Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Fuck that bum, let’s go Joe!

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Alternative history is always a weak argument. Always.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Consistently wrong since 2002

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

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday / Thursday, Nov. 10-11

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Anybody paying attention already suspected something like this would happen — we knew mink, ferrets, many primates, and a bunch of wild felines, as well as cats & dogs, were susceptible. But white-tailed deer are an ubiquitous suburban pest presence, and if they’re a ‘reservoir species’ for the virus, even the vague hope of ‘eliminating the pandemic’ becomes that much less possible. (H/t commentor frosty):

…[V]eterinarians at The Pennsylvania State University have found active SARS-CoV-2 infections in at least 30% of deer tested across Iowa during 2020. The study, published online last week, suggests that white-tailed deer could become what’s known as a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2. That is, the animals could carry the virus indefinitely and spread it back to humans periodically.

If that’s the case, it would essentially dash any hopes of eliminating or eradicating the virus in the U.S. — and therefore in the world — says veterinary virologist Suresh Kuchipudi at Penn State, who co-led the study.

“If the virus has opportunities to find an alternate host besides humans, which we would call a reservoir, that will create a safe haven where the virus can continue to circulate even if the entire human population becomes immune,” he says. “And so it becomes more and more complicated to manage or even eradicate the virus.”

In the study, Kuchipudi and his colleagues looked for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the lymph nodes of nearly 300 white-tailed deer, including more than 100 wild deer. “So these deer were either roadkill or free-living deer that hunters had killed [to eat],” says veterinary microbiologist Vivek Kapur at Penn State, who also co-led the study…

Virologist Linda Saif at The Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine says humans are likely infecting white-tailed deer across the country. The deer is native to North America, Central America and the northern edge of South America. In the U.S. alone, there are an estimated 30 million animals.

“We also have detected the virus in deer in Ohio,” she says. “And there are antibody studies that suggest the prevalence of COVID infections among deer are pretty high in the Midwest and East.”

Although the virus doesn’t seem to make the animals sick, Saif says, the new data from Iowa are “very concerning.”

“Now the question is: Can the virus spill back from deer to humans? Or can deer transmit the virus effectively to grazing livestock? We don’t know the answers to those questions yet, but if they are true, they’re obviously concerning,” she says…

======

Speaking of ‘eradiction’… from a virologist in Hong Kong:

======

… A team at University College London said some people had a degree of Covid-immunity before the pandemic started.

This likely came from the body learning how to fight viruses that are related to the one which has swept the world.

Upgrading vaccines to copy this protection, could make the jabs even more effective, the team said.

The scientists were closely monitoring hospital staff during the first wave of the pandemic – including by taking regular blood samples.

Despite being in a high-risk environment, not everyone in the study came down with Covid. The results, published in the journal Nature, showed some people just managed to avoid the virus.

But around one-in-10 had signs of being exposed, but never had symptoms, never tested positive and never developed Covid-fighting antibodies in their blood.

Part of their immune system was able to get on top of the virus before it managed to take hold – what’s known as an “abortive infection”…

======

We passed a law, what more do you want?

Reader Interactions

56Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY:

    The Monroe County website says 406 new cases yesterday; the NYSDOH says 391.

    We just keep going up and up….

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 6,323 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, the lowest daily number in six months, for a cumulative reported total of 2,528,821 cases. It also reports 59 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 29,486 deaths – 1.17% of the cumulative reported total, 1.20% of resolved cases.

    Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.99.

    503 confirmed cases are in ICU, 191 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 5,337 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,435,459 patients recovered – 96.31% of the cumulative reported total.

    Four new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,828 clusters. 288 clusters are currently active; 5,540 clusters are now inactive.

    6,298 new cases today are local infections. 25 new cases today are imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 131,240 doses of vaccine on 10th November: 7,650 first doses, 37,689 second doses, and 85,901 booster doses. As of midnight, the cumulative total is 50,804,374 doses administered: 25,564,214 first doses, 24,691,110 second doses, and 731,635 booster doses. 78.3% of the population have received their first dose, while 75.6% are now fully vaccinated.

  3. 3.

    Rob

    How did the Covid virus get into the deer population, multiple times? I skimmed the full text of the article and didn’t see anything about that. What is the mechanism? It’s not like humans cornered a deer and breathed on it.

