Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

This blog will pay for itself.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

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

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday/Thursday, Dec. 9-10

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday/Thursday, Dec. 9-10

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IMPORTANT UPDATE!

False alarm, everybody!

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49Comments

  2. 2.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    25 percent of all COVID fatalities in New York City now comes from Staten Island, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday, even as the borough’s residents make up just 5 percent of New York City’s population.

    Staten Island is Trumpland

    In 2016, Dump’s share of the vote:

    Queens……….. 22%
    Brooklyn……….17%
    Bronx……………9.5%
    Manhattan…….9.7%
    Staten Island….56%

    He ordered his cult not to believe the severity or they’re against social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands to own the libs and they end up catching it and spreading it to others, jamming up hospitals, which triggers a lock down and loss of their own jobs.

    Sick.

  3. 3.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 1 new domestic confirmed and 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases, reported by Manzhouli at Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region. The new case is a traced close contact already under quarantine. The city currently has 27 confirmed and 2 asymptomatic domestic cases. 1,437 individuals are under quarantine.
    Dongning in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang Province reported a new confirmed case today. The town on in the land border with a Russia, and the case is found during screening at Customs. Unclear at this point whether the case is imported or domestic.
     
    Chengdu continues to have 6 confirmed (1 serious, 4 moderate and 1 mild) and 1 asymptomatic cases. As of 6 PM on 12/9, 433 close contacts have been traced and quarantined, 344 swabbed and 338 have tested negative (with the remaining pending). Confirmed Case #3 (granddaughter of the index cases) has had extensive travel within the city, with 72 F1 close contacts, 49 F2 close contacts and 4,275 regular contacts traced and quarantined (centralized for F1s and F2s, at home for the regulars). All contacts have tested negative so far, other that 4 results pending. As of the morning of 12/10, 739K residents in Chengdu have been swabbed, of the 399.3K results obtained so far, all are negative (other than the reported positive cases). The city is largely functioning normally, with lock downs limited to residential compounds and neighborhoods with active cases. Schools remain open, but all schools have developed contingency plans to switch to online instruction within 24 hours of activation.
     
    Yesterday, China reported 11 new imported confirmed cases, 5 imported asymptomatic cases and 2 new imported suspect case:
     

    • Shanghai Municipality – 9 confirmed cases, 4 Chinese students returning from Switzerland and 1 each returning from the France and Japan, 2 US nationals coming from the US and a Serbian national coming from Serbia (via Helsinki); 2 suspect cases, no information released
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Indonesia: 3 asymptomatic cases, a Chinese national returning from Uganda (via Kigali), and 2 Filipino crew members off of a cargo ship (recently stopped at Taiwan and Japan)
    • Fuzhou in Fijian Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), a Chinese national returning from Japan
    • Wuhan in Hubei Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Pakistani national coming from Pakistan
    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the Philippines


    Yesterday, Hong Kong reported 112 new cases, 10 imported and 102 local (34 of whom without clear sources of infection).

  5. 5.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY yesterday:
    607 new cases, 7 new deaths, 599 people hospitalized and 109 of those are in the ICU.

     

    I found out one of my high school classmates just lost his 93 year old father to COVID. His parents had retired to Florida.

  6. 6.

    TS (the original)

         After a nine month hiatus, CDC scientists are speaking directly to the public again.

    Going to take some time for the people to have faith in the CDC again after that 9 months of being controlled by trump & co. Used to be the guiding light in many parts of the world.

  10. 10.

    sab

    My stepson and his fiance have Covid. So far it has been mild. They wouldn’t even have known they had it except his workplace has rigorous testing. She is an occupational therapist working with autistic preschoolers. She probably caught it at work.

    Without his company testing they would have been blithely spreading it around.

  11. 11.

    mrmoshpotato

    This is literally the same rhetoric against lockdowns as from the right, but couched in term that are vaguely progressive.

    Purity ponies having a sad?

