If I see one more analysis that says "Voters are turning on Biden b/c they are depressed about COVID" without also stipulating that the current COVID situation is entirely Republicans' fault I am going to light the entire goddamn internet on fire
— Mangy Jay (@magi_jay) November 3, 2021
The bottom line: We’ve secured enough supply for every child in America to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. pic.twitter.com/S35R34wwjw
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 4, 2021
Millions of U.S. workers now have a Jan. 4 deadline to get a COVID vaccine. The federal government announced new vaccine requirements for workers at companies with more than 100 employees.
Here are answers to some key questions. https://t.co/S0c5CASBbj
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 4, 2021
Tougher rules will apply to another 17 million people who work in nursing homes, hospitals and other facilities that receive money from Medicare and Medicaid. Those workers will not have an option for testing and will need to be vaccinated. https://t.co/rT7Ohv0JLS
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 4, 2021
Lots of school based vaccination for 5-11 year olds happening here in the US ????
Often these are after school and any unvaccinated parents can get their shot at the same time
This makes me hopeful
— Prof. Gavin Yamey MD MPH (@GYamey) November 4, 2021
New @WhiteHouse directives expand #COVID19 #vaccine mandates for key workers and employers.
???? pic.twitter.com/taI0k5UuIv
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) November 4, 2021
CDC discourages Americans from traveling to Russia, Belgium, Slovakia & Burkina Faso due to Covid crises in those countries https://t.co/3YpXiand0u
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 4, 2021
======
While people are now able to travel freely in Australia’s more populated east, COVID-19-free Western Australia will maintain its tight restrictions into next year. Australia's largest state by land mass has the nation’s lowest vaccination rates. https://t.co/I3Vd4kphdB
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 5, 2021
⚡️ Russia on Friday confirmed 40,735 Covid-19 infections and 1,192 deaths, both the second highest figures of the pandemic.https://t.co/tV0xFMFuDS
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) November 5, 2021
People who get vaccinated in one Far East district could win a grand prize of three tons of coal valued at 15,000 rubles ($200) https://t.co/hXRf366Ese
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) November 4, 2021
Europe is back at the center of the pandemic, according to the WHO. The World Health Organization says Europe is responsible for nearly three-fifths of the world's recent coronavirus cases https://t.co/6qfJMkZMa0
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 5, 2021
… Europe accounted for 59 percent of the world’s newly reported coronavirus cases last week, and for nearly half the world’s Covid-related deaths, Hans Kluge, the W.H.O.’s director for the 53 countries in its European region, told reporters.
Dr. Kluge said that there were 1.8 million new cases and about 24,000 deaths in the European region in the past week.
“We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence,” Dr. Kluge said. “Europe is back at the epicenter of the pandemic — where we were one year ago.”
The region is reporting an average of more than 30 new cases a day for every 100,000 people, a rate that has almost doubled since mid-September. Eighteen of the 20 countries around the world that are reporting the most new cases per day, relative to their populations, are in Europe or the part of Central Asia that the W.H.O. includes in its European region…
Hospitals are being flooded with Covid patients across the region; in 43 of the 53 countries, hospitals are likely to face high to extreme stress in the next three months, the W.H.O. projected.
Dr. Kluge said the virus was surging because precautions like mask-wearing were relaxed and because too few people have been vaccinated.
Eight countries in the region have vaccinated more than 70 percent of their populations, but two have managed to immunize less than 10 percent, he said. Hospital admission rates were high, he said, in the countries where vaccination rates were low…
Doctors in Bosnia are bracing for a new wave of the coronavirus in the Balkan nation, which has a low vaccination rate and has been among the hardest hit countries in Europe earlier in the pandemic. https://t.co/3jczSgTUqF
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 5, 2021
#DeltaVariant: Facing a surge in cases, Latvia makes it legal to fire unvaccinated workers. Officials in the Baltic country also declared a 3-month state of emergency starting Nov. 8 as new coronavirus cases soar to levels not seen there before https://t.co/FgawIAYUqU
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 5, 2021
======
Oxford scientists find the gene that doubles risk of dying from Covid-19.
'About 60% of people of South Asian ancestry have the gene' ??
https://t.co/J4Q1EBQUj5— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) November 4, 2021
High-risk Covid gene more common in South Asians https://t.co/EVDpO2k5KR
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 4, 2021
Possible explanation for cerebral Covid & cerebral #LongCovid: New study reveals SARSCoV2-infected brain endothelial cells undergo apoptosis—programmed cell death—due to a series of molecular events that are possibly at the root of cerebral Covid & #LongCovid symptoms ↓ https://t.co/JQCtiquNZk
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 4, 2021
Novavax completes process for WHO emergency use approval of COVID-19 vaccine https://t.co/3wwjxaO9d2 pic.twitter.com/WbtVpRvH31
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 5, 2021
Growing pains: Moderna sales take a hit as the maker of one of the three COVID-19 vaccines used in the United States struggles to ramp up production. @thpmurphy explains https://t.co/coB1gzphrg
— AP Business News (@APBusiness) November 4, 2021
NEW:
Why are home COVID tests so damn $$ and hard to find?@lydiadepillis & I made some calls
Company after company told us they’d tried to get tests approved but *gave up after inexplicable FDA delays*
One FDA scientist told he quit in frustrationhttps://t.co/IE0GFxS73S pic.twitter.com/sr4jNOnijT
— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) November 4, 2021
We asked the gov alllll about why at-home COVID are so damn expensive and hard to find
FDA officials graciously spent a lot of time talking us through it. Their POV:
1. The review process is appropriately conservative.
2. You want more tests? The WH should buy 'em. pic.twitter.com/ACwFzy69Mw
— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) November 4, 2021
U.S. federal government cuts ties w/ troubled vaccine maker in Baltimore. Emergent BioSolutions ruined millions of Covid vaccines. Now its $600 million deal is canceled https://t.co/zpveD0T6cu
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 5, 2021
======
In the last 20 months, covid-19 has killed three-quarters-of-a-million people in the U.S., meaning an estimated 6.7 million Americans are grieving the death of a grandparent, parent, spouse or child because of the coronavirus, according to researchers. https://t.co/l8WMYsgk6u
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 4, 2021
New York City kids can get $100 for Covid shots at school. Once kids get their 1st dose, families receive an email w/ instructions on how to select a pre-paid $100 debit card. Other incentives include tickets to sports events https://t.co/WamWk5L3YW
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 5, 2021
Western Michigan:
The virus doesn’t care if we are “over the pandemic.” If you’re unvaccinated, it’s gonna get you. I had more COVID patients today than in any other day, and our hospital has the highest number yet. This is so completely not over. In the end you’ll either be vaxxed or get COVID.
— Dr. Rob Davidson (@DrRobDavidson) November 5, 2021
After the initial wave of COVID both were low in cases & deaths per capita. Delta hit Repub areas hardest. [And it was Repub areas that shifted the most Tues]
Dems value community & staying alive over selfishness & death. Repub values are the opposite, & they resent Dems for it https://t.co/aEMgLe55PF
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 4, 2021
Nine-year-old Makenna had to go to hospital after everyone in her family contracted Covid https://t.co/GkaZqFIAlo pic.twitter.com/E56gJksJbu
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 3, 2021
there are multiple reasons why school districts are doing this. sub shortages being a huge one. they probably won’t have enough staff for that friday. giving parents a chance to vaccinate their kids being another. as always, things are more complicated than they look. https://t.co/N9K7Q8MrDR
— World Famous Art Thief (@CalmSporting) November 5, 2021
Talk about "pick your poison": https://t.co/HS6qgoboAZ
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) November 4, 2021
On The Road – Wag – Chicago Basin 5/5 – Critters of the Chicago Basin
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
The Monroe County website says 337 new cases yesterday;
NYSDOH says 366 new cases yesterday. Yep, 2020 all over again.
Ten Bears
Let’s dispel this myth … but first the good news: while departing MGH after my first (this) post-op visit with the spousal-unit ~ she’s gonna’ be fine, everything will be fine ~ I noted a line-up out one of the side-doors marquee’d “vaccination clinic” and I asked the young man at the door “this looks like someplace I could get a covid-booster, aeh?” That’s just what it was, fifteen minutes later I was boosted and out the door. Because …
I keep hearing on the radio, in the blogs and one or two of the other sources I peruse that you can just walk in to your neighborhood CVS and get the booster, and that’s just not so. Walk in to my neighborhood CVS and just ask about the booster and you’ll be told to go on the website and make an appointment ~ generally two weeks out and fifty miles away. No, you can’t just walk in to your neighborhood CVS and get the booster
Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining …
YY_Sima Qian
On 11/4 China reported 68 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic) & 22 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases. 10 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 155 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. 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 41 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the region.
Gansu Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases (3 mild & 2 moderate). 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 130 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Hebei Province reported 10 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 67 active confirmed cases in the province.
At Hunan Province there currently are 4 active domestic confirmed (at Changsha) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Zhuzhou) cases remaining in the province.
Zunyi in Guizhou Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (moderate), a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine since 10/20. The case’s spouse had tested positive on 10/25 & been diagnosed as an asymptomatic case, later turned symptomatic. There currently are 8 active domestic confirmed (1 mild, 3 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 did not report any new domestic positive cases. 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 2 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Chongqing Municipality reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, both traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 11/2. There currently are 5 active domestic confirmed & 4 active do mestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 2 residential compounds & 1 office building are currently at Medium Risk.
Changzhou in Jiangsu Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 3 residential are currently at Medium Risk.
Qinghai Province did not report any new domestic positive 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 28 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 217 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Jiangxi Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed (both mild) & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed & 17 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Zhejiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Henan Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic) & 9 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 13 active domestic confirmed & 11 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Dalian in Liaoning Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed & 8 new domestic asymptomatic cases. The index confirmed case is a cold chain logistics worker, while the other are traced close contacts. This cluster could be a separate introduction from the ones that spread from Ejina Banner in Inner Mongolia & Heihe in Heilongjiang.
Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (at Ruili, via screening of persons in restricted movement zone). 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 8 active domestic confirmed & 27 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture. 1 zone at Ruili is currently at Medium Risk.
