Biden’s desire to use vaccines to save lives has many Washington reporters yearning for Trump’s sociopathic indifference to mass death
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) October 29, 2021
ICYMI:
BREAKING: The FDA has authorized kid-size doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. American children could be eligible for vaccines as early as next week. https://t.co/R6mDpxPx46
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 29, 2021
U.S. administers over 419 mln doses of COVID-19 vaccines – CDC https://t.co/juB86LaQ9H pic.twitter.com/6qcCl3WeoI
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 30, 2021
Eleven states sue U.S. government over vaccine mandate for federal contractors https://t.co/yncxK4mndj pic.twitter.com/KO08ywVxXY
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 30, 2021
Performative outrage, from the usual suspects:
… A joint lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District Of Missouri by 10 states, Arkansas, Alaska, Missouri, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. Texas filed a separate suit on the same issue, and Florida filed one on Thursday.
The lawsuits on Friday described the mandate as “sweeping in its scope” and “unconstitutional and unlawful,” citing a constitutional amendment on state powers and federal laws on government procurement…
The White House set a Dec. 8 deadline for employees of federal contractors to be vaccinated. However, it has signaled contractors have flexibility in enforcing that deadline.
U.S. courts have largely upheld vaccination requirements imposed by employers, universities, states and cities.
About 58% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated and over 66% have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
======
Britain sending millions more COVID doses to developing nations https://t.co/tPXlCKwFCJ pic.twitter.com/b30Q2ifne1
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 30, 2021
China has given 75.8% of population complete COVID-19 vaccine doses-health official https://t.co/T89sS7fhjc pic.twitter.com/l5mzqlFLHk
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 30, 2021
China's new local COVID-19 cases hit six-week high https://t.co/v2kTEMccz6 pic.twitter.com/dYWpNktDIc
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 30, 2021
… China reported 59 new locally transmitted infections for Oct. 29, the National Health Commission said on Saturday, up from 48 a day earlier. It was the highest number of new local infections since Sept. 16.
Most of the new local cases were in northern China, with infections reported in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Beijing and Ningxia.
Including infections imported from overseas, China recorded 78 new COVID-19 cases for Oct. 29, up from 64 cases a day earlier. China also reported 24 new asymptomatic cases, which it classifies separately from confirmed cases, up from 23 a day earlier.
There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636.
Although the tally is tiny compared with infections elsewhere in the world, recent widespread outbreaks have forced officials to toughen restrictions, squeezing the service sector, including tourism and catering companies.
China’s border towns, faced with a higher risk of infection from overseas and with relatively few resources, have tended to suffer more severe disruptions than richer cities.
In Inner Mongolia, the government in Ejina Banner, a remote administrative division on China’s border with Mongolia, said it would transfer more than 9,400 stranded travellers to low-risk areas in the coming days, the official China Daily reported…
In China, 300 coronavirus cases leads to public shaming, cities in lockdown & train-loads of people in quarantine. Health officials have enlisted vast swaths of the population to track down the infected & to help snuff out the 3rd #DeltaVariant outbreak https://t.co/MyuYUCxcfH
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 30, 2021
Australia's Melbourne back to the races, shops as vaccination rate hits 80% https://t.co/W5AWLeBfzy pic.twitter.com/CIq60mslDT
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 30, 2021
In 2020, 163,000 Russians died. That is, MORE people died AFTER the introduction of the vaccine than before.
In September 2021 alone, 44,000 Russians died.
This is so heartbreaking.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 30, 2021
Russia has ID'd a new Delta variant, is in the middle of another massive wave and Moscow just went into a quasi-lockdown. Half of my friends there are ignoring it and going to work anyway, and the other half is jumping on planes to go to Turkey, Egypt, and the U.S. ?♀️
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 30, 2021
Why Turkey & Egypt? Warm-weather vacations:
Bookings for tour packages to places like Turkey and Egypt have soared since the non-working period was announced, travel industry figures told @pavlovaulianahttps://t.co/dm3t6FyEUK
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) October 30, 2021
Russia's Federal Statistics Agency Rosstat said Friday that 44,265 people died of coronavirus in the country in September — double the official government figurehttps://t.co/NJFj9iECgU
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) October 29, 2021
Late last year, when there was still access to get decently accurate Russian excess death numbers, it was four *times* higher than the official Covid numbers. It's become harder to get good data.
