I retweeted this thread earlier with no comment.
But please look at these numbers. They are why we must tackle the pandemic directly and rapidly.
Even if they are off by an order of magnitude, they are still enormous. https://t.co/vKqd3B82hh
— Cheryl Rofer (@CherylRofer) January 16, 2021
Covid has now killed more than 10x as many people as car accidents https://t.co/udXcorqiMH
— drew (@ImNotOwned) January 16, 2021
The US had +202,767 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 today, bringing the total to over 24.3 million. The 7-day moving average continued to decline to just over 228,000 per day. pic.twitter.com/JKPRw3cj1Q
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) January 17, 2021
Zients continued: "You know, there was a lot of focus, obviously, on development and then sort of drop-shipping to states. There was zero focus on helping states with what people call the last mile or the last quarter mile, which is actually shots in arms."
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) January 16, 2021
He said: "we're planning for that. And we've done all of the homework we can do with the cooperation or lack thereof that we've gotten. We remain very confident in our ability to do 100 million shots in 100 days."
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) January 16, 2021
A perfect 18-word summary of where we stand with the U.S. #COVID19 crisis: https://t.co/i2dI34Xlnq
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) January 16, 2021
======
Alongside the variant discovered in Britain, at least three other troubling variants are spreading less widely. Countries worldwide are now bracing for the impact of more contagious #coronavirus variants https://t.co/PVnw422G7q
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 17, 2021
China has finished building a 1500-room hospital in 5 days after a surge in #coronavirus cases. The hospital is 1 of 6 being built in Nangong near Beijing in Hebei province. Altogether the new hospitals provide a total of 6500 new rooms https://t.co/ojdtgcG6Lx via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 16, 2021
China reports 109 new COVID-19 cases to keep concerns simmering before Lunar New Year https://t.co/M0Sn37u1pM pic.twitter.com/uZ3epkaghr
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 17, 2021
In Tokyo's lockdown, some drink on even after authorities call time https://t.co/bJVqjA0iBO pic.twitter.com/OntoyfGxCP
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 17, 2021
Even though India has launched what could be the world’s largest vaccination campaign, it’s unclear if one of the vaccines works https://t.co/fFbOSuHwsc
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 17, 2021
Denmark on Saturday found its first case of a more contagious coronavirus variant from South Africa, and saw a rise in the number of infections with the highly transmissible B117 variant first identified in Britain, health authorities said. https://t.co/Kz1Fq3s7Qw
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) January 16, 2021
Portuguese hospitals under pressure as COVID-19 cases reach record https://t.co/6wZcm3ME8P pic.twitter.com/Dw4TrHJN3p
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 16, 2021
Argentina detects its first case of the UK #coronavirus variant https://t.co/U4Fqa4TdOt via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 17, 2021
Brazil has won renown for its decades of immunization campaigns, but not in this pandemic. This is the story behind how Brazil's government bungled Covid-19 immunization planning. https://t.co/7k9ttogztL
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 16, 2021
Mexico records deadliest coronavirus week yet with 7,000 deaths https://t.co/9MEohTHmoK pic.twitter.com/PsMU3tqq0l
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 17, 2021
======
Rapid blood test identifies #COVID19 patients at high risk of severe disease https://t.co/Wbp3SQt4TJ via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 17, 2021
Variants: Gene-mapping champion Iceland is leading the way in hunt to pinpoint new variants of SARSCoV2 https://t.co/Gny634idNI
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 16, 2021
How British Scientists Found the More Infectious Coronavirus Variant.
