Love everything about this. And the kid giving the thumbs up instead of that wincing photo we’ve been seeing for the last several months, that’s how a shot should feel! ? https://t.co/zgKySyKLSB
— GhostLeigh Giangreco ?? (@LeighGiangreco) November 4, 2021
Good news, *if* we can keep it:
good news for Biden
< The percentage of Americans who now say the U.S. COVID-19 situation is improving has more than doubled between September and October.>https://t.co/Nb5MXZW46K
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) November 4, 2021
And yet:
The US #Covid death toll hit a horrific height today. Three quarters of a million people have died — more than the population of Seattle.
What to me is appalling, unconscionable, is that 75,000 of those people died in the past 45 days. When the country was awash with vaccine. pic.twitter.com/3sZRsyem1o— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) November 4, 2021
A theory, which is mine: I’m getting the strong impression that a lot of the people with the widest media following — many of whom weren’t thrilled about pandemic restrictions in the first place — are just bored with continued reminders the pandemic isn’t over yet. Most of them live in high-vaxx areas, they’ve been able to do their jobs from home / while distanced, and they’re tired of making sacrifices like not being able to travel freely around the globe, or paying more for imported groceries, or not being able to find a replacement housekeeper/nanny/landscaper who doesn’t ask for minimum wage and a SS filing. Why must they, personally, suffer because some immunocomprised oldies or a bunch of third-world poors are still sickening & dying?!?
This is not the first time we’ve seen this Hot Take, and I can only hope we don’t get a post-holidays super-Delta variant to burst their self-centered little bubbles (again)…
This is "following the science," which has pretty much told us about the levels of risk we'd face returning to normal. Adding "but unvaccinated ppl should…" is good advice, but that ship has sailed. Localities that overshoot CDC guidance are not helping. /2x
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 3, 2021
Yes, many of us are SO OVER the pandemic… but most of us don’t believe the world revolves around *us*!
Lots of people are still dying from a largely preventable disease because they are ignoring public health guidance in favor of their political identity. That’s a real thing. https://t.co/UDZyfjjAQi
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) November 4, 2021
?Brace yourselves for a flood of anti-vax #disinformation targeting parents: “fringe groups have already begun pushing the kinds of videos that the modern anti-vaccine movement was built upon: intimate, unverified videos and testimonies of children with alleged vaccine injuries” https://t.co/9C4gQTKLOU
— Paula Chertok? (@PaulaChertok) November 3, 2021
Parents with kids 5-11 are evenly split between whether they'll vaccinate "right away," "wait and see," or not at all. How big an effect the anti-vaccine crowd will have largely depends on the reach of the scare-mongering videos we expect to see more of. https://t.co/BsLwT2PLlw
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) November 3, 2021
======
Covid: New study finds more than 28M extra years of life were lost in 31 countries in 2020. With few exceptions, such as New Zealand & S. Korea, all others had excess deaths & higher rates in men than women. Worst rates were in Russia, Bulgaria & the US https://t.co/AIucvjk8zN pic.twitter.com/kbclRpTBP4
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 4, 2021
China is on high alert at its ports of entry as strict policies on travel in and out of the country are enforced to reduce COVID-19 risks amid a fresh domestic outbreak, less than 100 days out from the open of the Beijing Winter Olympics https://t.co/f37jd12A4R pic.twitter.com/HzIzTGr41Z
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 4, 2021
India celebrates Diwali under shadow of Covid-19 https://t.co/bx0fFjtQTL
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 4, 2021
South Korea opened COVID-19 quarantine centers to house potentially thousands of teenagers with COVID-19 ahead of the country's grueling eight-hour college entrance exam in two weeks https://t.co/ogXQnIR6fq pic.twitter.com/WSSJ2zWvnl
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 4, 2021
japan is flexing https://t.co/5ih8Kj8kwR
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) November 4, 2021
American expat living in Singapore:
if you aren't obsessive about testing, the virus really does appear to fall off a cliff because no one is getting sick, or very sick, thanks to vaccination. and tbh that's not necessarily a bad thing, right? like a bug that doesn't make people sick isn't a big deal is it
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) November 4, 2021
⚡ Russia has reported a new pandemic record of 1,195 Covid-19 deaths over the last 24 hours https://t.co/no867Wnu88
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) November 4, 2021
Russia’s vaccine disinformation has let down its own people https://t.co/rxrPVmLhKD
— toomas hendrik ilves (@IlvesToomas) November 3, 2021
… Comparing mortality data with historical trends, FT analysis suggests Russia recorded 753,000 excess deaths during the pandemic to the end of September. That is second only to the US in absolute terms, and third after Peru and Bulgaria on a per capita basis.