  4. 4.

    There go two miscreants

    You were right the first time, AL, the deer are definitely a PEST. I was disappointed to get to the end and see that the virus apparently doesn’t make them sick. It’s just one more disease that they are a vector for. Bring back wolves!!!

  6. 6.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 11/10 China reported 47 new domestic confirmed (15 previously asymptomatic) & 23 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region did not report any new domestic positive cases. 16 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 46 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the region.

    • Ejina Banner in Alxa League did not report any new domestic positive cases. 14 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 42 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases there. The Dalaihob Township remains at High Risk.
    • Erenhot in Xilingol League did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed cases there. 3 communities remain at Medium Risk.
    • The active domestic confirmed case at Ejin Horo Banner in Erdos recovered.

    At Xi’an in Shaanxi Province there currently are 10 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.

    Ningxia “Autonomous” Region did not report any new domestic positive cases. 5 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 34 active domestic confirmed cases in the region.

    • At Yinchuan 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 26 active domestic confirmed cases remaining. 1 residential compound has been re-designated as Low Risk. 2 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.
    • 2 domestic confirmed case recovered in the rest of the region, 9 active domestic confirmed cases remain at Wuzhong.

    Gansu Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 6 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 103 active domestic confirmed (including 1 serious) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Lanzhou did not report any new domestic positive cases. 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 59 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 2 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.
    • Tianshui did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 35 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 community, 1 residential compound & 1 village remain at Medium Risk.
    • 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered in the rest of the region, 9 active domestic confirmed cases remain in the rest of the province (5 at Zhangye & 4 at Jiayuguan).

    Hebei Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 120 active confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Shijiazhuang did not reported any new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 58 active domestic confirmed (52 at Shenze County & 5 at Jinzhou) & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases (all at Shenze County) in the city. 1 village remains at High Risk & 1 village remains at Medium Risk.
    • Xinji reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases, all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 61 active domestic confirmed cases in the city, half which are unvaccinated students. 1 zone remains at High Risk.
    • 1 active domestic confirmed case remains at Baoding.

    At Hunan Province there currently are 4 active domestic confirmed (at Changsha) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Zhuzhou) cases remaining in the province.

    At Zunyi in Guizhou Province there currently are 3 active domestic confirmed cases (2 moderate & 1 serious) remaining in the city. 2 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.

    Jilin City in Jilin Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a person who had been on business travel to Beijing since 10/20 & returned to Jilin City on 11/7, found via voluntary testing. The case was likely to have been infected while at Beijing, especially in light of close contacts testing positive there.

    Beijing Municipality reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases, both identified as close contacts of the domestic confirmed case reported by Jilin City in Jilin on 11/10. 1 case lives in Haidian District, while the other at Chaoyang District, but their residential compounds border Changing District, where the recent outbreak has been concentrated. There currently are 43 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. (In the morning of 11/11, the city reported 5 new domestic positive cases at Haidian District, a traced close contact of the domestic confirmed case reported there on 11/10, as well as family members. They will be included in tomorrow’s data dump.) The High Risk community has been re-designated as Medium Risk. 2 communities are currently at Medium Risk.

    At Rizhao in Shandong Province 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 did not report any new domestic positive cases. 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 25 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    • Chengdu did not report any new domestic positive cases. 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 24 active domestic confirmed remaining in the city. 1 Medium Risk residential compound is currently at High Risk. 12 residential compounds are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Zigong there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case remaining.

    Chongqing Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed & 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the city. 2 residential compounds & 1 office building are currently at Medium Risk.

    At Changzhou in Jiangsu Province 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 3 residential compounds are currently at Medium Risk.

    Qinghai Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    • At Xining there currently are 11 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.
    • At Haidong the domestic confirmed case recovered.

    Heilongjiang Province reported 7 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 257 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Heihe reported 7 new domestic confirmed cases, all found among persons already under centralized or home quarantine. There currently are 251 active domestic confirmed cases in the city, all at Aihui District. 2 residential compounds & 1 village are currently at High Risk. 15 residential compounds, 1 residential building & 2 villages are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Harbin did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the city. 4 residential compounds are currently at Medium Risk.

