Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

This blog will pay for itself.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

You cannot shame the shameless.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Saturday / Sunday, Nov. 20-21

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Saturday / Sunday, Nov. 20-21

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New, boutique anti-vaxxism — from the “Left”:

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38Comments

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    Tens of thousands of protesters, many from far-right groups, marched through Vienna on Saturday after the Austrian government announced a nationwide lockdown beginning Monday to contain skyrocketing coronavirus infections.

    Demonstrations against virus restrictions also took place in Switzerland, Croatia, Italy, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands on Saturday, a day after Dutch police opened fire on protesters and seven people were injured in rioting that erupted in Rotterdam. Protesters rallied against coronavirus restrictions and mandatory COVID-19 passes needed in many European countries to enter restaurants, Christmas markets or sports events, as well as mandatory vaccinations.
    [snip]
    Among those protesting were members of far-right and extreme-right parties and groups, including the far-right Freedom Party, the anti-vaccine MFG party and the extreme-right Identitarians.
    [snip]
    In Northern Ireland, several hundred people opposed to vaccine passports protested outside the city hall in Belfast, where the city’s Christmas market opened Saturday — a market where proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test was required.

    The Northern Ireland government voted this week to introduce vaccine certificates for admission to nightclubs, bars and restaurants starting Dec. 13.

    Some protesters carried signs that have been widely criticized as offensive, comparing coronavirus restrictions to the actions of Nazi Germany.

    In Croatia, thousands gathered in the capital of Zagreb, carrying flags, nationalist and religious symbols, along with banners against vaccination and what they describe as restrictions of people’s freedoms.

    In France, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin condemned violent protests in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, one of France’s overseas territories. Darmanin said 29 people had been detained by police overnight. Authorities were sending 200 more police officers to the island and on Tuesday will impose a nightly curfew from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. Source

  3. 3.

    evap

    the spousal unit and I got our boosters on Friday!   They gave us Moderna since we had Pfizer previously, apparently mixing seems to work better?   My arm is still sore and I felt a few chills yesterday afternoon, but very minor in the grand scheme of things.  There will be a small family gathering in a couple of weeks in honor of my wonderful mother who passed away in October, the boosters make me feel better about gathering.

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 4,854 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 2,586,601 cases. It also reports 41 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 29,978 deaths – 1.16% of the cumulative reported total, 1.19% of resolved cases.

    Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 1.01.

    420 confirmed cases are in ICU, 175 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 5,525 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,487,809 patients recovered – 96.2% of the cumulative reported total.

    Three new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,881 clusters. 235 clusters are currently active; 5,646 clusters are now inactive.

    4,842 new cases today are local infections. 12 new cases today are imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 43,897 doses of vaccine on 20th November: 2,768 first doses, 4,917 second doses, and 36,212 booster doses. As of midnight, the cumulative total is 51,890,563 doses administered: 25,661,778 first doses, 24,971,153 second doses, and 1,444,773 booster doses. 78.6% of the population have received their first dose, while 76.5% are now fully vaccinated.

  7. 7.

    lowtechcyclist

    A question: can teens get boosters?

    December 5th will be 6 months since the kiddo’s second Pfizer shot, so it will have been long enough by then. But while the FDA has said everyone 18+ can get boosters after 6 months, I haven’t seen anything one way or the other about the 12-17 age group. 16-17 year olds have of course been eligible to be vaxxed all along, and 12-15 year olds got the OK to get their first two Pfizer shots back in May, which means that the early birds in that group, including my son, got their second shot in early June.

    We’re headed back down to the Florida cesspool on December 23rd, and it sure would be nice if all three of us were boosted by then. I got my booster 2 weeks ago, and my wife is now eligible, so the only question is, can we get the kiddo boosted before then?

  8. 8.

    Amir Khalid

    It’s all well and good for these Britons to complain that BoJo isn’t setting a good example of masking up and distancing. But they already know they should, so why don’t they do it anyway?

  10. 10.

