Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

I was promised a recession.

The revolution will be supervised.

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

The willow is too close to the house.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

It’s a doggy dog world.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday/Tuesday, September 21-22

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday/Tuesday, September 21-22

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‘Deep state’, shallow Trumpists –

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43Comments

  2. 2.

    Bruce K

    Greece: spiking. 453 new daily cases reported on Monday, the worst number since the pandemic began. Athens is “condition orange” and could be days away from locking down again. Six new dead, for a total of 344.

    I’m glad I sent out my ballot when I had the chance.

  3. 3.

    mrmoshpotato

    meaning that re-electing him will end the pandemic that has caused 200,000 confirmed deaths under him and is not close to ending.

    Dump’s re-election will not “end the pandemic.” It’ll just cause more ignoring of it, because Dump sucks Kremlin ass.

  4. 4.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily CoviD-19 numbers. 82 new cases, for a cumulative reported total of 10,358 cases.

    72 new cases from local infection. I can’t give the Health Ministry’s breakdown per its tweet here because it doesn’t match the total.

    10 imported cases. Nine Malaysians, all in a group of medical students returning from India. One non-Malaysian arriving from Indonesia.

    168 more patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 9,563 patients recovered — 92.32% of the cumulative reported total. 665 active and contagious cases are currently being isolated/treated in hospital; nine are in ICU, two of them on respirators.

    No new Covid-19 deaths were reported today, and the total is still 130 deaths — 1.26% of the cumulative reported total 1.34% of resolved cases.

  5. 5.

    Brachiator

    One of the Twitter comments…

    Remember those terrible PPE shortages at the beginning of the pandemic? Yeah, they’re still happening:

    Young Jared has the non-answer

    “Free markets will solve this,” Kushner said. “That is not the role of government.”

    Morons and grifters

  9. 9.

    Amir Khalid

     

    Another go at the breakdown for cases from local infection:

    72 new cases from local infection. 60 Malaysians: 48 in Sabah, comprising 34 from the Benteng Lahad Datu police lockup cluster, five from the Pulau cluster, three from the Selamat cluster, four from the (new) Bangau cluster, one case detected in coommunity screening, and one case detected upon referral to hospital;10 in Kedah. comprising nine cases from the Sungai cluster, and one detected in an enhanced movement control order zone; one in Selangor detected in pre-surgery screening; one symptomatic case in Sarawak. 12 non-Malaysians: all in Sabah, comprising seven from the Benteng Lahad Datu cluster, one from the Pulau cluster, three from the Selamat cluster, and one from the Bangau cluster.

    ETA: I got confused because the Health Ministry tweeted a graphic with the wrong total numbers.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    My sister-in-law is an ER doc, and she’s still seeing a lot of cases, though not nearly as many as she saw over the summer. The positive test rate in FL is around 12%, and she expects it to go up again due to Memorial Day parties and school openings.

    I’m starting to think we’re just going to slowly get to herd immunity through many needless deaths because we’re simply incapable of collective action, thanks largely to Trump’s anti-mask/anti-science demagoguery. That will be true no matter who wins the election.

  12. 12.

    Chyron HR

    Trump says the November 3 election will “decide whether we end the pandemic” or not

    Well, he ain’t wrong.

  13. 13.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 0 new domestic confirmed cases and 0 new domestic asymptomatic case, 6 new imported confirmed cases and 15 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 3 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Chad, Congo (Kinshasa) and Kuwait; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Kuwait
    • Shanghai Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the Philippines
    • Kunming in Yunnan Province – 1 confirmed and 7 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Indonesia
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Spain
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 5 asymptomatic cases, 4 Chinese nationals returning from Nepal, 1 from Saudi Arabia (via Cairo)
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released

    Ruili at Yunnnan Province has exited lock down measures, after the mass screen at the city did not uncover any further infected case (beyond the initial 2 imported cases who smuggled themselves from Myanmar).
    Today, Hong Kong reported 8 new cases, 3 from local transmission, all has clear sources of transmission identified.

  14. 14.

    TS (the original)

    This may be why there is still a shortage of N95 masks – from WaPo

    Pentagon used taxpayer money meant for masks and swabs to make jet engine parts and body armor
    Shortly after Congress passed the Cares Act, the Pentagon began directing pandemic-related money to defense contractors.

    A $1 billion fund Congress gave the Pentagon in March to build up the country’s supplies of medical equipment has instead been mostly funneled to defense contractors and used for making things such as jet engine parts, body armor and dress uniforms.

