Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

T R E 4 5 O N

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

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

Motown is Joe-Town!

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

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

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Saturday / Sunday, Oct. 16-17

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Saturday / Sunday, Oct. 16-17

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U.S. health officials are setting the stage for a national COVID-19 vaccination campaign for younger children, inviting state officials to order doses before the shots are authorized.

Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is currently being given to people as young as 12 in the U.S. In the next three weeks, federal officials plan to discuss making smaller-dose versions available to the nation’s 28 million children between the ages of 5 and 11.

To help states and cities prepare, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week sent out a seven-page document with guidance on how to set up expanded vaccination programs.

For example, it notes pharmacies in every state can give COVID-19 shots to children, but it clarifies that only doses prepared and packaged specifically for children are to be used for those under 12.

It doesn’t speak to some thornier questions, however, such as how much school-based clinics should be relied on or whether kids should be required to get then shots as a condition of school attendance.

Those questions will have to be worked out in each state and city…


How much of this is self-sorting?

… Polling from YouGov conducted for the Economist gives us a sense of the second-degree toll of the pandemic. About 1 in 8 Americans say that a member of their family died of the virus; another fifth say that they lost a close friend. Only about two-thirds of respondents said they didn’t know anyone who had died of the virus. In other words, more than 710,000 people have died, and those deaths were felt by as many as 110 million Americans.

As you would expect, YouGov’s polling has shown an increase in the number of people who know people who died of the virus since the beginning of the pandemic. Interestingly, though, as the number of cases declined nationally, so did the number of people who indicated that they’d lost family and friends to the virus. In mid-May, more than a fifth of respondents said they lost a close friend to the virus. By early July, that had fallen to 15 percent before climbing again. There was a similar pattern with those who said they’d lost family…

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Reader Interactions

37Comments

  1. 1.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 6,145 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, the fewest daily new cases in three months, for a cumulative reported total of 2,390,387 cases. It also reports 81 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 27,858 deaths – 1.17% of the cumulative reported total, 1.21 % of resolved cases.

    Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.88.

    640 confirmed cases are in ICU, 281 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 9,281 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,270,520 patients recovered – 95.0% of the cumulative reported total.

    Nine new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,672 clusters. 676 clusters are currently active; 4,996 clusters are now inactive.

    6,133 new cases today are local infections. 12 new cases today are imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 128,347 doses of vaccine on 16th October: 15,421 first doses, 109,745 second doses, and 3,181 booster doses. As of midnight yesterday, the cumulative total is 46,761,751 doses administered: 24,715,782 first doses, 22,146,626 second doses, and 18,766 booster doses. 75.7% of the population have received their first dose, while 67.8% are now fully vaccinated.

  2. 2.

    The Oracle of Solace

    Well, it looks like I’m part of that 1-in-8 who lost a family member: My father’s sister succumbed to COVID in December. Fortunately, my immediate family and all my friends have taken the Plague seriously from the beginning; none of us have been touched by it. But widen the circle to acquaintances of acquaintances and there are cases, even when people were cautious. So even though I’m usually pretty sanguine, as long as there are so many unvaccinated people, I feel pretty sure I’m going to get it at some point. I just hope I don’t spread it to anyone else.

  3. 3.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So basically 0.5% of the population is Jihadist level self destructive crazy Conservative Culture Warriors.

  4. 4.

    JMG

    Had my Pfizer booster Friday. Felt completely out of it yesterday until dinnertime, feel normal this morning. No one I know even slightly has died from or as far as I know even had the virus.

  6. 6.

    lowtechcyclist

    I’m amused by the guy who says:

    If Navy service members don’t get vaxxed by the deadline, the Navy “may seek recoupment of applicable bonuses, special and incentive pays, and the cost of training and education for service members refusing the vaccine.”

    And then asks:

    Is this real life?

    Well yeah. In the military, they have to be able to count on people to obey orders. So if you refuse to obey a direct order, they’re gonna come down on you with both feet. Is this some sort of surprise?

    FWIW, this guy is CEO of Blaze Media, an organization descended from a website called The Blaze that Glenn Beck created a decade or so back. So that’s where he’s coming from. You’d think these RWNJs would have a clue about how the military works.

  8. 8.

    eclare

    I heard that a person that I worked with about fifteen years ago died of covid, but that is my only brush with its effects so far.

    Waiting for House Moderna boosters to be fully approved, getting my flu shot this week.

  9. 9.

