Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

People are weird.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

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

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

You cannot shame the shameless.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

White supremacy is terrorism.

We still have time to mess this up!

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday / Monday, June 27-28

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday / Monday, June 27-28

by | 24 Comments

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday / Monday, June 27-28

(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)

Good news! (if proven, of course)


… “We’re not just going to do the mass vaccination sites,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “It’s door to door. It’s mobile clinics. We’re doing vaccinations at church, the PTA meeting, the barber shop, the grocery store.”

Officials have seized on a compelling new talking point, courtesy of the coronavirus. The potent delta variant that has ravaged India is spreading here. Now accounting for about 1 in 5 virus samples genetically decoded in the U.S., the more transmissible mutation has gained a foothold in Mountain West and heartland states. Many of those infected are young and unvaccinated.

The White House has lent its top names to the vaccine push.

President Joe Biden visited a mobile vaccination site in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday. Earlier in the day, first lady Jill Biden held the hand of a woman at a drive-thru vaccination site in Kissimmee, Florida.

Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, has racked up thousands of frequent flyer miles, visiting at least 18 or 19 states by his count.

The administration also has recruited celebrities and athletes, including country music star Brad Paisley and the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. It has teamed up with Twitch and Riot Games to reach online gamers and with Panera and Chipotle to offer free food to those getting a shot.

The message, as Surgeon General Vivek Murthy put it: “If you are vaccinated, you are protected. If you are not, the threat of variants is real and growing.” …

Analysts at HHS have developed a rough sketch of those in the movable middle. They tend to be younger, mainly 18-29. Most are not college educated, and political independents predominate. Black and Latino adults are more likely to fall in this category than people of other backgrounds…

======

Extraordinary, heartbreaking video essay:

Given a large enough number of cases, ‘rare’ still means too many very sick kids:

… The city, of course, needs to act in its citizens’ best interest, and has undoubtedly saved many from deaths with its ruthless “zero Covid” policy, unlike my home nations.

When we moved to Hong Kong, we knew the city was on the other side of the world, but with modern travel it never felt that far way. It was always possible to be home within a day.

But that’s no longer the case; the pandemic has made the world feel as big as it is actually is.

======

======

Thanks so much, all you ‘just asking questions’ high-profile conspiracy theorists!

Reader Interactions

24Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffery

    Got the strangest robocall from the City of Philadelphia Health Department saying I had only one injection of the covid vaccine. I had the two shots needed at their site in center city. Was told by the call if they were wrong to ignore the phone call. Wondering how they could not know I had both shots when they gave them to me.

  2. 2.

    rikyrah

    Thank you for information.
    The whole Wu-han lab thing…..trying to find some way to excuse the DELIBERATE MALICE of Dolt45’s Administration with regards to COVID.
    UH UH
    NOPE?

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    Looked at that Superspreader event in Ohio and could only think how happy Ms. Delta Rona was?

    ALL the while, their Orange Savior has been FULLY VACCINATED SINCE DECEMBER???

  4. 4.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Wuhan lab-leak theory fuels Trump comeback rally

    but I thought covid was a hoax

  5. 5.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 6/27 China reported 0 new domestic confirmed & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Guangdong Province did not report any new domestic confirmed cases.

    • Foshan did not reported any new domestic positive cases. 1 residential building remains at Medium Risk.
    • Shenzhen did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.
    • Dongguan did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 residential building & a college campus remain at Medium Risk.

    The last domestic confirmed case at Yingkou in Liaoning Province has recovered.

