Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

The willow is too close to the house.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

So many bastards, so little time.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

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

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday / Thursday, June 16-17

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday / Thursday, June 16-17

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From goat to GOAT…


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More than 350 doctors and medical workers have caught COVID-19 in Indonesia despite being vaccinated with Sinovac and dozens have been hospitalised, officials said, as concerns grow about the efficacy of some vaccines against more infectious variants.

Most of the workers were asymptomatic and self-isolating at home, said Badai Ismoyo, head of the health office in the district of Kudus in central Java, but dozens were in hospital with high fevers and declining oxygen saturation levels.

Kudus, which has about 5,000 healthcare workers, is battling an outbreak believed to be driven by the more transmissible Delta variant which has pushed up its bed occupancy rates above 90%…

While the number of Indonesian healthcare workers dying from COVID-19 has dropped sharply from 158 in January to 13 in May, according to data initiative group LaporCOVID-19, public health experts say the Java hospitalisations are cause for concern.

“The data shows they have the Delta variant (in Kudus) so it is no surprise that the breakthrough infection is higher than before, because, as we know, the majority of healthcare workers in Indonesia got Sinovac, and we still don’t know yet how effective it is in the real world against the Delta variant,” said Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist at Australia’s Griffith University…

Weeks after the Muslim Eid Al-Fitr holidays, Indonesia has experienced a surge in cases, with the positivity rate exceeding 23% on Wednesday and daily cases nearing 10,000, its highest since late February…

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Reader Interactions

51Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY stats:

    Vaccinations in Monroe County:

    58.9% with at least 1 jab
    54% totally vaccinated

    New COVID cases:

    15 new cases – 6 are children under 19. Children have the most cases for the 3rd day in a row. Let’s get ’em vaccinated!

    .7% test positivity

    Deaths at 1320.

  2. 2.

    mrmoshpotato

    At a fully vaccinated @foofighters show at @canyonagoura and the anti-vaxxers are here in full force

    Did anyone see a pair of eyeballs roll by?

    These slapdicks…

  3. 3.

    Spanky

    Fucking Sinovax.

    Also too, “Delta Plus” should just be “Epsilon”, but no one listens to me.

  4. 4.

    germy

    A study of 2 million post-Covid patients found that nearly one quarter have sought medical care for long-haul health problems—including many who initially experienced only mild or no symptoms. https://t.co/E6PISM00JL

    — Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) June 16, 2021

  6. 6.

    satby

    The SinoVac vaccine is only 50% effective and countries that went big on it for their vaccination campaigns have been seeing surges of covid, so I’m glad to see some countries opt for the better choices now available. 50% was better than nothing, but it’s probably even less effective against the Delta version of the virus.

    Edit: and that rush by China to be first and flood the world with their vaccine diplomacy is going to bite them in the ass.

  7. 7.

    sab

    American adults are acting like Covid19 is over. But our children cannot be vaccinated yet. What kind of society writes off its children?

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    Countries reporting the most COVID deaths:

    U.S. ~608k
    Brazil ~494k
    India ~381k
    Mexico ~231k
    Peru ~190k
    U.K. ~128k
    Russia ~128k
    Italy ~127k
    France ~111k
    .
    This is based on officially released numbers. The true toll will never be fully known.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    @satby: 

    The principle of “do it fast rather than do it right” is not new, but it seems to have spread like wildfire over the last several years.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    More locally,

    Hawaii County[*] officials report the COVID cluster at the Hawaii Community Correctional Center swelled to 218 cases.

    Of the confirmed cases, 199 were among inmates, and 19 were in staff members.

    In response to this, and to quell fears of community spread, the county is setting up free short-term testing sites in Hilo. Source

    *Familiarly known as the Big Island

  11. 11.

    Cermet

    The delta variant will likely hit the unvaccinated here in the US hard (actually, fantastic news if it truns out true) causing many of these ‘stupid’ to realize they need to be vaccinated. As for all the rest that can’t or it has little help being vaccinated, nature is cruel as are right wingers.