    Shangrao in Jiangxi Province reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 1 a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine & 1 from mass screening. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 13 active domestic confirmed & 33 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 township & 2 residential compounds are currently Medium Risk.

    At Zhejiang Province there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (at Jiaxing) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Hangzhou) cases remaining.

    Henan Province reported 13 new domestic confirmed (9 previously asymptomatic) & 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 58 active domestic confirmed & 11 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Zhengzhou reported 8 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic) & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all new domestic positive case are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 48 active domestic confirmed (45 from the current outbreak – 35 mild & 10 moderate, 3 from the previous outbreak in Aug. who were transferred from Shangqiu) & 5 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 community has been re-designated as Low Risk. 3 communities, 1 residential compound & 3 villages are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Zhoukou reported 5 new domestic confirmed (all previously asymptomatic) & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, both new domestic positive cases are traced close contacts already under centralized or home quarantine. There currently are 10 active domestic confirmed & 6 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 community is currently at Medium Risk.

    Dalian in Liaoning Province reported 21 new domestic confirmed & 16 new domestic asymptomatic cases. No case information released, yet. There currently are 83 active domestic confirmed & 80 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 community, 4 residential compounds, 4 residential buildings & 4 villages are currently at Medium Risk.

    Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (1 at Ruili via screening of persons in restricted movement zones & 1 at Yingjiang County from persons already under centralized quarantine). 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 22 active domestic confirmed & 34 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture. 1 zone & 1 village at Ruili is currently at Medium Risk.

    Imported Cases

    On 11/10, China reported 15 new imported confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 12 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 6 confirmed cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar; 4 asymptomatic cases, 3 Chinese nationals returning from Laos & 1 from Myanmar; all via land border crossings
    • Shanghai Municipality – 4 confirmed cases, a Chinese, an Indian & a Singaporean nationals coming from Singapore (via Paris CdG), & a Chinese national returning from Serbia (via Frankfurt)
    • Wuhan in Hubei Province – 2 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic cases, all coming from Pakistan
    • Dongguan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed cases, coming from Singapore, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Oman & the UAE
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed & 1 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning form Singapore
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 1 confirmed case, no information released
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 asymptomatic case, from the US
    • Shenyang in Liaoning Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Luzhou in Sichuan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the UAE; the case had arrived at Guangzhou in Guangdong on 10/23, passed through the 14 days of centralized quarantine & tested negative multiple times, upon release from quarantine on 11/7 the case flew back to Luzhou & re-entered centralized quarantine, testing positive on 11/10

    Overall in China, 38 confirmed cases recovered (11 imported), 10 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (8 imported) & 16 were reclassified as confirmed cases (1 imported), & 4,259 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,246 active confirmed cases in the country (392 imported), 20 in serious condition (3 imported), 538 active asymptomatic cases (357 imported), 2 suspect case (both imported). 51,865 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 11/10, 2,355.531M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 8.694M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 11/11, Hong Kong reported 3 new positive, all imported (from the Philippines, Saudi Arabia & Thailand).

  7. 7.

    Starfish

    @Rob: Sometimes, when mother deer are struck by vehicles, rescuers take in young deer and treat them as pets.

    Recently, a couple of hyenas at the Denver Zoo got COVID. I don’t see too many humans breathing on hyenas or getting close enough to be infected.

  8. 8.

    oldster

    White-tailed deer. Great. If the Lyme disease don’t getcha, then the COVID will.

    The only upside is that I can shoot them for not wearing masks, which I have been prevented from doing with some other large mammals….

  11. 11.

    Scout211

    The largest school board in my red county in California joined another school district in the county and voted to defy the vaccine mandate imposed by the state starting next school year.

    At a Calaveras Unified School District (CUSD) board meeting Tuesday night, the board voted 5-0 against upholding the state-issued COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students and staff.

    The five board members voted on an action put forth by board member Bryan Porath to “not enforce, support, or comply” with the mandate, which requires all students and school staff to be vaccinated by July of next year, following FDA approval of the vaccine for the child’s specific age group.

    Parents attending the meeting mostly were in favor of this defiance of the state mandate.