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 2,234 new cases today at his media statement — a new record, beating the previous record of 2,188 cases set on 24th November — for a cumulative reported total of 78,499 cases. Dr Noor Hisham also reports three new deaths today, for a total of 396 deaths — 0.50% of the cumulative reported total, 0.59% of resolved cases.

    11,867 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 124 are in ICU, 60 of them on respirators. Meanwhile, 1,112 patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 66,236 patients recovered — 84.4% of the cumulative reported total.

    Five new clusters were reported today: Jalan Bukit building site in Selangor; Condong and Jalan Stadium building sites in KL; and Jalan Dalam and Tenun Merah in Johor.

    2,229 new cases today are local infections. Selangor has the most cases, 1,428: 842 in Seruling cluster, 315 in Hentian cluster, 43 in other older clusters, 39 in Jalan Bukit buildin site cluster, 92 close-contact screenings, and 97 other screenings. Sabah has 274 cases: 100 in existing clusters, 113 close-contact screenings, and 61 other screenings. KL has 132 cases: 79 in older clusters, 25 in Condong building site and Jalan Stadium building site clusters, 11 close-contact screenings, and 17 other screenings. Perak has 114 cases: 111 in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and two other screenings. Johor has 100 cases: 52 in older clusters, nine in Jalan Dalam and Tenun Merah clusters, 26 close-contact screenings, and 13 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan has 67 cases: 51 in existing clusters, six close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings. Pahang has 45 cases: 40 in existing clusters, and five other screenings.  Penang has 42 cases: three in existing clusters, 29 close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings. Kedah has 14 cases: 11 in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and two other screenings. Melaka has five cases: three in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and one other screening. Kelantan has three cases: two in existing clusters, and one other screening. Terengganu has three cases: one in an existing cluster, and two other screenings. Sarawak has one case, found in other screening. And Putrajaya has one case, a close-contact screening.

    Labuan and Perlis reported no new local cases today.

    Five new cases are imported. Four were reported in KL, one in Perak.

    The three deaths today, all reported in Sabah, are a 72-year-old man with diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease, and heart disease; a 26-year-old man with asthma and bronchiectasis; and a 63-year-old woman.

  13. 13.

    Geminid

    Israel has hit 1800 new cases a day for a couple days in a row, the highest number since its second “lockdown” in late September. Plans for a night time curfew during Hannukah, the Festival of Lights, fell apart because of the lack of unified leadership.  From The Times of Israel.

    “Banish the Darkness!”

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    Given the unfortunate prevalence of alcoholism in Russia, it might be a good idea for many people there to quit drinking permanently, vaccine or no. Incidentally, why the no-booze advice for Sputnik V? As far as I know, this advice is not being given to those getting other vaccines.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    from the piece on H-E-B:

    “Many [customers] have become verbally and even physically abusive in some stores. I have been personally told by customers that HEB does not honor the rights they fought for in the war, told they have medical concerns with masks, and I was violating their rights and HIPAA laws. We offer masks and inform customers of the [county] ordinance in place. However, when it comes to making them leave, due to the way many have reacted, we have stopped doing so. Our safety is priority, we do not want our leaders at risk for the abuse we have all taken the last several months.”

    You are free to shop elsewhere motherfuckers.

  22. 22.

    TS (the original)

    @rikyrah:

    46 needs to clean house at the CDC.

    46 needs to clean house in 100s of places. It will still take a long time before the world trusts them again – the fear will be what the next GOP President will do, if just one (trump) could take away the trust/reliability of US science/medicine organisations

  23. 23.

    Amir Khalid

    Even though the suspected case turned out not to have Covid-19, turning the cruise ship back was the right thing to do. But it does show that ship cruises in the Pandemic Time, even if the ship doesn’t stop anywhere and you take all the precautions, are still not a good idea.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    UK officials said there have been two reports of anaphylaxis and one report of a possible allergic reaction since rollout began. Anaphylaxis can cause throat swelling, breathing trouble and difficulty swallowing, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Anaphylaxis is an overreaction of the body’s immune system, which the UK National Health Service describes as severe and sometimes life-threatening.
    …………………….
    Late on Wednesday, the UK regulator said anyone with a history of anaphylaxis to a vaccine, medicine or food should not get the vaccine.

