Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

You cannot shame the shameless.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

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

Let there be snark.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

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

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

This chaos was totally avoidable.

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

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, July 19-20

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, July 19-20

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, July 19-20

… The outbreak aboard the destroyer Munmu the Great is the largest cluster South Korea’s military has seen. A total of 247 of the ship’s 301 crew have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days and two military planes had to be dispatched to fly them all home.

None of the destroyer’s crew had been vaccinated because they left South Korea in early February, before the start of the country’s vaccination campaign…

The outbreak on the destroyer comes as South Korea is battling its worst surge of the pandemic at home.

On Tuesday, South Korea reported 1,278 new virus cases. It was the 14th day in a row that South Korea has reported more than 1,000 new cases.

Since the pandemic began, South Korea has reported 180,481 infections and 2,059 deaths.

… The region is seeing a million new infections about every eight days and has reported nearly 1.3 million deaths since the pandemic began…

Europe remains one of the worst affected regions world-wide and has reported 27% of global cases and 31% of global deaths.

It took 194 days for Europe to go from 25 million to 50 million cases while the first 25 million cases were reported in 350 days, according to a Reuters tally.

Russia, the worst-affected European country, is on the verge of crossing 6 million cases…

ICYMI:

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Reader Interactions

68Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    LGM

    Looks like Rupert Murdoch has decided that too much COVID is bad for business

    Lawyers, Guns & Money / by Paul Campos / 5h

    SEAN HANNITY: “Please take Covid seriously. I can’t say it enough. Enough people have died. We don’t need any more death. Research like crazy. Talk to your doctor… I believe in science. I believe in the science of vaccination.” pic.twitter.com/tOi5ebpqSf

  2. 2.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 7/19 China reported 8 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Yunnan Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed (2 moderate & 6 mild, 6 Chinese & 2 Burmese nationals, 1 at Longchuan County & 7 at Ruili, Dehong Prefecture) & 1 domestic asymptomatic case (Burmese national, at Longchuan County). 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 80 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 community at Ruili remains at High Risk. 1 village at Ruili & 1 village at Longchuan County remain Medium Risk.

    Qingyuan in Guangdong Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, a nurse at a designated COVID-19 hospital, found via daily screening of all medical staff. The case had cared for an imported case on 7/14 & 7/15. Genomic analysis confirm that the sequences of the 2 cases are identical, bothr. All staff at designated COVID-19 hospitals in China live sequestered from their families & the community during their rotations.

    Imported Cases

    On 7/19, China reported 57 new imported confirmed cases, 17 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:

    • Yunnan Province (locations not specified) – 41 confirmed cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar via land border crossing
    • Tianjin Municipality – 3 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese & a Spanish nationals returning from Spain
    • Shanghai Municipality – 3 confirmed cases, a Mainland Chinese & a Taiwanese residents returning from Taiwan, & a Chinese national returning from the Seychelles (via Dubai & Colombo); 1 suspect case, no information released 
    • Wuhan In Hubei Province – 3 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Afghanistan, Pakistan & Indonesia; 4 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Afghanistan
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Myanmar & Bangladesh; 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Bangladesh & 1 each from the UK, the UAE & Egypt
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Zambia (via Nairobi)
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Iraq
    • Zhongshan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the DRC, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), a Russian national coming from Russia; 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released 
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Taiwanese resident coming from Taiwan
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Japan
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case, a German national coming from Germany
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 5 asymptomatic cases, no information released

    Overall in China, 22 confirmed cases recovered, 18 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 1 was reclassified as confirmed case, and 685 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 608 active confirmed cases in the country (527 imported), 14 in serious condition (11 imported), 448 asymptomatic cases (441 imported), 1 suspect case (imported). 7,726 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 7/19, 1,467.316M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 10.759M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 7/20, Hong Kong reported 7 new positive cases, all imported.

  3. 3.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY stats for last week:

    Vaccinations in Monroe County:

    61% with at least 1 jab
    57.87% totally vaccinated

    New COVID cases:

    139 new cases since 7/12/21. 43 of them are children 0-19.
    Adults in their 30s had the most cases at 25, followed by adults in their 20s with 24.