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) October 30, 2021
And if you think Putin is sad about hundreds of thousands of pensioners falling off the roles early, well you might not know very much about Putin.
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) October 30, 2021
How lifting Kenya's Covid curfew may push revellers to get jabbed https://t.co/im8cciu9tk
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 30, 2021
Canada:
Nearly 70% of parents are keen to have their children age 5-11 get the Covid vaccine ??
Top reasons
✅protect their kids from COVID
✅protect others in their family
✅prevent missing in-person school
✅more comfort taking their kids to public placeshttps://t.co/551NepupUs pic.twitter.com/e5rsxg5D55— Tara Kiran (@tara_kiran) October 29, 2021
======
These findings suggest vaccination protects much better against Covid than infection-induced immunity, including during a period when Delta was spreading widely. https://t.co/RaRTae04qh
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) October 29, 2021
The White House will pump $1 billion into buying at-home COVID-19 rapid tests, a bid to jumpstart production and quadruple the availability of the in-demand tests by December. https://t.co/kcIvbOjfsz
— Global Health NOW (@ghn_news) October 29, 2021
Vaccinated people can get long Covid, especially if over 60. Researchers confirmed vaccination greatly lowers risk of death, ICU admission & respiratory failure. But it doesn't guard against heart arrhythmia, sleep disorders or type 2 diabetes. UK study. https://t.co/KOWprKeCYT pic.twitter.com/LRukuNDcyq
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 30, 2021
======
When COVID-19 vaccines first became available in the U.S., mom-and-pop pharmacies helped West Virginia get the fastest start to vaccinating residents. Now, demand for the shots has almost dried up — and the state’s vaccination rate is among the lowest. https://t.co/fLc8baIk11
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 29, 2021
The US Supreme Court refused to block Maine’s vaccine mandate for health care workers. As is customary in rulings on emergency applications, the brief order gave no reasons. 3 conservatives dissented: Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, & Neil Gorsuch https://t.co/x5KVwjTjWd
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 30, 2021
"Life simply went on" is certainly one way to describe the salutary benefits of leading the nation in Delta deathshttps://t.co/iZF22WvVHS
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) October 29, 2021
Actually, Puerto Rico has the lowest case rate in the US. It also has the highest vaccination rate in the US.
And one reason FL's case rate is low is that it tests so much less than other states: its positive-test rate is significantly higher than states like CT, VT, even LA. https://t.co/ECje9Y7odH
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) October 29, 2021
No, but you are a muppet (in the British sense). https://t.co/p0TkHBV2wZ
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) October 29, 2021
.@chrislhayes: “Rupert Murdoch is the person responsible for all of the anti-vaccine nonsense coming out of Fox that has led to untold thousands of unnecessary deaths. He is responsible for the increasingly dangerous rhetoric around January 6 that Fox News is spewing.” pic.twitter.com/6PV6RnMGqS
— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) October 30, 2021
Chief Oshkosh
Good morning!
Got my Moderna booster Monday evening. Set me on my butt all of Tuesday. Good nap time. :)
New Deal democrat
We end the week on some bad news: it looks like a winter wave has begun.
Cases in an uptrend in: CA, CO, MN, ND, NE, NM, and UT. Cases are also slightly up in: AZ, IA, DC, KS, and NJ. The uptrend has been spreading out from only 3 States just a few days ago, so it’s unlikely to be just noise. (Note: CA’s stats for the last few days have been revised. It now looks like a genuine uptrend).
There is *some* noise, though, because deaths have risen slightly simultaneously, so that’s a data reporting issue.
That a new wave might be starting from a level of 75,000/day is really dismaying. Also, the vaccination stats are really dismaying as well. *All* of the increase in the daily level of shots is due to the already vaccinated getting boosters. In the last week, only 1.0 million people got their first shot, or only 170,000/day. That may be the lowest since last winter.
I’m still going to see a sliver of *relatively* good news, in that I think boosters + recent infections will help keep the winter wave somewhat subdued.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 5,854 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, tfor a cumulative reported total of 2,466,663 cases. It also reports 63 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 28,832 deaths – 1.17% of the cumulative reported total, 1.20% of resolved cases.
Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.95.