    Imported Cases

    On 6/27, China reported 21 new imported confirmed cases, 23 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:

    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 4 confirmed & 4 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Cambodia
    • Yunnan Province (locations not specified) – 3 confirmed cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar, via land border crossings
    • Kunming in Yunnan Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Indonesia & Myanmar
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national returning from Egypt & Oman; 4 asymptomatic cases, a Chinese & a foreign nationals returning from the DRC (via Nairobi) & 1 Chinese national each from Qatar (via Muscat) & Tanzania (via Nairobi)
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Cambodia & Bangladesh; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Cambodia; all off flights that landed at Guangzhou 
    • Jiangmen  in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UK (via Amsterdam Schiphol), off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province – 6 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals each returning from Indonesia, all off flights that landed at Guangzhou
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 3 confirmed & 1 asymptomatic cases, 2 Mainland Chinese & 2 Taiwanese residents coming from Taiwan
    • Changsha in Hunan Province – 2 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Shanghai Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Mali (via Paris CdG); 1 suspect case, no information released
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UAE
    • Jiangsu Province (location not specified) – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from the Ukraine (via Frankfurt) & Pakistan
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released, yet
    • Baishan in Jilin Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Guinea (via Paris CdG); the case arrived at Tianjin on 6/2, passed through 21 days of centralized quarantine, upon release from quarantine the case flew to Tonghua in Jilin Province (via Dalian in Liaoning Province) & was transferred to Baishan & re-entered centralized quarantine, testing positive on 6/27

    Overall in China, 21 confirmed cases recovered, 10 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 2 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 1,978 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 462 active confirmed cases in the country (390 imported), 12 in serious condition (11 imported), 481 asymptomatic cases (465 imported), 0 suspect cases. 16,499 traced contacts are currently  under quarantine.

    As of 6/27, 1,185.787M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 20.557M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 6/28, Hong Kong reported 3 new positive cases, all imported (from the UK, Namibia & Indonesia).

  6. 6.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Guangdong Provincial Health Commission has updated on the latest understanding of the Delta Variant:

    1. Infected patients have high viral loads, avg. CT count from RT-PCR tests on Delta variant patients is 21, compared to 28 from patients w/ Alpha variant, or 100X difference; high viral loads correlate w/ greater infectiousness and more severe disease
    2. There had been 5 generations of transmission within the first 10 days of the outbreak, w/ Rt of 4 – 5; w/o NPI measures & vaccination, ~ 730M people in Guangzhou could have been infected over the past 1.5 months
    3. Recovering patients take longer to test negative on RT-PCR, avg. of 13 – 15 days for those w/ Delta variant, compared to 7 – 9 days for other variants
    4. 15% of all cases progressed to severe or critical cases (in a partially vaccinated population), much higher than the normal ~ 5 – 10%, though demographic of the infected cases skewed older than general population

    Dr. Zhong Nanshan, who had taken prominent public roles during the efforts against both the 2003 SARS & COVID-19, & is China’s Dr. Fauci in terms of stature, recommended the following changes to pandemic response measures, due to the Delta variant’s greater infectiousness:

    1. Definition of close contacts needs to expanded – from individuals living together, working together, eating or meeting within 1 m, to individuals who occupied the same physical space & building, up to 4 days before onset of symptoms
    2. Fever clinics need to be more physically isolated from the rest of the hospital campuses: > 20 m distance, otherwise need negative pressure, disconnected from adjacent structures, all windows closed, and situated downwind from the rest of the campus
    3. Some hotels may not longer be suitable for quarantining close contacts; Guangzhou is constructing a dedicated structure w/ 5K rooms to quarantine returnees/visitors from overseas
    4. Chinese vaccines are still effective against the Delta variant: 2 shot of SinoPharm can still neutralize Delta variant virus, though at reduced titre; antibody titre from the 3 shot protein subunit vaccine from Anhui Zhifei Longcom only saw a 17% reduction against the Delta variant (I remember seeing the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine saw ~ 50 – 60% reduction, but it induces very high antibody response to begin with)
    5. Through analyzing the infection rate of close contacts in Guangdong, completing the dosing regimen of the Chinese vaccines attains ~ 60% efficacy against infection, 80% against developing pneumonia, > 95% efficacy against severe/critical disease (no one fully vaccinated developed severe disease); probably has very large error bars around these numbers due to the small number of cases

    There is still much to understand about the Delta variant. The 2 college students in Dongguang was infected when frequenting the same McDonald’s as another Delta variant case, having passed the table when the case was eating w/ mask off, only 14 sec in the vicinity. On the other hand, the immediate family members of the case (the case’s parent & child), who were eating w/ the case w/ mask off, & live in the same apartment, never tested positive. It is unlikely the child has been vaccinated.