    JMG

    Yesterday in some preliminary Thanksgiving shopping I went to two supermarkets. One is in a town where masks are required for indoor public places, the other where it is merely “strongly recommended.” Yet in the latter, masks were close to universal. I think I saw one unmasked person in a very very crowded store (a Market Basket for you Massachusetts residents).

  11. 11.

    New Deal democrat

    As usual, data on the weekend is largely useless, because most States don’t bother to report anymore. But two things worth noting:

    1. CA does report, and had the fewest cases in five months. Well done, CA!

    2. The waves of the pandemic so far have had relatively broad bottoms and narrow tops, like a series of connected “U”s. Exponential growth has reversed pretty abruptly at the tops. Last winter, the Midwest peaked first, headed by the Dakotas, right now, I.e., right before Thanksgiving. While there is a very good chance that it is an artifact of weekend (lack of) reporting, the Midwest’s case count has abruptly stopped rising in the past few days.

  12. 12.

    Cameron

    I don’t see how Topol’s statement that “the United States” doesn’t take the 5th wave seriously squares with the 450M doses administered.  A bit too broad a brush.

  13. 13.

    Wvng

    @JMG: Here in West by Gawd Virginny practically no one wears a mask despite, or perhaps because, our case loads are so high. You simply must not do anything to make the unvaccinated people who are driving the pandemic upset.

  15. 15.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 11/20 China reported 4 new domestic confirmed (none previously asymptomatic) & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Dalian in Liaoning Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases (2 mild & 1 moderate), all traced close contact already under centralized quarantine since 11/8, 11/12 or 11/14. 7 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 282 active domestic confirmed & 36 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 2 communities are currently at High Risk. 48 sites are currently at Medium Risk.

    At Ejina Banner in Alxa League, Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region there currently are 3 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.

    At Xi’an in Shaanxi Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.

    At Yinchuan in Ningxia “Autonomous” Region 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 9 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.

    Gansu Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 18 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 24 active domestic confirmed (18 at Lanzhou, 3 at Tianshui, 2 at Zhangye & 1 at Jiayuguan) & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases (both at Lanzhou) cases remaining in the province.

    At Hebei Province 20 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 52 active confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • At Shijiazhuang 8 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 19 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.
    • At Xinji 12 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 33 active domestic confirmed cases remaining. 1 zone remains at High Risk.

    At Changsha in Hunan Province the last domestic confirmed case recovered.

    At Zunyi in Guizhou Province there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases (both moderate) remaining in the city.

    Jilin City in Jilin Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, from screening of persons already under home quarantine. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.

    Beijing Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.

    At Rizhao in Shandong Province 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed & 5 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.

    At Sichuan Province there currently are 26 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    • At Chengdu there currently are 25 active domestic confirmed remaining. 1 residential compound is currently at High Risk. 3 Medium Risk residential compounds have been re-designated to Low Risk. 2 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.
    • At Zigong there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case remaining.

    Chongqing Municipality 1 domestic asymptomatic was released from isolation. There currently are 5 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Changzhou in Jiangsu Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed cases remaining. 

    At Xining in Qinghai Province there currently are 10 active domestic confirmed case remaining.

    At Heilongjiang Province 5 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 163 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    • At Heihe 5 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 162 active domestic confirmed cases remaining. 1 High Risk residential compound & 1 village were re-designated to Low Risk. 1 residential compound remains at High Risk & 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.
    • At Harbin there currently are 3 active domestic confirmed cases remaining in the city.

    At Shangrao in Jiangxi Province 2 domestic confirmed case recovered & 1 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 20 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 township & 1 residential compound remain at Medium Risk.

    Henan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 72 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    • Zhengzhou did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 54 active domestic confirmed cases remaining. 1 residential compound has been re-designated to Low Risk. 3 communities & 3 villages remain at Medium Risk.
    • Zhoukou did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 18 active domestic confirmed cases remaining. 1 community remains at Medium Risk.

    Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, at Longchuan County (via screening of persons under centralized quarantine). There currently are 29 active domestic confirmed & 29 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture. 1 village at Ruili & 1 at Yingjiang County have been re-designated to Low Risk. 1 zone & 1 village at Ruili are currently at Medium Risk.

    Imported Cases

        

    On 11/20, China reported 13 new imported confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 8 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 3 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Israel & 1 from the US; 1 suspect case, no information released
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Iraq & Zimbabwe (via Nairobi); 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the DRC
    • Dongguan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), coming from Singapore
    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Myanmar & Laos; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese nationals returning from Laos; all via land border crossings
    • Lianyungang Port in Jiangsu Province – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese crew members off a cargo ship w/ last port of call in the Philippines
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UK (via Stockholm)
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 1 confirmed & 1 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case, no information released, yet; 3 asymptomatic cases, a Chinese national returning from Senegal (via Paris CdG), no information released yet for the other 2
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Tanzania
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released

    Overall in China, 77 confirmed cases recovered (18 imported), 15 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (13 imported) & 1 was reclassified as confirmed case (imported), & 4,384 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,098 active confirmed cases in the country (383 imported), 12 in serious condition (1 imported), 479 active asymptomatic cases (339 imported), 2 suspect cases (both imported). 32,989 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 11/20, 2,430.743M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 7.835M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 11/21, Hong Kong reported 2 new positive (asymptomatic) cases, both imported, 1 each from the UK (had been fully vaccinated w/ BioNtech vaccine) & the Philippines (had received the single shot J&J-Janssen vaccine).

  16. 16.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cameron: It should be twice that. As long as our antivaxxers remain coddled, we haven’t taken COVID serially from day one.

    I’ve been in NYC for the past couple of days. It’s amazing being in a place where many public businesses– restaurants, shows– require proof of vaccination for entry. So far beyond what I see even in Massachusetts, where the governor has resisted “vaccine passports” and restaurants are wide open for plague carriers. It’s a vision of how we could deal with this but won’t.

  17. 17.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    So … just watched that Tesco commercial in the tweet @ top, and … Seriously? People are upset that Santa has a vaccine passport, but not one person was worried about Santa’s elf taking a bribe?

    Oh yeah, we’ve reached the endtimes when taking care of one’s health for the benefit of society is considered a greater crime than flat-out corruption.

    Jeepers.

  18. 18.

    Argiope

    @lowtechcyclist: No boosters for under 18s at this time—and that may be because they won’t need them, or not as often.  Kid & teen immune systems work a bit more efficiently, is my understanding, and may “remember” antigens more readily so fewer doses are needed to get to the same outcome. Or something like that. HPV vaccine works this way: two doses for 11 – 14 year olds provide the same level of protection as 3 doses for 15 years and older.  COVID-19 is new so we don’t know enough yet to say.  I don’t think anyone is seeing a big drop off in efficacy yet for teens but we won’t know for a while with real life conditions since they are a recently vaccinated group.  They are, for now, considered fully protected with two shots.

  19. 19.

    Nicole

    Oh my God, the last line of that article Anne Laurie posted from The Cut, where one of the lefty anti-vaxxers wonders if maybe she’s a Republican.  I thought of how happy that douchecanoe is going to be when she finally accepts that she really doesn’t give a sh*t about her fellow human beings.  Because none of those people do.  They care what other people think about THEM (ergo why they lie about being vaxxed), but they don’t care about other people.  Who else does that remind me of?

  20. 20.

    Fair Economist

    CDC Flu Report: Flashing red early warning. Overall flu positivity almost doubled this week to 0.7%; still pretty low but exponential growth doubling every week goes fast! Number of reported cases up to 257; still very low but, again ,exponential growth. (There is also typically some reporting delay; numbers for any week typically increase after another week goes by, and sometimes later.) Increases are entirely in the H3N2 strain, the “traditional” strain, not H3N2v1. The rapid increase while all other strains languish strongly suggests it’s escaping existing immunity, and so it’s likely this year’s flu shot provides little protection. The percent of vaccinated people with the flu at U Michigan (23%) is also extremely close to the percentage of people vaccinated for flu this year (21%); of course students may not have the same rate but that also indicates the flu shot is not a big help.

