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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday/Friday, Dec. 17-18

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday/Friday, Dec. 17-18

by Anne Laurie|  December 18, 20204:55 am| 25 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs

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"but to their surprise, the vial lasted for six doses" is the most 2020 update of the Hanukkah story imaginable https://t.co/x83fCaxkbK

— Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy) December 16, 2020


“With confidence in the vaccine and at the direction of the Attending Physician, I plan to receive the vaccine in the next few days,” @SpeakerPelosi says. She adds that she’ll still “wear a mask and take other science-based steps to stop the spread” of the coronavirus.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) December 18, 2020

The US had +230,982 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 today, bringing the total to over 17.6 million. The 7-day moving average rose to over 220,000 per day. pic.twitter.com/POq7lSYS6N

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) December 18, 2020

Roughly 407,000 Americans died in WW2. The only question now is whether Covid fatalities surpass that number before Trump leaves office or immediately after. https://t.co/jjr0R67mpL

— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) December 18, 2020

Cedric Richmond wasn’t in close contact with Biden, aides say, and Biden’s PCR test today was neg.

Richmond, who tested pos Wednesday, campaigned on Tuesday in Georgia, but wasn’t in close proximity to Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock, Keisha Lance Bottoms, Stacey Abrams, aides say.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) December 17, 2020

NEWS: Trump’s Health sec is negative for coronavirus but told his staff his wife has it. “Today, my family learned that my wife Jennifer has tested positive for COVID-19. Jennifer is experiencing mild symptoms but otherwise doing well,” Alex Azar said in email to team tonight.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) December 18, 2020

BREAKING: @SecBernhardt tested positive for #COVID19 Wednesday. The diagnosis has set off a wave of testing since Bernhardt has met for the past two days with DOI appointees, and prompted cancellation of Interior's holiday party. @bydarrylfears @eilperin https://t.co/wmIWpQ6rfu

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) December 17, 2020

======

Listen to Gandalf. https://t.co/cxUpty7Png

— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) December 17, 2020

France’s Macron has coronavirus.

A Trump delegation was near Macron’s team in recent days — Macron had a one-on-one meeting Monday at the Elysee with US national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, who had the virus in July. https://t.co/wGK5IlPdD8

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) December 17, 2020

French scientist sees no return to post-COVID-19 normal before autumn 2021 https://t.co/Hic1CWLd3x pic.twitter.com/phfmWEnGI3

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 18, 2020

Coronavirus: Swiss count cost of surge in deaths https://t.co/q8RaLmm89I

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 18, 2020

The Dutch health minister says that coronavirus vaccinations using the Pfizer-BioNTech shots will start in the Netherlands on Jan. 8 if the European Union's medicines agency approves it for use next week. https://t.co/0ZktHUqC7j

— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) December 17, 2020

Russia confirmed 28,552 new coronavirus cases Friday, bringing the total caseload to 2,791,220https://t.co/XF7NqKEbrb

— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) December 18, 2020

https://t.co/4h8q3Ff5pV

New: spent this week digging into Moscow's Covid vaccine programme, which 2 weeks in has vaccinated only ~15,000 of the 7m patients it needs to. Some of the city's 70 coronavirus clinics are managing to vaccinate less than 10(!) people daily.

— Felix Light (@felix_light) December 17, 2020

China to vaccinate 50 million people for Lunar New Year – SCMP https://t.co/XKka9p7NJk pic.twitter.com/qejnZv14bO

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 18, 2020

Asia Today: South Korea has reported 1,062 new cases of the coronavirus, its third straight day of over 1,000, as authorities in Seoul warn that hospital beds are in short supply. https://t.co/PLodc3otPo

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 18, 2020

Philippines can secure up to 25 million doses of Moderna, Arcturus vaccines-ambassador https://t.co/4adMonhsxg pic.twitter.com/HoPR9nu52K

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 18, 2020

Covid vaccine: India expects to 'begin vaccination in January' https://t.co/bo0YtPg4uj

