She didn’t get to wear her wedding dress because of the pandemic. So she put it on to get her vaccine. https://t.co/R2XsfSqbU8
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) April 15, 2021
49.7% of all American adults have received at least one vaccine shot; 31.8% have been fully vaccinated.
80.7% of all Americans age 65 or older have received at least one shot; 65.3% have been fully vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/45visTROaM
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) April 18, 2021
Coronavirus shots are now in the arms of nearly half of U.S. adults, but the states succeeding and struggling are divided red and blue. New Hampshire is on top, but five GOP-leaning states are at the bottom, including Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. https://t.co/AfwzMK9xHK
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 17, 2021
The US had +82,010 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 yesterday and +63,581 today, bringing the total to over 32.3 million. The 7-day moving average declined to under 71,000 new cases per day. pic.twitter.com/6ZumC4gZcp
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) April 18, 2021
======
"Globally, the number of new cases per week has nearly doubled over the past two months"
Covid-19 deaths pass three million worldwidehttps://t.co/hcW82fi8N7
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) April 17, 2021
'The situation is very critical': India's capital New Delhi is facing an acute shortage of hospital beds as COVID-19 cases spike https://t.co/aqLhpmNyfh pic.twitter.com/8GZQQ1PMZ6
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 18, 2021
New Delhi went into lockdown Saturday for the weekend as India is hit with a new wave of COVID-19 cases. India’s daily cases increased 234,692 nationwide, the eighth record daily increase in the last nine days.
Only 1.15 percent of the population is vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/dVOWY3r49a
— CGTN America (@cgtnamerica) April 17, 2021
Covid lockdown empties Delhi streets amid the deadly surge in India. The country added another record 234,000 cases Saturday to pass 14.5 million overall and 1,341 deaths, which took its pandemic total to 175,649 deaths https://t.co/nQEP5Xls0p
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) April 17, 2021
Pfizer agreed to supply additional COVID-19 vaccines, says Japan’s vaccine minister https://t.co/50gmlXGdbO pic.twitter.com/6zkeNc70pi
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 18, 2021
“Russians don’t trust the government. They don’t trust state institutes, agencies."
Good overview by @Mike_Eckel of why so few Russians have been inoculated despite a working vaccine. Widespread suspicion of anything homegrown seems an intractable problem https://t.co/bRMPq29bRb— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) April 16, 2021
Israel rescinds outdoor coronavirus mask requirement https://t.co/Fa78C5RzJW pic.twitter.com/kB7MM8Jm8b
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 18, 2021
Britain has vaccinated half of entire population, lockdown over, cases dropping and at 7 month low. pic.twitter.com/QIobfAhvtw
— Keith Humphreys (@KeithNHumphreys) April 18, 2021
France to impose 10-day quarantine for travellers coming from Brazil https://t.co/Kp9l3usFhs pic.twitter.com/LnXTigfCjG
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 18, 2021
.@ScienceMagazine: A new study based on daily #COVID19 data from Brazil details the fast spread of cases and deaths in the country, w/ distinct patterns by state https://t.co/nT6aQvlRHD pic.twitter.com/TmyQR24oLb
— Equity & Health (@equitylist) April 17, 2021
Covid in Brazil: Pandemic meets poverty in growing crisis https://t.co/zNo6n9SYGw
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) April 17, 2021
Sounds depressingly familiar…
… Three hours’ drive out of São Paulo, the corn harvest is underway on Frederico D’Avila’s farm. He has 1,300 hectares of the crop, as well as soybean, barley and fava, nestled beside dense pine forests.
And as the harvester cuts through the stalks of corn, he talks of how the president is slashing “the system of kleptocracy – chains of corruption – that have run here for 35 years”.
“President Bolsonaro wants to preserve liberty; he wants people to get out, work, feed their children,” he says. “He wants people to decide if they want the vaccine, not to be obligated by the state. Freedom in Brazil has always been under threat.”