  7. 7.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 5,218 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 739,266 cases. He also reports 57 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 5,001 deaths — 0.68% of the cumulative reported total, 0.74% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 61,812 active and contagious cases; 889 are in ICU, 451 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 4,744 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 672,453 patients recovered – 90.96% of the cumulative reported total.
    ,,
    22 new clusters were reported today. Of the cumulative total of 2,794 clusters, 880 clusters are currently active; 1,914 clusters are now inactive.

    5,211 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 1,989 cases: 266 in clusters, 1,160 close-contact screenings, and 563 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 629 cases: 154 in clusters, 283 close-contact screenings, and 192 other screenings.

    Kuala Lumpur reports 469 cases: 126 in clusters, 196 close-contact screenings, and 147 other screenings. Sarawak reports 405 local cases: 89 in clusters, 267 close-contact screenings, and 49 other screenings. Perak reports 400 cases: 329 in clusters, 42 close-contact screenings, and 29 other screenings.

    Sabah reports 258 cases: 100 in clusters, 100 close-contact screenings, and 58 other screenings. Johor reports 242 local cases: 84 in clusters, 103 close-contact screenings, and 55 other screenings.

    Kedah reports 194 cases: 58 in clusters, 98 close-contact screenings, and 38 other screenings. Melaka reports 183 cases: 142 in clusters, 23 close-contact screenings, and 18 other screenings. Pahang reports 109 local cases: 64 in clusters, 22 close-contact screenings, and 23 other screenings. Labuan reports 108 cases: seven in clusters, 71 close-contact screenings, and 30 other screenings. Kelantan reports 101 cases: 22 in clusters, 67 close-contact screenings, and 12 other screenings.

    Penang reports 88 cases: 42 in clusters, 21 close-contact screenings, and 25 other screenings. Terengganu reports 23 cases: 11 in clusters, 10 close-contact screenings, and two other screenings. Putrajaya reports eight cases: four close-contact screenings and four other screenings. Perlis reports five cases: two close-contact screenings and three other screenings.

    Seven new cases today are imported: four in Sarawak, two in Pahang, one in Johor.

  8. 8.

    Searcher

    You know, I haven’t crunched the numbers on this, but it probably makes economic sense for the US to pay for 15 billion vaccine does out of pocket to alleviate the risk of a new variety causing an nth round of lockdowns with the accompanying costs.

  9. 9.

    Argiope

    @Jeffery: you may want to call them and find out if both your vaccines made it into the ArmorVax system and, if not, have them reconcile that with your card.  Probably it was just an entry glitch on the robocall front.  It’s pretty unusual that a shot wouldn’t get recorded but if the system booted out the vaccinator during the submit process, that’s one way I can imagine it happening.

  11. 11.

    Searcher

    @Cameron: I wonder if the same holds for the flu, or if our lack of response to 1/10th the deaths means it’s cheaper just to eat them.

  12. 12.

    gvg

    @Searcher: The same calculation for the flu is not realistic. Flu is many strains and mutates constantly, thus all the vaccines have been far inferior and temporary. They just aren’t good enough to spend the money or effort and the lack of high rate of success could actually harm the reputation of vaccines in general.

    On the other hand, the new technology of the mRNA vaccines might change that answer…eventually.

  14. 14.

    Sloane Ranger

    Day 2 of my self isolation and just come back from having a PCR test. I should get the results in 1-3 days.