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 18, 2020

Australian states and territories begun imposing border restrictions after 28 COVID-19 cases were detected from a cluster on Sydney's northern beaches https://t.co/wcfMFcNQ5R pic.twitter.com/sld2OFqcao

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 18, 2020

======

U.S. FDA decides to approve Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine on emergency basis -FT https://t.co/egFyDbwfgQ pic.twitter.com/rDL1cyYbgM

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 18, 2020

BREAKING: A second COVID-19 vaccine wins backing from a U.S. expert panel, paving the way for final FDA decision on emergency use. https://t.co/bEF8RWqFAN

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 17, 2020

Pfizer says it has shipped all 2.9 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine that U.S. govt ordered this week and that it has millions more doses sitting in warehouses awaiting instructions for where to ship.@jtozz https://t.co/LEVqOFQ0Pc

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) December 17, 2020

Several states say they have been told to expect far fewer doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in its second week of distribution. The Trump administration is downplaying the risk of delays, and Pfizer says its production levels have not changed. https://t.co/wN3jjTyqIW

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 18, 2020

The data in this chart is a big reason why the US Food and Drug Administration voted in favor of emergency authorization for Pfizer’s covid-19 shot. https://t.co/v2hC69meRS pic.twitter.com/95l8phblnK

— MIT Technology Review (@techreview) December 18, 2020

Hoping to ask for FDA approval in February:

J&J says late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trial fully enrolled https://t.co/Lo7ZJh42m3 pic.twitter.com/gqSE9njWaX

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 18, 2020

I don't know @bhrenton but this dashboard site is a terrific service, assuming it's accurate. He's tracking #COVID19 #vaccine allocations.
Now, we need to track the actual deliveries — what is getting where, and how long is it taking? https://t.co/VGOnKaFH1v

— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) December 17, 2020

Thread:

News: A Pentagon system set up for states to keep track of coronavirus vaccines had outdated, inaccurate projections for deliveries, leading governors to think they would receive far more doses than will arrive in the coming days. https://t.co/R5fFISwTbs

— Michael Wilner (@mawilner) December 18, 2020

======

Experts are debating who should be next in line for COVID-19 vaccines when more doses become available. So far, the limited number of doses are mostly going into the arms of health-care workers and nursing home residents. https://t.co/WL6g1mr2x2

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 18, 2020

The chances are very good that, whenever you get the Covid vaccine, you’ll be down for 48 hours with fever, fatigue and aches. This is normal. We are late in telling people what to expect. Alarmists and bad actors are going to fill that void. https://t.co/0y3mmKwu5t

— Maryn McKenna (@marynmck) December 17, 2020

California, latest coronavirus epicenter, sets nationwide record for new cases: ‘The worst is still before us’ https://t.co/KAbWZJAK2e

— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) December 18, 2020

Tucker Carlson looked to undermine confidence in vaccines on Thursday night on the nation's most-watched cable news show: "On the question of the corona vaccine, our leaders definitely are not pro-choice. Their view is do as you are told, don’t complain." https://t.co/xJGQcqOsFX

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) December 18, 2020

permanently stay-at-home federalist columnists hardest hit https://t.co/ffaQjVNSlA

— kilgore trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) December 18, 2020

So how many grandmothers have died since this tweet? Is it too much to expect any regrets, apologies? https://t.co/NCZGM4LfuZ

— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) December 18, 2020

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Reader Interactions

25Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    December 18, 2020 at 5:43 am

    Monroe County,NY yesterday: It’s not getting any better. We hit new records yesterday.

    729 new cases, 736 people hospitalized, 141 patients in the ICU, 429 deaths total

    Positivity rate at 8.8%

    28% of the hospital beds are available on average and 36% of the ICU beds

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    December 18, 2020 at 5:49 am

    Within the next day (or two at most) India will become the second country to report cumulative total cases in eight digits, exceeding 10,000,000.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 18, 2020 at 5:54 am

    So Tucker Carlson is now pro-choice. Didn’t have that on my 2020 bingo card.

  4. 4.

    sab

    December 18, 2020 at 5:54 am

    Summit County Ohio. We went from purple (worst) to red (bad but not worst). Yay!

