White House staff members are scheduled to receive Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, at a time when first doses are only being distributed to high-risk health care workers. https://t.co/ppeB3JeaTs
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 13, 2020
(Trump tweets that he’s changed his mind about that, but then: Who trusts Trump tweets? I think it’s safe to assume his cronies and coat-holders will get vaccinated, if and when they want it. And that the WH staffers who really need to be protected — the people who clean & cook & guard — will get vaccinated once the Biden administration gets the WH keys. Call me a Cynic!)
People cheer as trucks carrying the first shipment of the Covid-19 vaccine, which is being escorted by the US Marshals Service, leaves Pfizer's Global Supply facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Sunday.
?? Jeff Kowalsky / AFP via Getty Images pic.twitter.com/0brCeBoGFW
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 13, 2020
First coronavirus vaccines roll out as officials share months-long timeline for immunization effort https://t.co/fgqfpUVRI0
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) December 13, 2020
COVID-19 vaccines have begun shipping in the U.S., but supplies are expected to be limited for some time. https://t.co/a9zK5jJiix
— AP Health & Science (@APHealthScience) December 13, 2020
Polls show that some health workers are reluctant to get vaccinated against #Covid19. But as @ushamcfarling reports, some can't wait for their chance to roll up their sleeve. https://t.co/AgBbi8tyi7
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) December 14, 2020
A vaccine won’t help any of the patients with COVID19 in my ER right now. It won’t help those that’ll come tomorrow either. Or the day after.
The pandemic is worsening everyday. What’ll get us through the next few months is vigilance. And masks. And distancing. And patience.
— Craig Spencer MD MPH (@Craig_A_Spencer) December 14, 2020
Tracking #coronavirus cases & deaths. To date, more than 298,000 people have died and more than 16,271,000 cases have been recorded https://t.co/1UQhjOEwDw
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) December 13, 2020
Tomorrow, we will cross 300,000 deaths in US from COVID-19
In January, we will pass 400,000 deaths.
Those deaths will come from infections that have already happened or will this week
Challenge is to stop spread before 500K deaths
Vaccines will help. But we can, must do more
— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) December 14, 2020
The US had +187,901 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 today, bringing the total to over 16.7 million. The 7-day moving average rose to over 217,000 per day. pic.twitter.com/UFlclXaQXd
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) December 14, 2020
“The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects that 500k Americans will have died of the coronavirus by end of March. It expects vaccines will have saved 25k lives by then — but broader mask usage in this period could save even more lives, 56k.” https://t.co/mGMu12lnp6
— Jonah M. Kessel (@jonah_kessel) December 14, 2020
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The German government has called on citizens to forgo Christmas shopping two days before the country heads into a hard lockdown that will shut most stores, tighten social distancing rules and close schools across the country. https://t.co/h0gRl569ux
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 14, 2020
Coronavirus: Germany to go into lockdown on Wednesday https://t.co/SldAnyRx4M
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 13, 2020
How it started How it's going pic.twitter.com/QLWCwVYDTn
— Matt O'Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) December 14, 2020
Bahrain says it has approved the use of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine, following its earlier approval of a vaccine by made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. https://t.co/z6zZBoFmSE
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 13, 2020
Japan, South Korea fret as surging coronavirus undermines leaders' support https://t.co/PB9xqi1D2f pic.twitter.com/arvTdsfV6c
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 14, 2020
South Korea orders schools to shut as COVID-19 cases spike https://t.co/ZU417q0Lkv pic.twitter.com/PEEsR6i91i
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 14, 2020
Malaysia's Top Glove reports worker death due to COVID-19, first since outbreak at firm https://t.co/uYT0dn6RzS pic.twitter.com/K9BKxRQF7k
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 14, 2020
Australian state says work from home is over, but employees still shun office https://t.co/G7cb0900so pic.twitter.com/NaUKT27jzb
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 14, 2020
New Zealand and Australia agree on quarantine-free travel bubble https://t.co/udLQIzQuuP
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 14, 2020
Brazil's top court orders government to set date for COVID-19 vaccination plan https://t.co/zZvP60ntAq pic.twitter.com/jFrfkaKPxP
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 14, 2020
Canada's first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in the country, marking the start of the nation's dosage rollout https://t.co/JTDMCLkmU7 pic.twitter.com/Rp7AK5bNT4
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 14, 2020
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"We don’t want people who have mild allergic reactions to be concerned about getting vaccinated.” — @caseymross reports on @CDCgov's guidance on allergies & #Pfizer's #CovidVaccine. https://t.co/Dnv6BJ6B7p
