Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

The new temporary speaker of the house is a spiteful little shit.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Second rate reporter says what?

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday/Wednesday, September 22-23

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday/Wednesday, September 22-23

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46Comments

  1. 1.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 0 new domestic confirmed cases and 0 new domestic asymptomatic case, 10 new imported confirmed cases and 18 imported asymptomatic cases:

     

    * Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 4 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese national each returning from Indonesia and Bangladesh; 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Indonesia and Bangladesh, and 1 from Zambia
    * Dongguan in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from India
    * Foshan in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Singapore and Chad
    * Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 3 confirmed cases (all previously asymptomatic), all Chinese nationals returning from Nepal
    * Deyang in Sichuan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Russia (the case had arrived in China at Shenzhen on 9/5, passed through the mandatory 14 day centralized quarantine and tested negative, returned to Deyang on 9/20 and entered into medical quarantine, tested positive on 9/22; this is the second such case in the past week)
    * Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Spain
    * Qingdao in Shandong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UK; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the Philippines
    * Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 confirmed and 3 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    * Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    * Xiamen in Fujian Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Russia and Kazakhstan
    * Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Japan
    * Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Canada

     

    Today, Hong Kong reported 3 new cases, 2 from local transmission, all has clear sources of transmission identified.

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    New York City officials are concerned about a new cluster of COVID-19 cases in a southern part of Brooklyn with a 4.71% rate of positive test results. The city is also concerned about the Williamsburg neighborhood, which has a 2% positive

    Misery: You lucky bastahd.
    NYC: Who’s that?
    Misery: You lucky, lucky bastahd.
    NYC: What?Misery: Proper little Covid pet, aren’t we?
    NYC: What do you mean?
    Misery: You must have slipped him a few immigrants to infect, eh?
    NYC: Slipped him a few immigrants? We have a 4.7% infection rate in one neighborhood. Besides, you saw him spit in my face! He’s infectious!
    Misery: Ohh! What wouldn’t I give to be spat at in the face! I sometimes hang awake at night dreaming of being spat at in the face by infectious people.
    NYC: Well, it’s not exactly friendly, is it? They had me in manacles!
    Misery: Manacles! Ooh oooh oh oh. My idea of heaven is to be allowed to be put in manacles… just for a few hours. They must think the sun shines out o’ your arse, sonny.
    NYC: Oh, lay off me. I’ve had a hard time!
    Misery: You’ve had a hard time?! I’ve been here five months! They only hung me the right way up yesterday! So, don’t you come ‘rou–
    NYC: All right. All right.
    Misery: They must think you’re Lord God Almighty.
    NYC: What will Covid do to me?
    Misery: Oh, you’ll probably get away with slow death by strangulation.
    NYC: Slow death by strangulation?!
    Misery: Yeah, you liberal blue states always get off easy.

    Sorry, right now the absurdity of our daily lives has a constant Monty Python refrain running thru my head.

  3. 3.

    Geminid

    Well, the NFL is not messing around. They require masking for all sideline personnel. On Sunday and Monday night, five  head coaches did not mask properly. They were each fined $100,000; the teams were fined $250,000 each. Two of the coaches pointed out that they have had Covid-19 already, but that did not cut any ice with the league.

  4. 4.

    Gvg

    Well, I consider it positive news that my large state University employer just announced employees and students may have a weekly Covid test if we want it at no cost. Previously it was with symptoms. They also announced we are starting to use the saliva test, not just the nasal swab. I had been concerned, still am, but they seem to be improving things. Cases went up when school started but are trending down now for 2 weeks. We have 1000 quarantine dorms. When cases were highest they were 14% filled, now they are down to 11%. There were some snafus with food delivery to those dorms so I know they do that. The University said it was their fault and they are fixing it. Acknowledging the fault calmly, makes me feel better about it. The campus seems pretty empty, so I know most classes are still online. The mask guidelines keep getting stricter.
    Football starts soon which is idiotic. 17% capacity and I have realized that since the students only get 2000 seats of that, it’s mostly going to be out of towners spreading it among themselves maybe. Hard to say until I see it (on the news, I am not going anywhere near it) The plans call for social distancing between groups. I could go on, but overall the news is improving here and not meeting my dire fears.
    I plan to test weekly and try to time it so I can see my parents on weekends. That will cheer me up.

