Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

It’s a doggy dog world.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

House Speaker candidate unfamiliar with how to win non-gerrymandered election.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

No Justins, No Peace

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, June 8-9

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, June 8-9

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40Comments

  2. 2.

    Brachiator

    Some issues concerning soon-to-expire J and J vaccine doses…

    The Biden administration is encouraging states to hold on to hundreds of thousands of soon-to-expire covid vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson, given the possibility that additional data will show the shots are viable beyond their expiration date at month’s end….

    “This is really welcome news,” said Dr. Joseph Kanter, state health officer for the Louisiana Department of Health. Louisiana has 14,000 J&J doses that will expire this month. “I think at the end of the day there’ll be less waste.” …

    Once viewed as crucial to the U.S. vaccination effort for persuading on-the-fence people to get the single-shot dose, J&J has played a modest role. Officials partly attribute that to federal regulators temporarily halting its use in April after reports of rare but serious blood clots.

    “That just appears to have slowed demand,” Plescia said. The company previously said it would deliver the 100 million doses by the end of June.

    As far as Jim Mangia, chief executive of St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, can tell, the demand ground to a halt once the FDA OK’d resuming use of the J&J vaccine. Mangia said his network of 26 clinics in the Los Angeles area has more than 14,000 doses on hand that county officials have been unwilling to take back.

    He said patients who liked the one-shot benefit requested it before the safety concerns, but since then there have been no requests. “Whenever we offer it, everyone says no,” he said.

    Mangia said his clinic network is seeing overall distribution of the vaccines remain steady as sites expand hours and offer Friday night vaccine events for those concerned about missing work because of possible side effects. But given the lack of interest in J&J’s vaccine, he said, he doesn’t think moving the expiration date will improve matters.

    Officials in West Virginia have more than 20,000 doses of J&J’s vaccine on hand but little backlog of other covid vaccines, said state covid czar Dr. Clay Marsh, who is also vice president of West Virginia University Health Sciences. Officials offered the excess to other states, but there were no takers. Marsh said they approached the federal government about sending the unused doses to countries that need it, but have learned the logistics are challenging.

  4. 4.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    Send J&J abroad.

    Might not be so easy to do. The story cites significant logistics issues when that possibility was suggested.

  5. 5.

    Sloane Ranger

    Tuesday in the UK we had 6048 new cases. This is an increase of 60.6% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,

    England – 5250 (up 337)

    Northern Ireland – 81 (up 27)

    Scotland – 695 (up 54)

    Wales – 22 (down 53).

    Deaths – There were 13 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is an increase of 67.4% in the rolling 7-day average. All the deaths were in England.

    Testing – 928,425 tests were administered on Monday, 7 June. This is an increase of 8.2 in the rolling 7-day average. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on this date was 591,656.

    Hospitalisations – There were 957 people in hospital on Sunday, 6 June and 148 people on ventilators on Monday, 7th. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions as of 2 June was down 0.6%.

    Vaccinations – As of 7 June, 40,573,517 people had received 1 shot of a vaccine and 28,227,362 had had both. In percentage terms this means that 77% of all adults in the UK have had 1 shot and 53.6% were fully vaccinated.

    General – The Mayor of Greater Manchester has urged the government to prioritise vaccines to Manchester and the wider north-west in an effort to curb the spread of the Delta variant. A government spokesperson has said that they plan to surge testing in that area but they are not considering prioritising vaccine distribution there. I can see arguments on both sides here so I’m not sure who is right.

  6. 6.

    Brachiator

    Don’t know if people saw this California story earlier:

    Neighboring Napa County is reporting their first coronavirus death of a person who was fully vaccinated. Officials confirmed that the Napa woman was over the age of 65, had underlying medical conditions, and died after a prolonged hospitalization. They also confirmed that the woman tested positive for the UK variant of the virus known as B-117, which is more transmissible and can cause more severe symptoms.

    The woman is one of 32 fully vaccinated people in Napa County that became symptomatic and tested positive for COVID-19. She is the 82nd person to die of coronavirus in Napa County

  7. 7.

    Suzanne

    According to CovidActNow, cases are going up (slowly, but still) in Nevada and Wyoming. WTF.

    Allegheny County seems to have changed their reporting, and I don’t know why. Up until now, they reported cases daily, except Monday’s report would be for the two days prior. But this week, they reported three days on Monday, and then didn’t report yesterday. I am wondering if they are planning to reduce frequency of reporting because cases are still dropping.

    I want this to be over. I’m not good at being patient.

  8. 8.