    Glad putin the asshole is forcing russians (civil servants) to be vaccinated. The more people vaccinated the safer we all are. Now we need to speed up deliveries to South America more out of self interest than being autistic.

  12. 12.

    germy

    The real tragedy with COVID is that people were so afraid of dying that they stopped living.

    — Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) June 15, 2021

    I think the real tragedy is the 600,000 Americans who died from Covid. And the more than 600,000 family members of those 600,000 dead Americans who’s hearts are broken. But what do I know. I’m not a member of the US Congress! ??‍♂️ P.S. you’re a fucking asshole.?? https://t.co/GUsRAs96BY

    — Poor Kid Who Chased His Dreams. (@DaveBautista) June 17, 2021

  13. 13.

    Cermet

    @NotMax: We really know that Russian is over 400 K and India is far more than double that though they will never be fully able to tally those deaths. We also know the death rate in the US is too low (thanks to numerous causes, not always covid, but caused by fear of it.)

  15. 15.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Cermet:

    Now we need to speed up deliveries to South America more out of self interest than being autistic. 

    Autoincorrect woke up early today!

    Altruistic? ?

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    @sab:

    What kind of society writes off its children?

     
    Why, the pro-forced-birth GOP and their minions, of course.

  22. 22.

    satby

    @Baud: well, desperate times and all, so 50% seemed like a better than nothing gamble, I’m sure. But China was busy offering the majority of their vaccine to other countries before fully vaccinating their own citizens just to beat Russia and the west. And the efficacy of the Sputnick vaccine is still a big ?  Now that Novavax looks like a 90% rate of protection including against most current mutations, other countries will be competing to get one of the higher protective vaccines, and revaccinating their citizens again.

  25. 25.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 5,738 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 678,764 cases. He also reports 60 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 4,202 deaths — 0.62% of the cumulative reported total, 0.69% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 66,067 active and contagious cases; 909 are in ICU, 441 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 7,530 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 608,465 patients recovered – 89.69% of the cumulative reported total.

    25 new clusters were reported today. Of the cumulative total of 2,557 clusters, 795 are still active while 1,762 are now inactive.

    5,735 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 1,857 local cases: 212 in clusters, 945 close-contact screenings, and 700 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 1,086 cases: 392 in clusters, 444 close-contact screenings, and 250 other screenings.

    Kuala Lumpur reports 639 local cases: 183 in clusters, 281 close-contact screenings, and 175 other screenings.

    Sarawak reports 559 cases: 96 in clusters, 353 close-contact screenings, and xx other screenings.
    Johor reports 449 cases: 158 in clusters, 211 close-contact screenings, and 80 other screenings.

    Sabah reports 248 cases: 108 in clusters, 85 close-contact screenings, and 55 other screenings.

    Kedah reports 197 cases: 74 in clusters, 80 close-contact screenings, and 43 other screenings. Melaka reports 184 cases: 92 in clusters, 53 close-contact screenings, and 39 other screenings. Kelantan reports 154 cases: 15 in clusters, 101 close-contact screenings, and 38 other screenings.

    Penang reports 97 cases: 26 in clusters, 47 close-contact screenings, and 24 other screenings. Labuan also reports 97 cases: nine in clusters, 58 close-contact screenings, and 30 other screenings. Terengganu reports 77 cases: nine in clusters, 58 close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings. Pahang reports 54 cases: 18 in clusters, 24 close-contact screenings, and 12 other screenings.

    Perak reports 30 cases: seven in clusters, 15 close-contact screenings, and eight other screenings. Putrajaya reports seven cases: six close-contact screenings and one other screening. Perlis reports no new cases today.

    Three new cases today are imported: two in Kuala Lumpur, one in Selangor.

  26. 26.

    Barbara

    @satby: ​It is probably a reasonable choice for countries with strong public health measures and high compliance, and it’s hard to argue that countries are worse off than they would have been. OTOH, it’s likely to lead to greater mistrust in public health messaging.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    @sab

    What kind of society writes off its children?