    1.2% test positivity, up from .8 last week.

    Deaths still at 1343.

    I’m not going out in public without a mask for the foreseeable future.

  5. 5.

    satby

    What I hope someone is studying / tabulating is whether a previous covid infection (in waves before the delta variant) appears to be protective against delta. Because a number of people refusing vaccines now includes people who think they don’t need one due to a previous infection with covid. I’ve seen studies suggesting that the immunity is weaker from previous infection, but nothing definitive. It could be too early to tell.

  7. 7.

    mrmoshpotato

    The South is particularly vulnerable

    Delthia, are you sure the South isn’t being a collective slapdick because of FREEDUMB! ?

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The stupid, it hurts:

    Randy Hillier@randyhillier
    ·
    9h
    A vaccine that is needed every year isn’t a vaccine, nor is it immunity. It’s a cash grab of never before seen proportions

    Ever hear of the Flu shot Randy? No? Must be because you’ve got your head up your ass.

    Jason D. Meister ??@jason_meister
    ·
    15h
    There will always be another variant more deadly, more infectious, and vaccine resistant because it’s about control.

    They want you to live in perpetual fear.

    Let me get this straight: A shot that allows me to avoid getting a possibly fatal/long term debilitating disease so that I can get on with my life free of that particular concern is “living in perpetual fear”? Jason, I’d like to introduce you to the Jeff/VanderLou neighborhood of 1984. It was a peach.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Let me get this straight: A shot that allows me to avoid getting a possibly fatal/long term debilitating disease so that I can get on with my life free of that particular concern is “living in perpetual fear”?

    It just boggles the mind, doesn’t it? Here’s this wonderfully effective medicine that protects against a disease whose effects range from death to ,’years of random and debilitating health problems’, and a large fraction of the population is like ‘no thanks, I’m afraid of the medicine, not the disease, because reasons’.

  12. 12.

    debbie

    Anecdote: Last Thursday, I ran over to the store (about 2 blocks away) after work to get milk and a couple of things. I realize as I get to the door that I’d forgotten my damn mask. It wasn’t crowded, so I figured I’d run in and out real quick. About 48 hours later, I had a sore throat which is now fading after 48 hours. I’m not worried about it, but I look at it as a reminder the air is just as full of germs as it always has been.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Ever hear of the Flu shot Randy? No?

    I often wonder where people find tweets on any number of topics.  I used to think they were tweets that are widely shared, but often when I click, the tweet doesn’t have a lot of likes or retweets.

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 12,366 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 939,899 cases. He also reports 93 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 7,241 deaths — 0.77% of the cumulative reported total, 0.90% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 133,703 active and contagious cases; 924 are in ICU, 448 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 7,567 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 798,765 patients recovered – 85.00% of the cumulative reported total.

    18 new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 3,299 clusters. 920 clusters are currently active; 2,379 clusters are now inactive.

    12,358 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 5,520 local cases: 122 in clusters, 3,567 close-contact screenings, and 1,831 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 1,576 local cases: 215 in clusters, 855 close-contact screenings, and 506 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan reports 970 cases: 179 in clusters, 555 close-contact screenings, and 236 other screenings.

    Johor reports 793 cases: 479 in clusters, 237 close-contact screenings, and 77 other screenings. Kedah reports 701 cases: 45 in clusters, 505 close-contact screenings, and 151 other screenings.

    Sabah reports 657 cases: 317 in clusters, 199 close-contact screenings, and 141 other screenings.

    Penang reports 460 cases: 127 in clusters, 218 close-contact screenings, and 115 other screenings.

    Sarawak reports 351 cases: 61 in clusters, 239 close-contact screenings, and 51 other screenings. Melaka reports 309 cases: 99 in clusters, 161 close-contact screenings, and 49 other screenings.