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily CoviD-19 numbers. 147 new cases, for a cumulative reported total of 10,505 cases

    143 new cases from local infection.  114 Malaysians. 105 cases in Sabah: 90 from the Benteng Lahad Datu cluster, five from the Bangau-Bangau cluster, two from the Pulau cluster, four cases screened for severe acute respiratory infections, three healthcare workers, one person in police custody. One in Kelantan, screened on returning from Sabah. One case in KL: a person returning from a high-risk area. Two cases in Selangor: one close contact of another case, and one screened at work. Five cases in Kedah: four from the Sungai cluster and one detected in community screening.

    29 non-Malaysians, all in Sabah: 15 from the Benteng Lahad Datu cluster, three from the Bangau-Bangau cluster, eight from the Laut cluster, two from the Udin cluster (a new cluster), one case screened for severe acute respiratory infection.

    Four imported new cases: three Malaysians, all returning from India; one non-Malaysian, arriving from Indonesia.

    39 more patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 9,602 patients discharged — 91.40% of the cumulative reported total. 770 active and contagious cases are currently being isolated/treated in hospital; eight are in ICU, two of them on respirators.

    Three new deaths were reported today, two in Sabah and one in Kedah, the most CoviD-19 deaths in one day since 21st April, for a total of 133 deaths — 1.27% of the cumulative reported total, 1.37% of resolved cases.

  6. 6.

    mrmoshpotato

    Herd immunity an impractical strategy, study finds

    This headline pissed me off, so I read the article, and I still don’t understand where this herd immunity would be coming from.

  8. 8.

    Amir Khalid

    @Amir Khalid:

    Update on the three deaths. Two of them were at Tawau Hospital in Sabah: a 48-year-old woman with co-morbidities i.e. diabetes and hypertension, and a 54-year-old man. The third, at Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Kedah, was a 72-year-old man who had suffered a stroke but was asymptomatic.

  11. 11.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Amir Khalid: Seriously, I don’t understand.

    And fuck the Soviet shitpile mobster conman who’s currently in charge of 1/3 of the world’s most powerful government.

  12. 12.

    Robert Sneddon

    @mrmoshpotato: Until one or more vaccines are approved and manufactured and used widely across the entire planet (not just the rich countries) then “herd immunity” is all we’ve got to stop this disease.

     

    Closures, travel restrictions, quarantining, distancing, masks, hand-washing and other prophylactic measures can slow down the spread of this disease and the consequent deaths and serious after effects, they can’t stop it by themselves. Once most folks have had the disease then it won’t spread as fast or as far — that’s herd immunity. The folks saying “let’s get this over with, take the hit and get back to normal” forget that slowing down the spread and the infection rates by lockdowns, quarantining etc. prevent medical systems being smashed into the ground under the peak load — we came close to this happening here in the UK and, I believe, in places in the US too. They also mean more people will still be unexposed to the virus when the vaccines do become available.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @mrmoshpotato: Herd immunity is reached when a certain percentage of the populace (i forget what the # is) carry antibodies and hence are immune to the disease such that it can no longer easily infect large numbers of people.

    Herd immunity is reached either thru vaccinations or infections. If it is reached thru infections, many people die. If thru vaccinations, few people die.

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Robert Sneddon: It’s the immunity without a vaccine that’s tripping me up.  Seems like a crapshoot to be magically immune or get the virus and recover with minimal damage (which doesn’t mean lifelong immunity from what we currently know.)

  22. 22.

    zhena gogolia

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I hate him so much that I can’t live like this. I hate him so much. I hate the media so much. Why isn’t “it hardly affects anybody” 24/7 screaming news????

  23. 23.

    mrmoshpotato

    @OzarkHillbilly: Herd immunity is reached either thru vaccinations or infections. If it is reached thru infections, many people die. If thru vaccinations, few people die.

