Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

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

I was promised a recession.

He really is that stupid.

The revolution will be supervised.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Republicans don’t trust women.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, Aug. 10-11

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, Aug. 10-11

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GOP Death Cultists:

… The United States reported nearly 160,000 cases on Monday, pushing the seven-day average to almost 115,000 daily, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. It was the most severe day for new cases in the country since Jan. 29, when coronavirus vaccines were not widely available. Hospitalizations are also up to nearly 70,000 as businesses and schools grapple with mandates for vaccinations and masks during the fourth wave of the pandemic.

But Cruz told Fox News host Sean Hannity that no health regulations are needed to help curb a nationwide surge fueled by the highly transmissible delta variant and the millions who remain unvaccinated.

“There should be no mandates — zero — concerning covid,” Cruz said. “That means no mask mandates, regardless of your vaccination status. That means no vaccine mandates. That means no vaccine passports.”…

Cruz joined Paul in denouncing mandates amid the resurgence in cases and hospitalizations. The senator from Kentucky — who has fashioned himself as the Senate’s chief skeptic of Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious-disease doctor — released a video Sunday that urged people to resist the regulations implemented by health experts and elected officials to help prevent the spread of the deadly delta variant.

“It’s time for us to resist. They can’t arrest all of us,” Paul said. “They can’t keep all of your kids home from school. They can’t keep every government building closed, although I’ve got a long list of ones they might keep closed or ought to keep closed.”…

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… A trial out of South Africa has caught the attention of people, particularly infectious-disease experts, with regard to the effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine against the delta variant.

The Sisonke trial looked at the effectiveness of the single-dose shot in South Africa’s front-line health-care workers.

Linda Gail-Bekker, one of the researchers for the trial, said the vaccine was found to be to be up to 95 percent effective in preventing delta variant-caused death and up to 71 percent effective in averting hospitalizations.

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that the preliminary results add to the body of evidence that confirms its efficacy in averting death and severe illness.

“A single-shot vaccine that provides protection and prevents hospitalization and death is an important tool in the global fight against covid-19,” the company said. “Evidence from our Phase 3 ENSEMBLE study demonstrates the efficacy of the J&J single-shot [coronavirus] vaccine, including against viral variants that are highly prevalent. Regardless of race and ethnicity, age, geographic location and comorbidities, these results remain consistent.”

The company also pointed out a double-blind study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed its vaccine gave antibody and T-cell immune response protection against the coronavirus. The defense lasted up to eight months after immunization…

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Reader Interactions

134Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY web site says 93 new cases on 8/10, 4.2% test positivity.

    The NYS Dept of Health web site says 121 new cases in Monroe County on 8/10.

  5. 5.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 8/10 China reported 83 new domestic confirmed cases (15 previously asymptomatic) & 7 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Yunnan Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (both mild). 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 51 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases there. 1 community at Ruili remains at High Risk. 3 site at Ruili & 1 village at Longchuan County remain at Medium Risk.

    Jiangsu Province reported 54 new domestic confirmed cases. 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There are currently 666 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Nanjing did not report any new domestic positive cases. 3 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 204 domestic confirmed (47 mild & 157 moderate) cases in the city. The Lukou Sub-District remains at High Risk. 18 sites are curently at Medium Risk.
    • Yangzhou reported 54 new domestic confirmed cases (13 mild, 41 moderate). 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. Of the 48 domestic confirmed cases reported on 8/9, 38 are traced close contacts (but only 32 of whom were already under centralized quarantine), & 10 were identified via mass screening or at fever clinic (though all have been staying home since 8/1). There currently are 447 domestic confirmed (73 mild, 339 moderate, 23 serious & 12 critical) cases in the city. 2 sites are currently at High Risk & 92 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Huai’an there currently are 12 confirmed cases in the city, all members of the group that had gone to Zhangjiajie. 10 sites remain at Medium Risk.
    • At Suqian, there currently are 3 domestic confirmed cases (all moderate) there, 2 of whom are traced to the outbreak in Nanjing. A dormitory remains at Medium Risk.
    • At Wuxi, there currently is 1 domestic asymptomatic case in the city, a person involved in processing incoming visitors/returnees from overseas & not connected to the Delta Variant outbreak from Nanjing.

     

    Hunan Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases. There are currently are 96 domestic confirmed (including 3 serious) & 18 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • At Changde there currently are 3 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all had ridden on the super-spreading boat cruise.
    • At Xiangtan there currently are 2 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all having been on the super-spreading boat cruise at Changde on 7/24. 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.
    • At Changsha there currently are 2 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, 2 had ridden on the super-spreading boat cruise at Changde on 7/24 & 3 from transmission chains related to 2 of the domestic confirmed cases reported by Beijing. 3 sites remain at Medium Risk.
    • At Yiyang there currently are 3 domestic confirmed & 5 domestic asymptomatic case in the city, all traced close contact of domestic confirmed cases reported by Beijing. 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.
    • At Zhuzhou there currently are 29 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, 7 had gone on the super spreading cruise & rest are their close contacts. 7 sites remain at Medium Risk.
    • Zhangjiajie reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases, 3 are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 8/6 & 2 were found via mass screening on 8/8. There currently are 58 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 2 areas & 1 community remain at High Risk. 11 sub-districts remain at Medium Risk.
    • At Xiangxi Prefecture there currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases in the city, both close contacts of the party from Huai’an. 1 village & 1 residential compound remain at Medium Risk.

     

    Henan Province reported 7 new domestic confirmed (6 previously asymptomatic) & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There are currently 134 domestic confirmed & 12 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Zhengzhou reported 6 new domestic confirmed (5 previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic case. Both new domestic positive cases are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. The currently are 122 domestic confirmed & 10 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, the vast majority of whom are staff, patients & caretakers at the #6 Hospital, & their close contacts. 1 sub-district remains at High Risk. 28 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Shangqiu, there currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases in the city, both connected to the nosocomial outbreak at Zhengzhou. 2 residential compounds, 1 community & a shopping mall remain at Medium Risk.
    • Zhumadian reported 1 new domestic confirmed (previously asymptomatic) case. There currently are 3 domestic confirmed cases in the city, 2 connected to the nosocomial outbreak at Zhengzhou & 1 w/ there outbreak in Wuhan. 5 villages remain at High Risk. 6 sites remain at Medium Risk.
    • Kaifeng reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, found via mass screening. There currently are 6 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases, all connected to the nosocomial outbreak at Zhengzhou. 7 villages remain at High Risk. 1 township remains at Medium Risk.
    • At Anyang there is 1 domestic asymptomatic case, a person who had visited #6 Hospital in Zhengzhou on 7/28.
    • At Xuchang there is 1 domestic confirmed case, who was discharged from the #6 Hospital in Zhengzhou on 7/22.