    The change illustrates how one taxpayer-backed effort to battle the novel coronavirus, which has killed roughly 200,000 Americans, was instead diverted toward patching up long-standing perceived gaps in military supplies.

    The Cares Act, which Congress passed earlier this year, gave the Pentagon money to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.” But a few weeks later, the Defense Department began reshaping how it would award the money in a way that represented a major departure from Congress’s original intent.

    The payments were made even though U.S. health officials believe there are still major funding gaps in responding to the pandemic. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Senate testimony last week that states desperately need $6 billion to distribute vaccines to Americans early next year. There remains a severe shortage of N95 masks at numerous U.S. hospitals. These are the types of problems that the money was originally intended to address.

  20. 20.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker: Who is “we”? It’s not great anywhere but the response across states has been very different from place to place. And not even the worst states have had anything close to an uncontrolled run to 60-70% infection. (That may have actually happened in Manaus, Brazil.)

  21. 21.

    Kay

    @Brachiator:

    That’s the beauty of the Trumps though- you beat daddy and the whole clan gets fired. You get to defeat like 11 Trumps with one blow. As an extra plus, they’re all going to stay front and center in the GOP for decades. This is the best grift any of them have ever stumbled into.

  22. 22.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @Matt McIrvin: That’s the fundamental problem isn’t it? There is no “we”. There’s states. I tell my husband all the time that I never wanted to live through a real time simulation on how the Articles of Confederation failed. But here we are.

  23. 23.

    TS (the original)

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Well I gather Mexico may be doing better than the US at covid containment, so that wall may have stopped the virus escaping to Mexico.

    Then again, the virus and the ineffective, useless US administration is not something I should be snarking about. This is the President* in action:

    As the U.S. hits 200,000 COVID-19 deaths, Trump tells an Ohio rally the coronavirus ‘affects virtually nobody’

  24. 24.

    Baud

    @Kay: 

    Don’t you think Biden should appoint Jared to a cabinet position as a show of bipartisanship? Why let all that expertise go to waste?

  25. 25.

    TS (the original)

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m starting to think we’re just going to slowly get to herd immunity through many needless deaths because we’re simply incapable of collective action,

    I don’t believe herd immunity is even possible without a vaccine.

    But scientists are increasingly of the view that this virus will not disappear. In interviews and correspondence with more than a dozen researchers around the world, NPR found that the vast majority believes the virus will persist at some level for a long time in places like the U.S. and Europe.

    And until there is an effective vaccine in widespread use, levels of immunity will never be high enough to achieve what’s called herd immunity, these researchers say.

    With President Biden, a vaccine with appropriate valid trials will be available next year, so yet another critical reason to defeat trump. The CDC may become trustworthy again – which will not happen under trump.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    @TS (the original):

    Typically nasty and mean spirited from the Trump Administration but it still made me sad. So clear to me he’s calling the people who died “nobodies”.

    Maybe this is particularly egregious to me because they’re dead and can’t defend themselves. Can’t punch the big dumb bullies back.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TS (the original): Mexico’s current death toll stands at 73,697. The google says their current population is 126.2 million. My math says they are officially doing about as bad as us but folks SoB tell me that nobody believes the official numbers.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Justice Scalia’s son also gets fired as does Guiliani’s son. I’m telling you this is the most efficient vote you ever cast. You can fire whole families of Right wingers. Betsy DeVos? Yes, but also her brother’s government contracts.

  29. 29.

    TS (the original)

    @Kay: It also disregards the families and so many other people who are mourning those who have died. He behaved in exactly the same way before he was elected in regard to those who have lost loved ones at war. Why should anyone have thought he would be any different after being elected.

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I agree with you – I checked the figures and saw that many doubted the numbers – but I couldn’t think of any other benefit for that wall – it is a physical representation of trump’s ego & his ability to spend money that is not his on building monuments to himself.

  30. 30.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly: Mexico’s case rate is lower than the US, but things like test positivity and death rates imply that the low case rate is from undertesting and they’re probably actually doing considerably worse than the US. AMLO has been a real disappointment, basically took a Trumpy denialist attitude toward the whole thing.

  31. 31.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m starting to think we’re just going to slowly get to herd immunity through many needless deaths

    As another poster noted, herd immunity is probably not possible.

    BTW, one of Trump’s science advisors, Scott Atlas is a big believer in herd immunity. Atlas is not an expert on infectious diseases and has used media appearances to gain Trump’s attention and to become part of the team.

  32. 32.