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) December 14, 2020
Coronavirus vaccines can have side effects. That typically means they’re working. https://t.co/UdFWdt9tNr
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 14, 2020
A frightening uncertainty persists for those battling 'long COVID' https://t.co/IYZiRZqJLz via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) December 13, 2020
AstraZeneca's Russian branch says it'll test Russia's Sputnik 5 vaccine in upcoming clinical trials. The trial will look at safety/immunogenicity of AstraZeneca's AZD1222 vax w/ its chimp adenovirus vector & Sputnik V, which has a human adenovirus vector https://t.co/p4iJojGX1y pic.twitter.com/DOMaTmuV7u
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) December 14, 2020
Phylogenetic analysis of SARSCoV2 in Boston highlights the impact of superspreading events. One in a skilled nursing facility that led to high mortality. Another at an internat'l meeting that led to 300k cases https://t.co/Nhmy9031rR
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) December 13, 2020
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US coronavirus cases via @CNN:
0M-1M: 98 days
1M-2M: 44 days
2M-3M: 27 days
3M-4M: 15 days
4M-5M: 17 days
5M-6M: 22 days
6M-7M: 25 days
7M-8M: 21 days
8M-9M: 14 days
9M-10M: 9 days
10M-11M: 7 days
11M-12M: 6 days
12M-13M: 6 days
13M-14M: 6 days
14M-15M: 5 days
15M-16M: 4 days— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) December 12, 2020
Despite record donations this year, nonprofits across the US are struggling with the pandemic's effects. They face rising costs and demands for help, yet are largely without their own support systems, such as volunteers and in-person fundraising events. https://t.co/IRI0cHAcnP
— AP West Region (@APWestRegion) December 13, 2020
Germany, you incredible dork. The scientists who led the charge are Turkish Muslim immigrants, you soft-skulled weasel. https://t.co/bK6uvEndHQ
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) December 13, 2020
Question: Is DeathSantis trying to destroy public faith in the new vaccines?
Gov. DeSantis suggests one dose of Pfizer vaccine may be enough https://t.co/fT3mKPb1Sq
— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) December 14, 2020
Sloane Ranger
Looks like I’m first up for a change!
Here are yesterday’s figures from the UK. We had 18,447 new cases on Sunday. This is about 3000 down from Saturday but both figures are subject to the usual weekend health warning. The rolling 7-day average shows an increase of 19.1%. Cases by home nation,
England – 17,164 (down @300)
Northern Ireland – 483 (up 7)
Scotland – 800 (down @250)
Wales – 0 (down 2494).
I suspect that Wales did not submit it’s figures for some reason so the figures are more problematic than usual.
Deaths – There were 144 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported yesterday, 138 in England, 4 in Northern Ireland, 2 in Scotland and 0 in Wales (please see comment above)
Testing – Not updated at weekends.
Hospitalisations – On Thursday, 10 December there were 16,531 people in hospital and there were 1275 people on ventilators on Friday, 11th. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions is up by 12.8%.
opiejeanne
WA had a disturbing number of new cases on Saturday, nearly 5,000. That’s nearly double the number we’ve been seeing recently. The Sunday numbers were 2382 new cases, a total of 207,945. The last seat total is 3013 dead, but that number was reported on Friday
Washington is a small state, only about 7.5 million people live here. The positivity rate is scary for the whole state right now.
mrmoshpotato
Sack of shit Ted
Weasel – yes
Soft-skulled – that’s new.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY yesterday:
605 new cases, 639 people hospitalized, 121 in the ICU, positivity has gone up to 8.7%.
Ugh.
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
For December 13, Tennessee reports 11,352 new cases. We have a little over 1700 regular hospital beds available and a little over 200 ICU beds open. Positive test rate is 12.95%, which is down a bit.
Brachiator
Los Angeles County has again broken a record for coronavirus hospitalizations, officials said Sunday, fulfilling the county public health director’s dire predictions in just days.
More than 4,000 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 in the nation’s most populous county — 21% of whom are in intensive care units — according to figures released Sunday afternoon. That breaks the previous record set only the day before, with 3,850 patients in a hospital, and follows the trend of hospitalizations increasing nearly every day since Nov. 1.
LA County Health Director Barbara Ferrer warned on Monday — when hospitalizations were 2,988 — that the county could see the statistic to climb to 4,000 within two weeks. It happened in six days.
The county also on Sunday reported 12,731 new confirmed coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 525,486 cases to date.
On Saturday, the number of available ICU beds in San Joaquin Valley plummeted to zero for the first time and San Francisco reported 323 new cases, the highest since the pandemic began. Millions of Californians in the majority of the state are under stay-at-home orders.
rikyrah
All of this news?????
NotMax
More than 72.5 million cases reported worldwide. U.S. accounts for over 22.5% of that total.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,371 new cases today at his media briefing, for a cumulative reported total of 84,846 cases. Dr Noor Hisham also reports four new deaths today, for a total of 419 deaths — 0.49% of the cumulative reported total, 0.59% of resolved cases.
