Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

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

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Let’s finish the job.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

No one could have predicted…

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Saturday/Sunday, Dec. 19-20

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Saturday/Sunday, Dec. 19-20

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… Pork-derived gelatin has been widely used as a stabilizer to ensure vaccines remain safe and effective during storage and transport…

Spokespeople for Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have said that pork products are not part of their COVID-19 vaccines. But limited supply and preexisting deals worth millions of dollars with other companies means that some countries with large Muslim populations, such as Indonesia, will receive vaccines that have not yet been certified to be gelatin-free.

This presents a dilemma for religious communities, including Orthodox Jews and Muslims, where the consumption of pork products is deemed religiously unclean, and how the ban is applied to medicine, he said.

“There’s a difference of opinion amongst Islamic scholars as to whether you take something like pork gelatin and make it undergo a rigorous chemical transformation,” Waqar said. “Is that still considered to be religiously impure for you to take?”

The majority consensus from past debates over pork gelatin use in vaccines is that it is permissible under Islamic law, as “greater harm” would occur if the vaccines weren’t used, said Dr. Harunor Rashid, an associate professor at the University of Sydney.

There’s a similar assessment by a broad consensus of religious leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community as well.

“According to the Jewish law, the prohibition on eating pork or using pork is only forbidden when it’s a natural way of eating it,” said Rabbi David Stav, chairman of Tzohar, a rabbinical organization in Israel.

If “it’s injected into the body, not (eaten) through the mouth,” then there is “no prohibition and no problem, especially when we are concerned about sicknesses,” he said.

Yet there have been dissenting opinions on the issue — some with serious health consequences for Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, some 225 million.

In 2018, the Indonesian Ulema Council, the Muslim clerical body that issues certifications that a product is halal, or permissible under Islamic law, decreed that the measles and rubella vaccines were “haram,” or unlawful, because of the gelatin. Religious and community leaders began to urge parents to not allow their children to be vaccinated.

“Measles cases subsequently spiked, giving Indonesia the third-highest rate of measles in the world,” said Rachel Howard, director of the health care market research group Research Partnership…

Any bets that the ultra-Orthodox Jews currently holding superspreader events in NYC won’t use this argument as a defense to refuse vaccination, as well?

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Reader Interactions

56Comments

  1. 1.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 1 new domestic confirmed and 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
     
    Dalian in Liaoning Province reported 1 new confirmed case, a traced close contact of one of the asymptomatic cold chain logistics workers reported in recent days. There are currently 2 domestic confirmed and 6 domestic asymptomatic cases there. 1 residential compound has been designated as Medium Risk.
     
    Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang Province reported 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Suifenhe, all are traced close contacts already under quarantine. There are currently 10 domestic confirmed (8 at Suifenhe and 2 at Dongning), 10 domestic asymptomatic cases (all at Suifenhe), and 1 domestic 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.
     
    Beijing Municipality did not report any new positive cases. There are 2 domestic confirmed cases in the city. The hotel were the cases stayed at remains designated as Medium Risk.
     
    Chengdu in Sichuan Province did not report any new positive cases. 1 confirmed case recovered. There are currently 11 domestic confirmed and 1 domestic asymptomatic cases there. Mianyang in Sichuan Province reported that all F1 & F2 close contacts at the wedding that the cargo pilot (who tested positive and was diagnosed as COVID-10 patient a day later) attended have tested negative for a 2nd time. 1,070 contacts are under quarantine. 2 villages and 4 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. 1 residential compound remain designated as Medium Risk.
     
    Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region did not report any new positive cases. 2 confirmed cases recovered, and 1 asymptomatic case was released from isolation. Currently, there are 10 confirmed cases in the city. 25 close contacts were released from quarantine, 34 close contacts remain under quarantine. 3 sub-districts remain at Medium Risk.
     
    The case exported from Dongguan in Guangdong Province to South Korea has reportedly tested negative in follow up testing at South Korea. The case is either a false positive, or a recovered case intermittently shedding dead viral particles. As of 12 PM on 12/19, 39 close contacts and 1,480 regular contacts have been traced. 1,557 swab samples (some individuals were collected via both nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs) and 147 environmental samples collected. Of the 1,367 results obtained so far, all are negative.
     