One reason is that Putin has been reluctant to take responsibility for lockdowns. A shutdown in spring 2020 sent the economy into recession and dented his ratings before a referendum on constitutional changes that could extend his rule to 2036. The authorities held off reimposing tight restrictions for 18 months, despite a second wave last autumn, until the recent surge forced their hand. The Kremlin has been reluctant to spend money to help businesses and individuals through lockdowns or other controls…
After racing to develop the Sputnik-V vaccine, however, it is on vaccinations that Russia has really fallen down. Just 33 per cent of the population have had two doses. Levada, an independent pollster, this week found 45 per cent of people were “not ready” to get the jab.
Dubiousness about vaccines partly reflects a distrust of state authorities dating back to pre-Soviet times. Hesitancy towards jabs was already rife pre-pandemic, with measles cases rising. Rushing to roll out Sputnik jabs before large-scale clinical trials had been concluded further dented confidence. The authorities have struggled to counter a belief among Russians who have had Covid that natural immunity now makes vaccination unnecessary.
Yet the sham democracy and slavishly propagandistic media of the Putin era have only heightened distrust and a tendency to believe in conspiracies. Levada polling found 61 per cent of respondents agreed coronavirus was a “new form of biological weapon”. Anyone who thinks the virus is man-made is unlikely to see vaccines as an answer.
The criticism of foreign-made vaccines by Putin and state media, intended to boost Sputnik, instead convinced many Russians that if international products were not much good, their own version was surely worse. An EU report last month said a systematic disinformation campaign by Russian media to sow doubt about vaccines in the west, with materials on European websites in multiple languages including Russian, had backfired…
German COVID-19 cases hit daily record as health ministers meet https://t.co/It0w62Dk3m pic.twitter.com/VaAXuBWSFd
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 4, 2021
Britain, its hospitals and its COVID-19 strategy are under the microscope as the country enters the dangerous winter period while accounting for almost a tenth of the world's recorded new infections https://t.co/pw2cErGtC0 pic.twitter.com/CHdp8bOlXC
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 4, 2021
African scientists are racing to test potential Covid drugs — but face major hurdles. Their hope is to repurpose drugs used for malaria & other diseases, but infrastructure & clinical trial recruitment challenges have stymied progress https://t.co/HVz4rXp2Ab
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 3, 2021
The WHO is urging Latin American countries to hold off on #BoosterShots because of scant vaccine availability in the global supply chain. Of course there are millions of unwanted U.S. doses that have been refused by anti-vaxxers. Can be shipped abroad? https://t.co/HpcesDpFQJ
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 4, 2021
Canadian employers shed unvaccinated workers, labor lawyers in demand https://t.co/GXqJEJu9K2 pic.twitter.com/llvoKO6ypC
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 3, 2021
======
The World Health Organization grants Covaxin — a Covid vax developed in India — emergency authorization. It's the 8th coronavirus vaccine to receive the global health agency’s green light https://t.co/IL4xHFaik8
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 4, 2021
Israeli researchers have succeeded in identifying SARSCoV2 proteins that damage blood vessels. The team isolated 5 responsible for clot formation. "We see a very high incidence of vascular disease & blood clotting among Covid patients," said Dr. Ben Maoz https://t.co/eaWeKCeEOL pic.twitter.com/QG3Coe1nLn
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 4, 2021
There was excitement about repurposing the antidepressant drug fluvoxamine as preclinical treatment for #COVID19.
Then people took a hard look at the data.https://t.co/H3B3rUPqBY— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) November 3, 2021
======
… and that the ideology driving that destructive behavior may *benefit* politically because that party is not in power nationally. wild
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) November 4, 2021
Most NYC theatre-kid ever!
Nine-year-old Zia Bucci received her first dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in New York City. What's the first thing she wants to do after being vaccinated?
"I want to watch Hamilton on Broadway."
She knows all the music.https://t.co/RhUTX9LvOA pic.twitter.com/5xMk4l0w05
— Benjy Renton (@bhrenton) November 4, 2021
And yet is still a “reporter” https://t.co/wHlqwRqaX0
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 3, 2021
Aaron Rodgers is not vaccinated. In August, he created the clear impression that he is. Throughout the preseason, he repeatedly violated protocol by not wearing a mask on the sidelines when not in uniform, presumably to bolster his ruse. https://t.co/QIFkgjq47Z
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) November 3, 2021
#Packers QB Aaron Rodgers received homeopathic treatment from his personal doctor to raise his antibody levels and asked the NFL to review his status. The NFL, NFLPA and joint docs ruled him as unvaccinated. Now, he has COVID-19.
