So you’re saying that for some people not being exposed to the pressures and—as they experience them—traumas of social interaction keep some people from the precipice?
Shocking! https://t.co/ascErS88pI
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) May 23, 2021
US covid deaths near an all-time low since the pandemic started. pic.twitter.com/w3RD3HXsg2
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) May 21, 2021
VACCINATION UPDATE: Congratulations Rhode Island. Now the 8th state with over 70% first doses in adults.
Vermont
Hawaii
NH
Mass
CT
Maine
NJ
RI10 more now over 65%.
— Andy Slavitt (@aslavitt46) May 22, 2021
The White House announced a partnership with popular dating apps to encourage more Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, after reports showed people who display their vaccination status were more likely to get a match https://t.co/YTHlS4bmKr pic.twitter.com/mf6Dp05Glj
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 22, 2021
======
Leaders of rich nations called for voluntary licensing and technology transfers to boost vaccine production in order to end inequities in poorer regions, during a special Group of 20 summit on the pandemic https://t.co/n8FisjJ85X pic.twitter.com/5QYjDz2RJD
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 22, 2021
India reports daily rise in coronavirus cases of 240,842 https://t.co/gdcx3IJrVK pic.twitter.com/nxNrzPNnqJ
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 23, 2021
Doctors in India are fighting a fatal fungal infection affecting COVID-19 patients or those who have recovered from the disease amid a coronavirus surge that has driven the country’s fatalities to nearly 300,000. https://t.co/v0Iy3UJehw
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 23, 2021
EXPLAINER: Why India, the world’s largest maker of vaccines, is struggling to meet its own domestic needs for the shots amid a startling surge of infections. https://t.co/ohpYgaeT9h
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 22, 2021
Indian villagers turn to unlicensed clinics as COVID spreads to the countryside https://t.co/nDXQRdPHkG pic.twitter.com/Ap2TwUXmEK
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 22, 2021
When the pandemic waves hit, everyone in India is on their own. The poor. The rich. The well-connected bureaucrats who hold immense sway here, and the people who clean the sewers. A deep look at three families, and what they did to keep a loved one alive. https://t.co/R6IbSqk39g
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 23, 2021
The #COVID19 outbreak at Mt. Everest Base Camp is still raging — now sickening about a quarter of the would-be climbers and staff, according to this report.https://t.co/8koBOLj1ZS Hard to imagine gasping for air and coughing at this altitude.
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 22, 2021
Thailand to tighten border controls after detecting South African COVID-19 variant https://t.co/9bBQ2K3vLZ pic.twitter.com/DDSI0wbtRC
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 23, 2021
Russia on Saturday confirmed 8,709 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of reported infections to 4,992,554 https://t.co/p632FoFK35
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) May 22, 2021
Authorities in St. Petersburg said they have taken the necessary health and safety measures ahead of co-hosting Euro 2020 matches as virus cases in the city continue to climb https://t.co/xGTZbAfrOf
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) May 22, 2021
Australia expects 2 million doses a week of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine from October – SMH https://t.co/CqyWQGF1il pic.twitter.com/B0j2t0Bpfk
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 23, 2021
From Mexico to Tierra Del Fuego, the Americas have now topped 1 million officially counted #COVID19 deaths. Add in the US & Canada and the tally tops 1.6M.https://t.co/XHNMJaSXU5 and https://t.co/z4HDqmiC07 pic.twitter.com/pN41VnaRng
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 22, 2021
Argentina starts new lockdown as Covid cases soar https://t.co/BLVCUncglK
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 22, 2021
======
.@jburnmurdoch SCOOP:
Public Health England has presented the first real-world data on vaccine efficacy against B.1.617.2, the variant first found in India
Efficacy against symptomatic B.1.617.2 was 81% after two doses, much higher than many have feared https://t.co/SDWT7yyQgd— Global Health Observ (@GlobalPHObserv) May 22, 2021
Good news
"Based on data submitted by Pfizer today, the @US_FDA is authorizing undiluted, thawed @pfizer -BioNTech #COVID19 #Vaccine vials to be stored in the refrigerator at 2°C to 8°C (35°F to 46°F) for up to 1 month."
