Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

In after Baud. Damn.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Let me file that under fuck it.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Republicans in disarray!

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Republicans do not trust women.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Friday / Saturday, June 18-19

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Friday / Saturday, June 18-19

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… People simply don’t want to get vaccinated! Still, many have done so, including this author. Generally, the young and educated residents of Russia’s largest cities — the so-called “new middle class” — have been most willing to get the vaccine. They consider themselves world citizens, vacation in Berlin and Paris and watch Netflix and HBO. They don’t need to be convinced that vaccination is a good idea: they volunteer for it and talk their friends and co-workers into it as well…

Putin’s supporters, however, have not been getting vaccinated. These are the older Russians, generally less educated, who travel abroad only rarely, if at all…

People who had said nothing when the authorities rigged election results, forced the courts to find innocent people guilty, shut down independent media outlets, jailed opposition members and tortured prisoners have finally started speaking out. “You are impinging on our freedoms,” they cried as the authorities came after them with a syringe.

They’ll shout for a time, but they’ll stop soon enough. Some will buckle and get the vaccine, but many more will turn to the already flourishing black market for a fake certificate of vaccination. The going price for such documents has already reached $200 in Moscow. And those same people will go home satisfied that they have outsmarted the system…

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Here in several low-income Massachusetts towns (Laurence, Lowell, Fall River… ), pop-up clinics in the parking lots of local grocery chain Market Basket are offering $25 gift cards. From the TV spots I’m seen, people who hadn’t previously found the incentive to get vaxx’d have been more than happy to do so when it’s presented this way.

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    prufrock

    Putin supporters have the same attitudes and come from the same demographic as MAGAts?

    I am shocked, shocked!

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “Sixty-eitht percent versus 70 percent doesn’t matter,” said Andy Slavitt, who served as a senior adviser to the White House coronavirus response before stepping down last week. “What matters is 50 percent in Arkansas versus 90 percent in Vermont.”

    Well, here in the Hills and Hollers most of the counties are at 25% or less

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    Rush to bad judgment.

    After defending his push to get to a 70% vaccination rate before lifting all COVID restrictions, Gov. David Ige suggested Thursday he may be changing his mind on the matter. Source

    A scant few hours after his statements, the Dept. of Health announced three new COVID deaths added to the statistics.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    This is particularly true for Black and Hispanic/Latinx beneficiaries: over 50% cited lack of trust in gov’t as their reason for planning to decline the vaccine

    That’s half of the people who said they plan to decline, not half of all people, correct?

    I’m no longer sympathetic to the lack of trust argument. It was fine at the beginning, but we have too much experience with the vaccine to justify lack of trust as reasonable.

  6. 6.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 5,911 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 691,115 cases. He also reports 72 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 4,348 deaths — 0.63% of the cumulative reported total, 0.69% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 64,522 active and contagious cases; 886 are in ICU, 441 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 6,918 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 622,244 patients recovered – 90.03% of the cumulative reported total.

    24 new clusters were reported today. Of the cumulative total of 2,604 clusters, 824 are still active while 1,780 are now inactive.

    5,910 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 2,110 local cases: 470 in clusters, 1,026 close-contact screenings, and 614 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 770 cases: 207 in clusters, 347 close-contact screenings, and 216 other screenings.

    Sarawak reports 569 cases: 124 in clusters, 358 close-contact screenings, and 87 other screenings.

    Johor reports 498 cases: 287 in clusters, 140 close-contact screenings, and 71 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 483 cases: 73 in clusters, 236 close-contact screenings, and 174 other screenings.

    Perak reports 245 cases: 176 in clusters, 50 close-contact screenings, and 19 other screenings. Kelantan reports 223 cases: 88 in clusters, 114 close-contact screenings, and 21 other screenings. Kedah reports 204 cases: 99 in clusters, 79 close-contact screenings, and 26 other screenings. Sabah reports 201 cases: 36 in clusters, 109 close-contact screenings, and 56 other screenings.