593 confirmed cases are in ICU, 216 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 6,715 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,368,634 patients recovered – 96.0% of the cumulative reported total.
Two new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,765 clusters. 438 clusters are currently active; 5,327 clusters are now inactive.
5,841 new cases today are local infections. 13 new cases today are imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK)
administered 147,242 doses of vaccine on 28th October: 18,493 first doses, 123,182 second doses, and 5,567 booster doses. As of midnight yesterday, the cumulative total is 49,581,855 doses administered: 25,431,328 first doses, 24,165,940 second doses, and 152,036 booster doses. 77.9% of the population have received their first dose, while 74.0% are now fully vaccinated.For some reason, vaccination numbers have not been updated for the pasr few days on the Health Ministry’s COVIDNOW website.Robert Sneddon
The UK’s offer of more vaccine doses for COVAX is not as generous as it first seems. The AstraZeneca vaccine was only given to older people since there’s a slight chance of it causing blood clots in the brain in younger people. Pretty much everyone over the age of 50 in the UK is now fully vaccinated and the vaccine booster programme in the UK for older people and those at medical risk is exclusively using the two mRNA vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna. I had my booster vaccination yesterday, a half-dose of Moderna even though my original vaccination was AstraZeneca (I also got a flu vaccination at the same time since the medical authorities are anticipating a really bad flu season this year so both of my arms are a bit sore).
The UK is left with a lot of AstraZeneca vaccine stock it’s not got any use for so it’s offering those doses to other countries before they expire. It’s the same for the limited amounts of J&J vaccine the UK government ordered and never used. It’s a good thing to do of course but there are reasons the offer doesn’t include Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines.
Interestingly when I was receiving my booster shot yesterday the person who vaccinated me mentioned there were rumours circulating among health personnel of another round of boosters next year, maybe in the summer. If there’s real evidence of memory-cell immunity fading after six months or so or there’s a new Mk2 vaccine developed which is better optimised to target later strains of SARS-nCoV-2 like Delta/Delta-plus then that may well happen.
MattF
Got my (Pfizer) booster Thursday, no side effects. Small uptick in local COVID cases (Montgomery county MD) right on the line for mandatory indoor masking, so it’s unclear what policy should be.
YY_Sima Qian
On 10/29 China reported 59 new domestic confirmed & 6 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 19 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 155 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic suspect cases in the region.
Xi’an in Shaanxi Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 13 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.
Ningxia “Autonomous” Region reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 27 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the region.
Gansu Province reported 11 new domestic confirmed cases (7 mild, 3 moderate & 1 serious). There currently are 86 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Hebei Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 3 active confirmed & 3 active asymptomatic cases in the province.
Hunan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Zunyi in Guizhou Province did not reported any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 11 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 2 residential compounds are currently at Medium Risk.
Beijing Municipality reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (both mild), both traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 10/25 & 10/26, respectively. There currently are 29 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 community remains at High Risk & 1 community is currently at Medium Risk.
Rizhao in Shandong Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed & 7 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 residential compound is currently at Medium Risk.
Zigong in Sichuan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city.
Qinghai Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
At Tianmen in Hubei Province there currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases (1 mild & 1 moderate) in the city.
Heihe in Heilongjiang Province reported 26 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 36 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 6 residential compounds have been elevated to Medium Risk.
Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 27 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture.
At Fujian Province the last domestic confirmed case recovered.
At Henan Province there currently are 5 active domestic confirmed cases remaining, all at Shangqiu.
Imported Cases
On 10/29, China reported 19 new imported confirmed cases (7 previously asymptomatic), 18 imported asymptomatic cases:
Overall in China, 16 confirmed cases recovered (15 imported), 31 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (all imported) & 7 were reclassified as confirmed cases (all imported), & 748 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 763 active confirmed cases in the country (379 imported), 39 in serious condition (1 imported), 396 active asymptomatic cases (349 imported), 3 suspect cases (2 imported). 46,111 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 10/29, 2,262.226M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 7.974M doses in the past 24 hrs. The booster shot campaign is gathering steam. 1,070.386M individuals have been fully vaccinated, or ~ 75.8% of the total population.
On 10/30 Hong Kong reported 3 new positive cases, all imported.
Nicole
I am counting the days until the vaccine is released for 5-11 year olds.