  5. 5.

    Sloane Ranger

    December 18, 2020 at 6:24 am

    Yesterday in the UK we had 35,383 new cases. This is about 10,000 more cases than the day before but includes the 11,000 Welsh cases that weren’t previously reported due to the computer error I mentioned yesterday. The rolling 7-day average now shows an increase of 41.6%. Cases by nation,

    England – 22,401 (down @1000)

    Northern Ireland – 656 (up @150)

    Scotland – 858 (up @200)

    Wales – 11,468 (up @11,000). See above for explanation. Over the last 7 days, Wales has a case incidence of 539.1 per 100,000 of population. This is the highest rate of all the home nations by a long chalk. I cannot offer an explanation as to why Wales has been so badly hit.

    Deaths – There were 532 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. 438 in England, 12 in Northern Ireland, 30 in Scotland and 52 in Wales.

    Testing – 364,388 tests were processed on Wednesday, 16 December out of a capacity of 549,480. This is an increase of 5.7% in the rolling 7-day average.

    Hospitalisations – On Tuesday, 15 December, there were 18,009 people in hospital. 1340 were on ventilators as of Wednesday, 16th. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions is up 19%.

    General – A government advisor has said that the UK is on the verge of an explosion of cases. Northern Ireland will enter a hard lockdown for 6 weeks from 26 December, reviewable after 4 weeks. All non-essential shops will close for the duration on Christmas Eve and essential shops having to close at 8pm.

  6. 6.

    YY_Sima Qian

    December 18, 2020 at 6:42 am

    Yesterday, China reported 1 new domestic confirmed, 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases and 1 new domestic suspect case.

    Chengdu in Sichuan Province reported 1 new confirmed case, a traced close contact already under quarantine since 12/8, had tested negative on RT-PCR twice before. There are currently 13 confirmed and 1 asymptomatic cases there. 1,119 contacts are under quarantine. 2 villages and 3 residential compounds are designated as Medium Risk.

    Dalian in Liaoning Province reported 2 new asymptomatic cases, both cold chain logistics workers from the same shift at the same company as the previously reported 4 asymptomatic cases, had already been placed under quarantine. All 8,216 residential compound with the active cases have been tested, all negative.

    Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang Province did not report any new positive cases. There are currently 10 confirmed (8 at Suifenhe and 2 at Dongning), 5 asymptomatic cases (all at Suifenhe), and 1 suspect case (at Suifenhe) in Mudanjiang. 2 residential compounds and an office building at Suifenhe, and 1 sub-district at Dongning, remain 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. 1 residential compound has been designated as Medium Risk.

    At Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region. Currently, there are 14 confirmed and 2 asymptomatic cases in the city. 16 close contacts were released from quarantine, 71 close contacts remain under quarantine. 2 sub-districts have been re-designated as Low Risk, 3 sub-districts remain at Medium Risk.

    Yesterday, China reported 11 new imported confirmed cases, 9 imported asymptomatic cases:

    * Shanghai Municipality – 4 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from the UAE, Germany and Russia, and an Angolan national coming from Angola (via Germany)
    * Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Nepal
    * Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed and 2 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from the US
    * Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the US; the case had landed at Guangzhou, before being transferred rot quarantine hotel at Foshan
    * Taiyuan in Shanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Poland, off a flight diverted from Beijing
    * Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic) and 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    * Kunming in Yunnan Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Myanmar
    * Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    * Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Nigeria
    * Changsha in Hunan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released

    Yesterday, Hong Kong reported 70 new cases, 6 imported (from Canada, Pakistan and Indonesia) and 64 local (25 of whom without clear sources of infection). There are another 50 cases who are preliminarily confirmed, awaiting retesting.

  7. 7.

    TS (the original)

    December 18, 2020 at 6:42 am

      and prompted cancellation of Interior’s holiday party.

    So it was ok to have a large covid spreader event until the boss man became ill.