    Matt McIrvin

    Anyway, I think blaming this on our ineradicable cultural deficiencies is a mistake; I guarantee you people in New York are no smarter or better than people in Florida but there’s a huge difference in the situation on the ground. Having some minimal level of governmental competence and engagement counts for something. (Also, the Northeast got the bejesus scared out of it by being hit extremely hard in the early stages when it was less clear what to do.)

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    @Matt McIrvin: By “we,” I mean “America.” If a third of the population won’t wear masks to suppress the spread and probably another third will refuse a vaccine, I don’t see how we avoid playing endless rounds of whack-a-mole until enough people have been infected or died to reach herd immunity. And that’s assuming herd immunity is even possible, now that we’ve learned people can get re-infected.

    If y’all envision a rosier scenario, please share it. I’m depressed as hell about where I think we’re headed and would love to be talked off the ledge.

  35. 35.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Notably absent: US, Russia, China.

    The best company to keep, always.

    Russia and China stayed out presumably to leverage their vaccines for foreign policy gains without it being diluted by multilateral intermediaries. The US stayed out so to avoid having to share vaccines with “sh*thole” countries.

    Even from the most cynical realist perspective, Trump administration is a complete sh*tshow.

  36. 36.

    YY_Sima Qian

    If one really wants to achieve herd immunity, then one should let COVD-19 rip through the population as quickly as possible. Dragging it out over 12 – 18 months, and people who were infected in the initial months may no longer have much immunity, so herd immunity is never really reached.

  38. 38.

    Sloane Ranger

    Yesterday’s figures from the UK.

    There were 4368 new cases, 3754 of these were in England, 125 were in Northern Ireland, 234 were in Wales and 255 in Scotland.

    The trend continues upwards and all home nations are considering new restrictions. Our beloved Prime Minister has just told Parliament what the restrictions in England will be. These include, but are not limited to, pubs to close at 10pm with table service only (not sure this will be effective, people will either start drinking earlier or faster), doubling of fines for failing to wear a mask where required (deterrence theory suggests that actually enforcing the rule would be more effective than increasing the penalty), new requirement for retail and hospitality industry staff to wear masks, people urged to work from home where possible (Gosh, it was only a few weeks ago people were being told that they risked being sacked if they didn’t go into the workplace!), numbers allowed to attend weddings will be reduced from 30 to 15 and plans to trial people attending sporting events have been paused. He went on to say these restrictions could last for 6 months and he’s prepared to go further if necessary. MP’s are asking for more Parliamentary oversight on decisions concerning restrictions.

    Deaths – 11. 9 in England and 2 in Northern Ireland.

    Tests – 219,723 out of a capacity of 257,377. Problems with getting a test at a convenient location and turn around times for results continue.

    There were 1261 people in hospital with the virus yesterday in England, a significant increase from only 10 days ago, 154 of whom are on ventilators. This is double what it was 10 days ago.

  40. 40.

    Chris Johnson

    @Betty Cracker: Wear your fuckin’ mask and stay on target.

    This is the way the occupying fascists kill off their OWN PEOPLE in demands for performative loyalty. Behave accordingly.

    Also, people can be what now? I’ve wondered whether my March sickness was COVID, and I have been assuming there is no immunity and that I had to continue to act as if I was at risk, same as before. It’s now known that people can be re-infected? Is it a matter of getting swamped with too much COVID, or is it literally no persistent immunity conferred from surviving it?

  42. 42.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @OzarkHillbilly: Mexico has the same problem and the US and Brazil, Big Brained president who is going to make Mexico white again, so plenty of virus denial. The Mexican doctors have said quite a few times the official death toll is way under counted.

  43. 43.

    Bill Arnold

    @Brachiator:

    BTW, one of Trump’s science advisors, Scott Atlas is a big believer in herd immunity.

    There have been a few recent modeling papers suggesting that the networks of contacts that people have in the real world mean that an effective epidemic threshold might be much smaller than e.g. 70%. These modeling studies and also the hints that there might be cross immunity with other endemic coronaviruses are driving the renewed talk about herd immunity. These studies are also quite unproven, and there are areas that have had much higher infection rates than the suggested low herd immunity thresholds, essentially probably (partially) falsifying these studies.
    Since when Trump is presented with a probability-weighted spray of scenarios, he always picks the ones advantageous to him, Scott Atlas and others are using this to play on Trump’s conceptual biases/failings. (Probably in service of plutocrats but it’s hard to prove.)
    DJT is a magical-thinking guy, a The Power of Positive Thinking guy since childhood, introduced to Norman Vincent Peale by his father Fred. (This is essentially early prosperity gospel.) He does not know how to work with probabilities, i.e. that it is unwise to Fuck with Loki.

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