Yesterday I scheduled my stepmom for her booster, and was reminded that pharmacies doing things online reduces access for the elderly and Americans for whom English is not their first language. I’m glad we got it sorted out, though. She went to a funeral a couple of weeks ago and the daughter of the deceased wasn’t feeling well, and turned out to be incubating a serious case of Covid. Fortunately, most of, if not all, of the guests were vaccinated and a potential outbreak was stopped at the source. Happy she’s getting her shot today (and the flu vaccine to boot, a twofer!). It’s a Pfizer booster, and she originally got Moderna, but as there is no Moderna available in her area at the moment, I told her it was better to get a booster now, since it’s getting cold, rather than wait.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
Monroe County website: 290 new cases yesterday cases and NYSDOH says 320 new cases yesterday. This is getting really ugly again.
Geminid
First Babbling Boebert fires off an “Imeach Biden” tweet. Now this protester paints “I am not a pup it” on his car. Are they rationing p’s, or are conservatives suffering from consonant dissonance?
Cermet
@Nicole: The difference in antibody levels is trivial between taking the Pfizer vs. Moderna as booster, per a study. Either provide huge improvement in protection.
Ohio Mom
An old friend whose sister married a Dayton, Ohio cop tells me the cop BIL died of Covid (I met him once, briefly, thirty years ago).
He was an unvaccinated racist loudmouth, Friend feels sorry for her sister, the kids and grandkids (who she hopes have run to get their shots) but won’t miss BIL, and what an unoriginal story, isn’t it?
My booster made my arm sore for two days, which doesn’t even count. I had a pulled muscle in my back and took all my attention.
trnc
I have a question, and it may sound jerky but it isn’t meant to be.
Does anyone read YY_Sima Qians lengthy comments with all the statistics? I don’t mean to be insensitive, but I look at these covid threads for topline numbers. I can’t process the minutiae on top of everything else.
I have no problem scrolling through if others are looking at it. The main reason I ask is that YY must do a lot of work to put this all together (I assume YY is doing all the work, since there’s no source cited), and that’s a shame if no one here is reading it.
Again, if others are getting something out of it, shout it out loud because I don’t want to get in the way of that.
YY, I hope that doesn’t sound offensive. I really do appreciate the amount of work it takes to be put that together.
Thanks.
Chief Oshkosh
@Geminid: Option 3: Occam’s razor says that they’re just a bunch of dumbfucks. Always have been, always will be. If it weren’t for the amplification on the social medes, they’d be muppeting in relative isolation. But, that’s not the world we live in, anymore.
NeenerNeener
@trnc: I look at them and despair, because the whole country of China usually has fewer new cases per day now than my little corner of New York State.
MattF
@trnc: I think these daily threads are a data source with both short-term and longer-term significance. They may or may not have an immediate impact on the daily reader, but I suspect China specialists know they are here if needed.
O. Felix Culpa
@trnc: I scan the data and look closely at the numbers for Hong Kong, since I used to live there and still have friends there
ETA: Like Neenerx2 at #14, I’m consistently impressed by how low the numbers are in such a large country.
topclimber
@New Deal democrat: Do the vax stats include kids 12+? I am surprised if there is a drop there, but maybe the big surge was back-to-school and has fallen off a cliff.
Percysowner
@Chief Oshkosh: I’ll be getting my booster and my flu vaccine on Friday, just in case I have a reaction.
I see my oncologist for the first time on Tuesday and I’m waiting for her okay to get the vaccinations. I don’t expect any issues, but my surgeon said to wait until I talk to the oncologist.
oldster
DougJ’s Pitchbot account is so good it’s scary.
I mean, hilarious, too, in a ha-ha we’re so doomed sort of way.
But so accurate.
He’s right: a lot of the press really did prefer the psychotic mass-murder to the low-key guy who gets things done and save American lives, at home and abroad
ETA: And I’m proud to say that I knew him way back when! Or at any rate, sometimes shared a comment-thread with him, way back when.
MattF
@oldster: And now, whenever I see a NYT (or Politico) headline, I think ‘PITCHBOT!’
dmsilev
New “fun size” vaccine shots, just slightly too late for Halloween.
trnc
@O. Felix Culpa:
@mattf
@neenerneener
OK, thanks for the responses. Good to know YY’s work is not going unnoticed.
oldster
As far as I can tell, that Delthia Ricks tweet about long covid is *very* misleading:
“But [vaccination] doesn’t guard against heart arrhythmia, sleep disorders or type 2 diabetes.”
