Capiche?

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