13,830 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 114 are in ICU, 62 of them on respirators. Meanwhile, 1,204 patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 70,507 patients recovered — 83.2% of the cumulative reported total.
Dr Noor Hisham reports that Malaysia’s R0 is currently just under 1.1.
Two new clusters were reported today, both at workplaces: Solar Ria in Selangor and Senu Setia in KL.
1,370 new cases today are local infections. Selangor has the most cases, 531: 303 in older clusters, eight in Solar Ria cluster, 109 close-contact screenings, and 111 other screenings. Sabah has 283 cases: 65 in existing clusters, 155 close-contact screenings, and 63 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan has 260 cases: 252 in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and seven other screenings. KL has 109 cases: 71 in older clusters, five in Senu Setia cluster, and 33 other screenings.
Perak has 62 cases: 58 in existing clusters, and four other screenings. Johor has 45 cases: 17 in existing clusters, 18 close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings. Penang has 31 cases: three in existing clusters, 19 close-contact screenings, and nine other screenings. Labuan has 16 cases: eight in existing clusters, and eight other screenings. Terengganu has nine cases, all in existing clusters. Kedah has five cases: four close-contact screenings, and one other screening.
Kelantan has two cases, both found in other screenings. Melaka has one case, a close-contact screening. And Putrajaya has one case, found in other screening.
Sarawak, Pahang, and Perlis reported no new local cases today.
One new case is imported, an arrival from the United Arab Emirates, reported in Selangor.
The four deaths today are a 40-year-old woman in Sabah with diabetes; a 50–year-old woman in Perak with diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidaemia; a 46-year-old woman in Sabah with diabetes, dyslipidaemia, and obesity; and a 54-year-old non-Malaysian man in Sabah.
In other news, Dr Noor Hisham said the mandatory quarantine period is cut from 14 days to 10 days effective today. Quarantined persons get their second screening on the eighth or ninth day.
In yet other news, three Members of Parliament showed up to vote today on the annual budget in full PPE. They are supposed to be in home quarantine, but the Speaker let them in provided they wore the whole thing and sat apart from everyone else. (Apparently, MPs here don’t get to vote by Zoom.) Opposition MPs protested this, saying they were being put in danger, and walked out of the session.
The Top Glove employee who died, reported by Reuters, is a 29-year-old Nepalese security guard.
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, China reported 2 new domestic confirmed and 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang Province reported 2 confirmed cases, both at Suifenhe, both are traced close contacts already under quarantine. There are currently 8 confirmed (6 at Suifenhe and 2 at Dongning) and 2 asymptomatic cases (both at Suifenhe) in Mudanjiang. 1,879 contacts of various categories have been traced. 2 residential compounds and an office building at Suifenhe, and 1 sub-district at Dongning, remain designated as Medium Risk.
Chengdu in Sichuan Province did not report any new positive cases. There are currently 11 confirmed and 2 asymptomatic cases there. 2 villages and 3 residential compounds are designated as Medium Risk.
Turfan in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region did not report any new positive cases. There are currently 4 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. As of 8 PM on 12/13, 297,025 residents in the city have been swabbed, 203,975 results have obtained so far, all negative. 1 residential compound, the one with active cases, has been designated as Medium Risk.
At Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region, there are 23 confirmed and 2 asymptomatic cases in the city. 166 close contacts remain under quarantine. 5 sub-districts remain at Medium Risk.
Yesterday, China reported 14 new imported confirmed cases, 9 imported asymptomatic cases:
Yesterday, Hong Kong reported 95 new cases, 3 imported (from the UK and the US) and 92 local (41 of whom without clear sources of infection). Another 70 cases are preliminarily positive, awaiting retesting and confirmation.
terben
In Australia today there were 8 new cases, all in quarantined travellers. New cases are averaging less than 10 per day, although this may rise with increasing numbers of travellers returning. There are less than 50 active cases in the country, nearly all in quarantine. This number doesn’t include NSW, which don’t count quarantine cases as active. It probably makes their numbers look bad.
The last locally acquired case was 10 days ago and the last death was 14 days ago. There are 29 Covid patients in hospital, a number which is trending downwards, albeit slowly. There was a single patient admitted to an ICU today, the first in Australia for ca. 9 weeks. This patient is not currently ventilated.
The news about an Oz-NZ travel bubble is welcome. Currently, people from NZ can fly to Oz and don’t need to quarantine, but not the reverse.
Locally, in SA, restrictions have been relaxed so that ‘From this morning, the maximum number of people who can gather at a home has increased from 10 to 50, and patrons can stand up with a drink at the state’s hospitality venues.
In addition, a maximum of 200 guests are now allowed to attend weddings, up from 150, and 200 mourners can attend funerals
The limit on people at private functions at licensed venues has also increased from 150 to 200.’
