Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

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

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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

White supremacy is terrorism.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

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

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

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

You cannot shame the shameless.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday/Thursday, Nov. 25-26

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday/Thursday, Nov. 25-26

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Unlikely to make much of a difference, given circumstances, but Trump is bound & determined to kill as many Americans as he possibly can before January 21st:

McConnell’s Talibangelical choices come into their own, just in time for a wave of Christmas plague deaths:

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  1. 1.

    YY_Sima Qian

    A.L., I can’t believe you are keeping this up in a holiday!

    Yesterday, China reported 9 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic) cases, 1 new asymptomatic case, and 1 new suspect case. All reported domestic cases are at Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region, on the border with Russia. The city had completed mass screening of all 203,236 residents individuals. It is not clear if the new cases are found among traced close contacts under quarantine, or from the mass screening. There are currently 11 confirmed, 1 asymptomatic and 2 suspect cases there. 443 close contacts have been traced and quarantined. So far the Inner Mongolian authorities have been even less transparent with case information than those from Xinjiang. Currently, the city is under soft lock down, all schools and public services are closed, all gatherings banned, all non-essential businesses closed. However, residents are only discouraged from venturing outside, not yet restricted or prohibited, other than the residential compounds with active cases. The Inner Mongolia Regional Health Commission did share that the genomic sequences of the 1st 2 cases reported on 11/21 (SARS-CoV-2, L genotype, European family Type I, sub-branch B.1.1) are almost identical to that currently prevalent in Russia. The authorities strongly suspect the outbreak is caused by importation, via some vector that is yet to be identified).

    Dr. Wu Zunyou, Chief Epidemiologist of the China CDC, shared some interesting information concerning the epidemiological investigation into the outbreak at Kashgar in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region in late Oct. to early Nov.: the source is believed to be a shipping container, with the index case (who was asymptomatic) being a cargo handler. The case transmitted to his family, which then got into the garment factory, and then the surrounding communities. Due to the high percentage of asymptomatic and mild cases, related to the predominantly young demographic of the clothing factory, local authorities were not aware that COVID-19 had already entered into the community, until routine screening uncovered positive cases. No further details have been shared, such as the origin of the shipping container (although it is implied to be freight from overseas). Hopefully, we will get the full story in a scientific paper later. Dr. Wu did emphasize that, as most of the northern hemisphere enters winter, with temperatures routinely at or below freezing in the higher latitudes, all logistics are in practicality cold chain logistics, and viral particles on surfaces are better preserved under these conditions. He further emphasized that, due to the generally lower viral inoculum associated with fomite transmission (virus may stay viable, but would not be able to replicate), the index case(s) are far more likely to be asymptomatic or very mild, which presents challenges in terms of detection and containment. However, subsequent human to human transmission tend to have high viral inoculum, due to viral replication in the human hosts. Therefore, China has now added express parcel logistics workers to high risk occupations to be screened regularly, and given priority for vaccination, to reduce risk of fomite transmission reaching 2nd or 3rd generation.

    Yesterday, China reported 12 new imported confirmed cases and 4 imported asymptomatic case and 1 imported suspect case:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 5 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from France, Spain, the UAE, Canada and the US; 1 suspect case, no information released
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from the US and Indonesia; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Iran
    • Yangjiang in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Egypt
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Russia
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Cameroon
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Russia
    • Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the Philippines
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), a Spanish national coming from Spain (via Germany)
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released

    Yesterday, Hong Kong reported 81 new cases, 7 imported (from the US, the UK, Russia, Romania, etc.) and 75 local (13 of whom with out clear sources of infection. There are another 60 cases preliminarily confirmed, awaiting retest.
    Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

  2. 2.

