FDA panel recommends Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine one day after U.S. reports record 3,140 deaths. The vaccine goes by the complicated name of BNT162b2 https://t.co/rCDeYwtJ2d pic.twitter.com/IydFHuENFk
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) December 10, 2020
Today's #VRBPAC vote might have been unanimous — or nearly — if the committee had been allowed to recommend the EUA for Pfizer's #Covid19 vaccine be for adults 18 and older, taking out 16- and 17-year olds. https://t.co/RZZHIVafGr
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) December 10, 2020
THE MOST KEY QUESTION in the @US_FDA hring on #COVID19 vaccine is asked by Dr Patrick Moore: The @pfizer study didn't measure whether it blocks infection. Is it possible it prevents illness, but ppl could still carry & spread virus?
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) December 10, 2020
The US had +217,779 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to over 16 million. The 7-day moving average actually declined slightly to just shy of 213,000 per day. pic.twitter.com/C2mJbpaEkZ
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) December 11, 2020
A forecast published by the CDC projects there will be 332,000 to 362,000 coronavirus deaths in the US by January 2.
More than 289,000 people have already died from Covid-19 in the nation, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. https://t.co/wGgVpfentJ
— CNN (@CNN) December 10, 2020
thinking back to the first few months of the year, when the administration repeatedly said the virus was a hoax, would go away, was not that serious. and how there was no leadership and states were left to fend for themselves https://t.co/wwUE4t3sL1
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) December 11, 2020
The editor of the CDC's Morbidity & Mortality
Weekly Report says she was ordered to destroy an email showing Trump appointees attempted to interfere with its publication — and she believes the order came from Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the agency’s director https://t.co/Qm0ZnULukw— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) December 10, 2020
======
One year on, Wuhan market at epicentre of virus outbreak remains barricaded and empty https://t.co/yrUw62xYME pic.twitter.com/ePipgyTGrs
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 11, 2020
… Experts say the market still plays a role in the investigation and is therefore unlikely to be demolished, though much of that research will rely on samples taken immediately after the outbreak began…
Access to the area remains heavily restricted. People who visited before the lockdown remember a bustling building with hundreds of stalls divided into sections for red meat, seafood and vegetables.
Recently, the local government has added leafy green plants and traditional Chinese paintings to the semi-permanent blue barricades encircling the area. Inside, wooden boards line the stalls and windows.
On the second floor above the empty market, shops selling glasses and optometry equipment reopened in June.
This week, a guard at the entrance to the eyeware market took temperatures and warned journalists not to take videos or photos from inside the building…
Factbox: Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus https://t.co/76LsHreFY8 pic.twitter.com/tOIJMq1BYC
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 11, 2020
See, masks aren't so bad, relatively speaking. https://t.co/P10SRbWdEJ
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) December 10, 2020
Covid-19: Virus ‘success’ Taiwan to keep restrictions despite vaccine https://t.co/99JtJB984A
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 11, 2020
Russia confirmed a record-breaking 613 coronavirus deaths Friday, bringing the total number of Covid-19 deaths in the country to 45,893https://t.co/zxgb0kGOL7
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) December 11, 2020
Russia recorded more than 47,000 excess deaths in October, the single most deadly month in Russia for more than a decade, @JakeCordell reportshttps://t.co/6KqC6eQzCY
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) December 11, 2020
ICUs in Stockholm reach 99 percent capacity: report https://t.co/p7KC63qVdX pic.twitter.com/1xem01MVya
— The Hill (@thehill) December 10, 2020
Intensive care workers at a Paris hospital that saw Europe's first COVID-19 death worry they’ll be seen as monsters if they're nonchalant when patients succumb. But they also don't want to get hurt emotionally. @johnleicester reports on ICU mental fatigue:https://t.co/SteNWocPTO pic.twitter.com/uJE2C8lpYE
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) December 11, 2020
France moves to night-time curfew from 15 December https://t.co/fXLEMtYuZq
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 10, 2020
Coronavirus latest:
– Incidence rate falls to 189 per 100,000, a figure not seen since end of August
– Despite downward trend, health authorities warn situation is "not good"
– Spain reports 7,955 new cases and adds 325 deaths to official toll https://t.co/rKAUbVe3V6— El País English Edition (@elpaisinenglish) December 11, 2020