Other changes are:
Increasing capacity in cinemas from 50 per cent to 75 per cent, with a requirement for people to wear masks at indoor cinemas
Increasing density at gyms, from one person per 4 square metres to one person per 2 square metres
Allowing play gyms to reopen
This last is significant as the summer holiday break at schools began today.
OzarkHillbilly
‘There are many roadblocks’: Fears grow over US Covid-19 vaccine rollout
The #1 roadblock being an MIA president.
Amir Khalid
So Ron DeSantis wants to cheap out on vaccines. He is apparently of an ilk with Kayleigh McEneny, who said a few months back that the science shouldn’t stand in the way of Trump’s push to reopen schools.
Chris T.
Suggesting that everyone just get a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine is irresponsible since we don’t have good studies on it, but over time, we will find out what happens with this because some people just won’t ever get their second shot. Chances are that a single dose is fairly effective. We just don’t yet know how effective.
(If I had the opportunity to get a single dose, or nothing, I’d probably go for the single dose myself.)
Amir Khalid
@Chris T.:
Yes, some will miss their second dose, and if they can be traced we will indeed find out how effective a single dose is. But for DeSantis to say that a single dose may be enough, based on something he read in the paper, is reckless. It encourages people to not take seriously the need to get the second dose.
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly:
Fixed.
Geminid
Yesterday the Washington Post had a good article on the relatively low spread of Covid-19 in Africa. A more youthful population that spends less time indoors, exposure to more pathogens, and other factors might contribute to this outcome. But Congolese epidemiologist Ngoy Nsenga, African emergency response manager for the WHO, says what distinguishes Africa from, say Brazil, “are our human interventions” like early lockdowns, bans on social activities like bar going, and curfews. In some places these measures were taken before the first cases were recorded. The article also credits the base of experience African countries have built combating other deadly viruses like Ebola. This is a good article, and hopefully is not paywalled.
YY_Sima Qian
Looking at the local data out of the US, it appears the consequences of Thanksgiving is being fully felt now in terms of cases, as universally predicted, with hospitalization and deaths to follow. Given how high hospitalization levels already are across the country, that is a frightening prospect.
The relatively rural county where my parents live in Upstate NY has also seen a step change daily case counts: from high teens in Oct., to low 20s in early Nov., to low 30s in late Nov./early Dec., suddenly to 50+ in the past few days. They are hunkering down, have not seen a soul socially since they returned to the States in end of Jan./early Feb. They have been going to Walmart every 10 days or so to stock up, picking the least crowded times. Hopefully, it will be their turn to get vaccinated some time in Feb.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — the number of new cases of COVID-19 since Sunday has been reported today as 734, with the usual caveat that Monday’s announced figures are usually lower than the rolling average since offices are closed at the weekends. For the same reason the number of deaths reported is zero although this will be updated later in the week.
The R0 figure is believed to now be in the range 0.7 – 0.9, a promising move below exponential replication figure but we’ve got Christmas coming which will do a lot of damage, unfortunately.
Scotland has reportedly vaccinated 18,000 people already since the start of the Pfizer vaccine rollout last week. Nearly all of these have been health workers and vaccinators who will be front-line operatives in the ongoing vaccination program as it rolls out to the general public. The first care home residents in Scotland have started receiving vaccinations now under this program. It will be interesting to see how the critical second dose vaccination operation proceeds in a couple of weeks time given the record-keeping necessities, contact requirements and scheduling, especially over the New Year period which is a major holiday here in Scotland.
Another Scott
I’ve been kinda watching reports on Remdesivir and whether it works or doesn’t.
Reuters:
tl;dr – bodies are complicated. There’s still a lot we don’t know.
Cheers,
Scott.
Fair Economist
@Chris T.:Because the Pfizer recommendation was for a second shot at 3 weeks and a fair number of people got it late or not at all, we *do* have some decent info on one-shot with the Pfizer, and it looks about as good as the two-shot. New cases basically stop by 2 weeks after the first injection. Presumably the Moderna will be similar. The mRNA vaccines are probably driving immunity much more effectively than traditional killed virus vaccines.
If we can double the 100 million targeted for inoculation by the end of spring to 200 million, plus the 30 million + who’ve already had it (far more cases than positives), the epidemic will be over by summer. With just the 100 million on the approved protocol, we’re in it until fall
@Another Scott: It’s very possible that Remdesivir *can* be helpful for people with severe immune deficiencies without doing much good for most people. *One* immunodeficient patient benefitting in an uncontrolled trial does not cast doubt on a well-controlled randomized trial.
Brachiator
@Fair Economist:
Has the CDC officially changed its recommendation to “one shot” or is this just the snap judgement of the Internets?