Britain sequences #coronavirus samples en masse. The country produces 1/2 the world’s inventory of coronavirus genomes.https://t.co/Xd9lLVPKUd
— MicrobesInfect (@MicrobesInfect) January 16, 2021
Rolling two windows down can sharply reduce the Covid-19 risk in cars https://t.co/Evm3OrGjRf
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 16, 2021
======
Until Easter https://t.co/b7kGz7VNR6
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 17, 2021
Thousands of Covid-19 vaccines are ending up in the garbage because of federal and state guidelines. https://t.co/jxNk9DkvaC
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 16, 2021
California now reporting ~525 #coronavirus deaths daily. Nationally, we can expect more than 400k dead from Covid by Inauguration Day https://t.co/d8OMCuwdp0
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 16, 2021
Top work by @LaurenWeberHP & @KHNews team, exposing racial dynamics across the USA in white vs black #COVID19 #vaccination rates. As I noted yesterday, getting access to vax is ^ingly about tech savvy — the same computer issues that are leaving poorer US kids behind in school. https://t.co/CYAj3p07ZF
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) January 16, 2021
In the most striking difference, 1.2 percent of white Pennsylvanians had been vaccinated as of Jan. 14, compared with 0.3 percent of Black Pennsylvanians.
Only 18 percent of those vaccinated in Mississippi so far are Black, in a state that’s 38 percent Black. pic.twitter.com/uVhfYzzNkK
— Lauren Weber (@LaurenWeberHP) January 16, 2021
It might be faster to administer 100 vaccinations in a drive-thru location than a rural clinic, but that doesn’t ensure equity.
“Those with time, computer systems and transportation are going to get vaccines more than other folks — that’s just the reality of it” @TCBPubHealth
— Lauren Weber (@LaurenWeberHP) January 16, 2021
With this ludicrous statement, Rand Paul presents more compelling personal evidence that he remains a very ignorant, dangerous, and misguided individual. Unfortunately, we have far too many of them within our midst and within our government as of late. https://t.co/ZFfHwYKkr0
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) January 16, 2021
Martin
This is key to understanding US vs China manufacturing. Put aside whether they needed a 1500 room hospital, whether they actually built it in 5 days, and whether the hospital is any good. China constantly advertises their ability to build things quickly. The US advertises their ability to do things without building – repurposing, tents, etc.
Which of these things benefits manufacturing? China is at least practicing and putting value to building things. The US is not. And if you want your product on the market ahead of your competitor, where do you build it?
Martin
If you told a company they could save a billion dollars a day, they would spend $900 million to achieve it. The federal government spends nothing. That’s fiscal conservatism in a nutshell.
sab
Ohio’s vaccine rollout is kind of a mess, mostly because they have no idea how much vaccine will be available and when.
People have to sign up on their own with an indiviual pharmacy. Lists of the pharmacies, with name, address and contact telephone number, have been in local newspapers. Each pharmacy has or will have it’s own sign-up procedure. Apparently, most will be first come sign up by telephone. Starting with oldest age groups, in a week by week roll-out. Also too, special groups, like teachers, EMS, etc.
Cleveland Clinic, as always acting in character with it’s corporate culture, has a different sign up mechanism. Sign-up will be on-line only, through their MyChart system. So only Cleveland Clinic patients will have access to vaccine through them. And how many eighty+ year olds are even capable of navigating the MyChart system.
OzarkHillbilly
They’ve set the bar pretty high. I’m not sure if this is confidence in competence or hubris. These are people well acquainted with the levers of government but they have yet to ascertain the full damage the trumpsters have inflicted upon our country. There will be a thrashing if they fall short.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY yesterday:
423 new cases, back up to mid-December levels. 773 hospitalized, 148 in the ICU. 36 more reported deaths, so we’re up to 802 since last year. 33% of hospital beds available, 23% of ICU beds available. 7.0% positivity.
raven
So Rand is contributing to the incredibly confusing information about masks.
ant
thanks for putting these posts together Anne.
I always read all the way through.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 3,339 new cases today in his media statement, the second-highest daily number, for a cumulative reported total of 158,434 cases. Dr Noor Hisham also reports seven new deaths today, for a total of 601 deaths — 0.38% of the cumulative reported total, 0.50% of resolved cases.
37,782 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 240 are in ICU, 93 of them on respirators. Meanwhile, 2,676 patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 120,051 patients recovered – 75.8% of the cumulative reported total.
