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if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

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

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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, July 6-7

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, July 6-7

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MOSCOW—As I write this, Russia is firmly in the grip of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Every day, there are about 22,000 reported new infections—twice as many as during the peak of the first wave in May 2020—and more than 600 deaths. The new Delta variant of the virus, which Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin says is responsible for 90 per cent of new infections in the Russian capital, has caught Russia almost completely unawares. Despite having access to the brain power and resources of one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world, Russian authorities have repeatedly squandered almost every chance to beat the pandemic. Their massive, bloated propaganda apparatus failed to do the one job it was designed for: Get the message out. Instead, the pandemic has exacerbated the crisis of trust between the Russian government and citizens. Now, the campaign for parliamentary elections in September could make fighting the pandemic even harder, since the ruling United Russia party may be even more reluctant to impose unpopular measures such as lockdowns.

Russian independent observers and journalists—including me and my colleagues at Meduza—already knew something was terribly off with Russia’s handling of the pandemic in late spring of 2020. We had looked at the numbers and recognized that COVID-19 deaths were being underreported in many regions of Russia. According to the official statistics at the time, tens of thousands of Russians were dying in 2020 of a mysterious pneumonia epidemic unrelated to COVID-19. This was hardly plausible. The more likely explanation: Russian regional authorities were writing off the majority of COVID-19 cases as “community-acquired pneumonia.”

There is no evidence of a cover-up ordered from the top. More likely, regional governorates were simply being discreet to avoid being the bearer of bad news to the Kremlin. Underreporting COVID-19 cases in the early stages of the pandemic plausibly made many Russians question the existence of the virus or lulled them into a false sense of security, although there is no poll data to back this up. What’s certain is that by November 2020, according to independent polling institute Levada, the majority of Russians did not trust their government’s COVID-19 figures: 33 percent thought them too low, while 28 percent believed they were exaggerated…

… Off to an early start with its own vaccine, Russia is now severely lagging behind. At the time of writing, about 12 per cent are fully vaccinated, while another 4.7 percent have received a single dose—a much lower vaccination rate than China and Brazil, let alone most of the developed world. And Russians are steadfast in their anti-vaccine convictions: According to a recent Morning Consult poll, Russia now has one of the highest levels of vaccine skepticism in the world, with 35 percent saying they are unwilling to get vaccinated. Even the United States, where vaccine skepticism is rampant, has only 19 percent committed anti-vaxxers. Recently the Kremlin admitted that its original goal to vaccinate 60 percent of the population by September will be unachievable, according to a report by TV Rain. Instead, the government has settled for a more realistic 30 percent…

Among Russians, the reasons for refusing to be vaccinated vary—some will mention that Sputnik V was rushed through development and approved before phase III trial data was available. Others will insist that they don’t need any vaccines since they’ve already recovered from COVID-19. More cling to a motley array of conspiracy theories involving the Antichrist or a secret cabal seeking to make Russians infertile. Russia’s vaccine skeptics are found all over society; their ranks include Russian Orthodox right-wingers, center-left parliamentary leaders, and anti-Putin activists. If there were an anti-vaccine party, it would easily beat United Russia in the upcoming elections…

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Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 7/6 China reported 15 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Yunnan Province reported 15 new domestic confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic, 10 moderate & 5 mild) & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Jiegao sub-district in Ruili, Dehong Prefecture, 12 Burmese & 3 Chinese nationals. There currently are 21 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases. The community that surrounds the main land border crossing has been elevated to High Risk. The urban area has been placed under lock down.

    This is the 3rd time in the past 6 months that Ruili has seen an outbreak. The city is surrounded on 3 sides by Myanmar. While there is a border fence near the main border crossing in the urban center, no such separation exists in the suburban & rural areas. The “border” in these places is often an easily fordable creek, or an imaginary line in the middle of a street, w/ residents on the two sides forming a single community. The communities across the border have inter-married & traded for centuries, w/ daily interactions & unregulated crossings. Ruili is also the central exchange for the jade trade w/ Myanmar. Furthermore, the region in Myanmar adjacent to China has large ethnic Han Chinese populations, as well as other ethnic groups that are also found in the part of Yunnan Province near the border (the Kachin, the Shan, the Tai, the Lisu, the Ngochang & the Palaung). Unless one checks the IDs, it would be difficult to tell the Burmese nationals from the Chinese ones. ~ 1/3 of the residents at Ruili’s Jiegao sub-district are laborers & traders from Myanmar. Given the worsening COVID-18 situation in Myanmar (after the coup and introduction of the Delta Variant), including areas bordering China, it is perhaps surprising that there hasn’t been a continuous outbreak at Ruili.