To judge from the linked story, it looks like Rick’s tweet confuses two things:
YES. If you have a break-through case, then it still may lead to long covid, even if you’re vaccinated.
MUCH LOWER. If you don’t get infected, then you don’t get long covid. And if you are vaccinated, then you are much less likely to get infected, to get hospitalized, and so on — including long covid.
The fact is: the vaccines *do* guard against heart arrhythmia, sleep disorders and type 2 diabetes. They do that by preventing you from getting sick to begin with. Are they perfect? No. But to say that “they do not guard against etc.” is just a misleading summary.
Here’s the crucial quote from the researchers:
“However, our results highlight that some post-acute outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 (and notably long-COVID presentations) are likely to persist even after successful vaccination of the population, so long as breakthrough infections occur….”
So long as breakthrough infections occur! That’s the crucial qualifier. So, if the vaccines guard against infections, then they guard against long-covid.
I hope that Ricks will update. She’s usually a reliable and careful source.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
“If dogs run free, why not we?” – Dylan
Oh, and sometimes the line between parody and truth is pretty thin. In DougJ’s case, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is one of those times.
It’s hard to reach any conclusion other than that the Beltway press wants to report on the high-school drama aspects of government – who’s mad at whom, who’s hooking up with whom, who threw a monkeywrench in whose campaign for student council president – and the thought of reporting on actual policy bores them to tears.
And of course, Trump gave them nonstop drama with very little policy, while Biden’s giving them lots of policy, and if it weren’t for Manchinema, there wouldn’t be any drama either.
Sloane Ranger
@Robert Sneddon: What you say is true as far as it goes, but AstraZeneca IS an effective vaccine and it’s much better it goes somewhere where it can do some good, rather that be allowed to expire on a shelf somewhere in the UK.
And, while I’m here, yesterday’s figures from the UK, where we had 43,467 new cases. This is a decrease of 12.7% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,
England – 36,853 (up 2950)
Northern Ireland – 1321 (up 199)
Scotland – 2732 (up 579)
Wales – 2561 (down 103).
Deaths – There were 186 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday (Friday). The rolling 7-day average is up by 12.6%. 148 deaths were in England, 7 in Northern Ireland, 24 in Scotland and 7 in Wales.
Testing – 875,931 tests took place on Thursday, 28 October. The rolling 7-day average for testing is down by 10.8%. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on that date was 868,534.
Hospitalisations – On Thursday, 28 October there were 8983 people in hospital and 946 people on ventilators. As of 25 October, the rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions was up by 5.8%.
Vaccinations – As of Thursday, 28 October, 49,882,904 people had had 1 shot of a vaccine, 45,651,222 had had 2, and 7,293,638 had had a booster shot. In percentage terms this means that, as of that date, 86.7% of all people aged 12+ had had 1 shot, 79.4% had had 2 and 12.7% had had a 3rd shot/booster.
Ramiah Ariya
I see that Anne Laurie is again spending so much space on conspiracy theories about Russian “actual deaths” due to COVID.
Once and for all:
This conspiracy theorizing was picked up by partisans in the Indian press during the Delta surge in summer this year – and it was used to insinuate (as with Russia above) that somehow the federal government in the nation was responsible for counting COVID deaths.
I was informed a month back in Balloon Juice that living in India, we were being fed “disinformation” by our (Indian) government, and that actual reality was something different.
The unrelenting hostility and conspiracy theorizing among American liberals about the COVID management and reporting in countries they do not like has led them to be blind to reality – the Western “independent” press has played a vital role in spreading vaccine hesitancy to the Russian public. It is obvious to anyone from outside reading your press.
YY_Sima Qian
@trnc: Thanks for the note. I do this as much for my own benefit as for everyone else’s. The very high level summaries that Reuters publish based on the China National Health Commission daily data do not give the readers any sense where the outbreak is heading. I quickly scan through the provincial & municipal daily data summaries to get more of the details (though some jurisdictions do not publish case summaries). It takes about half an hour a day to gather all the data, as I have become quite practiced at it. Much shorter when there is not a wide spreading outbreak in the country.