    Raoul Paste

    Thanks for this comprehensive update

    It’s so bizarre that Governor Abbott will force aTexas hospital to hire unvaccinated workers      It’s like a bad movie   Abbott’s personal physician should publicly quit him over this

  9. 9.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 6,239 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 633,891 cases. He also reports 75 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 3,611 deaths — 0.57% of the cumulative reported total, 0.65% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 81,575 active and contagious cases; 905 are in ICU, 453 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 7,386 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 541,319 patients recovered – 86.56% of the cumulative reported total.

    15 new clusters were reported today.

    6,228 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 2,288 local cases: 59 in clusters, 1,683 close-contact screenings, and 546 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 701 local cases: 41 in clusters, 428 close-contact screenings, and 232 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan reports 503 local cases: 89 in clusters, 320 close-contact screenings, and 94 other screenings.
    Johor reports 467 local cases: 105 in clusters, 241 close-contact screenings, and 121 other screenings. Sarawak reports 419 cases: 73 in clusters, 266 close-contact screenings, and 80 other screenings.

    Kelantan reports 340 cases: 128 in clusters, 174 close-contact screenings, and 38 other screenings.

    Sabah reports 232 cases: 58 in clusters, 122 close-contact screenings, and 52 other screenings. Pahang also reports 232 cases: 144 in clusters, 57 close-contact screenings, and 31 other screenings. Labuan reports 200 cases: 52 in clusters, 79 close-contact screenings, and 69 other screenings.

    Penang reports 194 cases: 70 in clusters, 84 close-contact screenings, and 40 other screenings. Perak reports 175 cases: 59 in clusters, 43 close-contact screenings, and 73 other screenings. Terengganu reports 171 cases: 85 in clusters, 62 close-contact screenings, and 24 other screenings. Melaka reports 150 cases: 20 in clusters, 104 close-contact screenings, and 26 other screenings. Kedah reports 135 cases: 16 in clusters, 90 close-contact screenings, and 29 other screenings.

    Putrajaya reports 17 cases: nine in clusters, six close-contact screenings, and two other screenings. Perlis reports four cases: three close-contact screenings, and one other screening.

    11 new cases today are imported: four in Negeri Sembilan, three in Selangor, three in Kuala Lumpur, and one in Johor.

  10. 10.

    Matt McIrvin

    Will any state actually ban vaccination? It’s about even odds at this point.

    I could actually see a mask ban happening in tandem with a ban on vaccine mandates, because there’s pre-COVID precedent for mask bans.

  14. 14.

    dr. bloor

    The vaccination rollout may be the most dramatic governmental success story of my lifetime. Its most obvious rivals—the moon landings, the Gulf War, the end of the Cold War—occurred so long ago that no one under 30 will have personal memories of them.

    Poor Max.  No matter how hard he tries to look reformed, he inevitably shows his ass.

  15. 15.

    Brian Perkins

    Max Boot just used your blogpost to brag about the “success” of the Gulf War. Did you notice how he tried to normalize that atrocity of his?

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    His Majesty the Agong has been summoning politicians — from the ruling coalition as well the opposition — to the National Palace, to discuss the pandemic and the growing public dissatisfaction with the Government’s handling of it.
    From The Guardian:

    Joseph Sipalan has this despatch for Reuters from Kuala Lumpur, where he reports Malaysia’s king has started a series of meetings with leaders of political parties, amid public discontent over the government’s handling of a coronavirus crisis that has forced the nation into a third lockdown.

    Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s administration imposed strict Covid-19 measures from June 1-14 to address a surge in infections and deaths, on top of an ongoing national emergency to curb the spread of the disease.

    But those have led to public frustration over a perceived slow rollout of vaccinations, haphazard policymaking and uneven enforcement of coronavirus curbs that critics say royalty and elites have been allowed to skirt.

    Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who spent an hour with King Al-Sultan Abdullah, said the national emergency has done more harm than good.

    “We presented our view that allowing this emergency to continue will lead to losses to the country,” Anwar told reporters. “It does not help with the handling of Covid and it effects the economy, especially those in the lower rungs of society.”

    Muhyiddin was the first to meet with the king, ahead of his weekly cabinet meeting. Other political leaders are expected at the palace over the next few days, including ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad.

    In a statement, the national palace said the king has convened a special meeting of the council of rulers on Wednesday to discuss efforts to battle the epidemic during the emergency.

    Intensive care beds for Covid patients in Malaysia have reached full capacity [see 6.11], according to the country’s health director general, who said the country’s pandemic remained at a critical level.