    Meanwhile, Sunday in the UK we had 14,876 reported new cases but usual weekend reporting delays means this is probably an undercount. This is an increase of 58.7% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,

    England – 11560 (this is a decrease of 3576 from Saturday but, in addition to the usual weekend undercount, there is a known delay in reporting cases from some data centres)

    Northern Ireland – 261 (down 37)

    Scotland – 2639 (down 197)

    Wales – 416 (includes cases for both Saturday and Sunday).

    Deaths – There were 11 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported yesterday but, weekend warning applies. This is an increase of 72.2% in the rolling 7-day average. 9 deaths were in England with 1 each in Scotland and Wales.

    Testing – Not updated at weekends.

    Hospitalisations – Not updated at weekends.

    Vaccinations – As at 26 June, 44,314,799 people had received 1 shot of a vaccine and 32,460,191 have had both. In percentage terms this means that, as of this date, 84.1% of all adults in the UK have had 1 shot and 61.6% were fully vaccinated.

  15. 15.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 3,285 new cases of COVID-19 reported, with possible missing results due to data processing issues at the Lighthouse RT-PCR testing lab in Glasgow. This number is a new one-day record in Scotland. The test positivity rate is 12.6%, another increase over the previous few weeks. Zero deaths were reported yesterday with the caveat that Register Offices are generally closed at the weekend.

    Hospitalisations and ICU bed occupancy figures continue to creep up but slowly and, as yet, there is no strain on available spaces.

    There were 30,000 vaccinations in Scotland yesterday, about 60% first-dose. This pushes the fully-vaccinated figure to 60.5% of all adults (18+) with 84.5% having received at least their first dose. The Scottish government’s aim is to have offered full two-dose vaccinations to all adults by the end of August, just over nine weeks from now.

  16. 16.

    A Ghost to Most

    The magic believers would rather die than admit that they’ve been conned.

  17. 17.

    Ohio Mom

    Photos of the line up Everest always make me shake my head.

    It does not look fun or exhilarating to wait your turn that way, and how can you consider it you own singular experience when you are clearly one of thousands (I googled, it’s about 800 a year to the top but year after year totals thousands). And although it may be a “first” for you as a climber, the guides do the trek all the time. It’s a typical workday for them.

    Knowing that they are getting sick from Covid, that they did not add the pandemic into their calculations, just makes me shake my head harder.

  20. 20.

    Butter Emails

    @charon:

     

    That poll indicates that a majority or plurality of Americans believe a lot of junk, including that Facebook is suppressing information on the garbage you listed and tends to censor conservatives over liberals.

  22. 22.

    charon

    @Butter Emails:

     

    That probably just means most people who pay attention to Facebook are “Conservatives”.

     

    I decided years ago Facebook is just a firehose of irrelevant garbage mixed with misinformation and disinformation, best to totally disregard

     

    (Russian Intelligence and other bad actors are big sh!t-stirrers on Facebook)

  23. 23.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @charon: i guess it actually was just a rally to stoke fear.

    can’t say i didn’t see jon stewart joining dennis miller, bill maher, dave chappelle, bill burr, & joe rogan in reactionary bullshit, given stewart’s longtime john mc cain infatuation.

  24. 24.

    J R in WV

    @charon:

    I decided years ago Facebook is just a firehose of irrelevant garbage mixed with misinformation and disinformation, best to totally disregard

    I have never used Facebook, for just this reason, but I have neighbors who use it more like we use Balloon-Juice or any other web tool. “Pablo” (not his real name!) finds old guitars on FB, rebuilds them, and sells the rebuilt like new guitars… same for ukeleles, mandolins and banjos. Studied instrument building with local traditional mountain craftsmen.

    He keeps in touch with friends and other musicians, finds shows at little clubs all over the greater Appalachian area, etc. Doesn’t go to politics at all, not interested in RWNJ BS, is a strong Progressive Liberal environmentalist. Great musician, also too.

    So it isn’t all bad.

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