Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

No one could have predicted…

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

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

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

This blog will pay for itself.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Everybody saw this coming.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Their freedom requires your slavery.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday/Tuesday, Jan. 4-5

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday/Tuesday, Jan. 4-5

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… What we have seen is that the data in the firms’ submissions regarding the first dose is commonly being misinterpreted. In the phase 3 trials, 98% of participants in the Pfizer-BioNTech trial and 92% of participants in the Moderna trial received two doses of the vaccine at either a three- or four-week interval, respectively. Those participants who did not receive two vaccine doses at either a three-or four-week interval were generally only followed for a short period of time, such that we cannot conclude anything definitive about the depth or duration of protection after a single dose of vaccine from the single dose percentages reported by the companies.

Using a single dose regimen and/or administering less than the dose studied in the clinical trials without understanding the nature of the depth and duration of protection that it provides is concerning, as there is some indication that the depth of the immune response is associated with the duration of protection provided. If people do not truly know how protective a vaccine is, there is the potential for harm because they may assume that they are fully protected when they are not, and accordingly, alter their behavior to take unnecessary risks…

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Reader Interactions

19Comments

  3. 3.

    Martin

    Guessing we’ll have wiped out a congressional district by the time we’re done here. Evidence seems to be mounting that the new strain is indeed more infectious as well as possibly being more dangerous to kids. If so, that ups the population that needs to be vaccinated to hit herd immunity. It’s not a race we’re winning just yet.

  4. 4.

    mrmoshpotato

    The New York Times

    @nytimes

    About a fifth of U.S. hospitals with intensive care units (638 hospitals) reported that at least 95% of their ICU beds were full in the week ending Dec. 31. Nationwide, 77% of ICU hospital beds were occupied. Search for hospitals near you.  See how fucked the hospitals are near you, since we spent 2015/16 shitting all over Hillary Clinton.

    Fixed.

  5. 5.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rikyrah:

    That pharmacist needs to lose his license.

    PERIOD?

    I think few years of freedom should be on the chopping block too.

  6. 6.

    sab

    @rikyrah: That pharmacist needs to be in prison before he kills somebody.

    IANAL but it seems to me that deliberately destroying 500 doses of the vaccine is a fairly significant property crime if nothing else.

  7. 7.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY yesterday:
    289 new cases, still at 56% are female. 930 people hospitalized, 146 patients in the ICU. We’re still at 592 deaths reported deaths.

    30% of the hospital beds are available on average and 26% of the ICU beds.

    9.8% positivity

    Disclaimer that was attached to the daily report yesterday:
    ***Please note, significantly fewer tests were reported over the weekend, which could account for the significantly lower number of positive cases compared to recent days.

  8. 8.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 1/4 China reported 17 new domestic confirmed and 31 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Dalian in Liaoning Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (moderate) and 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, both at Jinpu New District. The new confirmed case was discovered during mass screening of all residents within the cordon sanitaire set up within the city, having been under home quarantine sine 12/27. The asymptomatic cases is a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine since 12/27. 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered and 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There are currently 45 domestic confirmed cases and 27 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. There are 13 communities, 2 residential compounds and a village currently at Medium Risk in the city. All residents in the core control area have been tested 6 times, all residents in the cordon sanitaire have been tested 5 times.

    Shenyang in Liaoning Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (moderate), found via city wide mass screening, outside of the cordon sanitaire set up in the city, no connection yet identified with previously reported cases. The case had tested negative twice in the past two weeks. There are currently 26 domestic confirmed and 1 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 7,129,027 individuals in the city were swabbed as part of the city-wide mass screening, 6,969,096 results obtained, all but 1 negative (the aforementioned case). 227,440 individuals have been swabbed as part of the 2nd round of mass screening in 6 districts, 175,721 results obtained, all negative so far. There are 1 community, 1 office building and 14 residential compounds currently at Medium Risk in the city.

    At Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang Province, 2 confirmed cases recovered and 2 asymptomatic cases were released from quarantine, all at Suifenhe.

    Beijing Municipality reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (moderate), at Shunyi District, a traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 12/28. There are 6 villages and 1 hotel currently at Medium Risk in the city.