More here: https://t.co/YtnH67bn18
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 3, 2021
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
The Monroe County website says 179 new cases reported on Tuesday and 325 reported on Wednesday.
NYSDOH says 245 new cases yesterday.
It looks like we’re getting a repeat of 2020.
YY_Sima Qian
On 11/3 China reported 87 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic) & 16 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases. 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 163 active domestic confirmed cases in the region.
At Xi’an in Shaanxi Province there currently are 12 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.
Ningxia “Autonomous” Region reported 4 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 40 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the region.
Gansu Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (both mild). 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 126 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Hebei Province reported 23 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 57 active confirmed 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. 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed (1 mild, 2 moderate, 2 serious & 2 critical) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 2 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.
Beijing Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 40 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 community remains at High Risk. 2 communities are currently at Medium Risk.
Rizhao in Shandong Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, the new positive case is a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 14 active domestic confirmed & 6 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 residential compound is currently at Medium Risk.
Sichuan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Chongqing Municipality reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (mild), a traced close contact of domestic positive case reported by Chengdu in Sichuan, already under centralized quarantine since 11/2. There currently are 5 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 2 residential compounds & 1 office building have been elevated to Medium Risk.
Changzhou in Jiangsu Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed (all mild) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all traced close contacts of domestic positive cases at Chongqing. 3 residential compounds have been elevated to Medium Risk.
Qinghai Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 12 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.
Heilongjiang Province reported 45 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 189 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Jiangxi Province reported 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed & 14 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Henan Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed & 6 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 8 active domestic confirmed & 6 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Zhejiang Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case (at Longchuan County, via screening of persons under centralized quarantine). There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed & 29 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture. 1 zone at Ruili has been elevated to Medium Risk.
Imported Cases
On 11/3, China reported 17 new imported confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 15 imported asymptomatic cases, 3 imported suspect cases:
Overall in China, 24 confirmed cases recovered (13 imported), 6 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (all imported) & 3 were reclassified as confirmed cases (1 imported), & 2,548 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1080 active confirmed cases in the country (381 imported), 36 in serious condition (2 imported), 406 active asymptomatic cases (343 imported), 5 suspect cases (all imported). 41,773 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 11/3, 2,293.82M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 7.886M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 11/4 Hong Kong reported 7 new positive cases, all imported (from Indonesia, India, Pakistan & Nepal).
YY_Sima Qian
Uggh! I will have to simplify the format for tomorrow’s post. Too late for today’s! Sorry to the folks that have to scroll past the long post.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Greece: Wednesday, 6150 new cases were reported, 49 dead. Basically, we’ve gone up fifty percent in the last week. New testing requirements go into effect Saturday.
I’m making a second try tomorrow to get my US shots registered in the Greek system so I’ll be able to get a shot when I become eligible for a booster. Now that boosters are being made widely available and they’re pushing people who aren’t recorded as vaccinated to act on that, I want to get that straightened out.
satby
@YY_Sima Qian: Such a huge country with so many more people than the US, and such low totals of illness and death. Really quite impressive, and depressing for us at the same time.
Ohio Mom
@YY_Sima Qian: I skim your posts to marvel that cities and provinces have such few cases. When you can say “2 cases,” that isn’t a statistic to me, that is a number. I can picture two cases, I can’t picture a million.
I can only imagine that contact tracing is a booming field in China. I hope all those people can find other jobs when this is over.
On another note, there is quip waiting to be created from the fact that the “commies” in Russia have much the same beliefs as the far righties here, for example, Covid is a biological weapon and that natural immunity from a past case provides sufficient protection. Which is no doubt why Anne Laurie included that excerpt in today’s post.
debbie
Is it wrong of me to be glad to wake up to news that red states are working on legislation that will require health professionals to provide ivermectin to their patients upon request?
Baud
I believe the world revolves around me. But I don’t care if localities overshoot the CDC guidelines if that’s what local conditions call for. We are going to unmask at some point because the virus is endemic and we have good vaccines for it.
Also, it turns out all that supposed anger at anti vaxxers turned into disappointment toward Democrats. That can’t go on.
lowtechcyclist
Fuck you, Tom Nichols. Fuck you, Matt Stoller.