Big jump from prior 5-day rule.https://t.co/gKKF0Jw1LA— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 22, 2021
======
After more than a year of separation and isolation, Americans are reuniting. https://t.co/g6Mv3p0bYf
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 22, 2021
I would guess more like 50%, but yes, the change is quite noticeable. https://t.co/ignWgAihFf
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) May 22, 2021
Las Vegas officials are turning to creative ways to incentivize people to get a COVID-19 vaccine, including holding a pop-up clinic at strip club. They administered shots to about 100 people before Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club opened for its usual business. https://t.co/NxXCTsZ7OW
— AP West Region (@APWestRegion) May 22, 2021
Thousands of joyful revelers, many without masks, competed for plastic beads and trinkets tossed from floats as Alabama's port city threw a Mardi Gras-style parade, its first since Carnival celebrations were scrapped earlier this year by the pandemic. https://t.co/ZyNr5NIVqw
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 22, 2021
This is both nice to see and a bit dismaying. The numbers of cases and deaths in Massachusetts have fallen to "not horrendous" levels. But hundreds of people a day are still testing positive for #Covid19 here. pic.twitter.com/P6HKpppwdz
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) May 22, 2021
Never make jokes on social media:
No, your Covid vaccine isn't a magnet https://t.co/I4qtbMhN2Y pic.twitter.com/0Qh40xxVeZ
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 22, 2021
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY stats:
126 new cases – 67% were people under 40, including 39 children between 0 and 19. People in their 20s and 30s had the most infections, followed by children under 10.
1267 COVID deaths since March 2020
2.8% test positivity
169 people hospitalized, 33 in the ICU
No updates to vaccination stats.
Nicole
Anne Laurie, thank you so much for the link to the New York Magazine article yesterday about the positive tests among the Yankees. One of those pieces that left me feeling smarter after I read it. I passed it along to several people.
gkoutnik
@Nicole: My exact experience. Thanks again.
eclare
@Nicole: Yes, it was good.
I will keep masking. TX just found two cases of the India variant north of Dallas. Both cases are children under twelve
OzarkHillbilly
The internet will be the death of humor.
Ken
Do I even want to know why the BBC is reassuring people that the vaccine isn’t magnetic? Morbid curiosity is fighting the near-certainty that I will once again question humanity’s decision to leave the trees (to steal a riff from Douglas Adams).
lowtechcyclist
@Ken: “Even the trees had been a bad move, and no one should ever have left the oceans.”
Baud
satby
@eclare: It’s kind of funny really: the still masking folks at the farmers market (including college kids) have all been immunized, and the ones merrily going without pretty much all haven’t as loud and proud ignorati plandumic believers. So lots of people will be continuing to mask up just so no one thinks they’re dumbshit covid denialists, at least until the numbers are down even more.
satby
@Baud: anecdata, but a woman I know from the doctor’s office stopped by yesterday and said she had been back home to India before the latest travel restrictions. She had been vaccinated with Pfizer, and she quarantined when she came back, but she was fine. Negative tests before and after.
eclare
@satby: I believe that, people who are responsible behave responsibly. But as someone with a comorbidity, and a vaccine only 81% effective, I will be staying masked.
Ken
@satby: I keep thinking there must we a way to exploit the ignorance, especially where it’s coupled with racism. Something like “I’m glad I got vaccinated before that new Indian variant, the one with the… [stage whisper] fungus.”
Obviously morally suspect, but if it gets jabs in arms, maybe worth it?
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 6,976 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 512,091 cases. He also reports 49 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 2,248 deaths — 0.44% of the cumulative reported total, 0.49% of resolved cases.
There are currently 57,022 active and contagious cases; 681 are in ICU, 361 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 3,587 patients recovered and were discharged, for a cumulative total of 452,821 patients recovered – 88.43% of the cumulative reported total.
24 new clusters were reported today: Jalan Kempas Dua, Jalan Perindistrian Lima, Jarum Laut, Taman Majupadu, and Parit Dato Onn in Johor; Persiaran Cassia Selatan Dua, Industri Bukit Minyak and Jalan Kilang Ubi in Penang; Jalan Bukit Puchong, Kemuning Tujuh, and Jalan Desa Satu in Selangor; Jalan Enam Selatan in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and Negeri Sembilan; Bandar Jalan Putra and Permai Sejahtera in Pahang; Simpang Juasseh and Jalan Temiang in Negeri Sembilan; Bukit Temedak and Taman Sourabaya Indah in Sarawak; Kampung Jakar and Kampung Panggong in Kelantan; Kampung Paroh in Terengganu; Jalan Mangga in Sabah; Terendak Permai in Melaka; and Dah Seri Perigi in Kedah.
Simpang Juasseh, Jarum Laut, Bukit Temedak, Kampung Paroh, Jalan Mangga, Kampung Jakar, Taman Sourabaya Indah, and Kampung Panggong are community clusters. Permai Sejahtera, Terendak Permai, Dah Seri Perigi, Taman Majupadu, Jalan Desa Satu and Parit Dato Onn are religious clusters. Jalan Temiang is a high-risk group cluster. The rest are workplace clusters.