    Hebei Provincial Health Commission reported 14 new domestic confirmed and 30 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There are currently 19 domestic confirmed cases in the province (2 serious, 15 moderate and 2 mild), and 40 domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Xingtai in Hebei Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic), at Nangong District. The 2 new cases are traced close contacts under quarantine since 1/3. Xingtai has commenced mass screening of all residents in the city. 2 residential compounds were elevated to Medium Risk.

     

    Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province reported 11 new domestic confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic, 1 serious, 9 moderate and 1 mild), and 30 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Haocheng District. 7 of the confirmed cases had developed symptoms as early as 12/23, and 12/28, 1/1 and 1/2. The others were discovered via mass screening. Most of the symptomatic cases did not visit fever clinics, but tried to self-medicate or get treatment at village clinics. No information have been released for the asymptomatic cases. This highlights the disparity in healthcare resources across urban (even Tiers 3 – 5 cities) and rural China. Rural Chinese have lower health insurance (or none at all), and poorer access to medical care. The nearest fever clinic is likely to be at the nearest township. The village where the cases are concentrated was elevated to High Risk and is under total lock down, and a neighboring village elevated to Medium Risk.

    Beijing, Shenyang and Dalian are all implementing enhanced quarantine procedures for F1 & F2 close contacts, to 14 days of centralized quarantine + 7 days of home quarantine. The reason being a higher percentage of cases with > 14 day incubation period.

    On 1/4, China reported 16 new imported confirmed cases, 6 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 6 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from the US and 1 each returning from Slovakia (via Vienna), Germany, Israel and Sri Lanka
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 3 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each turning from Canada, Zimbabwe (via Addis Ababa) and the Congo (Kinshasa) (via Nairobi); 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Kenya
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed and 1 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Egypt, landing at Guangzhou and quarantining at Foshan
    • Zhanjiang Port in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, an Indian crew member off a cargo ship arriving from Malaysia
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Japan
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Spain
    • Shenyang in Liaoning Province – 1 confirmed case, no information released
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 confirmed case, no information released
    • Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Brazil
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Italy
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), a Chinese national returning from Egypt
    • Nanning in Guangxi Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Changsha in Hunan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released

    Overall in China, 3 cases deteriorated to serious condition, 12 confirmed cases recovered, 8 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation and 5 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 312 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 432 active confirmed cases in the country (294 imported), 13 are in serious condition (5 imported), 318 asymptomatic cases (240 imported), and 1 suspect case (imported). 16,769 traced contacts are currently under quarantine.

    On 1/5, Hong Kong reported 32 new cases, 1 imported and 31 domestic (9 of whom do not have source of infection identified).

  9. 9.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Greece: 427 new cases and 54 dead reported Monday evening, January 4.

    That thing with the Greek Orthodox Church gets my blood boiling. It’s the sort of COVIDiocy I’d expect out of the MAGAlouts back home. But then, these were the same gang of COVIDiots who declared that Communion host and wine could not transmit COVID-19 by their very nature, due to their holiness.

    The whole reason that church services for the Epiphany holiday on the 6th got shut down was that there was another spike in new cases over the Christmas-to-New-Year’s week (1,045 new cases on December 29 at the peak, followed by 2 days in the 900 range), halting the progress the country had been making since the peak of the second wave back in November, when they had to lock things down because they were approaching full capacity on ICUs nationwide.

    There are any number of elements to this that piss me off – not least of which is that the Greek Orthodox Church is enshrined in the Greek Constitution as the state religion. It took me a while to get my head around that, and I don’t think I’ve ever accepted it – especially after I got conscripted into the army (downside of dual nationality) and first got crap details (sometimes literally) on Sundays while everyone else was at church services thanks to not being Greek Orthodox, and then being ordered by an officer to get myself baptized into the Orthodox Church.

    (There’s a whole story about that, but it’s not on-topic for COVID.)

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 2,027 new cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 122,845 cases. Dr Noor Hisham also reports eight new deaths today, for a total of 509 deaths — 0.41% of the cumulative reported total, 0.51% of resolved cases.

    22,887 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 123 are in ICU, 52 of them on respirators. Meanwhile, 1,221 patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 99,449 patients recovered – 81.0% of the cumulative reported total.