I live in a fairly high-vax area. But every few days, the principal of my son’s high school sends out an email saying that another student has tested positive for Covid-19, and was in classes just a few days earlier.
You know what’s keeping these students from infecting a whole bunch of other students? Masks.
Mask-wearing is a requirement in our county schools. You can’t be a student, a teacher, a custodian, a visitor, without wearing a mask. On account of this, we have had no clusters of infection at the high school, just the occasional Covid-positive kid, who presumably picked it up somewhere else, but their mask kept the virus from spreading to the rest of their class. And then to their parents, etcetera.
So fuck this “it’s time to drop the masks” shit. We still need the masks. They’re a big part of what’s keeping us safe.
satby
@Baud: And the absolutely childish demand by many liberals and lefties that a candidate inspire them. Sane and competent isn’t enough of a draw for our side, while the other lines up eagerly to spite vote for whackjobs. We have a nation full of petulant and / or racist adolecents.
Matt McIrvin
“It’s time to drop the masks” is just the early “let it wash over us” take, with the added wrinkle of vaccination. This is happening in some places–cases/100000/day pop up into the triple digits and stay there for weeks. Even with 2/3 of the population vaccinated it still breaks the hospitals, and that affects even people who are well-protected against COVID.
Baud
@satby:
I don’t see those voices as much anymore. It’s been nice shrinking my bubble.
Mike E
My coworker just returned from a 10 week bicycle journey across continental Europe where he saw little to no mask wearing in places outside of Germany and Austria. He encountered little to no vaccine enforcement when entering Serbia despite the warnings and was shocked by how indifferent Hungary, Albania and Bulgaria were to it all. He enjoyed his time but wished he had gone further west into Spain and Portugal. Overall, he’s glad to be back without getting covid…he’s vaccinated since March after getting the original wave of covid in 2020, and getting the booster today.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Going back to normal tomorrow is not feasible as the kids vaccine is just now getting started. But unless the mandates work really well, we’re going to unmask well before the dead enders see the light.
raven
On one news clip they had doggies distracting kids while they got the shot!
satby
@lowtechcyclist: Wearing masks never bothered me, but my other job is in health care where we have to wear them frequently anyway. But a lot of vaccinated and boostered folks want to be able to go without, as they’re not feeling as threatened now as some still do. The virus is endemic, and we all will have to learn a new normal; at some point I also expect most mask mandates to be dropped. It’s impossible to enforce mandates that are widely ignored.
debbie
@raven:
Here, they’re handing out Superman capes. Pretty cute, actually.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Who is “we”? Are they going to force me to stop wearing masks? Almost nobody wears them around here outside of the schools, but I still do.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 5,713 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, tfor a cumulative reported total of 2,492,343 cases. It also reports 46 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 29,091 deaths – 1.17% of the cumulative reported total, 1.20% of resolved cases.
Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.94.
519 confirmed cases are in ICU, 218 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 5,865 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,396,244 patients recovered – 96.1% of the cumulative reported total.
Five new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,793 clusters. 367 clusters are currently active; 5,426 clusters are now inactive.
5,681 new cases today are local infections. 32 new cases today are imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 114,573 doses of vaccine on 3rd November: 8,185 first doses, 42,306 second doses, and 64,082 booster doses. As of midnight yesterday, the cumulative total is 50,420,916 doses administered: 25,513,386 first doses, 24,607,296 second doses, and 471,6899 booster doses. 78.1% of the population have received their first dose, while 75.3% are now fully vaccinated.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m talking about mandates and guidelines. I will probably continue wearing masks on planes and public transport.
satby
They’ll never see the light, unless it’s that bright light some resuscitated people report seeing as they neared death. But as long as most of us get vaccinated and they refine the vaccines to meet new varients, it will be a flu-like background illness; though one of the most intensely studied ones ever.
The Thin Black Duke
I don’t care about stupid people dying.
satby
I don’t remember where you are, but that’s slowly happening everywhere. People will be free to continue masking, but mandates will go away sometime in the not far off future. And you know, that will be ok too; especially once the littles are vaccinated and we get over 80%+ in total population jabbed.
Lacuna Synecdoche
Tom Nichols via Anne Laurie @ Top:
We should just accept that, and stop taking any measure to protect ourselves from the next super-variant the dead-enders are bound, determined, and eager to inevitably spawn so they can pwn the libs again.
Yeah right, Tom.