NEW: There were more than 8,100 hospital stays and 48,600 emergency department visits for patients with #COVID19 from January to August. Here’s our latest data on COVID-19–related hospitalizations and ED visits in Canada. https://t.co/a7RXz0mzvO #COVID_19 #CdnHealth pic.twitter.com/xXs9jU0TId
— CIHI_ICIS (@CIHI_ICIS) December 10, 2020
Mexico's coronavirus spokesman says the country's median age of death from COVID-19 was a shockingly young 55, as compared to an average of 75 in many European countries. https://t.co/XSnF7LGOTR
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 11, 2020
======
There has been some great news on #Covid19 vaccine trials but this kind of ends that streak. Sanofi runs into a problem that sets back one of the world’s largest vaccine producers — and every country that hoped to buy from them. https://t.co/jz9WvBeMG1
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) December 11, 2020
In anticipation of the FDA's expected authorization of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, healthcare professionals across the country are practicing how to handle, mix and administer the vials https://t.co/GkDipPJgQg pic.twitter.com/lSbl5SIIjX
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 11, 2020
A group of scientists from leading Russian universities has blasted the development process of the Sputnik V vaccine, raising concerns over the vaccines safety and effectiveness, @PjotrSauer and @JakeCordell reporthttps://t.co/apHokml0q6
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) December 11, 2020
Russia's Defense Ministry announced Friday that a foreign-funded campaign is being waged to discredit the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine https://t.co/JLVhizEWQs
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) December 11, 2020
Can a simple scratch-and-sniff test function as a way to screen for SARSCoV2? At a fraction of the cost of high-tech tests that take longer to return results, new Colorado research suggests screening for loss of smell can detect the infection faster https://t.co/WVRMBnvOHs
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) December 10, 2020
Can I stop wearing a mask after getting a COVID-19 vaccine? No, masks and social distancing will still be recommended for some time after people are vaccinated. Find out more in @AP's “Viral Questions” series: https://t.co/56TXV9lBZZ https://t.co/Qo3uvVu4AI
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 10, 2020
======
California health officials are urging the state’s residents to stay home as much as possible because of a coronavirus surge taxing the state’s hospitals. But the most recent stay-at-home order allows Californians to do many more activities than in March. https://t.co/DBlpqPBNO6
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 11, 2020
Rhode Island, the smallest U.S. state in area, now has the fastest coronavirus spread, with more new cases per capita being reported than any other state https://t.co/Vi0sgAczpU
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) December 11, 2020
The COVID-19 death of the speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives is raising concerns that other members of one of the world's largest legislatures might have been exposed. https://t.co/BSOx1QZQ0U
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 11, 2020
— Bad COVID-19 Takes (@BadCOVID19Takes) December 11, 2020
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY stats yesterday:
678 new cases, 599 people in the hospital, 109 of them in the ICU, 373 total deaths since early this year, and an 8.3% positivity rate.
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, China reported 6 new domestic confirmed and 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Dongning and Suifenhe in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang Province, reported 1 new confirmed case each. The case at Suifenhe was a loader at a local import logistics firm. He had resigned on 12/5, but he heard former colleagues were getting screened at work, so he went to a hospital to get as tested, as well, where he tested positive. 62 F1 close contacts and 179 F2 close contacts have been traced and quarantined, and environmental samples collected. The case at Dongning is a construction worker installing disinfection systems at the local Customs facility. 77 F1 close contacts and 81 F2 close contacts have been traced and quarantined, environmental samples collected. Both district level cities have commenced 100% mass screening of all residents, to be completed over 3 days.
Chengdu reported 4 new confirmed (1 of whom was reported as asymptomatic earlier in the day) and 1 new asymptomatic cases, all are traced close contract already under quarantine. There are currently 10 confirmed and 2 asymptomatic cases in the city. 504 F1 close contacts and 1,262 F2 close contacts are under quarantine. As of 9 PM on 12/10, 1,202,234 individuals have been swabbed as part of mass screening in the city, 1,048,007 results have been obtained, all but 10 of the results are negative. 818 environmental samples have been collected, 769 results obtained, 14 positive (all at the residence of the index cases). 140 food samples have been collected, all have tested negative.
At Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region, 2 confirmed cases have recovered. There are now 25 confirmed and 2 asymptomatic cases in the city. 1,450 close contacts remain under quarantine.