    I’m not sure where the Agong is thnking of going with this. He and the other Malay Rulers have no executive powers. They can be as unhappy as they want with the government of the day and they can definitely make things really awkward for Muhyiddin Yassin, but they have no constitutional authority to wade in and start issuing orders. If this ends in a harrumphing but ineffectual media statement from the Agong and the Malay Rulers, I’m going to be disappointed in them but not very surprised.

  17. 17.

    randy khan

    I am watching the reporting of new cases pretty closely. Part of what’s happening with the current (small) U.S. upturn is that we’re losing the Memorial Day weekend when reporting was spotty (Memorial Day had only 5,000 cases and came off the 7-day average yesterday), but haven’t worked off the little spike from catching up on reporting after the weekend. In another few days both will be out of the 7-day average and we’ll have a clearer view.

  18. 18.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 6/8 China reported 8 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Guangdong Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 confirmed case recovered.

    • Guangzhou reported 8 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic). Of the 7 new cases 5 are at Liwan District & 2 at Nansha District. all of the new confirmed cases are traced close contacts. There are 2 sub-districts at High Risk, as well as 2 sub-districts & 7 residential compounds at Medium Risk.
    • Zhanjiang did not report any new domestic positive case. 1 residential compound remains Medium Risk.
    • Maoming did not reported any new domestic positive cases.
    • Foshan did not report any new domestic positive cases. 3 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.
    • Shenzhen did not report any new domestic positive cases.

    Liaoning Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There are 3 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases at Yingkou.

    In Yunnan Province, 1 domestic confirmed case recovered, there currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases.

    Imported Cases

    On 6/8 China reported 8 new imported confirmed cases, 9 imported asymptomatic cases, 11 imported suspect case:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Côte d’Ivoire (via Addis Ababa) & the UAE; 11 suspect cases, no information released
    • Beijing Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Greece; 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 2 confirmed cases, a Chinese national returning from Myanmar & a Mainland Chinese resident returning from Taiwan
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Mainland Chinese resident coming from Taiwan
    • Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), coming from  Cameroon, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Cambodia & 1 from the UAE
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both coming from the US, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Nigerian national coming from Kenya
    • Hefei in Anhui Province – 1 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Jiangsu Province (no location specified) – 1 asymptomatic cases, no information released

    Overall in China, 12 confirmed cases recovered, 18 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 2 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 604 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 413 active confirmed cases in the country (288 imported), 10 in serious condition (all domestic), 361 asymptomatic cases (338 imported), 11 suspect case (both imported). 8,987 traced contacts are currently 

    As of 6/8, 808.962M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 14.830M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 6/9, Hong Kong reported 4 new positive cases, all imported (1 each from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Austria & Lebanon).

  19. 19.

    Matt McIrvin

    @randy khan: I’ve been thinking the same thing. The “upturn” in 7-day averages was visible even in Massachusetts, but if you look at the daily case rates it just looks like there was a backlog in case reporting after the long Memorial Day weekend–date the cases by the actual test date and it goes away. On the other hand, it does look like the drop in cases is no longer super-exponential and might be flattening out, which makes sense given that the state basically lifted most restrictions on public behavior and mass vaccination is getting into the harder cases.

  20. 20.

    Wapiti

    @rikyrah: Make their daily job standing outside in the parking lot. Give them day shifts. Have a supervisor check to make sure they remain on duty. It’s Houston, hot as hell outside. They’ll quit or be fired for malingering in a couple weeks.

  21. 21.

    Ken

    @dr. bloor: Also, we’re coming up on the fiftieth anniversary of the final Moon landing, so it’s not just the under-30 cohort who have no memories of it.

  23. 23.

    Delk

    Texas is open 100% without any restrictions or limitations or requirements unless you are gay and want a wedding cake.

  24. 24.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 1,011 new cases of COVID-19 reported overnight, 1 new reported death of someone who tested positive within the past 28 days. The test positivity rate is 3.0%. The case numbers continue to increase but hospitalisations and ICU occupancy are remaining low compared to what they were a couple of months ago.

    There were 50,000 vaccinations up to this morning in Scotland, over 60% of them second doses. It seems the “surge” in the vaccination tempo is becoming the new normal, the Scottish government has said they have secured more capacity for vaccines and consumables going forward. Saying that most of the UK’s deliverable vaccines are the AstraZeneca adenovirus product and not the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines which are preferred for people under 40 who are about the only ones left to vaccinate here in the UK.

    Local news — A cruise ship which is sailing around the UK coast was forbidden to dock in Greenock on the Clyde and allow some of its passengers ashore and pick up more passengers. The cruiseliner operator is very cross that their theoretically tested and mostly-vaccinated passengers weren’t permitted to spend time wandering around Glasgow where the Delta variant of COVID-19 is running wild. Tough titty.