    The circumstances and methodology may change but children as a disposable commodity is hardly a new phenomenon. (Link goes to descriptions some may find excessively disturbing.)

  28. 28.

    germy

    @NotMax:

    The New Hampshire Libertarian Party recently said children would learn more working at a job than in school.  (This was their response to the Critical Race Theory “controversy”)

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    @rikyrah

    Actually, prisoners were included in the first tier of vaccination eligibility here back in January, along with health care workers and suchlike. One can only presume many of them refused being vaccinated when offered it then, or that seriousness given to timely implementation varied from facility to facility.

  32. 32.

    satby

    @Barbara: As I said, for the countries that, at the time, had no other options it was better than nothing. But human nature being what it is, people who were vaccinated relaxed a bit, and the virus has surged in those countries. That’s going to undermine both those governments and China’s attempt at vaccine diplomacy.

  33. 33.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 6/16 China reported 4 new domestic confirmed & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Guangdong Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    • Guangzhou reported 4 new domestic confirmed cases, all at the epicenter sub-district in Liwan District, all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 6/7 or 6/10. 1 residential compound has been re-designated as Low Risk. 2 sub-districts remain at High Risk, 5 sub-districts & 6 residential compounds remain 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. 2 residential compounds have been redesigned as Low Risk. 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.
    • Shenzhen reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a Chinese Customs worker at the Bao’an International Airport & living in Nanshan District. Currently, it is unknown whether the case is connected to the outbreak at the Yantian Port (at the other end of the city). The residential compound the case lives in is under lock down, 87 close contacts have been traced and quarantined.

    Zhejiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 3 domestic asymptomatic cases at Wenzhou.

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

    In Yunnan Province, there currently is 1 domestic confirmed case remaining at Ruili in Dehong Prefecture.

    Imported Cases

    On 6/16 China reported 15 new imported confirmed cases, 24 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 3 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from South Africa & 1 from Lesotho (via Johannesburg); 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the South Sudan
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 5 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from France & 1 each from Bangladesh & Myanmar, & a foreign national coming from Mali (via Côte d’Ivoire, Congo, Rwanda & Nairobi)
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 4 asymptomatic cases, 2 coming from the DRC & 1 each from Ghana & Liberia, off flights that landed at Guangzhou
    • Zhongshan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the UAE, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Yunnan Province (locations not specified) – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar via land border crossing
    • Kunming in Yunnan Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Laos
    • Quanzhou in Fujian Province – 2 confirmed cases (both previously suspect), both Mainland Chinese residents returning from Taiwan
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), a Chinese national coming from Japan; 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 coming from Japan & 1 fro Kenya
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the US
    • Shanghai Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Russia & the UK (via Amsterdam Schiphol)
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UK (via Copenhagen)
    • Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from Argentina
    • Wuhan in Hubei Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from Pakistan
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), a Hungarian national coming from Hungary (via Frankfurt); 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Cambodia, Germany & Ghana (via Amsterdam Schiphol)
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 5 asymptomatic cases, 1 each from Spain, Peru, Egypt, Nigeria & India
    • Ningbo Port in  Zhejiang Province – 1 asymptomatic case, an Ukrainian crew member off a cargo ship w/ last port of call in the US 

    Overall in China, 15 confirmed cases recovered, 14 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 4 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 974 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 491 active confirmed cases in the country (337 imported), 16 in serious condition (4 imported), 427 asymptomatic cases (405 imported), 1 suspect case (imported). 16,116 traced contacts are currently  under quarantine.

    As of 6/16, 945.15M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 21.24M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 6/17, Hong Kong did not report any new positive cases.

  35. 35.

    Sloane Ranger

    Wednesday in the UK we had 9055 new cases. This is an increase of 31.8% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,

    England – 7642 (up 1156)

    Northern Ireland – 143 (up 28)

    Scotland – 1129 (up 155)

    Wales – 141 (up 43).

    Deaths – There were 9 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. There has been no change in the rolling 7-day average. 8 of the deaths were in England and 1 in Scotland.