6,971 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 2,235 cases: 72 in clusters, 1,768 close-contact screenings, and 395 other screenings. Sarawak reports 663 cases: 82 in clusters, 452 close-contact screenings, and 129 other screenings. Kelantan reports 626 cases: 140 in clusters, 361 close-contact screenings, and 125 other screenings.
Johor reports 549 cases: 194 in clusters, 254 close-contact screenings, and 101 other screenings.
Kuala Lumpur reports 443 local cases: 40 in clusters, 263 close-contact screenings, and 140 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 434 cases: 55 in clusters, 253 close-contact screenings, and 126 other screenings. Kedah reports 422 cases: 79 in clusters,194 close-contact screenings, and 149 other screenings.
Penang reports 372 cases: 121 in clusters, 110 close-contact screenings, and 141 other screenings.
Perak reports 279 cases: 20 in clusters, 167 close-contact screenings, and 92 other screenings. Terengganu reports 266 cases: 113 in clusters, 112 close-contact screenings, and 41 other screenings. Pahang reports 263 cases: 117 in clusters, 110 close-contact screenings, and 36 other screenings. Melaka reports 209 cases: 59 in clusters, 99 close-contact screenings, and 51 other screenings.
Sabah reports 136 cases: 30x in clusters, 71 close-contact screenings, and 35 other screenings.
Labuan reports 36 local cases: 24 in clusters, six close-contact screenings, and six other screenings. Putrajaya reports 30 cases: 23 close-contact screenings, and seven other screenings. Perlis reports eight cases: six close-contact screenings, and two other screenings. \
Five new cases today are imported: four in Kuala Lumpur, one in Labuan.
Barbara
@satby: They want to protect people from becoming sick, but they also care enough about those around them not to arouse their anxiety.
Lacuna Synecdoche
AP via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Umm, AP? Are you really sure you want to use the word pop-up in such close proximity to strip club? I mean, it could be misinterpreted …
Skepticat
Not to mention basic intelligence and sensibility. I got a laugh out of seeing, “Remember when we thought lack of access to information was the cause of stupidity? It wasn’t that.”
Suzanne
Spawn the Youngest broke out in a moderate fever on Friday afternoon (of course). No other symptoms. I gave her children’s ibuprofen and she seems fine today. We’re had no known contacts with COVID, still masking, but her older sister has returned to in-person school two days a week for the last three weeks. Mr. Suzanne points out that it is unlikely to be COVID, but I still worry. Really hope the kids can be vaccinated soon.
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: You are going to get her a covid test, I assume?
Buckeye
My suburban Chicago-area sister and her hubby got their 2nd Pfizer shots on Friday. No major side effects other than sore arms.
I’m a bit jealous of that, since I ended up with nearly 3 days of chills/exhaustion/brain fog.
But as I told my hair stylist yesterday, I’d rather that than actual Covid.
And once my sister and BIL are fully vaxxed, we can make plans to see each other.
Matt McIrvin
Suicides are down but homicides are up, and if I recall correctly, there’s also been an increase in drug overdoses. So whatever is happening is complicated.
(The increase in homicide bears watching in part because if that persists, it’s really bad news for everyone politically. Fear of crime is how the right comes roaring back. I’m already seeing these sort of alt-right-adjacent people making hay over it.)
germy
My wife got a mild version of shingles about a month after her second Moderna shot.
Not an expansive outbreak, luckily, and it cleared up in about a week.
“Googling” it, I see people insisting the vaccines cause it, with doctors insisting there’s no connection.
I tend to side with the doctors.
Princess
@Barbara: A mask on a vaccinated person may soothe the people around them, and that alone may be worth it, but a mask on a vaccinated person is not going to stop anyone one way or another from getting sick, and not wearing one is not going to make them sick. Vaccinated unmasked people do not pass covid along, even for the few who get a mild/assymptomatic case of it. That’s what the science says, that’s what the CDC says. Your mask is not keeping people safe at this point, even if it is keeping them (and maybe you) calm.
Unique uid
The vaccine lotteries seem to work. Maybe we should do a national one? 245 years old, maybe 245 random selections from June 4 to July 4. $40,000 tax free?
rikyrah
@satby:
Fully vaccinated and will be double ?? until September at the earliest.
Going to restaurants?
No
Movie theater?
No
Stores?
No
YY_Sima Qian
On 5/22 China reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Guangdong Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case. There are 1 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptotic cases there.
Anhui Province report 1 domestic confirmed case. There are 5 domestic confirmed & 11 domestic asymptomatic & 1 domestic suspect cases in the province.