  25. 25.

    Matt McIrvin

    A brilliant French cartoon:

    https://twitter.com/EricLagadec/status/1402253810639253505

    (translation: “A fine illustratIon of the view of climate change, or the pandemic, by our politicians and by scientists! (image by Aurélien Crida).”
    On the left side: “GOVERNMENT: All is well / rising plateau / AAAAAH! Exponential growth!”
    On the right side: “SCIENTISTS: Exponential growth / Exponential growth / Exponential growth”)

  26. 26.

    TheflipPsyD

    On the Max Boot story, am I the only one who bristled at the tag of a “bipartisan success story”? How is the successful vaccine rollout a bipartisan success story?  Seems to me it is a Biden success story. This is what gets me so frustrated — democratic success stories are framed as “bipartisan” in the media, whereas Republican success stories (although I can’t think of any) are Republican success stories and framed as being successful despite the Democrats.  I only skimmed the article and don’t know Max Boot, but still, this is part of the problem. The media only declares a Democratic success if it is bipartisan.

  27. 27.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Robert Sneddon:

     

    Local news — A cruise ship which is sailing around the UK coast was forbidden to dock in Greenock on the Clyde and allow some of its passengers ashore and pick up more passengers. The cruiseliner operator is very cross that their theoretically tested and mostly-vaccinated passengers weren’t permitted to spend time wandering around Glasgow where the Delta variant of COVID-19 is running wild. Tough titty.

    You’d have thought the company would have checked with the Scottish Government before issuing their itinerary, or maybe that’s just me.

  29. 29.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Sloane Ranger: You’d have thought the company would have checked with the Scottish Government before issuing their itinerary, or maybe that’s just me.

    You would have thought that people flying off to foreign destinations for holidays would have it in the back of their minds that the UK government, the scientists and everyone else with a clue had warned them that their destination might be red-listed at a moment’s notice while they were sunning themselves on a beach in, say, Portugal, and they might have to spend thousands of quid on ten days compulsory quarantine when they come back, but no.

    “They didn’t warn us!” Actually, they did, repeatedly.​

  30. 30.

    VOR

    @Brian Perkins:  I assume “the Gulf War” to be Operation Desert Storm in 1991, not the GW Bush war in 2003. Desert Storm was 30 years ago so anyone younger than, oh at least 35, would have no memory of it.

  31. 31.

    Fake Irishman

    NB about that Texas law, it’s not good but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t say anything  about employers being able to require employees to be vaccinated, especially in a health care setting. I don’t think Methodist is really impacted here

  34. 34.

    smith

    Really convenient of FL to stop reporting just as their cases stop declining. I saw that AL is also going to stop daily reporting. Guess what’s happening with their cases?

  35. 35.

    Ruckus

    @Citizen_X:

    If SFB Jr doesn’t report anything then there’s nothing to report. That’s how it goes in wonderland. The only time something is wrong is when you talk about it. And of course people die all the time, so just blame something/someone else and SFB Jr looks, OK I have to not laugh or scream here because I sure can’t make excuses for DeDipshit

  36. 36.

    Robert Sneddon

    Other news from around the UK — 7,500 new cases and 6 new deaths reported since yesterday. 350,000 vaccinations were provided nationwide. England has opened its vaccination appointments system to 25-year olds and up and the website got over a million applications on the first day.

     

    The case numbers keep creeping up, ditto for hospitalisations but the number of deaths are not rising as fast. The Delta variant is causing more and more concern especially in hotspots like Bolton and Manchester.

  38. 38.

    J R in WV

    Perhaps the federal govt should make payments into FL, AL, etc dependent upon good, current, accurate statistics on current health care circumstances?

    No data, no dinero?

  39. 39.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Robert Sneddon: the UK situation is what makes me think the US in fact is going to have another wave eventually, probably more than one and probably driven by Delta or some worse variant.

    It’ll infect a large fraction of the unvaccinated and some small but luridly publicized fraction of the vaccinated, and most people will not understand that breakthrough infections mean vaccination is more urgent rather than less.

    But I also think more Americans will end up vaccinated than currently seems possible; it’ll just take a while. The real endgame is when it becomes possible to mandate COVID vaccination for school kids–but in many parts of the country that will not happen, for ridiculous political reasons.

    However, I do not think we are currently seeing the beginning of the next wave here.

  40. 40.

    mrmoshpotato

    @J R in WV:

    Perhaps the federal govt should make payments into FL, AL, etc dependent upon good, current, accurate statistics on current health care circumstances?

    No data, no dinero?

    And hollering of “Tyranny!” would keep you up at night all the way up in West Virginia.

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