I have a very personal stake because my job requires frequent & extensive travel across China (it used to be across East Asia before the pandemic), & traveling for leisure is one of my favorite hobbies. Keeping a close eye on new outbreaks & tracking how they evolve greatly influence my travel decisions, as well as those of my team members & colleagues, while also alerting me to possibly being quarantined due to recent travel to a place that just reported positive cases. I also find the exercise stimulating. :-)
Should outbreaks in China ever get to hundreds of cases a day at multiple locations, or more, I will have to go to higher level summaries similar to what Amir Khalid does for Malaysia. It would then become too overwhelming.
When I started this, I was hoping that sharing the mechanics of how China suppressed & eliminated the big 1st wave, & then the subsequent outbreaks around the country, would inform others in reacting to new surges after the 1st wave was suppressed. However, w/ the Summer 2020 wave in the US & Fall 2020 wave in Europe (& others that followed) it became clear that elimination was simply not in the cards or even in the imagination of most of the world, & that Test/Trace/Isolate would remain highly inadequate. I think only the testing part has been substantially resolved (& then mostly in the developed world).
sab
@trnc: I read them. My sister’s husband is from Shanghai. My favorite college roommate’s parents were from Fujian.
Also too, China is huge and has managed to control the pandemic after they admitted a problem a month later than they should have done.
I Europe and North America we have spent a lot of energy blaming China when the effort should have been controlling the pandemic here at home.
The contrst between Chinese numbers and US numbers is beyond startling, and if any governments are lying it’s US states, not Chinese.
Russia has tried systematic lying, and it just doesn’t work if the underlying pandemic isn’t under control.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — 3,867 new COVID-19 cases reported today, some backlogged data from a national Lighthouse lab is appearing in current figures so they are noticeably higher than previous reporting. The test positivity rate is 9.6%. There were 20 new deaths reported but note that Register Offices are generally closed at weekends. ICU bed occupancy numbers are 65, up five from yesterday while hospitalisations are 926, the same as yesterday.
There were about 3,500 vaccinations carried out in Scotland yesterday (Friday) with about 45% of these being first vaccinations. 92.0% of 16+ adults are now vaccinated with their first dose and 85.8% are fully vaccinated. 75.2% of 16 and 17-year-olds have now received their first vaccination and 53.7% of 12-15 year olds have now received their first vaccination.
There were about 28,500 booster vaccinations carried out yesterday in Scotland with a total of about 656,500 boosters carried out to date.
Personal note — I received a half-dose of Moderna vaccine as a booster yesterday. It’s now been 24 hours and the only effect has been a restless night’s sleep and a somewhat sore arm at the injection location, no fever or headache or other malaise. I may still get a reaction in the next day or two, we’ll see.
Subsole
@trnc:
I actually do read it. I find the breakdown fascinating. I am not familiar with the regional cultures in China (what is the Chinese equivalent to Wyoming?). So it can be a little hard to relate that way, but it is interesting nonetheless.
Is it possible to go further into WHY the numbers are breaking the way they are?
Shout out to everyone here putting together the data. It is often depressing, but informative.
New Deal democrat
@topclimber: The vax stats above include kids age 12 up, but they do not separately break them out. Unfortunately I have not been keeping track of the weekly numbers broken out by age.
Subsole
@Ramiah Ariya: Due respect, but if the Tsar desires trust, then the Tsar shouldn’t have spent the past decade-plus being a lying, underhanded, bloodthirsty sack of shit.
I am truly sorry that Russia is stuck with that guy. The Russian people’s great tragedy is that they have never had a government worthy of them.
But dude’s straight up trying to sink my home. He’s already pretty well sunk England. He’s actively assaulting Ukraine, and propping up the worst sud-sucking trash-ass fascists in Europe and America.
Fuck no I ain’t trusting his numbers.
On India, I will keep my ignorance to myself and let better-informed people have that convo.
sab
@Ramiah Ariya: Seriously? Many Russians follow western press?
Fair Economist
@Ramiah Ariya:You also know those excess deaths are overwhelmingly from COVID, because otherwise you’d be obsessed with finding the real reason that the death rates jumped so alarmingly in Russia and India. Both countries quite obviously cheated to produce really low official counts. India picked a hyper-stringent definition of COVID death (in hospital with positive test) knowing its limited testing and hospital resources would necessarily exclude almost all deaths. Russia has published blatantly doctored numbers, flunking absolute minimums for variability. The fact that they’re now obscuring excess deaths is just the icing on Putin’s fraud cake.