    Wakeup call in Australia – they have yet to find the original source of the Sydney cluster – although it is of the strain from overseas & thought to  perhaps be international pilots (the latest strain is of US origin) – who are supposed to self quarantine – and now will be forced to do same.

    Airline crew from South America fined by NSW Police for breaching self-isolation. A source told the 7.30 program that a group of airline staff were caught out and about at a variety of different venues in Mascot when they should have been self-isolating in their hotel rooms.

    Always shutting the gate after the event.

  8. 8.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 18, 2020 at 6:56 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    So Tucker Carlson is now pro-choice. Didn’t have that on my 2020 bingo card. 

    Well, when the choice is between pro-idiot/asshole and anti-Idiot/asshole, he’s definitely pro.

    Also, he’s an idiot/asshole.

  9. 9.

    YY_Sima Qian

    December 18, 2020 at 7:05 am

    @Sloane Ranger: Wouldn’t Northern Ireland’s plan simply encourage more gatherings leading up to Christmas? Should have followed their brethren to the south in response to the 2nd/3rd wave.

    I remember China was excoriated in western media for announcing the cordon sanitaire  around Wuhan with 10 hours of warning, allowing hundreds of thousands to leave the city. Lock downs in the US and Europe are implemented with days of warning.

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    December 18, 2020 at 7:05 am

    Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,683 new cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 90,816 cases. Dr Noor Hisham also reports no new deaths today, and the total remains at 432 deaths — 0.48% of the cumulative reported total, 0.57% of resolved cases.
    15,140 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 106 are in ICU, 53 of them on respirators. Meanwhile, 1,214 patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 75,244 patients recovered — 82.9% of the cumulative reported total.
    Six new clusters were reported today: Lebuh building site in Selangor; Sugud in Sabah; Jalan Tengah building site in KL; Persiaran Heights in Negeri Sembilan; and Tembok Gajah and Utama Rini in Johor.
    1,675 new cases today are local infections. Selangor has 690 cases: 172 in older clusters, three in Lebuh building site cluster, 169 close-contact screenings, and 346 other screenings. Sabah has 259 cases: 42 in older clusters, five in Sugud cluster, 132 close-contact screenings, and 80 other screenings. KL has 194 cases: 127 in older clusters, two in Jalan Tengah building site cluster, 43 close-contact screenings, and 22 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan has 174 cases: 140 in older clusters, 20 in Persiaran Heights cluster, three close-contact screenings, and 11 other screenings. Melaka has 140 cases: 139 in existing clusters, and one close-contact screening.
    Johor has 75 cases: 18 in older clusters, 16 in Tembok Gajah and Kluster Utama Rini clusters, 22 close-contact screenings, and 19 other screenings. Perak has 65 cases: 59 in existing clusters, four close-contact screenings, and two other screenings. Penang has 37 cases: 10 in existing clusters, eight close-contact screenings, and 19 other screenings. Labuan has 19 cases: 11 in existing clusters, three close-contact screenings, and five other screenings.
    Pahang has six cases: four in existing clusters, and two close-contact screenings. Putrajaya has six cases: one in an existing cluster, and five close-contact screenings. Kedah has four cases: two in existing clusters, and two close-contact screenings. Terengganu has four cases: two in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and one other screening. Sarawak has one case, found in other screening. And Kelantan also has one case, found in other screening.
    Only Perlis reported no new local cases today.
    Eight new cases are imported. One was reported in Sabah, two in Selangor, three in KL, and two in Johor.
    In other news, Senior Minister for Defence Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced today that the conditional movement control order in place in Sabah, KL, and most of Selangor has been extended to 31st December.

    Ismail Sabri also announced the SOP for celebrating Christmas: church services to be held at set times on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, with the time between services to be used to sanitise the church. Except in enhanced movement control order zones, where it is not deemed safe for sny house of worship to have religious services. Visiting friends and family open houses will only be allowed only on Christmas Day. No door-to-door carolling is allowed. No open house is permitted in enhanced movement control order zones.

  11. 11.