Imported Cases
On 11/4, China reported 10 new imported confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 20 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:
Overall in China, 29 confirmed cases recovered, 17 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (14 imported) & 5 were reclassified as confirmed cases (1 imported), & 1,990 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,129 active confirmed cases in the country (373 imported), 37 in serious condition (2 imported), 426 active asymptomatic cases (348 imported), 4 suspect cases (all imported). 45,386 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 11/4, 2,302,679M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 8.859M doses in the past 24 hrs.
Hong Kong has not yet published report for 11/5.
debbie
@Ten Bears:
My CVS was walk-in until too many walked in. Appointments control chaos and reduce overcrowding.
NotMax
Locally,
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 4,922 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, tfor a cumulative reported total of 2,497,265 cases. It also reports 64 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 29,155 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.
529 confirmed cases are in ICU, 214 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 5,579 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,401,823 patients recovered – 96.2% of the cumulative reported total.
Three new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,796 clusters. 355 clusters are currently active; 5,441 clusters are now inactive.
4,912 new cases today are local infections. 10 new cases today are imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 41,391 doses of vaccine on 4th November: 2,864 first doses, 18,162 second doses, and 20,365 booster doses. As of midnight yesterday, the cumulative total is 50,462,307 doses administered: 25,516,476 first doses, 24,625,458 second doses, and 492,054 booster doses. 78.1% of the population have received their first dose, while 75.4% are now fully vaccinated.
Low Key Swagger
Thought I just heard Pfizer has the vaccine in pill form? 85% effective? That’s HUGE.
Edit: Not vaccine, treatment. But still.
NotMax
@debbie
While still scheduling appointments, many Costcos are now also accepting walk-ins.
Baud
@Low Key Swagger:
Treatment is even better.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Greece: still at record levels. 6784 new cases reported November 4. Vaccine/negative test mandates for entry into businesses starts tomorrow.
Oh, and the Greek Orthodox Church has now declared that it does not recognize the existence of religious exemptions from any vaccine, including COVID. According to the Archbishop of America, Orthodox clergy are now prohibited from issuing any exemption letters, and any letters that have already been issued are invalid. (Source: eKathimerini)
(This marks a profound change from reports I saw a year and a half ago, when some clergymen were claiming that it was wrong to impose lockdown restrictions on communion services because the Host, being holy, was inherently pure and thus protected from the virus.)
Betty Cracker
I concur with Mangy Jay’s lead-off tweet in the OP, and I’d also like to expand on her point by saying this: it really should be an endless juggernaut of a scandal — complete with howling, nonstop media coverage — that Republicans chose to politicize a massive public health crisis, causing at least tens of thousands and possibly even hundreds of thousands of needless deaths.
It’s a marker of how low we’ve sunk as a society that this remarkable fact is only occasionally and obliquely hinted at in MSM coverage. We’ve basically just moved on as a country, accepting this atrocity as normal politics. I don’t mean us HERE of course, but as a society, we have apparently moved on. It’s appalling.
Baud
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
It’s true. When in the past have Christians died of contagious diseases?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
We (society) have apparently moved on to blaming Democrats. The outrage at antivaxxers lasted about 10 seconds.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ten Bears: No, you can’t walk into a CVS and get a booster, just because they don’t like you. ;-)
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
I think it’s being said, but not in plain everyday English. I’ve heard NPR refer to The Big Lie as “imaginary.” Not helping, NPR.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
How are you feeling?
NotMax
@Baud
Fake pews.
//
satby
@Betty Cracker: Quoted you on FB, because truth.
Chief Oshkosh
@Ten Bears: I guess YMMV? Ten days ago I literally just walked into my local CVS and got my booster. Just walked in. Yes, they prefer to do it by appointment, but they didn’t balk at all. They just explained that I’d be standing in a loose line, and that the nurse vaccinated anyone who had an appointment first, then would get to me. That was fine by me.
I was in line for less than 15 mins. If it weren’t for the requested 15 min wait-after-shot period, the entire process would’ve taken 20 mins.
ant
I got my booster shot at walgreens (WI) yesterday. Got the appointment online, and wasn’t very hard to find one fairly close to where I live.
Also got flu shot, which was the 1st time in my life.
The Covid test kit that was on the shelf there was $125. sheesh.
I am quite thankful that I can get these shots.
New Deal democrat
US deaths continue to decline, now just above 1100/day. I expect a further decline in the next week or so to 900-1000/day before deaths level off (these would have been “good” numbers before the vaccines – sigh).
More confirmation in the numbers today that the winter wave has begun. Northeast and Midwest regions show increases; only the South shows a continued decline. Not a single State in the NE is declining, and only 2 in the Midwest – KS and ND – show declines. All of the States in the Mountain West – now including AZ and NV – now show increases.
I haven’t read any good forecasts from experts about the near future. What is really interesting is that *all* of the Deep South, where public health measures are non-existent to campaigned against, continue to show declines, and are now – except for island jurisdictions – the lowest of all States. While this grates politically, because it will lead to totally undeserved crowing by some loathsome actors, it is very interesting epidemiologically. Because it means that Delta really did burn through all of the available dry tinder, creating at least some short term protection for the uninflected. To continue with the forest fire analogy, It set a viral backfire, if you will.