    Pfizer had excluded people with a history of significant adverse reaction to vaccines or its vaccine’s ingredients from late-stage trials.

    “Will anyone here who has ever had an anaphylactic reaction to a medicine please raise their hand?”
    one hand slowly rises from the Group W bench… (twice) I swear to dawg, sometimes I feel like this virus has been genetically engineered to specifically target me.

    On the other hand:

    Mayo Clinic virologist Gregory Poland, who has advised U.S. regulators, described Britain’s early reaction as “overdoing it,” pointing to the initial response about food allergies, which he said “have nothing to do with this.”

    “I would have said, ‘If you’ve had anaphylactic-level reactions to vaccines, we want to know about that so we take extra care,’” he said. “That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t immunize you. But I would do it in a more controlled setting.”

    My reaction is to aspirin. I’ve never had an allergic reaction to a vaccine. So maybe, probably (?), I’m in the clear. I guess I’d better talk to my Doc first.

  28. 28.

    Amir Khalid

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Seriously, one of the most damaging things Trump has done in office is actively poisoning his supporters’ minds against the very public-health measures necessary to containing the pandemic. It is seriously threatening to make the fight against Covid-19 end in defeat.

  29. 29.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    you’re not gonna believe this but H-E-B stores are located in……   wait for it…  Texas (map)

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Amir Khalid: Fair enough.  And I did forget about our 51st state – Threaten Island.  It’s right next to Rhode Island if you look hard enough.  You can threaten people to your heart’s content there.

  35. 35.

    Sloane Ranger

    Yesterday’s COVID figures from the UK.

    On Wednesday we had 16,578 new cases, some 4,200 more than the day before. The 7-day rolling average shows an increase in cases of 3.9%. Cases by home nation,

    England – 12,960 (up @2500)

    Northern Ireland – 483 (up @130)

    Scotland – 897 (up @200)

    Wales – 2238 (up @1500).

    The only nation showing a sustained increase in cases is Wales.

    Deaths – There were 533 deaths reported yesterday. 451 were in England, 12 in Northern Ireland, 39 in Scotland and 31 in Wales. The rolling 7-day average is down 9%.

    Testing – 294,966 tests were processed on Tuesday, 8 December out of a capacity of 559,686. This is an increase in the rolling 7-day average of 6.1%.

    Hospitalisations – There were 15,254 people in hospital on Monday, 7 December and 1272 on ventilators on Tuesday, 8th. The rolling 7-day average on hospital admissions is down 9.2%. Wales is showing a sustained increase in the number of inpatients, Northern Ireland, a reduction, England and Scotland both holding steady.

    General – I didn’t pick up on the allergic reaction to the vaccine until I had already posted yesterday. The people concerned were both health workers and are OK. UK response is described as due to “an excess in caution”. Vaccinations continue to go ahead.

    In a mix of COVID-19 and Brexit news, we are being told that travel to Europe could be barred from 1 January as we will no longer be considered as EU citizens. To make it even more complicated, different EU nations may institute their own rules.

  36. 36.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @mrmoshpotato: This about the SF Bay following the enhanced lockdown even though the SF Bay Area isn’t on the danger list. The problem the Central Valley went South Dakota with the virus, the State put those counties on lock down and they don’t want those idiots coming to Bay Area and spreading more disease here.

    The irony of the complaint is; the worst hit parts of the Bay Area are the places with high density housing. In other words the last place you want to go to park have a picknick.  The suburbs are fine.

  37. 37.

    Scout211

    My county in California is in the San Joaquin Valley region but as a county, the rate of spread is not very high compared to the actual Central Valley counties. We were one of the last few counties placed into the purple tier. The problem though, is we have very few ICU beds. So I  understand why the state is using regions instead of counties for the stay at home order. But people in my county are not happy at all to be dumped into a region with the Central Valley counties.  In the other hand, my county voted for Trump so there’s that.