10 new clusters were reported today: Jalan Pandan Indah and Immigration detention depot Sepang 2 in Selangor; Taman Ikan Jinak and Jalan Mawila in Sabah; Jalan Perak in Johor, Jalan Yap building site and Jalan Menerung in KL; Rantau Lada in Pahang; Pantai Peringgit in Melaka; and Jalan Mohammed Salleh in Labuan.
3,324 new cases today are local infections. Selangor has 1,314 cases: 474 in older clusters, 130 in Jalan Pandan Indah and Immigration detention depot Sepang 2 clusters, 518 close-contact screenings, and 192 other screenings. Sabah has 393 cases: five in older clusters, 32 in Taman Ikan Jinak and Jalan Mawila clusters, 234 close-contact screenings, and 122 other screenings. Johor has 360 local cases: 109 in older clusters, 33 in Jalan Perak cluster, 116 close-contact screenings, and 102 other screenings. KL has 321 local cases: 49 in older clusters, 44 in Jalan Yap building site and Jalan Menerung clusters, 129 close-contact screenings, and 99 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan has 236 cases: 178 in existing clusters, 38 close-contact screenings, and 20 other screenings. Penang has 120 cases: 48 in existing clusters, 24 close-contact screenings, and 48 other screenings. Kelantan has 114 cases: 25 in existing clusters, 55 close-contact screenings, and 34 other screenings. Perak has 107 cases: 12 in existing clusters, 55 close-contact screenings, and 40 other screenings.
Kedah has 96 cases: 20 in existing clusters, 58 close-contact screenings, and 18 other screenings. Sarawak has 62 cases: 45 in existing clusters, and 17 other screenings. Pahang has 61 cases: 13 in older clusters, three in Rantau Lada cluster, 36 close-contact screenings, and nine other screenings. Melaka has 60 cases: 15 in older clusters, four in Pantai Peringgit cluster, 31 close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings. Putrajaya has 35 cases: two in existing clusters, 11 close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings.
Labuan has 22 cases: one in an older cluster, 10 in Jalan Mohammed Salleh cluster, eight close-contact screenings, and three other screenings. Terengganu has 22 cases: four in existing clusters, 10 close-contact screenings, and eight other screenings. And Perak has 13 cases, all close-contact screenings.
15 new cases are imported. 13 were reported in KL, and two in Johor.
The seven deaths today are a 67-year-old man in Johor with with diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and obesity; a 62-year-old man in Negeri Sembilan with diabetes and heart disease; a 93-year-old man in Kedah with diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and heart disease; a 61-year-old woman in Johor with diabetes, hypertension, and pulmonary tuberculosis; a 32-year-old woman in Selangor, DOA with no listed co-morbidities; a 78-year-old woman in Selangor with diabetes and hypertension; and a 58-year-old non-Maaysian woman in Selangor with diabetes and Alzheimer’s desiase.
Amir Khalid
@raven:
The tweet forgot to mention that Rand Paul is a self-accredited eye doctor.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I would bet that the Biden admin is just setting up the distribution all over again from scratch, since they can’t rely on information they’re given anyway. Which makes more sense than trying to fix the ridiculously fucked up way they’re doing it now. And both systems will probably run in parallel until they get a fuller picture in a month or so.
Amir Khalid
Pfizer is saying vaccine shipments will be delayed as it upgrades a production facility in Belgium.
CarolDuhart2
Cooperation should get better after Thursday, when the trumper political appointments have left, and the career experts can fully talk to the Biden people. Also, I expect there will be national guidelines that the states will happily replace theirs with very soon. One message, one approach, overall.