The bottom line is, the situation in the South leads me to believe that what is happening now is a slower burn (due to more protective public health measures and/or practices) through the available dry tinder in the colder regions; and that the winter wave will be less awful than either Last winter’s or this summer’s Delta.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Like shit. The surgery went fine, if one wants to say’ “Things were worse than we thought they were, but we think we fixed it all.” Everything after… went to hell in a hand basket.
lowtechcyclist
@Ten Bears: Since I got my initial two shots at a nearby CVS, they texted me to let me know I was eligible for a booster, and clicking the link in the text took me straight to an appointment scheduling app. Gave me a choice of locations and times (including within a day or two at both of the nearest CVS locations) and vaccines (Pfizer or Moderna), and set me up to get my flu vax at the same time.
So that’s what I’ll be doing Monday after lunch.
Chief Oshkosh
@Betty Cracker: Thanks for the reminder. It’s possibly the most egregious example of ingrained bothsiderism. No matter what they do, the press will normalize Republican bad behavior, and forget about it as quickly as possible.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: It’s kind of hard to maintain optimism in this environment. If Republicans can get away with deliberately enacting a political strategy that results in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans and suffer electoral consequences that are less onerous than those meted out to Jimmy Carter’s party after he appeared on TV wearing a sweater and asked Americans to conserve energy, what is the fucking point?
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sorry to read this, but hope the hand basket makes a u-turn ASAP.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Right. If it weren’t for the innocent victims, I’d totally advise the Dems to go Galt and let the apathetic and swing voters fend for themselves against the GOP.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Sorry to hear that OH. Hope things improve for you soon.
PAM Dirac
@Low Key Swagger:
The article I read was short on details, but it seems that, like the Emory/Merck drug, the trial was ended early because the positive effect was much larger than anticipated so the positive effect could be confirmed with fewer subjects. It is always good news when a trial is ended early for efficacy.
Cermet
@New Deal democrat: Maryland is in decline and while technically part of the “South”, it is also included in the “North East”. Or did you mean New England
Aside: yes, it is usually just referenced as Mid-Atlantic but it is in all three regions.
OzarkHillbilly
How a vaccine-skeptical sheriff became a vocal proponent
The sheriff of Macon county, Alabama, thought he was too strong and healthy to worry. Then he got Covid
Funny how getting “hit by a bus” can change one’s POV.
Balconesfault
@New Deal democrat: “What is really interesting is that *all* of the Deep South, where public health measures are non-existent to campaigned against, continue to show declines,”
Follow the weather.
Finally got cool enough for people to turn off ACs … but this month it will be cold enough to close windows and turn on heaters.
For the unvaccinated populations, recycled air is the culprit.
Auntie Anne
My sister and I got our Moderna boosters yesterday at Walgreens. I made appointments online (running about a week out) and could get two only an hour apart. We both showed up for the earlier appointment and were taken immediately. Whole thing was an hour start to finish.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Well put.
But I have to stay optimistic for my mental health.
MattF
@PAM Dirac: More on the Pfizer pill.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
Dems can’t expect the media to fight their battles for them. And while I hear the occasional mention of this from Dem politicians, I don’t see any substantial push to put a label on Republicans over this. (They’re welcome to use my ‘Covid traitors’ but it’s gotta be something short that makes the point and sticks in the brain.)
The Republicans are far better at doing this to Dems over imaginary shit (CRT, anyone?) than the Dems are at doing it to the GOPers over the very real evils they’ve embraced. I’m not a big fan of the Lincoln Project, but I can understand why people had hopes for them and gave them money.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Jimmy Carter did not lose because he appeared in a sweater. He lost because the economy was not good. Same reason George H. W. Bush lost. James Carville may be an ass, but he had something when he put that sign up at Clinton’s campaign headquarters, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Factors such as gerrymandering, election subversion will work against Democrats next year. Culture war issues may work against us, but only if we let them. What will work for Democrats is the economy. That is, if it is strong and we make it a primary issue.
New Deal democrat
@Cermet: I am using 91-Divoc, which in turn divides by Census regions. DE and MD are in the South Census region.
i agree that MD is still declining as of today’s data.
The Thin Black Duke
@Betty Cracker: The news isn’t reality. The folks in the real world know what’s going on.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I think it’s more like this with general public;
Joe Citizen “Those damn anti vaccers! Biden should punish those people!”
Joe Citizen’s Employer “You need to be vaccinated or you will be fired”
Joe Citizen “This is an outrage. I mean those anti vaccers, the bad ones!”
PST
@Ten Bears: There has been little consistency from place to place and time to time. I did, in fact, walk into my local CVS and get a booster. Other people I know have walked into the same CVS and been told that they needed an appointment but were able to get one quickly. My wife was told she needed an appointment but walked into a different CVS instead and got her booster. All just in Chicago. Other places are no doubt all over the lot as well.
Betty
@OzarkHillbilly: My sister had the same experience with her shoulder surgery. The MRI didn’t show the extent of the damage. Very painful and she can’t tolerate most pain medications. So sending you lots of sympathy. Hope things start to look up!