    Testing – 777,277 tests were conducted on Tuesday, 15 June. This is an increase in the rolling 7-day average of 6%. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on this date was 579,128.

    Hospitalisations – There were 1177 people in hospital on Monday, 14 June and 206 on ventilators on Tuesday, 15 June. As of 12 June, the rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions was up by 41.4%.

    Vaccinations – As of 15 June, 42,021,089 people had received 1 shot of a vaccine and 30,440,373 had had both. In percentage terms this means that 79.8% of all adults in the UK have had 1 shot of a vaccine and 57.8% were fully vaccinated.

  36. 36.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Cermet: South Dakota was hit really hard last winter and yet they have pretty low vaccinate rate.

  38. 38.

    Ken

    @germy: I think she stole that line.

    I never killed anyone. People were so afraid of dying that they stopped living.

    — John Kramer, the killer in the Saw movies

  39. 39.

    Ken

    @germy: New Hampshire Libertarian Party

    Aren’t those the people who took over a town, destroyed its economy, and ended up being attacked by bears?

    Ah, pardon me. After Googling, I see that it was those other libertarians.

  40. 40.

    Cameron

    @Cermet:  By the time they realize they should get vaccinated, it will probably be too late. Suspect that middle to end of July are going to be really bad.

  42. 42.

    Barbara

    @satby: There is a lot of muddled messaging.  So, I totally agree that any purveyor of any vaccine should be as transparent as possible, but there is a lack of transparency and nuance in every direction.  A surge in cases without a surge in hospitalization might not actually be all that problematic.  Or it might be that the surge in hospitalization is among the remaining population that is unvaccinated, while those who are vaccinated might have mild disease.  In which case, you redouble your efforts to vaccinate everyone you can with any vaccine available.  Vaccinating everyone quickly with a less effective vaccine may actually yield greater benefits than a slower roll out of a best in class vaccine.

  43. 43.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @satby:

    well, desperate times and all, so 50% seemed like a better than nothing gamble, I’m sure. But China was busy offering the majority of their vaccine to other countries before fully vaccinating their own citizens just to beat Russia and the west. And the efficacy of the Sputnick vaccine is still a big ?  Now that Novavax looks like a 90% rate of protection including against most current mutations, other countries will be competing to get one of the higher protective vaccines, and revaccinating their citizens again.

    What are you suggesting then, for China and for the developing world at the end of 2020 and throughout 2021? That China should not have exported ~ 350M doses of vaccines to date, especially with COVID-19 largely eradicated in the country (barring sporadic local outbreaks that are contained)? Which vaccines would have been accessible to the countries that imported Chinese vaccines, especially with India largely halting exports due to its latest wave? Or are you suggesting that they should wait for another 6 – 12 months before the high efficacy vaccines become readily available  available around the world, and grit their teeth through the raging pandemic in the mean time?

    It’s all well and good that the G7 will donate 1B doses to the world, but completion of delivery is end of 2022, which is an eternity in pandemic time. The Quad had a much published plan earlier in the year to supply 1.5B doses to the Asia Pacific (largely relying upon Indian production capacity), to counter Chinese vaccine diplomacy, but that is on pause due to the situation in India.

    China has been in position to wage vaccine diplomacy because of its success in pandemic response and in ramping up vaccine production. The US and the EU have not been in a position to engage in vaccine diplomacy (until very recently) due to their failures in pandemic response, where mass vaccination of the domestic populations ASAP has become the last and only recourse. Instead of whining about how unfair/undeserved it is that China has taken advantage of the situation, perhaps the US and the EU should move on and try to win the next round. I don’t think people in the US and the EU really appreciate how much damage the vaccine deployment situation has incurred to their image and credibility in the developing world, which were not that high to begin with. One can criticize China for overselling the narrative, as overwhelming majority of vaccine doses exported are sold rather than donated (as w/ PPEs and medical supplies).