    While most of the commenters were against the mandate, some in attendance were for the mandate, like one Zoom commenter who said that “science tells us we’re all more vulnerable without the shot.”

    Another parent, however, asked the board to “take the science out of it,” saying, “We are in America, the greatest country in the world, based on our right to choose.”

    The Superintendent was not supportive.

    Prior to voting, Superintendent Mark Campbell advised the board that based on liability and the risks associated with going against the state-issued mandate—including “fall back from unions” and OSHA, state and local public health orders, and potentially losing Covid-related funding—he would recommend that the district remain in compliance with the state’s rules. Campbell advised that the district “stand(s) to lose students and staff on either end.

  16. 16.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Peale: ​
      Coronaviruses spread very easily, like the common colds that infect classrooms and workplaces in winter. Zoo specimens are kept in an enclosed environment, a zoo worker coughs at the wrong time and the animals get infected that way. They don’t socially distance in their paddocks, they nuzzle and groom each other and the disease spreads to all of them that way.

    I figure that by now most zoos will have hygiene rules in place for keepers and other workers who come into close contact with the animals but it wasn’t considered necessary at the beginning of this epidemic. Once the virus is established in a zoo population it is going to be difficult to eradicate.

  17. 17.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Scout211: Another parent, however, asked the board to “take the science out of it,” saying, “We are in America, the greatest country in the world, based on our right to choose.”

    “But what of us who want our families to chose to die?”

    And then next year “It’s those damn liberal elites in the big cities why the red counties still have problems with COVID”

  18. 18.

    debbie

    Local news stations seem to have stopped reporting COVID stats, at least on the 11pm news. If anything, they focus on children getting vaccinated, which is fine, but the state dashboard shows 5,527 cases in the last 24 hours. Not a small number for Ohio.

  20. 20.

    topclimber

    Soon hunters will have to wear masks while sitting in their deer blinds?

    Yet another reason Dems lose the white blue collar vote.

    On the other hand, maybe a bipartisan deer massacre will prove a unifying event.

  21. 21.

    Starfish

    @Rob: I don’t know. I am not close enough to most people who rescue deer.

    I think there was a person near the place where I had grown up who had taken in a deer, and whoever they were may have gotten in trouble for piercing the deer’s ear.

    Other people seem to have gotten in trouble for keeping deer as pets.

    So even though it is unusual, it does happen.

  22. 22.

    Scout211

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    In California there is the “right to choose,” but the only choice for vaccines is compliance or homeschooling. But apparently, not all homeschool teachers are cut out for teaching.  LOL

    The board meeting had one student who testified:

    Fourth grader Liz Montgomery got chuckles from the packed room when she said, “I don’t want to be homeschooled. My mom already homeschooled me last year, and it was not the best.”

  23. 23.

    JWR

    @Scout211:

    They should just rename themselves the “Calaveras Constitutional Republic School District”. They could call up the Oroville Constitutional Republic city for pointers.

  24. 24.

    hrprogressive

    Another day, another confirmation that we’re going to be living in a Permanent Pandemic. Our old lives are likely gone for good.

    Happy Thursday.

  26. 26.

    Anne Laurie

    @Rob: How did the Covid virus get into the deer population, multiple times? I skimmed the full text of the article and didn’t see anything about that. What is the mechanism?

    Wild-arsed guess:  There’s some smaller, intermediating animal — like the deer mice who carry the ticks that infect humans (& our pets) with Lyme disease.

    There will be scientific studies done, but the ‘infected human touches or coughs on surface / small varmint runs across wet surface, picks up virus, spreads it on nearby vegetation / deer eats vegetation, contracts virus’ seems plausible?

    We’re not even two years into this pandemic.  There’s a lot we still don’t know…

  27. 27.

    J R in WV

    As far as I can tell, everything Covid-related is bad news.

    I went to a pharmacy yesterday that also does compression stocking fitting, the young woman behind the register was without a mask… At a Pharmacy!

    They also sold a ton of homeopathic preparations, the ones where you wish the disease away because your “medicine” is purified water with one atom of a herb in the water that was discarded. But the remaining water is believed to have magical properties having been next to the atom of herb that was discarded. I am mocking homeopathy because that is all it is worth.

  31. 31.