    Guangzhou in Guangdong Province reported a new domestic asymptomatic case today, a custodian at a quarantine hotel. The case was discovered during routine screening of quarantine hotel staff, having previously tested negative on 11/28, 12/4 and 12/11. This is the 2nd case among quarantine hotel staff in Guangzhou. The cases will be counted in tomorrow’s China National Health Commission’s daily data dump.
     
    China is definitely implementing even more targeted responses to new outbreaks, following experience and knowledge gained fighting outbreaks in the summer and fall. Medium Risk designations are narrowed to sub-districts, residential compounds, or individual buildings. Mass screenings are now done at district level or below, rather than city-wide. Places where local governance capacity and and capability are lower, i.e. Tiers 4/5 cities such as Turfan in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region, Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region, or Suifenhe/Dongning at Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang Province, de facto lock downs are still in place city wide. Places with higher governance capacity and capability, such as the Tier 2 city of Chengdu, for example, most of the city is not under any movement restrictions. However, the main shopping and tourist areas in the city center are still practically deserted, despite them being far away from where the cluster of cases are found, because residents themselves decide to stay away from crowded areas on their own volition, due to a dozen reported positive cases.
     
    Yesterday, China reported 22 new imported confirmed cases, 7 imported asymptomatic cases:
     

    • Shanghai Municipality – 11 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from the US, 1 each from Israel, Spain, France, Italy (via Copenhagen), Germany, the UK and Russia, a Spanish national coming from Spain (via Germany), and a Belorussian national coming from Belarus (via Moscow)
    • Beijing Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Russia and Pakistan
    • Hohhot in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region – 2 confirmed cases, off a flight diverted from Beijing, no information released
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 2 confirmed cases,
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Nepal
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Indonesia; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Sweden
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Malaysia
    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese crew members off a cargo ship arriving from Indonesia
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case, no information released, yet
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Saudi Arabia; 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Saudi Arabia and 1 from Uzbekistan (via Istanbul)
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), no information released

     
    Overall in China, 2 serious cases improved to moderate, 21 confirmed cases recovered, 7 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation, and 650 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 309 active confirmed cases in the country (267 imported), 5 are in serious condition (4 imported), 205 asymptomatic cases (183 imported), and 3 suspect cases. 6,596 individuals remain under quarantine.

    Yesterday, Hong Kong reported 74 new cases, 4 imported (from Indonesia ) and 70 local (25 of whom without clear sources of infection). There are another 70 cases who are preliminarily confirmed, awaiting retesting.

  2. 2.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY yesterday:

    715 new cases, 750 people hospitalized, 138 patients in the ICU, 429 deaths total

    Positivity rate at 8.9%.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Keeping the death tally on my truck up to date is getting harder and harder every day. I can hardly wait for 1/20 when this whole covid mess will magically disappear.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    Number of countries reporting cumulative case totals of 500k or more increases by 2, to 27.

    U.S. ~17,813k
    India ~10,022k
    Brazil ~7213k
    Russia ~2848k
    France ~2489k
    U.K. ~2007k
    Turkey ~2004k
    Italy ~1938k
    Spain ~1797k
    Argentina ~1537k
    Germany ~1498k
    Colombia ~1496k
    Mexico ~1314k
    Poland ~1203k
    Iran ~1152k
    Peru ~996k
    Ukraine ~970k
    South Africa ~912k
    Netherlands ~682k
    Indonesia ~665k
    Czechia ~624k
    Belgium ~624k
    Romania ~588k
    Chile ~583k
    Iraq ~583k
    Canada ~504k
    Bangladesh ~501k
    .

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,340 new cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 93,309 cases. Dr Noor Hisham also reports four new deaths today, for a total of 437 deaths — 0.47% of the cumulative reported total, 0.56% of resolved cases.

    15,563 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 116 are in ICU, 57 of them on respirators. Meanwhile, 1,067 patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 77,309 patients recovered — 82.9% of the cumulative reported total.

    Three new clusters were reported today: Metropolis building site in KL, Batu 39 in Johor, and Maju Estate in Sabah.