New Deal democrat
@Balconesfault: “Follow the weather.”
I agree, and for exactly the reasons you cite.
Except that the Deep South’s numbers are *still* declining as of today. I don’t think they started going outdoors just two weeks ago.
Balconesfault
I like OSHA adding a month to the timeline.
National Review is mocking them for doing this when they’re calling it an emergency … but until it’s enforceable it can’t be challenged in court, some (R) judges can’t file injunctions, so certain parts of the country won’t have employees telling their bosses they legally don’t HAVE to get the shot.
Now that the rule is published, companies will roll out their formalized plans/schedules to pressure employees to get vaccinated. An extra month to this window before the inevitable wingnut injunctions come is a positive.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@New Deal democrat: one can get the anti bodies by a vaccine or one can get the anti bodies by getting sick. A lot people were sick in the South over the five months.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
That the Iran hostage crisis was on TV literally every night with a “day XXX of the hostage crisis” label didn’t exactly help either. When the apparent impotence of the President is on TV every night for over a year, people start looking for a replacement.
(Then a decade later, in the run-up to the Gulf War, there were a few thousand Americans in Iraq, that Saddam rounded up and held captive for months. And it was barely a footnote in the media. They’ve been wired for Republicans for an awfully long time.)
Betty Cracker
@The Thin Black Duke: Media coverage has a role in shaping people’s perceptions of reality, so the way they spin it matters, but I realize it’s pointless to whine about it. Just venting is all. I’ll STFU now.
MattF
@New Deal democrat: Note, fwiw, that there appears to be a specific gene whose prevalence varies in different populations, that makes lungs much more vulnerable to COVID. I predict that various other observed COVID effects are similar.
Scout211
Not this is news to anyone, but like the red states in the US, the red counties in California are not doing that well.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Geminid: There is more “it’s the economy” than just elections; San Fransisco had an out break of the Bubonic Plague little over a hundred years ago and the exact same shit was going on; racism, politics and the Free Market Baby Jesus and impatience all screwed up the response. It got to a point it the epidemic was hurting to many business so the businesses stepped in and funded the rat abatement program that stopped it. We are seeing the same thing, business are the once forcing their employees to vaccinate or be fired so the business can function normally.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sorry you feel terrible. Surgery recovery can be like that. First shoulder replacement, after I was discharged with a handful of prescriptions, was mid February, very wintery, went by Kroger’s pharmacy, they did not have the pain meds prescribed. Wife took me on home, went back to town, somehow came back with needed material.
And of course because of the “opioid crisis” you can not receive that part of a prescription that they do have on hand, and come back later for the remainder. How that policy is supposed to help the addiction problem is beyond me totally.
I do not recall the purpose of your procedure, what’s going on, in general?
Hope you get better quickly !! Take care, keep in touch!
Getting old sucks, but for the alternatives…
Balconesfault
@Geminid: “What will work for Democrats is the economy. That is, if it is strong and we make it a primary issue.”
Which is of course why Republicans have decided to make it about “inflation” … and from what I can tell the “liberal media” (eg MSNBC) has only been too happy to follow along, rarely noting that the Trump recession depressed prices and what we’re seeing is partially supply chain … but a lot of recovery as well.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Scout211: Speaking of that. I live in Alameda county and the Health Department has this amazing COVID website breaking the pandemic down by area codes. It went from a pandemic among the poor minorities – South Oakland to a pandemic among the rich whites – Berkley hills and Pleasenton.
Another Scott
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Just in time to get infected again!
Yale.edu (from October 1):
There’s every reason to expect further waves until 70+% of the population is vaccinated. That hasn’t changed.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
@debbie: Yeah, my local CVS has been flipping between accepting walk-ins and requiring appointments even for flu shots. It depends on demand. Sometimes the sign-up website will have an option for “I’m at the store now”, sometimes it won’t.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Balconesfault: Yep. Plus, those big holiday gatherings are coming up. We will see a blend of the people who were lucky in earlier waves finally getting it, plus the reinfections. COVID isn’t finished with the South.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Also, as we saw with Obama, when whites feel more economically secure, they feel more comfortable pushing social or cultural issues.
Soprano2
@ant: Wow, I see them in WalMart here for around $25.
Kalakal
@Ten Bears: YMMV. Here in Pinellas, Florida a friend’s husband, who is extremely immunocompromised was put through every hoop by Publix about a month ago while trying to get a booster. 2 weeks ago I booked for the next day at the nearest Walgreens, every slot was available, and there was zero checking
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: I think the Iran hostage crisis gets over-blamed for bringing down Carter. His popularity was in the toilet before it happened. When it started, he got a crisis spike that briefly brought his approval up over 50%–kind of like GWB and 9/11, only not as big and starting from a lower base. But when it became clear Carter couldn’t resolve the situation, it crashed down again.
Ken
I feel that there are layers of economic facts there, but more suited to a Machin and/or Putin post.