    Nicole

    Disheartening news about the deer, but not surprising.  Animals can carry lots of viruses that are much worse for humans.  Zookeepers who care for macaques (snow monkeys) have to be careful; the majority of them have Herpes B, which, in a macaque, is like Herpes A in humans (not harmful) but should a human catch Herpes B, they are likely to die.  A zookeeper died some years back when a monkey spat and the saliva got into her eye.  Fortunately, Covid had a vaccine.

    My friend who has been in the hospital with Covid, and was on a ventilator for weeks, looks to have actually, really, truly, pulled through; she’s out of ICU and the hospital is looking for rehab facilities.  And she’s going to live at a rehab facility for the next few months, and she’s going to be on oxygen for “the foreseeable future,” due to the damage done to her lungs.  I’m so glad she’s recovering, but still so frustrated at what she willfully chose to do to herself.  I don’t know what the “foreseeable future” means, but I suspect for a lot of recoverees, it may mean the rest of their lives.  She’s not elderly, but now her lungs are.

    On the bright side, my husband realized his status as a former smoker (even though it’s been more than 20 years since he quit) qualifies him for a booster, so he’s got his appointment on Friday.

  32. 32.

    Cermet

    @hrprogressive: Only now realizing that with AGW starting to really bite? Wait another decade and you will fondly look back on this time period as so much better and think – “Did I not realize now good we had it! A vaccine, a treatment and a death rate not too terrible; we had it so good compared to now.”

  33. 33.

    Cermet

    @Amir Khalid: Don’t tell the Swiss – that homeopathy remedies’ are in all pharmacies throughout that country – they even have special stores that only sell that worthless shit.

  34. 34.

    Unique uid

    @Anne Laurie: I think gloves have been recommended for “cleaning “ deer for several years.  We had TB in some northern MI counties even before the CWD (chronic wasting disease).

    there was a paper about 2 months back that looked at deer & Covid. Four states I think. Michigan had 80% infection in the small sample size. I couldn’t find the paper back then, just news releases. They speculated it was backyard hand feeding of deer that caused the species jump.

    I don’t see the point of wearing a mask in the deer stand. Never been closer than 20 feet then, how would it be different from walking on a park trail with people?  Seems like current consensus is no mask needed for low density outdoors.

  35. 35.

    Barbara

    @Nicole: Deer carry ticks — an average of 1500 per animal. Lyme disease is just one of multiple tick borne infections. It used to have a vaccine but anti-vaxxer hysteria kept it from gaining sufficiently wide acceptance so the manufacturer withdrew it from the market.  If you live in Connecticut or on Long Island you might not let your kids play outside for fear of Lyme.  At least Covid has a vaccine.

    I’m sorry about your friend. Less sorry than I might have been but it’s still sad when someone loses their own bet with wishful thinking.​​​​

  37. 37.

    topclimber

    @Cermet: ​
     
    They could be carriers. Kill ’em all. Hang ’em high.

    It would not be the first time war could become a unifier for the USA.

  41. 41.

    Nicole

    @Barbara:

    I’m sorry about your friend. Less sorry than I might have been but it’s still sad when someone loses their own bet with wishful thinking.​​​​

    Yeah, I’m in the same boat, which makes me feel like a bad friend, but so it goes.  She’s not a Trumpy or evangelical; she’s Wiccan and I think is probably one of the “you can stave off cancer by eating the right things!” brigade.   I would not be surprised if homeopathy is part of her health care routine.

    So much of the willingness to roll the dice is tied up in fear, I think.   I put off mammograms until I was 45, and while I had what were, in my head, excellent excuses, ultimately it was fear (my mom died of breast cancer at 35).  And at my first mammogram, which I went to because I felt something funny on a self-exam, sure enough, I had cancer.  In my case, due to the way the genetic tests came back, I don’t think treatment would have been any different had it been found sooner, but the fact remains that my fear and avoidance did not stop me from getting cancer; it just gave the cancer time to grow.  And these people’s fear and avoidance, whether it’s needle fear or the anxiety and stress of a two-year pandemic, I don’t know, but it’s not going to stop them from catching Covid.  And then they’re just gambling on whether they’ll have an easy time of it or not.

