Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

It’s a doggy dog world.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Come on, man.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

“But what about the lurkers?”

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

So many bastards, so little time.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Let’s finish the job.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday/Tuesday, Jan. 25-26

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday/Tuesday, Jan. 25-26

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  1. 1.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 1/25 China reported 69 new domestic confirmed, 41 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Beijing Municipality reported 2 new domestic confirmed, all at the epicenter community in Daxing District. Both cases have been under home quarantine since 1/17, and both developed symptoms on 1/24. There are currently 2 villages (both at Shunyi District) at Medium Risk. 1 community (at Daxing District) is at High Risk.

    Hebei Province:

    Hebei Provincial Health Commission reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic) & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases. 33 domestic confirmed case recovered & 13 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There are currently 777 domestic confirmed cases (12 critical, 28 serious, 595 moderate and 142 mild) & 80 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province:

    • Xingtai did not report any new domestic positive cases. 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 3 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There are currently 58 domestic confirmed & 7 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. Nangong District remains at High Risk, 1 residential compound at Longyao County remains at Medium Risk.
    • Langfang did not report any new domestic positive cases. There are 1 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases there. 1 residential compound remain at Medium Risk.
    • Shijiazhuang reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic) & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases. 2 of the confirmed cases are at Gaocheng District (1 previously asymptomatic already under isolation, the other from mass screening already under home and centralized quarantine), all at the epicenter township; 1 at Zhengding County (previously asymptomatic), 2 at Chang’an District (both traced close contacts. 29 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 10 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. Currently, there are 718 confirmed cases & 72 asymptomatic cases. 1 village was elevated to Medium Risk. 2 villages and 3 residential compounds were re-designated as Low Risk. There are 21 residential compounds, 4 villages & 1 residential building at Medium Risk in the city. Gaocheng & Xinle Districts remain at High Risk.

     

    Heilongjiang Province:

    Heilongjiang Province reported 53 new domestic confirmed (25 previously asymptomatic) & 24 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 7 confirmed cases recovered & 6 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There are currently 464 domestic confirmed (2 critical, 24 serious, 286 moderate and 152 mild) & 511 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.:

    • Suihua reported 33 new domestic confirmed (17 previously asymptomatic) & 7 new domestic asymptomatic cases. Wangkui County reported 15 confirmed & 7 asymptomatic cases, Hailun reported 17 confirmed cases( all previously asymptomatic), Anda reported 1 confirmed case. No case information released so far. 7 confirmed cases recovered & 6 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There are currently 394 domestic confirmed & 360 domestic asymptomatic cases there. 8 residential compounds at Anda were elevated to Medium Risk. The entire Wangkui County remains at High Risk.
    • Harbin reported 20 new domestic confirmed (8 previously asymptomatic) & 17 asymptomatic cases. Hulan District reported 12 confirmed (6 previously as symptomatic) & 9 asymptomatic cases, Limin Dev. Zone reported 5 confirmed & 6 asymptomatic cases, Daowai District reported 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), Nangong District reported 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), and Daoli District reported 1 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic case. There are currently 66 domestic confirmed & 114 asymptomatic cases there. 1 community (in Limin Dev. Zone) was elevated to High Risk. 1 residential building unit was re-designated as Low Risk. 3 sub-districts and 1 township were elevated to Medium Risk. 13 sub-districts, 1 township & 3 residential building units remain at Medium Risk.
    • Qiqihar did not report any new domestic positive cases. There are 1 domestic confirmed & 31 domestic asymptomatic cases there. 1 village remains at Medium Risk.
    • Yichun did not report any new domestic positive cases. There are 2 domestic asymptomatic cases there.
    • Daqing did not report any new positive cases. There are 2 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases there. 1 residential building unit was elevated to Medium Risk. 2 residential building units remains at Medium Risk.
    • Mudanjiang did not report any new positive cases. There are 3 domestic asymptomatic cases there. 