Yesterday, China reported 9 new imported confirmed cases, 6 imported asymptomatic cases:
Chengdu Municipal CDC has shared more details about the imported case returning from the UK that was reported on 12/9. The case had contracted COVID-19 and then recovered in the UK back in Aug., and had passed through a total of 21 days of quarantine, with multiple negative RT-PCR tests, after returning from China at end of Oct.. There were nearly 20 days between being released from quarantine to testing positive again during a hospital visit. However, the authorities reported that none of the traced F1 & F2 close contacts have tested positive, and that the genomic sequence of her vial sample (which would make it live virus) matched the strain that is currently prevalent in the UK, rather than those from past outbreaks in China (including the current one at Chengdu). That is their reasoning for designating the case as imported. On the other hand, it would make her the only case I am aware of where the virus went dormant for months before reemerging to re-infect the patient at a later date. I am not sure what to make of it. She currently has very mild symptoms, scarring from her lungs could have been from the previous instance of COVID-19, which can remain for quite some time even after a patient repeatedly tests negative.
Yesterday, Hong Kong reported 86 new cases, 5 imported and 81 local (37 of whom without clear sources of infection). Another 60 cases are preliminarily positive, awaiting retesting and confirmation.
NotMax
And now, sadly, it’s unanimous (emphasis added).
For those unaware, Kalawao county’s only settlement is the isolated former leprosy colony enclave of Kalaupapa. The only access by land to or from the rest of the island of Molokai remains by steep mule trails.
NotMax
Dismal as some of it is, worth reading the whole thing (WaPo link).
Steeplejack (phone)
Hey, everybody, Rudy’s got the answer!
“My advice to people is get early treatment.” ?
Ten Bears
Simpler name: the Trump-Virus Vaccine
NotMax
@Steeplejack
The man would infuriate the Dalai Lama.
rikyrah
@Steeplejack (phone):
Can there be any doubt?
This group planned on using the vaccine to punish the Blue States?
p.a.
Walking talking hagfish McConnell should have his face plastered next to tRump’s on every article, tweet, post about US failure to combat the virus. If people & businesses were supported as they could be there would be much less pressure to keep businesses open. He’s had criticism, but tRump is such an easy target MoscowMitch has kinda skated.
NotMax
@Ten Bears
Sorry, nope. Prefer not to have that name within hollering distance of anything beneficial.
That it neglects the pan part of pandemic is as well kind of a sharp slap to the affected on the rest of the planet, also too.
IMHO.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Something I learned during the Reagan recession: Buy cigarettes. Steal food. If you get caught you can play the pity card.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,810 new cases today at his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 80,309 cases. Dr Noor Hisham also reports six new deaths today, for a total of 402 deaths — 0.50% of the cumulative reported total, 0.59% of resolved cases.
12,734 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 123 are in ICU, 63 of them on respirators. Meanwhile, 937 patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 67,173 patients recovered — 83.6% of the cumulative reported total.
Six new clusters were reported today, all of them at places of work: Sungai Putus and Erima in Selangor; Jalan Berangan building site in KL; Langkasuka in Johor; Jalan College in Negeri Sembilan and Selangor; and Sungai Keluang in Penang.
1,799 new cases today are local infections. Selangor has 821 cases: 226 in older clusters, 390 in Sungai Putus and Erima clusters, 69 close-contact screenings, and 136 other screenings. Sabah has 532 cases: 326 in existing clusters, 126 close-contact screenings, and 80 other screenings. KL has 131 cases: 95 in older clusters, one in Jalan Berangan building site cluster, 12 close-contact screenings, and 23 other screenings. Pahang has 96 cases: 95 in existing clusters, and one close-contact screening.
Johor has 68 cases: 37 in older clusters, eight in Langkasuka cluster, 13 close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan has 64 cases: 57 in older clusters, and seven in Jalan College cluster. Penang has 34 cases: 17 in older clusters, one in Sungai Keluang cluster, eight close-contact screenings, and eight other screenings. Kedah has 22 cases: 20 in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and one other screening. Perak has 12 cases: nine in existing clusters, two close-contact screenings, and one other screening. Labuan has eight cases: five close-contact screenings, and three other screenings.
Melaka has five cases: theee in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and one other screening. Kelantan has two cases: one close-contact screening, and one other screening. Terengganu has two cases, both found in other screenings. And Putrajaya has two cases: one close-contact screening, and one other screening.
Sarawak and Perlis reported no new local cases today.
11 new cases are imported. Eight were reported in Selangor, one in KL, one in Johor, and one in Sarawak.
The six deaths today, all but one reported in Sabah, are a 62-year-old man with diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and adrenal insufficiency; a 65-year-old man with gout; an 81-year-old man with hypertension, heart disease, chronic kidney disease, and dyslipidaemia; a 60-year-old woman with diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, heart disease, gout, and spondylodiscitis; a 78-year-old woman in Penang with diabetes, hypertension, and stroke; and a 63-year-old woman with asthma.