    The vast majority of the cases so far in the current outbreak are Burmese nationals, so it is possible that the outbreak emerged from people who entered China illegally. They have been classified as domestic cases, so they should have been in China for a while. Anyone whose entry into China is documented need to go through mandatory centralized quarantine & testing. (The case reports of imported cases at Yunnan show them to be almost exclusively China nationals.) Chinese media has reported that 100% of the eligible documented residents in Ruili have received the 1st shot of vaccine, & 96% have received the 2nd shot. The figures include documented Burmese nationals residing at Ruili, but would likely exclude the undocumented. After Guangzhou, this will be another opportunity to assess the effectiveness of Chinese vaccines against the Delta Variant, with granular data.

    I think the Chinese authorities should consider giving amnesty to the undocumented migrants at Ruili, so that they can be included in the vaccination & testing campaigns, rather than allowing a potential underground reservoir to persist. After the commotions & bad PR in Guangzhou in Apr. 2020, where the local authorities & businesses unfairly targeted the African immigrant population (documented or otherwise) in response to an outbreak emerging from the community, the Chinese government ended up giving general amnesty (in the form of visas & residence permits) to the undocumented population, to get them above ground & into legal status. (Those actions were not publicized, because it would cause a backlash from a portion of the Chinese population w/ nativist leanings.) China should probably also consider donating vaccines to the Burmese government & the autonomous ethnic regional governments along the border with China, to create a firewall.

    Imported Cases

    On 7/6, China reported 42 new imported confirmed cases, 39 imported asymptomatic cases, 4 imported suspect cases:

    • Wuhan in Hubei Province – 25 confirmed cases, 22 coming from Afghanistan & 3 from Indonesia; 31 asymptomatic cases, 30 coming from Afghanistan & 1 from Indonesia; the 52 positive cases from Afghanistan arrived on the same flight on 7/2
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 5 confirmed cases, 3 Chinese nationals returning from Bangladesh & 1 each from the Myanmar & Kuwait; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Bangladesh
    • Shanghai Municipality – 4 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Senegal (via Paris CdG), France, Sri Lanka & Thailand; 4 suspect cases, no information released
    • Tianjin Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, a Chinese national returning from France, no information released yet for the 2nd case
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 2 confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), the new case is a Chinese national returning from Uzbekistan; 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Sweden & Georgia (via Stockholm); all cases off flights diverted from Beijing 
    • Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from the UK
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Taiwanese resident coming from Taiwan
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Japan
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Ghana (via Amsterdam Schiphol); 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Dominican Republic (via Germany) & Myanmar
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 confirmed case, no information released
    • Yunnan Province (locations not specified) – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Myanmar, via land border crossing
    • Chongqing Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Thailand

    Overall in China, 17 confirmed cases recovered, 13 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 3 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 742 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 458 active confirmed cases in the country (423 imported), 5 in serious condition (all imported), 471 asymptomatic cases (463 imported), 5 suspect cases (all imported). 8,097 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 7/6, 1,331.669M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 13.252M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 7/7, Hong Kong reported 1 new positive case, imported.

  2. 2.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY stats for last week:

    Vaccinations in Monroe County:

    60.3% with at least 1 jab – we seem to have slowed to a crawl on this
    56.9% totally vaccinated

    New COVID cases:

    85 new cases since 6/28/21. 21 of them are children 0-19.
    The age groups with the highest number of cases were 30s and 40s.

    .6% test positivity

    Deaths now at 1341.

  3. 3.

    Anya

    Meanwhile in Little Brexit Island, we have a health secretary who doesn’t gaf about public health. The government is basically playing dice with people’s lives with the stupid #FreedomDay. They’ll let “personal responsibility” to guide public health and all restrictions will be rolled back on July 19.

    Calling it Freedom Day makes the callousness of the decision even more stark. Freedom to contract Delta variant or whatever other variant will be developed from this.

    Epidemiologists must be in despair.

  10. 10.

    Mousebumples

    @debbie: no more than I did pre Covid. There’s no evidence of fomite transmission for Covid, so that doesn’t really impact transmission chances.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 7,097 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 799,790 cases. He also reports 91 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 5,768 deaths — 0.72% of the cumulative reported total, 0.80% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 74,344 active and contagious cases; 948 are in ICU, 441 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 4,863 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 719,678 patients recovered – 89.98% of the cumulative reported total.
    18 new clusters were reported today. Of the cumulative total of 2,970 clusters, 850 clusters are currently active; 2,120 clusters are now inactive.