     

    Jilin Province 

    Jilin Province reported 7 new domestic confirmed cases (all previously asymptomatic) & 15 domestic asymptomatic cases. There was 1 death. 1 confirmed case recovered & 1 asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There are currently 278 confirmed (10 critical, 31 serious, 167 moderate and 70 mild) & 67 asymptomatic cases there.:

    • Songyuan did not report any new domestic confirmed cases. There are 4 domestic confirmed cases there. 1 residential compound and 1 residential building are at Medium Risk.
    • Tonghua reported 7 new domestic confirmed (all previously asymptomatic) & 15 new domestic asymptomatic cases. All the new positive cases were found via mass screening. 1 case died. There are currently 202 domestic confirmed & 58 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. The entire Dongchang District remains at High Risk. 1 residential compound at the High Tech. Dev. Zone remains at Medium Risk.
    • Changchun did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 confirmed case recovered & 1 asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There are currently 72 domestic confirmed & 9 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 2 residential compounds were re-designated as Low Risk. 1 township & 1 residential compound are at Medium Risk.

     

    Shanghai Municipality reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (1 at Huangpu District and 1 at Changning District), both traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 1/20 & 1/22, respectively. Currently there are 15 confirmed cases in the city. 1 resident compound and 1 hotel were elevated to Medium Risk. 2 residential compounds, 1 residential area and 1 hotel are currently at Medium Risk. 

    Imported Cases:

    On 1/25, China reported 13 new imported confirmed cases, 16 imported asymptomatic cases, 3 imported suspect cases:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 8 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from the US and 1 each returning from Mali (via Paris CdG), Egypt (via Vienna), Romania (via Switzerland) & Mexico (via Germany), a French national coming from France, & an Armenian national coming from Armenia (via Minsk & Helsinki); 3 suspect cases, no information released
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Zambia (via); 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from France, Niger (via Paris CdG) & Indonesia
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the US; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Bangladesh, both off flights that landed at Guangzhou
    • Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from South Korea, off of a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), a Chinese national returning from Indonesia
    • Changsha in Hunan Province – 1 confirmed case, no information released
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, 
    • Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Spain
    • Chongqing Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Nepal
    • Kunming in Yunnan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Indonesia
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the Netherlands
    • Lanzhou in Gansu Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Russia

     

    Overall in China, 46 confirmed cases recovered, 25 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation and 35 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 1,351 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,885 active confirmed cases in the country (292 imported), 110 are in critical/serious condition (3 imported), 956 asymptomatic cases (283 imported), 4 suspect cases (all imported). 38,443 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    On 1/26, Hong Kong reported 64 new cases, 1 imported and 63 domestic (21 of whom do not have sources of infection identified).

    Taiwan is dealing with a cluster of domestic cases at Taoyuan, starting from a doctor who was infected when intubating an imported critical case (returning from the US). The doctor then infected his girlfriend, colleagues, patients and caretakers, including in the green zone. Total of 15 cases in the cluster to date. The authorities have asked everyone who has stayed at the hospital in question, as patient or caretaker, from 1/6 – 1/19 to home quarantine for 14 days, to start. This is impacting ~ 5K people so far. Curiously, people who visited patients at the hospitals have not been asked to self-quarantine. That might change. Medical staff are not being asked to quarantine, either.

  2. 2.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY yesterday:

    193 new cases. 701 hospitalized, 138 in the ICU. 893 deaths. 33% of hospital beds available, 22% of ICU beds available. 4.9% positivity.

    Woo hoo! New cases trending down 3 days in row!

  4. 4.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 3,585 new cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 190,435 cases. He also reports 11 new deaths today, for a total of 700 deaths — 0.37% of the cumulative reported total, 0.47% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 40,574 active and contagious cases; 280 are in ICU, 111 of them on respirators. Meanwhile, 4,076 patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 149,160 patients recovered – 78.3% of the cumulative reported total.

    Seven new clusters were reported today: Jalan Cochrane in KL; Jalan Platinum and Jalan Padi Mahsuri in Johor; Intan Delima in Negeri Sembilan; Kampung Bukit Putera and Tembok Bukit Besi n Terengganu; and Keladi Saga in Kedah.

    Jalan Cochrane, Jalan Platinum and Intan Delima are workplace clusters; Jalan Padi Mahsuri and Kampung Bukit Putera are community clusters; Keladi Saga is a religious cluster; and Tembok Bukit Besi is a prison cluster.

    3,583 new cases today are local infections. Selangor has 1,295 cases: 92 in existing clusters, 856 close-contact screenings, and 347 other screenings. KL has 608 local cases: 68 in older clusters, 26 in Jalan Cochrane cluster, 262 close-contact screenings, and 252 other screenings. Johor has 516 cases: 174 in older clusters, 57 in Jalan Platinum and Jalan Padi Mahsuri clusters, 125 close-contact screenings, and 160 other screenings. Sabah has 303 cases: 16 in existing clusters, 209 close-contact screenings, and 78 other screenings. Sarawak has 205 cases: 134 in existing clusters, 45 close-contact screenings, and 26 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan has 129 cases: 24 in older clusters, 11 in Intan Delima cluster, 59 close-contact screenings, and 35 other screenings. Penang has 104 cases: 26 in existing clusters, 335 close-contact screenings, and 45 other screenings.