     

    Hubei Province reported 14 new domestic confirmed (8 previously asymptomatic) & 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 69 domestic confirmed & 60 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Huanggang reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases (all previously asymptomatic). There currently are 5 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, 4 connected to the group from Huai’an in Jiangsu Province on company outing & 4 to the secondary outbreak at construction site in Wuhan. 2 township are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Jingzhou, there currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases in the city, both connected to the group on company outing from Huai’an in Jiangsu Province. 1 area remains at Medium Risk.
    • Jingmen reported 7 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic) & 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There are currently 25 domestic confirmed & 13 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all connected to 4 individuals that returned from Wuhan on 7/31 (having worked at the construction site w/ the outbreak there). 1 township has been elevated to Medium Risk. 1 sub-district & 1 township are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Wuhan reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases, all traced close contacts (2 already under centralized quarantine since 8/2, 1 found via mass screening on 8/8 having last tested negative on 8/4). There currently are 36 domestic confirmed & 40 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all but 1 traceable to transmission chains sparked by 2 separate cases that were at Jingzhou high speed rail station on 7/27 as the party from Huai’an. 3 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Ezhou reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (previously asymptomatic). There currently are 1 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases, all connected to the construction site outbreak at Wuhan.
    • At Xianning there currently is 1 domestic asymptomatic case, connected to the construction site outbreak at Wuhan, already under centralized quarantine since 8/3.

     

    Beijing Municipality reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case (previously asymptomatic, mild). There currently are 9 domestic confirmed cases in the city, all connected to the outbreak at Zhangjiajie in late Jul. 2 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.

    At Hulun Buir in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region there currently is 1 new domestic confirmed case (at Hailar), who had stayed at the same floor in same hotel at the same time as the confirmed case reported by Yinchuan. 1 residential compound has been elevated to Medium Risk.

    At Haikou in Hainan Province there currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases in the city, a person who had crossed paths w/ the party from Huai’an in Jiangsu Province on company outing at Jingzhou high speed rail station & a worker at the airport. The two are unlikely to be connected. 2 sites are currently at Medium Risk.

    Imported Cases

    On 8/10, China reported 28 new imported confirmed cases, 23 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang Province – 11 confirmed cases, all Chinese crew members off a cargo ship w/ last port of call in the Philippines
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), coming from Cameroon; 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 each coming from Thailand & the US
    • Yunnan Province (locations not specified) – 5 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar, via land border crossings
    • Shanghai Municipality – 4 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Russia, Serbia (via Paris CdG), Thailand & the US
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 3 confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 1 Chinese national each returning from Cambodia, Cyprus (via Frankfurt) & Nigeria (via Frankfurt); 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Nigeria Nigeria (via Frankfurt)
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Saudi Arabia & Qatar, off flights that landed at Guangzhou
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 8 asymptomatic cases, 3 Chinese nationals returning from Bangladesh, 2 from South Korea & 1 each from Sri Lanka, Japan & the US
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UK (via Paris CdG)
    • Rizhao Port in Shandong Province – 1 confirmed & 1 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese crew members off a cargo ship w/ last port of call in South Korea
    • Beijing Municipality – 7 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Wuhan in Hubei Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Indonesia

     

    Overall in China, 24 confirmed cases recovered, 14 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 19 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 3,496 individuals were released  from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,789 active confirmed cases in the country (729 imported), 60 in serious condition (15 imported), 498 asymptomatic cases (392 imported), 1 suspect case (imported). 50,808 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 8/10, 1,808.093M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 13.043M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 8/11, Hong Kong reported 1 new positive case, imported (from Bangladesh).

  7. 7.

    Chetan Murthy

    I continue to wait for some sort of useful information and guidance about long covid in breakthrough cases.  B/c with Delta rampant, everybody’s going to get exposed, and repeatedly, until the fire burns itself out.  If the preliminary study out of Israel holds true, 19% of breakthrough cases result in long covid.  But nowhere can I find out what that means: severity of symptoms, brain involvement, etc.  So as a prudent man, I’m forced to just assume that that’s something to avoid, *period*.

    I’ve stopped going to the gym (again, ugh!) b/c “heavy breathing”, no vaxx mandate, *ugh*.

  8. 8.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    “It’s time for us to resist. They can’t arrest all of us,” Paul said. “They can’t keep all of your kids home from school. They can’t keep every government building closed, although I’ve got a long list of ones they might keep closed or ought to keep closed.”…

    In Bowling Green, Kentucky (Rand Paul’s home), they have 700 kids and staff in quarantine after the first week of school with somewhere between 95-100 kids with active COVID diagnoses. Despite it being in the middle of a hotbed of “mah freedumbs and libberty”, the school district has enacted a mask mandate.

    I’m guessing they’ll be closed by this time next week.

  12. 12.

    Chris Johnson

    I’m pretty sure the purpose of all this pivoting is to continue to make rightwingers psychotically, genocidally anti-immigrant.

    It looks like someone got the idea that you could do that by doubling down on the pandemic and then simply blaming it all on immigrants. So, that would be ‘any excuse to murder all the brown people just like the Nazis wanted’, using a real pandemic to fuel it. And therefore there can’t be any mask mandates, or vaccines, or health care, because it’s important to these people to CAUSE a huge amount of obvious sickness and death now that they’ve got a plan for what they’re going to do with that.

    I’m going to keep an eye on how that excuse fares. It’s not there to convince US. It’s there to turn the already insane MAGA hordes into revolutionary forces prepared to literally fight the immigrants and Democrats, and this is a good reason NOT to let them all fester and die of their own toxic choices: they’re being taught it’s us and immigrants doing it to them, and to the extent that they believe it, the more damage it does them the more radicalized they become, and we want them less radicalized not more.

  14. 14.

    Kay

    Brinley Hineman
    @brinleyhineman
    ·7h
    Here’s the video I tried to tweet earlier but wouldn’t go through. A man was being disruptive during the Williamson County Schools meeting and deputies escorted him out. Dozens of enraged anti-mask parents followed.

    Brinley Hineman
    @brinleyhineman
    ·8h
    Board chair Nancy Garrett says the anti-mask mandate folks think they’re in a majority, but after tallying up emails they’re not.
    Her tally as of 3 pm for emails she personally received: 781 emails for masks. 348 against masks.

    Tennessee, very Trumpy county, despite hours of Trump people screaming at them about masks the board voted to require masks.
    Straight from Fox news. They’re carrying signs comparing the mask mandate in schools to Obama’s birthday party.