Liaoning Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There are 14 domestic confirmed & 6 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
In Yunnan Province, there currently are 10 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases.
Imported Cases
On 5/22 China reported 18 new imported confirmed cases, 24 imported asymptomatic cases:
Overall in China, 5 confirmed cases recovered, 13 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 6 was reclassified as confirmed case, and 1,413 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 315 active confirmed cases in the country (283 imported), 3 in serious condition (all imported), 376 asymptomatic cases (354 imported), 2 suspect case (1 imported). 6,473 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 5/22, 497.272M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 13.929M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 5/23, Hong Kong reported 2 new cases, 1 imported & 1 domestic (source of infection not yet identified).
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — 378 new cases of COVID-19 reported since yesterday, zero deaths. The test positivity rate is 2.0%, still rising slowly. These numbers are, of course, weekend data and subject to change/increase once some weekday reporting offices reopen on Monday. There have been no deaths reported since the 12th of this month, ten days ago.
Vaccinations are plodding along at about 41,000 per day, still mostly second doses at the moment. Virtually everyone above the age of 65 in Scotland is fully 2-dose vaccinated and virtually everyone between 55 and 64 has received at least their first dose.
The Glasgow situation is still up in the air — the Scottish government is considering moving Glasgow down to level 2 restrictions (pubs and restaurants open etc.) even though the new case numbers are way higher than the 50 cases per 100,000 population trigger between level 2 and level 3. The key factor they’re considering now is the ability of local ICU capacity to cope with hospitalisations, especially cases of the 02-April variant which is being seen more often when positive samples are sequenced. This decision is more political than scientific in that a lot of people in ICU beds is worse than not having them there at all but having Glasgow as the only place in Scotland locked down is causing a lot of strain on people, businesses, travel etc. We’ll see.
Sloane Ranger
So Saturday in the UK we had 2694 new cases. This is an increase of 10.5% in the rolling 7-day average, but, as Robert Sneddon noted in the post above, these are provisional figures and subject to adjustment when offices re-open after the weekend. New cases by nation,
England – 2242 (down 61)
Northern Ireland – 82 (down 2)
Scotland – 370 (down 44, but see updated figures above)
Wales – Does not report on Saturdays.
Deaths – There were 6 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is a decrease of 43.1% in the rolling 7-day average. All occurred in England.
Testing – Not updated at weekends.
Hospitalisations – Not updated at weekends.
Vaccinations – As of 21 May, a total of 37,726,924 people had received the 1st shot of a vaccine and 22,071,497 had received both. In percentage terms this means that 71.6% of all adults in the UK have had 1 shot and 41.9% are fully vaccinated.
Matt McIrvin
@Ken: There have been “magnet challenge” videos going around in which people stick magnets to their injection site and insist that the COVID vaccine has made their arm magnetic. I’d say it’s the stupidest thing I’ve seen all year but honestly it’s just more like the stupidest thing I’ve seen all week.
Matt McIrvin
@germy: There have been enough anecdotes of shingles following COVID injection that there were a few papers basically saying “keep an eye out”, but, as far as I know, no solid statistics showing a connection. Any kind of stress could trigger a shingles outbreak if the virus is in you, so it’s not completely implausible. But some people are going to get shingles in any event.
My doctor actually mentioned it as a reason to complete my shingles vaccination before getting vaccinated for COVID. (But the main reason was that the clock was ticking; if I hadn’t gotten the second Shingrix shot when I did, I’d have had to start over.)
It did mean that I got to compare the effects of the two vaccinations fairly close in time. Shingrix was worse.
Cermet
@Matt McIrvin: Agreed (having both, too.)
prostratedragon
I generally keep my vaccinations uptodate, but hadn’t got around to the Shingrix because, for some strange reason, my usually comprehensive health service doesn’t provide it. That means I had to find it at a Walgreens or some such, and as it tends to be in very short supply everywhere, that’s been hit-or-miss at best. However, getting my covid vaccine done made me gung-ho enough that I kiapped myself to the pharmacy at the earliest moment after passing my covid period. For shingrix, they want no vaccines within 8 weeks if possible, and I found it available at about 8 weeks and a day. No issues here, hardly even a sore arm.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Princess:
This is not true. Masks absolutely do have an effect
Matt McIrvin
@prostratedragon: Yeah, I was surprised to find that CVS didn’t have Shingrix, but my doctor had it. It’s actually kind of hard to get at the moment.
The second dose of Shingrix had me feeling exhausted and sleepy for about half of the next day, and my arm ached for three or four days afterward.