    These current regional restriction are not shut downs or lockdowns. The rules seem way more lax than the lockdown/shutdown in March and that kind of concerns me because people see so many exceptions to the stay at home order. For instance, all retail is open at 20% capacity, so Christmas shopping is still going on. On Tuesday, we did some essential shopping (Costco, grocery) and were shocked by how many people were out and about and driving on all the roads all over the place. It does not look like people are actually staying home.

    The state did relent on closing all the outdoor children’s playgrounds. They reversed that after so many objections from cities where children have only parks and playgrounds for outdoor exercise and play.

  38. 38.

    Aleta

    MIT machine learning models find gaps in coverage by Moderna, Pfizer, other Warp Speed COVID-19 vaccines

    Vaccines to block COVID-19 that are in development by Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and others, and that are currently in Phase III clinical trials, may not do as well covering people of Black or Asian genetic ancestry as they do for white people, a study released Wednesday by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology indicated.  The study was published Thursday in the scholarly journal Cell Systems.

    Vaccine makers need to take into account genetic diversity explicitly in clinical trials or risk missing coverage for some individuals, says MIT scientists.  Many of the vaccines, including those from Moderna and Pfizer and AstraZeneca… do not use a sufficiently diverse set of viral particles to stimulate the same level of immune response in all people in the population, depending on genetic makeup.

    The report draws on in silico computer models. Gifford and co-authors Ge Liu and Brandon Carter, two PhD students with MIT’s CSAIL, used machine learning models to predict, based on patient data and models of proteins in the immune system, how likely vaccines would be to have a “hit” ….

     

    The work in the paper builds on work done this summer by the group to develop two computer models that predict vaccine coverage. One, called OptiVax, predicts a vaccine’s stimulation of immune responses. A second, called EvalVax, maps that immune response to the biochemistry of population groups by ethnic or genetic ancestral status. The vaccine mechanism is modeled by the programs.
    …
    In the report this summer, Gifford and team had warned that not using enough different parts of the virus could leave gaps in population coverage. That is because humans have different “alleles,” versions of genes, in what’s called the major histocompatibility complex, the area of the human genome that encodes the cell-surface receptors that are supposed to match the viral peptides. Some alleles produce cell receptors that will bind more or less reliably to some viral peptides.

     

    … “We note that the uncovered population of RBD with no predicted display of MHC class II peptides ranges from 0.811% for the population self-reporting as White, to a high of 37.287% for the population self-reporting as Asian.”

    The authors (suggest) taking into account genetic ancestry explicitly. Their computer model of the drug designs suggests the proportion of people who would be covered would substantially improve if a greater mix of peptides is included, the authors write.

    Graphs and a chart that are at the link:

    Curves of coverage show varying percentages of people by genetic ancestry that are likely to gain an immune response to COVID-19, for different mixes of alleles and viral peptide combinations.
    Liu et al

      (List of some of the) Vaccines in development. Gifford and colleagues contend all drugs in the U.S. Operation Warp Speed program, including those from Moderna and Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have the same weakness, which is that they cluster around a vary narrow selection of viral peptides to stimulate immune response, which deprives them of sufficient diversity to ensure the broadest population coverage.
    Liu et al

    The report, entitled “Predicted Cellular Immunity Population Coverage Gaps for SARS-CoV-2 Subunit Vaccines and their Augmentation by Compact Peptide Sets,” had originally been posted on the Bioarxiv pre-print server.

    The authors note that their code and data is freely available on GitHub.

  39. 39.

    Geminid

    After averaging around 1,000 new cases a day in late summer and early fall, Virgina averaged 3,500 cases a day Dec.2-8. The number for the last day was over 4,200. Test positivity rate was 10.9-11.3%.  From a report by Dr. Bob Holsworth in Bearing Drift.