  17. 17.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Chris Johnson:

    You’re definitely not wrong here. The RWNJ spaces seamlessly swing between “it’s a hoax”, “it’s just the flu”, “it’s a crime against humanity committed by China for which they must be nuked”, “it’s all been done by the entire world just to make Trump look bad”, “illegal immigrants are walking it across the border”, “filthy immigrants have it”, “blacks and Latinos have low vax rates and that’s why it spreads”, “Dems want to control us with mask mandates and vaccines”, Dems are failing at vaccine messaging”, “but BLM demonstrations”, “mah freedumbs and libberty”, etc., etc., etc.

    The goalposts always shift, with zero acknowledgement that we all have to get behind vaccines, masks, some distancing and working smarter in business, education and government – and with (finally) some significant economic sacrifice by the most economically privileged people in our society.

  19. 19.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @rikyrah:

    What is striking about that is how small Bowling Green is compared to Atlanta. That county (home to Western Kentucky University, the Corvette plant and a major Smucker’s facility) only has about 135K residents.

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    While I wait for the Ministry of Health to finish posting today’s nationwide Covid-19 stats, its media statement on the aborted Parliamentary session of 29th July is a pretty grim I-told-you-so to the politicians who demanded it and to the Malay rulers who ordered it — basically, against MoH advice.

    There was an outbreak related to the session. A whopping 97 people tested positive in screening conducted before and during the session, which was consequently suspended for two weeks on its first day, including five who had the Delta variant. One person, a senior government official, has died.
    The session is supposed to resume tomorrow.

  21. 21.

    New Deal democrat

    Some *relatively* good news. Another day’s data supports the idea that Delta is peaking in the States that it hit earliest. Missouri, Arkansas, Utah, and Nevada all show either a sharp deceleration in the increase in cases, or an outright decline. Even Florida’s latest weekly number showed some deceleration. Only Louisiana’s numbers have not broken their exponential trend.

    It may represent Delta consuming the dry tinder, or it may represent the effects of behavioral changes due to panic, or some of both.

  23. 23.

    Chetan Murthy

    @debbie: That study was conducted pre-Delta, though, yes?  Everything is worse now.  Is it even clear that masking (without careful adherence to protocols to ensure an actual seal) is enough?

  24. 24.

    debbie

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    It’s going to be interesting watching school districts around here. Some have mandated masks, some have banned them, some have mandated them for kids under 12 and “recommended” them for kids over 12. I look forward to the statistical comparisons that will be flooding FB and local news.

  25. 25.

    sab

    Found it on Stu Stevens twitter: Archie Manning ( Peyton and Eli’s dad) has done a public service announcement in Mississippi encouraging vaccinations. That’s encouraging.

  26. 26.

    MomSense

    Dr. Summers is trying to convince sociopaths to care about other humans.  They won’t.

    We need mandates.   From the comments of people like Fauci, it seems like the federal government doesn’t think they have the authority to mandate vaccines and masks.  Is that true?  I do think the mandate for all military personnel and contractors will significantly increase vaccination rates in what are currently low-vax places.  Any of our jackal lawyers know why the feds can’t mandate vaccines?

  27. 27.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @New Deal democrat: do we know if any states are keeping track of breakthrough COVID cases that don’t end up hospitalized?   Meanwhile in my episode of “But wait! There’s more!” Of the five of us that got breakthrough COVID my niece now has pneumonia and my daughter is probably pregnant…I would be freaking out but I am just too tired right now. Still working from home though. And on the upside my husband’s second test came back negative so that’s a huge plus.  This movie sucks I want my money back..

  29. 29.

    Hildebrand

    I am looking for insight – I am a pastor of a Black congregation in Detroit.  It’s Lutheran, the more liberal variety.  The vaccine holdouts are those deeply concerned about the way the government and health institutions screwed Black people, especially in the Tuskegee experiments.

    Now, the oldest members of the congregation, and those who work blue collar jobs, got the vaccine.  The ones who are most vocal about not getting it, because of these ghastly past experiences, are those in their 30s to 50s who tend to be the best educated. How do I encourage them to get the vaccine?

    Any sage advice would be welcome.

  31. 31.

    sab

    @debbie: Akron Public Schools announced a mask mandate for everyone entering APS buildimgs as of 8/28/21. They already had a mandate last year, plus zoom only classes.

  32. 32.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Hildebrand: It would seem like the living example of their elders might to be of some motivational value?  I mean, they can see their elders, alive, healthy, and not living in fear of painful death — isn’t that somewhat convincing?  How do they explain to themselves  that their elders got the shot, and are thriving because of it, but it’s something bad?

  34. 34.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 20,780 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 1,320,547 cases. He also reports 211 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 11,373 deaths — 0.86% of the cumulative reported total, 1.05% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 233,368 active and contagious cases; 1,053 are in ICU, 546 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 17,973 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 1,075,816 patients recovered – 81.39% of the cumulative reported total.

    31 new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 4,034 clusters. 1,258 clusters are currently active; 2,776 clusters are now inactive.

    20,765 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 6,910 local cases: 193 in clusters, 3,298 close-contact screenings, and 3,419 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 2,062 local cases: 121 in clusters, 1,043 close-contact screenings, and 898 other screenings.

    Johor reports 1,693 cases: 448 in clusters, 929 close-contact screenings, and 316 other screenings. Kedah reports 1,534 cases: 71 in clusters, 854 close-contact screenings, and 609 other screenings. Sabah reports 1,514 cases: 118 in clusters, 925 close-contact screenings, and 471 other screenings. Penang reports 1,385 cases: 65 in clusters, 424 close-contact screenings, and 896 other screenings. Kelantan reports 1,284 cases: 317 in clusters, 652 close-contact screenings, and 315 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 1,015 cases: seven in clusters, 613 close-contact screenings, and 395 other screenings.

    Perak reports 828 cases: 83 in clusters, 380 close-contact screenings, and 365 other screenings.

    Melaka reports 636 cases: 234 in clusters, 259 close-contact screenings, and 143 other screenings. Sarawak reports 633 local cases: 77 in clusters, 426 close-contact screenings, and 130 other screenings. Terengganu reports 613 cases: 176 in clusters, 342 close-contact screenings, and 95 other screenings.

    Pahang reports 585 cases: 127 in clusters, 317 close-contact screenings, and 141 other screenings.

    Putrajaya reports 41 cases: 33 close-contact screenings and eight other screenings. Perlis reports 29 cases: six in clusters, 12 close-contact screenings, and 11 other screenings. Labuan reports three cases: one close-contact screenings and two other screenings.

    15 new cases today are imported: 11 in Selangor, three in Kuala Lumpur, and one in Sarawak.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 375,981 doses of vaccine on 10th August: 160,320 first doses and 197,661 second doses. As of midnight yesterday, the cumulative total is 25,366,211 doses administered: 16,119,916 first doses and 9,246,295 second doses. 49.4% of the population have received their first dose, while 28.3% are now fully vaccinated.