    Sloane Ranger

    December 18, 2020 at 7:42 am

    @YY_Sima Qian: In theory, Northern Ireland already has restrictions in place against household mixing and large gatherings. These will be relaxed for Christmas celebrations between 23 – 26 but should be followed until then – of course, like the rest of the country, they are not always followed and the fear of even heavier restrictions may encourage even more people to ignore the Regs.

    Yes, I appreciate that delays in implementing restrictions can lead to problems, but so does announcing something with immediate effect as people tend to scream about plans/arrangements being disrupted with no time to organise alternatives. It’s probably as broad as it is long.

  12. 12.

    YY_Sima Qian

    December 18, 2020 at 7:45 am

    This evening, Dalian Municipal CDC has announced genomic sequencing results from the cluster of asymptomatic cases there in the past few days: L genotype, European branch, type L II branch. The sequences of the 4 asymptomatic cases tested so far are identical, indicating they are infected from the same common source. The authorities claim that the sequencing suggests the source of the cluster is introduced from overseas, as it is prevalent in Europe and North America, but does not match the strains from past and current outbreaks in China. However, the source has not yet been identified.

    Meanwhile, Beijing Municipality reported a new domestic confirmed case today. She is a guest who stayed at the same hotel as an imported confirmed case that was reported on 12/14. The imported case was a Mainland Chinese resident returning from Hong Kong, passed through the 14 days of centralized quarantine and had tested negative multiple times on RT-PCR. He checked into a hotel upon release from quarantine, and developed symptoms a day later, and went to a fever clinic the next day. The domestic case was traced as a close contact and has been under quarantine since 12/15. This is the first instance of someone infected by an imported case that was confirmed only after going through the mandatory 14 days of centralized quarantine. Clearly it is still a very low tail risk, but non-zero nonetheless.

    This is why Vietnam has mandatory 21 day centralized quarantine for incoming visitors/returnees, and China has mandatory centralized or home quarantines at final destination, following 2 weeks of centralized quarantine at point of entry. I suspect China will now lengthen the centralized quarantine at point of entry, and/or make arrangements for dedicated and isolated transportation to transfer from point of entry to final destination (like Shanghai is doing in collaborations with jurisdictions across the Greater Yangtze River Delta). Running out of quarantine space is a challenge. Housing visitors/returnees in military barracks (like in Vietnam) will likely cause an uproar. The logistics challenges (and relatively low risk) is probably why visitors/returnees are allowed to take public transportation from point of entry, after completing the 2 weeks of centralized quarantine, to the final destination, where they reenter quarantine. It never made sense purely from epidemic control perspective.

  13. 13.

    Mary G

    December 18, 2020 at 7:57 am

    It’s a disaster out here in CA. There was a report on the local CBS news showing 17 patients in gurneys each with paramedics or ambulance personnel in attendance lined up on the walkway outside Los Alamitos Hospital. It will be much worse in a couple of weeks, as we had more than 3200 new cases in Orange County again today. Am I a bad person for hoping that some of the people waiting outside ERs are the assholes from the bars in Huntington Beach? It’s more likely to be the bartenders, waitresses, and dirty dish collectors who had to wait on them. I am beyond enraged.

  14. 14.

    Aleta

    December 18, 2020 at 8:22 am

    Some info (note the work of Kellyanne Conway and Ivanka ) about the CDC.  From a NYT article that includes interviews with Kyle McGowan, a former CDC chief of staff and his deputy, Amanda Campbell, who now want to tell us about  “Washington’s dismissal of science, the White House’s slow suffocation of the agency’s voice, the meddling in its messages and the siphoning of its budget.”

    They were political appointees in 2018 after working for Rep. Tom Price in the House and when he was appointed health secretary.   Also, they’ve now started a health policy consulting firm.  I omitted most of their framing as heroic “keepers of the agency’s senior scientists whose morale had been sapped.”

    Last week, the editor in chief of the C.D.C.’s flagship weekly disease outbreak reports … told House Democrats… that she was ordered to destroy an email showing Trump appointees attempting to meddle with their publication.