    Melaka has 92 cases: 29 in existing clusters, 39 close-contact screenings, and 24 other screenings. Kedah has 88 cases: seven in older clusters, four in Keladi Saga cluster, 48 close-contact screenings, and 29 other screenings. Kelantan has 76 cases: three in existing clusters, 43 close-contact screenings, and 30 other screenings. Terengganu has 76 cases: 13 in older clusters, eight in Kampung Bukit Putera and Tembok Bukit Besi clusters, 32 close-contact screenings, and 23 other screenings. Perak has 58 cases: 10 in existing clusters, 31 close-contact screenings, and 17 other screenings.

    Pahang has 15 cases: nine in existing clusters, four close-contact screenings, and two other screenings. Putrajaya has 15 cases: three in existing clusters, six close-contact screenings, and six other screenings. Perlis has two cases: one close-contact screening, and one other screening. And Labuan has one case, found in other screening.

    Two new cases are imported. Both were reported in KL.

    The 11 deaths reported today are an 84-year-old man in Perak with diabetes and hypertension; a 77-year-old woman in KL with diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidaemia; an 84year-old man in Johor with no co-morbidities listed; a 49-year-old woman in Selangor with epilepsy; an 82-year-old woman in KL with hypertension; a 55-year-old man in KL with diabetes and chronic kidney disease; a 59-year-old man in Sarawak with hyperthyroidism, and heart disease; a 76-year-old man in Sarawak with no co-morbidities listed; a 42-year-old man in Penang with obesity, obstructive sleep apnoea, and heart disease; a 92-year-old man in Sarawak with hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and chronic obstructive airway disease; and a 54-year-old non-Malaysian woman in KL, DOA with no co-morbidities listed.

  5. 5.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @NeenerNeener: Cases dropping and positivity rate dropping. More than 3 weeks after Christmas and New Year, this is actually expected. There is a peak in travel during the holidays, so there is a peak in infection. The question in the near term is whether state and local authorities will seek to relax the distancing measures, whether due to political and public pressure, or economic pressure (dearth of tax revenues to fund government operations). The incident rates are still far too high almost everywhere, so any loosening will resume exponential growth. Not enough people have been infected or vaccinated, or are expected to in the coming couple of months, to significantly affect exponential growth rate in most places. With increasing fatigue and the more infectious variants (expected to become dominant in 2 months), the US is still a long way from the end of the tunnel. Hopefully, with more rapid roll out of vaccines to elderly/high risk/first responders/medical staff, at least the burden on the medical system and the funerary industry will be lower.

  7. 7.

    Mary G

    I get my first vaccine shot on Thursday! The OC had 1,330 new cases and 66 deaths today. Still at 16.7% positive tests. Hospitalizations down, but still officially 0.0% ICU beds available. Newsom is all over the place with reopening and putting olds over health care workers.

  8. 8.

    Dan B

    Christiane Amanpour had a NYC Doctor and a Doctor who is a Professor at Dartmouth on the show.  They extolled $25 oximeters with some amazing, and some chilling, stories.  Amazing is people who feel fine often have the beginnings of pneumonia and dropping oxygen levels.  If they get to hospital quickly they are often discharged in three to four days after treatment with Remdesivir and steroids.  Healthy young people often don’t feel short of breath for 8 to 10 days and end up intubated or on Ecmo at a cost of one million dollars.  NYC and the NHS have both ordered 200,000 Oximeters and are readying people to call on people who have tested positive and are at home.

    The Dartmouth Prof had a young patient on Ecmo.  He called the testing group who said they did not give this young woman an Oximeter because the CDC did not yet recommend them.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Houston doctor gave some expiring vaccine doses to people in non-priority groups after first offering them to nearby priority people who declined.

    Lost his job, got prosecuted for theft, charges dismissed by a judge.

    Yglesias left out one minor detail in his tweet:

    Ogg spokesman Dane Schiller said prosecutors will still pursue the case.