BTW, one way to reach Black residents is through their churches and local clinics. Also radio is very important, both national and local for the messages needed about vaccination. I know. I’m now openly Black….
raven
@CarolDuhart2: I agree, my wife worked for the health department in the area of breast feeding and they created a special program that involved the churches. (the ones that would cooperate)
Winston
https://www.wbtw.com/health/coronavirus/23-die-in-norway-after-receiving-covid-vaccine/
raven
@Winston:
“For those with the most severe frailty, even relatively mild vaccine side effects can have serious consequences,” the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said. “For those who have a very short remaining life span anyway, the benefit of the vaccine may be marginal or irrelevant.”
Duh, it’s widely reported that many people get really sick after the second shot, this is no some big surprise.
Skepticat
As of this past Friday, The Bahamas has seven cases. Abaco, the chain I’m in, has zero. Since the beginning, there have been 8,039 cases. We haven’t had power for 508 days after Dorian, but I think I’ll just stay here for a while.
Yesterday, I proofread an article by a former McKinsey VP about how to manage distribution, and even someone as numb as I could see that with attention, it could be—and could have been—done right. The key would be an overall federal structure so that no state/county/city has to reinvent the wheel each time. I’d like to see Gen. Honore get the Capitol under control and then be put in charge of this.
YY_Sima Qian
On 1/15 China reported 96 new domestic confirmed, 103 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Liaoning Province did not report any new domestic positive cases:
Beijing Municipality reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), the new case is a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine since 1/10. 1 village was re-designated as Low Risk. There are 6 villages currently at Medium Risk.
Hebei Province:
Hebei Provincial Health Commission reported 72 new domestic confirmed (14 previously asymptomatic) and 20 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There are currently 715 domestic confirmed cases (3 critical, 24 serious, 578 moderate and 110 mild) and 203 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province:
Heilongjiang Province:
Heilongjiang Province reported 12 new domestic confirmed (6 previously asymptomatic) and 19 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all are F1 or F2 close contacts of previously reported positive cases:
Jilin Province reported 10 new domestic confirmed cases (6 previously asymptomatic) and 63 domestic asymptomatic cases, there are currently 10 confirmed and 100 asymptomatic cases there, 99 of the positive cases are directly or indirectly infected by the super spreader traveling health products salesman from Harbin (including the salesman himself), spread across 3 cities:
On 1/15, China reported 13 new imported confirmed cases, 16 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:
Overall in China, 17 confirmed cases recovered, 11 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation and 32 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 1,295 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,205 active confirmed cases in the country (278 imported), 42 are in serious condition (2 imported), 746 asymptomatic cases (261 imported) and 2 suspect cases (imported). 34,150 traced contacts are currently under quarantine.
On 1/16, Hong Kong reported 55 new cases, 4 imported and 51 domestic (16 of whom do not have sources of infection identified). There are another 80+ cases preliminarily positive, awaiting retesting for confirmation.
Winston
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2021/01/16/arrest-warrant-issued-for-ex-florida-data-scientist-rebekah-jones/
Winston
Amir Khalid
I’ve noticed thar over the past few months, the Ministry of Health’s media statements and media conferences reporting the day-to-day status of the pandemic have gradually slipped from around 4:30pm to around 6:40pm. Now that I think about it, I’m wondering if this was a sign that things were getting worse.
Winston
According to worldmeters.info we passed 400,000 deaths on Friday in the USA.
I registered for the vax in Polk County a week ago, but I understand there is no vax available for awhile. I don’t know if the vax is going to be pfizer or moderna.
My son decided to move in with me, so he drove here from California, but moved out when he discovered I was upset by the insurrection. Apparently he is a Trump supporter and from his actions doesn’t really care if he is exposed to the virus. So good riddance.
Gvg
@sab: most of them with a computer or smartphone. 80 year olds go to the doctor and the healthcare providers have been pushing these systems for at least 10 years. It’s been hard to get any test result without a mychart signup for years, so most frequent patients already gave in.
CarolDuhart2
@raven: That’s why it’s important that nursing home and care workers are vaccinated first. Those who are too frail to take the vaccine won’t get it if everyone around them are vaccinated, including visitors. It also underlines the importance of getting health care workers vaccinated so that the sick can be taken care of without risk.