    7,071 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 3,114 local cases: 240 in clusters, 1,503 close-contact screenings, and 1,371 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 985 local cases: 334 in clusters, 318 close-contact screenings, and 333 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan reports 788 cases: 268 in clusters, 292 close-contact screenings, and 228 other screenings.

    Melaka reports 358 cases: 207 in clusters, 115 close-contact screenings, and 36 other screenings.
    Sarawak reports 288 local cases: 36 in clusters, 195 close-contact screenings, and 57 other screenings. Pahang reports 258 cases: 136 in clusters, 99 close-contact screenings, and 23 other screenings. Sabah reports 244 cases: 63 in clusters, 79 close-contact screenings, and 102 other screenings. Johor reports 224 cases: 61 in clusters, 124 close-contact screenings, and 39 other screenings.

    Kedah reports 198 cases: 64 in clusters, 91 close-contact screenings, and 43 other screenings. Perak reports 187 cases: 121 in clusters, 46 close-contact screenings, and 20 other screenings. Penang reports 140 local cases: 44 in clusters, 34 close-contact screenings, and 62 other screenings. Kelantan reports 123 cases: 42 in clusters, 44 close-contact screenings, and 37 other screenings.

    Labuan reports 93 cases: two in clusters, 59 close-contact screenings, and 32 other screenings. Terengganu reports 43 cases: 20 in clusters, 11 close-contact screenings, and 12 other screenings. Putrajaya reports 26 cases: 10 close-contact screenings and 16 other screenings. Perlis reports two cases: one close-contact screening and one other screening.

    26 new cases today are imported: 20 in Kuala Lumpur, five in Selangor, and one in Sarawak.

  12. 12.

    NorthLeft12

    The situation in Ontario is improving very quickly as the vaccine roll out continues at a very good pace.

    Over 76% of people over twelve years old have at least one jab, with over 42% of that group fully vaccinated. We are vaccinating about 1.5% of our population every day. I understand that this rate will probably slow somewhat before the end of the month, but it looks like we will exceed 80% of the eligible population (no approval yet for the under twelves) fully vaccinated by the end of August.

    The success of the program and peer pressure, seems to be convincing some of the hesitant and laggards to get the jab.

    BTW, What the hell is wrong with Fucker Tarlson? What a snivelling creep.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    @Mousebumples:

    Thanks. I’m slowing working through the supplies I stockpiled, but probably should think about saving it for when the fifth through five thousandth waves hit.  //

  14. 14.

    Spanky

    I call bullshit on fucker carlson’s bullshit graphic. No way is Ohio’s life expectancy only 73. Or if it is, covid dropped it to that

    Eta: I be damned, google sez tis so. Wtf?

  15. 15.

    New Deal democrat

    Here’s an oddball fact: North and South Dakota, despite poor to middling records on vaccinations, may be close to herd immunity.

    14% of the populations of both states have had *confirmed* cases. Both had spikes of positive test results in their outbreaks last fall – SD was over 50%, meaning huge numbers of cases not diagnosed. Both now are in the bottom 10 States for new cases per capita, both running at about 1.3 per 100,000 daily on average.

    It sure looks like COVID has burned through their populations. They may make good candidates for studying what the actual herd immunity threshold is.

  16. 16.

    Chris T.

    I’m tempted to start a parody Twitter account or something: “Sunlight, like COVID, is a myth. It’s Trump’s brilliance that lights the world during the day.” “You know, gravity is just a theory. Really, it’s just those damned Democrats holding us down.” etc.

  17. 17.

    La Nonna

    As of an hour ago, finally we 70+ year olds are receiving the second dose pf AstraZeneca, after a 12 week wait (!), not a moment too soon. Seems that unvaccinated children are primary carriers of delta variant here, and since June 15, when Italy “opened for business” mostly tourist trade, lots of young families, both Italian and otherwise, are thronging the beaches and coastal towns in near 100F weather. So, still masked, still avoiding crowds, still shopping only as needed. Heartbreaking that our American family has decided, with our agreement, to skip a visit this summer, they are vaccinated, but it is at least 2 international airports for them to get here, seems like too many opportunities to bring more variants in. Planning a December in Sicily get together, but I imagine only if we have boosters…now 2 years without a family visit, I need to remind myself that most migrants are in the same boat, and stop complaining.

  18. 18.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Missouri is a case in point that COVID can tear threw a small community and because people don’t understand math, they don’t care because it’s not the same numbers like in New York or California.

  19. 19.

    Cermet

    First the Delta variant (India) and how WHO is watching a Lambda variant (Peru); why the US isn’t trying to stamp out Covid in SA and CA is beyond me. It is in our interest.