    11 new clusters were reported today: Jalan Playar, Sri Suria, Bukit Semenyih building site, and Bukit Angkat in Selangor; Parit Jamil in Johor; Tombovo in Sabah; Jalan Desa building site and Jalan Raja in KL; Langit Selatan in Pahang; Bah Sayap in Sarawak; and Mengkuang in Terengganu.

    2,011 new cases today are local infections. Selangor has 509 cases: 19 in older clusters; 90 in Jalan Playar, Sri Suria, Bukit Semenyih building site and Bukit Angkat clusters; 229 close-contact screenings; and 171 other screenings. Johor has 419 local cases: 256 in older clusters, 41 in Parit Jamil cluster, 46 close-contact screenings, and nine other screenings. Sabah has 383 cses: 20 in older clusters, 12 in Tombovo cluster, 248 close-contact screenings, and 103 other screenings. KL has 307 local cases: 27 in older clusters, 117 in Jalan Desa building site and Jalan Raja clusters, 112 close-contact screenings, and 51 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan has 98 cases: 63 in existing clusters, 23 close-contact screenings, and 12 other screenings. Penang has 60 cases: 38 in existing clusters, 13 close-contact screenings, and nine other screenings. Kedah has 47 cases: 24 in existing clusters, 16 close-contact screenings, and seven other screenings. Kelantan has 42 cases: 12 in existing clusters, 27 close-contact screenings, and three other screenings. Labuan has 37 cases: 27 close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings. Perak has 25 cases: eight in existing clusters, 12 close-contact screenings, and five other screenings. Pahang has 25 cases: six in Langit Selatan cluster, 12 close-contact screenings, and three other screenings. Melaka has 21 cases: 18 close-contact screenings, and three other screenings.

    Sarawak has 12 local cases: two in older clusters, one in Bah Sayap cluster, and 10 other screenings. Terengganu has 13 cases: two in older clusters, one in Mengkuang cluster, six close-contact screenings, and four other screenings. And Putrajaya has 13 cases: three in existing clusters, eight close-contact screenings, and two other screenings.

    Only Perlis reported no new cases today.

    16 new cases are imported. Nine were reported in Johor, six in KL, and one in Sarawak.

    The eight deaths today are a 74-year-old man in Perak; a 54-year-old woman in Sabah; a 67-year-old man in Sabah with hypertension, dyslipidaemia, stroke, and systemic lipus erythmatosus; a 78-year-old man in Sabah with diabetes, hypertension, and strolke; a 63-year-old woman in Selangor; a 62-year-old man in Sabah with diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and a neurogenic bladder; a 69-year-old man in Sabah with hypertension, dyslipidaemis, and heart disease; and a 52-year-old non-Malaysian woman in Selangor.

  11. 11.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rikyrah: 

    That opening segment of Maddow from yesterday??????

    Problem is, we don’t know if that’s true. The scientists are saying that whether being vaccinated prevents you from transmitting Covid-19 is unknown at this point.

  12. 12.

    Anne Laurie

    @rikyrah: That pharmacist needs to lose his license.

    The “good” news is that he’s been identified, and will almost certainly lose his license (at least for some period).  He’s being described (*sigh*) as a nutter driven to desperation by ‘his personal demons’, which means he may well be able to skate on going to jail.  (He may actually be too unbalanced for judicial punishment, but then again: White dude.)

    Yesterday, it was being reported that he deliberately wanted people to get sick, so that they’d think the vaccine ‘didn’t work’.  At least that doesn’t seem to be true — small mercies!

  13. 13.

    Mary G

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: That’s intriguing, love to hear more about it.
    Orange County reported two days worth today due to computer upgrades – 8,890 new cases. Number of people hospitalized up again as patients are crammed into every square inch of space. The y axis on our hospitalized chart was overrun by exponential growth of cases so now it’s gone from 900 to 3,000 in six weeks, eight weeks? I worry about h/c workers fighting this long hard war. The vaccine helps, I hope. Having an end in sight?

  14. 14.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    In Los Angeles County, ambulance crews have been directed not to transport Covid-19 patients with poor chance of survival, and to limit use of Oxygen.

    LA County ambulance crews told not to transport patients with low chance of survival

    “Effective immediately, due to the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on EMS and 9-1-1 Receiving Hospitals, adult patients (18 years of age or older) in blunt traumatic and nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) shall not be transported [if]return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is not achieved in the field,” the agency said in a memo issued to ambulance workers last week.