YY_Sima Qian
Just to clarify for the readers here, the makeshift facilities constructed at Nangong in Xingtai, as well as the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang, in Hebei Province, are not hospitals. They are makeshift quarantine facilities for traced close contacts and other people deemed to have had high risk of exposure. These were made from pre-fab components, which is why they can be put up so quickly.
The makeshift hospitals built in Wuhan in 2 weeks back in Feb. were for severe and critical cases. Therefore, they had to have all the facilities necessary for ICUs, not to mentioned all the advanced medical equipment needed to treat COVID-19 and associated symptoms. The hospitals took enormous resources from a range of Chinese enterprises (state owned and private), with no expenses spared and no red tape tolerated, to hit the deadline. I am sure China can do it again in Hebei or Jilin if needed, but the outbreaks there are not yet out of control.
The temporary hospitals converted from arenas and convention centers at Wuhan were intended for mild and asymptomatic cases. As such, these facilities were just rudimentary rows of bunk beds, with minimal medical staff (mainly to be on the look out for those deteriorating to moderate or serious conditions). There was no effort give each patient private space, both because of the heavy case load at the time, and because there is no concern of patients infection each other. Shijiazhuang and other cities in Hebei should have enough public spaces available for such conversion, and in any case is not yet needed with the current and expected case load.
The makeshift quarantine centers being built in Hebei have individual rooms with individual heating, with people under quarantine required to stay in their rooms for the duration. Since some percentage of the quarantined are expected to infected, one does not want them to spread it to all other other people under quarantine. Normally, people under quarantine are sent to quarantine hotels and guest houses. However, with > 20K people under quarantine in Hebei, they may be running out of such facilities. Shijiazhuang has been handling all of the flights originating from Russia to Beijing, so many of its quarantine hotels are already occupied with visitors/returnees.
By the way, the strain of COVID-19 associated with the outbreak in Hebei is related to (but not an exactly match) a strain uploaded in Russia back in July, and is dissimilar to those from current and past outbreaks in China. The epicenter village cluster is also located close to Shijiazhuang’s airport and associated quarantine hotels for visitors/returnees. This why the authorities suspect breach in quarantine protocol sparking this outbreak.
YY_Sima Qian
@Amir Khalid:
Makes sense. For China, I can expect when the national and provincial health commissions will publish their data dumps, and when the municipal health commissions will hold daily press conferences. However, if one of the provinces or cities slip in making data available, then it is a fairly reliable sign that an unexpected case or cluster has emerged there, or there was a bump in case count the day before. Authorities in Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning are giving data updates and releasing case summaries on a semi-daily basis now.
Robert Sneddon
@Winston: It takes years to develop a vaccine under normal circumstances because the developers spend a lot of time trying to raise money to fund a few research techs, a hundred hours of lab bench time and dribs and drabs of shared equipment, freezer space, bioreactors etc. They go to conferences to present papers, write up grant applications, pass the hat for cash to pay for a Ph. D. student or two while doing their day jobs in academia or the pharma industry. Once a candidate vaccine is developed then the devs have to beg for time on existing production lines to produce enough vaccine for a limited Phase 2 or Phase 3 trial in a few thousand volunteers which can take years to complete on its own.
The various vaccines that are being shipped or are close to getting acceptance for widespread use against COVID-19 didn’t have all the developmental delays implicit in peacetime, they got everything they wanted, money, equipment, researchers etc. and no questions asked. That’s why the scientific and pharmaceutical world went from gene-sequencing the COVID-19 virus in January 2020 to injecting tested production vaccines into people’s arms by December 2020.
There will be books, there will be films and TV series about this in the future. I expect the developers of the mRNA technology will get Nobels in a few years time.