I put it to him that the price of that policy is the public health disaster that Brazil is living through. “It’s not a disaster”, he replies. “We don’t have all the data from other countries so we don’t know true numbers of dead.”…
Police in cities across Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, refused to make random stops greenlighted by the provincial government seeking to impose a stay-at-home order amid a surge in COVID-19 cases https://t.co/DkLxRsduaX pic.twitter.com/jJlHJlUlJB
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 18, 2021
We can end the tragedy of #COVID19 by stopping the deaths, by stopping the hospitalisations – vaccines give us the power to do that. But we need to use vaccines in a much fairer and much more equitable way-@DrMikeRyan #VaccinEquity pic.twitter.com/lmNGp6hK1T
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 16, 2021
======
Moderna plans to have third vaccine booster shot ready by fall. Pfizer announced plans for a 3rd shot a few days ago. Moderna's vax is more than 90% effective 6 months after the 2nd shot. What remains unclear is how long immunity lasts https://t.co/ExonaUxTcZ
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) April 17, 2021
Experimental phase: The team of scientists who developed a successful veterinary vaccine against a porcine coronavirus, are working on candidate coronavirus vaccines to protect people against multiple coronaviruses in a single shot https://t.co/O0ERRNPpq9 via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) April 17, 2021
In the lab: An experimental antiviral, initially developed as a flu drug, proves effective in halting the spread & damage of Covid. Investigations involved test animals (hamsters). The antiviral doesn't have a formal name, but currently is known as MK-4482 https://t.co/DHSDw7lt4X pic.twitter.com/ruBMW9UfsM
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) April 17, 2021
I'm not a cyber-expert, but this paper blew me away: Detailed analysis of who is behind #COVID19 #vaccine disinformation executed by tracing all postings of #AstraZeneca over "blood clot" time frame. The brown below are bots, not humans.https://t.co/UY6fzugWrZ pic.twitter.com/L6jw3X4wY2
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) April 17, 2021
======
This latest map from https://t.co/6kWMwvM9vQ shows where COVID-19 has been spreading most rapidly in the US over the past week. Michigan remains the hotest spot, driven by the UK variant. https://t.co/yKEwCLLAth pic.twitter.com/CzOGGw8mFn
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) April 18, 2021
While death rates to #COVID19 slowed in the US in early April, they are climbing again. And cumulatively, no other country is on track to match America's awful tally of loss and tragedy. So far.https://t.co/nKT7luPGdb pic.twitter.com/tAeOpqYKFG
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) April 17, 2021
the pandemic will be over in some states much sooner than in others https://t.co/gkEcc0XuTX pic.twitter.com/v2GlBjzMbe
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) April 17, 2021
Alaska to start offering tourists Covid vaccinations on June 1 https://t.co/bWa30xWlCO via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) April 17, 2021
Some residents are fuming as Oregon considers a permanent mask mandate, even as some states loosen coronavirus restrictions. https://t.co/7L2EhoIMB7
— AP West Region (@APWestRegion) April 17, 2021
Lib'rul media bias is covering the life-altering pandemic, that killed over 500,000, too negatively.
What a party. https://t.co/Av807RuRRB
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) April 18, 2021
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY stats:
298 new cases – going back up again. Ugh. This must be Easter cases.
3824 active cases currently
3.4% test positivity now. It jumped up again.
Deaths at 1223
44.7% have had at least 1 vaccination
31.55% totally vaccinated
Mary G
The OC only had 80 new cases, though hospitalizations are up a tick.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 2,195 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 375,054 cases. He also reports eight new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 1,378 deaths — 0.37% of the cumulative reported total, 0.39% of resolved cases.
There are currently 19,854 active and contagious cases; 219 are in ICU, 90 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 1,427 patients recovered and were discharged, for a cumulative total of 353,822 patients recovered – 94.39% of the cumulative reported total.
Five new clusters were reported today: Selat Kelang and Cahaya Alam building site in Selangor; Jalan Perindustrian Satu in Johor; and Tarat Tani and Jalan Bintulu Sibu in Sarawak.
Jalan Bintulu-Sibu is an education cluster at a Ministry of Education school. Tarat Tani is a community cluster. The rest are workplace clusters.