Kalakal
@OzarkHillbilly: Hope that it’s better from now on
Soprano2
And the Iranian hostage situation. People on the nightly news were doing a countdown every night of how many days it had been since the hostage crisis started, and not being able to get them back made Carter seem weak and ineffectual to many people. (I read the book Mark Bowden wrote about it. The rescue mission Carter launched was hugely risky, and had less than a 5% chance of success. That they did this tells you how difficult the situation was. People don’t understand how ballsy it was of Carter to even try it.) I don’t know how old you are, but that issue was HUGE in 1980. I was dating an Iranian college student at that time too, it was an interesting experience to say the least. Opened the eyes of this small-town girl a lot.
Matt McIrvin
Concerning presidential politics, I think we should remember that Biden has been in office for less than a year and Obama, Clinton and Reagan all looked like goners at this point in their first terms. Of course, in 1994 and 2010 we got socked with Republican election waves that had far-reaching effects, because of Republicans’ skill at locking in antidemocratic power once they take legislatures, and I think the chance of that happening again is high. But all three were popular enough to get reelected by the 3.5-year mark and for two of them it was a romp.
One interesting question, I suppose, is whether Republicans manage to lock in enough antidemocratic power in a 2022 wave that they can simply reverse Biden’s reelection and get away with it.
Steeplejack
Just scheduled my Pfizer booster and a flu shot at noon on Monday at a nearby CVS. I have Medicare through Kaiser Permanente, but for some reason they don’t have Pfizer appointments available at my nearest Kaiser facility. CVS is fine, and I might treat myself afterwards to lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse or my local pub. Motivation/reward!
delk
I’m getting my booster in about an hour. I’m grateful that I only have to walk four blocks (and right across the street from an amazing French bakery!) to get the shot. The first two were an half an hour away by car.
Soprano2
@Matt McIrvin: It’s true that he might have lost without it, because the economy was legitimately bad at that time; after Reagan was elected, the Fed made it even worse when they squeezed everything to get rid of inflation. It took a long time to do that too, my first used car loan in 1983 had an interest rate of 16%, and that was seen as normal.
MattF
Re: Getting your vaccination records from CVS. There’s a separate signin for that. You need a CVS account, and once you’ve signed in, go to the ‘details’ link.
smith
For those looking for home covid tests: CVS has BinaxNOW available for online order, a 2-test pack at $23.99. You can get free shipping if total order is over $35.
Feathers
One thing to remember about walk in booster availability is that the shots come in a package of multiple shots and all the shots in a package have a deadline of hours from when it is opened. I’m guessing a lot of the variation is do they have extra shots that will go bad or are they all spoken for.
smith
Regarding the media’s penchant for declaring presidencies (especially Democratic presidencies) doomed from the start, Dave Barry picked up on this way back in 1992. He started joking about Clinton’s “failed presidency” days after the election, and it was his running joke for about a year.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Sure, there were factors other than the economy that did Carter in. Ted Kennedy’s primary challenge certainly didn’t help, and neither John Anderson’s independent run. But I would contend that if Carter had the economy in 1980 that Bill Clinton had in 1996, he still would have won, albeit more narrowly than Clinton did.
I am pointing this out because all the doomsters who say that next year we are destined for a repeat of 2010 leave out the factor of how bad the economy was then,* and how good the economy can be next year. But I will modify my assertion that Democrats should make the economy a primary issue. They should make it the primary issue. Pre-K? An investment in our human capital. Clean energy? A pathway to greater prosperity. I think Joe Biden and his team understand this.
*And saying that voters should have known the bad economy was the fault of Republicans is beside the point.
Geminid
@Soprano2: The Fed started squeezing when Carter appointed inflation hawk Paul Volcker as Fed Chairman. I saw this the winter of 1979-80, when the contractor I worked for laid off over half its carpenters.
A savvier politician might not have picked such an zealous man to head the Fed. But Carter was a good engineer, not so good a politician.
Another Scott
@Geminid: Not too many politicians “kicked Kennedy’s ass”. Nixon didn’t.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
Why are they waiting 2 months with an early January deadline? That makes no sense to me.
Chetan Murthy
@Ten Bears: It’s been reported here before that CVS kind of sucks at the whole “web app for scheduling a vaxx shot”. I got mine thru Walgreen’s, right down the block. Others i know did the same. I just rechecked, and there is still ample supply of appointments for a shot today (5 Nov) at a number of pharmacies in the area.
This is SF, so it’s possible that what you’re seeing is “state incapacity”, but since you mention MGH, I doubt that that’s the explanation. I’d guess that looking for an appt from somebody besides CVS might be helpful.
Fair Economist
@Betty Cracker: Torally NOT pointless to whine. Part of bothsiderism is that the media is so scared of right-wing whining. If there are enough of us, we may get an honest media channel as well.
Matt McIrvin
@smith: I discovered that a while back, ordered three 2-packs and, surprisingly, it only took a few days for them to arrive. We used a couple of them when my daughter came down with a mild cold; I should order more since I want to use them as an extra precaution when we visit my parents for Thanksgiving.
Balconesfault
Matt McIrvin
@Fair Economist: Overt bigotry of many types became taboo in mainstream media because people complained about it–that’s the “political correctness”/”SJWs”/”cancel culture” that cheeses off the right so much, it’s our side using its “whining” power for its own aims. Tom Wolfe bitched about it as “mau-mauing.” The right got good at it but they’re not the only ones who can do it. It’s just that we don’t deploy it everywhere we could.