    Mary G

    • We have very bad numbers again in SoCal. Nice of that guy said we’re doing better than No. Dakota. Ha! Everyone in the world’s doing better than No. Dakota.
    • At least in Europe politicians are getting more honest about how long it’s going to take to get back to normal. Every time I think of Twitler’s assurance that we’d be fine by last Easter I  get mad again.
    • I cancelled dinner with my dearest friends and it was hard.
    • The vaccine news has seemed to be a bit too good to be true.
  3. 3.

    topclimber

    If more than 60 percent of Republicans are limiting Thanksgiving to their bubbles, then maybe the GOP isn’t quite the death cult we fear.

    Or, maybe they have siblings and children who are non-GOP who nixed an extended family celebration.

    Thankful either way that fewer people will die or suffer long-term health issues from viral spread.

  4. 4.

    cs

    My niece received a positive test on Wednesday. She’s young, in good health, and the odds are strongly in her favor. But it still bothers me. She’s going to college online only, and has kept away from many of her friends even though it drives her crazy. She’s been extremely responsible. And she works at the bank in our town of 800. Has to be someone at the bank that gave it to her. Probably a customer because no one in this god-forsaken town (which went 75% for Trump) wears a mask.

    I’m not too worried about her. I’m worried about her parents. Mom’s late 50’s and diabetic. Dad’s early 70’s. In great health but still. She lives with them. They’ve tested negative, but it’s probably just a matter of time.

    I know my story is nothing special these days, but I’m sharing because this is the first time it’s happened in my family.

  5. 5.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY results from yesterday: 315 new cases, 317 deaths as of now, 319 people in the hospital and 61 in the ICU.

  6. 6.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. The Ministry of Health reports 935 new cases today, continuing the dcline from Tuesday’s record tally of 2.188 new cases, for a cumulative reported total of 60,572 cases. The Ministry also reports three new deaths for a total of 348 deaths — 0.57% of the cumulative reported total, 0.70% of resolved cases.

    11,348 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 110 are in ICU, 45 of them on respirators. Meanwhile, 2,555 patients recovered and were discharged, beating yesterday’s record, for a total of 49,056 patients recovered — 80.7% of the cumulative reported total.

    Six new clusters were reported today: Bot Biru and Blok 31 in Sabah, Gemilang in Johor, Sungai Udang building site in KL, Chengal in Kelantan, and Damar Laut in Penang.

    931 new cases today are local infections. Sabah has the most, 326 cases: 47 in older clusters, 14 in Bot Biru and Blok 31 clusters, 157 close-contact screenings, and 108 other screenings. Selangor has 159 cases: 52 in existing clusters, 25 close-contact screenings, and 82 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan has 158 cases: 147 in existing clusters, six close-contact screenings, and five other screenings.

    Perak has 79 cases: 75 in existing clusters, and four other screenings. Hohor has 60 cases: 31 in older clusters, 23 in Gemilang cluster, two close-contact screenings, and four other screenings. KL has 59 cases: 26 in older clusters, four in Sungai Udang building site cluster, three close-contact screenings, and 26 other screenings. Kelantan has 28 cases: 10 in older clusters, nine in Chengal cluster, five close-contact screenings, and four other screenings. Kedah has 24 cases: 23 in existing clusters, and one found in other screening.

    Penang has 17 cases: two in older clusters, seven in Damar Laut cluster, two close-contact screenings, and six other screenings. Labuan has 13 cases: six in existing clusters, two close-contact screenings, and five other screenings. Putrajaya has five cases: four in existing clusters, and one close-contact screening. Sarawak has two cases, both found in other screening. And Terengganu has one case, found in other screening.

    Melaka, Pahang, and Perlis reported no new cases today.

    Four new cases are imported. Two were reported in Selangor, and two in Sarawak. No information on countries of departure.

    The three deaths today, all reported in Sabah, are a 70-year-old woman; a 59-year-old man with hypertension and asthma; and a 77-year-old woman with diabetes and hypertension.

  7. 7.

    JPL

    @Mary G: Last night I dreamed that I got the first dosage of the Oxford vaccine, and I was pretty excited.   This morning when I woke, I saw the  article in the NYTimes.

  8. 8.

    Brachiator

    The Supreme Court, with its newly energized conservative majority, goes out of its way to be stupid in ruling in favor of Churches.

    Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote his own concurrence — joined by no other justice — to explain his vote.

    He said that other businesses such as bicycle repair shops, did not have similar restrictions.

    “So, at least according to the Governor, it may be unsafe to go to church, but it is always fine to pick up another bottle of wine” or “shop for a new bike,” Gorsuch wrote.

    People don’t go to bicycle shops in groups, sit around for hours or sing hymns to the God of 10 Speed.

    The justices blithely declared their belief that health officials could easily come up with alternative means of controlling the virus, but they could not point to any examples anywhere in the universe. Instead they make a fetish of the idea of constitutional rights.

    And this is just a taste of things to come.

  9. 9.

    p.a.

    Everyone wants successful vaccines but I’m afraid that much of the ‘developed world’, ‘West’, whatever has become so psychologically focused on magical science bullets  for every issue solution that (as we are showing) we won’t make the mundane everyday efforts to combat these problems.  And having major political parties actually denying the pandemic, warming, increasing income unbalance etc. is as much symptom as cause.

  12. 12.

    Brachiator

    @cs:

    I know my story is nothing special these days, but I’m sharing because this is the first time it’s happened in my family.

    But that’s just it. The virus does not require extraordinary circumstances to spread. We are vulnerable precisely because we live mundane social lives.

    I wish your niece and family the best.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: Yep, he wanted to vote against the restrictions and needed something, anything, to hang his hat on, and that was the best they could come up with.

  15. 15.

    PsiFighter37

    @Brachiator: Such a fucking stupid ruling. I am somewhat heartened to see Robert’s dissent, but if this is any indication, we are going to see a spate of rulings that basically allow religious institutions act like it’s the fucking Middle Ages if they really want to. I’m sure the newly-appointed handmaiden will deliver on that front.

  16. 16.

    Brachiator

    Trump’s Thanksgiving message adds fuel to the pandemic fire…

    The final line of the proclamation, issued by the White House press secretary’s office Wednesday evening, reads: “I encourage all Americans to gather, in homes and places of worship, to offer a prayer of thanks to God for our many blessings.”

    He is naturally malicious.

  17. 17.

    sab

    @Brachiator: Sounds like Mike DeWine. Okay to postpone elections (March primary, a decision I happen to agree with) but 1st Amendment religious rights outweigh states’ public health authority.

  20. 20.

    sab

    @cs: So your niece’s great offense was to have a job during Covid.

    I love that my bank is still all drive-thru. I wear gloves when I handle the little capsule tube.

    My step-kids are essential workers with management that is Covid weary. We are only zooming them today, but one is going to his mother’s house, and the other to his fiance’s parents. On the Republican side, one of their uncles has Covid.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    Mere days ago it reached 21. Today 23 the new number of countries reporting cumulative case numbers of 500k or more.

    U.S. ~12,941k
    India ~9267k
    Brazil ~6167k
    Russia ~2188k
    France ~2170k
    Spain ~1605k
    U.K. ~1557k
    Italy ~1481k
    Argentina ~1390k
    Colombia ~1271k
    Mexico ~1070k
    Germany ~988k
    Peru ~954k
    Poland ~941k
    Iran ~894k
    South Africa ~776k
    Ukraine ~677k
    Belgium ~565k
    Chile ~544k
    Iraq ~542k
    Indonesia ~517k
    Czechia ~508k
    Netherlands ~502k
    .

  22. 22.

    David ?Booooooo!? Koch

    @Brachiator: The fucking supreme court doesn’t even hold in-person oral arguments because they know it can lead to covid.

    Moreover, they have no problem enforcing restrictions on religion when it comes to brown people: muslim entry ban and peyote use by native americans.

    motherfuckers

  25. 25.

    Sloane Ranger

    Thanks AL for posting this during a major holiday.

