Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

This fight is for everything.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

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

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

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Second rate reporter says what?

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

No one could have predicted…

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday / Thursday, July 28-29

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday / Thursday, July 28-29

by | 67 Comments

This post is in: ,


=====

Two Games-related people from overseas with COVID-19 have been hospitalised but neither case is serious, Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya said on Thursday.

The cases are the first known COVID-19 hospitalisations at the pandemic-hit Games, which is in its sixth day of competition and runs till Aug. 8…

Organisers declined to provide further details on the two cases citing privacy concerns.

=====

=====

Reader Interactions

67Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY stats from NYS Department of Health:

    New COVID cases:

    43 new cases yesterday, 47 new cases the day before. Things are headed in the wrong direction….

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Why even have immigrants if you’re not going to blame them for white people problems?

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    Two Games-related people from overseas with COVID-19 have been hospitalised but neither case is serious

    Does not compute.

    Hospital admission for confirmed infection is not a trivial procedure.

  4. 4.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 7/28 China reported 24 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Yunnan Province did not reported any new domestic positive cases. 5 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 66 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 community at Ruili remains at High Risk. 1 village at Ruili & 1 village at Longchuan County remain at Medium Risk.

    Jiangsu Province

    • Nanjing reported 18 new domestic confirmed (10 mild & 8 moderate). There currently are 171 domestic confirmed (78 mild, 86 moderate & 7 serious) cases in the city. Of the 173 infected persons, 147 are at Jiangning District, 11 at Lishui District, 4 at Jianye District, 3 at Gulou Districts, 2 each at Gaochun, Qinhuai & Yuhua Districts & 1 each at Xuanwu & Qixia Districts. 1 village & 3 areas remain at High Risk, all in the Lukou sub-District, where the airport is. 1 area, 12 residential compounds, 5 buildings & 24 villages remain at Medium Risk.
    • Yangzhou reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (both moderate), both had traveled back from Jiangning District in Nanjing on 7/21. 1 had developed a fever on 7/27 & tested positive on 7/28, the other was identified as a close contact on 7/28 & tested positive on the same day.
    • Suqian did not report any new domestic posit cases. There currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases (both moderate) there, both traced to the outbreak in Nanjing. 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.


    Anhui Province

    • He County did not report any new domestic positive cases, there is 1 domestic asymptomatic case there, a person who returned from Nanjing.
    • Wuhu did not report any new domestic positive cases. There is 1 domestic asymptomatic case there, a person who had returned from Nanjing.

     

    Liaoning Province 

    • Shenyang did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 3 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases there, all traced to the outbreak in Nanjing. 1 residential building remains at Medium Risk.
    • Dalian did not report any new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 1 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all traced to transmission chain originating from the outbreak in Nanjing.

     

    Guangdong Province

    • Zhongshan in did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 domestic confirmed case in the city, a person had returned from Nanjing.
    • Zhuhai did not report any new domestic positive case. There currently is 1 domestic asymptomatic case there, a person who had flown back from Nanjing.

     

    Changde in Hunan Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, a traced close contact of the domestic confirmed cases reported by Chengdu in Sichuan Province on 7/27. The case had hosted the family from Chengdu during 7/23 – 7/24, after they had visited Zhangjiajie.

     

    Sichuan Province

    • Mianyang in did not report any new domestic positive cases. There is currently 1 domestic confirmed case there. 1 factory remains at Medium Risk.
    • Luzhou did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 domestic asymptomatic case in the city, a person who had traveled to Shanghai, but w/ viral genomic sequence highly identical to the outbreak in Nanjing.
    • Yibin reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (moderate), a traced close contact of the case reported by Luzhou,  who had also returned from Shanghai on the same flight. 1 residential compound has been elevated to Medium Risk.
    • Chengdu reported 2 new domestic confirmed (1 mild & 1 moderate) & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 of the new domestic confirmed cases had traveled to Zhangjijie in Hunan Province during 7/17 – 7/24 (a traced close contact, under centralized quarantine since 7/27), while the other had traveled to Zhangjijie during 7/21 – 7/24 (went to a hospital to get tested on 7/27). The domestic asymptomatic case had returned from Changde in Hunan Province on 7/25, on the same flight as several domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 5 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 2 residential compounds have been elevated to Medium Risk.

     

    Beijing Municipality reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (mild), who had traveled to Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province during 7/20 – 7/25. The case developed a fever on 7/26 & visited a fever clinic on 7/28.