  41. 41.

    bluefoot

    The Commonwealth of MA has released their plan for who will get vaccinated first.  Can I tell you all how angry I am that police are in the first phase (right after healthcare workers who deal w COVID) and essential workers are in the second phase?  What the hell?  Somehow police are more important than the people who keep the supply chain running, provide us with food, etc and are much more likely to be exposed to COVID and not provided with adequate PPE?  Essential workers also deal with much more of the public.  One supermarket superspreader or meat processing plant superspreader is going to infect way more people and have much more impact than one police officer superspreader.  Grrrrr.  Also, it sounds like hospital staff are in the second phase – the janitors, people who deal with laundry, biohazard disposal, etc?

  42. 42.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang Province has reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases today, 1 each at Dongning (which I mentioned in the earlier post) and Suifenhe, both district level cities in the city of Mudanjiang with land border crossing to Russia and daily passage of international freight. The case at Suifenhe is a loader at an international logistics company. The case at Dongning is only described as an employee at a local company. Given that the latter case was found during testing at the Customs, I suspect the case works at a logistics company, and is likely periodically screened. Hopefully, we will have more details tomorrow.

    Temperatures in Upper Manchuria range from ~ -10 degrees C during the day to ~ -25 degrees C at night. Therefore, all logistics are cold chain logistics, and Russia is suffering from a winter surge.

    Chengdu in Sichuan Province just reported 2 new domestic confirmed and 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases during the evening press conference. All 4 positive cases are found during 2nd round of screening of traced close contacts, and have been under quarantine since 12/7 – 12/8.

    Local media in Sichuan Province just released a high level plan for mass vaccination in 3 tranches:

    1. 12 categories of priority personnel in high risk occupations: medical personnel on overseas support missions, national disaster and emergency response personnel, staff at fever clinics and front line clinicians at designated COVID-19 hospitals, Customs personnel, front line CDC and health commission personnel, people going overseas to study or work, front line police officers, cold chain logistics workers, public services and infrastructure workers, teachers and school staff, staff at out-patient clinics and front line clinicians at designated non-COVID-19 hospitals; they are to be vaccinated by end of 2020, ~ 2M individuals in Sichuan
    2. High risk demographics – elderly and people with co-morbidities, and others at risk of serious or critical symptoms; vaccination campaign to start after New Year in 2021
    3. General population; vaccination campaign to start after Chinese New Year in 2021 (mid-Feb.)

    I have not seen similar announcements from other regions in China, so the authorities and state media in Sichuan may simply have jumped the gun. People in high risk occupations are already getting vaccinated across China under EUA, with greater fanfare at some places, but surely in Sichuan, as well. However, even the 1 – 2M people already vaccinated is apparently a drop in the bucket, since Sichuan alone has 2M such individuals.  I imagine other provinces have similar plans made, anticipating the imminent publication of Phase III interim results for Chinese vaccines, and quick approval by the Chinese authorities.

  43. 43.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @bluefoot: The same law enforcement that have been down right intransigent in enforcing masking mandates and social distancing measures. (Although they may be a bit better in MA and NYC?)

  45. 45.

    bluefoot

    @YY_Sima Qian: These are the same cops I see parked near my house (there’s construction going on) with their “thin blue line”, Punisher, and Blue Lives Matter stickers on their cars, chatting with each other face to face with no masks on, and not putting masks on while they stand on the sidewalk as people in the neighborhood are trying to go about their business.

  46. 46.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @bluefoot: LEOs with Punisher stickers is… disturbing. The Punisher vigilante exists because the establishment law enforcements failed and/or are compromised. Talk about lack of self-awareness.

  49. 49.

    Dan B

    @Aleta:  Discouraging news especially for us. This part of Seattle – SE – has a high concentration of Asian and Black residents. Our friends and neighbors are at higher risk even with a vaccine. Add the Trump / Azar quashing of vaccine orders to make the first year of Biden / Harris look terrible we face a tough road for the next year or more.

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