2,185 new cases today are local infections. Sarawak reports 508 cases: 54 in older clusters, three in Tarat Tani and Jalan Bintulu Sibu clusters, 315 close-contact screenings, and 136 other screenings. Selangor reports 428 local cases: 14 in older clusters, four in Selat Kelang and Cahaya Alam building site clusters, 294 close-contact screenings, and 116 other screenings.
Johor reports 385 local cases: 36 in older clusters, 249 in Jalan Perindustrian Satu cluster, 68 close-contact screenings, and 132 other screenings. Kelantan reports 332 cases: 177 in existing clusters, 120 close-contact screenings, and 35 other screenings.
Kuala Lumpur reports 171 local cases: eight in existing clusters, 91 close-contact screenings, and 72 other screenings. Sabah reports 112 cases: 36 in existing clusters, 56 close-contact screenings, and 20 other screenings.
Penang reports 84 cases: eight in existing clusters, 27 close-contact screenings, and 49 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 42 cases: 20 in existing clusters, 15 close-contact screenings, and seven other screenings. Perak reports 35 cases: 19 in existing clusters, nine close-contact screenings, and seven other screenings. Kedah reports 30 cases: five in existing clusters, 15 close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings.
Terengganu reports 16 cases: five in existing clusters, seven close-contact screenings, and four other screenings. Melaka reports 15 cases: six close-contact screenings, and nine other screenings. Pahang also reports 15 cases: nine in existing clusters, five close-contact screenings, and one other screening.
Labuan reports six cases: two in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and three other screenings. Putrajaya reports three cases: one in an existing cluster, one close-contact screening, and one other screening. And Perlis reports three cases, all close-contact screenings.
10 new cases today are imported: five in Kuala Lumpur, three in Selangor, and two in Johor.
The deaths reported today are a 59-year-old man in Sarawak with diabetes, hypertenion, dyslipidaemia, chronic kidney disease, heart disease, and gout; a 69-year-old man in Sabah with hypertension, dyslipidaemis, gout, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; a 77-year-old man in Kelantan with hypertension and heart disease; a 90-year-old man in Selangor with stroke; a 72-year-old woman in Kelantan with diabetes and hypertension; a 37-year-old man in Selangor with diabetes and dyslipidaemia; a 79-year-old woman in Kuala Lumpur with diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and chronic kidney disease; and a 65-year-old man in Penang with diabetes.
satby
The picture of New Delhi in that tweet is so eerie. I’ve been to that street, it teems with people at night (as most of Delhi does) because there’s a night market there. I hope they can get more people vaccinated faster soon.
lowtechcyclist
Always look on the bright side of death – GQP
JPL
Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta is now open for walk-ins. GA is lagging behind other states in the number of citizens who have been vaccinated, so this is great news.
YY_Sima Qian
On 4/17 China reported 0 new domestic confirmed & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases all in Yunnan Province. 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There are currently 78 domestic confirmed & 16 domestic asymptomatic cases in Yunnan Province.
Imported Cases
On 4/17 China reported 16 new imported confirmed cases, 15 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:
Overall in China, 11 confirmed cases recovered, 17 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 4 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 493 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 314 active confirmed cases in the country (236 imported), 5 in critical/serious condition (4 imported), 320 asymptomatic cases (304 imported), 3 suspect cases (all imported). 10,408 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 4/17, 189.809M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 2.441M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 4/18, Hong Kong reported 30 new cases, 29 imported & 1 domestic (source of infection identified).
Cermet
The key to preventing covid-19 was evolving and re-sweeping through the world is vaccination; how the world can be vaccinated fast enough when the US has struggled is something that makes this process highly unlikely.
While mRNA tech has the potential to stop new strains that can defeat the old vaccine, this just means we continue to chase the illness as it kills millions in the rest of the world.
The key is a low cost, easy to handle vaccine that is effective (so far, that does not appear to exist) – but even then, creating a world wide infrastructure to delivery it to enough people is a challenge that I seriously doubt can be overcome.
Hopefully, no new radically different virus from other animals does not start up over the next few years as we learn to deal with this pandemic; welcome to AGW. This has been predicted for some time as a consequence. Again, looks like the third world will pay the price for our CO2 emissions and not just for warming effects/weather disasters.