    Cermet

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Or simply, these people would have normally left in the next few months and used this as an excuse or this was a trigger (the so-called straw- breaking the camel’s back that pushed them by being told yet again what they’d have to do.) I bet only a small fraction of that 0.5% quite solely because they objected that seriously against the vaccine.

  11. 11.

    Cermet

    @lowtechcyclist: LOL; they have no clue – chicken hawks one and all – they have no idea what real military commitment is nor would they ever try being total cowards (aka bone spur’s to the core.)

  12. 12.

    Mousebumples

    @eclare: got my flu shot last week, and waiting for news on House Moderna boosters as well. Got an MD appointment tomorrow, and while mix and match boosters may not be approved, I’m planning to ask my doctor what he’d suggest, especially since Moderna seems to be the most efficacious of the shots

    Re – losing a family member to covid, i have been fortunate enough to avoid that. However, my husband’s aunt went in for elective surgery last fall, had some complications, and passed away shortly thereafter. No associated covid diagnosis, but with hospitals being overwhelmed… I can’t help but think it was probably a factor.

  13. 13.

    eclare

    @Mousebumples:   Be sure to let us know what the dr says!  I am below age 65, but I have high blood pressure, which bumped me up in category before.  I assume it will also do that for a booster.

  14. 14.

    New Deal democrat

    The decline in new cases has almost completely stopped, at roughly 85,000 cases/day. This level *exceeds* any level during the spring and summer 2020 outbreaks by 20,000, and is also higher than at any point between mid-March and late August of this year.

    Deaths remain at about 1600/day, also higher than the average since the pandemic began.

    This is absolutely *not* the time for complacency. There are still 100,000,000 completely unvaccinated people, 2/3rd’s of whom have no resistance at all from prior infection.

    In addition to the likely approval of vaccinations for younger school age children, the US desperately needs wider employment mandates, school mandates, air, sea, and train mandates, and if necessary quarantines by responsible States of all incoming travelers from places like FL and TX. Anti-vaxxers need to *feel* that polite society is simply not going to enable their behavior.

  16. 16.

    Geminid

    @Amir Khalid: Thank you for your detailed and informative posts. That 67.8% fully vaccinated number is impressive. Even with a head start, only a handful of states in the U.S. Northeast exceed this, and only Vermont has hit 70%. My state of Virginia is a little over 60% fully vaccinated, 13th highest in the U.S.

  17. 17.

    rikyrah

    Family member, no.
    Close former co-worker, yes. Worked with her for a decade. She had been retired less than 2 years
    She was unvaxxed?

  19. 19.

    Nicole

    A friend died early in the pandemic (April of 2020 early) and my husband has lost a few distant family members. I just found out a long-distance friend is on a ventilator, and while of course I’m staying positive on posts by closer friends giving updates, I’m not optimistic. And I know lots and lots of people who had the virus, myself included.

    I was here in NYC for 9/11 and for Covid and Covid was, to me anyway, a thousand magnitudes worse. March and April of 2020 were awful. A friend of mine mentioned being in line at the grocery store during that awful spring and hearing an elderly woman ahead of him say that five of her friends died of it in one week.

    I feel like I’m constantly on the edge of my seat, waiting for the go-ahead for 5-11 year olds to get the shot. After my kid is vaccinated I feel like I’ll really be able to exhale (still exhaling into a mask should I happen to be indoors, of course).

  20. 20.

    Mousebumples

    @eclare: from what I’ve heard about Pfizer boosters, most pharmacies are just having you attest that you’re eligible. But Moderna has been more efficacious than Pfizer (and, granted, the Moderna shot started a few months after Pfizer, i think?), so the booster approval guidelines may be different. (eg only over 65 or something)

    We’ll see. The J&J boosters seem likely to be for anyone who got J&J. ?‍♀️

  21. 21.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 10/16 China reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    At Fujian Province 5 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 39 active domestic confirmed cases.

    • At Putian 5 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.
    • At Xiamen 12 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 35 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.

    At Heilongjiang Province there currently are 8 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    • At Harbin there currently are 8 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.
    • At Suihua there currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    Erenhot in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine since 10/13. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.

    Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the region.

    • Ürumqi did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city, a worker at a logistics park.
    • At Yili Prefecture there currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture (both at Cocodala).

    Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, both traced close contacts at centralized quarantine facilities, 1 each at Ruili & Longchuan County. There currently are 8 domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture.

    At Henan Province there currently are 5 active domestic confirmed cases remaining, all at Shangqiu.