    The current outbreak is in Michigan; when it gets to your area be ready to wear a good mask, wash your hands frequently, and avoid unnecessary exposure.

    @New Deal democrat:
    The hospitalization count in LA also dropped to a new low; lowest since July 16th. It’s been pretty much flat for over a month with a slow overall downturn. Still way too high at 584, though.

    San Diego county reports relative hospitalization risk for vaccinated vs. unvaccinated. A few months ago it was astronomical – more than twenty times higher risk for the unvaccinated. Now it’s dropped to only 6 to 1. My interpretation is that earlier the comparison was unvaccinated to naive; now almost everyone has had it and the comparison is unvaccinated to previously infected. This, plus the long run of relatively flat infection and hospitalization numbers, makes me think Southern California is looking at something like steady state numbers now, with fading immunity (both for vaccine and previous infection) providing a steady stream of people for SARS2 to infect.

  21. 21.

    hrprogressive

    The “anti-vax left” tweet was completely asinine.

    Anyone who is anti-vax for reasons that do not include legitimate scientific and medical concerns (allergic reactions to existing vaccines, for example, which I believe there are legitimate concerns for a small fraction of people out there) is in fact, in the same bucket.

    Being anti-science, and anti-vax for any reasons beyond that – be it cult-like worship of a fascist figure, a poor reading of the Constitution, or any hippie-esque “woo” reasons…

    it’s literally all the same to me, and it’s dangerous.

    That is all.

    Have a great day.

  22. 22.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Argiope: Thanks for the info!  So the kiddo should be good without a booster.  I’ve had mine already, and my wife’s getting hers on Tuesday, and we’ll be done, at least for the time being.

  23. 23.

    Kirk Spencer

    So AL, my turn for thank you for this. Every day, it’s the one thing I make sure to read. Usually I try to also read the first 20 or so comments, but always the post.

  24. 24.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @Argiope: ​

    Kid & teen immune systems work a bit more efficiently, is my understanding, and may “remember” antigens more readily so fewer doses are needed to get to the same outcome. Or something like that.

    It really depends on the disease. Sure, kids seem to withstand Covid-19 better than adults, especially seniors, do – but kids tended to be the ones more adversely affected by the flu in the 1918 pandemic.

    All of which is to say that there aren’t any safe assumptions about childhood immunity vs. adult immunity. The testing needs to be done, and there hasn’t been enough time for us to have strong results yet about vaccine persistence, or lack of it, in kids yet.

    That said, I suspect we should be giving the kids boosters too, until we know whether or not they’re needed. As long as the boosters continue to be generally safe, it seems better to risk the kids being potentially over-vaccinated rather than lethally under-vaccinated.​​

  26. 26.

    Argiope

    @Lacuna Synecdoche: I agree that it’s too soon to say with COVID.  That’s a thing that’s hard to wrap my head around: as a brand new virus to humans, we can’t apply all lessons from other viruses.  It just behaves differently and while being an early adopter of vaccines is good, it also means the science is still catching up with how long it lasts in various populations.  Making risk calculations like a family trip to FL is therefore relegated to personal risk tolerance…and that means we all have extra cognitive burden all the time as we try to figure out what’s reasonable and what’s not.  I think the OP was asking if it’s reasonable to take the trip with an unboosted youngster, and probably it is—-if everyone keeps masking well, handwashing, socially distancing and of course factoring in case counts at the destination and hospital capacity.  No wonder we are all so tired.

  28. 28.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Byline TV via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    “If Boris Johnson isn’t wearing a mask, why should I?”

    I really hope most of the people asking that question are Boris Johnson voters.