    But it gets really hard for me to feel sympathy, even though, on some level, I can relate to the fear, as I’ve been there.  Because so many things about our health we have no control over, and here’s one thing we do have a lot of control over.  Get the vaccine and you are pretty much guaranteed to not end up in a hospital.

  42. 42.

    Peale

    @Cermet: Its also big in Germany, which is why I’m not surprised that there were all those anti-lockdown, anti-mitigation measure demonstrations. I cannot mock this enough. Its alchemy. Everyone knows its bogus, but like Chiropractors in the USA, the practitioners have power.  Actually in the US the reason it wasn’t regulated out of existence in the 1930s was the when Roosevelt was reforming the FDA to put in the modern drug testing protocols, the chair of the relevant Senate committee was a homeopath.

  43. 43.

    Matt McIrvin

    @J R in WV:

    As far as I can tell, everything Covid-related is bad news.

    Kid vaccinations are here! It’ll likely be a couple of months before we see any visible effects from that. But here in MA, where most kids in the 5-11 range will probably be vaccinated before too long, they are currently the age group with the highest case rates and I suspect they’re infecting a lot of adults too. So there’s upside to be had.

  44. 44.

    Peale

    Maybe if Fauci were less reserved, there’d be a better understanding of the stakes for the freedom cult. Like he should say that the idea for the vaccine came to him in a vision while he slept. Handed to him by Jesus, Apollo and Nabu directly. Then they might take this seriously.

  45. 45.

    Fair Economist

    With about 100 million coronavirus infections in the US (counting ones that weren’t tested for) even a VERY fluky event could have transferred it into deer. Outdoor infections are rare, but they do happen, and a lot more often than 1 in 100 million. Since it seems to be very contagious among white-tailed deer once there’s one fluky transmission it can take off (same as almost certainly happened with it getting into people).

    Another possibility I can think of is: infected human spits on grass, deer later eats grass. Or infected human throws away something like an apple core; deer later eats core.

  46. 46.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Scout211:

    Another parent, however, asked the board to “take the science out of it,” saying, “We are in America, the greatest country in the world, based on our right to choose.”

    A phrase which, of course, came from the movement for abortion rights, which are being extinguished in America simultaneously with all this.

  48. 48.

    Gvg

    @barbequebob: if dogs can get Covid, I would expect wolves to also.

    What I haven’t heard is any of the other animal species that get it, getting all that sick or dying.

    we are going to have to make animal vaccines for this eventually. I know there are some vaccines that can be administered by wild feeding. I don’t know the details.

  49. 49.

    smith

    @Gvg: If it’s already widespread in deer, it’s likely to be present in other ubiquitous wild animals as well — mice, rats, raccoons, etc. This virus clearly is not at all choosy about which mammalian species it infects. Vaccines for domestic species may be helpful, but probably will not help with wild transmission. I hope there are studies monitoring cattle, pigs, and sheep. I don’t see how transmission to animals we use as food can be prevented.

  52. 52.

    Soprano2

    @Anne Laurie: I think they test for chronic wasting disease and destroy a carcass that is infected. I’ll have to mention this to the hunters I work with who aren’t vaccinated yet!

  53. 53.

    sab

    @Soprano2: I love that idea. Tell your hunters ” Better get vaxxed before you chop up that dead deer.” That might work because you aren’t challenging their way of life.

    I personally am not against deer hunters, since otherwise the poor big quadrupeds are likely to starve during the next bad winter.

    They are interesing and beautiful, but they ate all my blackberries this summer (minor issue) and there is a big doe around who wants to winter in my yard and kill my dog if need be to protect her fawn (huge issue.)

  55. 55.

    dopey-o

    @J R in WV: I am mocking homeopathy because that is all it is worth.

    i asked my MD Internal Medicine person if a “Homeopathic Physician” charges 1/1000th of what a real doctor charges. Didn’t get an answer.

  56. 56.

    Chris T.

    @Scout211:

    Another parent, however, asked the board to “take the science out of it,”

    Oh great. Take the science out of schooling. Why don’t we take the schooling out of schooling?

    Alternative snarky answer: “OK, I’ll go along with your idea, under one condition: I get the right to shoot you if I think you might be coming towards me with Covid. Stand my ground!“

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