    Perak reports 295 cases: 46 in clusters, 117 close-contact screenings, and 132 other screenings. Pahang reports 288 cases: 89 in clusters, 149 close-contact screenings, and 50 other screenings.

    Terengganu reports 190 cases: 103 in clusters, 34 close-contact screenings, and 53 other screenings. Kelantan reports 179 cases: 62 in clusters, 73 close-contact screenings, and 44 other screenings.

    Putrajaya reports 50 cases: one in a cluster, 23 close-contact screenings, and 26 other screenings. Labuan reports 17 cases: three in clusters, 13 close-contact screenings, and one other screening. Perlis reports two cases: one close-contact screening and one other screening.

    Eight new cases today are imported: four in Selangor and four in Kuala Lumpur.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 424,936 doses of vaccine on 19th July: 282,106 first doses and 142,830 second doses. As of yesterday, the cumulative total is 14,772,221 doses administered: 10,097,841 first doses and 4,674,380 second doses. 14.3% of the population have received their second dose.

  15. 15.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @dmsilev:

    I’ll bet you that the idiots who believes this nonsense have never been a guest of America’s wonderful health care system. Once anybody gets a serious illness in this country is when you realize how woefully inadequate it is, how ridiculously complicated it is, and how monstrously expensive it is. Then again, the people who push this dangerous narrative can afford it. They’re rich because they’re well paid to sell this propaganda to their witless audience. They’re rich and they’re vaccinated. Everyone else who isn’t rich and believes the bullshit will find out sooner or later that Covid doesn’t care what Fox News says. For example, the moron who got a double lung transplant. What a shame.

  16. 16.

    MJS

    @dmsilev:  Reasons = there’s a Democrat in the White House now, and if he wants me to do it, I’m not going to. It’s nothing more than that. If Trump had won, these assholes would have taken the vaccine in a heartbeat.

  18. 18.

    debbie

    @MJS:

    Trump cares more about making Biden look bad than he does about anything else—reelection, his base, the country, anything. It is all about the cruelty.

  19. 19.

    R-Jud

    @debbie: ​
      I visited some fully vaccinated friends for dinner on Saturday and by yesterday we’d all got symptoms of norovirus, which their little boy had probably brought home from daycare.

    I feel like the other bugs are going to have their way with me this winter, even though I fully plan to keep masking in public for the forseeable.

  20. 20.

    Uncle Cosmo

    FTR: The threat of mid-level officers to resign en masse if COVID vaccination is required echoes a similar threat in the late 1990s when the Clinton Administration decided to vaccinate all US armed forces against pulmonary anthrax. The vaccine then available required multiple doses[1] and rumors were flying about debilitating side effects[2]. Sound familiar?

    The difference at the time was that no fatal cases of pulmonary anthrax had ever been reported. The officers’ objections actually made sense as a crude benefit-risk assessment: Why chance nasty side effects for protection against a threat that had never been encountered?

    Then, soon after 9/11, letters filled with fine white powder hit the mail. And people exposed by accident to their contents started dying of pulmonary anthrax. And abruptly the armed services’ anti-vaxx revolt got vewwy, vewwy quiet – because the risk assessment had risen drastically, and the side effects started to look acceptable when the alternative was a real chance of dying.

    Of course the current would-be refuseniks have no such excuse. Particularly now that, confronted with potentially crippling economic effects if the pandemic rages ahead unchecked, the usual RWNJ suspects have largely abandoned claims that COVID is a hoax.

    (NB I was a consultant to the anthrax vaccine makers at the time and also analyzed the data  from the Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting System [VAERS].)

    [1] 3 over a 12-month period IIRC.

    [2] Wildly exaggerated – VAERS showed no greater severity or prevalence of side effects than for vaccines that had been in widespread use for years.

  21. 21.