    “Given the acute need to conserve oxygen, effective immediately, EMS should only administer supplemental oxygen to patients with oxygen saturation below 90%,” EMS said in a memo to ambulance crews Monday.

  15. 15.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Mary G: Well, since you asked…

    All male Greek citizens are subject to conscription into the military. Women can volunteer to serve, but it isn’t mandatory for them. I got my Greek citizenship at 37, and you’re subject to conscription all the way up to 45, so in the fall of 2008, I got called up.

    Miserable experience, especially since my language skills were a lot rougher then than now, and I couldn’t (still can’t) rely on my subconscious to process stuff said to me and snap me to full alert. I had to be on constant alert 24/7 all the way through infantry basic training, and it was bloody exhausting.

    Anyway, I was lucky in that there was a procedure for people to muster out after basic training if they’re over 35 (as I recall), but it involved a lot of paperwork. (Also, the chest X-ray in my standard military medical checkup uncovered a serious condition that would have qualified me for a medical discharge anyway, but that’s beside the point.) Now, my name doesn’t translate well into Greek – to be blunt, it gets turned into a mangled mess, to the point where my initials aren’t even the same (instead of BK, it’d be MN). My American records say one thing, my Greek records say another, and the reconciliation has been a bitch (it wasn’t really straightened out until fall of this past year).

    When confronted with the mangling of my name, one officer in the training regiment stated that the solution was very simple: just use my name as it was spelled on my certificate of baptism.

    The problem: I’ve never been indoctrinated into any religion, let alone baptized.

    The officers around me were aghast at this revelation, and told me in no uncertain terms that the next time I was in Athens, I had to correct this failing and get myself baptized as soon as possible. Now, as a conscript private, I interpreted this directive from members of the army officer corps as an order from a superior to a subordinate. Luckily, I wasn’t forced to choose between joining a religion under duress and defying a direct order while a serving member of the army, because the next time I stepped off that military base, I was a civilian, having turned in my military ID, uniforms, weapons, and gear, and having been lawfully discharged in good standing.

    So that’s how the military of a national government tried to force me into a religion not of my choosing and failed.

  16. 16.

    The Pale Scot

    @sab:

    IANAL but it seems to me that deliberately destroying 500 doses of the vaccine is a fairly significant property crime if nothing else.

     

    It’s terrorism, a destructive act to further the cause of a political/ideological agenda. That the agenda is batshit insane is neither here nor there. Fuck this he’s misguided but his intentions are pure shit. Felony record, 5 years in a Federal prison. He can scrub toilets when he gets out

  17. 17.

    The Moar You Know

    “I know one thing for sure. I’m gonna save somebody else’s life by protecting myself. … Because then I won’t get the corona so I can’t spread it to anybody else.” -Maureen Weil, coronavirus vaccine recipient

    We can say with reasonable assurance that Ms. Weil, since she was vaccinated, will not get sick from the coronavirus.  We CANNOT say that she won’t get the corona, or spread it to anyone else. In fact, we can say that such a scenario is more likely than not.

    Things are going to get really interesting here at the Moar household when Mrs. Moar gets vaccinated and goes back to the classroom, and Mr. Moar has to wait another six months minimum to get vaccinated.  We’re already working on getting a decent tent setup in the backyard, because I’m probably going to be living in it until I can get vaccinated as well.

  18. 18.

    The Moar You Know

    That pharmacist needs to lose his license.

    @rikyrah:  He needs a vastly disproportionate punishment that says we as a society won’t tolerate this.  I’m ok with him getting the death penalty or life without parole.  Is he crazy?  Yeah, but that’s self-inflicted craziness.  He watched the Fox, read the Breitbart and the chans and the kuns and the Facebook posts.  He didn’t have to.  But he did, decided to ignore his education, training, and common sense and he destroyed several thousand doses of vaccine.  Odds are 100% that someone who would have gotten that vaccine won’t, and will die because of that.

  19. 19.

    unique uid

    @sab:

    IANAL but it seems to me that deliberately destroying 500 doses of the vaccine is a fairly significant property crime if nothing else.

    Also IANAL, but I saw an article that claimed the wealthy were offering $10,000 bribes to move to the front of the line. 500 x $10k sounds like $5 million bucks to me.

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