    The White House insisted on reviewing — and often softening — the C.D.C.’s closely guarded coronavirus guidance documents… The documents were vetted not only by the White House’s coronavirus task force but by … political appointees across Washington.

    Mr. McGowan … and Dr. Robert R. Redfield negotiated with Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, over social distancing guidelines for restaurants, as Mr. Vought argued that specific spacing recommendations would be too onerous for businesses to enforce. … They compromised anyway, recommending social distancing without a reference to the typical six-foot measurement. … One of Ms. Campbell’s responsibilities was helping secure approval for the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, a widely followed and otherwise apolitical guide on infectious disease renowned in the medical community. Over the summer, political appointees at the health department repeatedly asked C.D.C. officials to revise, delay and even scuttle drafts they thought could be viewed as criticism of President Trump.
    …
    Often, Mr. McGowan and Ms. Campbell mediated between Dr. Redfield and agency scientists when the White House’s guidance requests and dictates would arrive: edits from Mr. Vought and Kellyanne Conway on choirs and communion in faith communities, or suggestions from Ivanka Trump on schools. “Every time that the science clashed with the messaging, messaging won,” Mr. McGowan said.

    … In the spring, the C.D.C. published an app that allowed Americans to screen themselves for symptoms of Covid-19. But the Trump administration decided to develop a similar tool with Apple. White House officials then demanded that the C.D.C. wipe its app off its website, Mr. McGowan said. …

    Top C.D.C. officials devised workarounds. Instead of posting new guidance for schools and election officials in the spring, they published “updates” to previous guidance that skipped formal review from Washington. That prompted officials in Washington to insist on reviewing updates. …

    (Earlier this year) Dr. Anne Schuchat, a 32-year career staff member who is the agency’s principal deputy director and one of the country’s most respected scientists…. was targeted by political appointees at the health department, who began interrogating C.D.C. officials about her public comments acknowledging the seriousness of the pandemic.
    …
    … (Last winter) officials in Washington told the C.D.C. that regular telephone briefings with another senior scientist, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, were no longer needed because Mr. Trump had his own daily briefings. Dr. Messonnier angered the White House in late February when she issued a public warning that the virus was about to change Americans’ lives. “There’s not a single thing that she said that didn’t come true,” Mr. McGowan said.

    This fall, senior C.D.C. officials … resumed regular news media briefings by agency scientists. Without seeking permission from Washington, they revised guidance documents on schools and asymptomatic testing, health officials said.

    The agency’s budget has been micromanaged, especially by Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, who has argued against C.D.C. funds in coronavirus stimulus negotiations. … (T)he C.D.C. typically receives what public health experts see as paltry funding — a reflection of its often low-profile work. “They track down everything from pollution to outbreaks in prisons,” Dr. Barry R. Bloom, an infectious disease expert and public health professor at Harvard, said. “That’s the daily work of C.D.C. If it’s well done and tracked down, it will not appear in the pages of your newspaper.”

    The funding the C.D.C. did receive this year was cannibalized. Dr. Redfield told lawmakers that $300 million was steered from the C.D.C.’s budget to a vaccine public relations campaign that recently collapsed under scrutiny from reporters and lawmakers.

  15. 15.

    WereBear

    December 18, 2020 at 8:23 am

    @Mary G: Am I a bad person for hoping that some of the people waiting outside ERs are the assholes from the bars in Huntington Beach? It’s more likely to be the bartenders, waitresses, and dirty dish collectors who had to wait on them. I am beyond enraged.

     
    I don’t think you are a bad person. I share your outrage and think that makes both of us a good person.

  16. 16.

    Aleta

    December 18, 2020 at 8:32 am

    @Aleta:

    In September the NYT described the “targeting by political appointees ” of Dr. Anne Schuchat.  It was extreme.  It would be good if it were prosecutable.

    (Sept 18, NYT )  Emails Detail Effort to Silence C.D.C. and Question Its Science

    On June 30, as the coronavirus was cresting toward its summer peak, Dr. Paul Alexander, a new science adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services, composed a scathing two-page critique of an interview given by Dr. Anne Schuchat, a 32-year veteran of the C.D.C. and its principal deputy director. … “Her aim is to embarrass the president,” he wrote, commenting on Dr. Schuchat’s appeal for face masks in an interview with The Journal of the American Medical Association.