    Skepticat

    Recently back in the States, I’m still about a week away from my second shot and can hardly wait for the second. Though case numbers are rising somewhat, Maine seems almost wide open, and most people aren’t wearing masks, but nearly 60 percent of people are fully vaccinated. Nevertheless, I’m trying to minimize being in stores, and I can’t wait to get out of temporary quarters on the mainland and back to and settled on the island. The ferry was packed on my only trip out and back so far, but the service is doing an excellent job of enforcing masks and sanitizing, as most stores continue to do. I like to think we Yankees in general are at least marginally intelligent.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Research like crazy.

    Conspiracy theorists all tout their ability to “research”. It’s central to the thing. The premise is always that they did the “research” and no one else did. Literally every conspiracy theory I have ever read starts with “we were told THIS by experts, but I researched and THIS is the real truth”.

    Cons are always flattering to the people conned. The covid denier pitch is “you and I know much more than the rest of the sheep”. It’s the same for all of them.

  23. 23.

    Amir Khalid

    From The Guardian‘s liveblog: BoJo gives idiocy a bad name, brought to us by Dominic Cummings:

    Boris Johnson: median age of Covid fatalities above life expectancy, ‘so get Covid and live longer’

    UK prime minister Boris Johnson denied the NHS would be overwhelmed and said he was not prepared to lock down the country to save people in their 80s, texting his adviser “get Covid and live longer,” according to new WhatsApp messages released by Dominic Cummings.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    It reminds me of the right wing infatuation with footnotes, which are apparently an indicia of credibility.

  25. 25.

    Cameron

    And here in FL, home to 20 percent of aii new cases nationally, the guv is… selling anti-Fauci merch.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The anti-covid-vacc people use the low vaccination rates as validation now. “As The Truth comes out, more and more people join the smart, informed club”

    I just think people who are still making an effort to reach them have to admit this- the Covid deniers are not being battered by scientist know it alls, so therefore pushing back because they’re not being respected. They ARE the know it alls.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @Kay: 

    Why can’t we do the same?

    “I believed these anti-vaxxers, but then I did the research and discovered the truth!”

  28. 28.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud: Yes, now the Conservatives are claiming it’s really the liberals who aren’t getting vaccinated.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @Cameron:

    Ohio will be passing a law today banning mandatory masks in schools. When they tell you they objected to vaccines just remember they also objected to every other mitigation measure, no matter what it was and whether it even affected them or not. They will do nothing to stop the spread. Any request is too much. They object to YOUR mask! It makes them feel bad and honestly how dare you make them feel bad?

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: I don’t claim to have been an antivaxxer, but I’ve always found it to be a disarming rhetorical tactic in cases like this to talk about how I was initially confused about some point that didn’t seem to make sense, then I went looking for more information and I figured it out. People respond well to stories, and explaining it this way does provoke the “I’m not better than you, but you and I are smart people” feeling.

  32. 32.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    The antivax thing has really taken root among real Americans (you know, the white ones from exurban and rural places in the Heartland), is our current problem.

    Had a client in yesterday – nice enough guy, case is way out in the sticks. He had many gripes about the ex that were legitimate, but one that wasn’t. He was complaining that she’d taken the 15 year old for his COVID shot without consulting with him. I scolded him and said “get your goddamned vaccine”. He replied that he’d been thinking about doing it, but that “everybody” he knew was telling him bad things about it. My reply was “they’re morons – quit listening to them, because their information sources are stupid”. Talked about my own vaccine experiences, and how it is saving lives around the world.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rikyrah:

    A lawsuit must be on the horizon 

    Everyone at that propaganda network should throw themselves into the Sun.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Good advice.

    I feel we get hung up in believing we have an obligation to disprove something.  We don’t.  All we can do is state our case.

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kay:

    Conspiracy theorists all tout their ability to “research”. It’s central to the thing. The premise is always that they did the “research” and no one else did. 

    They research their rectums with their entire heads.

  39. 39.

    trnc

    When people joined the military, was part of their agreement to not only get the required vaccines at the time but also any vaccine deemed necessary during their service?

  40. 40.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: As several commenters noted, this is less than it seems: Hannity apparently says this kind of thing all the time as a bookend disclaimer to some antivax story, and that’s what he was doing here.