YY_Sima Qian
@Robert Sneddon: Not to mention COVID-19 is one of those once in a century pandemics when the Phase III trials’ control and test groups unfortunately can rack up the required cases in a few months, and be able to produce statistically reliable results. Most other disease takes more than a year to reach the required case counts. IIRC, experts were expecting 12 mo. before enough cases can be collected to obtain interim results. Then the summer wave in the US and Brazil happened. The J&J vaccine can expect to produce interim results to apply for EUA because of the dreadful late fall and winter wave in North America and Europe.
Winston
@Robert Sneddon: In the meanwhile 23 died in Norway, because of the Pfizer vax. And the Pfizer vax wasn’t developed under “warp speed”. So your argument falls apart since the vax moderma and pfizer are the same. Try again to support Trump, and ignore that everything he touches, dies.
Winston
So they are testing their vaxes on the old, and if they die, no big deal.
trnc
Yes. Every statement about getting things done need to included the caveat that it depends on what kind of shape DT left things for the incoming administration. Every single one.
Amir Khalid
@Winston:
Robert Sneddon is no Trumpista. He’s a scientist with knowledge of how the vaccine development process works.
trnc
@Winston: Sorry to hear that. I’d like to think the spell could be broken at some point soon, but I’m not highly optimistic.
Robert Sneddon
@Winston: The UK government is reporting that over half the nation’s 80-year-olds have recieved their first dose of a vaccine, starting on Dec. 8 2020 when only the Pfizer vaccine was available. I don’t see any large upsurge in deaths reported within that clade whereas the UK National Records has reported that there were over 90,000 excess deaths in the UK in 2020, almost all attributable to COVID-19.
It’s a simple fact that older people die and right now half of the 80-year-old population of the UK has been immunised for COVID-19 and it’s likely some of them will die after being vaccinated. They’re not being used to “test” the vaccines, that has already happened with the Phase II and larger Phase III trials when tens of thousands of people were injected with the candidate vaccines with no statistically noticeable deleterious effects.
Winston
@Amir Khalid: Jonas Salk comes to mind.
Starfish
Robert Sneddon
@Amir Khalid: I’m not a scientist, I’m more of a disaster junkie who is deeply interested in the science that’s being carried out to fight this epidemic rather than simply assigning blame in all directions and hyping every bad (and good) piece of reporting that hits the headlines.
Commentator Winston seems, from their words, to be if not anti-vaccination at least “vax-curious” that is, dubious about efficacy, safety and other factors and wanting everything to slow down because of their concern, regardless of the science, reported results, testing etc. of the various front-runner vaccine candidates.They seem to think that vaccines should take years to go from initial development to widespread use because that’s the way it’s always been in non-critical times, without necessarily understanding the sausage-making process that vaccine development normally undergo with stops and restarts, funding and resource limitations etc. and lots of downtime.
Right now epidemiologists are waving red flags about the new more-transmissable second-wave variants of COVID-19 and the likelihood they will overwhelm the medical services available here in the UK as well as the other major industrialised countries. Stopping the use of tested vaccines because some people are worried about sensational press reports is not going to happen though, thank goodness.
Ohio Mom
Sab:
Each county in Ohio must be doing things its own way. Here in Hamilton Co., the vaccine sign-up is on the Board of Health’s website.
Which has its own problems of course: First, you must be online and know that the BoH has a website. And once you’re there, it isn’t clear how to get to tne sign-up page.
On everyone tolerating a certain number of auto accidents: another reason this is a dumb analogy is that we are constantly working to make driving safer, with adding safety features to cars, revamping road design, and cracking down on drunk driving. But then, anyone protesting Covid suppression efforts is dumb to start with.
oatler.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/ny-mexican-cardinal-covid-vaccine-facebook-satan-20210117-y2lgeyjoobfj5n3d4eiqfipny4-story.html
Robert Sneddon
Another thing is that the deaths and illnesses caused by COVID-19 are on top of the car accident statistics, they don’t replace them. Saying “Oh look 40,000 people die each year on the roads so COVID-19 isn’t so bad” should be rephrased as “Oh look 40,000 people die each year on the roads and holy shit! 370,000 people have died in the past year from COVID-19 too!”