  36. 36.

    Robert Sneddon

    @MomSense: Mandating masks is all and good, but are there enough police, National Guardsmen and orbital lasers to enforce such a mandate if it is widely unpopular in certain locales? Probably not, and politics is the art of the possible.

     

    The best thing about vaccination in my opinion is that it’s irreversible, no-one can take their vaccination off in a plane because they think their freedoms are being infringed.

  38. 38.

    eclare

    @Chetan Murthy:  I finally gave up and quit my gym.  I had to go in person.  Signs up everywhere saying “Masks recommended.”  Not required.  Confirmed my decision.

  39. 39.

    MomSense

    @Hildebrand:

    I’ve been following a young man (early 30s) who engages with his followers by sharing photos and quotes of Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett and Kamala Harris receiving the Moderna she developed.  He only felt confident getting Moderna. Could you contact your local public health department and some other black churches and see if you could get a Moderna clinic?  I know that Walmart in my area was doing Moderna clinics.  If there are some older members who would be willing to organize a potluck for your clinic that might help too.

  41. 41.

    Hildebrand

    @satby: I will say that one of my holdouts was guilted into it by her 14 year old daughter.  But even after getting vaccinated she has been very vocal about everyone needing to respect the decision of those who won’t vaccinate.

  42. 42.

    sab

    @MomSense: My guess is they don’t want to push their luck by mandating under an emergency authorization and then lose in court, since our Supreme Court is nuts.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    Ted Cruz calls for ‘zero’ coronavirus mandates.

    I call for Ted Cruz to be mandated by catapult.

  45. 45.

    debbie

    @sab:

    I came across a video last night of Tom Hanks’ kid being all loud and anti-vax and berating those who had gotten theirs. Nice son. //

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    @Hildebrand:

    There is the young man who did the fabulous one about the vaccine on Twitter. Has well over 1 million views AL even put him in one of her posts.

    Dr Kizzy has a lot of videos on YouTube.

    I am with the poster below.

    Can you set up a Moderna clinic?

     

    I would also think about seeing if you can do a zoom meeting with Dr. Kizzy. You can find her on Twitter.

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    The senator from Kentucky — who has fashioned himself as the Senate’s chief skeptic of Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious-disease doctor — released a video Sunday that urged people to resist the regulations implemented by health experts and elected officials to help prevent the spread of the deadly delta variant.

    This is a true sentence.  Just let that sink in for a bit.

  49. 49.

    New Deal democrat

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Short answer: I don’t know.

    One of the big failures of the CDC this year has been exactly its not publicizing daily the differences in rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated cases.

    Which reminds me: they did just start publishing demographic graphs of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated. They didn’t measure by partisanship, but surprisingly, the biggest correlation wasn’t age, it was whether the person had health insurance or not. Which makes me think there’s been a major failure to communicate that the shots are free.

  51. 51.

    rikyrah

    @MomSense:

    I am with you

    Mandates

    Want your job?

    Get vaccinated.

    Is that simple

    Every school district, grades 7-12 should mandate vaccination for students and every adult in the schools.

    And then masks and offer hybrids, grades K-6.

  57. 57.

    mrmoshpotato

    Facebook has shut down an attempt, run by a British-registered marketing agency operating out of Russia, to dupe social media influencers into spreading anti-Pfizer vaccine hoaxes

    I guess Fuckerberg has had his fill of rubles.

  59. 59.

    Hildebrand

    @rikyrah: @MomSense:  My thanks.  I’ve used Dr. Corbett’s videos to some effect in the past, but will definitely highlight them again.  One of the big churches down the street is having a moderna clinic next week, I’ll ask to see if we can make it a joint effort.

  60. 60.

    Amir Khalid

    @Hildebrand:

    The only people whose decision not to get vaccinated deserves respect are the very rare few who were advised against it on medical grounds.

  62. 62.

    Peale

    @rikyrah: same where I live. The zip code that’s about 85% ultra orthodox is less than 25% vaccinated for the  eligible population. On the plus side, they were a hot spot for months last year, so maybe they have a bit more herd immunity against what’s coming. Lol. Doubtful wishful thinking on my part.

  63. 63.

    MomSense

    @Hildebrand:

    check out the #modernagang on Twitter.  Lots of videos – plus some nonsense, too.  Dr. Corbett is a champion and would never do anything to harm black people.  Ive seen a lot of By Black For Black on social media about Moderna.

    I’m also team Moderna!!

  64. 64.

    Ken

    A possible solution to the Nebraska choropleth map problem (“no data” looking too much like “few cases”) would be to use a color that is not so easily confused with the “low” end of the scale. I suggest black.

    Now, some might object that black could be confused with the “severe” end of the scale, but I maintain that it is clearly different. Besides, how plausible is it that most of a state is in the “severe” category?  That would require monumental incompetence and/or sociopathy from its leadership.

  66. 66.

    Ksmiami

    @Hildebrand: Hi- my mom was a public health nurse in Watts  in 1965 and she thinks utilizing nurses and doctors from the community is highly effective as they have a much deeper reservoir of trust. Also, is there a chance you can set up a clinic after services with donuts and coffee afterwards? Peer pressure can work.

  67. 67.

    Butter Emails

    @Chris Johnson: I’m not sure if the purpose is to explicitly make right-wingers violently anti-immigrant. It seems to be more for scapegoating, grifting and vote-getting purposes. Making right-wingers genocidally anti-immigrant is just a predictable consequence of their actions, but as they don’t even give a fuck about the lives of their own supporters, they aren’t going to lose any sleep over potential dead immigrants and liberals.

    Just ask yourself what an amoral sociopath would do. Most Republican politicians wouldn’t murder 100,000 people for shits and giggles, but if the choice were between killing 100,000 people or losing their next election, well that 100,000 people is a sacrifice they are willing to make.

    The Delta Covid spike is the result of rhetoric and policies designed to undermine the Biden Administration’s efforts to combat Covid and inflame their base of support. Red states are experiencing the brunt of the spike, so people are starting to assign responsibility to the correct people, so it’s time to blame Canada immigrants which has the added benefit of making the Republican base ragegasm.

  69. 69.

    RSA

    @Hildebrand:  I read an interesting story the other day, though I can’t track it down now, with a plausible suggestion:

    Host a community event, like a cook-out or something social. Arrange for a mobile vaccine clinic to be present. The event should held for its own sake, rather than for the purpose of vaccination, but if vaccine-hesitant can see other people they trust talking about vaccines and even getting a jab, it may be persuasive.

    Good luck!

  72. 72.

    Ken

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Of the five of us that got breakthrough COVID […] my daughter is probably pregnant.