Ramalama
Just learned that Astra Zeneca is available to anyone willing to take it in Quebec aged 50 and older. Just walk in. I wondered why they are specifically mentioning the name, and then saw the Laurie Garrett bot tweet here and understand. My partner was not told which vaccine she would be getting when she went to her appointment yesterday until she was at the clinic to get her shot (Pfizer).
I’ve been told about the possibility of blood clots from certain medications in my past, along with chiropractic treatment, and have been able to shrug and hope for the best.
I’ve also had Covid already. Super mild. Very lucky.
So why my hesitancy at jumping at the AZ jab? Slapping myself, slapping myself.
Robert Sneddon
@Cermet: The rich countries aren’t sitting on vast hoards of COVID-19 vaccine that poorer countries could use, those rich countries are pumping all the vaccines they can get into arms as fast as they can, constrained by the vaccine supply from the manufacturers and little else.
Cutting back on vaccination programs in their own countries to supply more vaccines to foreigners isn’t going to play well to pretty much all of the home populations and the politicians of those rich countries know it. Sucks, yes, but that’s the reality of how us evolved monkeys think and behave.
Once the richer countries reach something like full-vaccination status then the ongoing vaccine production can go to the poorer countries and I’m sure the richer countries will pay for this, happily or not. The case is easily made that driving down COVID-19 infections in other countries makes us in the richer countries safer but we’re not going to be helping them out significantly with vaccine supplies right now.
Princess
@Ramalama: I get it, but I say go for it, and monitor yourself for possible side effects. Good luck!
Ken
@lowtechcyclist: I’ve often felt that media coverage of serial killers is unnecessarily negative.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Anne is not kidding about the distressingly familiar with that BBC article about Brazil; even the “hard-working-REAL-Brazilian-in-a-road-side-dinner” Bolsonaro supporter that the BBC found has a punchable face..
mrmoshpotato
Well color me surprised!
Ramalama
@Princess: Thanks for the pep. On tv right now Ontario has closed its borders (again) and is currently building out field hospitals because there’s some serious shizz going down (again). Not sure why Quebec with its myriad of douche bros isn’t following suit, suspicious but glad if we’re not following the same terrible path. We are the 2 worst provinces in Canada. Or were.
All the walk-ins have stopped and now appts have to be made. Ok then! Variants be gone with ye.
Cameron
@mrmoshpotato: Sound kinda like Republicans, don’t they?
mrmoshpotato
@Cameron: I’d argue that the Russian people have good reason not to trust their thieving government.
Over here, Rethuglicans are just morons who will believe any bullshit the GQP tells them even if it flies in the face of what the GQP said yesterday. But that’s a GQP problem, not a government problem.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
So I guess Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, has rescinded that policy of police stopping, questioning, and fining people outside their homes after intense public backlash
I’ve seen it criticized as a death sentence for POC
Sloane Ranger
Sorry I didn’t post Friday’s figures here yesterday but I had my hair done in the morning (1st time in 4 months and it needed it!) and I watched Prince Philip’s funeral in the afternoon. By the time that finished it seemed too late to bother.
Anyway, here are Saturday’s numbers, usual weekend warnings apply. There were 2206 new cases yesterday. This is a decrease of 6.5% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,
England – 1897 (down 328)
northern Ireland – 99 (down 20)
Scotland – 210 (up 6)
Wales – No longer reports on Saturdays.
Deaths – There were 35 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is a decrease of 29.1% in the rolling 7-day average. Deaths by nation, England – 31, Northern Ireland – 2, Scotland – 2.
Testing – not updated at weekends.
Hospitalisations – Not updated at weekends.
Vaccinations – As of 16 April, 32,693,527 people had received 1 shot of a vaccine and 9,416,968 had received both shots. This means that 62.1% of all adults in the UK had received 1 shot and 17.9% had received both. AL’s post above is, therefore, not entirely accurate. It is not true to say that half the UK population are vaccinated but it is true to say that half are partially vaccinated and can be expected to have some protection against the virus.