    1,337 new cases today are local infections. Selangor has 440 cases:128 in existing clusters, 200 close-contact screenings, and 112 other screenings. KL has 284 cases: 66 in older clusters, 140 in Metropolis building site cluster, 36 close-contact screenings, and 42 other screenings. Sabah has 196 cases: 32 in older clusters, 18 in Maju Estate cluster, 87 close-contact screenings, and 59 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan has 169 cases:166 in existing clusters, and three 3 close-contact screenings. Johor has 156 cases: 105 in older clusters, 18 in Batu 39 cluster, 21 close-contact screenings, and 12 other screenings.

    Penang has 30 cases: 19 in existing clusters, five close-contact screenings, and six other screenings. Labuan has 27 cases: six in existing clusters, 19 close-contact screenings, and two other screenings. Pahang has 10 cases: six in existing clusters, two close-contact screenings, and two other screenings. Kedah has six cases: 5 in existing clusters, and one other screening.

    Terengganu has two cases, both close-contact screenings. Putrajaya has two cases: 1 close-contact screening, and one other screening. Sarawak has one local case, found in other screening. Melaka has one case, found in other screening. And Kelantan has one case, a close-contact screening.

    Only Perlis reported no new local cases today.

    Three new cases are imported. Two were reported in Sarawak, one in Selangor.

    The four deaths today are a 63-year-old man in Selangor with diabetes, hypertension heart disease, stroke, and obesity; a 67-year-old man in Penang with hypertension; a 78-year-old man in Sabah with hyoertension and heary disease; and a 77-year-old non-Malaysian man in Sabah.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Throughout that time, health-care workers have worried that hospitals would soon be overwhelmed. “The health-care system in Iowa is going to collapse, no question,” an infectious-disease doctor told our colleague Ed Yong early last month. The following week, a critical-care doctor in Nebraska warned, “The assumption we will always have a hospital bed for [you] is a false one.”

    These catastrophes seem to be coming to pass—not just in Iowa and Nebraska, but all across the country. A national breakdown in hospital care is now starkly apparent in the coronavirus data.

    I was on the phone with a long time running buddy of mine when his wife came down the stairs with the news that she had tested positive. 2 days later he had too. He has several comorbidities, most notably fairly advanced COPD, and figures his chances of survival are pretty damned small.

  7. 7.

    Geo Wilcox

    The chief executive who runs Operation Warp Speed owns stock in Moderna. I smell a big, fat rat and Perna is the fall guy.

  8. 8.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I forgot to add the case information for the imported cases to Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 2 confirmed and 1 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from the UAE (1 originated from Afghanistan, and transferred at Dubai).

  9. 9.

    Mary G

    On Deember 8, I posted here that we were going to need to change the y axis on our hospitalized chart here in Orange County because it only went to 900 and we were up to 887. It’s been revised several times in those 11 days. Today we were up to 1,601. New cases hit another record high at 3,445. It’s a nightmare.

  11. 11.

    Martin

    So, the general’s explanation for why counties aren’t getting what they thought makes sense to me.  It’s a basic latency/throughput problem, and provided the FDA is keeping up, it should be a one-time thing and then supply should be stable.

    However, that’s not the problem Pfizer was reporting about not having destinations to ship. That must be a separate matter.

  12. 12.

    NeenerNeener

    They finally posted current hospital capacity for Monroe County this morning:

    29% of regular hospital beds still available, and 39% of the ICU beds are still available. Not good.

    I took my car in for service yesterday. I was double-masked (a KN95 under an AirQueen) with a plastic face shield over that, plus gloves. Spent about 10 minutes in the service area reviewing what had to be done and handing over the spare keys. When it was done they met me outside in the lot to give me back the keys.

    A friend drove me home and came back to pick me up to get the car when it was done. We drove masked/gloved and with the windows open both ways. Sprayed the interiors of both cars with Lysol. Hopefully, all that was enough and neither my friend nor I will need one of those rapidly disappearing available hospital beds.

    Back at the height of the first wave we had a maximum of about 250 new cases a day. For the second wave we’re up over 700 a day so far.

  13. 13.