    “Judge Bynum’s gratuitous observations call into question his fairness and impartiality; we anticipate presenting all the evidence in the matter to a grand jury,” Schiller said.

    So yeah, this little story is far from over.

    (Houston Chronicle)

  11. 11.

    Dan B

    @OzarkHillbilly: Better to throw out vaccines that could do good and follow the protocols apparently.

    Could we deny vaccines to some prosecutors and hospital administrators?  An eye for an eye, you know.

  12. 12.

    gkoutnik

    @OzarkHillbilly: How’s that going to work out?  Just trying to imagine a grand jury – just a bunch of normal people like you and me, trying to live through a pandemic – listening to this.  Someone telling them that a doctor vaccinated the only people around who wanted the vaccine, instead of throwing it away.  “And your point is, Mr. DA?”

    On the other hand, this is Texas, so…

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @gkoutnik: It’s easy enough, when they say “we anticipate presenting all the evidence in the matter to a grand jury,” what they means is, “all the evidence that is favorable to our case and none that is exculpatory”. Actual guilt or innocence doesn’t even come into the discussion. That’s what trials are for.

    “I could indict a ham sandwich.” said the DA.

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “Dead Last in Vaccinations” is actually not a hyperbolic headline. It is literally true, maybe too literally true for the comfort of the powers that be.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    Florida is the state that arrested a data scientist for telling people the truth about the pandemic, is it not? I am unsurprised that its governor is blowing off an offer of federal help. And Jen Psaki’s riposte is awesome.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Sequim, Washington, US
    Betty Nelson, 81, who started queuing at 6am, reads while waiting for a Covid vaccine clinic run by the Jamestown tribe of Klallam Native Americans to open

    A pretty cool Covid pic.

  18. 18.

    Amir Khalid

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    There’s no exaggeration in saying “dead last” rather than just “last”, so I wouldn’t call that hyperbolic; but I agree that the intensifier is not strictly necessary.

  20. 20.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Casino CEO and wife fly to northern Canada and pretend to be workers at local hotel to get Covid shot. No longer casino CEO.

    He took a gamble..

  22. 22.

    Matt McIrvin

    That vaccine-hesitancy map is fascinating and has a lot of surprises. France has a lot of antivaxxers… and so do all the parts of Africa that were once colonized by France. What the heck is going on there? Francophone social media going nuts with antivax garbage? Europe, generally not better than us with vaccine acceptance.

    But Latin America is, by and large, not playing around.

  23. 23.

    PST

    My wife is heading out in a few minutes to be vaccinated. (I’m glad we didn’t get as much snow as expected in Chicago.) Yesterday I got an appointment for a week from tomorrow. I’m relieved, but struck by the disorganized, unsystematic way vaccination is progressing in Illinois and, as far as I know, everywhere. People with time, sophistication, internet connections, and determination can get on a lot of lists and make a lot of calls to multiply their chances, implicitly pushing to the front of the line. Illinois and Chicago have both emphasized equity in their plans, sincerely I believe, but privilege still works in subtle ways.

  25. 25.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Mary G: Doesn’t surprise me with Newsome, there is a huge push to fire him for interfering with the public’s right to die a slow, miserable death.

    On the other hand the positivity rate is down to 8.0.

  26. 26.

    Matt McIrvin

    It sounds as if all the new virus variants probably don’t make the current vaccines useless, but they may drop their effectiveness from the fantastically high levels in the field trials down to some lower number. If that’s so, it increases the level of vaccination you need for herd immunity–and even small amounts of vaccine hesitancy become a big problem. Especially since the reports of reduced vaccine effectiveness would probably themselves increase vaccine hesitancy.

  27. 27.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JMG: Also, I notice Germany isn’t so great about it either, and that doesn’t surprise me–I know there’s a lot of alt-med woo about in Germany.

  28. 28.

    Platonicspoof

    I clicked through to the IMHE page in Anne Laurie’s 7th block quote, and then to the Jan. 22 IMHE policy briefing for the U.S. Many variables about unknown events, however:

    We do not expect the U.S. to reach a level of herd immunity that would prevent a third wave next winter.  This is because a quarter of Americans state they will not take the vaccine and a further quarter are unsure. In addition, we do not have clear evidence on how much vaccination stops transmission as opposed to (just) preventing severe disease and death. Scale-up of vaccination does mean, however, that the number of deaths in a third wave, if it occurs, would be greatly reduced. Key strategies for both managing the end of this fall/winter surge and mitigating the risk of new variants continue to include emphasizing expanding mask use from 76% to 95%, encouraging social distancing through appropriate mandates, and accelerating vaccination. (My bold).