By nation,
England – 62% 1st shot and 17.8% fully vaccinated
Northern Ireland – 58.9% 1st shot and 18.1% fully vaccinated
Scotland – 61.6% 1st shot and 16.1% fully vaccinated
Wales – 65.7% 1st shot and 22.8% fully vaccinated.
rikyrah
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I just ?? about Brazil.
rikyrah
@mrmoshpotato:
The Red States are lagging.
All the while, their Orange Savior is VACCINATED and has been since December ??
Cameron
@mrmoshpotato: Well, yes, there is that annoying distinction between fantasy (FREEDUMB!) and reality (journalists mysteriously doing the Peter Pan thing from the upper floors of buildings). I was just commenting on the distrust element itself, not its validity.
Suzanne
For us, nothing matters in terms of returning to normal life until the kids are done.
West of the Cascades
I hate that AP story about mask regulations in Oregon, because it doesn’t report one key fact — only Hawaii and Vermont have experienced fewer cases per 1,000,000 residents than Oregon (which has had about 41,000 – compared to the national average of of about 97,000). Masks work. Masks HAVE worked here, and I’m grateful to be living in a state run by a decent governor who has been science-driven and willing to take necessary but unpopular-with-right-wing-nutjob actions to keep the pandemic somewhat at bay. Fucking journalists only want to “report the controversy,” not the whole story.
ETA: and the reality is that the rate of daily new cases and the infection rate have started to creep back up here in Oregon, too, so continuing to wear masks/distance/be good role models by doing so even if we’ve been completely vaccinated is still necessary.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
nope, the “Law” is still there. The Police orgs have just decided that they will not enforce it, just like they refuse to enforce the Public Health Orders.
Sort of, I am sure they will cite chapter and verse to harass BIPOC.
Funny thing. Here on LRT, there used to be 2 Transit Cops per train, 2 per Station, mostly about “fare jumping”, harassing the poor, skateboarders, BIPOC.
Since about month 4 of Covid, I haven’t seen any, on the trains or inside the station, only hanging about outside the station, or sitting in their cars, usually maskless.
Lacuna Synecdoche
Patrick Chovanac via Anne Laurie @ Top:
CGTN America:
via lowtechcyclist:
Reminder:
India has more than 4 (FOUR) times our population. (About 1.376 billion, as of 2021, as compared to about 331 million in the US)
Our seven day moving average of about 70,000 caess per day – which we’re treating as low enough to start re-opening in many red states – would be MORE than 290,000 cases per day if normalized to India’s population.
India, on the other hand, had a daily record of about 235,000 cases yesterday – which is STILL a lower rate than ours, by about 19% – and they’re treating it like the emergency, and still raging pandemic, that it is.
In other words: The US’s new case rate is still higher than India’s, and we’re fucking idiots for treating it like, “Oh, la-di-da, everything’s fine, and getting better all the time!”
Jay
@West of the Cascades:
?????
Jay
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
“I was told, there would be no math”,
Every op-ed writer and reporter ever!
Lacuna Synecdoche
@Jay: We know some reporters occasionally read, or glance at, BJ, so maybe one of them will get the message.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@Jay:
… Now that someone has, you know, done the math for them.
smith
@Lacuna Synecdoche: Another way to put it: Remember the surge we had last summer? The one that had everybody in a panic about COVID? That topped out at about 68K cases per day. Our current weekly average is about 68K cases per day. It only seems great because we let it get so appallingly bad over the winter.
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
praying hard that one of the vaccines is cleared for ages 12-15 soon.
I want Peanut vaccinated.
NotMax
Well, that was a quick return to normal.
//
Suzanne
@rikyrah: Spawn the Younger is 10, and Spawn the Youngest turns 2 soon (OMG). Spawn the Elder gets his second shot next week. But I need them to figure out the kids ASAP.
patrick II
I stopped by Walgreens yesterday to pick up a prescription. The pharmacist asked if I wanted a shot. When I told him I had already been vaccinated, he asked again. I repeated that I had already had my shots. He looked disappointed.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@smith:
And yet another thing to keep in mind: A far larger percentage of the US population has been vaccinated or received at least one shot than the percentage in India.
Which means we must have a really high infectivity rate among the unvaccinated right now.
Another Scott
@Cermet:
I think this is false.