I was thinking of it as a dry run for COVID vaccination, but even the second dose of the Moderna COVID vaccine didn’t affect me as much as that. I got a mild headache, slept kind of poorly the following night, woke up with a mild upset stomach like I had gas or something, and my arm hurt for about another day; that was it.
artem1s
I didn’t realize how toxic my work situation was until I spent a year+ working from home and recently anxiety over having to return to in-person work. Spurred me to start applying for internal positions again. The correlation became even more evident when I realized how light and care free I was during much of the quarantine. And I’m a whole lot less anxious about managing my toxic boss’ gaslighting after getting interviews for several of the positions. I find it so much easier to meet his snotty remarks with blank stares and I’m taking great joy in watching him squirm when he realizes he’s been caught stepping over the line and he’s not going to get the emotional response he was counting on. I may even have a chance to move on without having to endure an in-person resignation. That there may be a light at the end of this toxic, gaslighting tunnel, gives me great joy. And hope that when I do return to an office that I will be able enjoy going in and seeing my co-workers instead of dreading whatever dirty load of laundry they have been waiting to dump on my doorstep.
Matt McIrvin
@Matt McIrvin:
…not nausea, I should stress for the benefit of the emetophobic person who was asking.
Bill Arnold
Took a look again at the scientific literature for Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency and COVID-19. The TL;DR is that most studies so far are showing a significant effect; Vitamin D deficiency in particular is related to both increased disease severity and increased incidence rates (of symptomatic cases), and the ongoing arguments are about causality, with it being a causal relationship (Vitamin D deficiency causing the effects) the dominant argument.
(To be clear, mass vaccination is ATM most important; other measures will resume importance if/when strains that are not blocked by vaccines start to take off.)
A few studies:
Association of Vitamin D Status with SARS-CoV-2 Infection or COVID-19 Severity: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (2021 Mar 5., Asma Kazemi, Vida Mohammadi, Sahar Keshtkar Aghababaee, Mahdieh Golzarand, Cain C T Clark, and Siavash Babajafari)
The Impact of Vitamin D Level on COVID-19 Infection: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (05 March 2021. Amare Teshome, Aynishet Adane, Biruk Girma and Zeleke A. Mekonnen)
(Just 14 papers met the inclusion criteria)
One interesting study was an older (August 2020(?)) largish UK Biobank study, which found no effect after correcting for COVID-19 confounders. However, their confounder list includes confounders suspected in pre-COVID-19 research to be causally linked to vitamin D deficiency(and to a lesser extent, insufficiency, and they made no attempt to map it all causally. And the Vitamin D level data was 10 years old, see below). Their conclusion is a public health recommendation, that may have killed at least 10s of thousands of people worldwide (with long-term morbidity in a larger number): “For now, recommendations for vitamin D supplementation to lessen COVID-19 risks appear premature and, although they may cause little harm, they could provide false reassurance leading to changes in behaviour that increase risk of infections.” (They appear to be proud of themselves in defenses of their paper. And the change of behavior argument has always been dubious without evidence specific to the situation.)
Vitamin D and COVID-19 infection and mortality in UK Biobank (Claire E. Hastie, Jill P. Pell & Naveed Sattar, 26 August 2020)
Poking, I see that others have complained about that study, e.g.
Serious Statistical Flaws in Biobank Analyses (Gareth Davies, Richard Mazess, Linda L. Benskin, 10th December, 2020)
Also (Prognostic implications of vitamin D in patients with COVID-19 (23 November 2020)) it’s 10 year old Vitamin D status data, and guidelines changed in the UK in 2016:
quote: “The major drawback to this inference is the launch of new guidelines on vitamin D supplementation by the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK in July 2016, recommending that everyone should take vitamin D supplementation during winter months [3].”
Didn’t see much about the current levels of Vitamin D deficiency in the UK; I read that NHS recommends supplementation (low dose though) in the shorter-days seasons, so it might be low. Same possibly for other high latitude countries with proper universal health care that recommend Vitamin D supplementation to (sharply) reduce rates of deficiency in the population.
Science is messy.
Matt McIrvin
@Bill Arnold: If there’s one thing the current crisis has broken me of, it’s “false sense of security” arguments against some precaution or other. Maybe on the level of policy, some theatrical intervention like sanitizing all surfaces can convince authorities they’ve done enough. But it doesn’t seem to me that individuals who take one precaution are more likely to forego other precautions as a result. The antimaskers were the same people crowding into bars and many were the same people avoiding getting vaccinated.
WaterGirl
@artem1s: I’m sorry you have had to endure that at work! Glad that you may be out of there soon and that even in the interim he seems to hold less sway over you than before.
That is a big Joe Biden deal.