    Yes, but through infection we’d have to ensure retransmission can’t happen from those who recovered.

    (Mmmm….cheery mass death morning conversation.)

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    @zhena gogolia:

    Why isn’t “it hardly affects anybody” 24/7 screaming news???? 

    Aren’t you forgetting that Upchuck Todd needs to scream about Hillary’s emails 25/7 (yes 25)?

    Seriously, I share your anger about this and I’m sure many other things over the past 4+ years of this shitshow.  (I include the election.)

  25. 25.

    Robert Sneddon

    @mrmoshpotato: On average, most people who get infected will develop sufficient antibodies to be immune for a few months at least and it’s likely that if they do get re-infected they’ll suffer less than someone who is exposed for the first time. Herd immunity is not perfect, it’s statistical. Note however that this disease, like plague and many other oldey-timey diseases is going to be with us for the next few decades at least (breakthrough treatments might eliminate it from the world but we’re not going to get rid of it with what we know or can do today — it’s not like smallpox or rinderpest).

     

    With SCIENCE! and precautions we can keep the infection rate and death toll down and not overwhelm our medical facilities with the peak loads we’ve been seeing from the first and subsequent waves this year. Once there are workable vaccines with some efficacy then the uncontained spread will stop and the typical caseloads will drop down to the sorts of numbers we get from influenza, the common cold and other regular seasonal disease outbreaks.

  27. 27.

    Princess

    The other problem with herd immunity (“if you leave aside all the deaths” as Ross Douthat would say) is tht there is no certainty that even if 70% of the population contracted covid, there is no guarantee that they would have immunity to reinfection for any usefully long period. We don’t have herd immunity to the common cold, and we’ve all been infected with that.

  28. 28.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Amir Khalid: Hum, this new concept of Herd, Mentality has reached the UK. I saw it used in a tweet from a British person concerning the new restrictions here. Obviously Trump curious.

    Now, here are yesterday’s figures from the UK.

    There were 4926 new cases. This is the highest new case count since early May. Our cumulative case number is now 403,551. Of the new cases, 4187 were in England, 75 in Northern Ireland, 281 in Wales and 383 in Scotland.

    There were 37 new deaths, 36 in England and 1 in Scotland. This is the largest number for quite some time.

    Testing – 188,865 tests were processed yesterday out of a capacity of 263,689. That’s low compared with previous days.

    Hospitalisations -237 people were admitted to hospital in England on 20 September, 2 in Northern Ireland and 28 in Wales. No figures available for Scotland. On the same date, there were 1141 people actually IN hospital in England, 33 in Northern Ireland, 63 in Scotland and 82 in Wales. 142 people were in ventilators in England, 9 in Scotland and 11 in Wales. These figures all show an increase from even a week ago.

    Reaction to BoJo’s announcement here has been mixed. some say it’s gone too far others, not far enough. Just listened to a woman on a phone in programme spouting the usual RWNJ stuff you’re used to in the US and saying that Johnson is now the captive of the cover and cower consortium and has lost her vote. God knows who she will vote for if she really means it. Others are angry, saying that he’s blaming the public for his own incompetence, lack of decisive leadership and refusal to sack Cummings after he broke the rules.

    Here endeth the report from the UK.

  29. 29.

    gvg

    @rikyrah: Yes. the NFL managing not to blow up means the colleges aren’t being warned off.  But colleges have a highly variable amount of competence and resources.

    I really think they should have banned concessions except drinks with straws. I think you could stick a straw under a mask without totally losing protection.  But allowing people to take off masks while eating is one of the problems I see.  I loved live football games, but eating and drinking stuff was a good amount of the time and when it’s still so hot I can see people using it as an excuse to take off masks more.

    I am not sure about the crowd distancing measures. They are doing pretty well on campus.

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Sloane Ranger:

    Hum, this new concept of Herd, Mentality has reached the UK. I saw it used in a tweet from a British person concerning the new restrictions here.

    Was it BoJo The Bonehead?

    ETA – was this person yelling about “tyranny” and “my rights are being violated?”