    So it comes down basically to Steve Doocy being pro-vax. Well, everyone here knows I hate Steve Doocy with the intensity of a thousand suns and maybe he’s just being a walking disclaimer for Fox News as a whole. But I guess I can give him credit for that.

  42. 42.

    Matt McIrvin

    @trnc: When you go into the military you take orders–that’s part of the deal. The ONLY difference here from any of the other vaccines they give soldiers is that the thing is not fully FDA-approved and the lawyers are being overcautious about that, probably because wingnut politics has them spooked. But that is only a matter of time.

  44. 44.

    Soprano2

    I talked to my mother last night; she’s vaccinated, but might have Covid. Delta is so bad here that it wouldn’t surprise me. She called her doctor’s office yesterday, and they had her come in to do a Covid test. She’s supposed to call me back tomorrow after she gets the results. She has symptoms like a mild chest cold, with the additional symptom that she’s not hungry at all. She said she’s not having any problems with breathing, and isn’t coughing. She wanted me to tell her what to do about not having any appetite, because she’s afraid she’s going to get weak. I told her to make some soup and toast and make herself eat it, even if she doesn’t want to. She’s terrible about doing anything she doesn’t want to – she threw a big fit when the doctor told her that for a week after she had shoulder surgery she couldn’t take a bath, only showers. She thinks she might have gotten Covid when we went to a Springfield Cardinals ballgame on July 4th – we’re all vaccinated and it was outside, so not inherently bad for fully vaccinated people. Then she mentioned to me that she had gone to church on the same morning as the ballgame! I said well, you could have gotten it there, and she said but I was only there an hour. It’s stunning to me that after all this time so many people still don’t understand the relative risks of different activities. She also goes to WalMart at least once a week, but she said most of the things she does are with other friends who are also vaccinated.  Anyhow, have a good thought for her. I’m a little bit worried because she’s 87, but she’s vaccinated and in relatively good health for her age – she doesn’t have any health conditions that would make Covid worse. I’m hoping that’s not what it is, but with how bad Delta is here I’m not optimistic

    One good thing – I checked our local dashboard this morning, and the number of people in my county having at least one shot is rising again, so that’s good news. I guess some of the fence sitters got scared enough to go do it.

  45. 45.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Conspiracy theorists all tout their ability to “research”. It’s central to the thing. The premise is always that they did the “research” and no one else did.

    They always make sure you know that this was super-secret, hard-to-access information because “they” are trying to hide it from you, but they worked and worked and found THE TRUTH ABOUT “X”. That was the whole premise of the show “The X Files”, only Fox Mulder knew “the truth” about aliens on Earth. Of course, I knew that it was only a TV show and not real life. People love to feel like they’re privy to a secret only a few people know – it plays to their ego.

  46. 46.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: When they tell you they objected to vaccines just remember they also objected to every other mitigation measure, no matter what it was and whether it even affected them or not. They will do nothing to stop the spread.

    They act like they are personally insulted by people trying to stop the spread of Covid. Last week I heard a couple of men talking about people wearing masks, and one guy said “It really gets me when I see one of them by themselves in a car wearing a mask”. I asked him “Why do you care about what other people do?”. He really couldn’t come up with an answer other than that it seemed weird to him. I told him that some people do that because they find it too much of a pain to keep taking the mask on and off. Some of these people are personally insulted by anyone doing something they wouldn’t do.

  47. 47.

    Cermet

    @Soprano2: It is now known that just being near someone with the Delta virus in any moderately closed area or even outside if you get some of their exhaled air can give one covid. Delta is extremely contagious – i.e. takes very few virial agents to start an infection.

    While the mRNA vaccine gives three times the number of antibodies as compared to recovering from covid, I’d be very cautious around people with Delta if my only immunity was from recovering from covid.  You simply don’t have as many antibodies as vaccinated people.

  48. 48.

    jonas

    This subhead on the NYT today about Facebook’s spat with the Biden administration about vaccine misinfo made me chuckle:

    The company doesn’t know some specifics about how falsehoods about Covid-19 and vaccines for the virus spread on its social network.