     

    Imported Cases

    On 7/28, China reported 25 new imported confirmed cases, 12 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:

    • Yunnan Province (locations not specified) – 16 confirmed cases, 14 Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar & 2 from Laos; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Laos; all via land border crossings
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 3 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Thailand & 1 from the US
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Malaysia; 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Bangladesh, Iran & Iraq (via Tehran)
    • Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Malaysia, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Kenya; 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Iraq, Malaysia & the DRC (via Nairobi), off flights that landed at Guangzhou
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), a Chinese national returning from Egypt
    • Changchun in Jilin Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic)
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 confirmed case, no information released
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 each coming from Spain & Rwanda
    • Wuhan in Hubei Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Pakistan
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Japan
    • Shenyang in Liaoning Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Shanghai Municipality – 1 suspect case, no information released

     

    Overall in China, 24 confirmed cases recovered, 27 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 2 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 382 individuals were released  from quarantine. Currently, there are 887 active confirmed cases in the country (633 imported), 23 in serious condition (16 imported), 411 asymptomatic cases (395 imported), 5 suspect cases (all imported). 14,009 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 7/28, 1,601.249M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 17.888M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 7/29, Hong Kong reported 2 new positive cases, imported (from Tanzania & the US).

  5. 5.

    YY_Sima Qian

    The current Delta outbreak in China originated from Nanjing’s international airport. It is suspected that the either logistics personnel handling imported parcels or cleaning staff processing international flights. The vast majority of infected workers at the airport are cleaning staff. Chinese media have reported that the airport management company has outsourced cleaning staff to multiple contractor service companies, with muddled supervision and responsibilities. One of the major holes was that cleaning staff were processing both international & domestic flights. The infected airport workers spread the virus to their communities (villages & residential compounds in Jiangning Districts) in a number of super spreading events, & from there to the other districts in Nanjing.

    So far, none of the Nanjing Airport’s security & service staffs (such as at shops & restaurants) that have regular contacts w/ passengers have tested positive, so the passengers who were infected after passing through the airport are likely to have been infected by the cleaning staff. As cleaning staff are supposed to have exited the cabins before passengers start boarding, this points to aerosol or fomite transmission. Indeed, the asymptomatic case at Zhuhai (who flew in from Nanjing) has the identical virtual genomic sequence as one of the infected cleaning staff who had serviced the flight. It is then surprising that no cabin crews have tested positive so far.

    Cleaning staff at Nanjing airport should have been fully vaccinated, & are screened weekly basis. It was still not enough to prevent a significant outbreak w/ wide geographical dispersion. This again is evidence of the challenge of the Delta Variant, even accounting for the lower efficacy of Chinese inactivated whole varion vaccines. Contact tracing at Singapore has also documented breakthrough infections of airport workers (fully vaccinated w/ the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine), who then transmitted to coworkers, both vaccinated & unvaccinated. Those authorities around the world that are only planning to regularly test unvaccinated workers, & then only on a weekly basis, are taking far too much risk. The incubation period for the adepts Variant is far too short (avg. of 3+ days).

    Nanjing is a hub for domestic air travel in eastern China, so the outbreak at the airport sent cases to several cities across China. Travelers from Dalian in Liaoning Province, laying over at the Nanjing Airport on 7/17, then brought the virus to Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province, where one of the major national parks in China is located. Mid-Jul. is the start of summer break in China, so many families are traveling to the tourist attraction. Zhangjiajie became a secondary epicenter, in turn sending infected tourists to several cities in across China, persons who had been in the city from 7/20 – 7/24. Zhangjiajie has traced 25K+ individuals deemed at risk of exposure, all of whom have tested negative so far. However, it would be miraculous if the tourists only infected other tourists, & not the multitude of locals working as service workers, taxi drivers, tour guides, etc. Some of the infected tourists had also visited other tourists sites and flown through other airports since Zhangjiajie.

    One of the “positive” effect of the Delta Variant’s shorter incubation period is that it does take as long to take stock of the direction of the outbreak. After the initial cases found at Nanjing Airport on 7/21, all of the cases exported to the rest of China have travel history through the airport. In the past couple of days the cases exported to rest of China have instead traveled through Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province. Hopefully, this is a sign that at least the outbreak in Nanjing has largely been contained in the city, though the outbreak itself will take much longer to eliminate. 

  7. 7.