    The limitations of the Chinese inactivated whole virus vaccines (not just the Sinovac one) are by now well known: relatively low sterilizing efficacy even with two doses, very low protection after the 1st shot (so both are needed). That is the biggest difference with western vaccines like the J&J/Janssen & the AZ/Oxford. (The mRNA ones are in a class of their own.) Their uses are also by now well known: high efficacy against hospitalization and death, low demand on logistics (refrigeration for long term storage, no deep freezing needed). This is what was expected for the mature technology. It just means that countries deploying Chinese inactivated whole virus vaccines need to account for these attributes in their overall pandemic response, which unfortunately most of them failed to do – failing to clearly communicate to the population that precautions need to be maintained until 2 weeks after the 2nd shot, failing to maintain restrictions until vaccination rates have reached a high level. As the last and only resort to arrest an out of control pandemic, the Chinese inactivated whole virus vaccines are much less effective than the mRNA ones, but can eventually get there too with high enough vaccination rate (see the study done at Serrano in Sao Paolo State, Brazil).

    The 50.1% efficacy against symptomatic infection figure for the Sinovac vaccine comes from the only well documented Phase III trial at Sao Paolo State in Brazil (there were smaller trials in other countries), on front line health care workers during the upsurge related to the Gamma Variant in Q3 – Q4 2020, and the trial protocol required even the slightest symptoms to trigger testing for infection. Since then, more efficacy data have come out of widespread deployment in the general population: near 70% efficacy against symptomatic infection in Brazil, ~ 66% in Chile, ~ 61% in Uruguay. Efficacies against hospitalization and deaths are consistently in the 85 – 95% range.  We can assume the efficacies numbers are based on mostly Gamma variant. The single shot J&J/Janssen vaccine is only ~ 66% effective against symptomatic infection (unknown against the Delta variant), is the US engaging in vaccine diplomacy with inferior product when 500K doses were donated to South Korea to vaccinate the country’s military? Japan’s donations are entirely of the AZ/Oxford vaccines, not used at all domestically, with efficacy in the mid-70s% against symptomatic infection (Alpha variant). Is Japan pushing inferior product to the world while keeping the best for itself (Pfizer/BioNTech)?

    The real world data from Chile, the Seychelles & the UAE (commonly cited by western MSM to cast doubt on effectiveness of Chinese vaccines) are consistent with what we understand about the Chinese inactivated whole virus vaccines: cases surge (suggesting relatively low sterilizing efficacy) but deaths remain flat (suggesting good efficacies against severe disease & death, as the elderly are typically prioritized for vaccination in these countries), large majorities of hospitalizations & deaths are among the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, & that higher vaccinate rates are required to reach herd immunity with the Chinese inactivated whole virus vaccines. Western MSM also never report on countries that largely relied upon Chinese vaccines and have gotten their situations under control – Serbia, for example.

    Efficacies against the Delta variant are scarce, what I have seen are are that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine’s efficacy against symptomatic infection is reduced from ~ 95% to low 80s%, and AZ/Oxford vaccine’s efficacies against symptomatic infection is reduced from mid-70s% to low 60s%. Efficacies against hospitalization & death remain high, though also reduced. The worse news is that single doses no longer offer much protection. Efficacy against symptomatic infection w/ single dose of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is reduced from > 80% to ~ 60%, for AZ/Oxford vaccine it is reduced from > 60% to ~ 30%. We should assuming similar trends for other vaccines.

    It is sad that dozens of Indonesian health care workers at Kudus are hospitalized despite being vaccinated. However, monthly death count for Indonesian health care workers have collapsed from 138 in Jan. (before mass vaccination) to 12 in May (after mass vaccination). So, should Indonesia have foregone mass vaccination with the Sinovac vaccine? To me, the anecdotes out of Kudus suggests that the Indonesian authorities need to do a better job protecting the medical staff, instead of relying on vaccination as the primary defense. Health care workers operate under high stress, in high viral exposure environment. There would be hospitalizations and deaths even if they used the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine.