    Labuan reports 185 cases: 59 in clusters, 77 close-contact screenings, and 49 other screenings. Penang reports 167 cases: 128 in clusters, 22 close-contact screenings, and 17 other screenings. Melaka reports 134 cases: 29 in clusters, 62 close-contact screenings, and 43 other screenings.

    Terengganu reports 62 cases: four in clusters, 53 close-contact screenings, and five other screenings. Pahang reports 56 cases: 27 in clusters, 23 close-contact screenings, and six other screenings. Putrajaya reports three cases: two close-contact screenings and one other screening. Perlis reports no new cases today.

    One new case today is imported, in Selangor.

  7. 7.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: I don’t think they’re primarily scared of the vaccine, they’re scared of what the government might do to them in any interaction with it. After 4 years of Trump I can see the point.

  8. 8.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY stats:

    Vaccinations in Monroe County:

    59.1% with at least 1 jab
    54.5% totally vaccinated

    New COVID cases:

    24 new cases – 9 are children under 19. The age range for cases is pretty spread out.

    .8% test positivity

    Deaths at 1320.

    62 people hospitalized, 17 people in the ICU

  9. 9.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: 

    I’m no longer sympathetic to the lack of trust argument. It was fine at the beginning, but we have too much experience with the vaccine to justify lack of trust as reasonable.

    I’m increasingly unsympathetic to the it’s-hard-to-get-there-or-take-time-off-work argument, too. At this point, there are vaccine clinics and pharmacies with it all over the damn place. You don’t need to deal with stupid websites and limited slots and inconvenient times. I get that it makes you feel shitty for a window of time. But COVID makes you feel much worse for much longer. Time to be rational.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    @trnc:

     

    He should be thankful I’m not president. My plan is to introduce the modern equivalent of leper colonies for covid vaccine resistors.

  12. 12.

    Joe Falco

    All these incentives done in other states makes me wish Georgia officials offered gift cards to Krispy Kreme and Waffle House when I got both my shots!

  14. 14.

    p.a.

    *sigh*  GF exposed at work (nurse).  Now we’re in the 5-day procedure.  Both of us fully vacc’ed.  She actually had it early 12/20.  Lab never got my swab then, so if I had it it was asymptomatic.  SUX!

  17. 17.

    Sloane Ranger

    Friday the UK had 10,476 new cases. This is an increase of 33.3% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,

    England – 9185 (down 186)

    Northern Ireland – 178 (down 1)

    Scotland – 950 (down 367)

    Wales – 163 (up 23).

    Deaths – There were 11 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is an increase of 18% in the rolling 7-day average. 9 deaths in England and 2 in Scotland.

    Testing – 1,034,415 tests were conducted on Thursday, 17 June. This is an increase in the rolling 7-day average of 1.3%. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on this date was 579,131.

    Hospitalisations – There were 1251 people in hospital on Wednesday, 16 June and 210 on ventilators on Thursday, 17th. As of 14 June the rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions had risen by 40.1%.

    Vaccinations – As of 17 June, 42,460,632 people had received 1 shot of a vaccine and 30,898,467 had had both. In percentage terms this means that 80.6% of all adults in the UK have had 1 shot and 58.7% were fully vaccinated. Looking at the percentages across all home nations everyone seems to be broadly comparable, although Northern Ireland is lagging slightly behind the others for both 1st and 2nd shots. Wales is doing best with 1st shots but England has a higher percentage of 2nd shots in peoples arms.

  18. 18.

    artem1s

    Given that the University has had a vaccination center ON CAMPUS since March, I was shocked to find out that we’re barely able to get 60% to self report and upload images of their cards to the website.  I honestly don’t know if the low numbers are student or staff.  The U is trying to avoid mandates, but also lawsuits. If the Delta variant is running rampant come fall they can’t very well order vaccinated work or attend class along-side unvaccinated.  No one believes masking and distancing is going to work this fall anymore than it did last fall.  So while the lawyers are probably advising them they can’t mandate either return to campus or vaccinations, I imagine there may be a portion of the staff that may be hesitant to self report in the hopes that they will be able to continue to work from home.  The deplorables and the belligerent have the President’s office by the short hairs and they know it.