    Geminid

    @NeenerNeener: Thank you for your updates. It’s good to have consistent reporting from a populous locality. I’m guessing that Virginia’s Covid data is somewhat parallel.

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    Source I regularly peek at is right now showing new U.S. cases reported over the most recent 24 hours at just under 115,000.

    With some localities no longer submitting data daily, that disconcerting jump may partially represent a statistical catch-up incorporating lags in reporting (and concomitantly that the national 24 hour numbers in preceding days are an undercount due to missing data).

  10. 10.

    WereBear

    For cold-hearted capitalists, requiring vaccinations for their workforce is a no-brainer.

    Don’t know how much that might impact Red States, for whom no-brainer is a socially-supported condition. And might there be more ideologues among the employers?

  11. 11.

    Mary G

    532 new cases in the OC,

    positivity 4.9%,

    8 new cases per 100,000 people.

    Hospitalizations up 21.3% in the last three days

    No deaths, though. Yay. For now.

    Vaccination numbers reported tomorrow.

    So, so tired of this. I don’t know how you do it, AL. Glad you do, though.

    Teen is stalling his mom over vaccine appointments; up to next Wed. I’m about to make him move into the tent his stepdad used to quarantine in the garage. He can shower with the hose in the back yard instead of the beautiful new bathroom.

  14. 14.

    debbie

    @WereBear:

    They’re going to have to, whether they want to or not.

    They’ve started phasing in back to the worksite at my job. Over the weekend, we all got an email informing us a case of COVID had been reported by someone already working there. The employee reported it back on July 15. WTF would the company wait two weeks to let everyone else know???

  18. 18.

    Wvng

    Major health care provider in the Shenandoah Valley in VA and Eastern WV, Valley Health,  requiring staff be vaccinated, with few exceptions for medical and religious reasons. I wonder how the religious exemptions thing will work in practice.

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    @Mary G

    Print out some brochures from online and ask him to make it clear beforehand what his choice of casket is should one be needed?

    semi-//

  20. 20.

    Wvng

    @WereBear: “For cold-hearted capitalists, requiring vaccinations for their workforce is a no-brainer.” One would think that would be obvious.  Spreading disease in a workforce means loss of efficiency, it means disruptions.  Same for military and police with loss of operational readiness.

  22. 22.

    WereBear

    @Mary G: Good! Do it!

    One thing that does work with teens (which I regard as the most inexplicable and exasperating stage of all child raising) is clear consequences of their behavior.

    They have trouble with that and need it outlined in neon. Because a long-held hunch has panned out lately, with new brain research.

    At this age, parts of their brains just don’t work :)

  23. 23.

    NeenerNeener

    @Geminid: My sister in Nokesville was following Prince William County numbers, but I don’t think she still does. The Prince William numbers were always lower than up here on the American side of Lake Ontario.

  25. 25.

    Matt McIrvin

    All Covid discussions on Twitter:

    “That one paper out of Israel doesn’t mean vaccines are worthless, for the following 10 reasons: [gives 10 reasons]”

    “You are wrong because that one paper out of Israel means vaccines are worthless”

  27. 27.

    WereBear

    @NotMax: Trust me, almost all of them deal with redirected blood flow :) Even asexuals are capable of mooning about attachments of some kind.

    It’s like the body hijacks the decision-making parts, which work really well in a ten-year-old, to suddenly expand their social development, at all costs.

    Like in the classic, “if all your friends jumped off a bridge…”

    Yes. They would :)

  29. 29.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 17,170 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 1,078,646 cases. He also reports 174 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 8,725 deaths — 0.81% of the cumulative reported total, 0.97% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 179,179 active and contagious cases; 1,043 are in ICU, 531 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 12,930 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 890,742 patients recovered – 82.58% of the cumulative reported total.

    36 new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 3,604 clusters. 1,064 clusters are currently active; 2,540 clusters are now inactive.

    17,138 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 7,160 local cases: 84 in clusters, 3,949 close-contact screenings, and 3,127 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 2,119 local cases: 164 in clusters, 1,173 close-contact screenings, and 782 other screenings. Kedah reports 1,212 cases: 132 in clusters, 673 close-contact screenings, and 407 other screenings. Johor reports 1,046 local cases: 292 in clusters, 495 close-contact screenings, and 259 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan reports 882 local cases: 142 in clusters, 568 close-contact screenings, and 172 other screenings.

    Sabah reports 776 cases: 74 in clusters, 439 close-contact screenings, and 263 other screenings.