    Yesterday, the UK had 18,213 new cases. This is about 7000 more than the day before, which is a big jump, but the trend continues downwards, with a decrease in the rolling 7-day average of 27%. New cases by home nation,

    England – 15,893 (up @6000)

    Northern Ireland – 533 (up @550)

    Scotland – 880 (up @100)

    Wales – 907 (up @300).

    Deaths – There were 696 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. The rolling 7-day average has increased by 12.1%. During the week ending Friday, 13th November, 2838 people had COVID listed as a cause of death. Of yesterday’s deaths 604 occurred in England, 7 in Northern Ireland, 44 in Scotland and 41 in Wales.

    Testing – 311,763 tests were processed on Tuesday, 24th November out of a capacity of 528,125. This is an increase in the rolling 7-day average of 1.7%.

    Hospitalisations – 16,570 people were in hospital on Monday, 23rd November and 1489 were on ventilators on 24th November. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions has reduced by 7.2%.

    General – Which areas of England are to go into which of the 3 Tiers has been announced. Basically, the vast majority of places will be in Tier 2. Tier 3 (the highest level of restrictions) seems to include most of the North, coming down all the way down to Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire (Rutland excepted) and Lincolnshire. The only areas in Tier 1 (lowest level) are the Isle of Wight, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

    Northamptonshire will be in Tier 2, although we are bordered on three sides by Tier 3 counties, putting us on the front line, I suppose. Practical effects include pubs can only open if serving “substantial” meals and no indoor mixing of households (apart from support bubbles) with a maximum of 6 people meeting outdoors. The intention is to review who is in which Tier every 14 days, but we are being told the concept will be here until at least Spring 2021.

  26. 26.

    Rusty

    @Brachiator: This is the first part of a two-step that is coming.  Religious groups are special and not subject to the rules.  They can meet, they can discriminate, and so on.  The second step will occur with the Philadelphia case where a religious adoption agency wouldn’t consider same sex couples.  The court will rule the state can’t demand they serve same sex couples or they can’t receive state funding since that would be religious discrimination.  So in lots of places governments will be able to outsource discrimination to religious groups.  The real expansion will come when they then say states can’t deny education money to church run schools since that would be religious discrimination.  The steam roller is just beginning.

  27. 27.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @sab: As consumers, I don’t think fomite transmission from food packages should be among the top five to ten things to worry about. However, spray/wiping down the outer packaging of grocery and parcels may be a relatively low cost way to reduce that risk anyway, along with frequent washing of hands, and avoid touching faces, etc., during and after food preparation.

    If you are working in public health in the US or Europe, or anywhere there is widespread community transmission, fomite transmission via frozen meat and parcels is probably a rounding error in the grand scheme of things.

    If you work in logistics, especially directly handling packages, on the other hand, protect yourselves!

    China is the only country I am aware of that is focusing on this risk, having eliminated or contained just about all the other vectors, and the only one producing any information or data on this matter. Much of that is circumstantial, but the high percentage of outbreaks tied to imported frozen meat and recently parcels/goods cannot be just coincidence. With some of the details shared by Chinese authorities in recent weeks, I find the circumstantial evidence to be quite strong, and I expect scientific papers will be published in the coming months.

    Of course, no sense worrying about long tail risks unless the high probability risks are already addressed.

  28. 28.

    YY_Sima Qian

    The SC ruling against NYS is maddening and bodes ill for the future, now that John Roberts is a card carrying member of the sane minority, and Brett Kavanaugh is the swing vote!

  31. 31.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Something I noticed reading about the publicized results for the Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech/Fosun and Astra Zeneca/Oxford vaccines. The last one is the only one that included asymptomatic infection in the announced data, so its lower headline efficacy may not using the same definition as the first 2.

    While asymptomatic infection is good (all things considered) for the infected person, they can still spread COVID-19 others. Furthermore, I am not sure how different institutions in the US and around the world are defining “asymptomatic”. I have read about reports of asymptomatic cases nevertheless suffering from lung or heart damage from US press. In China, such cases would not be classified as asymptomatic. In China, asymptomatic means no clinical symptoms, not just no outward symptoms.