  20. 20.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Anya: And for everyone who enjoys their freedom to pass the virus around and create new variants, there will be someone else, probably older or immuno-compromised  who feels even more imprisoned because they are even more scared of leaving the house. Johnson etc. are playing a high stakes game with people’s lives. If there are no spikes in deaths or serious illness he’ll probably get away with it but, if there is, a lot of older people and their families who previously supported him will be royally pissed off and show it at the ballot box.

    Anyway, to Tuesday’s figures here in the UK. Yesterday we had 28,773 new cases. This is an increase of 49% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,

    England – 25,295 (up 2009)

    Northern Ireland – 417 (down 3)

    Scotland – 2363 (down 9)

    Wales – 698 (down 558).

    Deaths – There were 37 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is an increase of 20.3% in the rolling 7-day average. 30 of the deaths were in England, 6 in Scotland and 1 in Wales.

    Testing – 1,160,738 tests were administered on Monday, 5 July. This is an increase of 5.9% in the rolling 7-day average. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on that date was 607,507.

    Hospitalisations – There were 2140 people in hospital on Sunday, 4 July and 369 on ventilators on Monday, 5th. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions had increased by 29.1% as of 30 June.

    Vaccinations – As of 5 July, 45,428,681 people had received 1 shot of a vaccine and 33,874,176 had had both. In percentage terms this means that 86.2% of all adults in the UK had had 1 shot of a vaccine and 64.3% were fully vaccinated as of that date.

  21. 21.

    Ksmiami

    Question to the peanut gallery- do you think we will see massive spikes in Delta transmission from the July 4 holiday?

  22. 22.

    satby

    @Sloane Ranger: If there are no spikes in deaths or serious illness he’ll probably get away with it but, if there is, a lot of older people and their families who previously supported him will be royally pissed off and show it at the ballot box.

    Well, that’s how we (barely) got rid of our moron. Disgusting that so many people are so self centered that it has to personally affect them before they start to care about covid.

  25. 25.

    NorthLeft12

    @New Deal democrat: Our epidemiologists are telling us that the antibodies from the other COVID-19 variants are not providing much protection from the Delta variant.
    Full vaccination is still strongly recommended for those who have had Covid-19.

  26. 26.

    NorthLeft12

    @Anya: Yeah, look how well “personal responsibility” worked or the Swedes.

    My daughter teaches in Bromley (just south of London) and lives in the Crystal Palace area. It’s been a pretty wild ride for her. She gets her second jab this Friday.
    We are hoping to be able to see her this Christmas.

  27. 27.

    Another Scott

    @Spanky: Opiates / Opioids, meth are terrible things.  Also, anecdotes are not data but several of my Dayton HS classmates died in their 50s (or earlier).

    :-(

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  28. 28.

    Soprano2

    @rikyrah:  The vaccines should be at these detention centers.

    I agree, why aren’t they using the J&J to vaccinate them?

  29. 29.

    Soprano2

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Missouri is a case in point that COVID can tear threw a small community and because people don’t understand math, they don’t care because it’s not the same numbers like in New York or California.

    This is part of it, but a lot is just denial. From what I’ve heard and read, a lot of people get really sick and wait a long time before they go to the hospital, because they just don’t believe it’s Covid. Why, they’ve been told by all the sources they trust (Fox News and Trump) that Covid is no worse than a cold, so what they have can’t possibly be that – it has to be something else!

    The good news here is that we’re almost at 40% of the eligible population having had their second shot. At the rate we’re going, we’ll get to 50% sometime in August or early September. :-( It’s so frustrating to me, how many people are getting sick and dying who don’t have to – this is all PREVENTABLE!!

  30. 30.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 3,799 new cases of COVID-19 reported, five newly reported deaths. Test positivity rate is 10%. This is a big upswing from the numbers published in the last few days. Hospitalisation and ICU bed occupancy numbers are slowly creeping up in a frog-boiling manner but still nothing like the winter’s deluge of severe cases. Press reports are suggesting that some of the hospitalisations are short-term or even overnight stays rather than all of them involving longer-term care of severe COVID-19 cases but there are no published details about this.

    28,500 vaccinations were carried out yesterday in Scotland, about two-thirds of them second doses. Public Health Scotland is on track to offer every 18+ adult with at least a first vaccine dose by the end of July but it will be close. There’s been no official announcement of a booster vaccine program yet but this could be launched quite quickly once the decision is made as nearly all of the administrative and technical infrastructure is already in place for carrying out the initial vaccination programme.

  31. 31.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: From that cited article about ICU nurses in COVID-denying areas, wouldn’t be surprised if some of them would like to send the denialists back home with zinc lozenges and tissues. Pesky medical ethics.