The key to defeating COVID-19 is stopping community spread. That’s how China did it. That’s how OZ and NZ did it. All 3 did it before vaccines were available.
So, you agree. ;-)
It sucks that the US and the developed world has been at the front taking most of the early vaccine production. But there’s a sensible argument for it too – the US has shown that it was abysmal at stopping community spread under TFG. Bolsonaro in Brazil has also been horrible, as have lesser-known kooks elsewhere. In places where the governments actively fight the science of stopping community spread, then vaccination is the remaining big tool.
But there isn’t going to be enough vaccine and enough PPE and infrastructure to get it into arms worldwide for maybe another year or more. (And even that would be astoundingly fast – it took, what, 250 years after getting a vaccine to wipe out smallpox worldwide?) Stopping community spread via the usual well-understood public health measures is essential until then.
Cheers,
Scott.
Anoniminous
We can ballpark some numbers now.
With Covid-19 cases running ~10% of the population we can estimate out of the 7,000,000 people who got the J&J shot roughly 700,000 would have contracted the disease without the shot and 2% would have died or ~14,000. AFAIK – and correction is requested – has been a whopping total of 6 cases of blood clots and 1 death from the J&J vaccine.
On Mar 26, 2021 J&J was set to deliver 11 million doses so, say, there are ~4,000,000 doses not given. Using the above number we can estimate the risk of NOT giving those doses at 400,000 Covid cases and 8,000 deaths.
J R in WV
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
But in India, what proportion of infections are identified and reported to the national health authorities?
We know that not all Covid-19 cases in the US are reported, many non-symptomatic cases aren’t even diagnosed… how much worse is that trend in India? My bet is a whole lot of cases aren’t reported.
Another Scott
@J R in WV: I was thinking the same things, but it’s hard to know. We probably shouldn’t discount India’s public health system compared to our own. They have lots of experience dealing with tropical diseases (obviously) that we don’t deal with here. But asymptomatic cases are a huge problem with this disease.
Worldometers.info has just started a weekly summary table. The US numbers are fairly stable (which is worrying – some are stuck near the highs of last summer), but some of the other country numbers are horrifying…
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
smith
The really frustrating thing is that the US has already demonstrated that we could do this if we wanted to. The turnaround in January from soaring cases to plummeting cases was astoundingly sharp. It was as if one day the entire population decided to stop spreading the virus. This could only have resulted from behavioral changes, as it was way too early for vaccine to have had any effect. Somehow we all got tired of it, or jumped the gun knowing that vaccines were becoming widely available, and off it went again, this time fueled by more contagious variants.
Anoniminous
@Another Scott:
New Zealand is small enough the population thinks in terms of “We” instead of “Us/Them/Other,” like the United States, and they had a national leader who wasn’t a stupid fucking moron.
Respect for learning is an attribute of Chinese culture so Doctor Li Wenliang has become a national hero for his warning, the local authorities who repressed him have been punished – unlike similar local authorities in the US – and have become reviled national villains, when Dr. Zhong Nanshan, a highly respected national figure from the 2003 SARS epidemic, came on national television and told people to wear masks …. they started wearing masks, and President Xi Jinping followed the advice of experts, mobilized a massive medical response in the centers of the pandemic, and shut the country down, thus breaking the back of the disease.
I am less familiar with Viet Nam. It is my impression the leaders of the country pretty much did the same.
In the rest of the world the political leadership mostly went duhhhhhhhh and ignored reality. In fact, in most of the rest of the world the political leadership is still ignoring reality, which includes various local authorities in the US.
Tony Jay
I’ve just had my first jab. AstraZeneca, of course, so I’ll be gravejunk in a week (probably, maybe, probably not) and other than a light sweat and a general feeling of uncomfortable malaise (I do live in the Land of Brexit Bullshit, so it may be unconnected) everything is more or less fine.
This will not last.