    Worthwhile to keep in mind that none of these claimed results are yet peer reviewed.

  32. 32.

    sab

    Thanks so much to Anne Laurie, YY Sima Quian, Sloane Ranger and Amir Khalid for keeping us posted on Covid developments abroad, where there is actual information available.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    @Brachiator:

    What an incredibly stupid opinion by a supposedly well-educated asshole. Particularly when opined from a safe, protected location. My hope at this point is that natural selection is in place to reduce the number of stupid people in the world.

  35. 35.

    debbie

    @cs:

    The local news had a report on OSU students quarantined in a dorm over Thanksgiving after testing positive. The students interviewed took it all very seriously and understood why they were being isolated. More so than some of their neighbors, I’d bet.

  36. 36.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @debbie: Yeah, if you are self-isolating at home, then you have already addressed some of the top risk vectors of COVID-19, and wiping down surfaces of packages to minimize fomite transmission should be a focus.

    During warmer times, my parents would leave the grocery in the garage for a couple of days before taking them inside. I reminded them that particular action may no longer be effective. Instead, now they leave the grocery down stairs inside the front door, and still wipe down the outer packaging before taking it into the kitchen.

  37. 37.

    debbie

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    I have slacked off on wiping down groceries, but I still quarantine packages and mail. There are several little piles around the room. I used to wait 4 days to touch anything; I’m now down to 2 days. I should probably pick up my game on this.

  38. 38.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Princess:

    Medievalist here. In the Middle Ages, they closed churches down during the plague. This stupidity is all modernity’s fault.

    The rich and powerful (which Catholic clergy certain belonged) during the Middle Ages were not as well shielded from a pandemic as their counterparts in the modern age.

  41. 41.

    Gvg

    There are still multiple other vaccines being tested by the way. My doctor sister has received a test vaccine or placebo for another one, here in Florida. She told them if one of the others got approval and was available she would take it and not finish the study, but they still wanted her to participate.
    So even if the earlier ones look good, there are more coming. Companies are not assuming anything. Also those which are easier to mass produce or get into people, may end up being preferred. It looks like multiple companies will make money since the market is so large. That also means there is less possibility of an inferior version with fudged data getting into the system, except in Russia I think.

  42. 42.

    TS (the original)

    @Brachiator:

    He is naturally malicious.

    He truly is.  He understands how the virus spreads and is intent on spreading it further before he is thrown out. Vicious, vindictive man – and 70 million people voted for him.

  43. 43.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Update from Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia, the local authorities finally held a press conference to share some of the case information from the outbreak there:

    11 confirmed cases (1 critical, 1 severe, 5 moderate and 4 mild), 1 asymptomatic case and 2 suspect cases.

    5 of the cases are residents in 1 residential compound, and 3 are residents of another. There is 1 cluster of a teacher and 4 students in a class at a school, 2 cases are a husband and wife, 2 cases are mother and son, 2 are grandparent/grand child. The authorities have not published the transmission chains that show if and how these smaller clusters are linked. Hopefully, that information is forthcoming.

  44. 44.

    J R in WV

    Covid: How do you vaccinate a billion people? https://t.co/GQkbz5aY4T
    — BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 26, 2020

    Gosh… I could have sworn there were 6 billion people on Earth now. Or maybe BBC was just counting English speakers? Naw, there aren’t that many people who speak English! Just a random number, I guess…

  47. 47.

    DaveInOz

    Victoria has just posted its 28th day without a positive test which offically means that the virus has been eliminated here. It can be done but it requires good government with the right powers in place, and a public that believes in and adheres to the rules. We had over 700 cases a day just a few months ago.

    The credit for this goes to the the state and territory leaders in Australia. If the federal government had been in charge with their deniers and business must come first approach we’d have looked more like Europe.

    I did give Scott Morrison, the PM and known as #ScottyFromMarketing, credit for closing the borders but I’m beginning to suspect that the state leaders said that they wouldn’t allow international flights to land so he had to close the borders to save face.

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