    Though once the beds fill up and all the ventilators are in use (see other cited article), that’s about all they’ll be able to do.

  32. 32.

    Betsy

    @debbie: Before vaccination, I bleached and soaped literally everything.  Now though, it seems I really never need have been concerned about that, based on research and practical outcomes.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Anya:

    They’ll let “personal responsibility” to guide public health and all restrictions will be rolled back on July 19.

    Calling it Freedom Day makes the callousness of the decision even more stark. Freedom to contract Delta variant or whatever other variant will be developed from this.

    Glad the mighty BoJo has declared the exact day when the pandemic will disappear (sounds like another shit-haired buffoon) from the UK (and the world?).  Everyone (who isn’t dead or fighting for their lives) will be overjoyed!

    Also glad we aren’t alone in having idiots west of the Atlantic.

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rikyrah:

    I can’t believe how Japan has fumbled vaccination with the Olympics coming? 

    I can’t believe the IOC is still planning on having the Olympics.

    Yes, I know.  ?Money money money!  Money!?

  36. 36.

    Kent

    @rikyrah: Japan is a mystery to me.  They lack the fundamentalist bullshit that we have in the US and the society is a lot more compliant when it comes to public-minded policy.  And they are very rich and technological.

    How did they fuck this up so badly?  Other much poorer counties are way ahead of them in terms of vaccination.   I would have expected Japan to be up there with say…Canada.  Perhaps not a world leader in vaccine research, but at least one of the world leaders in terms of response.

  39. 39.

    Skepticat

    I’ve finally arrived in Maine after a long slog up the coast, made more difficult by having three cats to wrangle in and out of hotels. I’m temporarily in a friend’s unused and minimally furnished rental apartment in a noisy tourist town south of Portland, though I hope to be on the island before long. However, I’m incredibly excited about the fact that I have a noon appointment for my Fauchi ouchie!

  40. 40.

    gbbalto

    @Spanky: May be too late for this thread.  I suspect 73 is life expectancy at birth.  My Google tells me that if you reach the age of 80, you have a life expectancy of 89.6.  So that idiot is not concerned about someone who can expect to live another decade on average.

  41. 41.

    Chris T.

    @gbbalto: Right. Also, 73-at-birth is pretty poor for a modern wealthy society, where it should be 80+.

    Note that in the late 1800s / early 1900s, pre-vaccination and other medical advances, many babies died before age 4 or so (easily observed by wandering through old graveyards). This kept the average life expectancy low. If you made it to age 18, your personal life expectancy had gone way up by then. Averages are crappy measures: ask the average person who is now, on average, a multimillionaire, in the bar that Jeff Bezos is in right now, for instance. (OK, Bezos probably doesn’t go to bars. But still…)

  43. 43.

    lowtechcyclist

    Can COVID-19 cause lasting erectile dysfunction?

    Let’s hope so – those who refuse to get vaxxed shouldn’t be able to reproduce.

    And that’s about the nicest thing I have to say about them.

    47% of Republicans say they likely won’t get vaccinated compared to only 6% of Democrats.

    Well, that’s one way to make the electorate more Dem-leaning.

  45. 45.

    Matt McIrvin

    @debbie: I am not sterilizing surfaces. I am still masking up at the supermarket. I risked eating inside of restaurants when I was on vacation in Newburyport but I’m not sure I’d do it here in Haverhill.

  46. 46.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kent: My understanding is that in Japan, there were some scandals in recent decades about dangerous defective vaccines that burned through a lot of trust, so there’s actually a lot of vaccine hesitancy there. And Japan’s early success in controlling COVID with social control measures made people complacent about getting the shots.

  47. 47.

    Gravenstone

    @Spanky: That screenshot is a prime example of lying with statistics. As for the relatively low average age of death, I’m going to guess deaths due to opiate overdose figure prominently in the depressed value.

  48. 48.

    Gravenstone

    @David Fud: That’ll just be a spike in Pfizer’s bottom line. Or would have been had it not come off patent a few years back…

  49. 49.

    Fair Economist

    Cleveland Scene reports life expectancy in Ohio is 77.5. So that graphic is just a flat out lie in addition to being dishonestly presented.

  50. 50.

    krackenJack

    @New Deal democrat:  IIRC, there were questions about how effective and long lasting the immunity from a mild case of COVID is against variants. This will be an empirical test of that.

  52. 52.

    debbie

    @rikyrah: 

    Don’t stop. I haven’t returned to work yet, but I have heard people are going through wipes like crazy.

Comments are closed.