     

    Hoping just a worst case scenario, and outbreaks will again be at the state level.

    538 has 11 models on one page, and none are going out to next winter, of course.

  29. 29.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Matt McIrvin: That’s the problem with the “Oh, it’s only the poors and blahs who die, so who cares?” attitude, it gives the virus a huge population to mutate in.

  30. 30.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Platonicspoof: And that’s also assuming if even the majority of the population gets the vaccine. It sure sounds like Real America is going to start screaming about waste and socialism once the rich are vaccinated.

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: One thing that tempers my outrage about Trump bungling vaccine distribution in the US is that if the US isn’t buying these doses, they’ll just go somewhere else, and we need vaccination to happen worldwide, so in the long run that’s probably fine. I’m presuming that anyone who can make a COVID vaccine is trying to ramp up production regardless. But poor countries aren’t getting the doses at all, and that clearly needs to change.

  32. 32.

    Cameron

    Gee.  Rich people here in Florida get vaccinated (at least if Gov. Pinhead can bother distributing it) at a much higher rate than un-rich people?  Who could have imagined?

  33. 33.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Platonicspoof: By next winter the virus might have mutated enough that we need a whole new vaccine. I know Moderna says they’re already working on staying on top of the variations–presumably as soon as they have the things sequenced they can come up with a new vaccine variant, but long-term this might be like the flu vaccine where you have to make an educated guess about which strains are going to circulate every season.

  35. 35.

    Dan B

    @Matt McIrvin: The economics of vaccination vs. treatments and hospitalization is not on the radar but if 1% of people who get Covid end up in hospital and most of those cost a million dollars that’s real money.  Why aren’t insurance companies and hospitals screaming bloody murder?  Are they sure the feds will reimburse all expenses?

    If we’re headed for 600,000 deaths and each costs $500,000 in hospitalization and related expenses that’s $300000000000.

    Add commas to determine the total.  It’s unnerving we don’t have an actual estimate.  My guesstimate seems crazy but what do we have to go on?

    $300,000,000,000. ?  Give or take a few hundred billion.  And we haven’t factored in the number who require treatment and recover.  That must be another tsunami of money.

  36. 36.

    Sloane Ranger

    Yesterday in the UK, we had 22,195 new cases. This is nearly 8000 less than the day before and a decrease of 25% in the rolling 7-day average. Caution should be exercised, however, as these figures may still be affected by weekend processing delays. New cases by nation,

    England – 20,149 (down @7400)
    Northern Ireland – 422 (down 11)
    Scotland – 752 (down @440)
    Wales – 872 (up @70).

    Deaths – There were 592 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. The rolling 7-day average shows an increase of 9.8%. Deaths by nation, England – 548, Northern Ireland – 17, Scotland – 4 and Wales – 23. The total number of people who have died with COVID-19 on their Death Certificate since the start of the pandemic as of Friday, 8 January is 95,829 and the Office of National Statistics are saying that they expect the figure to top 100,000 by the time the figures are next updated.

    Testing – 412,204 tests were conducted on Sunday, 24th January out of a capacity of 811,855. This is an increase in the rolling 7-day average of 0.4%.

    Hospitalisations – As of Thursday, 21 January, 37,899 people were in hospital. 4076 were on ventilators on Friday, 22nd. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions is down 7.3%.

    Vaccinations – 6,573,570 people had received their 1st dose of a vaccine by 24 January and 470,478, their 2nd dose by the same date.

    General – Up to now, people entering the UK were required to quarantine in their own homes but it appears that something like 20% of people are ignoring this. As a result, the Government is floating the idea of requiring people entering the country to quarantine in a secure location (hotel) for 10 days at their own expense. This will be discussed in Cabinet later today. The BBC is reporting that there is a split between the Transport Minister and his allies, who think only people coming from high risk countries should be required to do this and the Health Secretary (and his supporters) who want it to apply to everyone. We will see who wins when an announcement is made.

    The BBC phone in programme I listen to, has already had people calling in with reasons why this shouldn’t apply to THEM/how they can’t afford 10 days of hotel bills on top of flight costs etc. There was one guy saying he would refuse to comply with the order, not give his credit card details and sue everyone involved with kidnapping and false imprisonment. OTOH, others have rung in asking why anyone needed to travel at all at the moment.