Humanities Prof
@Ohio Mom: HP’s wife here. Miami Co (where I live) & Shelby Co (where I work) are both using the BoPH to set up appts for shots. I know Shelby Co BoPH is planning on using the hospital itself to do the actual jab.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Winston:
Which Polk County are you in? I knew there would be a few, but Wikipedia says there are 12.
Sloane Ranger
Yesterday in the UK we had 41,346 new cases. This is over 14,000 less than the day before and a reduction of 18.6% in the rolling 7-day average. Although normal weekend warnings apply, experts are saying they are beginning to see a genuine decline in new cases but numbers remain high, especially among older age groups. New cases by nation,
England – 37,759 (down @13,000)
Northern Ireland – 705 (down @350)
Scotland – 1753 (down @400)
Wales – 1129 (down @700).
Deaths – There were 1295 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday, 1140 in England, 22 in Northern Ireland, 78 in Scotland and 55 in Wales. The 7-day rolling average is up by 23.5%.
Testing – Not updated at weekends.
Hospitalisations – 37,475 people were in hospital on Thursday, 14 January and 3789 were on ventilators on Friday, 15th. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions has increased by 19.7%.
Vaccinations – As of 15th January, 3,559,179 people had received the 1st dose of the vaccine and 447,261 their 2nd dose.
General – 10 new mass vaccination centre will open tomorrow, joining the 7 already up and running. These new centres are in locations as diverse as the crypt of Blackburn Cathedral and the St Helen’s Rugby Football ground. The government’s aim is to have 15 million people receive at least their 1st dose of a vaccine by 15th February.
Winston
@Robert Sneddon: I expect the developers of the mRNA technology will get Nobels in a few years time.
Tell us. Like Challenger was a success.
mrmoshpotato
@oatler.: Don’t even want to know.
Winston
@Steeplejack (phone): Polk County, Florida. I4 corridor, most dangerous highway in the USA. Smack dab in the center of the state and center of population. Redneck paradise. Winston a town there in.
sab
@Ohio Mom: Summit County Health Dept has a local web sign-up but it turns out that isn’t to sign up for appointments. It’s to sign up to get an e-mail that will be telling you how to sign-up. Basically telling you what the mewspapers are already reporting.
CarolDuhart2
Hamilton County Ohio Juicers:
https://healthcollab.org/testandprotectcincy/
found this
Jay
http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/covid-19-vaccine/bcs-plan-for-vaccine-distribution
Basically, no timeline yet for the General Public.
Richard Guhl
The conservative website Realclearpolitics reports that the US death toll from COVID-19 stands at 405,000.
As of today.
Amir Khalid
@Robert Sneddon:
You had me fooled. I stand corrected.
chopper
@Winston:
the hell is this dreck?
WaterGirl
I loved this response to the first tweet above::
J R in WV
@Winston:
You make me so glad for the various internet developers who over the years have given us the pie filter, and made it easier to use with each interation.
Your ignorance that you so proudly display here whenever you visit us can be overwhelming, and that’s when I stop toggling your comments.
Back into the pie safe, overweening fool~!~
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly:
Roughly 195 M flu vaccine doses were available for the October – May flu season. There’s almost no flu in April – May, so lets be generous and say a 6 month vaccination season.
195 / 6 = 32.5 M/mo
100 / 3 = 33.3 M/mo
There is no reason at all – logistically – why the US cannot do what Biden is proposing. We do similar things every year for the flu.
If his team were proposing 100M/mo, then that would indeed require new thinking and new procedures and new guidance. (And honestly, if Biden were President last year, he probably would have had plans for something on that scale. But, of course, instead we had someone who wanted to make everything worse…)
Cheers,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: If we had the doses, we could do most of the distribution through pharmacies and pop-up clinics just like we do with the flu vaccine. The capacity is there. Most of the complication right now has to do with the desire to ration scarce supplies.
hotshoe
@Winston: I’m sorry – that’s a sad way to find out that the child you raised has turned out wrong.