Fair Economist
Weekly CDC Flu report: Positivity rates actually falling back from the already pretty low numbers of a few weeks ago; back to record low rate territory, although there are a lot of tests and so the absolute numbers are just really low. People taking action against COVID? Flu shots? School children wearing masks? (Normally children coming back to school is a big flu driver.) Just random? No answers as of yet.
Unfortunately all 5 of the major flu strains (H1N1, H3N2, H3N2v, Victoria, and Yamagata) showed up in the last few weeks. Earlier this year it had looked like at least one small consolation of the SARS2 epidemic was that Yamagata had gone extinct and H3N2v was on the edge. But, no, they’re baaa-aaack!
:-(
opiejeanne
@sab: Where’s Schroedinger’s Cat when we need her?
Just Chuck
@trnc: I don’t read them, but I too have no problem scrolling past them, especially given the very apropos topic. Just thought I’d add my 80 Colombian pesos worth.
Just Chuck
@Geminid: “Consonant Dissonance” would make an awesome band name.
sab
@opiejeanne: Painting, I hope.
smith
@Ramiah Ariya: One reason we point accusing fingers at Russia is that a non-negligible portion of the misinformation here, in both right-wing media and social media, originates there.
YY_Sima Qian
@Subsole: Cases in the latest outbreak skew significantly older, because it gathered momentum after the week long China National Day holiday (10/1 – 10/7). During that “Golden Week”, it is mostly those holding regular jobs traveling for leisure. Normally it would be another one of those periods w/ extensive human migration in China, though this year the travel season was depressed due to the outbreaks at Fujian & Heilongjiang Provinces. University students would ordinarily make up a large percentage of the traveling cohort, but this year they were discouraged from leaving the city where they study.
From the day the week long holiday ended, the traveling demographic shifted to older retirees, who are keen to avoid the crowds of the holiday period. For a relatively hard to get to destination such as the desert poplar forest at Ejina Banner in Inner Mongolia, it is the retirees that have the time include it as part of their “Grand Circle” itinerary through Gansu & Shaanxi Provinces. The forest’s Autumn foliage also makes for stunning photography, & it is the retirees that are more likely to have the time & the financial resources to indulge in the passion. (The retirees here are middle/upper middle class ones, former managers in government or at state owned/private enterprise). This explains the increasing number of serious (equivalent to cases that would require hospitalization in other countries) & critical (equivalent to cases that would require ICU) cases, at ~ 10% of active domestic cases, despite most of the cases should have been fully vaccinated.
Old retirees in China also have another passion: playing poker or mahjong in parlors or home gatherings. Some of them are also stubborn about not following all of the pandemic response regulations. Of the 3 transmissions chains introduced from Ejina Banner/Gansu into Beijing, 2 reached only 2nd generation, but 1 reached 4th generation because the returning travelers did not immediately report themselves to their community & did not get tested, & instead visited mahjong parlors (thankfully small ones). The outbreaks at Nanjing & Yangzhou back in late Jul. to early Aug. were greatly accelerated via large mahjong parlors.
The current outbreak was only detected when a tour group (from Shanghai) left Ejina Banner, passed through Jiayuguan in Gansu, & reached XI’an in Shaanxi. Xi’an required all out of province visitors to furnish negative RT-PCR test reports within 48 hrs, due to the ongoing National & National Paraplegic Games being held there. The group had tested negative before leaving Ejina Banner. However, their 2nd day in Xi’an was to visit the Terracotta Warriors, which also required negative test within 48 hrs, & their test results from Ejina Banner were no longer valid for the purpose. They had to get tested in Xi’an, when 2 members of the group tested positive. If the Terracotta Warriors Museum did not have a testing requirement, it might have been further days before the outbreak was detected.