    “She is duplicitous,” he also wrote in an email to his boss, Michael R. Caputo, the Department of Health and Human Services’s top spokesman. He asked Mr. Caputo to “remind” Dr. Schuchat that during the H1N1 swine flu outbreak in 2009, thousands of Americans had died “under her work.”
    …
    Michael R. Caputo, the Department of Health and Human Services’s top spokesman, went on medical leave this week, days after he attacked C.D.C. scientists in a bizarre Facebook video.

    Of Dr. Schuchat’s assessment of the dangers of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, he fumed, wrongly, “The risk of death in children 0-19 years of age is basically 0 (zero) … PERIOD … she has lied.”

    Dr. Alexander’s point-by-point assessment, … forwarded by Mr. Caputo to Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the C.D.C. director, was one of several emails obtained by The New York Times that illustrate how Mr. Caputo and Dr. Alexander tried to browbeat career officials at the C.D.C. at the height of the pandemic, challenging the science behind their public statements and trying to silence agency staff.

    On Friday, two days after Mr. Caputo went on medical leave and Dr. Alexander was dismissed from the Department of Health and Human Services, the C.D.C. reversed a heavily criticized recommendation suggesting that people who have had close contact with a person infected with the coronavirus do not need to get tested if they have no symptoms. The emails shed light on the months long fight that led to their departures.
    …
    Mr. Caputo moved to punish the C.D.C.’s communications team for granting interviews to NPR and trying to help a CNN reporter reach him about a public relations campaign. Current and former C.D.C. officials called it a five-month campaign of bullying and intimidation.

  17. 17.

    YY_Sima Qian

    December 18, 2020 at 9:36 am

    @Sloane Ranger:

    Yes, I appreciate that delays in implementing restrictions can lead to problems, but so does announcing something with immediate effect as people tend to scream about plans/arrangements being disrupted with no time to organise alternatives. It’s probably as broad as it is long.

    Yeah, there are no good choices left for a lot of places suffering from the raging pandemic, especially not with the population fatigue, and lowered trust in authority (due to conspiracy theories or mistakes/mismanagement by those in power).

    It is fortunate that China ultimately went with an eradication strategy, rather than suppression. Back in Mar., no one really thought eradication was realistic with something as infectious as COVID-19. Even as reported new cases in China dwindled to zero by late Mar., health care experts were warning the authorities not to promise eradication, and the population not to expect eradication, lest local officials feel the urge to hide cases and the population distraught over each uptick. To this day, I do not see the word “eradication” in official Chinese media, at least not the Chinese language ones. Then, the mass screening of all residents in Wuhan at the end of May showed that eradication is possible even for a place so hard hit. Victoria in Australia, Auckland in New Zealand and Vietnam demonstrated, with smaller outbreaks, that eradication is quite achievable with enough discipline and determination. Countries successful with eradication also do not have to deal with as much population fatigue, because distancing measures in response to new outbreaks are localized in geography and relatively short in duration.

    South Korea, which has masterfully suppressed COVID-19 for much of the year without aiming for eradication, is now strained by escalating cases, as the result of winter conditions and population fatigue. Japan, which somehow muddled through for most of the year, is also coming under strain.

    I think a lot of policymakers forget that, other than China, the first wave hit most countries in the northern hemisphere in late winter to early spring, with the weather trending warm. Although COVID-19 is far too infectious to be suppressed in warm weather, there still appears to be strong seasonal effects. Policies that worked in the early spring may not work in the late fall, as the weather trajectory are going in opposite directions. The reverse may be true for the sub-tropics, where it is the heat that chases people in-doors. That might explain the summer surge across the Sun Belt states?

  18. 18.