YY_Sima Qian
@satby: Dynamic “Zero COVID” certainly has costs, but there is virtually unanimous consensus in China that the benefits outweigh the costs, even if problems in execution can cause grumbling. At some point China too will have to shift to “living w/ COVID”, as the disease is now endemic in both human & wildlife populations. Perhaps after children have been fully vaccinated & the adults have had a couple rounds of boosters, & events politically sensitive/significant to the CCP regime have past. In the meantime, I think the government & people in China are content to examine the experiences of Singapore, Australia & New Zealand as they exit “Zero COVID”.
Baud
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That Matt Stellar dude brain seems to be on melt down that reality doesn’t give a shit about his politics.
PST
@lowtechcyclist: Indeed. I look forward to dropping the masks too, but we’re not there yet. Not many 5- to 11-year-olds are vaccinated yet, and most adults haven’t had boosters. I learned today that my cousin, thoroughly vaxxed and living in a high-vax city, just learned that her two young daughters have COVID (as do several of their classmates) and it seems that they brought a breakthrough infection home to Mom. Anecdotes aren’t data, but this is a pretty common story this fall. I haven’t been wearing a mask outside or socializing with my small circle of vaxxed friends and family, but we need to put up with it still, and whining only makes it worse.
YY_Sima Qian
@Ohio Mom:
As far as I can gather members of contact tracing teams are pulled out of a variety of public sector professions: community workers, medical professionals, police officers, government workers, admin. people from state owned enterprises, even retirees (retirement age for women in China is 50) etc. Such people are often called to be contact tracers on an ad hoc basis when an outbreak occurs, after short period of tracing, though team leaders would have had more extensive training in epidemiological investigation. Since the vast majority of jurisdictions in China would not see any cases in the community for long stretches of time (from months to year+), local authorities do not maintain large contact tracing forces to standby. They keep a core cadre that can serve as team leaders. Also because outbreaks in China tend to be sporadic and localized, jurisdictions experiencing sustained community transmission will receive reinforcement from surrounding municipalities, even provinces. The reinforcements are typically in the form of contact tracers, nurses to support the mass screening campaigns, & medical teams to staff the designated hospitals (if the outbreaks is fairly large). Provincial & central governments also send expert teams to hot spots to advise & even direct the local response.
A pandemic is really in the sweet spot for a highly centralized, authoritarian, & relatively effective government, w/ a Leninist organizational structure. Challenges posed by Anthropogenic Global Warning might just be another such sweet spot.
Fair Economist
@YY_Sima Qian: More work for you to combine numbers, but the CCP splitting patients into asymptomatic and symptomatic is a PITA to deal with and doesn’t really add much info. The recovery counts aren’t valuable either; all I’d really care about is the # currently ill.
Soprano2
*sigh* Or maybe, just maybe, they’re completely worn out with the pandemic and hoping that once the 5-11 year olds get vaccinated they can go back to a semblance of normal life in their highly-vaccinated area. All of this scolding of people who yearn for life to go back to normal is getting tedious. Do Democrats really want to be the “anti-enjoying life” party? Tell me, who LIKED all the pandemic restrictions? Perhaps some anti-social people who never go out and want to stay home all the time, but otherwise I think the average normal person is pretty worn out with Covid, especially the fully vaccinated who thought life would be back to normal by now. Lecturing these people about how awful they are because they don’t want to continue wearing face masks everywhere in spite of being fully vaccinated and are yearning to go to restaurants, movies and concerts is not helping us. “Forever masks” is not a popular position. Are we supposed to wait until the whole world’s population is fully vaccinated to go back to some semblance of normal life? That is not a winning message with over 80% of the population, and it’s probably more like 95%.
PST
@YY_Sima Qian:
That’s an interesting observation. I think that it is also relevant that China stands to suffer hugely from global warming, especially rising sea levels. These days the RWNJs who have stopped denying climate change altogether and may even sometimes admit the human contribution when they are cornered are prone to say, “Why bother? China will just burn more coal.” Classic “tragedy of the commons” reasoning. But China is so big that such thinking doesn’t apply. China has such a large stake in both the creation and consequences of global warming that it will have to act, and its authoritarian structure means that it can do something that radical if its leaders decide to do so.
Fair Economist
Belgium and the Netherlands dropped mask mandates, and then had to put them back. It has been shown repeatedly that “double vaxxed and done” is NOT enough to “control” COVID in the sense of reducing it to flu levels. We’ve seen that in Israel, the UK, NL, and Belgium. Based on booster results, *maybe* boosters every 6 months will be enough. IMO mask wearing will be with us indefinitely. It’s just such an easy way to have your risk of serious disease. Unmasking will be the new smoking.