  21. 21.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 1,209 new cases of COVID-19 and two deaths reported yesterday (Friday). The test positivity rate is 4.5%.

    There were 39,000 vaccinations yesterday, split 50-50 between first and second doses. This brings the first-dose totals up to 81% of all 18+ adults.

    Public Health Scotland is starting to send out vaccination certificates which will include a downloadable QR-coded certificate for smartphones and connected devices as well as a paper copy. It’s still at an early stage but it’s planning for the future when services and events will be opening up to the public but they may be restricted to people with some kind of proof of vaccination. Validating evidence of vaccination for foreign travel is still in its infancy though with every country pretty much developing their own standards for visitors.

  23. 23.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 6/18 China reported 6 new domestic confirmed & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Guangdong Province reported 6 new domestic confirmed cases.

    • Guangzhou reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases, both at the epicenter sub-district in Liwan District, both have been under centralized quarantine since 6/7. To date, the outbreak in the city has accumulated 146 domestic confirmed cases & 6 domestic asymptomatic cases, with 16 domestic confirmed cases having recovered. This is a very high ratio of symptomatic to asymptomatic cases. 1 residential compound was re-designated from Medium Risk to Low Risk. 1 sub-district remains at High Risk, 3 sub-districts & 5 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.
    • Zhanjiang did not report any new domestic positive case. 1 residential compound remains Medium Risk.
    • Foshan reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a resident in the same building as the domestic confirmed case reported on 6/17, the residential compound has been under lock down since 6/4. 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.
    • Shenzhen reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases. 1 is service staff at a restaurant in the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, identified via mass screening of individuals deemed at risk (presumably workers at the airport). Genomic analysis shows that the sequence of viral samples from the case is identical to the infected Customs worker reported on 6/14, as well as 3 imported cases from South Africa. 32 imported positive cases have been identified from a single Air China flight from Johannesburg in the past few days. All of them have the Delta variant. As the Customs worker is part of the contact tracing team investigating imported cases, the breach probably happened there, though the transmission chain to the restaurant server is still unclear. The other case works at Nanshan District, where the Customs worker lives, identified at fever clinic. Source of infection still unclear, so we do not know if the case is connected to the Delta variant cluster from the airport, the Alpha variant cluster from the port, or the Delta variant outbreak at Guangzhou. The case’s spouse was also diagnosed as confirmed case at Dongguan, where they live. 1 residential compound was elevated to Medium Risk.
    • Dongguan (located between Guangzhou & Shenzhen) reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, identified at fever clinic, & is the spouse of one of the domestic confirmed cases reported by Shenzhen yesterday. 1 residential building was elevated to Medium Risk.

    Imported Cases

    On 6/18, China reported 24 new imported confirmed cases, 42 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:

    • Zhuhai Port in Guangdong Province – 6 confirmed cases, all Chinese crew members off a cargo ship with last port of call in Bangladesh; 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Benin, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the South Sudan (via Johannesburg); 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Kenya
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Liberia (via Istanbul); 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Burundi (via Nairobi), Cambodia & France
    • Zhongshan in Guangdong Province – 11 asymptomatic cases, 6 Chinese nationals returning from Gabon & 5 from Benin (all via Istanbul), all off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Bangladesh, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from the Maldives (via Colombo), off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Shanghai Municipality – 6 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Cambodia & 1 each from the UK (via Copenhagen), Spain, Canada & the DRC (via Addis Ababa); 1 suspect case, no information released
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 3 confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 1 Chinese national each returning from the Philippines, Georgia (via Amsterdam Schiphol) & Taiwan; 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national returning from Cambodia & the Netherlands 
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic cases, all coming from Indonesia
    • Yunnan Province (locations not specified) – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar via land border crossing
    • Xi’an in Shanxi Province – 2 confirmed cases, , off flights diverted from Beijing
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from Taiwan; 2 asymptomatic cases, both coming from Nigeria
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UK (via Copenhagen; 5 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 8 asymptomatic cases, 3 Chinese nationals returning from Algeria, 2 from Mexico (via Amsterdam Schiphol) & 1 each from Ghana (via Amsterdam Schiphol), the UK (via Amsterdam Schiphol) & Canada
    • Tianjin Municipality – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Congo (Brazzaville) (via Paris CdG) & the US
    • Nanning In Guangxi Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Yanji in Jilin Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from South Korea; the case arrived at Shenyang in Liaoning Province on 5/28, went through the 14 days of centralized quarantine & had tested negative multiple times, upon release from quarantine on 6/11 the case took high speed rail to Yanji & re-entered centralized quarantine, tested positive on 6/18