    Doesn’t know? *Of course* they fucking know. You think they buy their algorithms on Loopcloud or something? JFC.

  49. 49.

    stacib

    @Matt McIrvin: Me and a co-worker tried this approach yesterday on a third co-worker.  His response – “you can look on YouTube and see the government putting trackers into people’s arms when they get the vaccine”.  There was no convincing this guy because “you can learn a lot on social media”.  I’ve even shared the story of my neighbor who refused to get vaccinated, and she caught Covid, had three weeks in the ICU and another three weeks in the Covid unit – six weeks total in the hospital, and is still struggling to recover and he still shrugged that off

    *A co-worker and I :-)

  50. 50.

    Sloane Ranger

    Monday in the UK we had 39,950 new cases. This is an increase of 41.2% in the rolling 7-day average but figures may still be affected by the weekend office closures. New cases by nation,

    England – 34,657 (down 10,129)

    Northern Ireland – 1776 (up 1239)

    Scotland – 1465 (down 271)

    Wales – 2053 (up 941).

    Deaths – There were 19 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is an increase of 48% in the rolling 7-day average. 15 were in England, 1 in Northern Ireland and 3 in Wales.

    Testing – 1,041,099 tests were conducted on Sunday, 18 July. This is a decrease in the rolling 7-day average of 0.8%. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on that date was 652,403.

    Hospitalisations – On Friday, 16 July there were 4094 people in hospital and 573 on ventilators. As of 13 July, the rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions had risen by 39.5%.

    Vaccinations – As of 18 July, 46,314,039 people had received the 1st shot of a vaccine and 36,099,727 had had both, but 1st shot numbers for the18th July from Northern Ireland have been delayed. This means that 87.9% of all adults in the UK have had 1 shot and 68.5% were fully vaccinated.

    General – Don’t get too excited about Annie’s post about “Freedom Day” in the UK. Nightclubs in England opened yesterday and were packed to the gunnels with people partying like it was 1999 but the proposed requirement for evidence of full vaccination isn’t scheduled to start until September so, people can spend the next 6 weeks or so crammed shoulder to shoulder in poorly ventilated spaces for hours at a time without let or hindrance. And, no, I don’t understand the rationale for this either! Perhaps the government needs time to pass the required legislation, but then, don’t open the nightclubs until it’s in place. I suspect Ministers saw the same pictures we all saw, had kittens and decided SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!

    Anyway, I fully expect any law/regulation/rule will be challenged in court under Equality/Human Rights legislation and IANAL so can’t even guess what the outcome will be but fully expect it to go all the way to the UK Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

  54. 54.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 1,604 new cases of COVID-19 reported, thirteen new deaths (noting that some of these deaths will be delayed in notification over the weekend). Test positivity rate of 9.2%. 47 people were in intensive care yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19, about the same as the past week or so with the caveat that some of today’s reported deaths will be of people who were in ICU beds recently.

    There were about 18,5000 vaccinations carried out yesterday in Scotland, lower than previous weekday numbers. Most were second-doses with only about 2,500 first-doses. That makes 67.3% of all adults fully vaccinated with 89.3% having received a first dose.

  55. 55.

    Tony Jay

    @Amir Khalid:

    And of course the predictable response from Tory Party mouthparts and their below-stairs helpers in the News Media is, a) “We don’t accept that the Prime Minister said what he said in that text where he said it because the prime Minister is wonderful and cares so much that if he did say that thing in that text that he didn’t say even though it’s in that text where he said it he obviously meant that puppies are lovely or something equally fluffy and great because vaccines, I think we’ve been quite clear about that.” and, b) “Some say that this paints the Prime Minister in a bad light, while others say that it doesn’t, we ask our Chief Political Correspondent to take time away from her unpaid internship as the Prime Minister’s self-righteous megaphone to explain to viewers why this is entirely overblown, unlikely to hurt her good friend, and a sign that the Opposition are in danger of relying too much on winning an ‘Optics War’ that they may be ill-equipped to fight.”