    I hadn’t heard about that side effect before.

    Congratulations, I guess?  And I hope your niece (who I cut out of the quote for the sake of a bad joke) gets well quickly.

  73. 73.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I would think old Zodiac Killer Ted there would be a big fan of wearing masks considering his hobbies; fleeing the country during a crises, serial killing.

  74. 74.

    Another Scott

    @Hildebrand: Jesse Jackson got the Pfizer shot in January.

    Chicago Tribune

    Maybe make a list of similar respected leaders?

    Is there any way to have regular small outdoor get-togethers where a vaccinator is present along with free food, etc?  It’s much easier to say no in the abstract than to do so when other good things are happening at the same time with your friends and family.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  75. 75.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Hildebrand: I’m sure everyone reading your comments, is thankful for what you’re doing: working to save the lives of your congregation.

  76. 76.

    Suzanne

    @rikyrah:

    Mandates

    Want your job?

    Get vaccinated.

     

    At this point, IMO, if you want to enter any public accommodation, you better be vaccinated or a kid. Mandates.

    We don’t have enough time to figure out what alchemical potion of The Right Things To Tell the antivaxxers to get them to hear the message at just the right pitch. There is no Shot Whisperer. Just make it a policy, punishable by fines or home confinement or both, and let’s move on.

  77. 77.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So that Satoshi Smith quote, all this anti vacc shit is just because these dinks are afraid of needles? I mean I don’t like getting stuck but it’s easy enough to look way while the nurse does it.

  78. 78.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @Ken:

    Besides, how plausible is it that most of a state is in the “severe” category?  That would require monumental incompetence and/or sociopathy from its leadership.

    Have you met Florida’s leaders? //

    Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.

  79. 79.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @WereBear: Vaccine uptake or obesity? Surging child Covid hospitalisations in the US leave experts stumped

    Headlines like this set off my bullshit detector.  That smacks of the writer is lying and covering himself by claiming he is only asking questions.

    As always go to the last paragraph

    “I don’t know what the demographic or the phenotype of those children in Texas and Florida is among the ones that are getting critically ill, so we need more information,” she told the APPG.

    There is no data on this. So in other words, basically Erotrash trying to fat shame Americans.

  80. 80.

    Betsy

    @MomSense: The federal government does not have the power to regulate for the public health, safety, and welfare.  That power (called the “police power”) is reserved to the states.

  81. 81.

    WereBear

    @Hildebrand: Any sage advice would be welcome.

    I’m not sure how sage I can be, but does the fact that so many white people have gotten vaxxed have any effect? Do they think the government is lying about that in some way?

    I wonder if you have any local scientists/doctors/public health folks who can be trusted by your community to give people good information. From a source without the baggage?

  82. 82.

    Sloane Ranger

    Tuesday in the UK we had 23,510 new cases, once again this is a reduction in new case numbers from the day before. The rolling 7-day average, however, is still showing an increase of 7.3%. New cases by nation,

    England – 20,630 (down 1285)

    Northern Ireland – 1305 (up 174)

    Scotland – 1032 (up 181)

    Wales – 543 (down 821).

    Deaths – There were 146 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is an increase of 14.8% in the rolling 7-day average. 132 deaths were in England, 2 in Northern Ireland, 11 in Scotland and 1 in Wales.

    Testing – There were 725,764 tests conducted on Monday, 9 August. The rolling 7-day average for tests conducted was down by 4.1%. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on that date was 710,193.

    Hospitalisations – There were 5909 people in hospital and 859 people on ventilators on Monday, Monday, 9 August. As of 6 August the rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions was down by 11.8%.

    Vaccinations – As of Monday, 9 August, 47,091,889 people had received the 1st shot of a vaccine and 39,780,455 had received both. This means that 89% of all adults in the UK have had 1 shot as of that date and 75% were fully vaccinated.

  84. 84.

    WereBear

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: If our kids are at higher risk we need to know WHY and I didn’t find too much.

    However, it might be just sending all these kids to school while the Delta is surging — numbers might be enough.

    I just couldn’t find anyone who had done the math.

  85. 85.

    Chetan Murthy

    @WereBear: At least, finally, senior pediatrics specialists are screaming about it.  That’s a start.  It’s not enough, but it’s better than it was a few weeks ago.

  87. 87.

    Chetan Murthy

    @WereBear: This has come up twice in this thread (actually, thrice) so I’ll just reiterate that I think it’s worth watching Timothy Snyder’s video about “sadopopulism”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOjJtEkKMX4

    In it, he explains that it’s not that they’re a death cult, as much as that

    1. they’re oligarchs
    2. and oligarchs can’t actually govern well: they tend to incompetence for unavoidable reasons
    3. so they have to distract their population with other targets of anger
    4. and so they pick “the other” to make a scapegoat, b/c they need to keep their base revved-up to retain power

    Snyder does a great job of explaining all this.  It’s from 2017 or so, and wowsers, so relevant to today.

  88. 88.

    terben

    Thank you, Anne Laurie. The Reuters tweet that you posted above concerning the extended quarantine for Olympians returning to my state of South Australia has made my day.
    First a little background. Last month, a traveller who was returning from Argentina, spent 14 days in a quarantine facility in Sydney, NSW. Having tested negative for COVID, he then returned to South Australia and resumed his normal life. A few days later, he was testing positive for a COVID strain found in Sydney, but not Argentina. He appears to have been infected while in quarantine. As you can see, NSW is not sending us their best. He subsequently caused a small cluster of cases which prompted the government to lock the state down. A lockdown from which we are yet to completely emerge. This has caused millions of dollars of lost economic activity and immense disruption.
    Now we in SA have decided that quarantining in Sydney isn’t worth spit and insist that anyone returning from NSW will self isolate, at home, for 14 days.
    The Australian Olympic Committee were notified well in advance and chose to return athletes through Sydney knowing what the requirements were. That we have some entitled arsehole from the AOC crying foul is just too delicious.

    Meanwhile, in Australia today.
    New cases – 368 (344 in NSW)  Total cases – 37,377
    Deaths – 2 (in NSW)  Total COVID deaths – 945
    In hospital – 439, ICU – 64, Ventilated – 29 In NSW these numbers are (373/62/29)
    Vaccinations – 256k today which brings the total to 14,214,009. We need about 40,000,000 doses to fully cover everyone over 16.​

  89. 89.

    WereBear

    @Chetan Murthy: I have it on my list to listen to today. Thanks!

    However — and mind you I haven’t listened to it — I’ve lived among them, and many are death cultists, in a way: they can’t wait for the Rapture to come and take them away, and they hate and scorn the actual world.

    That has to leave a mark.

  90. 90.

    Betsy

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’ve long believed that a good fraction of those who have “principled” objections or “questions” are really just people who are afraid of needles.