  32. 32.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Robert Sneddon: With SCIENCE! and precautions we can keep the infection rate and death toll down and not overwhelm our medical facilities with the peak loads we’ve been seeing from the first and subsequent waves this year.

    That’s the problem, treating SCIENCE! as nothing more than an opinion is deeply offensive to many people, see Creationism. So we are going to screwed on this thing for years to come.

  33. 33.

    charon

    @Amir Khalid:

     

    Inappropriate word substitutions are a symptom of senile dementia, specifically frontotemporal dementia.  Donald is doing that with accelerating frequency as his dementia progresses.

  34. 34.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @charon: Actually I think that was Trump was stoned out of his gord on Adderall and anti depressants and anciently told the truth.  Basically if Trump doesn’t do shit, some point people will become numb to the death and chaos, thus herd mentality.

  37. 37.

    Sloane Ranger

    @mrmoshpotato: More, it’s here, it’s effects are being exaggerated, let’s get on with our lives. Let’s get Herd Mentality. Probably, a BoJo supporter (until last night at least). He’s upset a lot of his own base with the new restrictions and pundits are saying he can’t go much further without losing the business friendly Tory backbenchers.

  41. 41.

    mad citizen

    @mrmoshpotato: Ha!  Good one.  We have our local Colts.  I’m very much a fair weather tv-only fan, and on a day like last Sunday, which was a beautiful fall day, always wonder why anyone would want to sit inside watching sports.

    It is funny how having a crowd makes it seem more exciting, though, while an empty stadium or sparse crowd makes it seem like “Why I am watching this on teevee if people can’t be bothered to watch it in person?”

    Perhaps we’ve seen peak NFL.  The TV audience is continually splitting apart anyway…

  42. 42.

    Fair Economist

    @Princess:Oh, it’s stronger than that. No respiratory virus produces long-term sterilizing immunity, and you can catch any of them again after a year or so. Repeat infections are normally milder, but 2 of the 3 re-infections definitively confirmed so far were actually worse the second time. It’s a biased sample (because people mildly sick are less likely to be tested) but it looks like COVID is still dangerous on repeat infections. Herd immunity just won’t work for this respiratory virus at all.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    @mad citizen: The lack of crowd hasn’t affected my love of baseball.  The canned crowd noise is annoying.

    I saw the Lions blow it versus the Bears, but only the last minute, so I can’t opine about the football.

  44. 44.

    bluefoot

    @Robert Sneddon:

    If EVERYONE followed masking, social distancing, people had appropriate & sufficient PPE, etc and we got the infection rate low enough, the disease would essentially die out except for new hotspots, because no one new would be infected.  In hotspots/new outbreaks, we could trace and stop the spread.

    And then we would have time to distribute a good vaccine and continue testing treatments.

  45. 45.

    Helen

    Big 10 starts football in October. Stadium seating is restricted. I’m afraid the Covid exposure won’t be at the game but at the sports bars and at football-watching parties. There will definitely be a SPIKE.

  46. 46.

    Robert Sneddon

    @bluefoot: Ummm, no. That’s facile of me, I know but this is a respiratory disease with low immunity in the general population, high communicability and sufficient “hang time” in shared spaces to give it a window of opportunity to infect others even in edge cases. This makes it ineradicable in humans, pretty much and that’s not even taking possible animal reservoirs of this virus into account.

     

    Presuming everyone will do the right thing all the time in terms of prophylactics to defeat this disease is what I call “engineering solutions to people problems”. My own such solution is that everyone on the planet, no exceptions, goes into individual quarantine for twenty-one days simultaneously. That would cut cross-infection to zero and the virus would die out in the human population. It won’t, it can’t work, same with the “everyone wears a mask and washes their hands and…” solution because people are people and this disease is a people problem at its heart.

     

    I can’t blame people for being people though. It’s easy to condemn the Other for not doing the right thing that you are certain is needful and necessary. That attitude is cult-like and leads to groupthink of the nastiest sort and I am myself constantly checking my own presumptions about this disease and what others are saying and doing about it even if I’m sure they’re not good for all of us.

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