    Frank Wilhoit

    !!  A good little while ago I asked, who will be Trump’s Poindexter?  Now we have the answer, be it writ fairly small.  Experience implies, with ~90-95% confidence, that the discrepancy between what was promised and what was delivered was diverted into the same grey market that swallowed up so much medical equipment back in the late spring.  Similar diversions will continue down to 20 Jan. and possibly even somewhat beyond.

    Meanwhile the Brits are losing their minds over a mutated strain of the virus and even speculating that the mutation may have moved out from under the vaccines?  It could all be smoke to cover up the fact that they’ve botched everything…?

  14. 14.

    Gvg

    @OzarkHillbilly: don’t give up hope. I have several elderly relatives in their 70’s who have serious illnesses and survived. One was already dying, from other causes and it was really sad his wife couldn’t be with him but she was nearly as frail. He lived through My aunt survived it, then was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which was discovered to be far progressed, so she must have already had it. She is in pain, and it sounds like there isn’t much to be done.

    point is Covid is not totally fatal even in high risk categories.

  15. 15.

    scribbler

    It seems like the theme of this morning’s stories is people are horrible.  Murdoch getting the vaccine, CA leaders dining at French Laundry, and most of all, that story about the two Georgia hospitals.  So disgusting.  I hope the PR fallout for the Cancer hospital with no ER goes through the roof.

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    @Gvg:

    point is Covid is not totally fatal even in high risk categories. 

    Even in high risk-categories, one’s individual odds are still pretty good. Lots of people get this and are just fine after a couple of days, if they even feel sick at all.
    But it’s capricious, and that is scary.

  17. 17.

    mrmoshpotato

    BREAKING: The Netherlands bans U.K. flights for the rest of the year, fearing the new coronavirus variant that is racing through London and southern England.

    I see things are going swimmingly for England.

  18. 18.

    The Moar You Know

    “It was my fault,” Perna says. “It was a planning error, and I am responsible.”

    I would just like to say it’s such a nice refreshing change of pace to see anyone take responsibility for anything these days.  Especially in the US.

  20. 20.

    Robert Sneddon

    @mrmoshpotato: This variant coronavirus the UK government has reported on apparently spreads very easily, so I’d exchange that reference to “England” for “everywhere on the planet”, including your neighbourhood eventually.

     

    Won’t that be fun? Cough cough.

  21. 21.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Frank Wilhoit:

     

    Meanwhile the Brits are losing their minds over a mutated strain of the virus and even speculating that the mutation may have moved out from under the vaccines? It could all be smoke to cover up the fact that they’ve botched everything…?

    I don’t think it’s a smokescreen. Our Boris was desperate to be the man who saved Christmas and, hopefully regain some lost popularity. To the extent he was publicly calling people who questioned the wisdom of the Christmas relaxations, Grinch’s. Now, he’s scared. All his life, he’s been able to float by on charm and good connections and now he’s facing two simultaneous crisis, neither of which are susceptible to either.

  22. 22.

    Tony Jay

    @Frank Wilhoit:

    Meanwhile the Brits are losing their minds over a mutated strain of the virus and even speculating that the mutation may have moved out from under the vaccines?  It could all be smoke to cover up the fact that they’ve botched everything…?

    Por que nos dos?

    Though, quite seriously, how Flobalob’s coterie of crooks think they can put London and the South-East (otherwise known as the national capital, its surrounding metropolitan belt and the part of the country through which most things enter and leave the country) under a strict Lockdown (that’s all this new Tier 4 bullshit is, but they don’t want to call it that) while leaving the rest of the country under a patchwork of different restrictions baffles me.

    Do they really think the Virus gives a monkey’s chuff about their PR driven nonsense? Or are they still as committed to a mass-infection strategy as they ever were? Who knows with this bunch of semi-humanoid portaloos? The only thing we can be certain of is that they’ll do it in the most corrupt way possible and the national media will cover for them all day long and all through the night.

  24. 24.

    YY_Sima Qian

    It’s too late for Continental Europe to shut the new strain out. Given high prevalence of this new strain in England, the open intra-European borders with poorly enforced quarantines (if mandated at all) among travelers, and the inadequate/hesitant/vacillating responses to the 2nd wave so far across the Continent, the new strain is almost certainly already there. Assuming the new strain is indeed 70% more infectious than the D614G strain currently prevalent across most of the world, which is already more infectious than the original strain out of Wuhan, then we should expect this strain to fairly quickly establish dominance on the Continent, as well. A new strain that is really 70% more infectious than the D614G strain will also test the defenses of the Pacific Rim nations throughout this winter.