Chetan Murthy
@Low Key Swagger: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/05/pfizer-covid-pills-highly-effective-at-preventing-deaths-trial-suggests
Good news! So now there’ll be two such pills. I remain convinced that the pandemic won’t really be over, until we can get access to these fast-acting oral antivirals in addition to the vaccine. So that we can treat breakthrough cases fast. Intranasal vaccines will be great too, but an antiviral will still be the last resort. I just hope people don’t stupidly overuse it and spark resistance in the bug.
MattF
@Chetan Murthy: My CVS experience(s) have been generally positive. Appointments were made and confirmed with no errors. Compared (for example) with the awful MD state vaxx scheduling web site, it all worked very nicely.
Chetan Murthy
I went to Whole Foods yesterday for the first time since early July. The place wasn’t *packed*, but lines were halfway down down aisles. No distancing stickers on the floors (they pulled ’em up); at least one other customer was audibly troubled by this, said something about “I guess they think the pandemic is over (eyeroll)”. And everybody was wearing masks.
J R in WV
@PST:
We actually got our third Moderna shot (a full dose rather than the currently administered smaller dose) at the next county over’s Health Dept. They had considerable doses of all three vaccines that were close to expiration, and decided that in arms was better than in a medical waste incinerator. End of August. No side effects, were in and out in about 25 minutes, no appt necessary.
I heard from a neighbor who works there that they caught some static for administering those vaccines before the FDA/CDC approved third booster shots, but we were really glad and relieved to have received them, as well as glad that they were a full dose.
J R in WV
@Soprano2:
Now you would be dating a Persian… when we last visited NYC back in the before plague days we met lots of Persians, not a single Iranian. Interesting, no?
They were all outgoing, friendly, happy folks we enjoyed being with. We also tipped big…
Marmot
@Betty Cracker: With respect, it’s not pointless to complain about the news media—in fact, amp it the fuck up!
News media are wired for Repubs because the right has been working the refs forever. I feel that we’ve only just started to make headway through Twitter, where all reporters and so forth constantly hang out.
If news mediapersons marinate in an overall sentiment that they’re fucking up, it will become accepted by some of em, while others will do a little bit extra to ensure they aren’t accused. With emphasis on the mid level editors.
It works: Doctors who marinate in pharma trinkets—wall calendars, informational posters, pens, kids’ toys, etc.—they don’t think they prescribe more of these companies’ drugs. They’re often incensed by the idea. But they absolutely do it. Otherwise pharma wouldn’t bother.
Matt McIrvin
@Marmot:
And don’t back down and get defensive when you get knocked as PC or cancel-culturing or whatever.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid:
The 1970s high inflation was a genuinely terrible problem–the outstanding economic problem of the age, really, and it had been hitting people hard since the late Nixon administration. There are legit reasons that people of a certain age are still a bit traumatized by it.
Carter arguably fixed it but in such a way that it was Reagan who reaped the political benefit, and then only in the 1984 election cycle.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@smith: I found out those are available at pharmacies in Greece as well, at €4.50 a pop. I got four when my brother had a health scare last week; turned out he just had a cold, but we all did the tests just to be sure. It’s also good to know how to do the self-tests, so you’re not learning on the fly under pressure, but I suppose it depends on how much you’re willing to shell out for a trial run.
Matt McIrvin
@Chetan Murthy:
I’ve been wondering about those intranasals–there’s been speculation that they’d be better at controlling viral transmission than injected vaccines. Maybe the ideal course would involve both types?
The other advantage of them, of course, is that, psychologically, people are much less likely to be freaked out about a nasal spray than an injection. I’ve wondered if a large part of the reason there was less mass resistance to polio vaccination was just that the most common form of polio vaccine in the 1950s-60s-70s wasn’t a shot.
The Moar You Know
@Betty Cracker: Me and a Republican in the office:
Rep: Dems started this. They said “don’t take the Trump vaccine, he’s just trying to get re-elected”
Me: find me one example of any Dem in public office anywhere that said that.
Rep: They did! The squad said it! Pelosi said it! Everyone was saying it!
Me: Great. Find me one example!
Rep: They all did it!
Me: you can’t find anything, can you?
Rep: They did it! Don’t lie to me about this! I saw it on the internet everywhere!
Me: Just one video clip. I’m sure you can find that easily!
Rep: I’m really busy.
The Moar You Know
@Matt McIrvin: it makes no difference. All of the immune system gets blood flow.
If it did make a difference, they’d give you the shot in the nose.
Intranasal is great for that not-insubstantial cohort that has needle phobia, but it’s never going to be as reliable as an injection.
Matt McIrvin
@The Moar You Know: What they’ve got is Kamala Harris saying something like “if it’s the FDA and CDC and Anthony Fauci telling me to get vaccinated, I’ll get vaccinated. If it’s Donald Trump, I’m not getting the vaccine.”
Which is a position no sane person could argue with. She maybe could have made the qualification clearer by saying “if it’s JUST Donald Trump.”