    Imported Cases

    On 10/16, China reported 19 new imported confirmed cases (6 previously asymptomatic), 11 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 5 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from the Canada, Israel, Tajikistan (via Dubai), the US & the UK (via Copenhagen)
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 4 confirmed cases (all previously asymptomatic), 2 Chinese national each returning from Algeria & Singapore; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Egypt
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 3 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Ruili in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province – 2 confirmed cases, no information released
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Japanese national coming from Japan
    • Shenyang in Liaoning Province – 1 confirmed case, no information released
    • Harbin in Heilongjiang Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from South Korea
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), coming from Cameroon
    • Xi’an in Shanxi Province – 1 confirmed (previously asymptomatic) & 1 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Uzbekistan (off a flight diverted from Beijing)
    • Lanzhou in Gansu Province – 4 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Russia
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Italy (via Warsaw)
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Myanmar

    Overall in China, 23 confirmed cases recovered (18 imported), 11 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (all imported) & 6 were reclassified as confirmed cases (all imported), & 2,094 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 518 active confirmed cases in the country (463 imported), 1 in serious condition (imported), 368 active asymptomatic cases (353 imported), 1 suspect case (imported). 20,440 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 10/16, 2,230.567M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 1.355M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 10/17 Hong Kong reported 3 new positive cases, all imported.

  22. 22.

    Gvg

    @Mousebumples: I read that the advisors said J&j should just be considered a 2 shot vaccine just like the rest. That they should have the 2 nd shot 2 months after the first.

  23. 23.

    Matt McIrvin

    My aunt, my father’s sister, died of COVID. I didn’t find out it was COVID until some time after it happened–we weren’t that close. Some more distant family members died as well. I also have a cousin on my mother’s side of the family, close to my age, who got pretty sick and is still having some long COVID symptoms–she got it just a couple of weeks before she’d have been eligible for vaccination, which especially sucks.

  24. 24.

    arrieve

    @Nicole: I had lunch with friends in Westchester yesterday, and I was just saying that. Last spring in NYC was so awful; I never want to go through anything like that again. I still have flashes of panic when I hear an ambulance siren.

    But the extended family of my friends is like The Story of Covidiots in the US in miniature. Their aunt insisted on having Thanksgiving last  November —  six  kids, with spouses and children. Every single one of them got sick. The aunt died. Two of her kids were on ventilators but survived; one needs a lung transplant. And they are all refusing to be vaccinated because they insist they’re immune now.

  25. 25.

    Percysowner

    @lowtechcyclist:

    You’d think these RWNJs would have a clue about how the military works.

    Why? It’s not like any of them volunteered to die for America and actually enlisted.

  26. 26.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mousebumples: The board that voted a few days ago recommended basically the same booster guidelines for Moderna as for Pfizer–I think it was boosters after 6 months for over 65, medically high-risk and occupationally high-risk people. The difference with Moderna is that the booster dose is a half dose, since the initial doses were so large to begin with.

    So, no booster for me (yet) but my mother-in-law will definitely get one. She got her first doses very early because she was a volunteer vaccinator.

    J&J is a different case; sounds like they’re just going to recommend a second dose for everyone who got the first one.

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    @arrieve:

    But the extended family of my friends is like The Story of Covidiots in the US in miniature. Their aunt insisted on having Thanksgiving last November — six kids, with spouses and children. Every single one of them got sick. The aunt died. Two of her kids were on ventilators but survived; one needs a lung transplant. And they are all refusing to be vaccinated because they insist they’re immune now.

    Wow.

    We’re not going to my BiL’s aunt’s for Turkey Day because his other aunt refuses (as of now) to get vaccinated. Not worth putting their toddlers’ lives at risk.

  28. 28.

    Torrey

    As a J&J recipient, I’m (still) frustrated by the lack of attention to those of us who received J&J. It’s increasingly sounding like we would do well to get a dose of mRNA, but I’m hoping for more clarity than has been forthcoming so far. If a J&J booster is approved, I don’t want to get it if it’s going to preclude getting an mRNA booster later on. (Dr. Leanna Wen has a few articles on this subject in the Washington Post–I appreciate her continuing to bring the issue up.) There’s a fair amount of confusion, including among pharmacists, about whether people who didn’t initially get Pfizer can get a Pfizer booster.

  29. 29.