    Alas, time will tell.

  26. 26.

    Jinchi

    GUS PERNA, the general running logistics for Operation Warp Speed, takes sole responsibility for a big problem with Pfizer vaccine rollout

    It’s good to know where the buck stops in the Trump administration.

  27. 27.

    Jay

    @Suzanne:

    yeah, it’s a crap shoot.

    Amir died. Young, fit, healthy, no pre-existing conditions.

    Helen, old, infirm, lots of issues, “moderate flu”,

    Then me, old, fit, just a family history of strokes, completely different result.

  31. 31.

    Sloane Ranger

    @mrmoshpotato: Mutations are random and have nothing to do with the government of the nation concerned. It could just have easily arisen wherever you are and, as Robert Sneddon has pointed out, given how infectious it is, it is likely to spread to a location near you. the strain has already been detected in several other European nations. Hence, the Netherlands stopping flights, England imposing a lockdown on the areas where the strain is running rampant and Scotland closing it’s border with the rest of the UK in an effort to keep it out. Don’t forget, there are real living people suffering and some dying as a result of this new strain.

    While I’m here I will post yesterday’s update from the UK. The usual weekend warnings apply.

    There were 27,052 new cases, down about 1500 from Friday. We have now had over 2 million cases since the pandemic began. The rolling 7-day average is up by 38.6%. Cases by home nation,

    England – 22,775 (down @1800)

    Northern Ireland – 640 (up @130

    Scotland – 572 (down @170)

    Wales – 3065 (up @200).

    Deaths – There were 534 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday, 441 in England, 17 in Northern Ireland, 41 in Scotland and 35 in Wales.

    Testing – Not updated at weekends.

    Hospitalisations – As of Thursday, 17 December there were 18,771 people in hospital and 1364 people on ventilators on Friday, 18th. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions has increased by 17.7%.

    General – Mostly previously reported. Matt Hancock has said that the new strain is out of control and the enhanced restrictions are likely to remain in place for several months. You all know about the cluster of cases in London and the south-east of England but there is a less well reported cluster of cases in South Wales

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Robert Sneddon:

    so I’d exchange that reference to “England” for “everywhere on the planet”, including your neighbourhood eventually. 

    Hooray!  We’re all fucked!

    Yo SMOD!  We’re ready! :)

  34. 34.

    Fair Economist

    @Mary G: I think Socal has gotten a variant with increased transmissibility, like the UK and South Africa. The increase seems too much for just holiday parties. I’m similarly suspicious of the TN outbreak – it has worsened much more than neighboring states, even though many have similarly loose restrictions.

    @Robert Sneddon:It’s worse than that. The UK and South Africa variants look like they arose independently. It can re-evolve anywhere that doesn’t keep cases under control, which is to say any state in the US besides Vermont right now.

  36. 36.

    sdhays

    @Tony Jay: Well, at least there are no other critical things that the UK government needs to focus on in the next week or so, so they can focus on getting COVID done.

  37. 37.

    sdhays

    The fact that Rupert Murdoch got to be in the front of the line for a vaccination is beyond obscene. Just unbelievable.

  38. 38.

    Fair Economist

    @YY_Sima Qian: The reports indicate the new strain spreads 70% quicker in the sense that it takes less time for people to start to transmit. R0 “only” goes up 0.4. That’s bad, but not as bad as my initial interpretation that R0 went up by 70%, which would be > 1.0.

    Assuming the speed is correct, though, testing isn’t going to be very useful to stop spread unless it’s on the spot. Uninfected patients could become infected and able to transmit in less than 2 days. Universal hygiene measures are an absolute necessity, testing or no. No “bareface” parties just because everybody tests neg.

  44. 44.

    mrmoshpotato

    @gwangung:

    And that’s why you DON’T go herd immunity…less chance of mutations developing. 

    The accompanying mass death from the “herd immunity” bullshit approach also isn’t desirable. :)

  45. 45.