Ejina Banner is a large & very sparsely populated admin. division, covering a swathe of the Gobi desert. Permanent population is < 100K, but the desert popular forest scenic area hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors daily during the final weeks of Sept. & through Oct., when the Autumn foliage is at peak. The area has limited health care resources & far from the major cities of Inner Mongolia or neighboring provinces. Furthermore, despite its proximity to Mongolia, the area had hitherto not seen a single COVID-19 case throughout the pandemic. Therefore, when people present COVID symptoms, locals & local doctors & nurses may still 1st suspect flu & not COVID-19. This is why China cannot significantly reduce response to outbreaks, & just let COVID-19 rip through the population. Even at high vaccination levels (though w/ less efficacious vaccines), it would exact a terrible toll, especially in rural areas where 40% of the population still live.
different-church-lady
Ah, I see Doug J has stopped doing satire.
J R in WV
@Ramiah Ariya:
You are a Damned fool. We American liberals are as hostile towards American provincial mismanagement of the pandemic as we are to any foreign government mismanagement, from India and Russia to Brazil and the UK. ETA: And we don’t trust the “independent press” here or anywhere.
I think running a total number of excess deaths since the pandemic started and comparing that total to past yearly deaths works quite well as an ad hoc method of estimating the death toll from this plague. Since many governments are hostile to the actual facts about death toll numbers, we do need some ready numbers to have a sensible discussion about the meaning and effects of the Coronavirus currently affecting the world.
As for you, welcome to the pie safe, from which famed institution I will never have to witness your extremist anti=American nonsense again. You could be a ‘bot, I don’t really care… we won’t have a discussion going forward.
Goodby, farewell, go away now!
Soprano2
@oldster: Glad to know I’m not the only person concerned and infuriated about the confused reporting around long Covid. It seems like unnecessary fear mongering to me.
Jay
I read and am thankful for almost all the comments here, which I read in detail, every morning. It’s only on rare days where there is a pie worthy comment.
Wvng
@oldster: A doctor friend tells me his 20 something daughter had a mild breakthrough infection and now she has brain fog. He is concerned that many many people will be disabled by this.
Matt McIrvin
I’m annoyed by the continuing disruption of case reporting from New Hampshire, which produces the appearance of an end to their outbreak which I suspect is entirely illusory.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: The confused reporting comes from a genuine lack of solid data. I’m not at all convinced that the vaccinated should consider themselves out of the woods here.
The most comprehensive study I’ve seen concluded, if I recall correctly, that being vaccinated cut the chance of being infected over the study period down by about a factor of 3, and the chance of having persistent long-term COVID symptoms down by about another factor of 2 beyond that. So, yes, it helps, a risk ratio of 6 is nothing to sneeze at, but maybe not as much as we’d like. OTOH the “long COVID” was being identified with a pretty broad net.
JAFD
There have been occasions on which I’ve read, thoroughly, the reports from YY_Sima Qian, and occasions when I’ve had a ‘provinces of China’ map in another window to see where they are.
I may not make use of this information every day, but I’m glad it’s there and I know where to find it. Therefore, Mr. YY_Sima Qian, Thank You !
Bill Arnold
@trnc:
AL’s daily COVID-19 roundups have higher readership than one might expect. (I don’t have statistics, but I have seen them mentioned elsewhere). I also am certain that the China roundups in the comments are read by lurkers. Also, google indexes these comment threads (unlike say disqus), so some attention arrives through google searches. (Dropping googleable names can attract attention, as can crafted collections of keywords.)
Personally, I always read the summary at the end (and despair for my country the USA, with some admiration for China), and sometimes read the details.
Bishop Bag
God Dammit!!!
Inyo County California just re-instituted it’s indoors mask mandate yesterday. The county Covid rate is worse than last Winter. I am so disgusted with all the Redneck Trump Covid deniers in Bishop!
Unfortunately I live in a very conservative county
Northern Inyo Hospital Has been overwhelmed with ICU cases…
Bill Arnold
Bold mine.
That is the inner nationalist in you speaking. Do better.
(And please; do not assert that the press in India is fully free.)
Excess death computations are the only proper tool we have to fact check government statistics. (Though have you looked at the Russian numbers for the past couple of months? They are flagrantly absurd. At least prior to recently they looked like actual statistics.)
Anyway, for those who care to dig further than e.g. the The Economist pages on excess deaths,
For Russia:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&q=covid++%22excess+mortality%22++russia&scisbd=1
For India:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&scisbd=1&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=covid++%22excess+mortality%22++india&btnG=