I forgor to mention yesterday that yesterday’s huge spike in new cases is attributed to cases found by the Foreign Workers Screening Programme run by Perkeso, the Malaysian workplace compensation agency.
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack (phone): My advice to Ghouliani is to throw himself into an active volcano.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: I would hope llamas would be disgusted by Ghouliani too.
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack (phone): “You can overdo the mask.”
I… What?
mrmoshpotato
@p.a.:
You’ll be hearing from the hagfish’s lawyers.
ETA – actual hagfish. They don’t deserve such slander.
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack (phone):
There was a time when Rudy G was smarter than a bag of rocks. That time is gone.
No name
@Amir Khalid: Amir, I was always pleased to read your comments about your sweet girl Bianca and I have been touched over the last week reading your feelings about her passing. You express so well what we go through when we lose a beloved pet. I hope you have people in real life who you can commiserate with in addition to us here on the blog. My thoughts have been with you.
Geminid
@Amir Khalid: Giuliani may just believe in trump, but his campaign to overturn this election shows a certain desperation, as if Giuliani really needs a pardon for some looming criminal case. Or cases.
Scout211
That tweet about California seems about right to me. The stay at home order hasn’t seemed to have changed many people’s behaviors.
The region my county is in (San Joaquin Valley) as of yesterday was at 1.9% ICU bed availability and the Southern California region was at 7.7%. The Sacramento region is now in the stay at home order starting last night and they are at 13.3%. The Bay Area region is at 17.8% so they will likely be in the stay at home order by next week.
Newsom has said that California had an influx of visiting nurses to California a few months ago to help out with a surge in hospitalizations. But all those visiting nurses are on assignments in other states right now.
I really don’t know how this stay at home order can work when all retail is open at 20% and Christmas shopping is still going on daily.
Yutsano
@mrmoshpotato: I would implore you to please please stop trying to irritate Pele any further. She’s pretty vengeful as it is.
Humanities Prof
HP’s wife again.
My hospital now has a 58% (not a typo, I got the info at the Med Exec meeting yesterday) positivity rate. I had the CMO repeat himself because I could not believe what I had just heard. We are coding for hours people in their 40s. And still rural bumfuck Ohio does not believe how bad it is. In fact, local politicians are holding superspreader events and attempting to impeach DeWine.
I have many patients who are HCWs in my system – most of us are now on antidepressants. This is functionally our first wave, we had basically no cases in the spring and only a few in the summer.
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: Alright. ?
Chuck Ghouliani into a typhoon (lagoon)?
Amir Khalid
@No name:
Thank you. Bianca meant so much to me, and I guess she always will.
Amir Khalid
@Humanities Prof:
Holy fucking moly.
Humanities Prof
@Amir Khalid:
The wife again. I know! We have hunkered down, going out only for food and other essentials. I’m basically the only one to leave the house – to go to work and then home again.
sab
@Humanities Prof: My college roommate just died in of alzeimers in a memory care facility. She was relatively young (mid 60s.) As you know, Ohio has had nursing homes in lockdown since March. So no family member has been able to be physically present for almost the whole of her last year.
She was a wonderful person with hundreds of friends. Family don’t get to have a funeral where we can gather to show them how much she was loved and remembered.
They are very grateful to the caretakers.
Sloane Ranger
Yesterday in the UK we had 20,964 new cases. This is a whopping 4386 increase from Wednesday. The rolling 7-day average is now up 12.7%. New cases by nation,
England – 17,622 (up @4500)
Northern Ireland – 441 (down @40)
Scotland – 933 (up @30)
Wales – 1968 (down @250).
The R number still remains at 0.8 – 1.0, but this was calculated on 4 December. I fully expect it to increase when it is next recalculated.
Deaths – There were 516 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. 419 were in England, 14 in Northern Ireland, 50 in Scotland and 33 in Wales.
Testing – 369,586 tests were processed out of a capacity of 552,186. This is an increase in the rolling 7-day average of 7.1%.
Hospitalisations – On Tuesday, 8 December, there were 15,242 people in hospital. There were 1242 people on ventilators on Wednesday, 9th. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions is down 9%.