  30. 30.

    cmorenc

    Here in NC, in the larger cities e.g. Raleigh, the vast majority of workers and customers in stores are mask-compliant.  But as you move out to small towns on the outer periphery of the big urban areas and into more rural parts of NC, mask compliance sharply drops off, to the point where it’s mainly only food service workers (but not customers) who are mask-compliant.  It should hardly be any surprise that the extent of mask-compliance geographically correlates so strongly with blue vs red voting patterns.

  31. 31.

    Sloane Ranger

    Saturday’s figures from the UK, with the usual proviso that they are inevitably inaccurate due to office closures leading to processing delays.

    There were 40,941 new cases reported yesterday. The rolling 7-day average is up 10.7%. New cases by nation,

    England – 36,339 (down 1667)

    Northern Ireland – 1846 (up 156)

    Scotland – 2756 (down 334)

    Wales – Does not report on Saturdays).

    Deaths – There were 150 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. The rolling 7-day average is down by 5.6%. 133 deaths were in England, 6 in Northern Ireland, 11 in Scotland and Wales did not report.

    Testing – Not updated at weekends.

    Hospitalisations – Not updated at weekends.

    Vaccinations – As of Friday, 19th, 50,734,556 people have had 1 shot of a vaccine, 46,129,532 have had 2 and 14,614,613 have had a 3rd shot/booster. In percentage terms this means that 88.2% of all people in the UK aged 12+ have had 1 shot, 80.2% have had 2 and 25.4% have had a 3rd shot/booster.

  32. 32.

    Betty

    Is it a coincidence that 21 Penn State football players were out with the flu yesterday after playing Michigan last week?

  35. 35.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Lacuna Synecdoche:

     

    What the fuck, Holland?

    I thought you guys were supposed to be better than American Conservatives …

    So disappointed.

    The Netherlands has a very strong far right movement. During Brexit a lot of our right-wing were predicting, with absolute certainty, that once Britain showed the way, they would follow us out and deal the EU a death blow!

    Of course, these were the same people who urged Ireland to join us in exiting the EU and seemed astounded when they said No. As if anyone who knows the slightest thing about Anglo-Irish relations wouldn’t know that if the UK does something, Ireland will likely do the exact opposite out of general principles!

  36. 36.

    Bill Arnold

    That “The Unvaxxed Lefties Hiding in Plain Sight” piece is breathtaking. Essentially all the people interviewed appear to have “done their own research” and that research quite obviously did not include looking at the science, or reading people devoted to explaining the science like Derek Lowe / In the Pipeline. The one suffering from weird long COVID  (“intestinal problems and hives” ) apparently not much worried about reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, which infects many organs perhaps including the brain and also including blood vessels, but is worried about a COVID vaccination, which affects a patch of upper arm muscle cells. The psychopath one who lies to get into indoor social gatherings and share their possibly-deadly exhalations. Ugh.
    Gullible. Selfish. Willing to hurt or even kill others for personal convenience. As Scott Lemieux says, the “Ayn Rand school of socialism”. They Are Scum.

  37. 37.

    smith

    @Bill Arnold: How did people in the Western world get so infantilized? The whiny excuses of those Brits on the tube, the smug satisfaction of “leftists” who think they got one over on the rest of us, and the inchoate tantrums of right wing anti-vaxxers are all  deeply, deeply childlish. Is there no one left who can recognize and accept adult responsibilities?

  38. 38.

    FlyingToaster

    @JMG: It’s town-by-town and business-by-business since Charlie Baker won’t issue an “wear a mask indoors” proclamation.  My town has relaxed its indoor mask ordinance, but most businesses are still “wear a mask or stay outside”.

    @Matt McIrvin:  Baker is a complete tool about this and nearly everything else. However, he does recognize that the lunatics are INSIDE his GOP tent.  He has to somehow beat Scott Lively at the GOP convention next year.  So there’s a partial indoor mask regulation for schools only, through Jan 15 (and almost certainly will be extended to March), but not one for businesses.

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