    Robert Sneddon

    @sdhays: He’s older than… I was going to say, dirt but he may actually predate soil. Ummm, protons? Anyway, most nations are giving priority in vaccinations to the most elderly people and Rupert Murdoch qualifies on that regard. I wouldn’t get het up about it.

  47. 47.

    Miss Bianca

    @The Moar You Know: Yeah, I’m right there with you. My first thought on seeing that first tweet was, “My God, someone in the Trump Administration is *taking responsibility* for something?”!

  49. 49.

    Tony Jay

    @sdhays:

    Oh, don’t you worry about that. They sorted out their Christmas bonuses well ahead of the deadline so it’s fluffy socks and glasses of sherry in front of the fire until New Year at least.

    Everything is well in hand. Honest, Guvnor.

  50. 50.

    PJ

    That video of St. Pancras station just looks like a normal day at NY Penn Station.  We do public transportation so well here in the US.

  51. 51.

    J R in WV

    And what are we to do about people like Harriet Clugston — according to her tiny bio on Twitter, probably pretty smart, claims to be an award-winning reporter on data issues.

    Yet got to the train station, saw a huge plague-ridden crowd, called her train the “Last train out of Saigon. Queue at St Pancras as we wait to board the Leeds bound train.” Proceeded to board the train!!

    After lots of fussing about the lack of good leadership, she writes:

    Every person on this train including myself has made what is probably a very silly and irresponsible decision to travel albeit within the law. But that’s what people were always going to do to be together at Christmas. My mother lives alone and there’s no way I could not… Be with her at Christmas.

    Even though she may be carrying a fatal dose of a plague virus running rampant across the whole planet, because there is “no way I could not.. be with her at Xmas.” The stupid burns so deeply in a huge number of the world’s population.

    OT: I took a bottle of wine over to a friend’s house yesterday, we spoke briefly out of doors in a stiff cold breeze. ON the way up her hollow I saw a Great Blue Heron launch up out of the creek as I drove past. Huge ancient-looking birds, right next to (or perhaps way past) Pileated Woodpeckers for being dinosaurian creatures. It was nice to see a couple of friends even if there was no hugs to be had. To know they were OK and taking care.

    Next door neighbor and old friend got her first vaccination shot last Monday, she’s an inspector with the health department, so on the V early list. Very lucky so far. Our family doctor has lost 9 of his patients to the covid Trump Plague. Private practice doc we’ve been seeing since the late 70s. He looked really tired Friday, I’m sure he never expected to face a world-wide plague in his career, after all, we have scientific medicine now…

  52. 52.

    TKH

    It was last week that the paper appeared that showed conclusively that the D614G variant is more infectious. That was months after the variant appeared.

    For somebody to say that the new variant in England has an R0 of 0.4 higher than the D614G and that effect to be intrinsic to its genetics is just way too early. It could just be the result of the inability of our English friends to maintain safe practices (not restricted to them by any means). The geneticists call this “founder effects”.

    Those who know don’t talk (and work furiously to find out), and those who flap their gums don’t know. Just as it ever was.

  53. 53.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Here’s a photo of London from yesterday – giant crowd, barely anyone is wearing a mask and almost no social distancing (link)

  54. 54.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Harriet Clugston

    @HarrietClugston

    Every person on this train including myself has made what is probably a very silly and irresponsible decision to travel albeit within the law. But that’s what people were always going to do to be together at Christmas. My mother lives alone and there’s no way I could not Be with her at Christmas.

    So this data journalist is bringing a high risk of covid to her mother.

    Such foolishness is so depressing.

  55. 55.

    bluefoot

    @Sloane Ranger:  Mutations to a different strain of the virus is one of many reasons to try to keep the spread down – more infections means more opportunities for the virus to mutate. You’d think people have watched enough disaster movies to understand this.

  56. 56.

    bluefoot

    @gwangung: At my sister’s hospital in Wisconsin, they’ve had to turn away people because there is no ICU availability and very few available “regular” beds.  A colleague of hers (another doctor) was sent home with diabetic ketoacidosis, which is usually an automatic admission.  Someone else I know working in an ER was calling around to find a hospital to take a pregnant woman who was having complications with her delivery.

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