New Deal democrat
@Matt McIrvin: My take is slightly different. What has happened this year is last year’s “let the olds take precautions, and let the virus wash over the rest of us,” with the difference that the “precautions” is vaccination rather than isolation.
You raise a really good discussion point: at what point will people end their special precautions and go back to pre-COVID “normal?” In my case the markers are (1) 70%+ of all adults vaccinated (goal met in my State) and infections less than 5 per 100,000 (goal emphatically *not* met).
Curious if other people have made their own calculations.
Btw, no change in trends today. US deaths declined to 1200, 40% off peak, but still higher than summer 2020 peak. I expect deaths to decline to about 1000 in the next week or so. US infections about flat at 72,000. South the lowest and still in decline (good but exasperating for political messaging reasons); West flat w/w; NE and Midwest in uptrends w/w although in the NE it may be noise from reporting issues.
lowtechcyclist
@Soprano2:
I want the Dems to be the pro-life party. And I’m not talking about fetuses, I’m talking about those of us who are already outside the womb.
I’m yearning for life to get back to normal too. I miss things like going to the movies, or eating at indoor restaurants.
But we’re not on the verge of having this thing beaten. We abandon caution now, and dollars to donuts, there’ll be another big wave of death.
I’m tired of this shit, but the reason we still have this shit to be tired of, is that we declared victory too early this past summer, and we paid the price over the past few months. I don’t want to go through successive rounds of this. I want it to be reduced to background noise for real before we throw caution to the winds.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: It feels to me like, in Massachusetts, there’s a steady state around 10-20 cases/100K/day that gets maintained because any drop below that motivates people to let down their guard. Pre-Delta, the level of vaccination we had was enough to let infections drop way below that without special measures, but it’s not any more. Boosters and kid vaccination might help. But where I am, I’m close to the border of NH where the cultural setpoint seems to be higher, and the virus keeps spilling over the border too.
Fair Economist
That Fluvoxamine study turned out to be pretty shaky. For those who don’t want to dive into the linked dissection, there wasn’t a significant difference in actual hospitalization; fluvoxamine patients who were sent home were just kept under observation less. Also, there wasn’t a difference in death rates between those assigned to fluvoxamine and placebo; fluvoxamine patient just stopped taking their pills before they died. Did I mention fluvoxamine can have significant side effects?
Starfish
@Baud: My son is scheduled in about a week. My friend scheduled her nephew the week after that. The state is hoping to get this age group half vaccinated by February.
Even when we have all of them, we still have not done anything for the under five set.
Starfish
@Soprano2: What you are doing is what I see a lot of Republicans doing. They are whining about “Why can’t everyone live life the way that I want them to? Why can’t the rules be the way that I want them to be?”
If COVID is going to be endemic like it seems to be so far, then health departments would need to keep track. When an area gets above a certain threshold, then mask rules go back into effect. However, no one would be able to agree on the threshold, and some places unmask everyone as soon as there is the slightest whiff of a downward trend. “Oh, fewer people died this week, but the hospitals are still full. Let’s get rid of masking.”
Soprano2
@lowtechcyclist: I’m not asking people to quit being cautious when it’s justified. I’m asking them to quit scolding people who want life to go back to normal with things like “you just want people to die, don’t you” or “don’t you understand we’re going to have to wear face masks forever, what’s wrong with you?”. I think we’re as good of a “pro-life” for Covid party as can be, what with our extremely high vaccination rate and encouraging everyone to get vaccinated. Unfortunately, there are going to be people who won’t get vaccinated, and there’s not really a lot we can do about that. Where I live there are counties where the vaccination rate of those eligible is 25-35%. What are we supposed to do about that?
Cameron
I’m going to continue masking up until at least the end of the year. I don’t trust any Florida official’s pronouncements on Covid.
Soprano2
@Starfish: No, I’m being realistic. I just wish everyone would admit that we’re all tired of this. Who isn’t tired of it? I’m hugely discouraged by the low vaccination rate in my area – I thought it would be a lot better. I thought we’d be at 70% eligible vaccinated by the end of September, and instead we’re at 52%. What many Democrats seem to be saying is that I have to be held hostage to the MAGA’s who are never going to get vaccinated, and I cannot accept that. If we all have to wait until 90% of everyone is vaccinated for normal life to resume, there are many many areas of this country where that could never happen. It’s not realistic.