General – Just been announced that the Office for National Statistics is estimating that 1 in 115 people in England have the virus with hotspots in London and another emerging in the East of England. Also, NHS waiting lists have gone to pot with more than 160,000 having to wait for 12 months or more for routine operations. This compares with October 2019 where the figure was nearer 10,000. In good? news A&E Departments are reporting usage down by a third.
Humanities Prof
@sab: Still HP’s Wife.
I know. I feel for LTC patients, I have a few. The staff at the ones I know are busting their butts to try to stay above water.
I hate the antimaskers around here.
YY_Sima Qian
@Sloane Ranger: So, has the relaxation of social distancing measures a couple of weeks ago(?) inevitable lead to exponential growth again in the UK, in the absence of other robust countermeasures, especially “trace and isolation” part of TTI?
The Moar You Know
Laurie Garret’s comment is the million dollar question in my household. My wife is a teacher. COVID positive kids are showing up even for the very small on-campus classes they are running EVERY DAMN DAY. When she gets back into the classroom, vaccinated (she’s a teacher and will be one of the first) will she be infected or not? Because I am not a teacher and not on any sort of high risk list, I won’t be seeing vaccine until June. We live in a small house, there is no realistic way to quarantine. Thank God we live in SoCal, because I may be staring the possibility of living in a tent in the backyard for the next half year until I too can be vaccinated. I hope they can figure this out real fucking quick. I don’t own a tent. Or more importantly, a cot.
JaneE
Back when the first shutdown orders came in CA, my county stopped our Covid-19 case count at 19. Yesterday the one day case increase was 23. Our hospital has 4 ICU beds. We have 4 hospitalized Covid-19 cases, but they may not be in the ICU (yet). The hospital in Reno where serious cases (for anything) get transferred is now putting patients in their converted parking structure.
Most of us will eventually get a vaccine, but there are still a lot of people who won’t. There are still people here who think the disease is no big deal, if you aren’t really old. This will not end soon.
Sloane Ranger
@YY_Sima Qian: I’m not an epidemiologist and have no related expertise but it wouldn’t surprise me. Christmas has brought out a lot more shoppers than I’ve been seeing since the pandemic began and I passed a local restaurant, which was a lot fuller than usual. More people equals more opportunities for the disease.
Looks like BoJo’s let’s all have a jolly time over the Festive season will backfire – like much else he’s done.
YY_Sima Qian
@Sloane Ranger: Well, the UK is not alone. France started relaxing some of the measures last week (I think?), and now the daily case counts have stopped dropping, and hovering at a still high > 10K / day. Likewise with Czechia. The Netherlands started relaxing even earlier, when daily case counts were at ~ 5K / day, and is now quickly heading toward 10K / day again. Austria, Switzerland and much of Eastern Europe have managed to arrest exponential growth, but daily case counts are stuck at stubbornly high levels. Both Denmark and Sweden appears to be faring worse than the 1st wave and may be headed toward lock downs. Germany’s softer lock down in the 2nd wave has proven ineffective. I do not know why the German states and the population have stopped trusting Merkel. Spain and Italy are staying the course with lock down measures (softer than in the 1st wave) because incidence remain too high. The only European country that seems to have really suppressed the 2nd wave is Belgium.
Given the meager state contact tracing in Europe, and inconsistently enforced isolation of cases and quarantine of close contacts and foreign visitors, and still open intra-European borders, I am afraid the nations there will continue to see-saw between tightening and softening of distancing measures, with corresponding swings in cases/hospitalization/deaths, until herd immunity is achieved via mass vaccination in the Spring and Summer. Vaccines will do nothing for Christmas, however…
This is a fearful state of affairs in mid-Dec., and only somewhat better than the disaster in the US.
bluefoot
@NotMax: And yet f-ing Moscow Mitch McConnell can laugh out loud on television when asked about the suffering if there’s no additional COVID relief for individuals.
This pandemic is going to turn me into a radical.
bluefoot
@Humanities Prof: My sister is a doctor in Wisconsin and she says her county has a 45% positive rate. The hospital had to turn away someone who was in severe diabetic ketoacidosis because there was no space in the hospital. They treated him in the ER and sent him home, and treating as an outpatient.
Sending you all good thoughts and health.
LongHairedWeirdo
Mr. Bloomberg, are you listening? Or any Super PAC owners? Think about playing that video in Georgia. Make sure you get some clips of Trump saying “if we keep deaths under 10 thousand” and “30 thousand” and “70 thousand” and “one hundred thousand” and then with a “several weeks later”) “it would have been *two million* if I hadn’t acted!”
Alas, I can also imagine seeing it just not working.