    Pahang reports 638 cases: 113 in clusters, 359 close-contact screenings, and 166 other screenings. Kelantan reports 615 cases: 249 in clusters, 193 close-contact screenings, and 173 other screenings.

    Perak reports 596 cases: 216 in clusters, 164 close-contact screenings, and 216 other screenings. Sarawak reports 582 local cases: 65 in clusters, 420 close-contact screenings, and 97 other screenings. Penang reports 554 cases: 129 in clusters, 236 close-contact screenings, and 189 other screenings.

    Terengganu reports 437 cases: 121 in clusters, 240 close-contact screenings, and 76 other screenings. Melaka reports 416 cases: 116 in clusters, 208 close-contact screenings, and 92 other screenings.

    Putrajaya reports 84 cases: 53 close-contact screenings and 31 other screenings. Labuan reports 11 cases: two in clusters, fivw close-contact screenings, and four other screenings. Perlis reports 10 cases: three close-contact screenings and seven other screenings.

    32 new cases today are imported: 19 in Kuala Lumpur, eight in Johor, three in Selangor, and two in Negeri Sembilan.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 552,701 doses of vaccine on 28th July: 353,771 first doses and 198,930 second doses. As of midnight yesterday, the cumulative total is 18,946,048 doses administered: 12,841,212 first doses and 6,104,836 second doses. 18.7% of the population are now fully vaccinated.

  31. 31.

    satby

    @Mary G: Do it. WTF is up with his mom? I realize they can be a handful at that age, but he shouldn’t be able to “stall” her. She should tell him “get in the car, we’re going” and get it done. Or he’s out, in the garage as you said. No more discussion, no more stalling.

    Edit: and no more attention paid, since negative reinforcement, which this is in attempting to cajole him into compliance, is as powerful as positive reinforcement. Shunning is a powerful consequence. Quit feeding the drama.

  34. 34.

    mrmoshpotato

    Kim Reynolds suggests unvaccinated immigrants are contributing to rising COVID-19 cases

    Let’s give Iowa Dump-humpers their stupid, racist wall – on their north, south, east and west borders.

  35. 35.

    David C

    Getting frustrated at Eric Topol’s lack of understanding on how FDA approval works and why they cannot just approve the Pfizer vaccine right away.

  36. 36.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    I’m so sick of the fucking media.  The virus is evolving!  When it changes and gets stronger the recommendations have to change.

  37. 37.

    MJS

    @rikyrah: ​
      I just don’t understand accepting “proof of a negative test”, as if that test is any good beyond the first encounter with other people after the test sample was taken. Take the test on Friday, go to a bar Friday night, a baseball game on Saturday, and church on Sunday, probably not masked and among others not wearing masks, but sure, the results you get from Friday will protect you and others.

  39. 39.

    Anne Laurie

    @NotMax: Hospital admission for confirmed infection is not a trivial procedure.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the IOC / Japanese government attempting to bundle the ‘plague rats’ out of the Olympic Village before the media could start asking questions.  Much easier to keep journos away from a hospital room, even if the severity of the patients’ illness doesn’t require that level of monitoring.

  40. 40.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby:

    Do it. WTF is up with his mom? I realize they can be a handful at that age, but he shouldn’t be able to “stall” her. She should tell him “get in the car, we’re going” and get it done. Or he’s out, in the garage as you said. No more discussion, no more stalling. 

    Threaten to call Katie Porter.

    “Get in the car, asshat!  You’re getting vaccinated!”

  41. 41.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @debbie: When you think about it, it isn’t just Covid that these assclowns are obstructionist about. Climate change, abortion, escalating medical costs, addressing the country’s crumbling infrastructure or anything that’s even remotely progressive, they’re a monkey wrench tossed in the gears of civilization. We can’t afford their stupidity anymore.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    Kyle Stokes
    @kystokes
    ·13h
    Just got some numbers: 1,695 #LAUSD students have signed up for online classes as of yesterday (out of >450,000 students)

    So vast, vast majority want in-person. The deadline to sign up for online is Friday but that won’t be a hard deadline- public schools can’t legally enforce deadlines like that, so they’re more like suggestions.

  45. 45.

    Starfish

    @Matt McIrvin: That is very anti-vax behavior.