I know my position isn’t that popular on this blog, and if I said “forever masks” that would be more popular, but that is not going to happen, not anywhere! We have to figure out how to live with Covid in the world, and it cannot be with restrictions in place forever.
This is never going to happen, not even in the most liberal areas of the U.S. The way out is vaccination, so we don’t have to worry that Covid will kill us or put us in the hospital if we get it, but getting to a place where no one gets Covid is unrealistic.
New Deal democrat
@Soprano2:
FWIW, the CDC’s vaccination statistics show that many (about half?) of the “never vaxx” crowd is lying to pollsters. Over 80% of adults have had at least one shot (and we’ll pass 70% of adults fully vaxxed in a day or two).
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: The CDC could be overcounting adults with one shot if some of those are actually second or third shots where the record-keeping fell through the cracks. I suspect some of that is going on. Tracking of boosters seems really haphazard.
grandmaBear
My under 12 grandkids are both getting their first vaxxes on Monday. Yay for the whole household! Dr DIL was dismayed tho at the number of their ‘intelligent and educated’ friends who are holding off or refusing to vax their kids.
YY_Sima Qian
@Fair Economist: Asymptomatic cases also become symptomatic (confirmed) ones, & at significantly higher rates w/ the Delta Variant. If I combine all of them into positive cases for daily incidence, the asymptomatic cases that turn symptomatic will be double counted. I think I will combine the cities in each province that has not added new cases for several days into “rest of the province”.
Suzanne
My feeling is more why should I personally suffer because a bunch of my fellow Americans are stupid, obstinate, antisocial, cowardly pieces of shit?
grandmaBear
@Soprano2: I appreciate your position, and I too am tired of the restrictions. but one thing has changed for me. I used to just accept that even if I got a flu shot, I could expect to get a cold or two, maybe a mild case of the flu, and that was just normal. After this last 18 months I’ve realized that we need not assume that. I wore a mask most of the last couple of weeks because I had a cold (and tested negative). I didn’t want to infect others – I have a few friends through senior centers that are immune-compromised so that seemed prudent. In my knitting group (all vaxxed) I was the only one wearing a mask, but it was because I was still recovering from my cold. As long as numbers are fairly high here, I will wear one when I go into stores, but I have been to restaurants, where once seated apart from others we take off our masks. I don’t know how long I’ll be doing this, but I think wearing a mask when I’m feeling under the weather seems a small thing now. I have a wait and see attitude about this winter. Rural Ohio is not the greatest.
Feathers
@New Deal democrat: So it’s like abortion. People who claim to be “pro-life” have just as many abortions as those who are open about their support for reproductive choice.
I think the Dems should make it clear that the people who aren’t vaccinating are why we can’t get back to normal. Fox, Facebook, and YouTube are why we’re here and we should be honest about that.
Also, all of this is ignoring the immunocompromised and long COVID. We are facing a large group of people who will never be healthy again, and another who won’t be able to fully participate in society. It needs to be clear that they are covered by the ADA and must be accommodated at the expense of the unvaccinated.
Percysowner
I get my booster tomorrow. I’m also getting my flu vaccination. I scheduled for a Friday so if I have any reaction, I will have 2 days to recover.
I live in one of the most vaccinated counties in Ohio and the vaccination dashboard tells me that we haven’t hit 60% vaccinated yet. We’re close, 59.87%, but haven’t broken 60%. Holmes County has a whopping 17% vaccinated, but that’s Amish country and I’m sure that affects the vaccination rate.
My granddaughter who is too young to be vaccinated had a COVID case in her preschool. The teachers are all vaxed, the kids wear masks at all times, even outdoors. It’s still scary for us. So, yes, I’m tired of the pandemic and no, I’m not only interested in how it affects me and I’ll keep on wearing a mask and maintain social distancing until more people get vaccinated. All outings are based around “what are the numbers” and how much is outdoors.