Cameron
This guy is human garbage as far as I’m concerned. https://www.rawstory.com/desantis-2652617385/
Ruckus
@Ramalama:
Ontario and Quebec are the two most populated provinces, and most of those people live within what 300KM of the Canada/US border. Quebec has almost twice the population of BC and if you add BC and Quebec together they are still slightly smaller than Ontario. IOW the entire population of Canada is less than the state of CA and highly concentrated in a relatively small area. Between Quebec and Ontario they make up 61.5% of the population. Adding all three provinces together they make up almost 75% of the population of Canada and the vast majority live, as I stated above within 300KM of the border. Any behavior other than full lockdown and full masking up is going to be a problem without a vaccine, as it has been/is with any nation in the world. And I ask, is there any largely populated country/state/providence in the world that has been extremely successful with lockdown/masking up?
And the answer is yes, one. China
My point is that no big country, no relatively free large country has been real good at Covid. Human beings do not do well in these types of situations if they aren’t very restricted, watched, controlled. And the US is obviously not any of those as we have one, if not the worst responses to Covid.
StringOnAStick
@West of the Cascades: The vaccination clinic at the fairgrounds between Bend and Redmond is quite busy and asking for volunteers, which I think I will do after I hit my two weeks post shot #2.
On our way home from shot #2 there was a camo clad, mid 40’s neck beard with a sign reading “Covid is 97.3% survival, DON’T get vaccinated!” . My friend’s boss is one of those survivors and went from serious weekend athlete to barely able to get up a flight of stairs 1 year later; that’s technically survival, I’ll grant that.
Our neighbour’s diversity sign was stolen Friday night. That and the camo idiot and his sign make me think they know they are in the losing end of these arguments, and they’re lashing out. I expect more of this as they continue to lose.
Ruckus
@StringOnAStick:
They also likely know their arguments are (I was going to say childish, but the evidence I’ve seen says children actually know better) stupid and without merit. They are lashing out, because they are failing, in every way. Their arguments are without merit/substance/intelligence. Conservative dogma is bullshit because it’s never, ever been about freedom, it is about money and how can boss Hogg keep all of it and have power over people, in ways no one deserves.
Conservatism is about keeping the government out of power and the land/slave owners in. Everything in their dogma is about power and money and who has it. Of course selling that to the slaves is a lot harder when you can’t use them, abuse them, beat them, poison them, kill them. So you have to sell them a scam and bullshit them. IOW modern conservatism.
WhatsMyNym
@StringOnAStick:
As fully vaccinated numbers increase in WA state, we are seeing many more cases in the 50 – 20 age range.
Jay
@Another Scott:
??????????
StringOnAStick
@WhatsMyNym: I’ve seen reports that the new variants are hitting that age range harder than original brand Covid.
Our town has a large tourism industry and the weather this weekend is spectacular. I want to go walk the local river loop but I’m afraid it will be filled with unmasked tourists. The locals and even contractors are doing super well with wearing masks, the out of town people are definitely not doing well, they travel in tight packs and do not keep their distance.
Gretchen
My daughter’s wedding story is similar to Sarah. They planned a big wedding last July 4, and downgraded it to a tiny backyard ceremony. We planned a big reception this July, but canceled that too when it became clear that this still wouldn’t be over by then. I’m so angry at the selfishness that made this last so long.
rikyrah
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One man told his brother in Pfizer, “Welcome to the ruling class.”
https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/04/best-vaccine-choice-pfizer-joke.html via @slate
Soprano2
I have to say that I have sympathy for people who are frustrated by governments saying they want a “permanent” mask mandate, and that “someday” it will be removed. I can see how some people interpret that as the government just wanting to control them forever. I think it’s more helpful to say “here’s what has to happen in order to remove the mandate”, so that people know what they’re shooting for and can help get there. I tell everyone that if they’re tired of face masks they need to get vaccinated so we can get to the 50% mark. Whatever works to get them to get vaccinated!
Jay
@Soprano2:
what Governments are advocating a “permanent” mask mandate?
Soprano2
@Jay: I based that on the story above about Oregon. Even though we both know it’s not truly “permanent”, that’s how the press talks about it, so that’s how people see it, and that’s what makes them believe the things they do.
Chris T.
@StringOnAStick:
Not that I actually would do this, but the temptation is strong: Find the guy. Walk up to him with a spray can (maybe whipped cream or something harmless like that). Spray it at him and yell: “Don’t worry, it’s 97.3% survivable!” Then run off, cackling like mad.