    I mean that in the traditional anti-vax sense. They are still spreading Wakefield’s study after it had been retracted and he had his medical license pulled.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    I go to a nurse practioner for ordinary medical care and I had to go yesterday because my (private) insurance company requires an annual check up every year by August 31 or they bill me an extra 150 dollars a month (which I notice no one on the Right has every complained about, these health insurance requirements and punishments). Anyway, they did a review of the vaccines I have received and it was nice and normal- covid was just included with shingles and tetanus – no hysterics or screeching or analysis of my constitional rights, just listed with all the rest.

    Coddling and kowtowing to these people is a choice. Nothing bad will happen if we all stop doing it.

  47. 47.

    Skepticat

    Veni, vidi, vacci. The wait between the first and second shots seemed interminable, I finally got my second one, putting my Pfizer on stun. However, even after a two-week wait for immunity to build, I plan to keep wearing a mask for a long time.

  48. 48.

    satby

    @mrmoshpotato: I was going to threaten to fly there.

    I’ve had a hand in raising 30 kids, mostly tweens and teens, and only two biologically mine. So 28 of them and I basically started between neutral to adversarial, depending on why they were at my house. So not talking totally out my ass here, I got skillz.

  49. 49.

    Starfish

    @The Thin Black Duke: I completely agree. I am so disappointed that the only thing our political class wants to do on climate change is “Here, have an electric pickup truck.” We need to be far more serious about this now.

  51. 51.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Starfish: It is classic crank/troll/shit-stirrer behavior going back at least to the dawn of Usenet. These people are amateurs, though; the real masters can do it in a way that makes everyone else look like the crazy ones.

    They go into a discussion armed with some misleading but superficially sensible arguments, behave generally amicably, and provoke an argument that dies out after most of the participants figure out what’s actually going on. Then go off radar for weeks or months, then come back with the same opening argument as if the previous discussion never happened at all. Repeat.

    After a couple of years of this, every time they show up, the regulars with long-term memory freak out, and to a noob it looks like they’re being mean to a polite person with some sensible-sounding arguments for no apparent reason.

  53. 53.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie:

    Oh, fuck you , Axelrod. “The C in CDC does not stand for Communication.”

    What the slapdick, Batman?

    Also, which C, because neither make sense?

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    Meanwhile, the current session of Parliament in KL has been suspended until Monday after an outbreak of Covid-19 among parliamentary staff. The session had already been suspended twice today as test results came back positive. Apparently, the last major business done today was opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim filing a motion of no confidence against PM Muhyiddin Yassin.

    Everybody is upset with Muhyiddin because of his less-than-sure leadership recently, and because he decided a few days ago to revoke the current Emergency ordinance, under which he has been governing for the past year, without telling anyone or seeking the customary royal consent for the revocation. People are understandably calling upon him to resign.

    But if he does resign, or loses that no-confidence vote, that could trigger a general election and a one-month nationwide campaign period — and that’s the last thing we need in this pandemic. I’m no fan of Muhyiddin holding on as PM, but we don’t need this grief right now.

  55. 55.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Matt McIrvin: The real genius trolls can get two totally dissimilar groups at each others throats while they stand back to watch the fun and sip a latte. The kiddy groups on Usenet were easy meat for the alt.tasteless trolls, for example. Ah memories.

  56. 56.

    Cermet

    So much total bullshit out there, so little do people pay attention. Thanks for keeping up supplying good information here!

    As for the bullshit – First off, the vaccine was created for the original (now alpha) variant and not Delta. So the vaccine hasn’t failed at all – thanks to the world not having the ability to create and vac 8 billion people (16 billion does or there about) in a few months (is anyone surprised?) it mutated.

    Second, the break throughs that show symptoms are very few and deaths almost microscopic – and I’d bet most of those were people with very weak immune systems (26% died from other cause that likely had nothing to do with covid.)

    I know of no major religion that prohibits vaccination – not protestant, catholic, Islamic, Hindu, even the crazy 7th day activist allow it! There should be NO allowance for such a bullshit excuse.

    At least if you do get it (and are vaccinated) you likely get little to minor issues but afterwards, just got a booster specifically for Delta! So, that is good.

  57. 57.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cermet: Alpha isn’t the original COVID virus the vaccines were created for–Alpha was itself a more transmissible variant (we were calling it “the UK variant” for a while). But the vaccines had almost no reduction in efficacy against it.

    One thing that’s not clear to me (I suspect it’s unknown yet) is whether effectiveness against Delta dropped a little because of the slight mismatch in the spike proteins, or just because Delta reproduces much faster and makes some headway against your immune response by brute force. If it’s the latter, a new vaccine tailored to Delta might not perform any better.

