Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

The revolution will be supervised.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

When I was faster i was always behind.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

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

Let me file that under fuck it.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

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

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

People are weird.

No one could have predicted…

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday/Thursday, September 16-17

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday/Thursday, September 16-17

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Bet Netanyahu and his entourage are just thrilled about this:

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… Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc have headed out at a rapid clip. The early data look promising, and late-stage trials in tens of thousands of volunteers could produce a rapid answer.

But to deploy a vaccine widely by early next year, it’s worth keeping in mind what has to go right:

– One of the vaccines has to work.
– The vaccine that works has to be one of the handful that are already in late-stage trials.
– There can’t be a major safety concern or delay.
– The clinical trials have to generate strong evidence.
– The FDA has to accept that evidence and review it rapidly.
– The manufacturing has to go near perfectly.
– Hundreds of millions of doses must be delivered around the country, likely with some degree of low-temperature storage requirements.

Even in vaccination efforts that the U.S. runs every year, it’s hard to meet the goal of wide uptake. For the 2017-2018 flu season, only 37% of Americans actually got a vaccine, according to the CDC. Many people get it at work, at school, at a drugstores or in hospitals –places that are largely closed or that many Americans are avoiding because of the pandemic…

I don’t pretend to understand the full scientific details, but here’s a thread with an expert’s opinion on that Bannon-promoted ‘Chinese lab-made virus!!!1!’ story:

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Sometimes protest works!

Reader Interactions

24Comments

  1. 1.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily numbers. 21 new cases. The cumulative reported total is 10,052 cases.

    16 cases from local infection. 15 Malaysians: seven in Kedah, comprising six from the Sungai private-hospital cluster and one person in an enhanced movement control order zone; four in Sabah, comprising one from the Benteng Lahad Datu police lockup cluster, one screened during admission to hospital, one from a new cluster named the Selamat cluster, and one screened in a ship sign-off, whatever that means. One in Sarawak, screened at an international port of entry. Two in Penang state, close contacts of another case. One in Selangor. One non-Malaysian from the Benteng Lahad Datu cluster.

    Five imported cases, all Malaysians, returning from China, Pakistan, India, and New Zealand (two).

    16 more patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 9,250 patients recovered — 92.02% of the cumulative reported total. 674 active and contagious cases are currently being isolated/treated in hospital; 13 are in ICU, two of them on respirators.

    There have been no new Covid-19 deaths since 1st September, and the total remains at 128 deaths — 1.27% of the cumulative reported total, 1.36% of resolved cases.

  2. 2.

    Chris T.

    Multiple White House staff have tested positive for COVID-19 today.

    Can “Trump has Covid” be our October Surprise?

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Blech. It gets harder every day to convince myself that it isn’t well past time our species went extinct.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    Worldwide reported cases passed 30 million sometime today. Cumulative total reported deaths just under 950,000.

    India creeping up on 100,000 new reported cases per day.

    U.S. total reported deaths will have reached 200,000 by the time Rosh Hashanah arrives on Friday (predicted this exact time frame earlier – not that am in any way proud of being spot on with it).

  5. 5.

    raven

    It’s pouring from Sally and our friend and neighbor has to get to work ad doesn’t drive so I’m going to mask up and take her in.

  11. 11.

    raven

    Stegman Coliseum is where I received both of my UGA degrees.  It was built for both sports and livestock shows!

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    I know college football in a big deal in America, but prioritising college football players over the general population for Covid-19 testing is not a good way to allocate scarce medical resources.

  14. 14.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 0 new domestic confirmed cases and 0 new domestic asymptomatic case, 912 new imported confirmed cases and 14 imported asymptomatic cases and 1 imported suspect case:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 4 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Singapore and 1 each returning from India and Equatorial Guinea; 1 suspect case, no information released
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Liberia (via Brussels) and Spain; 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Liberia (via Abidjan and Brussels) and 1 from the Philippines (via Japan)
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Tanzania; 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Kenya and Myanmar
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Russia
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Singapore
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 confirmed and 1 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Kunming in Yunnan Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Indonesia
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from India
    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from the Philippines
    • Nanning in Guangxi Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from overseas, no further information released

    Authorities at Ruili in Yunnan Province updated the progress of their mass screening campaign since the 2 imported cases were detected in the community on 9/12, with support of resources from Dehong Prefecture (of which Ruili is part), Yunnan Province and national levels: increased qualified testing labs from 2 to 12, increased the number of testing systems from 2 to 54, increased maximum daily testing capacity from 2,500 to 250K, received emergency supply of 300K test kits, collected samples from 80,311 individuals (as of 1:30 PM on 9/16 local time), and have received results from 13,182 individuals (all negative).

    Today, Hong Kong reported 9 new cases, 6 from  local transmission, 3 do not have clear sources of transmission identified.

  15. 15.

    raven

    @Amir Khalid: Right, but it crucial to do the same thing for soccer.

    It helped that Germany was a world leader in ramping up its coronavirus testing. That meant that the league could use as many as 25,000 coronavirus tests to finish the season without putting a serious dent in the country’s testing capability.

    The deputy head of Germany’s main public health body was opposed, saying tests should be saved only for people suspected of having the virus.