    Overall in China, 28 confirmed cases recovered, 20 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 3 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 827 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 503 active confirmed cases in the country (351 imported), 21 in serious condition (8 imported), 455 asymptomatic cases (434 imported), 1 suspect case (imported). 15,695 traced contacts are currently  under quarantine.

    As of 6/18, 990.257M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 23.605M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 6/19, Hong Kong report led 1 new positive case, imported. As of 6/18, 3.1309M individuals have received vaccine shot(s) in the territory. 1.8829M individuals have received the 1 dose (824.4K w/ the Sinovac one & 1.0585M w/ the Fosun/BioNTech one), 1.248M individuals have completed 2 shots (516.3K w/ the Sinovac one & 731.7K w/ the Fosun/BioNTech one).

  24. 24.

    Percysowner

    @Joe Falco: Staying alive isn’t enough incentive?

    Seriously, though, Krispy Kreme is offering free donuts to anyone who has been vaccinated, no matter the date. I haven’t heard about Waffle House. The Ohio lottery incentive is for everyone who has been vaccinated, again regardless of date of vaccination.

    Yeah, you missed the free beer and a sandwich given during the vaccination process, but many of the offers don’t start on a particular date.

  25. 25.

    Central Planning

    @NeenerNeener: I was driving by the Pittsford Wegmans (an generally snooty and affluent suburb of Rochester, NY for the non-locals), there were a few cranks with signs that stated “IVERMECTIN CURES COVID.” That’s also where I sometimes see the anti-abortion crowd with their kids. Must be good business there.

    Just….ugh. I didn’t even know what that med was, but I’m sure not going to take medical advice from a couple morons on the side of the road. Turns out the drug is an anti-parasite medicine; it’s not an anti-viral.

    I wonder who they voted for and who they think is the duly elected president of the US. Just kidding. I already know the answer to that.

  26. 26.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @OzarkHillbilly: in west fuckin’ virginia, the plandemic virus bioweapon is as real as clean energy. the wuhan infectious disease research center is just solyndra’s latest metamorphosis.

  27. 27.

    FlyingToaster

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Per family back in the old hometown, not just the hills-n-hollers.

    My niece (the pediatric nurse) in Gladstone (suburban KCMO) is so frustrated.  She actually caught the damn virus at work last fall, got vaxxed with all the other sane healthcare workers in February, and got her spouse vaxxed in April.  But there is no mandate for teachers in NKC schools, there is no societal pressure or uptake, and her colleagues in the hospitals are losing the damn fight.

    Anyone who wonders why I emigrated to the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, THIS IS WHY.

  28. 28.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: It’s bad here too. Greene County is about 38% vacced, but the surrounding counties are lower, and they all come to the hospital in Springfield. How long until Parson has them quit reporting Covid deaths?

  29. 29.

    Bill Arnold

    The Yale study, amazingly, barely touches on seasonality of indoor mixing behavior. Indoor season in the US is in the colder months in northern states, and in the summer months in southern states. It is utterly clear from a year and a half of COVID-19 statistics gathering about clusters (and general transmission) that sharing of unfiltered exhalations indoors is the primary way SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted, so I’m a little surprised this survived Nature’s peer review. (The results are interesting and useful, to be clear.)
    Role of meteorological factors in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States (Yiqun Ma, Sen Pei, Jeffrey Shaman, Robert Dubrow & Kai Chen, Nature Communications, 14 June 2021)

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