  37. 37.

    bluefoot

    @Matt McIrvin: Vaccine hesitancy and the uncontrolled spread leading to more and more potentially more contagious/more serious forms of the virus leads me to think that we aren’t going to reach herd immunity for a long time.  Especially since we still don’t know how long immunity lasts post-vaccine or post-COVID.  There are already cases of re-infection with new variants.

  38. 38.

    bluefoot

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yep.  Once the rich white people are vaccinated, all the older people, non-whites and poor people can die.  Just like with the stay-at-home orders.  As long as the “right” people are protected, the rest of us can risk death and disability to serve our so-called betters, or die if we won’t/can’t exist to serve.

    I wish we could invent a Galt’s Gulch and just move all those assholes there and let them kill each other off.  Can we fence off Nevada?

  39. 39.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @PST: Yeah my wife is a nurse practitioner and has been trying to get her 81 year old mother scheduled for a vaccine here in the DC area and even though she’s intimately familiar with the intricacies of the US health care systems so far no luck.

  40. 40.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @bluefoot:  I evision Wyoming as Galt’s Gulch, if they don’t build one in the Pacific on an artificial island like the Libertarians have been threatening for a while.

  42. 42.

    Splitting Image

    Houston doctor gave some expiring vaccine doses to people in non-priority groups after first offering them to nearby priority people who declined.
    Lost his job, got prosecuted for theft, charges dismissed by a judge. https://t.co/10k7A3rd67

    The backstory for this Yglesias tweet probably deserves its own post, and probably is something people should bookmark as they look ahead to 2022, especially if they live in a state with elected judges.

    It seems that Franklin Bynum, the judge who dismissed the charges, was elected in the 2018 midterms after the Republican incumbent was ousted by a tea partier who primaried him for officiating at same-sex marriages. I found a write-up of the situation here.

    It strikes me that this is exactly the sort of story everyone will need to have on hand when it is time to drag people to the polls for the midterms. It might be worth discussing how to compile a list of people like this judge. There will be a lot of stories like this over the next few years, and many may fly under the radar without some way to amplify them.

    As satisfying as it is to read Bynum’s judgement for this case, it could have gone very badly for this doctor if the 2018 election had gone the other way. Instead of a progressive, he would have come before a judge who won his job campaigning against gay marriage and who I could easily see handing him a sentence of 25 to life, subject to appeal at a court filled with Trump appointees. Judge Bynum seems to be a good guy on his own merits, but he also seems to have stopped a wannabe Amy Barrett from taking his first step up the ladder. There will be others like him, and they need to be beaten at every level up and down the line.

  43. 43.

    evodevo

    @satby: Yep…and our state of KY is just marginally better than Ohio…I personally know a LOT of MAGAts who are resisting signing up for the vaccination…

  44. 44.

    daveNYC

    President Biden on COVID-19 and vaccine distribution: “I feel confident that by summer we’re going to be well on our way to, heading toward, herd immunity.”

    That seems optimistic given the current state of things.

  46. 46.

    Jay

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    fucking worse than that. Shithead and his bimbo wife, flew from   BC, didn’t quarantine, chartered a plane to a remote border village, and queue jumped.

    They could have infected hundreds in an area where there are no medical services.

    Rich fucking entitled assholes.

  48. 48.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Comrade Colette: That’s awesome that you know someone working on that study…if they’re excited that’s probably a good sign that the results will hold up and another effective treatment would be really great to have. I have no idea how easy that drug is to manufacture compared to monoclonal antibodies, but I expect it maybe could be manufactured at a scale much greater than those. Vaccines that are mostly effective, plus effective treatments for those who the vaccine fails in, is the only way out of this.

  49. 49.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Mary G:

    putting olds over health care workers.

    Talking to the kid over my b-day dinner, a non-insignificant portion of the health care workers are opting out of getting  vaccinated and taking a “wait and see” approach since the vaccine is new.  The kid is not one of these, she got her second jab two weeks ago.  If we have reluctant folk in a higher priority group, then the next best thing to do is vaccinate those willing in the next priority group.  We can’t at this point force folk to take the vaccine as a condition of employment since it’s still being used under emergency authorization.

    ETA: I think Gov. Gav. is getting alot of blame for shit he’s not responsible for, there’s plenty of blame to go around and he may deserve some of it, but not all of it.

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