Drkld
@New Deal democrat: I think your numbers are a really good benchmark. I would prefer to see a vax rate at 80% but I don’t think my state will get there. My state is currently at a per capita infection rate similar to early summer and only a bit better than 1 year ago. Mask use has declined significantly and I am concerned about a post-Thanksgiving wave running thru this poorly vaccinated population. I think if we can get below 5/100,000 I might start to think about relaxing but I don’t see how we get to that point at the state level. The fluvoxamine study is a mess and there are a couple of things that really bug me 1) patent pending for at least two of the co-authors and more problematic 2) they have no idea what mechanism would allow this drug to reduce issues with COVID.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I just saw that tweet about Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers and …
… so normally I don’t engage too much in profanity, I don’t know, I just developed my speaking habits that way, but …
… that fuckwit decided that some quack snake oil homeopathy bullshit was as good as the vaccines that scientists around the world have been struggling to perfect and make available …
… and if that weren’t fucking enough, he decided to shit all over the masking and protection protocols …
… and he actually tried to fucking rule-lawyer his way around the NFL’s vaccine rules as though SARS-COV-2 gave a single solitary flying fuck about the legal technicalities …
… and now he’s got COVID and he’s exposed who-the-fuck-knows how many other people because of his stupid-ass Dunning-Kruger bullshit?
And this asshole is still going to get paid and have a job when Colin Kaepernick can’t even get an invite to a training camp for his protests?
Fuck him.
YY_Sima Qian
@PST:
A good example is the South-North Water Transfer Project, building a network of giant aqueducts (w/ pumping stations & tunnels under the Yellow River, though taking advantage of downhill topography, & existing water systems & canals wherever possible) to divert water from the Yangtze River region (which is prone to rain and flooding) to the northern plains (which is prone to drought). It has helped improve the water scarcity issue in the north, sustaining habitability of the metropolises of the northern plains, as well as the viability of heavy industries in those regions. Of course, the more extreme weather patterns associated w/ AGW means more and more severe flooding in the Yangtze River region during rainy seasons, overwhelming the impact of even gigantic engineering projects such as the Three Gorges Dam & the Water Transfer Project.
.
laura
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: What you said. The arrogance, the caucasity, the absolute abandonment of concern for others, the superiority – hot garbage. I hope that he experiences the full fruits of his current condition.
YY_Sima Qian
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I just lost any respect I had for Aaron Rogers.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
no problem reading the post, no different than any other day, I like the detailed info, compared to the simplistic snapshots my Province puts out. For example, if you are a skimmer, you would never realize that once again, Covid is tearing through Extended Care Homes, because that’s not a “headline”, or even a paragraph, just a stat buried in the report that one has to compare to previous stats, buried in previous reports. Luckily, it’s cases, not deaths, unlike Year 1.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Thank heavens for vaccines! I can’t image what the world would look like in face of Delta, w/o vaccines.
J R in WV
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
I have been a fan of Rodgers for a long time, but in this case, you are absolutely correct. Fuck him AND the horse he thinks he’s riding around on. I have a very sweet cousin who is totally into “quack snake oil homeopathy bullshit ” — but who is fully vaccinated, because while she likes the idea of Homeopathy, she isn’t stupid and still remembers the polio vaccination program back when we were both kids. It’s a shame homeopaths are allowed to call themselves Dr of anything.
Fuck Rodgers, tho! What a total asshole… And fuck the whole NFL management structure for their treatment of Kaepernick, who is a better QB than at least half of the current starting QBs playing in the league. Still not even on the sidelines. Racist bastards, all of them.
PaulB
I’d have at least a little more respect for those who want to abandon the life-saving protocols if they would be willing to tell me how many deaths and long-Covid cases a year they are willing to accept.
That there will continue to be hospitalizations, deaths, and long-term damage to a lot of people is inevitable. But at what level is up to us. Are you comfortable with 5,000 deaths a year? 50,000? 500,000? Where are you prepared to draw the line? Based on that line, we can (at least in theory) engineer the mandates and protocols to match.
But simply saying that we need to drop those requirements without being willing to take a stand on the costs of doing so, or even to discuss those costs? That’s a non-starter for me. Have the courage of your convictions.
debbie
WTF is with NPR’s Audie Cornish? She’s constantly challenging Democrats she interviews, rudely cutting them off and using sneering tones in her voice as she asks her questions. I think she’s gone Q. ?
Bill Arnold
@Soprano2:
I am uninterested in socializing indoors without a mask and with others unmasked, until the long-term neural sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection are better understood, and if those sequelae looks benign or not life-long or fully treatable.
If, for instance, every infection with SARS-CoV-2 or a successor variant results in a possibility of death, or (additional) heart damage, kidney damage, pancreas damage, or brain damage(akin to eating lead paint), then it’s N-95 respirators (and maybe a shotgun, or a cultivated crazy hair and eyes look, to discourage people from getting too close :-) while watching the USA sink into a health care nightmare with a general lowering of intelligence and increase in rates of psychosis. (Or whatever.)