    Sloane Ranger

    Saturday in the UK we had 43,423 new cases. This is an increase of 12.8% in the rolling 7-day average. It will also be an undercount due to weekend office closures and Wales not reporting on Saturdays. New cases by nation,

    England – 39,624 (up 1933)

    Northern Ireland – 1218 (down 131)

    Scotland – 2581 (down 181)

    Wales – Does not report on Saturday’s.

    Deaths – There were 148 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Saturday. This will be an undercount due to the issues related to case numbers. 123 deaths were in England, 4 in Northern Ireland, 21 in Scotland, Wales did not report.

    Testing – Not updated at weekends.

    Hospitalisations – Not updated at weekends.

    Vaccinations – As of 15 October, 49,374,505 people had received 1 shot of a vaccine and 45,325,489 had had 2. In percentage terms this means that 85.9% of all UK residents aged 12+ had had 1 shot as of that date and 78.8% had had 2.

  30. 30.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 2,666 new COVID-19 cases reported today. The test positivity rate is 10.0%. There were 2 new deaths reported (noting that Register Offices are now generally closed at weekends). ICU bed occupancy numbers are 45, down two from yesterday while hospitalisations are 829, down 12.

    There were approximately 5,700 regular vaccinations carried out in Scotland yesterday (Saturday) with about 70% of these being first vaccinations. 91.8% of 16+ adults are now vaccinated with their first dose and 85.2% are fully vaccinated. 73.9% of 16 and 17-year-olds have now received their first vaccination, up 0.1% from yesterday. 46.5% of 12-15 year olds have now received their first vaccination, up 1.3% from yesterday.

    There were about 20,000 booster vaccinations carried out yesterday with a total of just over 300,000 boosters to date.

  31. 31.

    Another Scott

    @New Deal democrat: +1  There are still far too many daily infections to think that it’s over.

    Eventually the vaccines will bend the hospitalization and death curves down.  But people still should be avoiding infection like the plague – BECAUSE IT IS STILL A PANDEMIC PLAGUE!  I would think that everyone sensible would want to avoid getting sick given how miserable we know even a “mild” (i.e. not hospitalized) case can be.

    Plus, Long COVID….

    tl;dr – it’s not over.

    Thanks.

    [eta:] – We didn’t give out candy for trick-or-treaters last year – we didn’t want them congregating and being jammed around our front door.  This year we’re thinking about putting a big bowl outside with a sign (“Take 5”), but need to plan ahead if it’s raining or windy or …

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  32. 32.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Torrey: Here in the UK the Pfizer mRNA vaccine is being given as the standard third-dose booster regardless of the original vaccine the person received. The AstraZeneca adenovirus vaccines and Pfizer are each about 50% of the vaccines originally given here in the UK with a very few Moderna doses (the government did not initially order a lot of Moderna vaccines compared to the other two).​

  33. 33.

    Fair Economist

    Nobody I was close to, but one casual acquaintance and one person I knew. Both are close family of good friends of my mom, though.

  34. 34.

    Fair Economist

    @New Deal democrat: A recent study estimated the median recurrence frequency as 1 every 500 days, which would put the steady state rate for the US at 650,000 cases per day. Of course a lot will be minimally symptomatic on recurrence but even so we should expect a high steady state. Deaths will drop as fewer and fewer are naive but this is going to be with us indefinitely. It will be vastly worse than the flu.

  35. 35.

    J R in WV

    We have had a friend infected with a serious case of Covid. She is an RN who recently graduated from a Physician’s Assistant program, and had a hard time completing it what with her infection. She played fiddle at next door music evenings, will again once the plague is more controlled. A shame that WV, where we did so well in the beginning, is now nearly a Trumpian Pandemic state after all.

    Hate it that people can by out and about w/o a mask, from the proportions of vaccinated/not-vaccinated I know that most people w/o mask are NOT vaccinated. Scary. I wear a mask all the time when out of the hollow! Well, not in the car, it fogs my glasses which is a hazard while driving. I put it on before I get out into the shops.

  36. 36.

    Ruckus

    @lowtechcyclist: 

    You’d think these RWNJs would have a clue about how the military works.

    Why?
    They have so little clue how anything actually works, people, the sun coming up, reality, hell they often have no clue how work works.

  37. 37.

    Nobody in particular

    27% delta reinfection. A reason why “natural immunity” is not sufficient.

    “Superimmunity” is not a label a respectable scientist would use. Journos.
    Hybrid immunity is what Immunologists are calling it.  Fascinating, and we are on a steep learning curve.
    People who have previously recovered from COVID-19 have a stronger immune response after being vaccinated than those who have never been infected. Scientists are trying to find out why.

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