    The Nirenberg tweet thread above is interesting in that it suggests some of the evidence Pfizer is pushing for booster shots means less than it seems. We may well need them sooner or later, but that will come from actual evidence of declining effectiveness, not declining antibody titers.

  58. 58.

    Cermet

    In Salon, a great overview of the issues for Delta and vaccines; explains in simple terms why Delta is getting an edge but hardly is a real danger to vaccinated.

    See: Unraveling the mysterious mutations that make delta the most transmissible COVID virus yet | Salon.com

    This is a scarily point and why the thug party could cause massive deaths among us all. Read this and worry:

    By failing to contain the virus through vaccination, wearing masks and avoiding crowds, people are allowing the coronavirus to morph into increasingly dangerous forms, said Dr. William Haseltine, a former Harvard Medical School professor who helped design treatments for HIV/AIDS.

    “It’s getting better, and we’re making it better,” he said. “Having half the population vaccinated and half unvaccinated and unprotected — that is the exact experiment I would design if I were a devil and trying to design a vaccine-busting virus.”

  59. 59.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cermet: Angela Rasmussen seems to think that, while further evolution in the infected will make worse variants, the prospects for outright vaccine escape are overblown:

    https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1420024555981221897

    One thing she notes in the thread is that the greater ability in the beta and gamma variants to evade some neutralizing antibody responses hasn’t led to them becoming dominant–the alpha and delta variants out-compete them just by reproducing faster, the “brute force” approach. And that even variants of alpha and delta that can do this in vitro haven’t become dominant in the real world.

  60. 60.

    Ken

    @Matt McIrvin: Don’t forget:

    V: “31,100 unvaccinated Californians died of COVID in the first half of this year.”

    AV: “They didn’t die of COVID, they were obese or old or smokers or something like that.”

    V: “Also, 71 vaccinated Californians died of COVID in the same period.”

    AV: “Vaccination doesn’t work since vaccinated people are still dying of COVID.”

  62. 62.

    lowtechcyclist

    @The Thin Black Duke: 

    When you think about it, it isn’t just Covid that these assclowns are obstructionist about. Climate change, abortion, escalating medical costs, addressing the country’s crumbling infrastructure or anything that’s even remotely progressive, they’re a monkey wrench tossed in the gears of civilization. We can’t afford their stupidity anymore.

    You can say that again. They are betraying this country, civilized society, and the future of the world itself with their assholishness and willful ignorance.

    They are Covid traitors, climate traitors, and January 6th traitors.

    They want to be free to discriminate against whoever they want, and insult and harass those same people without any legal or social consequences.

    They want people to be able to openly carry guns wherever they go, and in a civilized society, when you’re out in public, you shouldn’t constantly be just a few seconds away from having bullets drill through your body.

    They want their Christianist religion to have a legally favored status. Who needs to evangelize – they’ll just get the government to do it. Well, my faith is strong enough that it doesn’t need any fucking government assistance, and if theirs isn’t that strong, maybe it doesn’t deserve any advantages.

    And like you say, even when we try to fix shit that shouldn’t even be politically divisive in the first place, they’ll do their best to block it or fuck it up.

    We really can’t afford these people anymore. The world can’t afford them anymore.

  64. 64.

    Fair Economist

    @Matt McIrvin: As long as a large proportion of the population is unvaxxed, partial escape (which is all that any of these do) is only a mild advantage. They already have almost 50% of the population to replicate in freely, so adding in a 20% chance to infect the remaining is at best a 20% increase in replication. In addition, immune responses other that neutralization are much more resistant to escape so even if infected the vaccinated will have a milder infection on average so the advantage is even less.

    After this wave blows through the unvaxxed and almost everybody has immunity we’ll see the evolutionary shift to escaping neutralization.

  65. 65.

    VeniceRiley

    @Mary G: Drag him to my office, if you like. I’ll help you hold him down or whatever.

    • AltaMed Vaccine Hotline at (888) 909-5232
    • MyTurn
      LA and OC locations
  66. 66.

    J R in WV

    @WereBear: ​
     

    At this age, parts of their brains just don’t work :)

    At this age parts of their brains are not yet on line … For some folks this situation never changes!

  67. 67.

    Betsy

    @MJS: It’s nearly valueless, but it puts a burden of action on the people who prefer inaction, which will push most of them to get the shot.

Comments are closed.