    The urgent public health response requires vaccination of as much of the world’s population ASAP, which whatever vaccine that has passed muster w/ the WHO, then roll out the most effective boosters later, which are likely required, anyway. All of the geopolitically motivated sniping are decided counterproductive (whether it is Russian sh*t stirring against Pfizer/BioNTech, western MSM crapping on Chinese vaccines, or Chinese state media writing ominous stories magnifying  the rare severe events with western vaccines, though the last one has largely disappeared as China’s own vaccination drive went into high gear since Feb.).

  44. 44.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    so, nate mendel headlined the antivaxxx protest, then played the bass for the foos?

    #renaissanceman

  45. 45.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @sab: i am good with writing off the yung guevarista bernie supporters who touted the rona as a boomer remover in spring 2020.

  47. 47.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @germy: give the glibertarians this: they are evidence that my erstwhile (also glibertarian) friends’s postulate that “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” is the truer version of the original axiom.

  48. 48.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Reuters Headline via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    Hundreds of Indonesian doctors contract COVID-19 despite vaccination, dozens hospitalised

    This is the kind of headline that drives me nuts. Especially when the first sentence reads:

    JAKARTA, June 17 (Reuters) – More than 350 doctors and medical workers have caught COVID-19 in Indonesia despite being vaccinated with Sinovac …

    The headline should clearly be something like:

    Dozens of Indonesian doctors hospitalized with COVID-19 despite Sinovac vaccination

    Instead, with the top headline, we’ll get anti-vaxxers using it to promote their “vaccines don’t work” propaganda, and thousands (millions?) further buying into their bullshit because they either never read or never see the sentence specifying the problem is with one weak vaccine, Sinovac, and not Covid-19 vaccines in general.

    Arrgh!

  49. 49.

    Barbara

    @YY_Sima Qian: You write in much greater detail than I can muster, but the overall problem is how to give the greatest number the greatest benefits without making the better the enemy of the best.  To me, the difficulty comes when public health authorities have to persuade people to take the vaccine but then ask them to continue adhering to public health restrictions.  A vaccine with 50% efficacy is clearly better than no vaccine but it isn’t “good enough” to drop all restrictions until a huge percentage of people have been vaccinated.  Conveying that message in a way that it will be grasped without making people give up on getting vaccinated seems to elude public health authorities and the public they serve.

    And I totally agree — it’s not for us to criticize China for going out of its way to supply other countries with vaccines.  But still, transparency and more honest messaging would make the situation on the ground better.

  51. 51.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @moops: What I post are the summaries of what local health commissions across the country report. The National Health Commission publishes the national summaries in English, which is then referenced by international media. The situation described in these reports align with the my lived experience, those of my family/friends/colleague around the country, as well as those of Chinese residents and foreign expats sharing their experiences on Chinese and international social media.

    Considering that these days even a single case, especially community transmission without identified source of infection, would trigger aggressive contact tracing, mass screening and localized lock downs, I find it unlikely that local or national authorities are hiding cases since the end of the 1st wave. Precedent in Wuhan in late Dec. 2019 to mid-Jan. 2020 (and repeated around the world since) has established that minimizing the situation only leads to disaster, and now we have much more transmissible variants attaining dominance.

    There are instances where I am skeptical of a case being classified as “imported” despite having passed through 3 – 4 weeks of centralized and home quarantines after entry into China, potential infection in quarantine hotels should have been investigated more seriously. China also has only reported 1 or 2 COVID-19 deaths since middle of 2020, despite thousands of imported & domestic cases. Could some COVID-19 deaths have been classified as non-COVID? It is conceivable. China only counts a death as COVID-19 death if the case was still testing positive at the time, and the cause of death is related to conditions induced by COVID-19 disease.

    Having closely scrutinized the data in China since the beginning of the pandemic, I do not see reason to doubt the accuracy of the data since end of the 1st wave. Data from Dec. 2019 – Feb. 2020 is another matter, both because of obfuscation by the government and because reliable tests (or unreliable tests, for that matter) were not readily available back then to confirm cases.

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