    No messaging has addressed this, that I’ve seen.  There should be a little quick Q and A about “does the shot hurt.”

    If people understood that it’s the tiniest needle (about the width of a cat hair, and very short), that you really even can’t feel it,and how quick it is, I think it would relieve some concerns.

    I can’t count how many pictures in the press I’ve seen of people cringing or squinting your eyes are looking miserable while the shot is being administered. That makes for a great photo, but… That’s not how people actually look when they get the shot.

    I think most people, like me, are actually unaware  of it until it’s over because the nurse gets it in there so quickly!

    I imagine a lot of these hesitant folks are people who haven’t had a shot since they were 10 years old and they just remember that they were fearful and a big deal was made of it and the needle seem to go in forever and ever.

  91. 91.

    Peale

    @Hildebrand: ugh. I understand, but there really isn’t any evidence that the government is currently running a massive experiment on African Americans to explore the effects of COVID in a clinical setting. We actually have enough examples, thank you very much. So bringing up Tuskegee as a reason is actually not that much different than bringing up Bill Gates and microchips. I wish putting the onus on the holdouts to prove their feelings would help, but we know what happens when people go out to research these things on their own. Right now the two populations in the meta study group are the vaccinated vs. the unvaccinated.  I would prefer to be in the vaccinated group. It looks promising. Choosing to be in the unvaccinated group in the study…well that’s like volunteering to let syphilis go untreated. Like volunteering to be in the brutal control group willingly. Did the Tuskegee victims volunteer to be in that control group? No, they were tricked. Lied to. They would never have volunteered for that. Why someone would volunteer to be in the COVID control group?

    ugh. Sorry. Somewhere in this analogy there’s a reason. But I think if Tuskegee is the source of the concern, exploring the ways this isn’t at all like Tuskegee might help. 

  93. 93.

    WereBear

    @Betsy:

    I imagine a lot of these hesitant folks are people who haven’t had a shot since they were 10 years old and they just remember that they were fearful and a big deal was made of it and the needle seem to go in forever and ever.

    You are likely right because so many people lead an unexamined life; and let their unexamined fears and conclusions ruin their adulthood, too.

  94. 94.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @terben: Chinese Olympians returning from Tokyo will be undergoing 3 weeks of centralized quarantine at port of entry, followed by 2 weeks of centralized quarantine at final destination.

  95. 95.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Betsy: ​  Phobias are not rational, for needles or anything else. Someone I know has a phobia about buttons, yes those things used to connect pieces of cloth, buttons. She can’t explain it, there’s nothing she knows in her life that might have caused it but it’s real for her.
    Needle phobia is similarly real, for some people it’s at the level of throwing-up and blacking-out and finding some way to get these people vaccinated should be under consideration but I’m not in charge — anti-anxiety meds, perhaps? I’ve certainly seen pictures of people getting vaccinated while a friend holds their (other) hand. I looked away for both of my injections because it’s something that doesn’t happen every day and it’s still mildly unpleasant. Saying that I used to donate blood and I did the same looking-away thing when the half-inch diameter blunt pipe they used just for me was pushed into a vein in the crook of my elbow.​

  96. 96.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    There are going to be tragedies among elementary age kids in Florida and Texas due to the prohibitions on mask mandates in schools.. Remember the scene in Jaws when Roy Scheider gets slapped by an aggrieved mother?

    This is going to happen to DeSantis and Abbott, and the political toadies who thought this a smart play are going to be befuddled.

  97. 97.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Robert Sneddon:

    Saying that I used to donate blood and I did the same looking-away thing

    Same here: I don’t care about the needle prick, but I can’t stand seeing the blood spurt out.  So I look away.  If I see the blood spurt out, I’ll get queasy and maybe pass out.  If I don’t look, hell, you could draw a bunch and I wouldn’t care.

  98. 98.

    Peale

    @Chetan Murthy: I think I’m one of the rare humans who likes watching my blood squirt into the tube. It’s so cool that I can do that. Whoosh…it just come out like it’s supposed to. What a relief that it works. I’d be worried if it didn’t.

  99. 99.

    dopey-o

    I’m going to keep an eye on how that excuse fares. It’s not there to convince US. It’s there to turn the already insane MAGA hordes into revolutionary forces prepared to literally fight the immigrants and Democrats,@Chris Johnson: 

    If i were prone to paranoid thinking, i would say we will look back on the vax / mask refusers as the first battles in a second american civil war. Just as TFG thought he could decimate blue cities / states with his hands-off response, the anti-vaxniks are fighting and dying to protect their ‘heritage’ and way of life against the godless baby-eating city dwelling democrats.
    And just like the gullible volunteers in the first confederacy, they are dying to protect their wealthy overlords.

  100. 100.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 1,498 new cases of COVID-19 reported with 10 new reported deaths of someone who had tested positive. Test positivity rate is 5.0%. Hospitalisations and ICU bed occupancy numbers remain steady.

    Over 22,500 vaccinations were administered in Scotland yesterday (Tuesday) with over 20% of those vaccinations being first doses. 75.8% of the adult population are now fully vaccinated with another 14.3% having received their initial dose of vaccine.

    It’s possible the reported uptick today in first dose numbers is due to vaccination opening up generally to 16 and 17 year olds in Scotland yesterday. Schools in Scotland will be re-opening over the next couple of weeks with mask mandates in place but no at-home tutoring alternatives, at least for secondary education. This may change if the Delta variant which is now close to 100% of all new cases in the UK starts to cause serious levels of illness in younger people as it apparently has in the US.

  101. 101.

    terben

    @YY_Sima Qian: That seems perfectly reasonable to me. However, the AOC thinks that Australian athletes are such delicate snowflakes flowers that their mental health will suffer if they are not immediately turned loose after only 2 weeks in a highly suspect quarantine system.

  103. 103.

    dopey-o

    Johnson: I’m going to keep an eye on how that excuse fares. It’s not there to convince US. It’s there to turn the already insane MAGA hordes into revolutionary forces prepared to literally fight the immigrants and Democrats,

    If i were prone to paranoid thinking, i would say we will look back on the vax / mask refusers as the first battles in a second american civil war.

    Just as TFG thought he could decimate blue cities / states with his hands-off response, the anti-vaxniks are fighting and dying to protect their ‘heritage’ and way of life against the godless baby-eating city dwelling democrats.
    And just like the gullible volunteers in the first confederacy, they are dying to protect their wealthy overlords. Suckers.

  104. 104.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @WereBear:

    Are they willing to go Full Moloch?

    Sadly, I think the answer is yes. Except for the precious fetuses™, for as long as they are politically useful.

  105. 105.