    And now to our Isn’t Freedom Day Wonderful correspondent where you are.

  56. 56.

    Soprano2

    @Cermet: I’d be very cautious around people with Delta if my only immunity was from recovering from covid.  You simply don’t have as many antibodies as vaccinated people.

    I’ve told this to the “I don’t need the shot because I had Covid and I’m protected” people, but they don’t listen to it.

  57. 57.

    mrmoshpotato

    @jonas:

    The company doesn’t know some specifics about how falsehoods about Covid-19 and vaccines for the virus spread on its social network. 

    Adorable NYT.  Does Fuckface also not know how he sucked Russki ass for money in 2016?

  58. 58.

    NorthLeft12

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Your straight talking is what is needed with a lot of people. Fuck their feelings indeed.

    Also, if governments start mandating vaccinations for certain work groups (healthcare, military, emergency response, government) and various activities, you will see a massive increase in people signing up. Unfortunately, you will also see an increase in belly aching and the shrill-o-meter bumped up to eleven. But that is nothing new.

  59. 59.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Soprano2: It depends basically how sick someone was when they suffered from COVID-19 — bed-ridden for two weeks coughing their lungs out, they got lots of replicated virus for the immune system to fingerprint and prime it to be ready for the next time but if it was a minor case, a “walking cold”, some sniffles and coughs and a couple of days of headaches and tiredness then it’s likely their immune system wasn’t trained up properly for round 2 and if they’re exposed again they’re not as well protected as they think they might be.

     

    The vaccines give the immune system lots of protein coats to learn on without the actual disease causing sickness, tissue damage etc. Nearly everyone who gets vaccinated will have a well-trained immune system ready to deal with an invasion of virus particles with even a super-infection that might cause severe illness and possible eventual death relegated to bed rest or a short stay in hospital.

  60. 60.

    Bill Arnold

    @Kay:
    There is a tv tropes article for “Doing Research”:
    https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DoingResearch
    which is a mockery of real research. The conspiracy theory version of “doing research” is a mockery of the tv tropes version.
    Gullible conspiracy consumers who are told to “do the research” are fed keywords and search phrases crafted to produce SERPs (search engine results pages) where the conspiracy rabbit hole material is completely dominant.

    It’s quite possible for non-experts to read e.g. the scientific literature (scholar.google.com!), and learn enough to at least intelligently assess the conversation and the experts (who are often driven by agendas and be aware of disputes. Doesn’t happen much, though. And often you end up with cherry pickers like Peter Navarro.

  61. 61.

    Matt McIrvin

    @stacib: I don’t think anything short of cult deprogramming is going to work on people who are down the conspiracy-theory rabbit hole. But there are low-info people whose attitude is more that they’ve been hearing contradictory information and they don’t know what to think.

  65. 65.

    Suzanne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Let me get this straight: A shot that allows me to avoid getting a possibly fatal/long term debilitating disease so that I can get on with my life free of that particular concern is “living in perpetual fear”? 

    This coming from the same people who said, without a trace of irony or self-awareness, “AmErIcAn CiTiEs ArE BuRnInG To tHe GROUND bECauSe oF BlAcK LiVeS MaTtEr!!!!!”.

    Calling them “dead-Enders” doesn’t really capture how truly these people do not get outside.

  66. 66.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: Delta upended a lot of our conventional wisdom about infection risk, I think–I’m not sure all of the intuitions we developed about what’s safe and what isn’t in an original COVID- or Alpha-dominated environment still apply.

    Best wishes for her speedy recovery.

  68. 68.

    Richard

    @debbie: I went to the grocery store last week. For the first time since April 2020, i had forgotten to bring a mask. Because  i am a pitiful old graybeard from the past, i went to Customer Service and asked the nice person if they had a spare. Of course they did! Of course i said Thank You!

    We have public transit in our town. In June five of our bus drivers quit because they were tired of taking abuse for asking riders to please wear a mask. Yes i live in a “red” part of the country.

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