    At one stage the restart looked in doubt after positive tests for players or staff at first-division club Cologne and second-division teams Dresden and Erzgebirge Aue. Polls consistently showed most Germans were opposed to the restart. Detailed planning by the league for testing and training helped convince key politicians.

    The league has stopped publishing testing figures though no top-division team has reported an infection since the league resumed.

  16. 16.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Amir Khalid: The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatly flashlight that exposes pathologies of every polity, and the true values judgments of individuals, organizations and governments.

    I don’t want to see US government officials riding high horses around the world sermonizing about democracy, human rights, Enlightenment values in the future, even from a Biden administrations, until the debilitating domestic ills have been substantially addressed. The preaching was always hypocritical coming from the US government (most governments, really), but now the veneer of credibility has been shredded into oblivion. There are much better ambassadors for these values: Germany, Scandinavia ex-Sweden, South Korea, New Zealand.

  17. 17.

    raven

    Champions League

     

    ”

    How often will players be tested?

    All of the players and backroom staff members are tested three days or two days before leaving their country. They are tested again on the eve of their first match. UEFA will receive test results at least six hours before the kickoff.

    What happens if players show COVID-19 symptoms?

    Any player or coach that develops COVID-19 symptoms must immediately self-isolate and contact the authorities.”

  18. 18.

    Chris Johnson

    Poetic injustice: Trump’s an asymptomatic carrier and has been all this time, and what with his dementia there is no chance of convincing him of that, OR convincing his rabble either.

  19. 19.

    Sloane Ranger

    NEW: Multiple White House staff have tested positive for COVID-19 today. The White House press pool was just informed, but Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is not releasing any further information.

    During Trump’s press conference/propaganda rally yesterday, he was asked about this. He asked someone who told him it was only one person. Have they had to “re-adjust” their figures since then?

    Now, onto the UK’s figures for yesterday. We had 3991 new cases reported yesterday. The number of new cases continues to grow steadily. Broken down by Home Nation, England 3393 new cases, Northern Ireland 129, Wales 199 and Scotland (as previously reported by Robert Sneddon) had 267.

    There were 20 new deaths, 17 in England, 2 in Northern Ireland and 1 in Scotland. Also we now have 901 people in hospital, 115 of whom are on ventilators. Unable to break these figures down by nation.

    From Friday, restrictions will be increased in most of North East England (Northumberland, Tyneside, Durham, Newcastle on Tyne and surrounding areas). These will include a 10pm curfew for bars/pubs, table only service in restaurants and a ban on people meeting with people outside their own household.

    Also, the Rhondda Cynon Taf area of Wales will see a local lockdown with people not being able to enter or leave the area “without a reasonable excuse”. No mixing of households and pubs etc closing at 11pm. This is due to a local spike in cases which has been traced to a social club coach trip to Doncaster Races which apparently turned into a pub crawl, stopping at every pub on the way back!

    As I said yesterday, I have run out of patience with these people. Their arrogance and selfishness ruins everything for everyone else. They are the sort of people who would have refused to carry their gas mask cases during WWII because they didn’t colour co-ordinate with their outfit or close the blackout curtains during the Blitz because they made them feel claustrophobic!

  20. 20.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — the number of cases here continues to rise, 290 new confirmed cases and a rising test positivity rate of 4%. No new deaths reported. The R value is estimated to be 1.4, well above what it was even a few weeks ago. There’s still worries about testing backlogs and prompt return of results.

  21. 21.

    Amir Khalid

    @raven:

    As a football fan, I do not support prioritising professional players over the general public for access to scarce Covid-19 testing resources. They get prioritised anyway because sportsball is big business, and big business interests get to force their way to the front of the line. I’m not happy about that.

    Chelsea FC manager Frank Lampard said a few months ago that it wouldn’t sit right with him if the deserving were deprived of testing so players could be tested and football could continue. I agree with that. I also feel that if testing needs to be rationed in England, as The Guardian reports, professional sports there must take its place in the queue with everyone else. If the English Premier League can’t fairly secure enough tests to continue, it shouldn’t get to hog them and deprive everyone else.

  22. 22.

    VOR

    @Amir Khalid: agree. I hope they got the testing promise in writing; I certainly would not trust Trump’s word. Football brings in a lot of money, especially at a Big Ten school, and I’m sure all those colleges are facing big budget deficits in their athletic departments.

  23. 23.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Update from Ruili in YunnanProvince: as of 5:30 PM on 9/17, samples have been collected from 246,686 individuals in the city (I think that is close to everyone), have results for 95,362 individuals, all negative. The rest of results will probably come in by the end of business tomorrow. It would appear the border town lucked out. No work if any other undocumented entries from Myanmar have been found.

  24. 24.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Here is a recent preprint published by a team of researchers at the National University of Singapore assessing the feasibility of international cold chain logistics as a vector for transmitting viable SARS-CoV-2 virus and causing new outbreaks at places were COVID-19 has been eradicated.

    Seeding of outbreaks of COVID-19 by contaminated fresh and frozen food

    Their finding is that viable virus can survive for 21 days on the surfaces of frozen meat, which can then infect workers who subsequent process the imported meat, or individuals who prepare the meals with the  contaminated meat and who failed to ensure proper hygiene. So, fomite transmission via cold chain logistics may not be a significant vector, but it should not be dismissed by places that believe they have eradicated COVID-19, and wish to keep it that way.

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