    YY_Sima Qian

    December 18, 2020 at 9:44 am

    @Mary G:

    It’s a disaster out here in CA. There was a report on the local CBS news showing 17 patients in gurneys each with paramedics or ambulance personnel in attendance lined up on the walkway outside Los Alamitos Hospital. It will be much worse in a couple of weeks, as we had more than 3200 new cases in Orange County again today.

    Yikes, that is as bad as any of the hard hit places around the world in the spring wave. I am a bit mystified by southern CA, actually. CA, even southern CA, overall had handled the spring and summer waves relatively OK. What happened this time? Population fatigue?Too much COVID-19 coming in from the rest of the country? Return to school + Thanksgiving? Gov. Newsom hesitating to take the economic and state finances hit and order shelter in place, due to lack of monetary support from the federal government?

  19. 19.

    p.a.

    December 18, 2020 at 9:46 am

    Had my most recent test 12/12, the only info sheet in my packet was in Spanish, from what I could glean the response time was 2-4 days and instead of going to the processing lab as previously there was now a state website.  12/16 website said ‘no results at this time’, called in and the voice on the phone said “we will escalate and inform you in”, you guessed it, “2-4 days.”

    Went on website today and instead of ‘no results at this time’ it is ‘your information does not match any in our records’.  Called and: re-escalate??????????.  I actually feel fine and the 10-day quarantine has expired, but jeebus…

  20. 20.

    Steeplejack

    December 18, 2020 at 10:50 am

    @p.a.:

    Which state?

  21. 21.

    wmd

    December 18, 2020 at 11:28 am

    It recently occurred to me that by the end of the year 1 out of every 1000 Americans alive at the start of the year will have died from Covid-19. This seems to me a framing that is useful.

  22. 22.

    p.a.

    December 18, 2020 at 12:03 pm

    @Steeplejack: RI

  23. 23.

    Fair Economist

    December 18, 2020 at 12:38 pm

    @YY_Sima Qian: Cases in CA were fairly flat and well below national averages until 11/1 and then took off like a rocket. So it’s probably holiday season + fatigue (I suspect like, “I’ve been good for so long I can have *one* party”). The disinfo is scary too, although that’s been here all along. My next door neighbor won’t wear a mask because he thinks they poison you. My next-next door neighbor insists her aunt didn’t die of her diagnosed COVID, she died of double pneumonia.

    I don’t know why it’s worse here than in most of the rest of the Sunbelt (northern states have more problematic weather now). The one thing that’s different here I can think of is much more severe crowding below upper middle class due to the unbelievable housing prices.

    Schools are definitely not the key – cases have been not-too bad in the schools even as they’ve gone bonkers in the general population.

  24. 24.

    Ruckus

    December 18, 2020 at 2:37 pm

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    My experience in southern CA is that people are being people. They want their lives back and have no idea, or maybe no care that doing that could easily kill them. I work at a job that is considered necessary, I’ve written about it here a couple of times. As an example I work next door to a very large and good auto body shop. When Covid first started their business dried up, traffic was very light, accidents were few and far between. They normally have between 50-75 cars in for repair at all times. Early on they were empty, people were not driving – and crashing/dinging cars. Now they are full again, the CA driveathon is back in full swing, traffic is as bad as ever. People are out and about and even if they were trying, it’s almost impossible to be as careful and spaced as necessary. And the majority are not masking up unless they absolutely have to, which is any shopping indoors – supermarkets, etc.

  25. 25.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    December 18, 2020 at 3:17 pm

    You’re right, Tucker; our leaders are very authoritarian. Aren’t you glad we’ve elected *new* leaders?

    PS: while vaccines might be mandated for children to go to school (just like we do now for standard childhood illnesses…), and for adults in certain jobs (nursing home attendants, for example), if you don’t want to take it, and aren’t in either situation, I don’t care.

    When people put restrictions in place, and make them mandatory, they’re not to protect you, Tucker Carlson. They’re in place to protect the US citizenry from a deadly virus. And if you don’t care about the American people, at least be honest about it. If you do, well, find *real* science, not your typical whiny BS, where you ignore the dangers to the whole of the US, because you think it makes you look like a strong contrarian, and not a callous moron.

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