Although very few of us are actually shooting, turns out that we are living through another Civil War.
Another Scott
@Winston: Poor form.
-1.
I’m sorry about the conflict with your son. Don’t give up on him, but stay safe.
Cheers,
Scott.
dnfree
@raven: I got really sick after my second shingles shot. I was in bed with flulike symptoms for three days. When I reported that to my doctor, he just cheerfully said, “Yes, that happens to some people. It means the shot is working!” It would have been helpful to be prepared.
dnfree
@Winston: that’s really sad about your son. Sorry to hear. Just goes to show that those waiting for the boomers to die off so this right-wing conspiracy theory dies out are going to be waiting longer than they think.
Bill Arnold
@chopper:
Sounds like anti-vaxxer dreck.
Winston should consider regularly reading solid information like Derek Lowe’s In the pipeline – Derek Lowe’s commentary on drug discovery and the pharma industry. (as should all of us who are not experts).
There’s way too much disinformation circulating, and much of it is clearly malicious, motives unclear. Social media is still spreading a lot of this stuff.
Winston
Just to be clear. A month or so ago I said this vax thing ain’t gonna work out like you think it should. Guess what? You believed Trump. I take vax. I signed up for this vax. I’ll let you know how it works out.
Starboard Tack
@Robert Sneddon:
Research on Corona virus vaccines started in 2003 after the SARS outbreak. That’s why there were vaccines available to test a few months after the genetic sequence was provided by the Chinese.
Winston
@chopper: Remember when Christa McAuliffe was going to be the first teacher in outer space due to American exceptionalism?
Another Scott
@Winston: The wife of a friend at work had a very bad reaction to a flu vaccine once, basically leaving her disabled. A one in a million reaction does happen. It doesn’t mean that flu vaccines should not be given. Vaccines are the only way forward.
Cheers,
Scott.
VOR
@Matt McIrvin: Yes, IMHO that’s a big part of it. There is so much emphasis on only giving the vaccine to the “worthy”. The perfect is the enemy of the good, so we wind up in situations where vaccine is wasted because not enough of the “right” people are matched to the doses. My view is that if you have leftovers, you give it to anyone on the street who wants it.
Second, the need for ultra-cold storage greatly complicates distribution. Clinics and your average pharmacy won’t be able to store those vaccines so logistics is complicated. This is likely where the comments about the “last mile” problem in vaccine distribution come from. Facilities exist at the company’s warehouse, they have proper refrigerated trucks/containers for movement, but how do you get it to people’s arms?
Robert Sneddon
@Starboard Tack: The (Pfizer/Moderna) mRNA vaccination process is new although it’s been in development for a while on the “spare bit of lab bench and two Ph. D. students” level. Starting from a gene sequence through vaccine candidates through Phase I/II/III testing to working production lines making millions of doses a week and all in under a calendar year is the really impressive deal.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is more conventional, based on a modified chimpanzee cold virus (adenovirus) that the makers had prepared for a possible coronavirus epidemic that eventually turned up on their doorstep. The adenovirus still needed to be fine-tuned to produce SARS-CoV-2-like proteins for a antibody reaction, produced, tested and the production lines debugged. Because it is a more conventional vaccine it’s easier to store and transport and cheaper per dose than the bioengineered lipid capsule that delivers the messenger RNA (mRNA) into human cells. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine seems, judging on only the Phase III trial data, to be less effective than the mRNA vaccines which is interesting. Once the dust settles down we will get the numbers for hundreds of millions of doses of different vaccines with differing conditions and it will be interesting to see at that point which did best and in which age groups etc.
I’ve already seen reports of other uses for mRNA vaccination technology coming down the pipeline for diseases which previously weren’t preventable by vaccination such as multiple sclerosis. Sure, mRNA vaccines may be our saviour for this epidemic but they may herald the start of a totally new chapter in preventative medicine.