But at the time, it sparked a wave of “Democrats are antivaxxers now” complaints.
Matt McIrvin
@The Moar You Know: The people studying this seem to draw a distinction between systemic immunity and intranasal mucosal immunity:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2785303
Systemic immunity will keep you from dying (and the existing vaccines are very good at inducing it), intranasal mucosal immunity keeps the virus from getting a toehold in the first place. The intranasal vaccines aren’t mRNA vaccines; they tend to use some kind of viral vector.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: I think Reagun also reaped the benefit of Carter’s derrmegulation initiatives. And Reagun used them to tilt the table against labor. My friend Chris was a top-notch furniture mover, and had achieved a steady middle class income by 1978. That was not easy for a Black man in Virginia with only a high school education. But deregulation started a race to the bottom in that industry, and he had to scrap for living afterwards. Chris was a strong Democrat, but he kept a grudge against Carter because of this.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: Yes, some of the Reagan era’s worst qualities actually began under Carter–the wave of corporate deregulation and reinvigorated Cold Warring (though the latter was as much or more the USSR’s fault). Carter was a conservative Democrat, comparatively speaking.
Marmot
@The Moar You Know: They don’t care whether their claims are true—they promote the party line anyway. This is what scares me about them.
It’s so important to insist on evidence like you did —it forces them to retreat and scuttle under another rock. Follow it up next time by noting this Repub’s credibility really dropped in your eyes—so disappointing!—when this Repub dismissed evidence last time.
*Any* claim. “Sorry—Sigh—I’ll need to look that up before we can continue.”
I wish we all had the time to keep at it
Sloane Ranger
Thursday in the UK we had 37,269 new cases. The rolling 7-day average is down 6.9%. New cases by home nation,
England – 30,166 (down 4151)
Northern Ireland – 1481 (up 486)
Scotland – 2823 (down 672)
Wales – 2799 (up 407).
Deaths – There were 214 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. The rolling 7-day average is up by 12.3%. 152 deaths were in England, 12 in Northern Ireland, 33 in Scotland and 17 in Wales.
Testing – 1,020,990 tests took place on Wednesday, 3 November. This is an increase of 3.3% in the rolling 7-day average, probably due to the kids returning to school after half-term in England. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on this date was 879,753.
Hospitalisations – As of Wednesday, 3rd, 9311 people were in hospital and 1019 people were on ventilators. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions was up by 2.9% as of 31 October.
Vaccinations – As of Wednesday, 3rd, 50,112,925 people had had 1 shot of a vaccine, 45,770,452 had had 2 and 9,012,676 had had a 3rd/booster shot. In percentage terms this means that, 87.1% of all UK residents aged 12+ had had 1 shot, 79.6% had had 2 and 15.7% had had a 3rd/booster shot as of that date.
VOR
@Ten Bears: My clinic contacted me via email to say “hey, we’re doing boosters, please sign up.” I got an appointment for my Moderna booster 3 weeks out.
Bill Arnold
@New Deal democrat:
If R is just slightly less than 1, the decline in new cases can be very slow. If people are spending say 25 percent more of their socializing(/work) time outside (which is close to 100 percent protection), this could knock down R significantly, and combined with antibodies from vaccination and rampant actual infection (with some overlap) it appears to have been enough to put R below 1.
FWIW New cases for my county in NYS (Orange, pop 400000) have been flat (well, moving average flat) for the past 3 months, and maybe declining a bit for the last month. NYS has a few good tracker pages now; this one is my go-to:
https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/positive-tests-over-time-region-and-county
Bill Arnold
@Betty Cracker:
The point is to ignore their apparent talent for deflecting justified serious criticism, and call them out for selfishly committing deliberate mass homicide for potential political gain.
Sometimes there is accountability,e.g. tobacco companies took some real blame for deliberately causing megadeaths for profit; it’s hard work to convince the polity of statistics-based truths, but it must be attempted.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: For the Deep South I’m pretty sure immunity from prior infection is key–they got slammed so hard in the late summer, enough of the population has those antibodies now even in low-vax areas that the infection rate drops.
Here, I think we’re suffering from spillover from southern New Hampshire, where vax rates are a little lower and their outbreak still seems to be on the upswing (hard to tell because of their recent reporting interruptions).
VeniceRiley
Ars Technica has the best writeup on the new Pfizer Pfill
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/11/pfizer-says-its-antiviral-pill-can-cut-89-of-covid-hospitalizations-and-deaths/
Peale
@The Moar You Know: Ah, so the reason the GOP isn’t taking the Trump vaccine is because for once they are all listening intently to Nancy Pelosi. Got it.
RaflW
FWIW if folks are in the midwest, I’ve found HyVee to be pretty good for availability. While waiting for my boost this morning (mix-n-matching, and only HyVee in my area makes that easy) I did hear the pharmacy tech say to a couple of people that they had to go online. It is too bad that walkups aren’t more readily available, since I do think that would get some foot-draggers. Make it as easy as possible!
But their web site isn’t bad, and I had a choice if many days and times when I booked the other day. I just waited till today so that if I’m a little out of it on day two (I was after my second shot) it’s a Saturday.