    Ohio Mom

    @Hildebrand:

    Find a Black physician to give a guest sermon and print the sermon in the newsletter? (Make sure the doctor stays for an elaborate spread after services to have informal conversations with congregants). Play the video of Obama urging everyone to get vaccinated? Sic the aunties in the congregation on the prominent hold-outs? Do one of those outdoor events — a congregational picnic — where shots are given and newly vaccinated are given a treat or a prize?

    The instinct to be skeptical of doctors can be useful and positive. For example, if I had listened to the doctor who told me (a white woman) the lump in my breast was a cyst, don’t worry…

    It’s a near universal experience to get occasional bad advice from a doctor, even without the layers of systemic racism. So I might validate their skepticism even as I point out, This is different. The whole world is reeling under Covid, people in nations that are not white (In Asia and Africa) are eager to be vaccinated.

    I will say, I had a moment when the arrival of the vaccine was first announced when I thought, I don’t want to be a human guinea pig for ANY new medicine. But then I realized with relief that I was a nobody. Millions of doctors, nurses, first responders, the highly connected, were going to go first. By the time it would be my turn, we would know if the vaccine had any awful side effects.

    It’s a trick, making people feel respected even as you try to change their minds. I can only wish you lots of luck, lives are hanging in the balance.

  106. 106.

    Hildebrand

    My deepest thanks for all the ideas, advice, and thoughts on how to help folks get to the point where they will get the vaccine.

    I had a great chat with one of the elders on Sunday about how this is absolutely different than anything else anyone has experienced – and that sometimes that difference isn’t recognized, but needs to be.

    He also mused that the mask mandates and all the rest that were relaxed too quickly, and because of that, ‘well, folks just thought it was over’.  I think he is absolutely right.  Of course, now we need to get people to take it seriously again.  My hope is that we can.

    Again, thanks for the advice everyone.  I am grateful.

  107. 107.

    rikyrah

    @Hildebrand:

     

    I don’t mean to be flip, and I’m quite serious.

     

    You need to have someone there who does Life Insurance

    And, someone who does wills.

    They need to grasp the seriousness of it.

    If you know someone who does disability insurance and who can explain disability SSN, that would help.

    Because in between living and dying from COVID, there are a whole group of people who are now disabled because of long-term COVID.

    They need reality shown to them.

  109. 109.

    Hildebrand

    @rikyrah: Yes – she is my hero right now.  She told her Mom she wanted to be vaccinated, and that her Mom needed to get vaccinated, too.

    The mom told me, ‘she guilted me into it’.  I resisted the impulse to say, ‘good’.  Instead, I thanked the daughter and told her how proud I was of her.

  110. 110.

    Skepticat

    The Bahamas has tightened entry requirements and just instituted a penalty of $200 and/or a month in jail for not wearing a mask in public.

    Today I’m finally officially fully immunized, but I’ll be wearing a mask most of the time anyway. Maine is doing fairly well, but I wouldn’t be surprised (or displeased) to see masks mandated again. I’m often the only person wearing a mask in most stores, though the Casco Bay Lines ferries still require them except on the open deck.

    The Portland paper had an editorial today expressing disappointment that one of the big fairs (in an area with fairly low vax rates) didn’t include a vaccination clinic. I know they aren’t easy to organize, but that seems the precise kind of venue most conducive to encouraging otherwise-resistant folks. Sigh.

  111. 111.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Greece: Tuesday there were 4181 new cases, which is a jump of over a thousand in one day from the 3026 reported Monday, and uncomfortably close to the third-wave high of 4322 on March 30. Fatalities remain relatively low: 14 dead in yesterday’s report, with the trend slowly increasing but not nearly as bad as the high of 134 on May 3, at the peak of the third wave.

  113. 113.

    Tom Levenson

    @Hildebrand: Perhaps a bit of truth acknowledging the terrible past and pointing out that this time, white people were the folks who were experimented upon?

    We’re eight months or so into the vaccine era, and white and Asian populations top the vaccine uptake tables. Your congregants can take advantage of others’ eagerness/recklessness to take the risk, as their own ancestors could not.

    Think that might help?

  114. 114.

    Kelly

    Oregon returns to statewide mask mandate today. Masks were already mandated for schools this fall. Nearby small town high school in Turner, OR is already objecting using the usual wingnut arguments.

  115. 115.

    bluefoot

    @Chetan Murthy: ​  As far as I know, there isn’t a lot of data yet on vaccinated people and long COVID. It’s a big open question.
    Long COVID is some scary stuff too. My brother-in-law (a healthy 42 yo) has had long COVID for 11 months. Regained most of his pre-pandemic health, except his sense of taste and smell. Until three weeks ago, when his pulmonary function went to crap. Pre-COVID, ran 6-8 miles a day. Post-COVID, it took about 6 months to get back to normal. The last three weeks, he can run about a mile.
    As someone who has spent a long time in neurological disease research, I would not be surprised if we see a lot of post-COVID neurological syndromes appearing in 20-30 years as a result of the current pandemic.
    I’ve heard some pretty scary anecdotal stories from clinicians about how easily Delta can spread. I was planning on starting back at the gym here in MA, but no longer.​

  116. 116.

    rikyrah

    @Tom Levenson:

     

    We’re eight months or so into the vaccine era, and white and Asian populations top the vaccine uptake tables. Your congregants can take advantage of others’ eagerness/recklessness to take the risk, as their own ancestors could not.

     

    Actually, the best vaccination rate is Navajo Nation at 91%

    You think they learned something from history, and grabbed onto the vaccine?

  117. 117.

    Fair Economist

    The Russian numbers are transparently manufactured. From 7/28 to 8/8 every reported death number was between 785 and 799. Even if there were no weekly cycle on reporting (HA!) there’s less than a 1 in a million chance of variability so low in a Poisson distribution. The only question is whether they’re covering up real numbers or whether fascist corruption has damaged their reporting system so badly they have no choice other than to make numbers up.

  118. 118.

    JAFD

    @Ken: In other words…

    your niece has caught the Egyptian Flu…

    … and she’s turning into a mummy

    Told that to my Primary Care doctor when she got back from maternity leave – she’d never heard it before – what do they teach the kids these daze ???

    Supposed to hit 97F in Gotham City today.  Hope you’re staying healthy, happy and hydrated.

  119. 119.

    JAFD

    Apologies.  Mixed up your daughter and niece.  Please forgive

    Needles.  Don’t like them, never got stuck voluntarily except by medics.  But have had a lot of them pushed into me, this past decade, and on scale where ‘9’ is “We need a couple vials of blood to test … there’s gotta be a vein here somewhere…” my vaccine shots ranked around ‘1/2’

  120. 120.

    VeniceRiley

    @Hildebrand:  ” Your rage about Tuskegee is valid. How does that apply to Dr. Kizzie Corbett, who worked her smart self to the wall to make this vaccine for us? She is heaven sent!” “100 million white people went first to make sure it’s safe. It’s safe, and will protect us and our children from suffering and death.” “Some long covid patients are experiencing erectile disfunction and infertility. There is a lot more we don’t know about the devastation of Covid itself. Up to you though.”

  121. 121.

    scav

    @Hildebrand: Would looking internationally help any with convincing people it’s not a govt plot?  Would African and other developing world nations be so very pleased to get even beginning stabs at their fair share of the vaccines if it was all a Tuskegee.2? Some discussions about global inequities in vaccine distribution — even if never explicitly mentioning local antivax holdouts — might  allay concerns.  Maybe a talk about programs helping those efforts, which would be of intrinsic value in any case.  There should be such programs, no?

  122. 122.

    J R in WV

    @WereBear:

    I’ve lived among them, and many are death cultists, in a way: they can’t wait for the Rapture to come and take them away, and they hate and scorn the actual world.

    After the rapture comes, and you are gone, may I have your RV, autos, and resort homes, in return for caring for your abandoned pets?

    Kthnxby!!

    More seriously, Fuq those depressive sociopath bastards with the rusty agricultural tool closest to hand!

  123. 123.

    Kent

    @Hildebrand:

    I am looking for insight – I am a pastor of a Black congregation in Detroit.  It’s Lutheran, the more liberal variety.  The vaccine holdouts are those deeply concerned about the way the government and health institutions screwed Black people, especially in the Tuskegee experiments.

    Now, the oldest members of the congregation, and those who work blue collar jobs, got the vaccine.  The ones who are most vocal about not getting it, because of these ghastly past experiences, are those in their 30s to 50s who tend to be the best educated. How do I encourage them to get the vaccine?

    Any sage advice would be welcome.

    This is probably a dead thread and others have probably answered.  But Tuskegee was an experiment about what happens to the progress of a disease when medicine and medical care are DENIED and the disease is left to run it’s course.   It wasn’t about experimenting with new therapies.

    What we are really doing right now is engaging in a grand national study on the effectiveness of the most state-of-the-art Covid prevention methods that science can develop.  Everyone has the freedom to make their own choice.

    They can choose the side of no vaccine and be part of the experiment of what happens when a novel disease ravages their body EXACTLY like the unwilling participants of the Tuskegee study were.  Or they can chose to get the modern vaccine and prevent the disease.  A choice that the Tuskegee victims did not have available.

    The Tuskegee victims were denied modern medicine against their will, or without their knowledge (if they were given a placebo).  Why would anyone voluntarily and willingly chose that SAME EXACT fate?

  124. 124.

    J R in WV

    @MomSense:

    If they don’t like needles, wait till they try intubation. Maybe run a few videos of that shitshow.

    Seriously! Spent over 2 weeks with wife in ICU on a vent, she had necrotic pneumonia, which wasn’t diagnosed for quite a while, and because I was quiet and helpful with the MICU nurses they allowed me to be in her room for all the treatments.

    • Suction of accumulations of mucus from her lungs? yep.
    • Removal of intubation while trying to wean her from the vent? yep.
    • Reintubation after attempt to wean off the vent? yep.

    I got a crash course in sucking chest wound treatment as they preped her for release after 9 or 10 weeks in the hospital, she still had chest tubes installed to drain chest fluids. If those were pulled out too early she would need emergency care. The in home RN nurses had NEVER seen a patient discharged with chest tubes, and I showed them the current state of care for those tubes.

    This was back in 2009 IIRC and had nothing to do with Covid-19. Anything is better than intubation perhaps excepting death.

  125. 125.

    snoey

    @Hildebrand: My daughter is a board certified infectious disease specialist and on the faculty at Wayne State.  She says that she’s seen that pattern before and would be happy to do a talk/forum.

  126. 126.

    J R in WV

    I see our family doctor every 3 or 4 months, and part of those appointments is a standard blood draw of 3 or 4 tubes of blood  from my arm.

    I watch them probe for a vein, some of the nurses are really good, others not so much. I have had tetanus boosters frequently as I live and work (well, not so much now) on a farm. I get a flu shot every year, they did shot clinics at work for years before i retired.

    I know it is a bigger deal for some folks, but I have not had any issue with needles since I was, 4 or 5? I don’t recall. The Salk polio injections didn’t bother me at all, tho the smallpox inoculation did, that was more like tiny cuts with the vaccine rubbed in, much more painful than a shot.

    In boot camp there were big strong guys who got their (many, many) shots lying down, lest they fall down again.

  127. 127.

    Fair Economist

    @Kent: To add on to that, the thing that is *really* like Tuskegee today is the disinformation accounts attempting to stop Black people from getting an incredibly safe and extensively tested vaccine. Except it’s even worse because the purpose of denying Black people effective treatment is to kill them, as people in the Trump administration explicitly said to each other early in the pandemic.

  129. 129.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Ken: thank you! I really worry about my niece but at least she has a nearbyVA  clinic and a partner who is a former Army combat medic

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    @Hildebrand: 

    In a tale of ‘ Art imitating life’, I go back to Law and Order: Organized Crime. The criminal/villain’s big scheme is to steal COVID Vaccine and sell them to the ‘Developing World’.

    He said:
    right now, 90% of the vaccine is in the hands of the 1st world, and the rest of the world is desperate to get their hands on it.

    Does your congregation know how desperate the rest of the world IS for the vaccine and would give anything to be able to walk to their local pharmacy to be vaccinated?

    Maybe you could find some stories about ‘vaccine tourism’. People spending thousands of dollars to get to the USA so that they can get vaccinated.

  131. 131.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Betsy: ​If people understood that it’s the tiniest needle (about the width of a cat hair, and very short), that you really even can’t feel it, and how quick it is, I think it would relieve some concerns.

    You speak for your experience, so I’ll speak for myself: That was not my experience AT ALL.

    My first Moderna jab was a SUBSTANTIAL needle. The injection site actually BLED – and that has NEVER happened to me for as long as I can remember. And the damn thing HURT. And kept hurting for DAYS.

    My second shot went much smoother (Nigerian immigrant MD). Maybe the first guy was just not good with needles, I dunno.

  133. 133.

    Richard

    @rikyrah:

    Yes, same as in Iran. That gang of old men, those ayatollahs and mullahs have let their people down and are guilty of many crimes.

    I feel sorry for the people of Iran. They have been enslaved by their own ignorance. Those cruel old men are not going to help them.

  134. 134.

    Richard

    @Hildebrand: 
    I would ask them to respect their elders, and families and friends.
    I would ask them to not be so selfish. I would say- look at what is happening all around the world. The whole world is suffering!
    This is a time to unite and help each other.

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